New Direction for the Maghreb
HILDRETH, ROBERT
EUROPE SOUTH OF GIBRALTAR New Direction for the Maghreb By Robert Hildreth Tunis On the surface, no part of Africa seems more homogeneous than the Maghreb (literally Islam's "West")??a vast...
...outnumber both the Algerians and the Moroccans...
...Spain has 100,000 settlers in Morocco...
...And Hassan does not lack State Department apologists, who correctly point out that this arrogant young spend thrift is still extremely popular with his peasantry...
...The fate of Yemen and South Arabia means nothing to these North Africans...
...Strategic Air Command bases were installed in Morocco from 1951-61, giving that country some excellent airfields...
...and has an unofficial defense agreement with Rabat...
...the U.S...
...Today, only the Mediterranean ties with Europe are growing...
...Its economy began to decline following independence and at present per capita income is dropping each year at roughly the same rate that the population is increasing??2.5 per cent...
...Since the 1963-64 Algerian-Moroccan War, Moscow has helped expand Algeria's Army to 70.000 men and plans call for an increase to 90,000...
...Hassan fought former Algerian President Ahmed ben Bella in the field over an iron-rich, untraced border and gets on no better with President Houari Boumedienne, whose regime is even more authoritarian than Rabat's...
...Algiers, in turn, is cool toward Tunis...
...tomorrow Europe may begin as the Sahara...
...Much depends on what happens after King Idris' death: The heir to the Senussi throne in Libya, Hassan Rida, has many of King Hassan's personal shortcomings and may not last long once in power...
...Approximately 40 per cent of Morocco is Berber-speaking, and a considerably higher proportion is of Berber stock...
...Meanwhile, the Maghreb's steady withdrawal from the quarrels that divide the Middle East goes on...
...At the current rate, U.S...
...Considering the absence of any compelling cohesive element in the Maghreb, it is not insignificant that except for Libya all the countries have relatively large military establishments capable of waging prolonged frontier warfare...
...An old French proverb claims that "Africa begins at the Pyrenees...
...American business investment is also expanding...
...Tunisia has actually broken with the League over its "unrealistic" attitude toward Israel...
...The pan-Africanizing effects of colonialism??which reduced a continent that once boasted 2,000 kingdoms and 5,000 tongues to only three major (French, English and Arabic) language zones and several minor ones??have been undermined by independence in North Africa as elsewhere...
...But articulate parties do exist on both the Left and Right...
...But whatever the internal convolutions of the countries that make up the Maghreb, their "association" with the European Common Market appears sure to grow...
...Having suspended Parliament, Hassan has all the powers of an old-time Sharif...
...Russian economic activity has been confined mostly to Algeria, which has received loans totalling $100 million for specific projects...
...Although the Ala-wite dynasty (Hassan is part-Arab and part-Senegalese) encourages all Moroccans to think of themselves as Arabs and exerts strong pressures against Berber irredentism, the movement persists...
...Bourguiba is the area's most firmly established ruler, the only genuine "No...
...They are even more tenuous than those in the region itself or with the Middle East...
...By this yardstick, Tunisia is the healthiest state of former French North Africa...
...Neither of the two big "Eastern" states comes close to matching even West Germany's involvement in the Maghreb...
...Israel would be no problem except for Algeria's Arabism...
...In the long run, something like Bour-guiba's Socialism may replace the extreme Leftism of Algeria as well as the autocracy of Hassan...
...appears to be shifting the perspective in that direction...
...The largest German investment has been in Tunisia, particularly for tourism and notably on Djerba Island...
...It is not inconceivable that the Moroccans will eventually decide they have had enough of their King and send him on his way...
...Considerably more Russian than French in style, the Algerian Army has an armored division of 250 tanks and 150 scout cars...
...With a total of 50,000 troops in all branches of its Armed Forces, Morocco's defense budget of $60 million is 40 per cent less than Algeria's, but still considerable...
...Russia, in turn, is now concentrating on boosting Algeria's embryonic Navy...
...yet the two types of non-conformism differ markedly...
...Morocco's chief city lent its name to the ill-fated "Casablanca Bloc"??a cul-de-sac on the road to Addis Ababa and "African unity...
...Libya's 1.6 million people have a per capita income of $490??compared with Tunisia's 4.7 million population and $189 per capita income, Morocco's 13 million and $180 per capita, and Algeria's 12 million and $217 per capita...
...Algeria's Marxist economics, however, discourages private investment from abroad??except in the case of oil agreements with France that antedate Algerian independence...
...Tunisia is the one country that has cut back its military forces??from 25,000 in 1960, at the time of Bizerte and the U.N...
...In Libya Berberism has given great power to the Fezzan??the Targwi-populated desert??that is now the main oil-producing province...
...has offered to share Spanish Sahara oil revenues...
...Yugoslavia's special relationship to Algeria, begun by Ben Bella shortly after independence, has been advanced by Boumedienne and Tito...
...Actually...
...Its Berber, non-Arab nature is increasingly in evidence...
...The U.S...
...Imports from America come to 20 per cent of the country's total...
...But heavy industry has not been neglected, for Krupp is redeveloping Bizerte into a giant metallurgical center...
...Tunisia's laws welcome American business, swelling investments in recent years to over $10 million...
...Germany and Italy are already major partners for Tunisia and Libya, with their investments spreading along the coast...
...Between Nasser and King Hussein it has no ideological preference (although Bourguiba once again fears for his life at the hands of Nasser's agents...
...Feeling is especially strong against Sudan, where repression of the Negro third of the population echoes Negro persecution in South Africa...
...Given North Africa's mineral wealth and relatively small population, the trend has great importance for the pace of its development...
...To counter the Algerian buildup, the U.S...
...Nor has the diplomatic break caused by Bonn's recognition of Israel put a damper on Germany's increasing trade and aid relations with Algeria...
...Algeria, suffering from the same sort or mismanagement as Sukarno's Indonesia or Nkrumah's Ghana, may well face an angry revolution??a popular bid to escape from the present spiral of poverty...
...The U.S...
...In five years Germany has moved from tenth to third place among Tunisia's trading partners, with the balance of trade distinctly favoring Bonn...
...Outside of Algeria, where Moscow has the edge on Peking, the U.S...
...has an agreement covering the five Spanish presidios and Ifni province...
...Historically, Arab Africa has only been united by common threats...
...has given Tunisia nearly $400 million in aid, an especially impressive figure considering its size and population...
...Algeria's Leftist regime faces greater difficulties than the figures indicate...
...Berberism" is less vocal in Tunisia, partly because the state itself is more Berber in character??less politically fanatical, less socially hierarchized...
...The part-Black, part-Berber Almoravid Empire which around the turn of the 12th century stretched from the Senegal River to the Ebro in Spain marked a high point in closeness...
...A U.S...
...The Air Force has two squadrons of mig interceptors (15s, 17s and 21s), a squadron of Ilyushin-28 bombers...
...Indeed, its future seems to lie in being, not Islam's "furthest West," but Europe's "furthest South"??and a strange confluence of economic, political and military developments While linguistic and religious ties with Mecca of course persist, never has the Maghreb felt itself further removed from the Middle East...
...These carry an interest rate of 2.5 per cent over 12 years...
...Other European countries are also exhibiting heightened interest in the Maghreb...
...What are the Maghreb's ties with Black Africa...
...Morocco, even if discreetly, takes Tunisia's view...
...The economic forces at work in North Africa can perhaps be seen most dramatically in Libya...
...The U.S...
...Largely because of President Ha-bib Bourguiba, Washington is closer to Tunisia than the rest of the Maghreb...
...In their eyes Nasser is still suspect and Boumedienne differs very little from Ben Bella...
...Tunis now spends only $8 million a year on defense, largely for an army that is almost entirely American equipped and trained (both in Tunisia and the U.S...
...American interest in North Africa predates modern times...
...aid to Morocco will top half a billion dollars in the 12-year period ending in 1969...
...1 Leader" of an independence movement still holding office...
...Black Africa has not forgotten the predominantly Arab bloc (the three main members were Egypt, Morocco and Algeria, with three small Black African countries completing the group) or the fact that it represented an opportunistic Arab bid for power...
...It is currently the strongest army in Africa, after Egypt's, even stronger and more experienced than South Africa's??but the South African Air Force and Navy are superior...
...North Africa is primarily a Mediterranean area, a geographical extension of Southern Europe's backward "Mezzogiorno" ??and it now seems slated for fairly rapid economic development...
...Mehdi ben Barka, allegedly the victim of a Paris murder paid for by the Moroccan police, is the Lefts martyr...
...The visitor to these countries is particularly struck, therefore, by a profound change that is gradually bringing all of them "into Europe...
...A tent-and-camel relic of the Arabian Nights as late as the 1950s, it remains a semi-feudal kingdom under aging King Idris, but the recent successful exploitation of its oil resources has overnight made it Africa's third richest country...
...after that contacts centered around slave-raiding and warring over gold mines...
...13 transport aircraft, 20 helicopters and a squadron of training craft...
...The two countries have already formed a bi-national company to build either a bridge or (more likely) a tunnel from Al-geciras to Ceuta, across the eight miles of the Gibraltar Straits...
...Morocco, meanwhile, has barely managed to keep its economy moving a step ahead of its yearly 2.5 per cent population expansion, although this has not affected the style of King Hassan, the absolute sovereign...
...And, ironically, Algiers retains close ties to Paris because France continues to buy the bulk of Algeria's oil, natural gas and wine exports...
...Robert Hildreth is a free-lance writer who is currently completing an extensive tour of North Africa...
...Within North Africa itself, prosperity and success are conquering the old distrust between Libya and Tunisia...
...is making a costly attempt to expand Morocco's Air Force, at present consisting of 90 aircraft, the majority of them American, the rest Russian and French...
...During World War II, President Roosevelt appointed Robert Murphy his representative in the area...
...is now Morocco's second largest trade supplier after France (but well behind with a modest 10 per cent of the country's imports...
...Congo operation, to 20,000...
...It doesn't matter that the trip now takes something less than 10 minutes by hydrofoil??for in this case the spirit means much more than the deed...
...The two countries may well develop in common their role as a future industrial zone for Southern Europe??a short executive plane-hop from Naples, Rome, Athens or Marseille...
...Its artillery includes mobile guns, heavy mortars, anti-tank cannon and sams...
...consulate was established in Tangiers in 1791 (where it now serves as a Foreign Service Arabic-language school), long before many of the U.S...
...has more technical assistance men in Tunisia than in any other North African country, and the Tunisians studying in the U.S...
...Like the Maghreb as a whole, Morocco in addition faces the sectarianism born of Berber-Arab enmity...
...North Africa will continue to belong to the Arab League and the oau...
...The Sub-Sahara states see the Arabs as having been the principal modern barrier to "unity" in Africa...
...The Kabyls, one of the main Berber groups in Algeria, maintain contact with their counterparts in Morocco through Algerian exile leader Ait Ahmed in Madrid...
...stepped up direct grants, Point IV aid and loans to Morocco in 1957 when France cut its support because Rabat was backing the Algerian resistance...
...The Chinese have chipped in $50 million to Algeria without interest or conditions...
...continues to trade with Algeria too, despite strained relations and a near diplomatic break last year...
...Kosher stores still flourish in Tangiers, the ancient synagogue on Djerba is a tourist attraction, and while the Maghreb is certainly anti-Jewish, it is not violently so...
...A common Maghribi front against French imperialism is, of course, no longer possible...
...Substantial Italian settlements in Tunisia and Libya, for instance, have spurred Rome's commercial activities in these countries...
...Under a semi-authoritarian government practicing "pragmatic Socialism," it has countered its 2.5 per cent annual population rise with an economic growth rate averaging 5 per cent...
...is the biggest single supporter of the region...
...EUROPE SOUTH OF GIBRALTAR New Direction for the Maghreb By Robert Hildreth Tunis On the surface, no part of Africa seems more homogeneous than the Maghreb (literally Islam's "West")??a vast sandy stretch, as wide as the United States, that runs from Cape Juby to the Equatoria Province forest of Sudan...
...But it is American and European business investments and aid grants, not the competition in military hardware, that seem to be having the greatest influence on the Maghreb...
...Russian, not Arabic, is now the Algerian Air Force's air-communications language...
...Flyers are trained in the USSR, then receive advanced training from Russian instructors in Algeria...
...The Right-wing, nationalistic Istiqlal (Freedom) party continues to draw some credit from having been the movement most responsible for independence...
...Since 1957, moreover, the U.S...
...But the future clearly lies with Europe...
...There are of course the bonds of Islam, and the Maghribi and Black African Muslims are both "Protestant" in their attitude toward the older centers of the Middle East...
...Yet this region embracing Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya has long been the scene of political iconoclasms...
...Even the colonial term "North African" has been rejected, in much the same way that Indians and Pakistanis resent the East African's use of "Asian...
...Many Negro leaders say privately that the Organization of African Unity (oau) should have been limited to the non-Arab states...
...Links to the Arab League, though still useful, are weakening...
...Friction with Paris over the Ben Barka affair, presumably only temporary, has nevertheless pushed Rabat closer to Washington...
...It has little costly armor and 37 (mostly transport) aircraft supplied by Sweden, Italy and France...
...missions in Europe...
...During his recent "working visit" to the United States, for example, the press turned out a good deal of interesting copy contrasting his pleas for additional aid with his high living...
...German firms are partners in the Moroccan government's Commercial Bank, and German trade with Morocco has tripled in the last decade, making it the fourth largest supplier and second largest customer...
...They may even subscribe to "Francophonia," the plan for a French-speaking commonwealth, conceived by Senegal's Leopold Senghor and embraced by Bourguiba...
...It may well be that Hassan's four-figure harem, opulent limousines and combi-buses (for favorite concubines while on state trips) are more than his country can afford in the 20th century...
Vol. 50 • April 1967 • No. 8
