From the early 1950s to the 1980s, the recruitment policy of the Charbonnages de France, France’s official coal mining industry, upended thousands of Moroccan lives, creating sociocultural and political tensions between the two countries that remain today. This period reveals the beginning of debates on French immigration policies that are ongoing. Khalid Zairi uncovers stories not yet told and, for the most part, covered up by French officials since the end of coal mining in France in the mid-1980s. Through the testimonies of former miners, Zairi’s exquisitely filmed documentary reveals the painful memories of over 80,000 Moroccan men, many of whom have long since died, erased from the national French narrative of post-World War II France.
Recruited for the most part from the poorest and most destitute regions of southern Morocco, thousands of young illiterate men exchanged their rural lives for the promise of a better economic future in France. Overnight they found themselves 820 meters under the earth in the tunnels of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais mines. The narratives of those who survived to recount their lives as miners, depict the physical, mental, and cultural traumas they endured. Hundreds suffered debilitating accidents, silicosis, mental health problems and social isolation. “On nous a considérés comme du bétail” (we were treated like cattle), one former miner remarks.
As France’s colonial era was ending in North Africa with the independences of Morocco and Tunisia in 1956 and Algeria in 1962, it was also entering a period of massive expansion. Known as “Les trente glorieuses” (the glorious 30 years), the decades following World War II during which France invested massively in infrastructure, the necessary workers to effectuate building projects were scarce. Hence, active recruitment efforts took place where manual laborers could be cheaply found: in the former colonies. For the needs of the Charbonnages de France, there were no better foreigners than those who had once been under the colonial umbrella.
Félix Mora, former French Legion officer in Morocco, who spoke Arabic and Tamazight fluently, was sent by Charbonnages to recruit young Moroccan men under thirty, preferably with no education. In fact, as one interviewee states, “si tu étais à l’école, tu étais renvoyé en France” (if you had been schooled, you were immediately sent back). Zairi emphasizes that Mora arrived with the blessing of not only French authorities, but also Moroccan officials, who were more than happy to send abroad poor and destitute men from primarily Amazigh communities. These people were viewed as expendable, particularlyduring King Hassan II’s regime (1963–99), known as Les années de plomb (the years of lead), during which thousands considered undesirable were made to disappear. Zairi’s film explains that young men who could not read or write in any language were viewed by Mora and his fellow recruiters as less trouble and more exploitable. Mora was considered a “marchand de bétail” (a cattle dealer), because of his disregard for human rights (https://fr.hespress.com/367609-mora-est-la-un-documentaire-temoin-de-la-vie-des-mineurs-marocains-de-france.html). As omnipresent in the history as he is, Zairi spends little time on Mora, preferring to focus on the untold stories of the men who came to France, seeking better economic opportunities to support their families at home. In the end, after struggling for decades in the mines, some men never returned to Morocco.
When the mines finally closed in France, if not dying from silicosis, Moroccan miners were left with two options: return to families in Morocco they barely knew for a life with few economic prospects or remain in France to work in the newly established, soul crushing assembly jobs of the burgeoning car industry.
One of the most interesting aspects of Zairi’s documentary is the historic timeline of immigration he maps for viewers. The film explains how 80,000 miners, who arrived within a time span of 20 years, became 600,000 French citizens. Since some miners were able to eventually bring their families to France (until 1974 when immigration laws and the “Family Regroupment Act” were restricted), their legacy has endured through the lives of sons, daughters, and grandchildren who assimilated to French society. The miners’ stories are part of the French national immigrant narrative that needs to be acknowledged for all French people to recognize that the country is multicultural and multiethnic (https://www.rfi.fr/fr/culture/20220131-la-vie-devant-nous-l-histoire-m%C3%A9connue-de-80-000-mineurs-marocains-en-france).
Khalid Zairi studied cinema at the Sorbonne Nouvelle and the Institut Nationale de l’Audiovisuel (INA) in Paris. As a producer and a director, he has worked with other leading Moroccan filmmakers (Nour-Edinne Lakmari, Jilali Ferhati, Hicham Lasri and Younes Jaddad). His first film, Sur les Routes du Sahara (On the Roads to the Sahara, 2017) focuses on the culture and history of the Sahrawi Hassani of Laayoune.
In Mora est là, Khalid Zairi traces the paths of immigration between Morocco and France that have endured for decades. The film offers commentary on the complicated relationship that still exists between France and its former colonies. Connecting the history of Moroccan minors during the decades of “Les trente glorieuses” through the current situation of migrants and broader migration policies, Zairi’s film highlights the importance of examining contemporary migrant issues through the lens of both the post-World War II period and, more broadly, through postcolonial history.
