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Mellila: A Moroccan City still under Spanish Colonial Rule |
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Jaouad Radouani - AlJazeeraTalk - Morrocco
 The North Moroccan city, Melilla, is a city which is up till now still seized by Spanish colonial powers. The time of conquest of the city goes back to the year 1497. Since then, the Moroccan government never put a hand on the city; it always had been out of its control and out of every policy decided about in Morocco.
Today, the city, the same as many cities in the world, is still seized. It is ruled over completely by Spaniards who dictate every detail about the city’s destiny. But yet the city is being changed by the Spanish authorities to a western city in an attempt to completely Christianise and Westernise it. There is an ongoing will to let any Moroccan/Oriental cultural aspect defuse on the city.
Geographically, Melilla is situated exactly right above Nador city in the North Eastern part of Morocco. Part of the strategies adopted by the Spanish settlers to change the face of the city is time. Imagine, Melilla is an oriental city but the temporal strategy imposed there is Spanish. The one hour span of time which differentiates Morocco from Spain as two different Geographic zones is not applied in Melilla. To put it another way, time in Melilla is the same as in Madrid and Barcelona.
Shopping time, work time, school time, prayers time…everything works in Melilla according to a clock that Tic Tacs in Barcelona. It is unbelievable but yet true. Exactly as what is taking place in Jerusalem, which is being daily imposed upon a policy of Tahwid by the Zionists, Melilla’s identity too is being swept away. The oriental face of the city is fought with all means; there is an ongoing will to wash away every bit of an oriental mood in this marvellous Mediterranean city.
The Spanish authorities in Melilla who impose an incongruent time strategy on the city and its dwellers seek to deny the city its right to be. In fact, the identity of a city is what makes of it a city, but in the case of Melilla, Jerusalem, and other world cities that are still seized by colonial powers, the identity of such cities is being disguised, changed and reconstructed. Henceforth, may be in the future there may exist organisations that defend rights of cities to keep some of their true identities.
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Unfortunately that is the case. I should not say we should not care for Mellila, but the situation is getting worse in the other cities that are not colonized. No care for the old historical medina(s), no care for old museums...In Marrakech, Ssaouira, Fes, old buildings are being sold to European visitors, tourists...It is us who are to blame first! We are selling more of our lands, of our identity!...