Abstract
Boujemâa Hebaz (1943–1981), a Black and Amazigh professor at Mohammed V University, was forcibly disappeared in 1981. This article reads the irresolution of his case against the background of exclusion and amnesia that surrounds the fate of Black and Amazigh people in southeast/southwest Morocco. I argue that Hebaz's case reflects a wider history of absence, disappearance, and discrimination that impacts Black Amazigh Moroccans. Hebaz straddled identities that were simply disregarded throughout the Years of Lead (1956–1999). When the Moroccan police kidnapped Hebaz in April 1981, they were aware that he was from the southeast, an area that is not only predominantly Amazigh and Black but a region that had already been turned into a large prison for political detainees. The presence of several notorious secret prisons further exacerbated the region's territorial marginalization and disconnection from the rest of Morocco. This fact would later be officially acknowledged in the final Equity and Reconciliation Commission's (ERC) report and recommendations. Drawing on interviews, authentic materials, ERC reports, and other sources, the article demonstrates how Hebaz's absence is enmeshed in racism, territorial marginalization, and historical amnesia in Morocco.
