Mouhcine Fikri محسن فكري
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Mouhcine Fikri (Arabic: محسن فكري; September 1985 in Imzouren in Morocco - 28 October 2016 in Al Hoceima)[1] was an Amazigh fish vendor who has been killed in 2016 in Al-Hoceima, in northern Morocco, which further instigated the Rif Hirak Movement. His death was in response to the confiscation of the swordfish in which formed part of his life.[1]
Great resentment and outrage have led to subsequent series of protests and demonstrations, calling for Fikri's rights and the lack of just treatment for his very identity.[2] The anger has spread not only to the northern Moroccan cities, including the Rif area, but all over the country, including the Moroccan diaspora community abroad.[3][4]
The incident has triggered the successive revolts following the 2011 Arab Spring in Morocco, in which the uprisings have caused constitutional modification in the monarchical regime and its governance writ large. This event has recalled the government of the often-marginalized concerns over the Amazigh Rifian area in northern Morocco and has intensified public anger over monarchy's unfulfilled promises and changes beyond the Arab Spring incident five years ago.[5]
| Mouhcine Fikri محسن فكري | |
|---|---|
 ⵃⵓⵛⵉⵎⴰ ⴳⵉ ⴷⵊⵉⵔⵝ.jpg Mouhcine Fikri's death | |
| Born | September 1985 Imzouren, Morocco |
| 28 October 2016 (aged 31)28 October 2016 (aged 31) | |
| Cause of death | Crushed by the trash truck engine |
| 💼 Occupation | Fish vendor |
| Known for | Triggered the Rif Movement in 2016 |
Early life[edit]
Mouhcine Fikri was born on September, 1985 to a small town in Al-Hoceima city. He belonged to a middle-class Amazigh family, and his father had worked in education and teaching for years.[1] He was the sixth among his eight brothers and sisters. Mouhcine had cut his opportunity of studying and committed himself, instead, to a career as a food vendor under one business trader in the town.[1] Afterwards, he decided to enroll into the Institute of Technology in Al-Hoceima in order to pursue a degree in maritime studies, especially fishing. [1] However, despite his successive study for over two years, he finally dropped his degree and resumed back to trade. The main incentive was to earn a decent income to sustain his family.[1]
Confiscation of swordfish and death[edit]
On October 28th 2016, the 31-year-old Mouhcine went to the seashore near the port of Al-Hoceima city and started his usual fishing day, but his harvest, "a hundred kilograms of swordfish,"[5] was confiscated by the local police authorities. The main reason was him not possessing a legal fishing licence and permit to conduct any relevant action.[3] After few hours, Mouhcine, along with his close friends, went to the trash truck to recollect his merchandise. However, the truck engine started instantly. While his friends have succeeded in jumping off from the vehicle, Mouhcine Fikri has been "crushed to death while trying to recover his goods worth of $11,000."[2][6]
Investigation[edit]
The leader of the Rif Hirak movement, Nasser Zefzafi, called upon the government officials and the monarchy for immediate and direct investigation into the death of Mouhcine.[6] The main demands of the sweeping protest were both socio-economic and political. The king, Mohammed VI, intervened into the incident and requested successively the close investigation of Mouhcine Fikri's case, along with the assignment of several ministers, such as minister of the Interior Affairs Mohamed Hassad,[7] and other relevant officials from the parliament. Mohamed Hassad later arrested those police authorities who were responsible, directly and indirectly, to Mouhcine's death.
Protests[edit]
Outraged by Mouhcine Fikri's death, Nasser Zefzafi and his Amazigh Rifian communities ignited "soft and peaceful" protest waves and demonstrations in the city of Al Hoceima.[6][8] Building for about nine months, the protests were confronted with violent police officials and state coalition parties; even state media has covered the processes of the overt uprisings and attitudes from inhabitants.[6] Despite instant resentment following the fish vendor's death, Maati Monjib objected the direct cause of Mouhcine's death as a straightforward trigger of the protests. Rather, he insisted the nature of "the casus belli" of the incident and stated that the series of oppressive measures of the parliament have led to widespread popular anger across the region of Al Hoceima and the overseas diaspora of Moroccans.[6] The fish vendor's incidental death, according to Monjib, was merely a pretext per se.[6]
Aftermath and legacy[edit]
Not long after Mouhcine Fikri's death, the state officials arrested Nasser Zefzafi and hundreds of protesters (most of them Amazighs), which resulted in greater revolts and intensity of resentment in Al Hoceima and the northern part of Morocco.[3] The Rif uprising has been a long-term legacy of the post-Arab Spring event in Morocco since 2011. Paola Rivetti and Francesco Cavatorta regarded the incident as both a continuity (people's subsequent and successive materialist and socio-economic demands) and change (means of uprisings and strategies) in the revolutionary movement in North Africa generally, and Morocco in particular. Rivetti and Cavatorta elucidated the interconnectedness and close link of local uprisings to the political struggles in the global context.[9] The death of Mouhcine Fikri has triggered local, national, and transnational outrage to such an extent that the wave of uprising has concerned over the issues of identities and racialization, which "have intertwined with authoritarianism."[9] The question of the often-marginalized Amazigh communities in the country and their identity crisis when confronting with state apparatus resonated with the political action and revolts in the Middle East and North Africa.[10] The failure of state's promises in catering to the sidelined groups of the Amazigh population and the Rif region would have led to the continuation of resistance and revolts in the region and beyond.[10]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "من هو محسن فكري "بائع السمك" المغربي؟ وما هي تفا". web.archive.org. 30 April 2017.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lefèvre, Raphaël (1 January 2017). "'No to hoghra!': Morocco's protest movement and its prospects". The Journal of North African Studies. 22 (1): 1–5. doi:10.1080/13629387.2016.1266793. ISSN 1362-9387.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Wolf, Anne (2 January 2019). "Morocco's Hirak movement and legacies of contention in the Rif". The Journal of North African Studies. 24 (1): 1–6. doi:10.1080/13629387.2018.1538188.
- ↑ The Unfinished Arab Spring: Micro-Dynamics of Revolts between Change and Continuity. Gingko. 2020. ISBN 978-1-909942-48-6. Search this book on
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Rhani, Zakaria; Nabalssi, Khalid; Benalioua, Mariam (4 March 2022). "'The Rif again!' popular uprisings and resurgent violence in post-transitional Morocco". The Journal of North African Studies. 27 (2): 326–361. doi:10.1080/13629387.2020.1780921.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 El Issawi, Fatima (2020). The unfinished Arab Spring : micro-dynamics of revolts between change and continuity. Francesco Cavatorta. Chicago. ISBN 1-909942-49-9. OCLC 1159170846. Search this book on
- ↑ جدلية, Jadaliyya-. "Morocco's Hirak Movement: The People Versus the Makhzen". Jadaliyya - جدلية. Retrieved 2022-10-28.
- ↑ Graiouid, Said (2021-11-02). "The intellectual as zaṭāṭ: the public sphere, the state, and the field of contentious politics in Morocco". The Journal of North African Studies. 26 (6): 1221–1245. doi:10.1080/13629387.2020.1768853. ISSN 1362-9387.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Rivetti, Paola; Cavatorta, Francesco (2021), Revolution and Counter-Revolution in the Middle East and North Africa. Global Politics, Protesting and Knowledge Production in the Region and Beyond, University of Salento, doi:10.1285/i20356609v14i2p511, retrieved 2022-10-31
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Rivetti, Paola (2015-01-02). "Continuity and Change before and after the Uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco: Regime Reconfiguration and Policymaking in North Africa". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 42 (1): 1–11. doi:10.1080/13530194.2015.973181. ISSN 1353-0194.
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