The Department of Comparative Thought and Literature is pleased to highlight Professor Brahim El Guabli’s recent interview with The Real News Network, where he offered critical insights into the ongoing struggles faced by Morocco’s Indigenous Amazigh communities nearly two years after the devastating 2023 earthquake in the Al-Haouz region.

The in-depth report, titled “Two Years After Earthquake, Displaced Moroccans Losing Hope,” examines the slow pace of reconstruction and widespread displacement following the 6.9 magnitude earthquake that struck the High Atlas Mountains. Professor El Guabli, a leading scholar of Amazigh studies, provided historical and political context for the crisis, emphasizing how long-standing structural inequalities have compounded the tragedy.

“The French devised the notion of the useful Morocco and that of a useless one,” El Guabli explained, referencing the colonial framework that continues to shape Moroccan state policies. “And the useless Morocco is the one that is always sacrificed in order to sustain the useful side.”

In the interview, El Guabli described the rural Amazigh regions as “exporters of hundreds of thousands of workers who sustain the urban economy through labor,” underscoring how systemic underdevelopment and lack of basic infrastructure have driven mass migration and cultural erosion. “Moroccan cities are cemeteries of Tamazight,” he warned, speaking to the linguistic and cultural loss felt by displaced communities forced to assimilate in urban centers.

The full article can be read on The Real News Network: Two Years After Earthquake, Displaced Moroccans Losing Hope.