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SAGHRO
A large isolated rock in the foreground; stepped plateaus and pointed summits behind.

Jbel Saghro · South-eastern Morocco

Bougafer, 1933

February – March 1933

For more than forty days, Aït Atta fighters and their families held the crags of the Saghro against the columns of the Protectorate. Explore what is documented, and what is not.

Explore Bougafer →Discover the Aït Atta

Real relief (digital elevation model), contemporary photograph of the massif. EL-Boukhou — CC BY-SA 4.0.

11 February → 25 March 1933

Bougafer 1933: Into the heart of history

Start the journey →
  1. 01

    The Saghro before the fighting

    16th century – 1926

  2. 02

    Colonial expansion and its consequences

    1899 – 1932

  3. 03

    The organisation of the Aït Atta resistance

    1926 – January 1933

  4. 04

    Preparations and the forces involved

    February 1933

  5. 05

    The first clashes

    11 – 20 February 1933

  6. 06

    The main military operations

    20 – 25 February 1933

  7. 07

    28 February and the death of Bournazel

    27 – 28 February 1933

  8. 08

    The life of fighters and civilians

    1 – 24 March 1933

  9. 09

    The end of the fighting at Bougafer: resistance, siege and a negotiated agreement

    1 – 25 March 1933

  10. 10

    The consequences and memory of Bougafer

    1933 – today

Explore the encyclopedia

1

The Aït Atta

Confederation, azerf, assemblies, transhumance, culture: the society that lived through 1933.

2

Confederation and sections

Five “fifths” (khmas), their tribes and sections, as described by dated sources. Classifications vary between authors and periods: each is given with its reference.

3

Bougafer 1933

The ten-chapter journey, the operations log and the comparison of accounts.

4

People

Documented biographies. Each portrait states how reliably it has been identified; no words are attributed without a source.

5

Atlas & Timeline

3D relief, attested places, areas of operations and the time slider.

6

Culture and memory

Sung poetry, timnaḍin, today's music, architecture, dress and language: what the Aït Atta hand down, and how.

7

Glossary

Terms of Aït Atta institutions, in Latin, Tifinagh and Arabic script. Unattested transcriptions are flagged.

8

Archives & Photographs

Photographs, maps and documents with their provenance and licence.

Faces and places of memory

Four photographs published with the project owner's permission, each with what it can really establish.

PortraitHasso ou Ba Selem (Assou Oubasslam), portrait published by J. Robichez (1946)Prise de vue non datée (le catalogue situe les photographies du livre en 1937-1939) ; publication 1946J. Robichez, Maroc central (Arthaud, 1946) ; fichier fourni par le titulaire du projetProbable attribution— Identification based on a published or institutional source, without independent confirmation.
Open
PortraitPortrait circulated under the name of Adjou Moh (identification not verified)Non datéeImage diffusée en ligne (Facebook ; Hespress, 8 mars 2016) ; fichier fourni par le titulaire du projetUncertain attribution— Provenance, date or subject not established: read with the reservations in the record.
Open
Historical photographTomb traditionally attributed to Dadda Atta, at Taqqat n-Iliktawn (Tagounite)Non datéePublication d'origine non retrouvée (légende dans la graphie de D. M. Hart) ; fichier fourni par le titulaire du projetProbable attribution— Identification based on a published or institutional source, without independent confirmation.
Open
Historical photograph“Irhrem Amazdar, dans le Sarhro” (J. Robichez, 1946)Prise de vue non datée (le catalogue situe les photographies du livre en 1937-1939) ; publication 1946J. Robichez, Maroc central (Arthaud, 1946) ; fichier fourni par le titulaire du projetProbable attribution— Identification based on a published or institutional source, without independent confirmation.
Open

Guided tours

Guided tours
  1. 1 · 9 stepsDiscovering the Aït AttaA first approach to the society: the tradition of origins, the land, the family, herding, water and markets, protection, religious life, housing and dress.
  2. 2 · 10 stepsThe Aït Atta confederationHow the confederation was organised: the five fifths, one after another, then what held them together: the supreme chief, Igherm Amazdar, justice and pacts.
  3. 3 · 9 stepsAcross the centuriesFrom the documented origins to today: expansion, written customs, conquest, 1933, administration and memory. Each period says only what the sources establish.
  4. 4 · 10 stepsBougafer 1933The resistance of the Saghro, from the terrain to the siege and the negotiated agreement.
  5. 5 · 7 stepsWomen and memoryThe women and families of the Saghro, between written sources and oral memory.
  6. 6 · 5 stepsThe voices of the SaghroTimnaḍin, poetry of the conquest, today's music: what the Aït Atta and their neighbours sing.

Archives and photographs

Gallery →
Historical photographThe Sultan of Morocco receiving General Huré (Rabat, 1932)1932Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gallica), via Wikimedia Commons
Document“Valley of the Ouad Dra. View of Tamnougalt” (Foucauld, 1888)1888Bibliothèque nationale de France, via Wikimedia Commons
Historical mapFoucauld's atlas, sheet 16 “Todra” (1:250,000)1888Internet Archive (exemplaire du Getty Research Institute), via Wikimedia Commons
Historical photographNomad camp in the mountains (1955)1955Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam)Probable attribution— Identification based on a published or institutional source, without independent confirmation.
Historical photographGoumiers at Marshal Foch's funeral (Paris, 26 March 1929)1929-03-26Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gallica), via Wikimedia Commons
Historical photographOuarzazate: façades of raw-earth kasbahs (c. 1935)vers 1935Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l'homme (MMSH, Aix-en-Provence), MédiHAL

Major dossiers

Baddou, Timnaḍin, Dadda Atta: three documented dossiers, and a systematic check of Wikipedia.

Our rule

Every statement points to its sources, together with what we actually consulted. Conflicting figures are shown side by side. Gaps are flagged, never filled.

Library

What this version contains

sources inventoried
165sources inventoried
dated events
84dated events
sourced images
32sourced images
geolocated places
32geolocated places

11 February 1933 – 25 March 1933