The Proclamation of Independence of Morocco (, ), also translated as the Manifesto of Independence of Morocco or Proclamation of January 11, 1944, is a document in which Moroccan nationalists called for the independence of Morocco in its national entirety under Mohammed V Bin Yusuf, as well as the installment of a democratic, constitutional government to guarantee the rights of all segments of society. January 11 is an official government holiday in Morocco.
On November 8, 1942, Allied forces landed in MoroccoâÂÂFrench protectorate in Morocco since the 1912 Treaty of FesâÂÂduring Operation Torch. The United States had begun to replace France both militarily and economically, just as the protectorate authorities had feared since the landing of the Allied forces in November 1942.Free France then retook control of the largely collaborationist colonial administration sympathetic to Philippe Pétain, which boded well for Moroccan nationalists.
Sultan Mohammed V of Morocco, who was a de facto prisoner of the colonial administration, though he had made no public gesture of sympathy toward Nazi Germany, and had protected Moroccan Jews from antisemitic policies, received confirmation from President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference of January 1943, that the US would support the independence of Morocco when the war was over.
On December 18, 1943, those who were still free among the old guard of the National Party outlawed by the French administration in 1937âÂÂwhose previous leaders such as Allal al-Fassi, Muhammad Hassan el-Wazzani, et al. were either in prison or in exileâÂÂorganized a secret conference in Rabat to found the Istiqlal Party.
The Proclamation of Independence of Morocco was originally drafted by Ahmed el Hamiani Khatat and Ahmed Bahnini, attorneys of the party, and revised and amended by their colleagues.
On January 11, 1944, with the outcome of World War II still uncertain to all but the most perceptive [dubious], 66 Moroccans signed the public proclamation demanding an end to colonialism and the reinstatement of Morocco's independence, an enormous risk at the time.
The main nationalist leaders of all origins united around the Proclamation of Independence, forming a real political movement, representative of a wider segment of Moroccan society, urban and rural. They decided together to ally themselves with Sultan Mohammed V, to whom they submitted their demand.
Among the signatories were members of the resistance, symbols of a free Morocco, and people who would become key figures in the construction of the new Morocco.
Text of the Proclamation of Independence of January 11 presented to Sultan Mohammed V:
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The reaction was immediate: great pressure upon Sultan Mohammed V to publicly condemn the Proclamation, as well as the detention of signatories and known nationalist activists.
On the night of January 28, Ahmed Balafrej, secretary general of the Istiqlal Party, as well as his associate Mohamed Lyazidi, were arrested in Rabat under the pretext of sharing intelligence with Axis powers. Balafrej was one of 3 nationalist activists deported to Corsica. In Fes, Abdelaziz Bendriss and Hachemi Filali were incarcerated. In total, French authorities arrested 20 nationalist activists in the aftermath of this manifesto.
The Proclamation of Independence was a major step in the struggle for independence. Sidi MohammedâÂÂs campaign of co-optation reveals a clear pattern; he began his campaign during his short stay in Paris in November 1955. It was with this document that the Moroccan Nationalist Movement allied itself with the sultan. The sultan also started to become an important national folk symbol, delivering the symbolic Tangier speech April 9-10, 1947 and being forced exile on the eve of Eid al-Adha August 20, 1953. The French Protectorate in Morocco came to an end on March 2, 1956 with the Franco-Moroccan Joint Declaration signed in Rabat.