Agrarian reforms, urbanisation, and communities’ resistance to the grabbing of collective land. The case of Ahl Taroudant tribe

This article attempts to study the interaction between two antagonistic dynamics that the community of the mediaeval city of Taroudant has undergone and is still experiencing, starting from the colonial period to the 2020s. It is manifested, on the one hand, in the grabbing of collective agricultural land linked to agrarian capitalism and urban expansion; and on the other hand, in the contestation dynamic of the members of Ahl Taroudant tribe, who are the historic users of these lands. The data analysed here is the result of a 06-year field observation. It is also based on biographical interviews with members from three generations of this tribe. A special focus was placed on the socio-economic conditions of Sulâliyyât women and their resistance to the social discrimination they faced. • Ahl Taroudant’s resistance to expropriation questions its legitimacy which its members consider to be unjust and illegal. • The feminisation of the contestation is linked to a system of opportunity and constraint, in which operate these actors. • They have seized the opportunities provided by the context of social upheaval in 2011, to claim the return of their land. • ADFM’s intervention played a decisive role in directing the contestation towards politically instituted action strategies. • The strategy imposed by the logic of mediation and negotiation has favoured a depoliticisation of sulâliyyât’s contestation.