HIBAPRESS – Mohammed Zerouih
The authorities of the administration of occupied Melilla are engaged in a frantic race against the logic of history, by transforming the public space of the city into an open arena for enshrining colonial domination and falsifying historical facts. The recent steps related to reviving military symbols and framing the urban landscape with imperial propaganda were merely a new link in a series of provocations that disregard the region's struggle heritage and the authentic Moroccan belonging of this occupied outpost.
In this context, the inauguration of the "Relief of Melilla" sculpture adjacent to Spain Square revealed the depth of the coordination crisis in reading memory. The authorities chose to commemorate the military landing of the summer of 1921, attempting to cover up the historical and humiliating defeat of the Spanish army in the immortal Battle of Annual, by cloaking the defeat in an artistic guise that tries to restore a military pride shattered by the blows of the resistance fighters.
The symbolic escalation also extended to the sanctity of cemeteries, after the naval command inaugurated a memorial plaque in the "La Purísima Concepción" cemetery, glorifying the dead of naval invasions since the first fall of the city in 1497. This step deliberately ignores the noble blood shed by the tribes in pivotal moments such as the "Margalo" war (the First Rif War, 1893-1894) and the landing in Al Hoceima in 1925, where the people's constant endeavor was to defend the homeland.
These policies were met with a massive wave of public indignation, which swept through the streets, with people expressing surprise at the transformation of urban spaces into platforms for aggressive propaganda. The insistence on polishing the face of colonialism and entrenching a one-sided narrative not only represents a denial of the heroic feats of the Rif resistance but also reflects a structural inability to comprehend the concepts of coexistence and respect for the rights of peoples to preserve their memory.
The Spanish authorities' persistence in provoking national sentiment and the geopolitical environment reflects a clear confusion in dealing with contemporary transformations. The bet on re-beautifying the expansionist past remains a desperate attempt to impose a colonial "fait accompli," disregarding that the legitimacy of peoples and the memory of the land cannot be erased by memorial plaques or contained by silent statues.
