Narrative of a 16th century conquest of elsewhere: memory and representations of the historical character Mostafa Al-Azemmouri or Esteva­nico

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore a memory inscribed in the history of the conquest and the great discoveries, in the 16th century, led by an imperial power of the time, Spain. Long presented from the sole perspective of Cabeza de Vaca’s travel report, the memory of the Moroccan explorer Mostafa Al-Azemmouri or Estevanico embodies a Eurocentric vision which has unveiled the contribution of this explorer to the historic event of Meeting. The conside­rable contribution of subaltern studies, postcolonial studies, associated with reflec­tion on connected history, have carried out a project that projects a look at the memory of denied and concealed identities of the historical moment. These studies discuss a literary and artistic production, from the modern era, which bears an interest in the reconfiguration of memories of the past. That of the historical figure, Al-Azemmouri, finds its manifestation in the novel by Kébir Ammi, Les Vertus immorales, and in the artistic representations that operate in the native space of this explorer, the city of Azemmour.