Abstract
This chapter proposes new perspectives on the Mediterranean by examining the sea and the cities bordering it through the angle of clandestine migration. While the premodern Mediterranean is often depicted as a crossroads, this chapter argues that today’s Mediterranean has become a dead end for migrants and refugees attempting northward sea crossings amidst heightened anti-immigration policies and prejudice. Through the concepts of the Seametery and cementery, the chapter contends that confinement practices have contributed to the transformation of the Mediterranean Sea into a sea-cemetery and African cities into city-cemeteries. A study of two Moroccan films demonstrates that forced immobility has placed death at the core of an increasing number of contemporary North African filmic narratives.
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Notes
- 1.
“Les premiers récits de naufrages, à Gibraltar, puis au large des Canaries ou de Lampedusa, les photos insoutenables, sur des plages canariennes ou siciliennes, de corps noyés parmi des touristes semblant indifférents, ou encore l’épisode marquant des “assauts” désarmés menés par des centaines de migrants, à l’automne 2005, contre les enceintes des enclaves espagnoles au Maroc de Ceuta et Melilla, ont fait les titres des journaux.” All unattributed translations are my own.
- 2.
I use the s to differentiate the plural form from the feminine (harraga). Although harragas is not a term commonly used in the Mashreq (countries east of Tunisia) it could well be applied in that the idea of “burning the sea” is relevant, as Gianfranco Rosi has made clear with the choice of title for his 2016 film Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea), which features “refugees” coming from these parts of the world.
- 3.
I call leavism the desire to leave felt by a large number of people hoping to find across the sea the Eldorado dangled before them by the cinema industry, the media, and expatriated fellow-citizens.
- 4.
Although the concept could well be spelled in lower case, I capitalize “Seametery” in order to build upon the already capitalized Mediterranean Sea by adding what has been expanding in its core: the cemetery. In so doing, I propose to stretch our thinking of the sea further, well into the abyss, because the seam that composes its name, which is supposed to stitch a wounded region, is one that keeps pulling harragas asunder. In the context of today’s tragedies, the Mediterranean Sea written as such does not reflect what is at stake in the basin. The Mediterranean Seametery provides a way to name what lies under its surface.
- 5.
I call “cementery” the feeling of confinement permeating day-to-day life spent in claustrophobic, crumbling, cement, or concrete buildings depicted as tombs.
- 6.
“Cruzar (atravesar, pasar, saltar) el Estrecho.”
- 7.
“En el Norte de África se ha extendido la denominación atún para designar a aquellos que tratan de cruzar el Estrecho de Gibraltar; al intento de alcanzar las costas españolas en embarcaciones de fortuna se le conoce como ir de atunes.”
- 8.
“Azel a décidé que la mer qu’il voit face à lui a un centre et ce centre est un cercle vert, un cimetière où le courant s’empare des cadavres pour les mener au fond, les déposer sur un banc d’algues” (Ben Jelloun 2006: 13).
- 9.
“Un système de surveillance électronique, avec infrarouge, armes automatiques, ultrason, ultra tout” (Ben Jelloun 2006: 48).
- 10.
For instance, in Manu Chao’s title song “Clandestino,” a dead migrant compares himself to a stingray, and swims around in the depths of the Strait between Ceuta and Gibraltar. For an analysis of this song, see Abderrezak (2016).
- 11.
For an in-depth analysis of this concept, see Abderrezak (2018 and forthcoming).
- 12.
Ports on the North African coast have recently been associated with prisons. Such is the case of the nearby Spanish enclave Ceuta in Jonathan Millet and Loïc H. Rechi’s (2014) documentary titled Ceuta, douce prison (Ceuta, Prison by the Sea).
- 13.
The surveillance system is known as SIVE. This acronym stands for Sistema Integrado de Vigilencia Exterior (Integrated System of External Vigilance or Integrated External Surveillance System).
- 14.
Ferdinand de Lesseps, who obtained permission from the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan to construct the Suez Canal, had plans to fill the Sahara with water brought from the Mediterranean Sea.
- 15.
In Modern Standard Arabic, “Zina” can also be translated as “decoration” or “ornament.”
- 16.
“Un objet devient lieu de mémoire quand il échappe à l’oubli.”
- 17.
“On le voit, ce sont les télés du satellite qui ramènent au pays les images de leurs corps échoués sur les rochers, ballotés par les flots, frigorifiés, asphyxiés, écrasés, dans un train d’avion, une cale de bateau ou le caisson d’un camion plombé. Comme si nous n’en savions pas assez, les harragas ont inventé pour nous de nouvelles façons de mourir. Et ceux qui réussissent la traversée perdent leur âme dans le pire royaume qui soit, la clandestinité. Quelle est la vie souterraine?” (Sansal 2005: 46–47).
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Abderrezak, H. (2018). The Mediterranean Seametery and Cementery in Leïla Kilani’s and Tariq Teguia’s Filmic Works. In: elhariry, y., Talbayev, E. (eds) Critically Mediterranean. Mediterranean Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71764-7_8
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