Babi: "I started elementary school in 1939, at the age of 6, and went to Koranic school at the same time. It was a bit like the Catholic catechism..
In 1941, when France was occupied and before the Americans landed, the French administration in Morocco expelled all Jews from its administration and public system. This was the Vichy regime.
The native French who lived in Morocco and were of fighting age had joined the Vichy army. Eventually, there were no French-speaking teachers left in our schools. My father, keen to see me continue my education, sent me to the Jesuits.
Morocco was a protectorate, not a colony. In Algeria, which was a true colony, the Catholic Church was a missionary church, actively seeking to convert part of the indigenous population. It succeeded in doing so and, in keeping with the adage "divide and rule", it succeeded in creating divisions within the Kabyle population in particular, by pushing those who had converted to advocate their independence. This has created deep fissures in Algerian national identity to this day.
In Morocco, the situation was different: the country was not a mission land. (And we've never heard of a Moroccan advocating separatism. Even the Berbers of the Rif, who have a very distinct identity and culture, feel profoundly Moroccan).
But there were still Christian schools for the French population. One of the most remarkable of these was the Lebanese Christian school at St. Joseph's University in Beirut. These were Jesuits, whose order had been founded by a man from Lyon. They played a fundamental role in spreading Arab culture in Europe and, conversely, French culture in the Arab world. It was they who translated Victor Hugo into Arabic, as well as all the great French classics.
I stayed for about a year and a half with the Lebanese Jesuits (who are still in Fez today). Then, with the landing of the Americans in 1942, things gradually changed.
After elementary school, I went to Collège Moulay Idriss. At the time, it was "the best of the best". There was an entrance exam in the sixth form, and not just anyone was accepted. Classical teaching was very intensive and bilingual. The Arabic classes were very advanced, which means that today I can read the Koran in the text."
