Performing the nation in anti‐colonial protest in interwar M orocco

This article applies a process approach to the study of nationalism, analysing anti‐colonial protest in interwar M orocco to address how and why elite‐constructed national identity resonates for larger audiences. Using A lexander's social performance model to study nationalist contention, it examines how a M uslim prayer ritual was re‐purposed by M oroccan nationalists to galvanise mass protest against a F rench divide‐and‐rule colonial policy towards M oroccan B erbers that they believed threatened M orocco's ethno‐religious national unity. By looking at how national identity was forged in the context of contentious performances and why certain religious ( I slam) and ethnic ( A rab) components were drawn on to define the M oroccan nation, this study offers a model for answering why national identity gets defined in specific ways and how the nation gains salience for broader publics as a category of collective identity.