Moroccan Multiplicities

Over twenty years after its publication in 1993, Paul Gilroy’s book The Black Atlantic : Modernity and Double Consciousness still provides a number of useful entry points for thinking about Moroccan musical creativity in general and Morocco’s contemporary urban music scene in particular. This article examines the cultural and linguistic repertoires of urban musicians in contemporary Morocco and explores their performative stances which simultaneously emphasise a transnational identity and a “marocanité”. It shall be argued that whilst key features of Gilroy’s Black Atlantic model are extremely salient, Gilroy’s move towards a post-national framework of analysis is not a straightforward one within the Moroccan musical context.