Published on the occasion of the 30th International Book and Publishing Fair in Rabat, as part of the publications of the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME), the book “The Voice of Arroubiya: Music, Poetry, and the Sense of Masculinity among Moroccan Migrants in Umbria, Italy”, was released by Dar Al-Thaqafa for Publishing and Distribution. The book is an Arabic translation by Nour Eddine Zwaitni of a work by Italian anthropologist Alessandra Ciucci, originally published in English in 2022 by the University of Chicago.
In his introduction, Hassan Rachik writes : “When reading the works of foreign anthropologists, my stance as a reader changes depending on whether the subject concerns a culture entirely foreign to me or aspects of Moroccan culture that I have experienced or am familiar with.” He concludes that this type of familiar knowledge (referring to the negative connotations of the term “Arroubi” and “Arroubiya” in relation to his social upbringing in Casablanca) serves as resources for him as an anthropologist in his own country (a local native). He considers, however, these resources limited compared to what he learned from Alessandra Ciucci’s study about aspects of his social and cultural environment. From his perspective as an anthropologist in his own country, much of what he learned from the book “The Voice of Arroubiya” was new to him.
During a presentation of the book at the joint pavilion of the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad and the Ministry of Youth, Culture, and Communication on Sunday, April 20, 2025, anthropologist Hassan Rachik spoke about the concept of “voice” and its significance in the history of “postmodern anthropology.” This concept was highlighted by Alessandra Ciucci in her book by giving a voice to the marginalized and not merely preserving their testimonies in research notebooks.
For Professor Hassan Rachik, the second significant aspect of the book is the research field, which connects Morocco and Italy through the same migrant community, noting that Ciucci is an Italian researcher residing in the United States. From this perspective, Rachik raised methodological anthropological observations through the book “The Voice of Arroubiya”, including the positioning of the researcher, which he considers a crucial element in anthropology with implications for describing the culture being studied. He highlighted that Alessandra transcended static descriptions and adopted a dynamic approach closely tied to individuals, avoiding a country’s culture to preconceived stereotypes.
For his part, sociologist Khalid Ghazali from the University of Padua, Italy, emphasized the importance of the author’s avoidance of the term “ta’aroubite” (a reductive stereotype) and her focus instead on “Arroubiya” as a geographical space and a place of memory. He praised the researcher’s harmony with the research subject while maintaining a distance from other disciplines, particularly contemporary history.
The event also featured a speech by writer Hassan Najmi, who recounted his meeting with anthropologist Alessandra Ciucci and her decision to work in Morocco in 2000 after discovering Moroccan popular music. He discussed their collaboration based on musical ethnography, emphasizing that studying musical expression must consider its relationship with the social system that produced it and with which it is interconnected. He considered the essence of “The Voice of Arroubiya” to lie in the author’s focus on Moroccan migrants from the Arroubiya region in Umbria, central Italy. He noted that the depth of her research lies in exploring how these young people, in the context of migration, listen to the Moroccan culture they carry with them, preserve their sonic memory, and choose specific spaces to engage with this music.
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