The school and the military: two precursors of physical education and sport in northern Morocco during the protectorate

Abstract

 Considered rather as a protectorate, the Spanish colonization of northern Morocco allowed the establishment of a new culture among the natives: the sports culture. The socio-political context of the emergence and the social and geographical dissemination of sports activities and physical education (PE) in schools explain why they were put at the service of the patriotic and militaristic national colonial conception.

This conception was implemented by two ideological apparatuses: the school and the army. The action of these two agents in charge of disseminating sport and PE among the Moroccan population aimed at highlighting the possibility that colonial Spain would have to prepare future men-soldiers capable of responding to the aspirations of the conquering state. Sport was instrumentalized and became an effective channel of political communication.