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Berber Rising. There were other uprisings in Rabat, Marrakech and Fez, but the worst fighting broke out where it was least expected: among the Berber tribes. Lean, eagle-eyed horsemen who accept the authority of Islam, though not all of its practices, e.g., they eat wild boar, the Berbers are the descendants of the proud indigenes of Africa's northwest corner. Many Berber tribes held out against the French until as late as 1934, but since then their Caids (chiefs) have accepted French gold.
The French encouraged Berber hostility to the Moroccan Arabs as part of their general policy of divide and rule. Two years ago the Berbers were persuaded to back up El Glaoui, the cunning old Pasha of Marrakech, who acted as France's agent in the removal of Ben Youssef. El Glaoui has teamed up with the right-wing elements among the French colons in North Africa to delay and sabotage Gilbert Grandval's plans for reform and self-government.
An important segment of Berbers had now switched sides. "There is new hope in Morocco," the Berber Caids wired Premier Faure recently. "We respectfully ask you to put an end to the El Glaoui myth . . . There is no question of accepting the Pasha of Marrakech as the chief of the Berbers. They form a part of the whole, the Moroccan people." But when the French continued to temporize, the Caids told their Berbers to saddle up.
No Prisoners. Pouring down from the hills, thousands of Berber horsemen from the Ouled Aissim tribe smashed their way into the prosperous little town of Oued Zem, 80 miles southeast of Casablanca. With screaming women at their side, some of them riding bicycles, they swept through the European quarter, setting fire to every house, killing every white man in sight, in the most savage massacre of Europeans in modern Moroccan history.
Old Widow Voivier ran a grocery store in the main street. Knives cut her down. Other knives dismembered her son and daughter and finally the daughter's three children. Another mother was disemboweled when she tried to protect her child. People caught in cars or trucks were dragged out, had their noses and tongues cut off, and then were stuffed back into their cars to be burned alive. Then the mob burned the hospital, pausing to butcher seven patients in their beds.
Oued Zem was alone with its horror for more than four hours. When French troops arrived, a Legionnaire lieutenant shouted to his command: "We take no prisoners!"
Hand to Hand. It was the same at Khenifra, a fortified town in the Atlas Mountains. Thousands of Berber warriors surrounded the city and besieged those Frenchmen who were not killed in the main onrush in the Mayoralty. When a Legion column arrived, the French and Berbers fought hand to hand in the streets. A French patrol was caught in withering fire from front and rear, and suffered heavy losses. In another street action, 69 Berbers were reported killed. Later, the French dropped paratroopers from battered old German Junkers, escorted by British-made jets.
Death in Algeria. While the French army had its hands full beating back the Moroccans, other fanatical Arabs saw their chance in Algeria, North Africa's richest province and legally a part of France.