More than two centuries after Morocco’s recognition of independence from the United States of America, the US Embassy will celebrate the friendship of the two countries by reviewing the history of the 1is Moroccan who has set foot on American soil. According to a diplomatic source, Mustafa Zemmouri who discovered the American continent in 1528, a few years after Christopher Columbus, will be the subject of a major retrospective on his life.
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Chance of history or not, like Morocco, which was the first country on the planet to have recognized its independence in 1777, the United States are preparing to celebrate 200 years of bilateral friendship after becoming the pioneer of the Western world to recognize the Moroccan character of the Sahara. Return on the historical journey of the first Moroccan to have gone to North America.
Zemmouri, pioneer of the Moroccan presence in the USA
In un post Facebook, the American Embassy reveals that the celebration of these links will return in particular to the story of a Moroccan born in 1503 in Azzemour under Portuguese domination.
Indeed, the story of Mustafa Zemmouri, considered to be the 1is Moroccan to have explored the American southwest is a good example to illustrate the beginning of the Moroccan presence in the USA just after its discovery in 1492 by Christopher Columbus and well before its independence in 1776.
America continues to honor the memory of an unknown Moroccan in his own country
According to a diplomatic source requesting anonymity, the exceptional career of this former slave will make for the 1time both the subject of a retrospective at the American Embassy in Morocco on the occasion of the celebration of 200 years of friendship between the two countries which will take place during the year 2021.
A celebration made possible thanks to the funds of the Arab-American National Museum (Dearborn, Michigan) which continues to honor his contribution to the USA unlike his country of origin where he is almost unknown and strangely excluded from teaching manuals for new generations.
An incomprehensible omission when we know that he was one of the first men of the 16th century to have explored North America a few decades after its discovery by Christopher Columbus.
Azzemour’s ex-slave hired to invade Florida
Long before this trip to what explorers called the “New World”, Zemmouri was born at the very beginning of the 16th century, around 1503 in the coastal town of Azemmour in Morocco which was under Portuguese domination at the time.
Taken prisoner in 1513, the young man was first sold in 1520 to the occupiers then arrived in Spain in 1527, he will be sold as a servant to a Spanish nobleman named Andrés Dorantes de Carranza with whom he will then undertake a maritime expedition to occupy Florida.
In the footsteps of Christopher Columbus, under the orders of another famous conquistador
After 20 years of trying to subdue Mexico, Commander Dorantes at the head of a shipping company had been appointed to fight under the orders of Pánfilo de Narváez, who had himself just been appointed to conquer and become the governor. Spanish from Florida.
Leaving Spain in January 1528 with 600 people, the expedition will face several hurricanes which first destroyed a ship and forced the 5 others damaged to stop in Cuba before dropping anchor at the end of April on the west coast of the Florida, more exactly at Tampa Bay.
Alone among the 4 survivors of an expeditionary force of 600 people
After five very difficult months in which more than 500 of her crew drowned, of hunger, thirst and illnesses, Dorantes left this inhospitable region in September to go to Mexico.
Once there, the members of his expedition were captured by a local tribe and then forced to work in terrible conditions which decimated most of the expeditionary force.
Starved or killed by the aborigines, only four survivors namely Andrés Dorantes, Mostapha Zemmouri, Alonzo del Castillo Maldonado and finally Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca managed to escape from their hell after six years of detention, until September 1535.
The four survivors spent several years with the Indians before succeeding in joining their compatriots in the region of Sinaloa in New Spain by crossing the Sonoran desert.
A polyglot survivor who became a great healer
Thanks to his great knowledge of herbs and remedies, Zemmouri managed with his companions to relieve the headaches of an Indian tribe which earned him a reputation as a great healer who allowed them to reach the Mexican city of Culiacan then controlled by the Spaniards.
Mastering 6 languages including several Amerindian, he was appointed in 1539 by the Viceroy of Mexico, guide and interpreter of the Franciscan priest Fray Marcos de Niza who was to discover the mythical Cíbola, one of the seven cities of gold, located in The current state of Texas, at the heart of El Dorado legends.
A gold digger who died violently
There too, he was the only survivor of his contingent affected by a disease and preceded the famous Spanish conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in his search for the fabulous gold mines of New Mexico and Arizona, which later originated from the gold Rush.
There are several versions of the origin of his death, but most agree that he was poisoned at the age of 36 by the Zuni Indians near the gold city Cibola, after he killed with impunity a woman whom her relatives had not been able to avenge because of her reputation as a great healer.
Another version reports a death occasioned by the arrows of the Cibolans after he tried to escape while a last mentions a summary execution after his executioners discovered that he was carrying a gourd filled with owl feathers, bird symbol of death.
A Morocco that does not teach the history of this precursor of relations with the USA
If no one knows where he is buried, history will remember his exceptional journey of 1is Moroccan to have traveled to North America thanks in particular to the writings of his escape companion Cabeza de Vaca then of Hamza Ben Driss Otmani, author of the novel “The son of the sun” inspired by his legend.
In the end, the celebration of 200 years of USA-Morocco friendship will at least have the merit of resuscitating the memory of this Moroccan with many aliases (Estevan, Estebanico, Esteban, Stéphane le Noir, Stéphane le Maure, Petit Stéphane …) whose our history books should perhaps recall the memory.
Note that this article is also an opportunity to thank the American Embassy for providing us with the necessary documentation for its writing …
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