Popularizing Africanism: The Career of Víctor Ruiz Albéniz,<i>El Tebib Arrumi</i>

Abstract

... From 1909 to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War there was a recurring theme in the writings of all those who dealt with Morocco: the fact that the fate of the Protectorate did not interest Spanish public opinion, becoming a preoccupation only when a military reversal took place. This article aims to examine the work of one man who devoted his life to overcoming that situation, using all means available to him to make the Spanish public appreciate both the intrinsic value of the Moroccan Protectorate and the efforts of the officers who had fought and died to pacify it, a stance that led him to carry out the most significant role in the Nationalists’ propaganda machine during the Spanish Civil War. This self-appointed mission led him on an idiosyncratic political odyssey, from republican to monarchist, from opponent to supporter of Miguel Primo de Rivera, and finally to unrivalled fan of Franco.