The Foreign Service Journal, September 2015

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2015 91 history to present examples demon- strating that denying citizens any form of redress of grievances drives them to extremes. Noting that those early protestors were mostly Protestant, she traces links between reformed religion’s rebellion against the church kleptocracy and the quest for representative govern- ment, and proceeds to tie this historical thread of “violent religious extremism” to al-Qaida’s origins and motivation. The book concludes with an exten- sive set of recommendations on how the U.S. government and others can better address the problem of corruption. The recommendations will be familiar to those who follow this discussion in the think-tank world, where anti-corruption and governance is a topic of rising inter- est. The extent to which Chayes is driving this discussion, or merely channeling the work of others, is unclear. Prioritizing anti-corruption may strike many practitioners as a luxury today, when it is all we can do to man- age the effects of a rapidly disintegrating Middle East. But she has done a service in highlighting the problem, putting it in a historical perspective and making a comprehensive case for elevating it as an imperative in U.S. foreign policy. Susan Brady Maitra is The Journal’s manag- ing editor. Morocco and the Discovery of the American Southwest The Moor’s Account: A Novel Laila Lalami, Pantheon Books, 2014, $15.95, paperback, 336 pages. Reviewed By Richard Jackson When I was consul general in Casablanca from 1983 to 1986, I became friends with the French historian Guy Martinet. When he died in 2003, Martinet left me a rough outline, researched from the Spanish archives in Madrid, of the life of 16th-cen- tury Moroccan explorer Azemmouri. Early this year, I thought of finally doing something with the story. So you can imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami, published in late 2014. Better she than me! Authentically written through the Moroccan and Muslim eyes of Azem- mouri, this historical novel is a magnifi- cent and creative work with deep histori- cal research. Azemmouri, who grew up at the start of the 16th century in Azemmour, was captured on Sept. 1, 1513, by the Duke of Braganza of Portugal during a battle in which Ferdinand Magellan was wounded. The Portuguese sold captured young men as slaves, and Azem- mouri ended up in Cadiz, sold to Span- ish Captain Andrés Dorantes. Described as a “Berber slave” and renamed Estebanico, Estevanico or simply Estevan, he sailed with his owner for the New World in June 1527 as part of the six-ship fleet under Spanish Governor Panfilo de Narvaez that included 400 men and 80 horses. Narvaez had previously participated in Spanish voyages to Jamaica in 1509, Cuba in 1511 and Veracruz in 1520. The new expedition reached the area of today’s Tampa Bay in April 1528. From there, they marched north with 300 men, including Azemmouri, in search of gold and silver. Finding none and suffering heavy losses from Indian attacks and fevers, the survivors set out from the area of Talla- hassee in four crudely built rafts, two of which reached Galveston Island with 24 survivors. The other two, including that of Narvaez, foundered in a storm. In Texas, the party dwindled to 15 and, finally, to only four survivors, including Azemmouri. For the next five years, they were held captive by Indian tribes, fleeing occasionally only to be recaptured by others. Over time, the tiny band gained grudging acceptance by practicing crude medicine and were known as “Sons of the Sun” by local tribes. In May 1535, they journeyed westward, healing Indians along the way. The party eventually reached Cibola, territory that now straddles the Arizona- NewMexico border, where they were killed by Zuni Indians in 1539. Father Marcos, an early Jesuit missionary, heard of their death and notified Spanish authorities in Mexico, embroidering the account with tales of gold and precious jewels in Cibola. When Coronado led his expedi- tion there a year later, he found no El Dorado but only a “small rocky village” of some 150-300 reddish clay dwellings. An alternative version from the archives has Azemmouri alone reaching Mexico and leading an exploratory mission back to Cibola where, in both versions, he was killed in 1539. Following the sketchy accounts of the ill-fated Narvaez expedition and fictional- izing the day-to-day doings and thoughts of Azemmouri, Dr. Lalami brilliantly brings to life an historical account that, until now, has mouldered in the archives relatively unknown and neglected on both sides of the Atlantic. She is particularly perceptive in filling in what must have occurred in the inter- actions between Narvaez’s dwindling band of would-be conquistadors and the Indian tribes along the east coast of