The two encyclopedic versions are incompatible and unreferenced. Two consulted sources contradict the exile mentioned by French Wikipedia: Saulay (1983) describes Assou's “loyal collaboration” with the Tinghir office after 1933; Hart (1984, pp. 183-186) says he was appointed shaikh, member of the customary court of appeal at Iknioun, then acting qaid from February 1939 until his death “twenty-one years later”, with the title of amghar n-ufilla of the Aït Atta of the Saghro.
Hart also confirms that the qaid of Iknioun who received him in 1961, ʿAli u-l-Hajj, was Assou's son, and that the title “Hajj” comes from the pilgrimage made in 1956. Both sources partly depend on General Huré's writings; the protectorate's administrative files (appointments of qaids, removal orders) would confirm the chronology.
Assisted translation, not validated
Reading a colonial archive
Military reports and colonial literature are indispensable — and situated — sources: they count their own losses precisely, the enemy's rarely; they name their officers, rarely the Aït Atta fighters; they write to justify a policy. Oral traditions and Moroccan historiography ask other questions and have their own memorial uses.
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