Multiple colonialism in Western Sahara
The Sahrawi are a hybrid people found in parts of northwest Africa, mostly Western Sahara and they are victims of multiple colonialism. The decision by European powers to include parts of their land in various colonies subjected many Sahrawi to different French and Spanish colonial policies and experiences in Morocco, Algeria, Mauretania and Western Sahara. The Spaniards took control of Western Sahara and when they decided to leave, Morocco, with its irredentist dreams stepped in. Morocco became the new colonial power as it claimed Western Sahara territory as a province. It behaves in the same way as the French did when they claimed that Algeria was a province of France. Morocco exploited the prevailing international climate to advance its colonialistic proclivities at a time when territorial colonialism had become anathema internationally. That climate made the big powers, whether communistic or capitalistic, appear to support Morocco. This way their perceived interests seemed to dictate that they be in good books with Morocco and they thus condoned Morocco's annexationist designs. The fact that Morocco itself used to be colonized by the French and the Spaniards tends to hide the fact that it is a colonial power imposing itself on the Sahrawi. Key words: Western Sahara, colonialism, Morocco, Spain
Performing the nation, pre-figuring the state: the Western Saharan refugees, thirty years later
Recent social, economic and political changes in the Western Saharan refugee camps in southwest Algeria have import not only for the project of Western Saharan nationalism, but also for the ongoing peace process. These are examined through a background to the Western Sahara conflict, and an appraisal of the camps' internal processes of elite politics, self-management and recent post-war socio-economic change.
Sahrawi Women in the Liberation Struggle of the Sahrawi People
T H R O U G H T H E I R R O L E S in the current liberation struggle of the Sahrawis of Western Sahara, Sahrawi women have substantially increased their traditional participation and importance in that society. Since 1973 the Sahrawis, the indigenous peoples of the former Spanish Sahara in northwest Africa, have engaged in an armed struggle to free that territory: first from Spain, which "protected" and administered it in part or in whole from the Franco-Spanish Conventions of 1904 until 1976; then from Morocco and Mauritania, to which Spain transferred its administrative powers by the Madrid Accords of 1975 (the transfer took effect in February 1976 when Spain withdrew); and since 1979, following a peace treaty between Mauritania and the Polisario Front, against Morocco alone. The territory has been marked for decolonization by the United Nations Decolonization Committee since 1963, and in 1988 the United Nations drew up an implementation plan (approved by both parties in 1990) for a negotiated settlement of the territorial conflict through a free and fair referendum for the Sahrawis. Morocco and Mauritania entered the conflict because of their historical claims to the Saguia el Hamra (northern two-thirds) and the Rio de Oro (southern one-third) regions of Spanish Sahara, now known as Western Sahara. Although these claims were discounted in 1975 by the International Court of Justice in favor of a referendum of the Sahrawi people, the countries used their 1975 agreement with Spain and military force in their effort to exert control over the mineral-rich region. While Mauritania dropped its claim in 1979, Morocco has continued to lay claim to all of the Western Sahara as part of the "Greater Morocco," a vision of Morocco that also includes the present kingdom of Morocco, part of Algeria, all of Mauritania, part of Mali, and part of Senegal. Morocco spent sixteen