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.
A Battlefield Transformed: From Guerilla Resistance to Mass Nonviolent Struggle in the Western Sahara
INTRODUCTION In late May 2005, a popular uprising against foreign domination rocked the Maghreb region of North Africa. With scenes reminiscent of the recent unarmed insurrections against unpopular governments in Georgia (2003), Ukraine (2004-05), and Lebanon (2005), thousands of ethnic Sahrawis from the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony that has been under strict military control by the Kingdom of Morocco since the latter invaded and occupied the territory in 1975, took to the streets en masse demanding the withdrawal of Moroccan troops and independence for Africa’s last remaining colony. Sahrawis are calling their sustained defiance against foreign rule an Intifada, or “shaking off”. The desert uprising represents a dramatic turning point in the Sahrawi people’s struggle for national self-determination for three main reasons. First: the scope, intensity, and mass civilian involvement in the nationalist uprising took Moroccan occupation forces by surprise. Moroccan police, soldiers, and intelligence agents, who