Book Review of ‘Western Sahara: The Refugee Nation’

The history of the Western Sahara conflict, having lasted over thirty-five years, is well known. The territory’s independence movement, the Polisario Front, is unable to exert sufficient influence to tilt the political process in its favor and lacks the kinds of state and non-state allies that might help make this possible. The occupying power, Morocco, together with its allies France and the United States, sees little incentive to compromise except to attempt to sell an internal “autonomy” plan for the former Spanish colony; a plan that would amount to little more than full permanent Morocco control under a slightly different name. The United Nations lacks the will to compel an up-or-down independence referendum or to compel Morocco to treat Polisario as an equal and legitimate negotiating partner. The UN has also had problems in the last several years maintaining a semblance of impartiality. This is evidenced by the omission of the words “self-determination” (i.e., the possibility of an independent Western Sahara) in a draft report by the UN secretary-general in April 2012. Moreover, the UN’s peacekeeping mission in the territory, extant since 1991, glaringly lacks a human rights monitoring component, a situation that does not exist with any other mission undertaken by the world body.

With all the commentary on political questions, there has been comparatively little coverage in recent years of the social and economic conditions and development in the territory, focusing on the Sahrawi refugee camps located in the vicinity of Tindouf in the far southwest of Algeria, Polisario’s safe haven since late 1975. But Pablo San Martín, a writer and consultant on security and development issues, succeeds—despite some shortcomings—in giving the interested reader a credible history and analysis of the ways in which the Sahrawis, from Spanish colonial times to the present, have come to see themselves and have coped with the often-wrenching changes to their environment.

San Martín begins with a historical survey of Spain’s history in Western Sahara (which it nominally acquired in the 1880s but did not fully administer until the mid-1930s) in Chapter 1, and then moves to the early 1970s in Chapter 2. He establishes that Madrid discovered that many Sahrawis had ceased to identify themselves by tribe or clan group. This was because their traditional tribal elders had been discredited by their association with the Francoist colonial government. In other words, the drift away from tribalism in the colony began in advance of Polisario’s later resolutely anti-tribal attitudes, although it was very much in harmony with the thinking of early Sahrawi nationalist activists and thinkers, including Mohamed Sidi Ibrahim Bassiri, who was presumed murdered by the Spanish authorities after he organized an anti-colonial demonstration in the Western Saharan capital of El-Ayoun. At the same time, economic factors came into play. Primary among these was the establishment of a major phosphate mining operation at about the same time the inhabitants of the territory were becoming less nomadic and more urbanized owing to the destructive droughts that beset the region starting in the late 1960s. This section of Chapter 2 is one of the most useful in the volume, as it is based on a series of moving interviews with Sahrawis who vividly recalled those peaceful and relatively prosperous times. In some fascinating passages (pp. 54–55) San Martín describes how the Sahrawis’ formative years were also positively influenced by the infusion of Western popular culture and dress into Western Sahara. Later, the Polisario Front would reject “westernization” in principle, albeit on strictly nationalistic and not religious grounds. The rest of this chapter (and Chapter 3 as well) is largely a straight historical discussion of Western Sahara in the early and middle 1970s, one that does not enlarge upon the work of other scholars, and which blurs historical, political, sociological, and anthropological matters, making the narrative sometimes difficult to follow.

Chapter 4 is by far the most important part of the volume for those with an interest in more recent social and economic changes within the Polisario refugee camp system since the 1988–1991 period of instability known as the “revolution within a revolution.” Hoping to instill a sense of “normal living” in the camps after the 1991 UN ceasefire, Polisario, in addition to introducing a much greater degree of democracy to the Sahrawi population, made the still-controversial decision to open the camps to a market economy. Money would freely circulate and salaries would be paid, unlike what had been the case since 1976. This move brought certain benefits, but also a greater degree of inequality, often to the point where marriage and childrearing became unaffordable for many residents. The author rather clearly indicates that he is not generally a supporter of this policy, and neither, for that matter, are those Sahrawi interviewees whose comments he chose to include in the book. The primary complaints seem to be that their society has become “too consumerist,” that the state sector is placed at a disadvantage with respect to salaries, and educated professionals simply have no ability to practice their skills, though education, by all accounts, continues to be taken seriously.

Those Sahrawis educated in foreign countries, particularly in Cuba, faced special challenges after their return to the camps after a stay often extending a decade or more. Coming of age in the more open and less traditional Cuban society, these returning “Cubarawis” often were viewed warily by their relatives and fellow citizens, as they not only spoke an odd blend of Spanish and Hassaniyya Arabic, but were sometimes considered too extroverted and too readily discussed sexual matters for the more strait-laced Sahrawis. What is more, the Cubarawis are most likely to admit their lack of religious faith and refer to themselves as Muslim in only a purely cultural sense. The Polisario Front’s headquarters area, known as Rabbouni, serves as an essential social safety valve for these and other more liberal-minded Sahrawis, as it is located many kilometers from the refugee camps and supports an administrative population that often returns to the camps only on weekends, leaving plenty of time for socializing.

Far from remaining a helplessly dependent people living in a harsh desert exile, Sahrawi society has undergone notable and momentous shifts, mostly without substantial internecine conflict. This condition is sure to be tested in the years ahead, the author believes, by the economic and other problems of younger Sahrawis, and with the precedent of the revolts and protests of the “Arab Spring.” Although the book does not include a discussion of internal politics in the camps after 1991 and does not discuss the specific situations encountered by various Sahrawi professionals (including doctors and nurses), those already conversant with Western Sahara will find this book a useful addition to their collections, as it contains material of many types not readily accessible elsewhere in English.

* Reprinted with kind permission from the: International Journal of African Historical Studies.

MORE REFERENCES ON WESTERN SAHARA

FILMS

1. Javier Bardem’s Sons of Clouds: http://www.candescentfilms.com/film/sons-of-the-clouds/
2. Wilāya http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilaya_(film)
3. The Runner http://www.touristwithatypewriter.com/therunner/runner_synopsis.htm
4. El Problema http://www.waronwant.org/news/blog/screening-of-a-powerful-new-film-on-western-sahara.html
5. La Badil (documentary) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sekA21sVviU
6. Al-Jazeera’s “Inside Story” section on Western Sahara http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz1s57Sab4Q
7. L'autre côté du mur (French film made by APSO) http://lautrecotedumur.com/

BOOKS

1. Zunes, S. & Mundy, J. (2010) Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution. Syracuse University Press. http://wsahara.stephenzunes.org/author/jacobmundy
2. San Martín, P. (2010) Western Sahara: The Refugee Nation. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/W/bo10381942.html

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