A shot of the Saharawi refugee camps in Tindouf. In the picture, girls can be seen going home after leaving school. Picture by Hamza Hamouchene. All rights reserved. In these few lines, inspired by my thwarted attempt to go to the occupied territories of Western Sahara in November 2016 as well as my recent visit to the Saharawi refugee camps in southern Algeria in December 2016, I would like to give a brief account of the Saharawi struggle for self-determination and also offer some reflections on my visit
The plight of Western Sahara and the military occupation by the Moroccan monarchy cannot be dissociated from the history of western colonialism and from the fact that Saharawis continue to pay the price for this legacy. During the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885, Spain was recognised as the colonial power ruling over present-day Western Sahara, and by 1936, Generalissimo Franco instituted full colonial rule and split the region into two territories, Rio de Oro and Saguia el Hamra. When high-quality phosphate was discovered in the late 1930s, the Spanish built the city of Laayoune near the Atlantic and linked the Bou Craa mine to the port with a conveyor belt around a hundred kilometres long.
The plight of Western Sahara and the military occupation by the Moroccan monarchy cannot be dissociated from the history of western colonialism.
