Sahara

Posted by MESPI Editors       By : Stephen Zunes [This is one of seven pieces in Jadaliyya`s electronic roundtable on the Western Sahara. Moderated by Samia Errazzouki and Allison L. McManus, it features contributions from John P. Entelis, Stephen Zunes, Aboubakr Jamaï, Ali Anouzla, Allison L. McManus, Samia Errazzouki, and Andrew McConnell.] Western Sahara is a sparsely-populated territory about the size of Italy, located on the Atlantic coast in northwestern Africa, just south of Morocco. Traditionally inhabited by nomadic Arab tribes, collectively known as Sahrawis and famous for their long history of resistance to outside domination, the territory was occupied by Spain from the late 1800s through the mid-1970s. With S...

Sahrawis have engaged in protests, strikes, cultural celebrations, and other forms of civil resistance focused on such issues as educational policy, human rights, the release of political prisoners, and the right to self-determination. They have also raised the cost of occupation for the Moroccan government and increased the visibility of the Sahrawi cause. Stephen Zunes Aminatou Haidar and Sahrawi activists On November 8, Moroccan occupation forces attacked a tent city of as many as 12,000 Western Saharans just outside of Al Aioun, in the culminating act of a months-long protest of discrimination against the indigenous Sahrawi population and worsening economic conditions.   Not only was the scale of the crackdown unprecedented, so was the popular...

Posted by: John Phoenix Photo: Dikó Betancourt Sahrawi man in Tindouf Refugee Camp, Algeria The Sahrawi, or Saharawi, are the people living in the western part of the Sahara desert which includes Western Sahara (claimed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and mostly controlled by Morocco), other parts of southern Morocco and the extreme southwest of Algeria. As with most peoples living in the Sahara, the Sahrawi culture is mixed. It shows mainly Arab-Berber characteristics, like the privileged position of women, as well as characteristics common to ethnic groups of the Sahel. Sahrawis are composed of many tribes and are largely speakers of the Hassaniya dialect of Arabic, and some of them still speak Berber in both of Morocco's disputed a...

Trump recognized the wholesale annexation of one country by another. If Biden lets that stand, the global implications are deeply troubling. By Stephen Zunes  In his final weeks in office, President Donald Trump stunned the international community in formally recognizing Western Sahara as part of Morocco. Morocco has occupied much of its southern neighbor since 1975, when it invaded and annexed the former Spanish colony in defiance of the United Nations Security Council and a landmark ruling of the International Court of Justice. Most observers believed that, as with some of Trump’s other impetuous foreign policy decisions, President Joe Biden would reverse it soon after coming to office. However, much to the disappointment of bipartisan congressional leaders, career State De...

BY DANIEL FALCONE – STEPHEN ZUNES Photograph Source: Zarateman – CC0 Stephen Zunes is an international relations scholar, activist, and professor of politics at the University of San Francisco. Zunes, the author of numerous books and articles, including his latest, Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution (Syracuse University Press, revised and expanded second edition, 2021) is a widely read scholar and critic of American foreign policy. In this extensive interview, Zunes breaks down the history (1973-2022) of the political instability in the region. Zunes also traces Presidents George W. Bush (2000-2008) to Joseph Biden (2020-Present) as he highlights US diplomatic history, geography, and people of this historic borderland. He states how the...