Saharawi

Total population
disputed/uncertain (250,000–3,000,000)
Regions with significant populations
Morocco, Mauritania, Western Sahara, Algeria Spain (diaspora)
Languages
Hassaniya (native), Modern Standard Arabic, Tashelhit (a Berber language) and Spanish
Religion
Sunni Islam (Maliki), Sufism
Related ethnic groups
Arab, Berber, Black African

Most frequently in English language usage, the term Sahrawi ("Saharaui") is usually used in reference to populations from the disputed Western Sahara territory, sometimes with a nationalist connotation.

The Sahrawis are ethnically a mix of Arabs, Berbers and Black Africans. They inhabit the westernmost Sahara desert, in the area present-day south-western Algeria, Mauritania, southern Morocco, and Western Sahara. As with most Saharan peoples, the tribes culture is mixed, showing Arab, Berber, and black African characteristics.

Etymology[link]

The Arabic word Sahrāwī literally means "Someone from the Desert". There are several transliterations of the word, several of which are used in English:

• English, Saharaui, Saharaoui, Sahrawi or Saharawi
• French, Sahraoui, Saharaui
• Italian, Saharawi,Saharaui
• Portuguese, Saaráuis, Sarianos, Saarianos
• Spanish, Saharaui (saharauita)

Early history[link]

Nomadic Berbers, mainly of the Sanhaja tribal confederation, inhabited the areas now known as Western Sahara, southern Morocco, Mauritania and extreme southernwestern Algeria, before Islam arrived in the 8th century AD. The new faith achieved quick expansion, but Arab immigration in the first centuries of Islamic expansion was minimal. However, they introduced the camel to the region^{[citation needed]}, revolutionizing the traditional trade routes of North Africa. Caravans transported salt, gold and slaves between North Africa and West Africa, and the control of trade routes became a major ingredient in the constant power struggles between various tribes and sedentary peoples. On more than one occasion, the Berber tribes of present-day Mauritania, Morocco and Western Sahara would unite behind religious leaders to sweep the surrounding governments from power, then founding dynasties of their own. This was the case with the Almoravid dynasty of Morocco and Andalusia, and several emirates in Mauritania.

In the 11th century, the Arab bedouin tribes of the Beni Hilal and Beni Sulaym emigrated westwards from Egypt to the Maghreb region. In the early 13th century, the Yemeni Maqil tribes migrated westwards across the entirety of Arabia and northern Africa, to finally settle around present-day Morocco. They were badly received by the Zenata Berber descendants of the Merinid dynasty, and among the tribes pushed out of the territory, were the Beni Hassan.

This tribe entered the domains of the Sanhaja, and over the following centuries imposed itself upon them, intermixing with the population in the process. Berber attempts to shake off the rule of Arab warrior tribes occurred sporadically, but assimilation gradually won out, and after the failed Char Bouba uprising (1644–74), the Berber tribes would virtually without exception embrace Arab culture and even claim Arab heritage.[2] The Arabic dialect of the Beni Hassan, Hassaniya, remains the mother-tongue of Mauritania and Western Sahara to this day, and is also spoken in southern Morocco and western Algeria, among affiliated tribes. Berber vocabulary and cultural traits remain common, despite the fact that most if not all of the Sahrawi/Moorish tribes today claim Arab ancestry; several are even claiming to be descendants of Muhammad, so-called sharifian tribes (pl. shurfa or chorfa).

The modern ethnic group is thus an Arab and Berber people inhabiting the westernmost Sahara desert, in the area of modern Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Western Sahara (some tribes would also traditionally migrate into northern Mali and Niger, or even further along the Saharan caravan routes). As with most Saharan peoples, the tribes reflect a highly mixed heritage, combining Arab, Berber, and other influences, including black African ethnic and cultural characteristics. The latter were primarily acquired through mixing with Wolouf, Soninke and other populations of the southern Sahel, and through the acquisition of slaves by wealthier nomad families.

In pre-colonial times, the Sahara was generally considered bled es-Siba or "the land of dissidence" by the authorities of the established Islamic states of North Africa, such as the Sultan of Morocco and the Deys of Algeria. The Islamic governments of the pre-colonial sub-Saharan empires of Mali and Songhai appear to have had a similar relationship with the tribal territories, which were once the home of undisciplined raiding tribes and the main trade route for the Saharan caravan trade. Central governments had little control over the region, although the Hassaniya tribes would occasionally extended "beya" or allegiance to prestigious rulers, to gain their political backing or, in some cases, as a religious ceremony. The Moorish populations of today's north Mauritania established a number of emirates, claiming the loyalty of several different tribes and through them exercising semi-sovereignty over traditional grazing lands. This could be considered the closest thing to centralized government that was ever achieved by the Hassaniya tribes, but even these emirates were weak, conflict-ridden and rested more on the willing consent of the subject tribes than on any capacity to enforce loyalty.[3]

Colonial history[link]

Modern distinctions drawn between the various Hassaniya speaking Sahrawi-Moorish groups are primarily political, but cultural differences dating from different colonial and post-colonial histories are also apparent. An important divider is whether the tribal confederations fell under French or Spanish colonial rule. France conquered most of North and West Africa largely during the late 19th century. This included Algeria and Mauritania, and, from 1912, Morocco. But Western Sahara and scattered minor parts of Morocco fell to Spain, and were named Spanish Sahara (subdivided into Río de Oro and Saguia el-Hamra) and Spanish Morocco respectively. These colonial intrusions brought the Muslim Saharan peoples under Christian European rule for the first time, and created lasting cultural and political divides between and within existing populations, as well as upsetting traditional balances of power in differing ways.

The Sahrawi-Moorish areas, then still undefined as to exact territorial boundaries, proved troublesome for the colonizers, just as they had for neighbouring dynasties in previous centuries. The political loyalty of these populations were first and foremost to their respective tribes, and supratribal allegiances and alliances would shift rapidly and unexpectedly. Their nomadic lifestyle made direct control over the territories hard to achieve, as did general lawlessness, an absence of prior central authority, and a widely held contempt for the kind of settled life that the colonizers sought to bring about. Centuries of intratribal warfare and raids for loot (ghazzu) guaranteed that the populations were well armed and versed in guerrilla-style warfare. Tribes allied to hostile European powers would now also be considered fair game for cattle raids on those grounds, which tied the struggle against France and Spain into the traditional power play of the nomads, aggravating the internal struggles.

Uprisings and violent tribal clashes therefore took place with increasing frequency as European encroachment increased, and on occasion took the form of anti-European holy war, or Jihad, as in the case of the Ma el-Ainin uprising in the first years of the 20th century. It was not until the 1930s that Spain was able to finally subdue the interior of present-day Western Sahara, and then only with strong French military assistance. Mauritania's raiding Moors had been brought under control in the previous decades, partly through skilful exploitation by the French of traditional rivalries and social divisions between the tribes. In these encounters, the large Reguibat tribe proved especially resistant to the new rulers, and its fighters would regularly slip in out of French and Spanish territory, similarly exploiting the rivalries between European powers. The last major Reguibat raid took place in 1934, after which the Spanish authorities occupied Smara, finally gaining control over the last unpatrolled border territories.

The Sahrawi-Moorish tribes remained largely nomadic until the early to mid-20th century, when Franco-Spanish rivalries (as well as disagreements between different wings of the French colonial regime) managed to impose rigid, if arbitrary, borders on the previously fluid Sahara. The wide-ranging grazing lands of the nomads were split apart, and their traditional economies, based on trans-Saharan caravan trade and raiding of each other and the northern and southern sahel neighbours, were broken. Little attention was paid to existing tribal confederations and zones of influence, when dividing up the Saharan inlands.

Different colonial practices[link]

French and Spanish colonial governments would gradually, and with varying force, impose their own systems of government and education over these territories, exposing the native populations to differing colonial experiences. The populations in Algeria were subjected to direct French rule, which was organized to enable the massive settlement of French and European immigrants. In Mauritania, they experienced a French non-settler colonial administration which, if light in its demands on the nomads, also deliberately overturned the existing social order, allying itself with lower-ranking marabout and zenaga tribes against the powerful warrior clans of the Hassane Arabs. In southern Morocco, France upheld indirect rule through the sultanate in some areas, while Spain exercised direct administration in others. Spanish Sahara was treated first as a colony, and later as an overseas province, with gradually tightening political conditions, and, in later years, a rapid influx of Spanish settlers (making Spaniards about 20% of the population in 1975). By the time of decolonization in the 1950s-1970s, Sahrawi tribes in all these different territories had experienced roughly a generation or more of distinct experiences; often, however, their nomadic lifestyle had guaranteed that they were subjected to less interference than what afflicted sedentary populations in the same areas.

Debate on pre-colonial allegiances[link]

The period of colonization destroyed existing power structures, leaving a confused legacy of contradictory political affiliations, European-drawn borders with little resemblance to ethnic and tribal realities, and the foundations of modern political conflict.

For example, both sides in the Western Sahara conflict (Morocco vs. the Polisario Front) draw heavily on colonial history to prove their version of reality. Proponents of the Greater Morocco ideology point to some Sahrawi tribes calling upon the Moroccan Sultan, who until 1912 remained the last independent Islamic ruler of the area, for assistance against the Europeans (see Ma al-Aynayn). Pro-independence Sahrawis, on the other hand, point out that such statements of allegiance were almost routinely given by various tribal leaders to create short-term alliances, and that other heads of tribes indeed similarly proclaimed allegiance to Spain, to France, to Mauritanian emirates, and indeed to each other; they argue that such arrangements always proved temporary, and that the tribal confederations always maintained de facto independence of central authority, and would even fight to maintain this independence.

The International Court of Justice issued a ruling on the matter in 1975, stating that there had existed ties between the Moroccan Sultan and some (mainly northernly Tekna) tribes in then-Spanish Sahara, but that these ties were not sufficient to abrogate Western Sahara's right to self-determination. The same kind of ruling was issued with regard to Mauritania, where the court found that there were indeed strong tribal and cultural links between the Sahrawis and Mauritanian populations, including historical allegiance to some Moorish emirates, but that these were not ties of a state or government character, and did not constitute formal bonds of sovereignty. Thus, the court recommended the UN to continue to pursue self-determination for the Sahrawis, enabling them to choose for themselves whether they wanted Spanish Sahara to turn into an independent state, or to be annexed to Morocco or Mauritania.

Postcolonial history[link]

The Western Sahara conflict[link]

The area today referred to as Western Sahara, remains according to the United Nations one of the world's last remaining major non-self governing territories. Morocco controls most of the territory as its Southern Provinces, but the legality of this is not internationally recognized by any country, and disputed militarily by the Polisario Front, an Algerian-backed movement claiming independence for the territory as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Since 1991, there is a cease-fire between Morocco and Polisario, but disturbances in Moroccan-held territories as well as the ongoing dispute over the legal status of the territory, guarantees continued United Nations involvement and occasional international attention to the issue.

• For more on this conflict, see History of Western Sahara.
• For more on Sahrawis/Moors in Mauritania, Algeria and Morocco, see their respective entries.

The Polisario Front[link]

The Polisario Front is the Western Sahara's national liberation movement, militating for the independence of the Western Sahara since 1973 - originally against Spanish rule, but after 1975 against Mauritania and Morocco; since 1979 against Morocco only. The organisation is based in Algeria, where it is responsible for the Tindouf refugee camps. The organisation maintains a cease-fire with Morocco since 1991 (see Settlement Plan), but continues to strive for the territory's independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) through peaceful negotiations. The Polisario restricts its claims to the colonially-defined Western Sahara, holding no claim to, for example, the Sahrawi-populated Tarfaya Strip in Morocco, or any part of Mauritania. Since 1979, the POLISARIO is recognized by the United Nations as the representative of the people of Western Sahara.^[1]

Demographics[link]

Ethnic background: Berbers and Arabs[link]

As described above, the Hassaniya speaking tribes are of Arab and Berber descent, and were influenced by the invasion or penetration of Western Saharan region by the Beni Hassan Arab bedouin tribes, who fused with the dominant Sanhaja Berber tribes, as well as black African and other indigenous populations (e.g. various indigenous Soninke speaking groups) migrants and captured in the south for the ancient berbers (black slaves in the ancient/Middle Ages trans-saarian route trade). Even though cultural arabization of the berber people was thorough, especially after the 17th century Char Bouba war, many elements of Berber identity remain.

Some tribes, such as the large Reguibat, have a Berber background but have since been thoroughly arabized; others, such as the Oulad Delim, are considered descendants of the Beni Hassan, even though intermarriage with other tribes and former slaves have occurred; a few, such as the Tekna tribal confederation, have retained some Berber dialect of the area. Often, though not in the case of the Tekna, the Berber-Arab elements of a tribe's cultural heritage, reflects social stratification. In traditional Moorish-Sahrawi society, Arab tribes of the Tekna confederation claimed a role as rulers and protectors of the disarmed weaker Berber tribes of the Takna confederation . Thus, the warrior tribes and nobility would be Arab.

However, most tribes, regardless of their mixed heritage, tend to claim some form of Arab ancestry, as this has been key to achieving social status. Many (the so-called chorfa tribes) will also claim descendancy from the Prophet Muhammad himself. In any case, no tribal identity is cut in stone, and over the centuries a great deal of intermarriage and tribal re-affiliation has occurred to blur former ethnic/cultural lines; groups have often seamlessly re-identified to higher status identities, after achieving the military or economic strength to defeat former rulers. This was, for example, the case of the largest of the Sahrawi tribes, the Reguibat. A Berber-descended zawiya (scholarly) tribe who in the 18th century took up camel nomadism and warrior traditions, they simultaneously took on more and more of an Arab identity, reflecting their new position alongside the traditional warrior castes of Arab Hassane origin,such as the Oulad Delim and the Arabic-speaking tribes of the Tekna confederation.

Social and ethnic hierarchy[link]

This article contains weasel words: vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. Such statements should be clarified or removed. (August 2011)

Generally speaking, the Hassaniya populations were (or are) divided into several groups, of different social status.^[2]

At the peak of society were the aristocratic "warrior" lineages or clans, the Hassane, supposed descendants of the Beni Hassan Arab immigrants (cf. Oulad Delim). Below them stood the "scholarly" or "clerical" lineages. These were called marabout or zawiya tribes (cf. Oulad Tidrarine). The latter designation the preferred one in among the Western Sahara-centered tribes, who would also almost invariably claim chorfa status to enhance their religious credibility. The zawiya tribes were protected by Hassane overlords in exchange for their religious services and payment of the horma, a tributary tax in cattle or goods; while they were in a sense exploited, the relationship was often more or less symbiotic. Under both these groups, but still part of the Western Sahara society, stood the znaga tribes—tribal groups labouring in demeaning occupations, such as fishermen (cf. Imraguen), as well as peripheral semi-tribal groups working in the same fields (among them the "professional" castes, mallemin and igawen). All these groups were considered to be among the bidan, or whites.

Below them ranked servile groups known as Haratin, a black population, according to some sources descendants of the original Sahara population, but more generally seen to be the descendants of freed slaves of African origins. (Note that "Haratin", a term of obscure origin, has a different meaning in the Berber regions of Morocco.) They often lived serving affiliated bidan (white) families, and as such formed part of the tribe, not tribes of their own. Below them came the slaves themselves, who were owned individually or in family groups, and could hope at best to be freed and rise to the status of Haratin. Rich bidan families would normally own a few slaves at the most, as nomadic societies have less use of slave labour than sedentary societies; however, in some cases, slaves were used to work oasis plantations, farming dates, digging wells etc.

Slavery persisted among Hassaniya-speaking populations well into the colonial age, despite that both French and Spanish colonial authorities formally banned the practice. While slavery is thought to be eradicated in Western Sahara, there are reports that both outright slavery and, more commonly, different forms of informal bondage are still applied to some Haratin lineages in Mauritania.^[3]

Best reference on Sahrawui population ethnography is the work of Spanish anthropologist Julio Caro Baroja, who in 1952-53 spent several months among native tribes all along the then Spanish Sahara. He published in 1955 a monumental book on the subject,^[4] whose thoroughness and depth have not been equaled so far^{[citation needed]}.

Population[link]

According to the Ethnologue database, there were more than three million Hassaniya speakers in 2006, of whom 2.7 million resided in Mauritania.^[5] The number of Hassaniya speakers identifying as Sahrawi in the modern political sense, is unknown, and estimates are hotly contested by partisans in the Western Sahara conflict. Most estimates however center around 200,000 to 400,000.^{[citation needed]} These populations are centered in southern Morocco, Western Sahara, and in the Tindouf Province of Algeria, where large number of refugees from Western Sahara are located.

Languages[link]

Sahrawis' native language is the Hassānīya, a variety of Arabic originally spoken by the Beni Hassan Arabian tribes that gradually emigrated to the extreme western part of the Sahara. It has almost completely replaced the Berber languages originally spoken in this region. Though clearly a western dialect, Hassānīya is relatively distant from other North African variants of Arabic. Its geographical location exposed it to influence from Zenaga and Wolof. There are several dialects of Hassaniya; the primary differences among them are phonetics. Today Hassaniya is spoken in south-western Algeria, northern Mali, Mauritania, southern-Morocco and Western Sahara. (Mauritania has the biggest concentration of speakers).

Some Sahrawis speak Tashelhit and/or Moroccan Arabic as a second language due to interaction with neighboring populations.

Modern Standard Arabic and the Amazigh language (a standardized version of Moroccan Berber languages) is the official language of the Moroccan administered part of Western Sahara. While Standard Arabic is the only official language in Mauritania, Algeria and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

The current Moroccan constitution (adopted in July 2011) mentions, in its 5^th article, the Hassaniya language and recommends its preservation as a cultural heritage of Morocco.^[6]

Due to the past colonization of Western Sahara and Cape Juby by Spain, Spanish is spoken by some Sahrawis, especially among the Sahrawi diaspora, with the Sahrawi Press Service, official news service of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, being available in Spanish since 2001^[7] and the Sahara Film Festival, Western Sahara's only film festival^{[citation needed]}, shows mainly Spanish-language films.

The refugees[link]

After the Madrid Accords which transferred administration of the Spanish Sahara to Mauritania and Morocco in 1976, an exodus of refugees fled the violence that ensued, with substantial numbers ending up in the Polisario Front movement's base areas in the Algerian Sahara, where refugee camps were set up in the Tindouf Province, and a smaller number in camps in Mauritania. The camps in Tindouf were named after towns in the Western Sahara (Awserd, Laayoune, Smara and Dakhla).^[8]

Algerian authorities have estimated the number of Sahrawi refugees in Algeria to be 165,000.^{[citation needed]} For many years this figure was referred to by UNCHR^{[citation needed]}, but concern about it being inflated led the organization to reduce its planning figure in 2005 to 90,000 refugees based on satellite imagery analysis.^[9] The Moroccan government contends that the figure is much lower, around 45,000 to 50,000, and that these people are kept in the refugee camps against their will by Polisario.^[10] UNHCR is in dialogue with the Algerian Government and the Sahrawi refugee leadership, seeking to conduct a census to determine the exact number of refugees in the camps.^[9]

Mauritania houses about 26,000 Sahrawi refugees,^[11] classified by UNHCR as "people in a refugee-like situation".^[12] This population consists both of original refugees to the territory, and of former Tindouf dwellers who have since migrated to Mauritania.

Additionally, about 3,000 Sahrawis live in Spain.^[13]

Culture[link]

• Also see: Music of Western Sahara, as well as relevant articles on culture in Mauritania.

Religion[link]

Religiously, the Sahrawis are Sunni Muslims of the Maliki rite or school. Historically, religious practice has been pragmatically adapted to nomad life and local tradition. Also, since the late medieval period, various Sufi Turuq (brotherhoods or orders), have played an important role in popular religious practice; the most important among these are the Qadiriyya and Tijaniyya. Further, among the Hassaniya tribes, certain lineages reputed to be descended from the Prophet Mohammed, the chorfa, have played an important role in inter-tribal religious society.

Tribalism[link]

See article on tribalism and the list of Sahrawi tribes.

The tribe was the historical basis of social and political organisation among the Hassaniya speaking tribes of the Sahara, well into the colonial and arguably post-colonial period. Traditionally, Hassaniya Sahrawi society was completely tribal, organized in a complex web of shifting alliances and tribal confederations, with no stable and centralized governing authority.

Lawmaking, conflict resolution and central decision-making within the tribe, was carried out by the Djema'a, (Arabic, gathering) a gathering of elected elders (shaykhs) and religious scholars. Occasionally, larger tribal gatherings could be held in the form of the Ait Arbein (Group of Forty), which would handle supratribal affairs such as common defence of the territory or common diplomacy. During colonial times, Spain attempted to assume some of the legitimacy of these traditional institutions by creating its own Djema'a, a state-run political association that supported its claims to the territory.

See also[link]

• List of Spanish colonial wars in Morocco
• Haratin
• History of Western Sahara
• James Riley (Captain)
• Moors
• Spanish Sahara
• Spanish Morocco
• San Mao's Sahara Stories
• Tindouf Province
• Western Sahara

Footnotes[link]

1. ^ 34/37 -Question of Western Sahara- 34th General assembly UN, 21-11-1979
2. ^ http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/mrtoc.html A Country Study: Mauritania, Library of Congress, Chapter 2 - The Society and its Environment (LaVerle Berry), section Ethnic Groups and Languages, subsection Maures. 1988 (other sections: Zenaga and Black Africans)
3. ^ "Mauritania 'still practising' slavery". BBC News. 2002-11-07. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2415967.stm. 
4. ^ Julio Caro Baroja, Estudios Saharianos, Instituto de Estudios Africanos, Madrid, 1955. Re-edited 1990: Ediciones Júcar. ISBN 84-334-7027-2. Reedited 2009: Ediciones Calamar. ISBN 978-84-96235-28-1.
5. ^ Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: [1].
6. ^ Article 5 of the 2011 Moroccan constitution
7. ^ Sahrawi Press Service en Espanol
8. ^ National Geographic Magazine, december 2008
9. ^ ^{a b} UNHCR Algeria Factsheet (August 2010)
10. ^ UK Border Agencia, Country of Origin Information Report
11. ^ USCRI World Refugee Survey 2009
12. ^ UNHCR Global Report 2009 - Mauritania UNHCR Fundraising Reports, 1 June 2010
13. ^ "La policía detuvo a saharauis en Jaén al pedir la residencia". El País. 16-06-2010. http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/policia/detuvo/saharauis/Jaen/pedir/residencia/elpepiesp/20100616elpepinac_13/Tes#. Retrieved 03-07-2010. 

Background information on the Western Sahara conflict[link]

1. ^ http://zmagsite.zmag.org/oct2002/mundy1002.htm ZMAG - Western Sahara - An interview with Stephen Dunes
2. ^ http://www.mincom.gov.ma/english/generalities/speech/2003/GreenMarch.htm Speech delivered by H.M. King Mohammed VI on the 28th anniversary of the Green March
3. ^ http://www.icj-cij.org/icjwww/idecisions/isummaries/isasummary751016.htm International Court of Justice - WESTERN SAHARA - Advisory Opinion of 16 October 1975.
4. ^ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/printable/transcript_sahara_print.html Sahara Marathon: Host Interview with James Baker on PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, an American, private, nonprofit media corporation
5. ^ http://web.amnesty.org/report2003/Mar-summary-eng Amnesty International - Morocco/Western Sahara - Covering events from January - December 2002
6. ^ http://www.hrw.org/reports/1995/Wsahara.htm Human Rights Watch - The United Nations Operation in Western Sahara
7. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4162790.stm BBC News - Last Moroccan war prisoners freed
8. ^ http://hrw.org/reports/2004/morocco1004/ Morocco: Human Rights at a Crossroads
9. ^ http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/nea/index.cfm?docid=825 US State Department - Western Sahara - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000
10. ^ http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/mar-summary-eng Amnesty International - Morocco/Western Sahara - Covering events from January - December 2004
11. ^ http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/engMDE290011999 Amnesty International - 1999 - MOROCCO /WESTERN SAHARA "Turning the page": achievements and obstacles
12. ^ http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/nea/804.htm US State department Morocco - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000
13. ^ http://www.freedomhouse.org/inc/content/pubs/fiw/inc_country_detail.cfm?country=6886&pf Freedom House - Freedom in the World - Western Sahara, Morocco (2005)

Further reading on the Western Sahara conflict[link]

• Hodges, Tony (1983), Western Sahara: The Roots of a Desert War, Lawrence Hill Books (ISBN 0-88208-152-7)
• Jensen, Erik (2005), Western Sahara: Anatomy of a Stalemate, International Peace Studies (ISBN 1-58826-305-3)
• Mercer, John (1976), Spanish Sahara, George Allen & Unwid Ltd (ISBN 0-04-966013-6)
• Norris, H.T. (1986), The Arab Conquest of the Western Sahara, Longman Publishing Group (ISBN 0-582-75643-X)
• Pazzanita, Anthony G. and Hodge, Tony (1994), Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara, Scarecrow Press (ISBN 0-8108-2661-5)
• Shelley, Toby (2004), Endgame in the Western Sahara: What Future for Africa's Last Colony?, Zed Books (ISBN 1-84277-341-0)
• Thobhani, Akbarali (2002), Western Sahara Since 1975 Under Moroccan Administration: Social, Economic, and Political Transformation, Edwin Mellen Press (ISBN 0-7734-7173-1)
• Thompson, Virginia and Adloff, Richard (1980), The Western Saharans. Background to Conflict, Barnes & Noble Books (ISBN 0-389-20148-0)

External links[link]

• Photo gallery covering different aspects of life of refugees in Tindouf, by Danielle Van Brunt Smith

Mariem Hassan مريم حسن
Mariem Hassan performing in WOMAD 2008 (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 7 November 2008)
Background information
Also known as	Voice of the Sahara
Born	1958 Ued Tazua, Smara, Spanish Sahara
Genres	Blues music, Folk music, Roots music
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Vocalist
Years active	1976-present
Labels	Nubenegra
Associated acts	Shahid El Uali, Leyoad, Nayim Alal

Mariem Hassan (Arabic: مريم حسن‎, born 1958), is a Sahrawi singer and lyricist from Western Sahara. She sings usually in Hassaniyya, an Arabic dialect spoken mostly in Western Sahara and Mauritania, and ocassionally in Spanish. Her use of the Spanish language relates to the former status of Western Sahara as a Spanish colony.

Biography[link]

Life[link]

Mariem Hassan was born in 1958 in the Ued Tazua, 20 km. away from Smara, Spanish Sahara. She was the third of a total of 10 siblings of a nomadic family. Although they weren't a Igaouen family, music and poetry was important in the family, as various relatives were singers, poets or dancers. In 1975, following the Green March and the Madrid Accords which ceded the territory to Morocco and Mauritania, she went with her family, first to Meharrize and finally to the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria, where she worked as nurse. Three of her brothers were killed during the Western Sahara War. She lived there for 27 years, until 2002, when for work and health reasons she moved to Spain, first to Barcelona and finally to Sabadell, where she lives with her husband and sons.

Career[link]

In early 1976 she joined the musical group "Shahid El Hafed Buyema", which following the death in combat of El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed, first president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic turned to "Shahid El Uali". She travelled with the band to many countries, playing on cultural events, and recorded a few albums on different countries (Holland in 1980 [unreleased], France in 1989...), with the help of local solidarity committees. The most known of that albums was Polisario vencerá, recorded in Spain in 1982.

Mariem started her solo career with a pair of songs in the 1998 (the year that "Shahid El Uali" disbanded) v.v.a.a. album A pesar de las heridas, released by the Spanish label Nubenegra. For the following concerts in Europe, she was accompanied with the group "Leyoad" (in which Nayim Alal plays the guitar). Following the success of their live performances, they recorded in 2000 a collaboration album, Mariem Hassan con Leyoad (in 2002).

In 2004 she contributed to the v.v.a.a. album Medej, followed by a extensive touring in Europe (Barcelona, Madrid, Leipzig, Helsinki, Brussels, Zurich, Antwerp...). One week before leaving Belgium she received a diagnosis of breast cancer and was operated on right after returning to Spain.

In 2005 her real first solo album was released. Deseos (Wishes), Hassan's personal interpretation of the traditional Haul music, was defined an "ardent album, full of rhythm". It doesn't reveal the tragedies happening during its recording: the death from leukemia of Baba Salama (producer of the album and lead guitarist) before the album was published and Hassan's struggle with breast cancer. In March 2005, she was hospitalized in Spain for treatment^[1]. One of the highlights of the album is the "desert blues" song "La Tumchu anni"^[2].

She was the subject of a 2007 documentary film, Mariem Hassan, la voz del Sáhara.^[3]

She had performed at the WOMEX 2005 in Newcastle^[4], and in several editions and locations of WOMAD festival, as WOMAD Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2008, WOMAD Cáceres 2008^[5], WOMAD Charlton Park 2009, WOMAD Sicily 2009, WOMADelaide 2010 and WOMAD New Zealand 2010.^[6].

In 2010 a new album was published. Shouka (The Thorn) represented a deep approach to the Haul and even the roots of Azawan music, but also with western influences. The main song "Shouka" is structured as a cantata, touching all the rhythms of the Sahrawi traditional music, in which Mariem gives a response paragraph by paragraph to the 1976 speech of Felipe González at the Sahrawi refugee camps. Some critics compared her sound with Tuareg bands like Tinariwen, while others denied similarities^[7].

In late March 2012 her third solo album titled El Aaiun egdat (El Aaiun on fire), inspired by the Sahrawi protests during and after the Gdeim Izik camp and the "Arab Spring", was published. This work marked a musical change, including blues and jazz sounds to the traditional haul structures. Several songs had lyrics written by old Sahrawi poets in exile, like Ali Bachir and Lamin Allal. A European tour for the album is scheduled to start at the World Village Festival in Helsinki, Finland on April 27^[8][9][10].

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Collaboration album[link]

• 2002 Mariem Hassan con Leyoad

Solo[link]

• 2005 Deseos
• 2010 Shouka
• 2012 El Aaiun egdat

Featured in[link]

• 1998 A pesar de las heridas - Cantos de las Mujeres Saharauis (CD 1 of Sahrauis: The Music of the Western Sahara)
• 2001 El hechizo de Babilonia
• 2003 Nar
• 2004 Medej - Cantos antiguos Saharauis
• 2007 Hugo Westerdahl - Western Sahara

Noted lyrics[link]

Among her works is the Spanish language song "Tus ojos lloran" (Translation: 'Your eyes weep'), dealing with the experience of woman coping with the sufferings of life and bereavement.^{[11][unreliable source?]}

Background and reputation[link]

She is widely considered as the most representative voice of Sahrawi music. Her work has been added to the World Music National Geographic database.^[12] She has collaborated with the singer and lyricist Nayim Alal, also a Western Sahara native.

See also[link]

• Music of Western Sahara
• Nayim Alal
• Aziza Brahim
• Spanish language#Africa

References[link]

External links[link]

• Bio of Mariem Hassan on her label website
• Mariem Hassan MySpace
• Bio of Mariem Hassan
• CD review of Shouka (2010)