Western Sahara

The Western Sahara is the last colony in Africa and the only Spanish-speaking territory in the Arab World. When Francoist Spain abandoned the colony in 1975, Morocco and Mauritania occupied the territory, despite the UN's protest and the resistance of a nascent Saharawi liberation movement, the Frente Polisario. During the first months, the conflict displaced thousands of Saharawis to the neighbouring Algerian region of Tindouf, where almost 200,000 Saharawis still live today in four large refugee camps. This book explores the dynamic process of construction of the new Saharawi identity, culture and society developed in the refugee camps over the three last decades of conflict.