How does a group's identity change if it is subject to two vastly different conditions? How has Sahrawi identity developed in exile and under occupation? In this episode, Maarten Weinrich, a postgraduate student in Strategic Studies with a background in conflict transformation and peacekeeping research, explores how decades of conflict, exile, and occupation have led tothe development of two increasingly diverging understandings and expressions of Sahrawi identity, presenting novel challenges to Sahrawi activism. He suggests that while "being Sahrawi" remains a fundamentally political expression in exile, especially in the Tindouf refugee camps, under occupationit has been pushed into a mostly cultural notion, increasingly depoliticized and made compatible with the Moroccan state.
Providing a historical overview of the Western Sahara conflict, Maarten first examines how Sahrawi identity and nationalism formed as an inherently political response to socio-economic conditions and colonialism. He then highlights how living as permanent refugees in the Tindouf camps, Sahrawis have emphasized this political character. Drawing from academicliterature and the impressions of Raphael Harnett, who produced the documentary “Undercover in Occupied Western Sahara: Have You Ever Heard of Africa's Last Colony?”, during his travels through the occupied zone, Maarten reflects on how occupation fosters an increasingly depoliticized way of being Sahrawi, and the consequences this has for international activism.
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