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Settler Colonialism As a Structure: Interpreting Historic Moroccan Actions in Western Sahara

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Settler Colonialism As a Structure: Interpreting Historic Moroccan Actions in Western Sahara Yale University EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale Library Map Prize Library Prizes 2019 Settler Colonialism as a Structure: Interpreting Historic Moroccan Actions in Western Sahara Amanda Taheri Follow this and additional works at: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/library_map_prize Part of the African Studies Commons, Archival Science Commons, Migration Studies Commons, Peace and Conflict Studies Commons, Physical and Environmental Geography Commons, Policy History, Theory, and Methods Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Taheri, Amanda, "Settler Colonialism as a Structure: Interpreting Historic Moroccan Actions in Western Sahara" (2019). Library Map Prize. 4. https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/library_map_prize/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Library Prizes at EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale. It has been accepted for inclusion in Library Map Prize by an authorized administrator of EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Settler Colonialism as a Structure: Interpreting Historic Moroccan Actions in Western Sahara A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of the Arts in Ethnicity, Race and Migration Amanda Taheri Yale University Advisor: Professor Wyrtzen Spring 2019 Taheri 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 2 Glossary 3 Chronology of the Region 4 Introduction 5 Chapter I: History of the Region in Published Literature 11 Chapter II: Methodology 14 Chapter III: Nationalism and Settler Colonial Theory 17 Part I: Nationalism Theory 17 Part II: Settler Colonial Theory 25 Part III: Convergence of Nationalism and Settler Colonial Theory 30 Chapter IV: Sahrawi Identity and Political Formations 33 Chapter V: Green March (Al Massira) of 1975 40 Chapter VI: The Berm 48 Chapter VII: Other Applications of Settler Colonial Theory 52 Conclusion 54 Bibliography 56 Taheri 2 Acknowledgments I cannot express how much gratitude and appreciation I have for Mansour, a Sahrawi living in Occupied Western Sahara. Mansour dedicated endless hours to communicating, sharing and translating information for me. I have learned a tremendous amount from him and would like to dedicate this thesis in his honor. I would like to extend a massive thank you to the Ethnicity, Race and Migration department, which has entirely shaped my experience at Yale and shifted my understanding of the world. I am very lucky to have been given the opportunity to study settler colonialism in such an environment. I specifically want to thank Professor Tran for her constant encouragement and constructive pressure, Professor Wyrtzen for bearing with me despite my frantic emails and office hours and for possessing a wealth of knowledge about the region, Professor HoSang for introducing me to the notion of the imagination as an organizing space, and lastly, Professor Okihiro for highlighting colonizers tactics and means of producing power. I would like to thank Kate Hunter who has become much more than my writing tutor, but an inspirational friend who constantly supports my academic endeavors. Thank you to my family and friends for always encouraging my curiosity. I would like to thank the scholars who made this work possible. Edward Said’s Orientalism has forever altered my perspective on imperialist power structures and Patrick Wolfe for his conceptualization of settler colonialism as a living structure. Lastly, I would like to thank the Yale Manuscripts and Archives department for providing me access to incredible documents. Taheri 3 Glossary of Terms Below is a list of common terms that are used throughout my thesis. This page will serve as a reference for some terms, but these definitions are not complete by any means. These definitions serve to orient the reader, not explain the entirety of the terminology in a few sentences. • Nation: A collection of people united by their belonging to the ‘imagined community’ as theorized by Benedict Anderson. • Nationalism: Identification with an ‘imagined community’ of members who share similar experiences, histories and myths. Produces an ‘other,’ and can be utilized as a mobilizing ideology. • Sahrawi: The indigenous population that inhabits the surrounding area of Western Sahara. Sahrawis consider themselves to be ethnically different than Moroccans and do not speak the same dialect. • Green March: On November 6th, 1975 Morocco ‘peacefully’ invaded Western Sahara with civilians carrying Qurans, Moroccan Flags, and photographs of King Hassan II. • Black March: How Sahrawis label the Green March, indicating the bad intentions and subsequent military invasion that occurred in the Northwestern part of Western Sahara. • Madrid Accords: Following the Green March, Mauritania, Morocco and Spain signed a treaty essentially removing Spain from Western Sahara and instead giving the land to Morocco and Mauritania, with Spain maintaining some economic profits from the local industries. Sahrawis were strategically not included in the Accords. • The Berm: A military sand wall that divides Western Sahara into the Occupied Territories and SADR. Created by the Moroccan Military from 1981-1987, the Berm is comprised of six separate military walls. • King Hassan II: The Moroccan Monarch from 1961 until 1999. Son of Mohammed V. Calls for the Green March of 1975. • Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR/ RASD): Government and State of the Sahrawis since 1976. Official member of the African Union. • Front Polisario: Sahrawi liberation and resistance movement founded in 1973 in opposition to colonialism. Works under the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, headquartered in Tindouf refugee camps. • Settler Colonialism: An overarching structure of domination rather than a singular event, as theorized by Patrick Wolfe and Lorenzo Veracini. Goal is the elimination of the native and replacement with settlers. • Colonialism: Process of obtaining control over another population for the purposes of exploitation. • Irredentism: an ideology that a territory must be restored to its previous boundaries. Historical restoration claims. Taheri 4 Chronology of the Region 1502 Spanish land in Western Sahara 1524 Area surrounding al-Daklha/Villa Cisneros informally returned to Saadian rulers 1884 The Congress of Berlin resulting with European powers dividing Africa 1884 Capitan Emilio Bonelli Hernado reconquered Villa Cisneros and established a military fortress, La Factoria 1936 Communist prisoners from the Spanish Civil War are transported to live in Villa Cisneros 1947 Spanish civilians begin settling in Villa Cisneros 1947 Bou Craa phosphate reserves were discovered, but not officially mined yet 1960 Global decolonization period as dictated by the United Nations 1963 Sand War between Algeria and Morocco over border claims 1973 Establishment of the Front Polisario 1974 Bou Craa mining operation begins to boom 1975 Moroccan Military invades the Northeast corner of Western Sahara on October 31st 1975 The Green March, ‘officially’ occurring November 6th 1975 The Madrid Accords on November 14th 1976 Morocco Napalm bombs camps in Western Sahara, Amalga. 1976 Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), Republique arab sahraoui democratique (RASD) is declared 1979 Mauritania withdraws claims to Western Sahara, SADR only fighting Morocco for territorial claims 1980 Morocco begins the first wall construction of the Berm 1987 Morocco completes the sixth section of the Berm Taheri 5 “I’m indigenous, this is my land and I have been here for hundreds of years” Mansour pronounced as the skype screen crackled.1 Pride and determination were laced throughout his words. This quotation could be placed into multiple different geographies and contexts, most commonly associated with Native American tribal claims and Palestinian territorial assertions; however, this assertion came from a local Sahrawi, an indigenous person from the contested region of Western Sahara. Mansour is a Sahrawi living in the Western Sahara capital city of Laayoune (El Aaiun), a city currently under Moroccan occupation. Mansour, his family and many local members in the community continue to make indigeneity and sovereignty claims to their homeland by mobilizing members in opposition of colonialism, specifically countering Moroccan settler colonialism in their homeland. Often overlooked on an international scale, Western Sahara has been cited as ‘Africa’s last colony,’ and remains to be a highly contested site in terms of administrative power, physical warfare, and livelihood. Mansour’s citation references the longevity of his family history in the region but because of Moroccan historic and contemporary rule, Mansour and his family are deprived of their homeland. While it is globally recognized that Spain dominated Western Sahara’s colonial past, this thesis will argue that after Spanish forces left the region in 1975, instead of experiencing liberation, Western Sahara became a site of Moroccan settler colonialism that was enacted through the means of nationalist rhetoric. In order to make this argument, the connection of nationalism and settler colonial theory will be applied to specific sites of Moroccan colonial power. Specifically, this thesis will examine how Moroccan nationalist rhetoric has framed the settler colonial situation as a nationalist crusade. 1 Mansour is a pseudonym from a Sahrawi I have been communicating
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