The Struggle for the Western Sahara – Part 3: the Sahrawi People
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THE STRUGGLE FOR THE WESTERN SAHARA Part ill: The SahrHwT People by Barbara Harrell-Bond lescribes the author's visits to SahrBwT efugee camps in the Western Sahara and Ugeria and the continuing war between the )olisario Front and Morocco. SSN 0161-0724 The American Universities Field California State University/Fullerton Staff, Inc.,founded in 1951, is a non- California State UniversityINorthridge American profit, membership corporation of American educational institutions. It Dartmouth College Universities em~loGs a full-time staff of foreign East-West Center area specialists who write from abroad and make periodic visits to University of Hawaii at Manoa Field Staff member institutions. AUFS serves Indiana University the public through its seminar pro- Institute for Shipboard Education grams, films, and wide-ranging pub- lications on significant develop- University of Kansas ments in foreign societies. Michigan State University University of Missouri INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS University of Pittsburgh University of AlabamaIBirmingham Ramapo College of New Jersey University of Alabama/Tuscaloosa Utah State University Brown University University of Wisconsin System AUFS Reports are a continuing Associates of the Field Staff are series on international affairs and chosen for their ability to cut across major global issues of our time. the boundaries of the academic dis- Reports have for almost three ciplines in order to study societies in decades reached a group of their totality, and for their skill in col- readers-both academic and non- lecting, reporting, and evaluating academic-who find them a useful data. They combine long residence source of firsthand observation of abroad with scholarly studies relat- political, economic, and social trends ing to their geographic areas of in foreign countries. Reports in the interest. Each Field Staff Associate series are prepared by writers who returns to the United States periodi- are full-time Associates of the cally to lecture on the campuses of American Universities Field Staff the consortium's member institu- and occasionally by persons on leave tions. from the organizations and univer- sities that are the Field Staff's spon- sors. THE AUTHOR BARBARA E. HARRELL-BOND is a the Afrika-Studiecentrum, Leiden. Ap- social anthropologist who has conducted pointed a Senior Research Fellow at the research in England and in West Africa. School of Law, University of Warwick, in Her special interests are family, urban 1976, Dr. Harrell-Bond joined the Field problems, law, and the history of the im- Staff in I978 to report on West Africa. position of alien law in colonial Africa. She received a B. Litt. and D. Phil. in anthropology from the University of Oxford. Her publications include Modern Marriage in Sierra Leone: A Study of the Professional Group and Community Leadership and the Transformation of Freetown (1801-1976), the latter being co-researched and written with two historians, Dr. Allan Howard and Dr. David Skinner. She has also published widely in academic journals, lectured in a number of universities including the Uni- versity of Illinois (Urbana), the University of Helsinki, and the University of ,981, ~~~~i~~~universities Warsaw, and was a Visiting Scholar at Staff, Hanover, NH 1981/No. 39 by Barbara Harrell-Bond THE STRUGGLE FOR THE Africa [BHB-9-'811 WESTERN SAHARA Part Ill: The SahEw-People The SaIyBwTX people include civil- head of India's Institute for Stra- He went on to explain that inside the ians living in refugee camps inside tegic Studies), and myself -were camps there are no outsiders-no Algeria and an unknown number told that this marks the beginning of Algerians, no Libyans, no Cubans, inside the fenced and guarded cities the territory which Algeria has no experts of any other nationality. occupied by Moroccan armed allocated to the SahrZwT for the "Not even Peace Corps?" I asked forces on the coast.The Moroccan duration of the war. jokingly. He laughed, "No, the people, too, have been severely Our party of four was shown into SahrZwiare determined to do every- affected by the war, and resulting thing for themselves inside the economic difficulties strain political one of the rooms where the chill of the weather gave way to the camps. They believe in self-reli- stability there. Many have died on ance." both sides of the war, and there are warmth of SatyZwian hospitality. A more than 1,500 Moroccan prisoners young girl, smiling, welcomed us About 400 P.M. Ahmed reappeared near Tindouf. Inside Morocco there saying "SalZm alay-kum." She set to tell us to prepare for the 180- are SabrZwT "prisoners of con- up a small gas burner on the floor kilometer ride to the Dakhla camp. science" (Amnesty International's and, sitting down, made the first of We were instructed to take luggage term): in many cases their only what was to become an endless for only three days: the rest could crime has been to proclaim their succession of small glasses of very remain at the reception center for SatyZwTidentity. hot, delicious, sweet green tea. our return. We then began the first of many such trips across the un- Visiting the Camps at Tindouf We were given forms to fill in that asked the purpose of our mission, marked desert, bundled in blankets The visitor to the SahrZwi refugee what we would like to see, and against the wind and sand, riding in camps must first fly to Algiers and whom we might want to interview. open Land Rovers, windshields 2,000 kilometers from there to the After a large meal of cous-cous with removed to prevent the vehicles small town of Tindouf. The military meat and vegetables and a dessert being spotted by aircraft. It was long airstrip there is simply a stretch of of tinned plums (a bowl of milk was after dark when we arrived at tarmac in the desert. Stepping out also passed around), we met Dakhla, but in the moonlight we of the plane into the January Ahmed, who was to be our host for could see many tents stretched out noonday sun, one is met by freezing the next few days. After he traced in long, even rows.We were ushered temperatures and bitter winds. The the history of the struggle of the inside a large tent near a clump of name of the region, in Arabic, palm trees-the only palms we saw means "Oh it is hot! Oh, it is cold!" Sahrzwifor independence, we were then advised to rest while our growing in this incredibly arid In January and February, oh, it is region. cold. program was being arranged. From the airstrip one is driven some Instead we sat huddled in piles of Once again we were welcomed with 40 kilometers past Tindouf over an blankets on the cold floor talking to warm handshakes and more tea. open sweep of the desert to a low a young Algerian who joined our After eating our evening meal of mud-brick building, the SahrZwT party. He had been assigned, he cous-cous, meat, vegetables, the official reception center. The flag of said, to the Algiers office of the customary bowl of milk, and tinned the Saharan Arab Democratic Polisario Front by the Algerian fruit, we had another visitor, Republic (SADR) flies over the Ministry of Information and he Ouaddaddi Ahmed Heiba, President building. We-a French photog- occasionally visits the camps. As far of the SahrZwi Red Crescent. He rapher, five Indians (three journal- as the Algerian government is con- explained something of the philoso- ists, a political scientist, and the cerned, he explained, the SabrZwT phy of the SRC: while it was a are already independent inside this humanitarian organization, it recog- territory and, as an outsider, he nized the fact of the war; while *Accent marks for the term SahrBwi always keeps a low profile on visits. upholding human rights, it was must be applied to this typeface by The SabrZwT. he pointed out, are forced to recognize the political hand; thus they are used only on page very particular about maintaining dimension of the struggle in which one. their autonomy. Sahr;?wT society was engaged. He invited us to attend the opening meeting of the Dakhla Popular Assembly the next day. The tent was much warmer than the mud-brick reception center, but still too cold for us to remove our coats. We slept on mats on the carpeted tent floor, covered by piles of blankets. In the morning before our breakfast of bread, cheese, coffee- and, yes, more glasses of tea-we were given a small amount of water, but in the freezing temperatures no one wanted to wash more than hands and face. About ten o'clock that morning we were escorted to a large mud-brick building where the Popular Assem- bly was meeting and were shown to chairs at the front. Ahmed whis- pered a rough translation of the speeches in my ear, but I could not concentrate on what he said. It was Tents do not last long in the harsh Saharan climate, but those of traditional camel fascinating to look over the sea of hair like this one are more durable. faces. I had heard that the civilian population of the camps consisted to Tindouf. Here the SRC takes over international agencies] to get a few mainly of women, children, and old distribution. Needs, he said, are tents or clothing? We have a few men. Even those sitting beside me in assessed locally then organized sewing machines and some sup- military uniform were women! through the ministries of health and plies, but to meet the needs of the education of the SADR government: people we have to get used Suddenly I realized that all those clothing.