Identity Politics in Morocco: The Implications of Indigenousness, Feminism and Nationalism within the Ongoing Western Sahara Conflict

Abstract

Abstract

The Western Sahara conflict has been going on since 1975. As Spain was pressured by the Kingdom of Morocco and the United Nations to start the decolonization of the territory, the deceased former King Hassan II submitted an Advisory Opinion on the Question of Western to the UN General Assembly. The Assembly concluded that the Kingdom of Morocco had legal ties to the Western Sahara; however, it did not have the sovereignty over the territory. Ever since, as the Spaniards agreed to leave the Sahara, bloody hostilities took place between Morocco and the backed Algerian Polisario Front. In 1991, the UN led peaceful resolution went into effect, allowing for the transition of power and a referendum for the Sahrawis to express their right to self-determination. The Sahrawis proclaimed their so-called government in exile, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

This thesis asks why the United Nations for all these decades been unable to resolve the deadlock of the Western Sahara dispute. This thesis suggests that the exclusion of both Amazigh and women’s voices could have shifted the way in which we understand the Western Sahara conflict. Based on a thorough analysis of the existing scholarships, which mainly have been written by foreign scholars, it seems that there is a lack of understanding of the colonial legacies and the indigenous aspects of the territory. In a way, this thesis also seeks to better understand issues of nationalism, feminism, and indigenousness. In so doing, it raises another question as to who actually has the right to vote for the referendum or even wish to have an independent state. The Amazigh voices and their long-lasting civilization are completely ignored within the Sahara debates. However, most Amazigh scholars and activists argue that Sahrawis are not natives of the land and are not necessarily entitled to have another Pan-Arabism state bordering Morocco that is already Arabicized.