In 1975, after Francoist Spain abandoned Western Sahara, Morocco and Mauritania hastily moved in to occupy the territory, despite protests by the United Nations and resistance of from a nascent Saharawi liberation movement known as the Frente Polisario. During the conflict’s first few months, thousands of Saharawis were displaced to the neighboring Algerian region of Tindouf, where almost 200,000 Saharawis still live today in four large refugee camps. But now these camps are more than refugee settlements: they have become the center of a state founded by the Saharawi nationalists, the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic. This book examines how a new Saharawi identity, culture, and society has emerged in these refugee camps over the past few decades and highlights the impact that the Hispanic, Arab, and African worlds have had in shaping the contours of this nation.
