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صحراويون | |
|---|---|
 Sahrawi man | |
| Total population | |
| 652,271 (2020 est.)[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Western Sahara | ~160,000[2] mostly in theMoroccan-controlled zone where they make upabout 30% of the population |
| Algeria | 174,000 refugees living in theSahrawi refugee camps atTindouf.[3] |
| Morocco | 90,000[4] |
| Mauritania | 26,000 (Refugees)[5] |
| Spain | 3,000[6]–12,000[7] |
| Languages | |
| Hassaniya Arabic (native),Berber languages (native),Modern Standard Arabic (written only),Spanish (lingua franca),French (lingua franca) | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Beidane,Moroccans, otherMaghrebi Arabs, otherArab-Berbers andArabized Berbers, otherArab andBerber peoples,Haratin,Gnawa,Afro-Arabs,Tuaregs, otherMaghrebis[8] | |
TheSahrawis, orSahrawi people (Arabic:صحراويونṣaḥrāwīyūn), are anethnic group native to the western part of theSahara desert, which includes theWestern Sahara, southernMorocco, much ofMauritania, and along the southwestern border ofAlgeria. They are of mixedHassaniArab andSanhajiBerber descent, as well asWest African and other indigenous populations.[9]
As with most peoples living in the Sahara, theSahrawi culture is a mix of Arab and indigenous African elements.[9] Sahrawis are composed of many tribes and are largely speakers of theHassaniya dialect ofArabic.[10]
TheArabic wordṢaḥrāwī (صحراوي) literally means "Inhabitant of the Desert". The wordSahrawi is derived from the Arabic wordṢaḥrā' (صحراء), meaning "desert". A man is called aSahrawi, and a woman is called aSahrawiya. In other languages it is pronounced in similar or different ways:
NomadicBerbers, mainly of theSenhaja /Zenagatribal confederation, inhabited the areas now known asWestern Sahara, southernMorocco,Mauritania and southwesternAlgeria, beforeIslam arrived in the 8th century CE. It is not known when thecamel was introduced to the region (probably in the first or second millennium BCE), but it revolutionized the traditional trade routes ofNorth Africa. Berber caravanstransported salt, gold, and slaves between North andWest Africa, and the control of trade routes became a major ingredient in the constant power struggles between various tribes and sedentary peoples. On more than one occasion, theBerber tribes of present-day Mauritania, Morocco and Western Sahara united behind religious leaders to sweep the surrounding governments from power, then founding principalities, dynasties, or even vast empires of their own. This was the case with theAlmoravid dynasty of Morocco andAndalusia, and severalemirates in Mauritania.
In the 11th century, theBedouin tribes of theBeni Hilal andBeni Sulaym emigrated westwards from Egypt to theMaghreb region. In the early 13th century, the YemeniMaqil tribes migrated westwards across the entirety ofArabia and northern Africa, to finally settle around present-day Morocco. They were badly received by theZenata Berber descendants of theMerinid dynasty, and among the tribes pushed out of the territory were theBeni Hassan.
This tribe entered the domains of theSanhaja, and over the following centuries imposed itself upon them, intermixing with the population in the process. Berber attempts to shake off the rule of Arab warrior tribes occurred sporadically, but assimilation gradually won out, and after the failedChar Bouba uprising (1644–74), the Berber tribes virtually without exception embraced Arab orMuslim culture and even claim Arab heritage.[17] The Arabic dialect of theBeni Ḥassān,Hassaniya, remains the mother-tongue of Mauritania and Moroccan-controlledWestern Sahara to this day, and is also spoken in southern Morocco and western Algeria, among affiliated tribes.Berber vocabulary and cultural traits remain common, despite the fact that many if not all of the Sahrawi/Moorish tribes today claim Arab ancestry; several are even claiming to be descendants ofMuhammad, so-calledsharifian tribes.
The modern day Sahrawis are a mixed ethnic group of Arabs, West Africans & diverse Berbers. The people inhabit the westernmost Sahara desert, in the area of modern Mauritania, Morocco, Western Sahara, and parts of Algeria. (Some tribes would also traditionally migrate into northern Mali and Niger, or even further along the Saharancaravan routes.) As with most Saharan peoples, the tribes reflect a highly mixed heritage, combining Arab, and other influences, including ethnic and cultural characteristics found in many ethnic groups of theSahel. The latter were primarily acquired through mixing withWolof,Soninke and other populations of the southern Sahel, and through the acquisition of slaves by wealthier nomad families.
In pre-colonial times, the Sahara was generally consideredBlad Essiba or "the land of dissidence" by the Moroccan central government andSultan of Morocco inFez, and by the authorities of theDeys ofAlgiers. The governments of the pre-colonial Sahelian empires of Mali andSonghai appear to have had a similar relationship with the tribal territories, which were at once the home of undisciplined raiding tribes and the main trade route for the Saharancaravan trade. Central governments had little control over the region, although theHassaniya tribes would occasionally extend "beya" or allegiance to prestigious rulers, to gain their political backing or, in some cases, as a religious ceremony. TheMoorish populations of what is today northern Mauritania established a number of emirates, claiming the loyalty of several different tribes and through them exercising semi-sovereignty over traditional grazing lands. This could be considered the closest thing to centralized government that was ever achieved by the Hassaniya tribes, but even these emirates were weak, conflict-ridden and rested more on the willing consent of the subject tribes than on any capacity to enforce loyalty.[18]
Modern distinctions drawn between the variousHassaniya-speaking Sahrawi-Moorish groups are primarily political, but cultural differences dating from different colonial and post-colonial histories are also apparent. An important divider is whether the tribal confederations fell under French or Spanish colonial rule. France conquered most of North and West Africa largely during the late 19th century. This included Algeria and Mauritania, and, from 1912, Morocco. But Western Sahara and scattered minor parts of Morocco fell to Spain, and were namedSpanish Sahara (subdivided intoRío de Oro andSaguia el-Hamra) andSpanish Morocco respectively. These colonial intrusions brought the Muslim Saharan peoples under Christian European rule for the first time, and created lasting cultural and political divides between and within existing populations, as well as upsetting traditional balances of power in differing ways.
The Sahrawi-Moorish areas, then still undefined as to exact territorial boundaries, proved troublesome for the colonizers, just as they had for neighbouring dynasties in previous centuries. The political loyalty of these populations were first and foremost to their respective tribes, and supertribal allegiances and alliances would shift rapidly and unexpectedly. Their nomadic lifestyle made direct control over the territories hard to achieve, as did general lawlessness, an absence of prior central authority, and a widely held contempt for the kind of settled life that the colonizers sought to bring about. Centuries of intertribal warfare and raids for loot (ghazzu) guaranteed that the populations were well armed and versed in guerilla-style warfare. Tribes allied to hostile European powers would now also be considered fair game for cattle raids on those grounds, which tied the struggle against France and Spain into the traditional power play of the nomads, aggravating the internal struggles.
Uprisings and violent tribal clashes therefore took place with increasing frequency as European encroachment increased, and on occasion took the form of anti-colonial holy war, orJihad, as in the case of theMa al-'Aynayn uprising in the first years of the 20th century. It was not until the 1930s that Spain was able to finally subdue the interior of present-dayWestern Sahara, and then only with strong French military assistance. Mauritania's raiding Moors had been brought under control in the previous decades, partly through skilful exploitation by the French of traditional rivalries and social divisions between the tribes. In these encounters, the largeReguibat tribe proved especially resistant to the new rulers, and its fighters would regularly slip in out of French and Spanish territory, similarly exploiting the rivalries between European powers. The last major Reguibat raid took place in 1934, after which the Spanish authorities occupiedSmara, finally gaining control over the last unpatrolled border territories.
The Sahrawi-Moorish tribes remained largely nomadic until the early to mid-20th century, when Franco-Spanish rivalries (as well as disagreements between different wings of the French colonial regime) managed to impose rigid, if arbitrary, borders on the previously fluid Sahara. The wide-ranging grazing lands of the nomads were split apart, and their traditional economies, based on trans-Saharan caravan trade and raiding of each other and the northern and southern Sahel neighbors, were broken. Little attention was paid to existing tribal confederations and zones of influence when dividing up the Saharan interior.
French and Spanish colonial governments would gradually, and with varying force, impose their own systems of government and education over these territories, exposing the native populations to differing colonial experiences. The populations inAlgeria were subjected to direct French rule, which was organized to enable the massive settlement of French and European immigrants. In Mauritania, they experienced a French non-settler colonial administration which, if light in its demands on the nomads, also deliberately overturned the existing social order, allying itself with lower-rankingmarabout andzenaga tribes against the powerful warrior clans of theHassane Arabs. In southern Morocco, France upheld indirect rule through thesultanate in some areas, whileSpain exercised direct administration in others.Spanish Sahara was treated first as a colony, and later as an overseas province, with gradually tightening political conditions, and, in later years, a rapid influx of Spanish settlers (makingSpaniards about 20% of the population in 1975). By the time of decolonization in 1950s–1970s, Sahrawi tribes in all these different territories had experienced roughly a generation or more of distinct experiences; often, however, their nomadic lifestyle had guaranteed that they were subjected to less interference than what sedentary populations experienced in the same areas.
The period of colonization radically changed existing power structures, leaving a confused legacy of contradictory political affiliations, European-drawn borders with little resemblance to ethnic and tribal realities, and the foundations of modern political conflict.
For example, both sides in theWestern Sahara conflict (Morocco vs. thePolisario Front) draw heavily on colonial history to prove their version of reality. Proponents of theGreater Morocco ideology point to some Sahrawi tribes calling upon the Moroccan sultan, who until 1912 remained the last independent Islamic ruler of the area, for assistance against the Europeans (seeMa al-'Aynayn). Pro-independence Sahrawis, on the other hand, point out that such statements of allegiance were almost routinely given by various tribal leaders to create short-term alliances, and that other heads of tribes indeed similarly proclaimed allegiance to Spain, to France, to Mauritanian emirates, and indeed to each other; they argue that such arrangements always proved temporary, and that the tribal confederations always maintainedde facto independence of central authority, and would even fight to maintain this independence.
TheInternational Court of Justice issued aruling on the matter in 1975, stating that therehad existed ties between the Moroccan sultan and some (mainly northerlyTekna) tribes in then-Spanish Sahara, but that these ties werenot sufficient to abrogateWestern Sahara's right to self-determination. The same kind of ruling was issued with regard toMauritania, where the court found that there were indeed strong tribal and cultural links between the Sahrawis andMauritanian populations, including historical allegiance to some Moorish emirates, but that these were not ties of a state or government character, and did not constitute formal bonds of sovereignty. Thus, the court recommended the United Nations to continue to pursue self-determination for the Sahrawis, enabling them to choose for themselves whether they wanted Spanish Sahara to turn into an independent state, or to be annexed to Morocco or Mauritania.
The area today referred to as Western Sahara remains, according to the United Nations, one of the world's last remaining majornon-self-governing territories. Morocco controls most of the territory as itsSouthern Provinces, and while recognized by the United States,[19] the legality is disputed militarily by the Polisario Front, an Algerian-backed movement claiming independence for the territory as theSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Since 1991, there has been a cease-fire between Morocco and Polisario, butdisturbances in Moroccan-held territories as well as the ongoing dispute over the legal status of the territory guarantees continuedUnited Nations involvement and occasional international attention to the issue.
The Polisario Front is the Western Sahara's national liberation movement, fighting for the independence of the Western Sahara since 1973—originally against Spanish rule; after 1975, against Mauritania and Morocco; since 1979, against Morocco only. The organization is based in Algeria, where it is responsible for theTindouf refugee camps. The organization has maintained a cease-fire with Morocco since 1991 (seeSettlement Plan), but continues to strive for the territory's independence as theSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) through peaceful negotiations. The Polisario Front restricts its claims to the colonially-defined Western Sahara, holding no claim to, for example, the Sahrawi-populatedTarfaya Strip in Morocco, or any part ofMauritania. Since 1979, the Polisario Front has been recognized by theUnited Nations as the representative of the people of Western Sahara.[20]
As described above, theHassaniya speaking tribes are ofArabBeni Hassan descent, who fused with the dominantSanhaja Berber tribes, as well asBlack African and other indigenous populations (e.g. indigenousSoninke speaking groups).[21] Even though cultural Arabization of the Berber people was thorough, some elements of Berber identity remain.
Some tribes, such as the largeReguibat, have a Berber background but have since been thoroughly arabized; others, such as theOulad Delim, are considered descendants of theBeni Hassan, even though intermarriage with other tribes and former slaves have occurred; a few, such as theTekna tribal confederation, have retained some Berber dialect of the area. Often, though not in the case of the Tekna, the Berber-Arab elements of a tribe's cultural heritage reflects social stratification. In traditional Moorish-Sahrawi society, Arab tribes of the Tekna confederation claimed a role as rulers and protectors of the disarmed weaker Berber tribes of the Takna confederation. Thus, the warrior tribes and nobility would be Arab.
However, most tribes, regardless of their mixed heritage, tend to claim some form of Arab ancestry, as this has been key to achieving social status. Many (the so-calledchorfa tribes) will also claim descendancy from theIslamic prophetMuhammad. In any case, no tribal identity is cut in stone, and over the centuries a great deal of intermarriage and tribal re-affiliation has occurred to blur former ethnic/cultural lines; groups have often seamlessly re-identified to higher status identities, after achieving the military or economic strength to defeat former rulers. This was, for example, the case of the largest of the Sahrawi tribes, theReguibat. A Berber-descendedzawiya (scholarly) tribe who in the 18th century took upcamel nomadism and warrior traditions, they simultaneously took on more and more of anArab identity, reflecting their new position alongside the traditional warrior castes of Arab Hassane origin, such as the Oulad Delim and the Arabic-speaking tribes of the Tekna confederation.
 | This articlecontainsweasel words: vague phrasing that often accompaniesbiased orunverifiable information. Such statements should beclarified or removed.(August 2011) |
Generally speaking, the Hassaniya populations were (or are) divided into several groups, of different social status.[22]
At the peak of society were thearistocratic "warrior" lineages orclans, theHassane, supposed descendants of the Beni Hassan Arab tribe (cf.Oulad Delim). Below them stood the "scholarly" or "clerical" lineages. These were calledmarabout orzawiya tribes (cf.Oulad Tidrarine). The latter designation the preferred one in among the Western Sahara-centered tribes, who would also almost invariably claimchorfa status to enhance their religious credibility. The zawiya tribes were protected by Hassan overlords in exchange for their religious services and payment of thehorma, a tributary tax incattle or goods; while they were in a sense exploited, the relationship was often more or less symbiotic. Under both these groups, but still part of the Western Sahara society, stood theznaga tribes—tribal groups labouring in demeaning occupations, such asfishermen (cf.Imraguen), as well as peripheral semi-tribal groups working in the same fields (among them the "professional" castes,mallemin andigawen). All these groups were considered to be among thebidan grouping.
Below them ranked servile groups known asHaratin, according to some sources descendants of the earlier pre-Arab populations. (Note that "Haratin", a term of obscure origin, has a different meaning in the Berber regions of Morocco.) They often lived serving affiliatedbidan families, and as such formed part of the tribe, not tribes of their own. Below them came the slaves themselves, who were owned individually or in family groups, and could hope at best to be freed and rise to the status of Haratin. Rich bidan families would normally own a few slaves at the most, as nomadic societies have less use of slave labour than sedentary societies; however, in some cases, slaves were used to workoasis plantations, farmingdates, diggingwells etc.[citation needed]
An important reference on Sahrawi population ethnography is the work of Spanish anthropologistJulio Caro Baroja, who in 1952–53 spent several months among native tribes of theSpanish Sahara. He published a 1955 book on the subject.[23]
According to the Ethnologue database, there were more than three millionHassaniya speakers in 2006, of whom 2.7 million resided in Mauritania.[24] The number of Hassaniya speakers identifying asSahrawi in the modern political sense is unknown, and estimates are hotly contested by partisans in the Western Sahara conflict. Most estimates however center around 200,000 to 400,000.[citation needed] These populations are centered in southern Morocco, Western Sahara, and in theTindouf Province of Algeria, where large number ofrefugees from Western Sahara are located.
Sahrawis' native language is theHassānīya, a variety of Arabic originally spoken by theBeni Hassan Arabian tribes of the WesternSahara. It has almost completely replaced the Berber languages originally spoken in this region. Though clearly a western dialect, Hassānīya is relatively distant from other North African variants of Arabic. Its geographical location exposed it to influence fromZenaga andWolof. There are several dialects of Hassaniya; the primary differences among them are phonetics. Today Hassaniya is spoken in south-western Algeria, northern Mali, Mauritania, southern-Morocco and Western Sahara. (Mauritania has the biggest concentration of speakers)[citation needed]. Some Sahrawis speakTashelhit and/orMoroccan Arabic as a second language due to interaction with neighboring populations.
Modern Standard Arabic and theAmazigh language (a standardized version of Moroccan Berber languages) are the official languages of the Moroccan administered part of Western Sahara. WhileStandard Arabic is the only official language inMauritania,Algeria and theSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
The current Moroccan constitution (adopted in July 2011) mentions, in its 5th article, the Hassaniya language and recommends its preservation as a cultural heritage of Morocco.[25]
Due to the past colonization ofWestern Sahara andCape Juby by Spain, Spanish is spoken as a lingua franca by most of the Sahrawis, especially among the Sahrawi diaspora, with theSahrawi Press Service, official news service of theSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, being available in Spanish since 2001[26] and theSahara Film Festival, Western Sahara's only film festival[citation needed], showing mainly Spanish-language films.
After theMadrid Accords which transferred administration of theSpanish Sahara to Mauritania and Morocco, and Morocco claimed souvereignty over the territories, dismissing a judgement of the International Court of Justice reaffirming the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination, from late 1975 an exodus of refugees fled the violence that ensued.[27] Substantial numbers ended up in thePolisario Front movement's base areas in theAlgerian Sahara, whererefugee camps were set up in theTindouf Province, and a smaller number in camps inMauritania. Thecamps in Tindouf were named after towns in the Western Sahara (Awserd, Laayoune, Smara and Dakhla).[28]
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As of January 2018, the number of Sahrawi refugees living in the five camps in Tindouf is estimated about 174.000, of whom 125,000 were entitled to food and nutrition assistance by UNHCR and 90,000 individuals regarded "most vulnerable refugees".[3] The Moroccan government has contended that the figure is much lower, around 45,000 to 50,000, and that these people are kept in the refugee camps against their will by Polisario.[29]
Mauritania housed as of 2009 about 26,000 Sahrawi refugees, classified by UNHCR as "people in a refugee-like situation". Many of them moved back and forth from the camps in Tindouf, Algeria.[5]
Additionally, between 3,000 and 12,000 Sahrawis live in Spain, their former colonizer.[6][7]
In 2018, thirty Sahrawi refugees died in anair crash of Algerian Air Force Il-76. They had been visiting Algiers for various medical and bureaucratic reasons. Sahrawis from the refugee camps are regularly provided with free flights in Algerianmilitary transport aircraft.[30]
Religiously, the Sahrawis areSunniMuslims of theMaliki rite or school. Historically, religious practice has been pragmatically adapted to nomad life and local tradition. Also, since the late medieval period, variousSufiTuruq (brotherhoods or orders), have played an important role in popular religious practice; the most important among these are theQadiriyya andTijaniyya. Further, among the Hassaniya tribes, certain lineages reputed to be descended from Mohammad, thechorfa, have played an important role in intertribal religious society.[31]
Thetribe was the historical basis of social and political organisation among the Hassaniya-speaking tribes of the Sahara, well into the colonial and arguably post-colonial period. Traditionally, Hassaniya Sahrawi society was completely tribal, organized in a complex web of shifting alliances and tribal confederations, with no stable and centralized governing authority.
Lawmaking, conflict resolution and central decision-making within the tribe, was carried out by theDjema'a, (Arabic, gathering) a gathering of elected elders (shaykhs) and religious scholars. Occasionally, larger tribal gatherings could be held in the form of the Ait Arbein (Group of Forty)[citation needed], which would handle supratribal affairs such as common defence of the territory or commondiplomacy. During colonial times, Spain attempted to assume some of the legitimacy of these traditional institutions by creating its own Djema'a, a state-run political association that supported its claims to the territory.
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