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Doha – In the heart of North Africa lies a region that has been the subject of an ongoing debate, a land of shifting sands and shifting perceptions: Western Sahara. For decades, the mere mention of this term has sparked passionate discussions and stirred up deep-seated emotions among Moroccans. It is a term that has been wielded as a political weapon by some, while others see it as a simple geographical descriptor.
A term that strikes a nerve
For many Moroccans, the words “Western Sahara” carry a heavy emotional burden. It is a term that has been associated with a long-standing territorial dispute, a conflict that has shaped the nation’s political landscape and left an indelible mark on its collective psyche.
When the term is used, particularly by foreign media or governments, it often elicits a visceral reaction from Moroccans, who feel that their territorial integrity is being called into question.
On social media platforms, the mere mention of “Western Sahara” can ignite a firestorm of comments and discussions. “The Sahara is Moroccan!” proclaims one user, while another asserts, “There is no such thing as the Western Sahara, only Moroccan Sahara!” These passionate responses reflect Morocccans’ deep-rooted attachment to this region and their unwavering belief in its Moroccanness.
A weapon in the hands of adversaries
The sensitivity surrounding the term “Western Sahara” has been further compounded by its use as a political tool by Morocco’s adversaries. Algeria and the Polisario Front, in particular, have sought to exploit the term to advance their own agendas.
For them, the use of “Western Sahara” implies a separate identity for the region, one distinct from Morocco. It is a narrative that they have actively promoted on the international stage, much to the frustration of Moroccans who see it as a deliberate attempt to undermine their country’s territorial integrity.
Algerian media outlets have been quick to seize upon any instance where the term “Western Sahara” is used by international organizations or foreign governments. They present it as a validation of their position, a recognition of the existence of a distinct Sahrawi entity. This has only served to deepen the resentment many Moroccans feel towards the term and those who employ it.
A term with a history
To understand the emotions the term “Western Sahara” evokes, one must look to the region’s history.
From the early Islamic era, when the Arab conqueror Oqba Ibn Nafi Al Fihri crossed the Atlas Mountains in the mid-first Hijri century and built the mosque attributed to him in Massa, Souss, the Sahara has been intertwined with Morocco’s history.
This mosque soon transformed into a ribat (fortress) for Quranic reciters, worshippers, and fighters, becoming a starting point for spreading Islam throughout the Sahara and beyond into the lands of Sudan.
The two Sanhaja Berber tribes, Goddala and Lamtuna, along with other Muslim tribes, inhabited the far Western Sahara bordering the Senegal Basin as early as the fourth Hijri century.
The Almoravid state, led by the Sanhaja Berbers of the Sahara, played a crucial role in consolidating power, spreading religious and national awareness, both before and after their heroes advanced north, founding the city of Marrakech and making it the base for their vast empire that included the Sahara, North Africa, and Andalusia. The Sahara remained under Moroccan rule during the Almohad and Marinid dynasties.
When the Saadian Sharifs, themselves from the Sahara, took over Morocco in the early 10th Hijri century (16th century AD), they paid great attention to the Sahara, just as they did to the issue of jihad and resisting the foreign occupier on the coasts.
They succeeded on both fronts, purging the Sahara of elements of unrest, strife, and opportunism. Trade routes became safe again, commercial and mining centers thrived, and caravans regularly traversed to and from Morocco.
The entire Sahara, from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the borders of Libya in the east and to the outskirts of Sudan in the south, fell under Saadian influence. Even after the weakening of the Saadian state in its final days, Moroccan influence did not recede from the Sahara.
The Alawite Sharifs of Sijilmasa, who took over after the Saadians, continued to protect the homeland and preserve the national territory from one end to the other, with notable movements in the Sahara by Alawite kings from Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif to Hassan I.
It is clear that the Sahara has been organically linked to Morocco throughout the Islamic era, with the region falling under Moroccan sovereignty and influence for centuries.
It was not until the 19th century that the term “Western Sahara” began to emerge as a distinct geographical concept. European colonial powers, seeking to divide and control the region, began to use the term to refer to the westernmost part of the Sahara.
For Moroccans, however, this arbitrary division did not reflect the historical and cultural realities on the ground.
Modern-day Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara was reaffirmed with the signing of the Madrid Accords in 1975, which saw Spain transfer administrative control of the region to Morocco and Mauritania. Following Mauritania’s withdrawal in 1979, Morocco reasserted its control over the entire region.
However, the Algerian-backed Polisario Front has since been seeking an independent state in the region. This has led to a long-running dispute, with the United Nations attempting to mediate a solution through the establishment of the MINURSO peacekeeping mission and the proposal of a referendum on the region’s future.
Despite these challenges, Morocco has remained steadfast in its commitment to the full recovery of what it considers as an integral part of its territory, investing heavily in the region’s development and working to improve the lives of its inhabitants.
The Moroccan Autonomy Plan, presented in 2007, offers a compromise solution that would grant the region significant autonomy while maintaining Moroccan sovereignty.
The politicization of the ‘Western Sahara’ term
Yet the term “Western Sahara” has taken on political connotations in recent decades, often used by Morocco’s adversaries to imply a separate identity for the region. Algeria and the Polisario Front, in particular, have sought to use the term to further their agenda of promoting an independent Sahrawi state.
As Zaher Badr Alazrak, a researcher at the Faculty of Legal and Economic Sciences in Mohammedia, explains to Morocco World News (MWN), this term is “unfortunately not without political exploitation, especially by the enemies of the Kingdom of Morocco and the enemies of its territorial integrity, because they have used this term a lot, even though it has no political or legal connotations, as much as it has specific geographical connotations.”
Alazrak argues that Morocco should not have a complex about using the term “Western Sahara,” as it is primarily a geographical term. “If today we talk about northern Morocco, we talk about its south, just as we talk about the eastern Sahara, we talk about the western Sahara. We must overcome the complex of the term or the complex of employment.”
He stresses that what should be opposed is the use of terms like “state,” “republic,” or others, as these impose a reality different from the true reality. “This state does not exist and is not recognized by the United Nations, the Arab League, or most international bodies in the world. It is imposed by only one or two political blocs, and most countries in these blocs do not recognize this entity.”
Context is key
Abdelkarim Amengay, a political scientist and assistant professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies in Qatar, also sees the term as a mere geographical descriptor.
This is especially true when the term is used to differentiate it from the “Eastern Sahara,” which was also part of the Sherifian Empire until the French colonization took control of the region.
While some may potentially perceive the latter as implying Moroccan expansionism, Amengay believes that the 1972 treaty between Morocco and Algeria has largely settled border issues between the two countries.
However, he acknowledges that although the term refers purely to a geographical region, it can be instrumentalized by foreign actors opposed to Morocco’s sovereignty over its southern provinces and keen to promote the separatist notion that “Western Sahara” is a separate political entity. As a result, Amengay stressed, the meaning associated with the term is context-dependent.
Normalizing the term
Morocco should normalize the use of the term “Western Sahara,” argues Hassan Belouan, an expert in international relations, emphasizing its geographical meaning and dissociating it from any political implications.
As he sees it, “the term ‘Western Sahara’ is a purely geographical term that suggests a location, place, or region belonging to Moroccan territory or Moroccan sovereignty, just as we talk about the Great Sahara in Africa, the Western Sahara in Egypt, or the Southern or Northern Sahara in a region.”
Belouan further elaborates on this idea, drawing parallels to other regions within Morocco. “Just as we refer to the Rif, the Atlas Mountains, the East, the West, the Southeast, and the North, the term ‘Western Sahara’ is a geographical designation.”
For him, the term does not undermine Moroccan sovereignty, nor does it necessarily imply a call for separatism. “It is a geographical location that has taken on geostrategic dimensions, especially with the artificial conflict that Algeria has sponsored and supported by a group of socialist countries in the 1970s and 1980s.”
Crucially, Belouan notes that it is only in circles that show a variance of hypersensitive nationalism that the term “Western Sahara” is dismissed and frowned upon as inherently inciting separatism.
His argument against the extreme politicization of a mere geographical designation is that, contrary to the vehement rejection and condemnation of the term in these stridently nationalist circles, the Moroccan government has long dealt pragmatically and realistically with its use, especially in interactions with the United Nations and other international actors on the status of the region.
This is the same point emphasized by Rachid Lazrak, a constitutional law and political science expert at Mohammed V University in Rabat.
“I believe that the term ‘Western Sahara’ does not constitute any sensitivity for the Moroccan state, and all the official documents or dealings that the Kingdom uses, especially with the United Nations and other forums, indicate that the term does not detract from Morocco’s sovereignty over its southern regions,” he elaborated.
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