Fast Facts
- Named for: Part of the Sahara. The Western part.
- Capital: hard to say
- Long/Lat: 25 N/13 W, 6000 miles and 13 hours east of Castro Valley
- Population: 565,000 or 8.5 CVs
- Size: 105,000 sq mi or 5800 CVs (sparsely populated)
- Avg temp in April: 77 F/25 C
- Median household income: GDP per capita is $2,500 but doesn’t necessarily go to the locals.
- Ethnicity: Berbers
- Main industries: Fishing. Phosphates. Sustainable energy if Morocco could get in there and build the wind farms.
Western Sahara thinks itself a country. Morocco doesn’t. The border is disputed, as in is there even a border? The indigenous people, the Sahrawis of Western Sahara, think so. The Moroccan don’t, which is why they’ve laid berms–land mines–along one section. We’re in “W” and the world is still cray cray.
Today, technically, Western Sahara is not a country, although it was once. When I was in the 6th grade and memorizing the countries of Africa (see my A-Z inaugural post), it was called Spanish Sahara. Very colonizer-forward. That’s the legacy, of Africa being carved up by the Europeans, after the Islamic Empire carved up Europe and North Africa, and after the Romans carved up Europe, Africa, and Asia, and after Alexander carved up… A country’s borders have always been about the weaponry and the exploitable resources within.
The briefest recent history of the region is that the Sahrawis who lived in this region were taken over by the Islamic Empire in the 9th and 10th centuries, when it swept across North Africa from the Middle East. Over those centuries, Arab Muslims mixed with the Berber people, as well as with the West Africans, migrating north from Niger and coastal areas. They were a mix, but they were a unique mix, like the saltwater marshes where oceans meet rivers.
The Spanish formerly declared the area a colony in 1884 and called it Spanish Sahara, trying to create a foothold south of Morocco, which was a stronger state, still independent and Islamic under a Sultanate. To the east was Algeria, colonized by the French. Thus when the indigenous people formed a rebel party, called the Polisario Front, they were beating back Spanish, Moroccan, and French troops. There isn’t much there to live on, although the coast has access to excellent fishing (“deep sea fishing rights”–1776) and there are phosphates.
Phosphates have been the bane of existence for many a small country. I decided not to cover Nauru, a small Pacific Island, but its history–along with that of Kiribati, Banaba, Makatea, and parts of Palau–is not pretty. Germany, America, Britain, and other big countries mined the crap out of these places, leaving an environmental mess and poverty. Maybe the countries were paid; maybe the IMF lost the funds it was supposed to manage on their behalf. Rip, strip, take the money and run. Morocco wants the phosphates in Western Sahara.
In 1975, when Spanish leader Franco’s health was failing, the UN visited the disputed territories and examined the demands for independence by the Sahrawis and the Polisario Front (PF). They found the population overwhelmingly in favor of independence. The process for allowing Western Sahara to become independent and a sovereign state began to form. But Morocco also moved troops in, and so began a 15-year between the PF and Morocco.
After a cease fire in 1991, there began a multi-decade fight over independence, as Morocco planted land mines and the PF guerillas sporadically shot at troops. Wikipedia puts it: “As part of the 1991 peace accords, a referendum was to be held among indigenous people, giving them the option between independence or inclusion within Morocco. To date the referendum has never been held because of questions over who is eligible to vote.”
That is the stumbling point of democracy, isn’t it? In Rome, for example, the plebeians or lower classes could vote, but their vote counted as 1/100th of a patrician. Black American slaves couldn’t vote, but counted as a 3/5 vote for their owners. If you can’t prove you have the right for a full vote, because you aren’t a resident or a sentient being or a full person or aren’t a pick-your-special-category-qualified to vote, then you can never vote for yourself, can you? And independence will never come.
Today, there are refugee camps, which must be permanent since these are non-citizens who cannot represent themselves. They don’t want their homes stripped or mined or fished or turned into luxury hotels, but they have no voice to say so.
In 1991, a peace accords was held with a move toward a democratic referendum. But, by 2000, the peace movement and independence had stalled. Morocco also claimed that the PF was really a front for the Algerians. The Mauritanians to the south also wanted to move the border. As of 2020, the United States and several other UN powers have decided to back Morocco’s claim to the territory.
The reasons are “complicated” say the experts. First, Moroccan claim is strong, since they’ve “been there for a long time.” Secondly, the Sahrawis have been unable to build anything like a state. There aren’t enough Sahrawi people living there in the territories, as Moroccans have begun to build wind farms (renewable energy) and create trade contracts for multinationals to come and get the resources.
Essentially, a sovereign state has to be able to self-govern and can’t if someone else with bigger weapons can take it. Even in 2026, the world still has colonizers and takers. Global stability is maintained if fighting stops. It’s just goddamned sad.