Western Sahara
Blogging from Western Sahara - Day 6
Sunday 30 March 2008
This evening I am visiting the jaima of Maimona, the head of the local municipality government. About twenty members of three generations of Maimona’s extended family are inside, all huddled around a small stove which is boiling water for some green tea. They are eager to know where I am from, and what I am doing in the refugee camps.
Maimona seems a very strong woman, a good example of one of the many able women of her generation who constructed the camps from nothing and continue to run them to this day. She tells me about the role of the women in the camps: “they have been capable of raising children in these difficult conditions, and they’ve managed to become great engineers, teachers, doctors and soldiers.” Indeed, until the 1991 ceasefire, most men were on the front fighting, so all spheres of the camps were in the hands of women.
Yet Maimona is also keen to talk about the role of women in the Occupied Territories, which is ultimately one of resistance to the Moroccan occupation and often involves tremendous personal sacrifice: “the brutal Moroccan police take these women’s children and abuse them in front of them. The police have committed all kinds of unacceptable inhumane acts and it can’t be allowed to keep happening. The women make these revolutionary sacrifices for the cause, in order to achieve everyone’s dream. These women have sacrificed their lives, their children, their loved ones for the right to self-determination and for the respect for their legitimate right to live and to be free.”
On the role of the international community with respect to these human rights abuses, she tells me “no one, not even the UN, does anything to put an end to these injustices. The fact that such organisations witness these brutalities and make no effort to do anything is an international crime.”
Finally, before I leave, she urges me as a person from England – where, as we all know, virtually nothing is known about the Saharawis and their dismal situation - to make some effort to break the Moroccan information block, which ensures the silence in mainstream international media over the Western Sahara conflict. On the long walk back through the darkness of the camps, I sadly reflect on what Maimona has asked me to do. I wonder if we’ll ever see footage of Saharawi protests and Moroccan repression, or indeed anything on the conflict, on the British news. I wonder if the efforts of these women I’ve been hearing about, who give up literally everything they love and endure unthinkable torture in an attempt to get their people’s message heard throughout the world, will always be made in vain and without positive or fruitful responses from international bodies.
Gallery
This is Salek, who has very kindly been looking after me and helping to arrange interviews and meetings, as well as making me tea! He works as a journalist for the Union of Saharawi Writers and Journalists, which provides regular information on the latest news and events in the Western Sahara as well as in depth analyses and reports in English as well as Arabic (www.upes.org). It is a great source of information for anyone keen on keeping up-to-date on what is going on in the camps, the occupied territories and internationally.
This is Abdulahi, who like Salek has been looking after me and giving up his time to organise interviews for me and interpret when necessary. Again like Salek, he has taught himself English despite never having been in an English-speaking country, and I am astounded by his proficiency which puts my dismal and failed attempts to teach myself Arabic to shame! He works for the Department of Youth of the Ministry of Youth and Sport, whose overall aim is to improve the situation of Saharawi young people in all areas. However, when I look more closely at a document which outlines all their goals and targets, three in particular stand out due to the enormous potential which they inspire for possible programmes and projects with British youth organisations: “- develop international cooperation projects (with NGOs, UN institutions, regional and global organizations for young people, etc.) by preparing implementable plans for cooperation which involve young people.” “ – establishing contact with foreign partners through cultural exchange, in order to benefit from others’ experience and ideas in all areas relating to young people, and strengthen the principles of solidarity, dialogue and tolerance.” “- organise tours for foreigners and Saharawi young people from the camps and from the Occupied Territories, to introduce people to aspects of our culture and the rich archaeological heritage in Western Sahara.” I think there is a great opportunity here for new links to be formed between British and Saharawi youth and sport programmes…
Maimina, the eldest sister of the family, busy baking bread in the kitchen. She gets up every morning at dawn to clean the house and make a start on breakfast. To me, it seems that she is busy cooking all day, which can’t be easy taking into account the conditions of the kitchen (its made from bricks of sand which are liable to crumbling, water is extremely precious and so has to be used very sparingly, food has to somehow be protected from the abundant flies and cockroaches, on cloudy days there’s not enough electricity generated to power a light for cooking dinner at night), and yet, although she’s on holiday at the moment, she still finds the time to work as a full-time teacher in the local primary school.
Khalifa and her little brother Ahmed inside the room where I’ve been sleeping, eating and working. The cushions where they are sitting are the only furniture, and yet it is a cosy and welcoming house. The windows are small and low, to allow the breeze to enter but not the hot sun. There is a large, ornate, red rug covering the entire floor space and in two corners the camel skin blankets are folded and piled high ready for bedtime. Saharawis sleep on the floor, traditionally with the whole family in one room. They also eat on the floor, using bread or their hands, with everyone sharing from the same plate. Living here, I begin to wonder why in the West we are so obsessed with putting legs on everything and I ponder the strange concept of cutlery, these long, thin metal extensions of our hands!
Some of the sisters of the family. They are incredibly cute and affectionate, always seem chirpy and never seem to whinge. Unfortunately, around 40% of Saharawi children in the camps suffer from chronic malnutrition and 70% of anaemia. This isn’t surprising taking into account that the World Food Programme only provides for 90,000 of the 160,000+ refugees.
Gallery
This is Salek, who has very kindly been looking after me and helping to arrange interviews and meetings, as well as making me tea! He works as a journalist for the Union of Saharawi Writers and Journalists, which provides regular information on the latest news and events in the Western Sahara as well as in depth analyses and reports in English as well as Arabic (www.upes.org). It is a great source of information for anyone keen on keeping up-to-date on what is going on in the camps, the occupied territories and internationally.
This is Abdulahi, who like Salek has been looking after me and giving up his time to organise interviews for me and interpret when necessary. Again like Salek, he has taught himself English despite never having been in an English-speaking country, and I am astounded by his proficiency which puts my dismal and failed attempts to teach myself Arabic to shame! He works for the Department of Youth of the Ministry of Youth and Sport, whose overall aim is to improve the situation of Saharawi young people in all areas. However, when I look more closely at a document which outlines all their goals and targets, three in particular stand out due to the enormous potential which they inspire for possible programmes and projects with British youth organisations: “- develop international cooperation projects (with NGOs, UN institutions, regional and global organizations for young people, etc.) by preparing implementable plans for cooperation which involve young people.” “ – establishing contact with foreign partners through cultural exchange, in order to benefit from others’ experience and ideas in all areas relating to young people, and strengthen the principles of solidarity, dialogue and tolerance.” “- organise tours for foreigners and Saharawi young people from the camps and from the Occupied Territories, to introduce people to aspects of our culture and the rich archaeological heritage in Western Sahara.” I think there is a great opportunity here for new links to be formed between British and Saharawi youth and sport programmes…
Maimina, the eldest sister of the family, busy baking bread in the kitchen. She gets up every morning at dawn to clean the house and make a start on breakfast. To me, it seems that she is busy cooking all day, which can’t be easy taking into account the conditions of the kitchen (its made from bricks of sand which are liable to crumbling, water is extremely precious and so has to be used very sparingly, food has to somehow be protected from the abundant flies and cockroaches, on cloudy days there’s not enough electricity generated to power a light for cooking dinner at night), and yet, although she’s on holiday at the moment, she still finds the time to work as a full-time teacher in the local primary school.
Khalifa and her little brother Ahmed inside the room where I’ve been sleeping, eating and working. The cushions where they are sitting are the only furniture, and yet it is a cosy and welcoming house. The windows are small and low, to allow the breeze to enter but not the hot sun. There is a large, ornate, red rug covering the entire floor space and in two corners the camel skin blankets are folded and piled high ready for bedtime. Saharawis sleep on the floor, traditionally with the whole family in one room. They also eat on the floor, using bread or their hands, with everyone sharing from the same plate. Living here, I begin to wonder why in the West we are so obsessed with putting legs on everything and I ponder the strange concept of cutlery, these long, thin metal extensions of our hands!
Some of the sisters of the family. They are incredibly cute and affectionate, always seem chirpy and never seem to whinge. Unfortunately, around 40% of Saharawi children in the camps suffer from chronic malnutrition and 70% of anaemia. This isn’t surprising taking into account that the World Food Programme only provides for 90,000 of the 160,000+ refugees.
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