West Sahara

ROLE
Photographer

TASKS
Documentary Photography

PROJECT STATUS
ongoing

The Western Sahara is a former Spanish colony, located south of Morocco. When Spain ended its colonial rule, the people of the Western Sahara were promised the reign over their own territories, their own state. Ultimately, this promise wasn’t kept. Behind closed doors, Spain made a deal with Morocco and Mauretania, dividing the area of the Western Sahara among those two countries. The Western Sahara answered with severe resistance, that lead the different parties into a long and brutal war. While Mauretania soon withdrew from its territorial claims, Morocco keeps the areas under its rule until this day. The Western Sahara is rich in resources like phosphor and fish and thus of high interest to the government of Morocco. The war forced many people to flee their land to Algeria, where they have found refuge in the south western part of the Sahara for the last 40 years. Without perspective for return nor algerian citizenship, the Sahrauis have been in limbo for over a generation, suitcases always ready to go.