Western Sahara
Flooding the Sahara
In the 1870s, Donald Mackenzie envisioned digging a maritime channel through the Sahara from the Atlantic to Timbuktu, opening new trade routes. His pipe dream, and his legacy, would define and sometimes foment the battle over control of Western Sahara for generations to come.
A Story Found Amid War and Silence
Most museums are solely concerned with the past, even if they are building a narrative about how they want history to be perceived now. The Polisario Front’s museum is trying to claw acknowledgment of the existence of an ongoing war. Perhaps that is the reason the museum obsessively collects every object related to the conflict, regardless of whether it is a rifle, a jet or a rubber stamp.
The Sardines at the Heart of the Sahrawi Conflict
The EU has prevaricated over its stance on Western Sahara since initiating fisheries and trade cooperation with Morocco in 1988. Despite presiding over questions of EU-Morocco trade legality in its Court of Justice, the EU has not necessarily been abiding by its rulings.