Colonization, Decolonization, and the Limits of Self-Determination: Evidence from the Sahara

Abstract

Many demands for self-determination across the globe have not been answered. One notable case is that of the Polisario Front, a group in the Sahara who has been fighting for self-determination for over fifty years. They argue that a group of tribes and their descendants in the Sahara region, called the “Sahrawis,” are entitled to their own independent state. What has caused these demands for self-determination from the Polisario and other Sahrawis to be unsuccessful, and what can this case show scholars about self-determination movements as a whole? This essay tracks the history of self-determination advocacy in the Sahara by creating a timeline that stretches from the Spanish colonial period to the present and concludes that the failure of the Sahrawi self-determination movement can be understood by looking at three main factors. First, the Sahara’s political ecology and geography, which was the primary detriment to the self-determination movement prior to the Spanish exit in 1975. Second, the geopolitics of the Sahara, which became the primary detriment to the self-determination movement due to the increasingly important relationships between major powers and Morocco during and after the Cold War. Finally, the development of self-determination language and discourse in the Sahara, which has aided the self-determination movement throughout its history by becoming increasingly attuned to international audiences but has been overall ineffective at securing Sahrawi self-determination due to the weight of geopolitics and the political ecology.