Natural resources and 'intifada': oil, phosphates and resistance to colonialism in Western Sahara

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Periodical article

Title:	Natural resources and 'intifada': oil, phosphates and resistance to colonialism in Western Sahara
Author:	Allan, Joanna
Year:	2016
Periodical:	The Journal of North African Studies (ISSN 1743-9345)
Volume:	21
Issue:	4
Pages:	645-666
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Western Sahara Morocco Spain
Subjects:	Saharawis national liberation movements resistance natural resources
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2016.1174586
Abstract:	Rich in resources and small in population, Western Sahara, partially occupied since 1975 by neighbouring Morocco, has a history shaped to a large extent by its natural wealth. Indeed, sovereignty over the country's phosphates became a key claim of the pro-independence, anti-Spanish Saharawi movement in the early 1970s. Yet the author argues in this article that, since the beginning of the Moroccan colonial period, it is only recently that sovereignty over these resources has re-emerged as a prominent demand of the Saharawi resistance activists. The article charts the long history of mostly non-violent resistance in the Occupied Territories, the focus of which, since the Moroccan occupation, has traditionally been on human rights and independence. Drawing on theories of hegemony and everyday resistance, the article explores what has prompted the recent turn towards natural resources as a demand of Saharawi pro-independence activists and asks what the wider implications of these new resistance claims are. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]