As improbable as it may sound, a group of 170,000 refugees living in tents in the middle of the Sahara, sustained by international aid, have formed a nation in every sense of the word. This paper has provided a theoretical framework for explaining why and how this can occur, and just as important, has obtained and highlighted empirical data to support it. As a result, it better enables one to hear, and to truly understand, the stories of a nation.