This is one of a collection of seven short stories from inside the Moroccan Occupied Territory. These are ordinary Sahrawi people who responded to Konstantina Isidoros’ request for every-day examples of the difficulty of living under an occupying power. She has retained their anonymity.

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Mehdi is a Sahrawi citizen who is employed and has a job, he has a house, a car and considers himself having good economic means. Despite all this, Mehdi does not see any future for him under Moroccan rule simply because as a Sahrawi person he automatically becomes entangled with the State within a political framework whereby he is forced to abandon any aspects of Sahrawi identity or belonging.

Any declaration of such aspects may result in confiscation by the State of everything he owns and worked very hard to acquire. The State apparatus would not hesitate to destroy Sahrawis if these Sahrawis claimed their own identity publicly. The State would wage an economic war against them; it would start by cutting their salaries off and dismissing them from work or stopping them from engaging in any economic activity.

Frankly, there are no Sahrawis who see any future in living with the Moroccans as a political resolution. The Sahrawis who pretend otherwise are either seeking economic reward for taking such a position or at least to be left alone so they can earn their own living without harassment of the state. If you took a position which opposes the State ideology they consider you an outlaw and they automatically strip you from your basic rights. You become a victim simply because you no longer follow their political authority.

To give you an example, my young children, when there is a football match between Morocco and Algeria, even though they are small and have not visited Algeria and neither have I, we all support Algeria because Algeria supports the Sahrawi cause. Frankly, despite the presence of the Moroccan State for a long time in the Western Sahara, that State cannot win the hearts of the Sahrawi people.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* As told by a Sahrawi woman.
* Here is a selection of video clips documenting Acts of ‘symbolic resistance’ by young people – including Sahrawi girls. There is a whole ‘youth movement’ involved in the resistance.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.