Morocco celebrates Sahrawi heritage through state TV, tourism campaigns and festivals. But self-determination for Western Sahara remains a distant prospect, while the central government deepens its hold on the territory through major development projects, writes Bettina Gräf
ACTIVISTS worldwide are pushing for renewed scrutiny of a still unresolved colonial dispute: the conflict over Western Sahara. This year November until next January marks the fiftieth anniversary of Morocco’s invasion of the territory, followed by Spain’s withdrawal from its former overseas province of Sahara Español or Spanish Sahara.
During the Spanish withdrawal, Morocco and Mauritania occupied the territory militarily in and expelled a large part of the Sahrawi population to refugee camps in Algeria, which still exist today.
Since Spain’s withdrawal in 1975/76, Western Sahara has been considered a ‘non-self-governing territory’ by the UN. Morocco, a country which itself only gained independence from France in 1956, has illegally occupied this territory ever since, placing itself above international and European law.
Then as now, the Kingdom of Morocco used both the media and cultural channels to reinforce Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara and to distract attention from the occupation. But over time, Morocco’s strategy for legitimising the occupation has changed.
This is particularly apparent in Morocco’s cultural policy of occupation, which spans the reigns of two Moroccan kings — Hassan II (1961-1999) and Mohammed VI (since 1999) — and thus, has two distinct faces.
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King Hassan II’s ‘years of lead’
BOTH father and son were in agreement that Western Sahara had historically belonged to Morocco, an argument which implied ownership and hence legitimised Moroccan rule over the territory.
This is contradicted by an opinion of the International Court of Justice dated October 16, 1975 confirming the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination.
In the first decades of the occupation, Hassan II’s approach was substantially different to the approach his son would adopt in the 2000s. The occupation began with the so-called ‘Green March’ on November 6, 1975, when some 350,000 Moroccan civilians and thousands of soldiers responded to the king’s call and crossed the border towards the Spanish-built city of El Aaiún (French: Laayoune).
Hassan II coupled the question of Western Sahara belonging to Morocco with his own legitimacy as king and the national unity of Morocco, responding with corresponding brutality to those who questioned it. Under his rule, the nomadic culture of the Sahrawi, like that of the Amazigh, was not a part of Moroccan identity.
‘Hassan II pursued an approach based on harsh measures such as cultural oppression and the use of force. Sahrawis were forced to adopt Moroccan names and titles, were not allowed to wear their traditional clothing such as the milhfa and dara’a, and were forbidden from speaking their language, Hassaniyya,’ says historian Dr Abderrahmane Taleb Omar Ahmed Baba from the University of Navarra to Qantara.
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Today, Morocco celebrates ‘cultural diversity’
THE end of Hassan II’s reign in 1999 also signalled the end of an era of repression, the so-called ‘years of lead’. Mohammed VI’s policy has been one of ‘Moroccanisation’. Rather than suppressing Sahrawi culture through bans and oppression, he has opted for integration under the banner of Morocco’s newly proclaimed cultural diversity.
This comes under the remit of the Agency of the South (Agence du Sud), founded in Rabat in 2002. On an economic level, regional investment centres in Dakhla and Laayoune put out expensive videos promoting investment in tourism, agriculture, shipping and renewable energies in Western Sahara.
In 2011, Moroccan constitutional reform legally enshrined the monarchy’s recognition of diversity. As early as 2004, as part of a cultural and media policy U-turn, the Moroccan state created a new television station, TV Laayoune, which went on air on November 6, the anniversary of the ‘Green March’, referred to by Sahrawis as the ‘Black March’.
TV Laayoune is a state-run channel, and the news is read out in Hassaniyya, with the aim of representing Sahrawi culture. But voices calling for independence or criticising the imprisonment of Sahrawi activists are not broadcast, in line with Moroccan state interests.
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The voice of Western Sahara
AZIZA Brahim’s childhood as a Sahrawi refugee in Algeria naturally shaped her music, but as her latest album, ‘Mawja’ shows, while she has not forgotten where she comes from, she has long since tuned her ears to a world beyond the camp perimeters
Another example is the Tan-Tan Moussem, an annual festival in southern Morocco, a region which belonged to Spain until Morocco’s independence and which has long been inhabited primarily by Sahrawis. Held in honour of a saint, the moussem was traditionally a meeting place for nomadic tribes from across the Sahara.
In 2004, the Moroccan royal family revived the festival, and in 2005, UNESCO declared it a ‘masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage’ of Morocco, disregarding its difficult political context.
‘The festival in Tan-Tan serves the cultural policy of the Moroccan central government to legitimise the occupation of Western Sahara. At no point did it serve to support the Sahrawis living there or their actual culture,’ points out journalist Mohammed Radi Ellili, who worked for the state TV channel Al Aoula between 2001 and 2013.
In conversation with Qantara, Radi Ellili observes that the festival also serves to legitimise the occupation to friendly states; in 2025, the United Arab Emirates had its own pavilion at the festival.
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Holidays in occupied territory
TOURISM is a key aspect of Morocco’s cultural policy of occupation. The lagoon in Dakhla is advertised by the national tourism office in multiple languages, accompanied by glossy photos. It promises seductive beaches, ideal for kitesurfing, and a desert bathed in sunset light. On the English website, Morocco is described as the ‘Kingdom of Light’ and Dakhla as the ‘Pearl of the Moroccan South’.
The infrastructure in occupied Western Sahara is also slated for further expansion. If the king and influential partner states such as the USA, France, Spain, Great Britain and the UAE have their way, the region will undergo significant changes in the next few years.
For two weeks, a group called Generation Z 212 led mass youth protests across Morocco, demanding reforms in healthcare and education. Researcher Mohamed Sammouni says the movement lays bare a crisis of political legitimacy.
The slogan ‘Morocco, Kingdom of Football’ appears prominently at the top of the national tourism office’s website. This winter, Morocco will host the Africa Cup of Nations, and in the summer of 2030, FIFA will stage parts of the World Cup there.
Moroccan youth, usually passionate about football, have recently taken to the streets under the name Gen Z 212, protesting, among other issues, against investment in major sporting events. After years of deteriorating living conditions, the Moroccan population doesn’t expect the World Cup to benefit them. A new stadium is also planned in the occupied Western Sahara.
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International law is being ignored
IN ADDITION to a cultural policy that supports the occupation, in 2007 Morocco also launched a foreign policy charm offensive. On April 11, 2007, the Moroccan government presented a plan to the United Nations outlining, in just a few pages, the autonomy of the Sahara region under Moroccan sovereignty.
The plan did not provide for a referendum on independence for a Sahrawi state. Such a referendum was central to a plan presented in 2004 by the then UN Special Envoy for Western Sahara, James Baker, one which Morocco categorically rejected.
In 2020, the US officially recognised Western Sahara as part of Morocco, followed by France in 2024. Since then, both countries, as well as Spain and, most recently, the UK, have spoken out in favour of Morocco’s proposed autonomy plan.
Recently, the UN Security Council also made a U-turn, passing a resolution introduced by the US that supports the autonomy plan and thus Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara. However, at the same time, the Security Council decided to extend the UN mission MINURSO, meaning that the goal of holding an independence referendum remains in place.
These states are apparently unconcerned that the proposal violates international law, nor by the undemocratic nature of Morocco’s government. Yet democratic structures are a prerequisite for the political and cultural autonomy of the Sahrawi people to have a realistic chance under Moroccan rule.
The recognition of the plan by Western European countries and the United States, as well as by some African states, is detrimental to the Sahrawis. For 50 years, they have been fighting for their independence, and in doing so, for the reputation of international law.
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Qantara.de, November 4. Bettina Gräf is senior lecturer at Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München and has published on topics related to Arab media and cultural studies.
