Constituting the self in self-determination. An ir approach with an analysis of the western Sahara case

In the Sahara Desert, current internationaL borders are simpLe and straight Lines, often drawn aLong meridians and paraLLeLs. The same happens in the Western Sahara, except for a curved Line in its southeast part, which was designed to give the Zouerate iron mines to the French coLoniaL administration of Mauritania (Dresch 1981: 63). These Lines in the Sahara were not based on any specific geographicaL, anthropoLogicaL, or autochthonous poLitics that existed when they were drawn. Instead, they were drawn up in treaties between Spain and France in 1900, 1904 and 1912.

Of particuLar reLevance here is the 1912 treaty in which France gave Spain the Tarfaya Strip--a region between the 27° 40' paraLLeL (which defines the present northern border of the Western Sahara) and the Draa VaLLey further north. In 1958, Spain gave this territory to Morocco. France imposed a cLause in the 1912 Treaty stating that this region was considered Moroccan territory under Spanish protectorate, unLike what happened with Sagma eL Hamra and Rio de Oro, more to the south. Perhaps because of that, it has not been much noticed that it was, at the same time, a naturaL border--in the sense of a Line foLLowing a topographicaL accident--and an anthropogeographic border--in the sense of a Line roughLy corresponding to spatiaL deLimitations between human groups (Lacoste 1981: 13). It was, in fact, the onLy border of this kind in the Spanish Sahara. The vaLLey of the Draa River was Long recognized as roughLy corresponding to the Line deLimiting the Moroccan suLtanate from the Sahara, and Moroccan popuLations from the Saharan popuLations.

Es-Sweyih (2001: 27 ff; 2002) collects a series of historical testimonies of various origins that attest to the cultural, social and political differences between the north and the south of that line: differences in language, costumes, hairstyles, architecture, vegetation, pack animals, way of life (agriculture and sedentarism versus pastoralism and nomadism), and the existence of a “right of way” tribute that travelers and caravans paid to the tribes for protection when they went to the north and that did not exist in the south. Thereby, the Sahrawis who claim self-determination argue that this region had never been part of the Moroccan sultanate (Briones et al. 1997: 43). The ICJ, however, accepted the interpretation provided by Spain and Morocco that, at the time of colonization, the region was under Moroccan authority (ICJ 1975a: 45, paragraph 97).

At the beginning of its struggle, Polisario pondered an independent nation with borders that included traditional territories where nomads Sahrawi travelled, therefore not precisely matching the Spanish Sahara. The desired country had its northern border in the Draa Valley and, in addition to the territory of the Spanish Sahara, included parts of Algeria, Mali and Mauritania (Barbulo 2011: 177-178). These boundaries coincide with the Trab el Bidan, or “Land of the Whites”, a territory where people speak Hassaniya Arabic, which was bounded by what the Sahrawis called the “line of fear” or “line of danger”-a demarcation from the dominion of the Moroccan sultan in the north, the Mauritanian emirates in the south and the great dunes to the east (San Martin 2010: 72). Even nowadays, some activists, particularly in the occupied territories and in southern Morocco, claim the territory extending up to the Draa.

However, external influences and support for the Polisario always assumed that self-determination claims are to be confined to colonial borders in strict compliance with the principles of territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders inherited from colonialism. Polisario has respected this in its diplomatic claims and struggle. Furthermore, the colonial experience turned out to provide a sociological and psychological reality to the colonial border of Western Sahara, which is a point crucial for the argument of this article.

How is it that an abstract geometric line drawn by foreign powers with no connection, at the outset, with the realities on the ground becomes a political border and is internalized and appropriated by the autochthonous populations (Caratini 2006: 2 ss)?

A relatively ancient symbolic representation of the great Sahara is that it is a space that, by its very nature, provides safety and refuge to people being persecuted for political and religious reasons, an idea portrayed in traditional stories and founding myths. In the 20th century, this representation was narrowed to the territory of the Western Sahara due to specificities of the colonialism in the region that made it a safe haven for individuals and tribal fractions insurgent against authorities in Mauritania and Morocco (Hodges 1983: 5; 1987: 1). This, because Spain denied the right of persecution to French troops within its borders and that its own forces, until 1934, remained only in some parts of the coast. Such politics made the territory of the Spanish Sahara progressively delimited in the minds of the Saharan populations as safe territory for those who resisted French colonialism (Caratini 2006: 2). Caratini depicts a pretty vivid image of this situation from the imagined perspective of a Groupe Nomade The Groupes Nomades were military units in the region of Adrar, nowadays Mauritania, which included moor troops under the command of French officers.:

Mais la ligne invisible йtait lа: une “frontiиre” que les Chrйtiens avait tellement dans la tкte qu'elle les arrкtait net. Imaginez un instant une plaine de sable et de cailloux, austиre et brыlйe par le soleil, qui s'йtend de tous cфtйs а l'infini. А l'est, il n'y a rien, а l'ouest on ne voit rien non plus. Pourtant le capitaine lиve le bras: “stop! On ne va pas plus loin: ici c'est l'Espagne”. Victorieux, le razzi ennemi entraоne son butin de chameaux vers l'horizon sous les yeux йbahis qui ne parviennent pas а comprendre ce qui a bien pu arrкter l'officier. (2003: 46)

Spanish authorities themselves ended up inadvertently reinforcing the representation of the Western Sahara as a safe haven when, in the late 1940s, insurgents against French rule were deported to the Rio de Oro and took refuge in the Moroccan regions under Spanish protectorate (Lacoste 1988: 80).

On the other hand, from the end of the 1950s onwards, Spain began to organize indirect governance of the colony through the tribes, creating a series of administrative institutions inspired by traditional tribal institutions at various levels: local and municipal councils for urban populations, tribal fractions councils for nomadic populations, a provincial council for the whole colony, and at the top the Djemaa, or General Sahara Assembly. This latter body was comprised of tribal representatives, some chosen by colonial authorities from whom they perceived to be tribal chiefs and others designated by the djemaas of the tribal fractions, and, in 1973, representatives of corporate groups and members to be elected by Sahrawi males who held membership of a tribal fraction identification card.

The creation of this structure had a twofold effect. On the one hand, it led to a local delegitimization of the tribal-based institutions because Spanish authorities invested them with an institutional and centralized power that was not customary in the region (Cervellф 1993: 401). On the other hand, bringing together Saharans from different genealogical affiliations to discuss issues related to territory contributed to a generalized perception of the whole Spanish Sahara as a significant political entity, as well as to the generalization of a sense of belonging to a single community of a supra-tribal character (Es-Sweyih 2001: 24). In this context, the “Sahrawi” emerges as the designation of the people of that community.

“Sahrawi” is the Arabic adjective for someone who inhabits or belongs to the Sahara, that is, a Saharan. The word acquired a nationalist political connotation in the context of resistance to Spanish colonialism when individuals refused to be considered Spanish Saharans (Sahrawi Asbani) and presented themselves as simply Saharans (Sahrawi) (Zunes & Mundy 2010: 111). In other words, as a symbol that designates a people, Sahrawi has its origins in the colonial context and is connected to a selfdetermination project.

While the idea of self-determination motivates a struggle and feeds a sense of supra-tribal community, the international norm on self-determination imposes other sorts of institutional constraints on those who claim it and seek recognition and support. In the sense that it is part of a broader framework of human rights, it imposes upon those who claim it to renounce structures and practices of oppression and exclusion that violate liberal values of freedom and dignity, even when these could be framed as “traditional” and “cultural”, such as forms of slavery or tributary relations based on tribal criteria, for example.

The governance of the refugee camps in Algeria by Polisario has been studied over the years as an instance of intentional construction and projection at the international scene of a supra-tribal and modern society and state that can be accepted as credible and even admired by the international normative and political powers (e.g., Caratini 2003; Zunes & Mundy 2010). Notwithstanding, more recent anthropological studies have highlighted forms of coexistence of tribal and modern logics of social, economic, and political organization, yet noticing the persistence of a kind of pact whereby families and tribes converge in giving priority to the claim for self-determination, strategically silencing other issues, in order not to obfuscate an international image of a unified posttribal society prepared for self-determination (Isidoros 2018; Wilson 2016).

In sum, I tried to demonstrate that the norm of self-determination, particularly the right of self-determination as decolonization, influenced the constitution of a Sahrawi nationalist identity with a project of political independence. On what this identity draws on to define a self with a corporate identity (a delimited territory, with a defined population, a collective consciousness, and governing structures) is a question that points to a local and regional historical experience, but also to the more general institutional conditions for the existence of states, that is, for international norms, institutions, and policies. Thus, it is not a purely immanent process but rather articulates internal and external symbols, norms, and processes.

Final Considerations

In this article, I tried to demonstrate that self-determination, as a norm in the international system, influences the constitution of the selves that claim it. Within IR, this argument is meant to deepen an understanding of the constitution of international selves, particularly the point that they might result from normative factors, among others.

Although IR was the theoretical support of the argument, the article also intends to contribute to the study of self-determination and conflict resolution. For many years, most literature on self-determination has been concerned with identification and delimitation of selves, the territorial overlapping of selves and how to detach identity from a territory, acknowledging that these are points at the root of most self-determination conflicts, many of them violent and protracted. Much of that literature tends to see these self-determination movements as eruptions of pre-modern and fixed identities and aspirations, dominated by an exclusionary logic of us versus them. As a reaction to this, there are tendencies to devaluate self-determination as a legal right, promote sub-state forms of self-determination (like autonomy), and interpret self-determination as democracy and human rights, excluding the territorial factor (cf. Abulof

By contrast, articulating self-determination claims from an IR perspective highlights specifically modern identification processes and adds other logics than the atavistic us versus them, as the argument in this article suggests. These are not necessarily contradictory perspectives, as they situate at different levels and can intersect. Their apparent contradiction reflects the complexity and disparate dynamics and values of the conflicts that involve self-determination claims.

This article does not add to the resolution of the contradictions and problems the norm on self-determination presents. Instead, it intends to understand the constitution of selves in the international system and the impact of norms and politics of self-determination in such a constitution.

In what concerns the resolution of self-determination conflicts, this analysis suggests that bottom-up legitimation dynamics should not be neglected. In what concerns specifically the resolution of the conflict over the territory of the Western Sahara, this means that the accomplishment of a valid self-determination referendum meaning one that comprises independence as an option-should not be removed from the agenda of the international institutions.

In recent years, there have been appeals for a “realist” solution to the Western Sahara conflict, meaning that its resolution must begin by accepting Moroccan occupation of most of the territory (e.g., Pham 2010). Although this argument stresses the “reality” of military and economic factors and the powers that they entail, it ignores, or at least downgrades, the “reality” constructed by Sahrawis themselves, by intersubjective and normative means, particularly the internalization of the idea of an inalienable right to self-determination, supported by international law, which sustains a productive power by making its claims internationally recognizable and legitimate. By its turn, however, this power has collided with those forces. The tale still is one of confrontation by means of norms and power politics.

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