Displacements of Mohammed Abdalah During His Life: Transformations of Western Sahara after the Spanish Colony

Contemporary discourse on the desert challenges colonial approaches to this landscape, yet there is a risk of remaining within an imperial theoretical framework. Departing from the dichotomy of “smooth” versus “striated” space conceptualized by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in A Thousand Plateau...

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Author: Velasco-Pérez, Á. (Álvaro)|||/items/b81a3162-e028-4219-81c2-6b30d1858c11
Format: article
Publication Date:2023
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Navarra
Repository:Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:dadun.unav.edu:10171/122208
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10171/122208
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Desert architecture
Western Sahara
Critical cartography
MINURSO
Morocco polisario conflict
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oai_identifier_str oai:dadun.unav.edu:10171/122208
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spelling Displacements of Mohammed Abdalah During His Life: Transformations of Western Sahara after the Spanish ColonyVelasco-Pérez, Á. (Álvaro)|||/items/b81a3162-e028-4219-81c2-6b30d1858c11Desert architectureWestern SaharaCritical cartographyMINURSOMorocco polisario conflictContemporary discourse on the desert challenges colonial approaches to this landscape, yet there is a risk of remaining within an imperial theoretical framework. Departing from the dichotomy of “smooth” versus “striated” space conceptualized by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, this essay argues for the need to move beyond the notion of the desert as a spatial continuum. Considering the complex historical development of decolonizing Western Sahara, this paper argues for understanding the desert otherwise through a focus on three specific buildings. Mohammed Abdalah’s tent offers a model for how traditional nomadic forms of living were entangled in the process of geographical expeditions of the Spanish colonial government in the first half of the twentieth century—a form of life that vanished with the establishment of new cities and a mining company in the African colony. While the population started settling in towns, the colonial government had the project of making a profit from the rich resources of phosphate in the national and international market: the ground itself became movable. That ‘fluid movement’ was achieved by constructing the world’s longest conveyor belt, connecting the mine of Bou Craa with the port of El Aaiun, a moment in which the difference between spaces that are “smooth” and “striated” begins to blur. Finally, the construction of a fortifying wall of sand by the Moroccan army during the war with Western Sahara—a wall that still divides the contemporary territory—manifests the final iteration of the shifts of spatial understanding that have taken place, particularly since the 1980s. This essay accumulates this complex history in order to reveal how gray areas, ambiguous overlaps, and ill-defined borders configure a contemporary form of sovereignty over the desert. Highlighting the tensions between politics and geology, it argues that Western Sahara presents a case in which architecture arrests the movements and the trajectories of the nomadic paradigm.Taylor and FrancisDadun. Depósito Académico Digital Universidad de Navarra20232023-01-0120232023-01-01journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/10171/122208reponame:Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarrainstname:Universidad de NavarraInglésengopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:dadun.unav.edu:10171/1222082026-06-21T12:47:57Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Displacements of Mohammed Abdalah During His Life: Transformations of Western Sahara after the Spanish Colony
title Displacements of Mohammed Abdalah During His Life: Transformations of Western Sahara after the Spanish Colony
spellingShingle Displacements of Mohammed Abdalah During His Life: Transformations of Western Sahara after the Spanish Colony
Velasco-Pérez, Á. (Álvaro)|||/items/b81a3162-e028-4219-81c2-6b30d1858c11
Desert architecture
Western Sahara
Critical cartography
MINURSO
Morocco polisario conflict
title_short Displacements of Mohammed Abdalah During His Life: Transformations of Western Sahara after the Spanish Colony
title_full Displacements of Mohammed Abdalah During His Life: Transformations of Western Sahara after the Spanish Colony
title_fullStr Displacements of Mohammed Abdalah During His Life: Transformations of Western Sahara after the Spanish Colony
title_full_unstemmed Displacements of Mohammed Abdalah During His Life: Transformations of Western Sahara after the Spanish Colony
title_sort Displacements of Mohammed Abdalah During His Life: Transformations of Western Sahara after the Spanish Colony
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Velasco-Pérez, Á. (Álvaro)|||/items/b81a3162-e028-4219-81c2-6b30d1858c11
author Velasco-Pérez, Á. (Álvaro)|||/items/b81a3162-e028-4219-81c2-6b30d1858c11
author_facet Velasco-Pérez, Á. (Álvaro)|||/items/b81a3162-e028-4219-81c2-6b30d1858c11
author_role author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital Universidad de Navarra
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Desert architecture
Western Sahara
Critical cartography
MINURSO
Morocco polisario conflict
topic Desert architecture
Western Sahara
Critical cartography
MINURSO
Morocco polisario conflict
description Contemporary discourse on the desert challenges colonial approaches to this landscape, yet there is a risk of remaining within an imperial theoretical framework. Departing from the dichotomy of “smooth” versus “striated” space conceptualized by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, this essay argues for the need to move beyond the notion of the desert as a spatial continuum. Considering the complex historical development of decolonizing Western Sahara, this paper argues for understanding the desert otherwise through a focus on three specific buildings. Mohammed Abdalah’s tent offers a model for how traditional nomadic forms of living were entangled in the process of geographical expeditions of the Spanish colonial government in the first half of the twentieth century—a form of life that vanished with the establishment of new cities and a mining company in the African colony. While the population started settling in towns, the colonial government had the project of making a profit from the rich resources of phosphate in the national and international market: the ground itself became movable. That ‘fluid movement’ was achieved by constructing the world’s longest conveyor belt, connecting the mine of Bou Craa with the port of El Aaiun, a moment in which the difference between spaces that are “smooth” and “striated” begins to blur. Finally, the construction of a fortifying wall of sand by the Moroccan army during the war with Western Sahara—a wall that still divides the contemporary territory—manifests the final iteration of the shifts of spatial understanding that have taken place, particularly since the 1980s. This essay accumulates this complex history in order to reveal how gray areas, ambiguous overlaps, and ill-defined borders configure a contemporary form of sovereignty over the desert. Highlighting the tensions between politics and geology, it argues that Western Sahara presents a case in which architecture arrests the movements and the trajectories of the nomadic paradigm.
publishDate 2023
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2023
2023-01-01
2023
2023-01-01
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv journal article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/10171/122208
url https://hdl.handle.net/10171/122208
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Taylor and Francis
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Taylor and Francis
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra
instname:Universidad de Navarra
instname_str Universidad de Navarra
reponame_str Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra
collection Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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