State, society and Islam in the western regions of the Sahara : regional interactions and social change

"This open access book takes a deeper and broader perspective of the Hassaniya-speaking peoples' struggle for self-determination in the Western Sahara. There has been a surge of interest in the Western Sahara, often centred around sensationalist news reports and policy briefs on these groups. But in-depth understanding and analysis remains neglected and little work has been undertaken on the diverse experiences of the Hassaniya and the contrasting political regimes under which they live. The contributors here focus on the complex and ambiguous relations between statehood, Islam, nation building and identity formation in hassanophone northwest Africa, ranging from southern Morocco, the Western Sahara and Mauritania to Algeria. The book brings new analysis and up-to-date fieldwork to provide an 'inside perspective' on these populations and their regional interactions, with contributions from the fields of law, history, politics, gender studies and media studies and the research of scholars from both the global North and global South. This interdisciplinary collection shows how urban ways of life are being adopted, with the Hassaniya-speaking peoples adapting to state-administered social policies and new modes of settling territorial disputes and legal claims. In doing so, the book sheds new light on the region's shifting social hierarchies, the new gendered power dynamics, and generational changes in the re-interpretation of 'tradition'. As well as displaying that the Western Sahara's Hassanophone are pivotal to the development of a specific tribal-based political culture and language, the book reveals the close association they have with Islam, both as a religious expression as well as a cultural marker. It is a much-needed contribution to work on the intersections of politics, Islam and identity in hassanophone northwest Africa"-- Provided by publisher. Cover 1 Contents 8 List of Illustrations 10 List of Contributors 12 Preface Benjamin F. Soares 15 Note on Transliteration and Orthography 17 Acknowledgements 18 Introduction: Shifting sands: State, society and Islam in the western regions of the Sahara Francisco Freire 20 Part 1 State 34 1 A land of opportunities: Political morphologies at the northwestern Saharan frontier (1934–1960) Alberto López Bargados 36 2 A historical perspective on legal practices in Sahrawi society (1958–2019) Enrique Bengochea Tirado 62 3 Magnitudes of Sahrawi nomadism throughout colonialism and refugeehood Juan Carlos Gimeno Martín and Julien Lafontaine Carboni 88 4 The flexible use of democracy in an Islamic Republic: The case of the Mauritanian President Abdel Aziz (2009–2019) Elemine Ould Mohamed Baba Moustapha 106 Part 2 Society 124 5 Artisanal gold mining in Mauritania Moustapha Taleb Heidi 126 6 Unsettling gender and feminism: Views from Mauritania Maria Cardeira da Silva 162 7 Funeral orations, the web and politics: The online making of national heroes in Mauritania and the Western Sahara in poems and songs Sébastien Boulay and Mohamed Ould Ahmed Meidah 186 8 Haratin activism in post-slavery Mauritania: Abolition, emancipation and the politics of identity David Malluche 214 Part 3 Islam 248 9 On the (body of the) subject in the Sahara: Muḥummadhun Fāl b. Muttālī’s Fatḥ al-ḥaqq (nineteenth century) Abdel Wedoud Ould Cheikh 250 10 The past and present of the ghuẓfiyya Sufi order from the western regions of the Sahara Yahya Ould al-Bara 280 11 Islamic traditional schooling in a globalized context: A case study from the maḥẓara of Teysir (southwestern Mauritania) Mariem Baba Ahmed and Zahra Horma 308 12 Islam, blasphemy and realpolitik in Mauritania: The Mkhaitir affair Francisco Freire 330 Postscript: Reflections on research ethics in complex contexts: Navigating politics, pragmatics and positionality Leonardo Villalón and Irina Branco da Silva 350 Index 365 This open access book takes a deeper and broader perspective of the Hassaniya-speaking groups of the western region of the Sahara. There has been a surge of interest in this region, often centred around sensationalist news reports and policy briefs. But in-depth understanding and analysis remains neglected and little work has been undertaken on the diverse experiences of these groups and the contrasting political regimes under which they live. The contributors here focus on the complex and ambiguous relations between statehood, Islam, nation building and identity formation in hassanophone northwest Africa, ranging from southern Morocco, the Western Sahara and Mauritania to Algeria. The book uses up-to-date fieldwork to provide fresh analysis of and an insiders' perspective on these populations and their regional interactions, with contributions from the fields of law, Islamic studies, history, anthropology, politics, gender and media studies and the research of scholars from both the global North and global South. This interdisciplinary collection shows how urban ways of life are being adopted, with Hassaniya-speaking actors adjusting to state-administered social policies and new modes of settling disputes and legal claims. In doing so, the book sheds new light on the region's shifting social hierarchies, the new gendered power dynamics, and generational changes in the re-interpretation of 'tradition'. As well as displaying that the Hassaniya-speaking groups are pivotal to the development of the region's political culture, the book also reveals their close association with Islam, both as a religious expression as well as a cultural marker. A much-needed contribution on the intersections of politics, Islam and identity in northwest Africa.