The Spanish Sahara: Revisiting the Early Years of the Western Sahara Conflict (1957-1975)
29 May 2025. From 18:30 | Conference | English | IEMed
This lecture explores the overlooked origins of the Western Sahara conflict. While mainstream historiography traces its beginnings to the 1975 Algeria-backed Polisario Front war against Moroccan forces, academic narratives often link it to Spanish colonization, dating its onset to the territory’s inclusion on the UN list of non-self-governing territories in 1963. Drawing primarily from UN records and historical background, this lecture argues that the conflict rather emerged in 1957, unfolding simultaneously at the United Nations and through the 1957-1958 Ifni War (La guerra olvidada), when the Sahara was still under Spanish rule. It will examine the conflict’s early years and analyze how the passage of time shaped its dynamics between 1957 and 1975.
A lecture by Aicha Elbasri, a former United Nations official in Darfur (UNAMID), and author of L’Imaginaire carcéral de Jean Genet. She earned her master’s degree in the French Literature Department of the Université Hassan II before pursuing her PhD in poetics of imagination at the Université de Savoie. In 2015, Aicha Elbasri won The Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling for exposing through a series of articles the failure of the UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur to protect millions of civilians under its care, and the mission’s complicity with the Sudanese government in concealing an ongoing war that put non-combatants onto the front lines. She is currently a researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS).
A session within the framework of the Aula Mediterrània lecture series co-organised with Master’s Degree in International Relations, Security and Development, UAB
Moderated by Olivia Glombitza, Lecturer in International Relations, faculty of Political Science and Sociology, UAB.
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