Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the ways in which hope for a decolonized Western Sahara shapes activist strategies and lived realities in the present. How do Saharawi activist strategies for a decolonized future in Western Sahara define the scope of liveability – or unliveability – in the present?

Paper long abstract:

From the Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria, youth activists navigate the competing expectations of the future that characterize much of the decolonization struggles led by youth. While Saharawi youth in the refugee camps have only known life in a stretch of the Sahara Desert known as the Devil’s Garden, stories of home and the promises of Western Sahara’s cooler coastline define much of the hope for a different future. A future where shoes don’t melt in 43-degree summers and where the availability of clean water meets the UN’s daily minimum. Most housing in the refugee camps was built to be temporary. A mix of mud brick, traditional tents, and some cement houses dot the camps horizon, but weather extremes have resulted in hotter summers and heavier rainfalls that have led to extensive flooding and the destruction of temporary homes that were constructed for the meantime as Saharawis await the UN-led referendum on self-determination. This paper explores the ways in which hope for a decolonized Western Sahara shapes activist strategies and lived realities in the present. In this context, hope shapes - and is shaped by - the Saharawi activism directed at dismantling the extractive industries facilitated by Morocco’s occupation of the territory. As a result, this paper asks how Saharawi activist strategies for a decolonized future in Western Sahara define the scope of liveability – or unliveability – in the present.