The Transcultural Representation of Saharawi Music by Mariem Hassan and Nubenegra Records

Abstract

This article examines the process of representation, dissemination, and commodification of Hassan’s music out of the Saharawi refugee camps of the Hamada desert in Algeria through its interaction with a Western record label, Nubenegra, between 2005 and 2012. Through the use of transcultural studies, this article examines both the interaction between Hassan and Nubenegra during the production of the Saharawi artist’s albums Deseos (2005) and Shouka (2010), and how Nubenegra represents Saharawi music through Hassan’s albums in the music industry. This article reveals how the transcultural representation of Saharawi musical culture through Hassan’s music in the West is powerfully negotiated by external agents such as a Western record label and the music industry.

Notes

1. Western Sahara was a Spanish colony from 1884 to 1975. In 1975, the United Nations (UN) recognized Western Sahara as an independent country and that the Polisario Front (PF) as the political representation of the Saharawis was the major force in the country. However, during the same year, the king of Morocco, Hassan II, prepared the invasion of Western Sahara in a historical event known as the “Green March,” which consisted of 300,000 Moroccan civilians occupying El Aaiun, the capital of Western Sahara. This event marked the exile of more than 180,000 Saharawis (more than half of the Saharawi population) to the Hamada desert in Algeria, where they remain today (Fynn 40).

2. For more information about the Haul modal system see Gimenez Amoros (Haul Music).

3. Since 1975, more than half of the Saharawi population has been living in refugee camps in Algeria (Fynn 40). Approximately 180,000 Saharawi have taken shelter in the refugee camps in Algeria since 1975. Spread over 180 km in this arid terrain, the Saharawi refugee camps are divided into four different wilayas (camp provinces): Auserd, Smara, Dajla, and Aaiun. Each wilaya has between two and four dairas (towns). In addition, there are two diplomatic wilayas: February 27 (where the president resides and the main hospital is based) and Rabuni (the diplomatic wilaya, 20 km from Tindouf, Algeria). My research on Saharawi music in the camps took place in all the wilayas (except Dajla) and included February 27 and Rabuni (Gimenez Amoros, Transnational Habitus, 32).

4. The Polisario Front is a conglomerate of political parties that arose during the independent movements in the 1970s. The PF is the political representation of the Saharawis in the camps and for the ongoing negotiations for the referendum on the independence of Western Sahara with the United Nations and Morocco (I. Sayeh 14).

5. A 12-bar blues cycle in G consists of: G| G| C| C| G| G| C| C| D| C| G| D.

6. Dominguez has always been a blues fan. Therefore the combination of blues and Haul with Nubenegra was predictable (Dominguez, 3 June).

7. According to Barakat, pan-Arabism was a response to colonialism, an order to raise a new national identity in the Arab world (72). In addition, pan-Arabism has been used in Egypt against Israel’s policies towards Palestine since the genesis of the conflict (Tanoukhi and Mazrui 151).

8. “Oum Khulthoum always displayed a consistent concern with her physical appearance in posed photographs, wearing conservative attire and placing a scarf over her skirt hem and her knees when seated” (Lohman 8).

9. Whiteley writes, “The concept of postmodernism implies a shift from ‘equality’ to ‘difference’, ‘otherness’ and ‘plurality’ where gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age and class are all recognised as relevant in the formation of society” (2). Teeter states, “Female musicians appear in many roles: as singers, instrumentalists, both as soloists and in orchestras, and more than merely objects” (68).