Debating theology and the performance of nationhood: the case of taqsīr al-ṣalāh (the shortening of prayer) among the Sahrawi

ABSTRACT

In early 1977, the main fuqahā of the recently organized Sahrawi refugee camps met in the dāira of Sbetīn to discuss whether the population of the settlement should practice taqsīr al-ṣalāh (the shortening/abridgment of prayers). This theological discussion was animated by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro (the Polisario Front). The practice of performing abridged prayers spread widely in the camps during the late 1970s and 1980s. Although no longer practiced, it continues to spark controversy in the discourse on the liminality of the first years of the camps. This case study offers an anthropologically informed historical reflection on the process of negotiating religious authority and the embodiment of nationhood.

KEYWORDS:

• Liminality
• nationhood
• revolution
• Western Sahara
• Islam

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 (Plural for faquīh) Throughout the article I will follow the America Library Association-Library of Congress transliteration system.

2 Sbetīn is a site located in one of the dry river beds near the Algerian city of Tindouf. In 1975, the camps were organized by and for refugees fleeing from Western Sahara. Although the interviewees used the word ‘dāira’, in the documents of 1976 the basic unit of settlement in the sahrawi refugee camps was the ‘mukhayamat’ (camps), for example: Congresos populares especiales (La opinión de las masas, 13 May 1976) special number, 6; also was used the concept frīq (Pazzanita 2006, 159); the political organization in dauāir (sing. dāira) was not seated in that times, this camp being established prior to the subsequent establishment of the current refugee camps: Rabuni, Smara, Bojador, Aaiun and Dajla. (I will use the Spanish transliterations of the names of the refugee camps as this is what is currently being used by the camps authorities.)

3 On 6 November 1975, before the International Court of Justice ruled over the Sahara and because of the risk of the Spanish government’s holding a self-determination referendum, Morocco declared the Green March. More than 300,000 people, including Moroccan soldiers and civilians, entered the territory of the former colony of the Spanish Sahara, supported by Mauritanian troops in the south of the territory. Franco was dying in Spain at the time, so they decided to sign the Tripartite Agreements on November 14. These agreements established the tripartite management of the territory until February 1976, at which point Spain would withdraw to carry out the referendum of self-determination directed by Morocco.

4 The term Ṭrāb al-bīḍān refers to the space between the river Draa in Morocco and the Senegal river from north to south, going deep into the Tindouf region and the Malian north-western Azawad. It is inhabited by a population largely constituted by nomads, mainly Hassanophones, whose social structure is based on a dynamic hierarchy built around certain qabā’il (tribes) with religious and warrior social statuses, dependent on which are tributary qabā’il and other dependent groups. More commonly, these populations are associated with the term bīḍān (white men), which indicates a socially elite status, and the region is by extension associated with the term Ṭrāb al-bīḍān (the land of white men) (López Bargados 2003, 131–151).

5 This concept was introduced by Arnold van Gennep (1960) and developed by Turner (1969). It refers to the state of exception created during change. In the beginning it was applied to rites of passage, but it was later also used to analyse revolutions. For a reflection on this concept in the Western Saharan context, see Wilson and McConnell (2015).

6 From this author: Mohammed Ali Laman (2009) al-ṣaḥrā' algharbīa: mukhtamiʿah ua zaqāfa. Rabuni: Infosolidarité.

7 These fieldwork visits where during Octobrer-December 2017; April-May 2018 and October 2018.

8 Meetings in Ausserd and Rabuni October 2018.

9 For more on how religious knowledge is embodied and disputed in the wider region, see (Ware 2014).

10 Henceforth, I prefer to use the concept qabīlah (pl. qabā’il) when referring to the tribal structures of the region, seeking to avoid the symbolic and pejorative burden of the concept of a ‘tribe’.

11 For a comparative perspective, see (Bonte, Conte, and Dresch 2001).

12 https://www.un.org/es/decolonization/nonselfgovterritories.shtml.

13 Gobierno General del Sahara: Censo de Población, El Aaiun: Editorial Graficas Saharianas, 1975.

14 On 17 June 1970, a demonstration organized by the Sahrawi nationalist movement Harakat Tahrir took place in the neighbourhood of Jatarrambla (Zemla), in El Aaiun. This was repressed by the Spanish legion military forces, leaving many dead, wounded and missing. As a consequence of Spanish repression, many of the militants in that group went into exile in Zuerat (Mauritania). For more information on this organization, see Bárbulo (2002, 73–96) and San Martin (2010, 74–82).

15 A Marxist movement born in 1968 from the MIFERMA strikes. More information on these strikes and the social movements in Bennoune (1978).

16 The Moroccan Liberation Army (Yeish Tahrir) led the 1957–1958 anticolonial struggle. Its members had an ambiguous relationship with Sahrawi nationalism, as Correale and López Bargados (2017) show in their analysis of the ‘Rashomon effect’.

17 Interviewees 31 and 35.

18 The Yemaa, or General Assembly of the Sahara, was presented as the representative organ of the Sahrawi population of the Spanish Sahara province. Established in May 1967, it was inspired by the assemblies that were held at the level of qabā’il to settle disputes, the jamā’at. It was formed by members who were elected according to quotas every four years within the different qabā’il. In addition, there were non-elected members as a shuyūkh of each qabā’il or fraction, as well as the president of the cabildo and the mayors of Villa Cisneros and El Aaiun. Its function was mainly consultative, acting as an intermediary between the legislation promulgated by the General Government and the Sahrawi population. At the time the declaration of Guelta was signed (28 November 1975), 67 of the 102 shuyūkh had signed it. More information in Barona (2009).

19 Interviewees 1 and 2.

20 The tribal affiliations of those living in the refugee camps is a politically controversial issue. People were reluctant to mention their own qabīlah, especially in the presence of researchers. I have decided to respect this fact, and thus in the present text I will not touch on the qabā’il or fractions of origin of those with whom I met. For more on this, see (Wilson 2018, 183–235).

21 A legal practice defined as an amicable arrangement between parties, according to common sense (Charre 1966, 345).

22 Interviewee 2.

23 The People’s Liberation Army was the armed wing of the Polisario Front, acting as the national army of the SADR.

24 Editorial (La opinión de las masas, 12 julio 1976), N° 9, 1.

25 El Frente Polisario inicia su III Congreso el martes (El Pais 22 agosto 1976), https://elpais.com/diario/1976/08/22/internacional/209512813_850215.html.

26 Troisième Congrès du Front Polisario (26 au 30 août 1976). (1976). [Booklet] SADR Information Ministry Archives, Rabouni.

27 Idem.

28 La organización es el arma secreta del pueblo (La opinión de las masas, 28 mayo 1976) N° 8, 6.

29 La Revolución: Vida y método (La opinión de las masas, 19 abril 1976) N° 6, translated from Spanish.

30 Interviewees 2 and 34.

31 Interviewee 28, translated from Hassaniya.

32 Inspired by Gaddafi’s Libyan practices, the population of the refugee camps, composed mainly of women, was organized into popular committees: health, childcare, justice, supply, production and crafts. In the justice committees, women were dedicated to solving issues of justice related to the sulh and to practical matters such as the organization of weddings and funerals. In addition, a qāḍī was in charge of doctrinal discussions.

33 Interviewee 9.

34 Interviewee 2.

35 Interviewees 2, 39, 40 and 44.

36 More information on these networks in (Lydon 2009).

37 Interviewees 27, 29 and 43. In each interview we were given a date, however, and the interpretation of the conclusions given by Busari differ among the different versions.

38 Alice Wilson uses this concept to refer to the pair formed by the Polisario Front and the SADR.

Additional information

Funding

This article is part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 716467).