Description
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.
Table of Contents
Preface: Benjamin Soares, University of Florida, USA
Introduction: Shifting Sands: State, Society and Islam in the Western Regions of the Sahara, Francisco Freire, NOVA FCSH, Portugal
PART I: State
Chapter 1: A Land of Opportunities: Political Morphologies at the Northwestern Saharan Frontier (1934-1960), Alberto Lopéz Bargados, University of Barcelona, Spain
Chapter 2: A Historical Perspective on Legal Practices in Sahrawi Society (1958-2019), Enrique Bengochea Tirado, NOVA FCSH / CRIA, Portugal
Chapter 3: Magnitudes of Sahrawi Nomadism throughout Colonialism and Refugeehood, Juan Carlos Gimeno, Autonoma University, Madrid, Spain and Julien Lafontaine Carboni, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Chapter 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, University of Nouakchott, Mauritania
PART II: Society
Chapter 5: Artisanal Gold Mining in Mauritania, Moustapha Taleb, NOVA FCSH / CRIA, Portugal
Chapter 6: Unsettling Gender and Feminism: Views from Mauritania, Maria Cardeira da Silva, NOVA FCSH, Portugal
Chapter 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, Faculté des sciences humaines et sociales de la Sorbonne, Université de Paris, France and Mohamed Meidah, University of Nouakchott, Mauritania
Chapter 8: Haratin Activism in Post-Slavery Mauritania: Abolition, Emancipation and the Politics of Identity, David Malluche, University of Bayreuth, Germany
PART III: Islam
Chapter 9: On the (Body of the) Subject in the Sahara: Mu?ummadhun Fal b. Muttali's Fat? al-?aqq (19th century), Abdel Wedoud Ould Cheikh, Université de Lorraine, France
Chapter 10: The Past and Present of the Ghu?fiyya Sufi Order from the Western Regions of the Sahara, Yahya Ould al-Bara, University of Nouakchott, Mauritania
Chapter 11: Islamic Traditional Schooling in a Globalized Context: A Case-Study from the Teisir Mahadra (southwestern Mauritania), Mariem Baba Ahmed, NOVA FCSH / CRIA, Portugal and Zahra Horma, NOVA FCSH / CRIA, Portugal
Chapter 12: Islam, Blasphemy, and Realpolitik in Mauritania: The Case of Mohamed Mkhaitir, Francisco Freire, NOVA FCSH, Portugal
Postface: Reflections on Research Ethics in Complex Contexts-Navigating Politics, Pragmatics, and Positionality, Leonardo Villálon, University of Florida, USA and Irina Branco da Silva, NOVA FCSH
