Sahrawi Archives Survey

The Sahrawi Archives Survey project aims to document institutional records of the Sahrawi government in exile, the Polisario Front. This government is a founding member state of the African Union, a consultative member of the Socialist International, and is recognized by the United Nations as the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people – and yet its records are kept in a mud brick building in a refugee camp, in an area vulnerable to extreme temperatures and periodic flooding. There are both environmental and political risks to keeping the materials in this area, and there is a significant risk of the records being permanently lost. This work aims to preserve the records of the Sahrawi people’s struggle for self-determination, which has been ongoing for fifty years, since 1973.

This project is a deep case study of a single anti-colonial movement suspended in a state of partial success. The project team from Seton Hall University partnered with community members to produce four site surveys and two inventories across multiple sites, including the radio archives, the Ministry of Culture, and the Ministry of Information.

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منذ عام ١٩٧٣، جمعت جبهة البوليساريو (حركة تحرير الصحراء الغربية) سجلاتٍ واسعة، تشمل أفلامًا ومقاطع فيديو وصورًا ومراسلات شخصية. وقد حُفظت هذه السجلات لمدة ٥٠ عامًا في مبانٍ مؤقتة من الطوب اللبن في رابوني، وهي بلدة تقع ضمن مخيمات اللاجئين الصحراويين قرب تندوف بالجزائر.

يهدف هذا المشروع إلى وصف هذه المواد الثمينة ورقمنتها ومشاركتها مع الناس حول العالم، ليتمكنوا من معرفة المزيد عن الشعب الصحراوي وتاريخه.