Country: Western Sahara

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Women in Tindouf refugee camp mark the 43rd anniversary of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (photo: Hugo Flotat-Talon)

Western Sahara conflict

The Sahrawis are fed up with waiting

The dispute over Western Sahara has been smouldering for over 40 years. In the refugee camps in Algeria, resignation is spreading among many people who have been hoping for a solution by the United Nations for decades. By Hugo Flotat-TalonMore

Western Sahara conflict: The curse of resources The status of Western Sahara: A forgotten conflictWestern Sahara – the last colony in Africa: ″Armed resistance is their only choice″
Still taken from the "Asaharaden" video clip; Amankor/The Exile (source: YouTube)

Album review: Tartitʹs "Amankor/The Exile"

Lapping at your consciousness

With "Amankor/The Exile", the Kel Tamashek band Tartit have produced another cultural treasure for the rest of the world to appreciate. Their original intent may have been to keep their own culture alive, but in the process they have succeeded in bringing the sound of the desert into all our lives. By Richard MarcusMore

Album review: Imarhanʹs "Temet": Keeping it realAlbum review: "Alone" by Terakaft: The lions of Tamasheq musicThe Tuareg Band "Tinariwen" from Mali: From armed struggle to music
Readers at the Cairo book fair (photo: imago/Xinhua)

Crowdfunding for translations of Arabic literature

A new way to reach a wider readership

The "A Bird is not a Stone" crowdfunding campaign may not have gotten as much press as British scientists seeking to fund a moon landing through online donations, but it certainly made a ripple among Arabic literary translators. The success of this campaign showed that crowdfunding can be an important tool in bringing Arabic literature into European languages. By Marcia Lynx QualeyMore

Interview with literary translator Hartmut Faehndrich: "What I don't see is an on-going interest in Arabic literature"Book review: Kamal Ruhayyim's "Diary of a Muslim Jew": An engaging take on a complex themeBook review: Jabbour Douaihy's "June Rain": A "whodunit" without the "who"International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2014: "Frankenstein in Baghdad": Beyond good and evil
A boy holding the flag of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in the Laayoune refugee camp near Tindouf, Algeria (photo: picture-alliance/dpa)

Western Sahara conflict

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The curse of resources

In times of economic crisis and rising unemployment in North Africa, Western Sahara's natural resources have become fiercely contested treasures. The new balance of power resulting from recent political developments in the region could lead to a renegotiation of the conflict. By Susanne KaiserMore

Photo gallery: The conflict in Western SaharaThe status of Western Sahara: A forgotten conflictThe crisis in Western Sahara: The forgotten refugees of Tindouf
Aziza Brahim at the 15th Malaga Spanish Film Festival, in Malaga, Spain, 24 April 2012 (photo: picture-alliance/dpa)

Aziza Brahim's CD "Soutak"

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Music of beauty from a barren land

Relatively few people will have been familiar with the music, culture and history of the Sahrawi people of north-western Africa before Aziza Brahim arrived on the music scene. Brahim has not only won an award for her original soundtrack to the film "Wilaya", she has also released three albums. Her latest album, "Soutak", spent three months at the top of the World Music Charts Europe in 2014. A review by Richard MarcusMore

Omar ''Bombino'' Moctar: Rebel Music from the SaharaInterview with the Algerian Singer Houria Aïchi: Ambassador of Chaouia Culture15th Gnawa Music Festival in Morocco: A Festival of Fusion
A man stands by a mural painted on a stone in Bir Lehlu, the Liberated Territories administrative capital (photo: DW/Karlos Zurutuza)

The Status of Western Sahara

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A Forgotten Conflict

The conflict over the status of Western Sahara has been simmering for four decades between the Kingdom of Morocco and the Sahrawi independence movement Frente Polisario. Efforts to find a solution to the deadlock appear to be paralysed – a fact partly due to a lack of international interest. By Annett HellwigMore

Consequences of the Military Intervention in Mali: A Tinderbox SituationThe Crisis in the Western Sahara: The Forgotten Refugees of TindoufPhoto Essay: The Conflict in Western Sahara - The Eternal Wait

In brief

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Beauty Craze

Iranian painter Homa Arkani: Beautycraze

In spite of strict moral regulations, plastic surgery is allowed in Iran. More than 60,000 Iranian women per year get nose surgery. Such contradictions have informed Tehran-born artist Homa Arkani's work since 1983.