PORTRAITS OF SAHARAWI MUSIC: WHEN CULTURAL PRESERVATION MEETS POLITICAL ACTIVISM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v10i2.2040Keywords:
Saharawi refugee camps, Saharawi Ministry of CultureAbstract
Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork done mainly in the Saharawi refugee camps and the development of "Portraits of Saharawi Music” (2013—2014), a collaborative music archiving and research project in partnership with the British Library and the Saharawi Ministry of Culture, this article analyses issues in the political realities for Saharawi refugees from the perspective of the musicians and the cultural authorities in the refugee camps. In addition, it explores methodological and ethical issues derived from the uses of political and cultural activism as an ethnomusicological research method. It examines the interactions of the ideologies, motivations and personal relationships of the researcher, the musicians and the institutions involved in this recording project, focusing on the selection of repertoire as an activist act and the impact of doing advocacy research on an extremely vulnerable social group as the Saharawi refugee community. In agreement with basic principles of social responsibility of academia, it supports the role of "activist researcher”; but it cautions that it is essential for researchers to understand how relations of knowledge and power are produced, perpetuated, and challenged in specific situations of conflict, in order to turn their research into a true collaborative action.
References
Bárbulo, Tomás. 2010. La Historia Prohibida del Sáhara Español. Las Claves del Conflicto que Condiciona las Relaciones entre España y el Magreb. 2nd ed. Madrid: Destino.
Boukhars, Anouar and Jacques Rousselleir. 2014. Perspectives on Western Sahara: Myths, Nationalisms, and Geopolitics. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Deubel, Tara Flynn. 2012 "Poetics of diaspora: Sahrawi poets and postcolonial transformations of a trans-Saharan genre in northwest Africa.” The Journal of North African Studies 17 (2): 295—314.
Diehl, Keila. 2002. Echoes from Dharamsala: Music in the Life of a Tibetan Refugee Community. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Dirksen, Rebecca. 2012 "Reconsidering theory and practice in ethnomusicology: applying, advocating, and engaging beyond academia.” Ethnomusicology Review, 17. http://ethnomusicologyreview.ucla.edu.
DomÃnguez, Manuel. 2012 "La Otra Música Saharaui.” Shukran 37: 16—19.
EFE Agency 2014 "El Documental 'Legna: Habla el Verso Saharaui,' Primer Premio del FiSahara.” La Vanguardia 4 May 2014.
Firebrace, James (with Jeremy Harding). 1987. Exiles of the Sahara: The Sahrawi Refugees Shape their Future. London: War on Want.
Giménez Amorós, Luis. 2013 "Comercialización de la música saharaui en el mundo occidental a través de Nubenegra (Madrid, 1998—2011).” Resonancias 33: 147—166.
Giménez Amorós, Luis. 2015 "Azawan: Precolonial Musical Culture and Saharawi Nationalism in the Refugee Camps of the Hamada Desert in Algeria.” African Music 10 (1): 31—51. Available: https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v10i1.1225.
Gimeno, Juan Carlos. 2016 "With and from the Saharawi People. Film Documentary, Poetry and Stories in Western Sahara.” Unpublished presentation at the 1st International Symposium on Western Sahara The (Un)resolved Question of Western Sahara: What Challenges Lie Ahead for Researchers on Social Sciences and the Arts?, Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris, France, 2 and 3 June 2016.
Grant, Catherine. 2012 "Rethinking Safeguarding: Objections and Responses to Protecting and Promoting Endangered Musical Heritage.” Ethnomusicology Forum 21 (1): 31—51.
Guignard, Michel. 2005. Musique, Honneur et Plaisir au Sahara: Étude Psycho-Sociologique et Musicologique de la Société Maure. Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner.
Harrison, Klisala, Elizabeth Mackinlay and Svanibor Pettan, eds. 2010. Applied Ethnomusicology: Historical and Contemporary Approaches. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
Helbig, Adriana. 2007 "Ethnomusicolgy and Advocacy Research: Theory in Action Among Romani NGOs in Ukraine.” Anthropology of East Europe Review: Special Issue on Roma and Gadje 25 (2): 78—83.
Lasuen, Ainhoa. 2013 "Mariem Hassan. 'Nunca Hubiera Pensado que la Música Saharaui Llegara tan Alto.'” El Correo 3 Jan 2013. https://rasdargentina.wordpress. com/2013/01/03/mariem-hassan-nunca-hubiese-pensado-que-la-musica-saharauillegara-tan-alto/ [accessed 17 June 2016].
MartÃnez, Ãngel L. 2013 "Inside the Saharawi Refugee Camps: Is UN Part of the Problem?” Ceasefire Magazine 20 June 2013. https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/saharawirefugee-camps-part-problem [accessed 17 June 2016].
McDonald, David. 2013. My Voice Is My Weapon: Music, Nationalism, and the Poetics of Palestinian Resistance. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Ministerio de Cultura RASD. 2008. Constitución del Observatorio Internacional para la Protección del Patrimonio Cultural en el Sáhara Occidental [informative leaflet]. RASD: Saharawi Ministry of Culture.
Norris, Harry Thirlwall. 1968. Shinqiti Folk Literature and Song. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
O'Connell, John Morgan and Salwa el-Shawan Castelo-Branco, eds. 2010. Music and Conflict. Chicago: University of Illinois.
Ruano Posada, Violeta. 2016a "Shaheed El Uali and Beyond: 40 Years of Resistance Music in Western Sahara.” Bring the Noise, Ethnomusicology Review. http://ethnomusicologyreview.ucla.edu/content/shaheed-el-uali-band-and-beyond-40-yearsresistance-music-western-sahara [accessed 17 June 2016].
Ruano Posada, Violeta. 2016b "Festivals and 'World Music' Caravans: The Cultural Battle for Western Sahara.” Western Sahara Review / Revista del Sáhara Occidental 4: 17—20.
Ruano Posada, Violeta. 2016c "Aziza Brahim: Voice of Resistance.” Songlines 116: 24—31.
Ruano Posada, Violeta. Forthcoming "Performing the Cause: The Politics of Musical Expression in the Saharawi Refugee Camps.” In Politics of Culture and Cultures of Politics in the West of the Sahara, Sebastién Boulay and Francisco Freire, eds. Paris: BRILL.
Ruano Posada, Violeta and Vivian Solana Moreno. 2015 "The Strategy of Style: Music, Struggle, and the Aesthetics of Sahrawi Nationalism in Exile.” TransModernity, Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World 5 (3): 40—61.
San MartÃn, Pablo. 2010. Western Sahara: The Refugee Nation. University of Wales Press.
Seeger, Anthony. 2008 "Theories Forged in the Crucible of Action. The Joys, Dangers, and Potentials of Advocacy and Fieldwork.” In Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology, Gregory Barz and Timothy J. Cooley, eds. 271—288. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Thobhani, Akbarali. 2002. Western Sahara Since 1975 Under Moroccan Administration. Social, Economic, and Political Transformation. New York: The Edwin Mellen Press.
Topp Fargion, Janet. 2009 "'For My Own Research Purposes?' Examining Ethnomusicology Field Methods for a Sustainable Music.” World of Music 51(1): 79—93.
Zunes, Stephen and Jacob Mundy. 2010. Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution. New York: Syracuse University Press.
Interviews by author
Bara, Mahmud. Boujdour, Saharawi refugee camps (SW Algeria), 14 Sep 2013.
Said, Luali. Al Aaiun, Saharawi refugee camps (SW Algeria), 3 Oct. 2013.
Tamy, Mohamed. Boujdour, Saharawi refugee camps (SW Algeria), 31 Oct. 2013.
Boukhars, Anouar and Jacques Rousselleir. 2014. Perspectives on Western Sahara: Myths, Nationalisms, and Geopolitics. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Deubel, Tara Flynn. 2012 "Poetics of diaspora: Sahrawi poets and postcolonial transformations of a trans-Saharan genre in northwest Africa.” The Journal of North African Studies 17 (2): 295—314.
Diehl, Keila. 2002. Echoes from Dharamsala: Music in the Life of a Tibetan Refugee Community. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Dirksen, Rebecca. 2012 "Reconsidering theory and practice in ethnomusicology: applying, advocating, and engaging beyond academia.” Ethnomusicology Review, 17. http://ethnomusicologyreview.ucla.edu.
DomÃnguez, Manuel. 2012 "La Otra Música Saharaui.” Shukran 37: 16—19.
EFE Agency 2014 "El Documental 'Legna: Habla el Verso Saharaui,' Primer Premio del FiSahara.” La Vanguardia 4 May 2014.
Firebrace, James (with Jeremy Harding). 1987. Exiles of the Sahara: The Sahrawi Refugees Shape their Future. London: War on Want.
Giménez Amorós, Luis. 2013 "Comercialización de la música saharaui en el mundo occidental a través de Nubenegra (Madrid, 1998—2011).” Resonancias 33: 147—166.
Giménez Amorós, Luis. 2015 "Azawan: Precolonial Musical Culture and Saharawi Nationalism in the Refugee Camps of the Hamada Desert in Algeria.” African Music 10 (1): 31—51. Available: https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v10i1.1225.
Gimeno, Juan Carlos. 2016 "With and from the Saharawi People. Film Documentary, Poetry and Stories in Western Sahara.” Unpublished presentation at the 1st International Symposium on Western Sahara The (Un)resolved Question of Western Sahara: What Challenges Lie Ahead for Researchers on Social Sciences and the Arts?, Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris, France, 2 and 3 June 2016.
Grant, Catherine. 2012 "Rethinking Safeguarding: Objections and Responses to Protecting and Promoting Endangered Musical Heritage.” Ethnomusicology Forum 21 (1): 31—51.
Guignard, Michel. 2005. Musique, Honneur et Plaisir au Sahara: Étude Psycho-Sociologique et Musicologique de la Société Maure. Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner.
Harrison, Klisala, Elizabeth Mackinlay and Svanibor Pettan, eds. 2010. Applied Ethnomusicology: Historical and Contemporary Approaches. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
Helbig, Adriana. 2007 "Ethnomusicolgy and Advocacy Research: Theory in Action Among Romani NGOs in Ukraine.” Anthropology of East Europe Review: Special Issue on Roma and Gadje 25 (2): 78—83.
Lasuen, Ainhoa. 2013 "Mariem Hassan. 'Nunca Hubiera Pensado que la Música Saharaui Llegara tan Alto.'” El Correo 3 Jan 2013. https://rasdargentina.wordpress. com/2013/01/03/mariem-hassan-nunca-hubiese-pensado-que-la-musica-saharauillegara-tan-alto/ [accessed 17 June 2016].
MartÃnez, Ãngel L. 2013 "Inside the Saharawi Refugee Camps: Is UN Part of the Problem?” Ceasefire Magazine 20 June 2013. https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/saharawirefugee-camps-part-problem [accessed 17 June 2016].
McDonald, David. 2013. My Voice Is My Weapon: Music, Nationalism, and the Poetics of Palestinian Resistance. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Ministerio de Cultura RASD. 2008. Constitución del Observatorio Internacional para la Protección del Patrimonio Cultural en el Sáhara Occidental [informative leaflet]. RASD: Saharawi Ministry of Culture.
Norris, Harry Thirlwall. 1968. Shinqiti Folk Literature and Song. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
O'Connell, John Morgan and Salwa el-Shawan Castelo-Branco, eds. 2010. Music and Conflict. Chicago: University of Illinois.
Ruano Posada, Violeta. 2016a "Shaheed El Uali and Beyond: 40 Years of Resistance Music in Western Sahara.” Bring the Noise, Ethnomusicology Review. http://ethnomusicologyreview.ucla.edu/content/shaheed-el-uali-band-and-beyond-40-yearsresistance-music-western-sahara [accessed 17 June 2016].
Ruano Posada, Violeta. 2016b "Festivals and 'World Music' Caravans: The Cultural Battle for Western Sahara.” Western Sahara Review / Revista del Sáhara Occidental 4: 17—20.
Ruano Posada, Violeta. 2016c "Aziza Brahim: Voice of Resistance.” Songlines 116: 24—31.
Ruano Posada, Violeta. Forthcoming "Performing the Cause: The Politics of Musical Expression in the Saharawi Refugee Camps.” In Politics of Culture and Cultures of Politics in the West of the Sahara, Sebastién Boulay and Francisco Freire, eds. Paris: BRILL.
Ruano Posada, Violeta and Vivian Solana Moreno. 2015 "The Strategy of Style: Music, Struggle, and the Aesthetics of Sahrawi Nationalism in Exile.” TransModernity, Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World 5 (3): 40—61.
San MartÃn, Pablo. 2010. Western Sahara: The Refugee Nation. University of Wales Press.
Seeger, Anthony. 2008 "Theories Forged in the Crucible of Action. The Joys, Dangers, and Potentials of Advocacy and Fieldwork.” In Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology, Gregory Barz and Timothy J. Cooley, eds. 271—288. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Thobhani, Akbarali. 2002. Western Sahara Since 1975 Under Moroccan Administration. Social, Economic, and Political Transformation. New York: The Edwin Mellen Press.
Topp Fargion, Janet. 2009 "'For My Own Research Purposes?' Examining Ethnomusicology Field Methods for a Sustainable Music.” World of Music 51(1): 79—93.
Zunes, Stephen and Jacob Mundy. 2010. Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution. New York: Syracuse University Press.
Interviews by author
Bara, Mahmud. Boujdour, Saharawi refugee camps (SW Algeria), 14 Sep 2013.
Said, Luali. Al Aaiun, Saharawi refugee camps (SW Algeria), 3 Oct. 2013.
Tamy, Mohamed. Boujdour, Saharawi refugee camps (SW Algeria), 31 Oct. 2013.
Downloads
Published
2016-11-01
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
“PORTRAITS OF SAHARAWI MUSIC: WHEN CULTURAL PRESERVATION MEETS POLITICAL ACTIVISM”. 2016. African Music : Journal of the International Library of African Music 10 (2): 109-25. https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v10i2.2040.
