How Abdallah Laroui deconstructs the separatist thesis on the Moroccan Sahara
An endeavour that not only involves the search for answers, but also the creation of new questions that challenge our understanding of the world. Through creative research, critical reflection and the art of sharing and transmitting, a thinker becomes an explorer of ideas, illuminating unexplored paths like a beacon and awakening curiosity in contemporary minds.
However, an intellectual project is not just a programme of research and reflection with clear objectives, which consist of exploring, developing or deepening ideas, concepts or knowledge in a particular area, but rather a multidisciplinary endeavour that seeks to enrich research perspectives and achieve more relevant results, and which is distinguished at the same time by its mode of ethical and reflective commitment to the great contemporary problems.
In this sense, a thinker who is the bearer of an intellectual project differs from others in his coherent and holistic approach, combining different disciplines to develop ideas and connect theory and practice. He is also characterised by his active participation in the public sphere, where he shares his analyses and ideas, which often has a notable impact on collective thinking and on society in general.
The intellectual projects of the great figures of human thought tend to be lifelong endeavours, as they require a long-term commitment. This involves developing and evolving ideas over a long period of time, integrating new perspectives and adapting to social, political or cultural changes.
Abdallah Laroui, a prominent Moroccan historian and philosopher, is a distinguished example of this kind of thinker, having been developing for more than half a century an impressive body of work that never ceases to surprise, both for its abundance and for the variety of subjects it deals with. The common thread running through this intellectual work is the modernity and modernisation of thought and society in Morocco, as in the Arab world as a whole.
Abdallah Laroui's intellectual project is manifested through a wide range of works that mark a true turning point in the contemporary Arab context. His writings, which stand out for their broad scope, encompassing disciplines such as philosophy, history, sociology and politics, reflect a deep understanding of the Islamic legacy, as well as an insightful vision of the foundations of Western modernity and modern philosophies.
Through his prolific and continuous production, spanning more than six decades and characterised by the coherence of its scientific content and its methodological rigour, Abdallah Laroui constantly associated the achievement of the Arab Renaissance with a critique of traditional thought and the integration of modern thought, focusing particularly on the study of history. As well as contributing significantly to the enrichment of the Arabic and French library with more than 30 books written in Arabic and French, the prestigious historian never stopped taking a stance on the major issues and debates that occupy both Moroccan society and the Arab world, as he himself recognises when writing in his book ‘Philosophy and History’: ‘When I deal with the specific situation of Morocco, I do the work of a historian, and when I turn to Arab-Muslim culture, I become a sociologist, but when I focus my attention on concepts, I use philosophy’.
In his works, which cover a variety of genres such as history, philosophy, novels and autobiography, the prestigious historian pays particular attention to the question of the Moroccan Sahara. Through his writings, and particularly his book ‘Algeria and the Moroccan Sahara’, as well as his work ‘Thoughts in the Morning. Diaries 1974-1981’ or his most recent publication 'COVID Notebooks', Abdallah Laroui deeply explores the complex historical and political contexts in which the Sahara conflict is framed, offering a lucid and revealing vision of the regional dynamics that shape the identity and future of the Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty, a vision perfectly inscribed in his intellectual project, dedicated especially to decolonising the history of the Maghreb, questioning colonial historiography and fostering critical thinking, which allows Maghreb historians to reappropriate their history to prevent others from doing so.
It is worth remembering in this context that the Kingdom of Morocco was subject to a triple colonisation: French in the centre and Spanish in the north and south of the country, to which we must add the triple international administration of the city of Tangiers by foreign powers. Morocco therefore had to negotiate, in stages, the return of the different parts of its national territory and this in full accordance with the principles and objectives of the United Nations Charter. The same procedure was followed for the Saharan zone under Spanish administration. This is how Morocco was able to recover Tarfaya in 1958 and Sidi Ifni in 1969.
It should be emphasised here that both the Sahara and the Sidi Ifni area formed part of the same ‘package’. Therefore, General Assembly resolution 2072 of 1965 ‘urged the Spanish Government, as the administrative power, to take immediately the necessary measures for the liberation of Ifni and Spanish Sahara and, to that end, to enter into negotiations regarding the problems relating to the sovereignty of both territories’. The Spanish regime of the time agreed to the return of Sidi Ifni in the first instance and to defer, for political-military considerations, negotiations on the region of ‘Sakiaa Hamra and Oued Eddahab’.
Unfortunately, the change in context, both in relation to Spain and the Maghreb, and on the international stage, meant that the recovery of the Sahara region gave rise to challenges after the signing of the Madrid Agreement in November 1975, an agreement that was duly registered with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
During the Spanish colonial period, the Polisario Front did not exist. The only claim to the territory at international level came from Morocco alone. At international level, the Polisario is not recognised as a ‘liberation movement’ and even less as the ‘exclusive and legitimate representative’ of the Saharawi population. Therefore, the Polisario Front has no legal, popular or democratic legitimacy to claim to represent the Saharawi people.
When the Sahara was recovered by Morocco in 1975 after the departure of Spanish colonialism, Algeria became involved in an artificial conflict with Morocco in the name of supporting the so-called ‘Saharawi people’, creating a fictitious republic with the aim of blocking Morocco from the south and isolating it from the continent, in order to achieve leadership in the region thanks to a vast geography created by French colonialism and enormous oil wealth.
In the early 1970s, Abdallah Laroui was already paying particular attention to the Moroccan Sahara issue in all its dimensions. His analysis, which covers historical, socio-political and economic aspects, is still perfectly relevant today. In this conflict, Laroui prioritises the historical legacy over international law, which he considers inadequate, biased and unjust. His work therefore remains highly topical.
In this matter, Algeria is not the only one to use the Sahara issue as a tool for political pressure. Like others, it relies on international norms and a complex geopolitical situation affecting Morocco. At the heart of the book is a key question: why is Morocco's position incomprehensible to many countries? According to Abdallah Laroui, those countries that systematically discredited the Moroccan thesis by unconditionally supporting the separatist project do not share the same structure and historical experience as Morocco, since they emerged from a typology of states drawn from colonial history, hence the importance of the critical perspective developed by the author of ‘Algeria and the Moroccan Sahara’ on the historical and legal aspects of the Moroccan claim, and more precisely on international law, considering it as a product of the power relations that emerged during the colonial era.
In this book, Laroui argues that international law acts as a modus vivendi for nations born of colonisation, which implies that this law reflects and legitimises the power dynamics established during colonialism, rather than offering a neutral basis for resolving territorial conflicts such as that of the Moroccan Sahara. This suggests that international law may not be sufficient to overcome the complex historical and geopolitical realities that have shaped the borders and territorial disputes in the region.
Abdallah Laroui's observations on the treatment of the Moroccan Sahara issue by international law clearly coincide with critical theories of international law, as he highlights its limitations and biases, often influenced by Western perspectives, which can overlook the historical and cultural reality of the affected regions. When these critical theories consider international law to be colonial law, they emphasise that it is simply a tool that has been moulded by colonial and Eurocentric dynamics, often serving to impose Western norms and values and legitimise the domination of former colonial powers.
If advocates of international law argue that it is based on natural law and therefore universally applicable to all, several critical internationalists argue that international law is not based on any ‘inherent natural law’ and that it is essentially a socially constructed belief and not an a priori given; therefore, basing international law on natural law is to confuse an a posteriori argument with an a priori truth.
Critical theories of international law maintain that if international law is not law, in the sense that everyone has the option of adhering to it, it is not international morality, since morality is a social construct. International law is, then, simply an aspect of politics, which can be manipulated for one's own and political benefit.
In this sense, Abdallah Laroui makes it clear that the international law we are talking about seems to him to be simply non-existent at a time when the People's Republic of China claims Tibet and Taiwan, based on rights that are comparable to those of Morocco over the Sahara, as well as when the Vietnamese and North Koreans justify their desire to unify their respective countries by the existence of a nation united prior to foreign occupation, but where Abdallah Laroui questions international law the most is in the treatment it reserved for the case of the Moroccan Sahara and very precisely when ‘the Hague Tribunal has demonstrated the non-existence of a true international law, by revealing the narrowly Latin-Western character of the law it practices, with the blessing, it must be recognised, of the loquacious representative of the Algerian Republic’.
It should be added that the postmodern approach to international law essentially emphasises the questioning of universalism, which consists of casting doubt on the idea of universal solutions and totalising paradigms in international law, promoting instead a plurality of methods and approaches, thus emphasising the importance of recognising and addressing the complexity and diversity of international situations, which escape the simplification of legal solutions, hence the relevance of the new perspective of the United Nations Security Council, reaffirming its ‘willingness to help the parties reach a just, sustainable and mutually acceptable political solution’.
When the eminent historian Abdallah Laroui invites us in this book to reflect critically on international law, whose colonial origins still influence international relations today, he consequently encourages a reassessment of the relationship between history and law, insofar as the conflict over the Moroccan Sahara is set in a rather particular context, which demands a certain compatibility between historical truth and legal truth.
At the heart of this historical truth are several main actors, most notably Algeria, but also Spain. Although the title of the book, Algeria and the Moroccan Sahara, suggests a focus on Algeria's role in the Sahara conflict, Spain emerges as a crucial actor due to its historical involvement in the region. Laroui analyses how Spain's decisions and actions have influenced the conflict, especially in its territorial and political configuration. Throughout his work, Laroui challenges Spain at various stages of this artificial conflict, highlighting its colonial legacy in the area, recalling how it held the Moroccan Sovereign responsible for so long for the lives of its nationals on the Atlantic coast south of the Oued Noun, when it collaborated with France in 1934 in order to put an end to the last resistance of Moroccan combatants in the Sahara, when in 1964 it was willing to return the Sahara to Morocco in exchange for a formal renunciation of the Presidios, and how the Algerian thesis, at a given moment, coincided with its own.
With unequivocal historical and political arguments, Abdallah Laroui deconstructs the separatist narrative about the Moroccan Sahara, denouncing the imposture of judging Algeria by its intentions and Morocco by its actions, while re-establishing historical truths about the authenticity of Morocco's claims regarding the fulfilment of its territorial integrity.