For my Dad

As our grade-school teachers always implored, "If you have a question, ask, because you are probably not alone." So, thank you, Dad, for requesting some geographical and historical orientation about Algeria and Western Sahara (and my project). In a few days I will be flying to Tindouf, shown here in westernmost Algeria at the desert borderlands of Morocco, Western Sahara (W. Sah. on this map), and Mauritania (south of W. Sah.).

If you have been confused about what country Tindouf is actually located in, it is for good reason. Tindouf has historically been an important site along the trans-Saharan caravan and has been "ruled" in turn by Saharawi (Western Saharan) tribes, the Moroccan King, the French, and finally the Algerians. When the King of Morocco invaded the territory of Western Sahara in 1975, a war began between Morocco and Western Sahara that left thousands of Saharawi refugees homeless. They fled the war-torn Western Sahara for Tindouf, by then part of the independent state of Algeria. Morocco still "rules" Western Sahara and thousands of refugees remain in Tindouf, where they have been provided protection by Algeria and aid by the UN. Technically, the war between Western Sahara and Morocco ended in 1991, but the UN peacekeeping and diplomatic channels designated to assist in the decolonization of Western Sahara have proven ineffective.

If you headed due West for a couple hundred miles from Tindouf, you would end up in the capital of the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara, Layouune. If you headed further West a hundred miles or so, you would end up in the Canary Islands off the coast of Western Sahara, where Maddy, her Mom, and her husband will be spending Christmas (and where there is also a considerable Saharawi refugee population). Unfortunately, you can't actually get to Layouune from Tindouf because of a vast sand wall, built by Morocco during the war to insulate its colony from the Saharawi war effort, then based out of Tindouf. Since my access to internet in Tindouf will be unreliable, I will post a few pictures from the refugee camps in Tindouf over the next few days, so you can put a visual with the place name.