Western Sahara is located on the north west coast in West Africa, and on the cusp of North Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean to the north west. It borders Morocco proper to the north-northeast. Algeria lies to its east-northeast. It borders Mauritania to the east and south.
The land is the most arid and inhospitable on the earth. The land along the coast is low flat desert and rises, especially in the north, to small mountains reaching up to 600m on the eastern side. While the area can experience flash flooding in the spring, there are no permanent streams. At times a cool off-shore current can produce fog and heavy dew.
History
The earliest known inhabitants of Western Sahara were the Gaetuli.
Other early inhabitants of Western Sahara may be the Bafour, and later the Serer. In the eighth century, the arrival of Islam played a major role in the development of the Maghreb region. Trade developed, and the territory may have been one of the routes for caravans, especially between Marrakesh and Tombouctou, in Mali.
Culture
The major ethnic group of Western Sahara is the Sahrawis, a nomadic or Bedouin ethnic group. They speak the Hassānīya dialect of Arabic, which is also spoken in much of Mauritania. They are of mixed Arab-Berber descent.
Like other Saharan Bedouin and Hassaniya groups, the Sahrawis are mostly Muslims. Sahrawi Islam has traditionally functioned without mosques, because of their nomadic life.
They have an established music tradition. Sahrawi music shares much in common with neighbouring musical traditions such as those of Mauritania and southern Morocco, yet retain much of its pre-colonial heritage. The Tbal is the basic instrument of percussion, though the traditional string instrument called Tidinit, has largely been replaced by the electric guitar.
Art
The annual FiSahara International Film Festival held in one of the south western refugee camps in Algeria sees actors, directors, and film industry insiders from around the world joining the Sahrawi people for a week-long festival of screenings, parallel activities, and concerts. It provides entertainment and educational opportunities for the refugees.
ARTifariti, the International Art and Human Rights Meeting in Western Sahara, is an annual art workshop set up in the Liberated Zone and refugee camps, specifically in Tifariti, that brings artists from all over the world. This event led to the introduction of graffiti art to the camps, and popular graffiti artists have come to the workshop to work with refugees.
