Domination and Resistance: Language, Power and Migration in an Unfinished Decolonisation – The Case of Western Sahara, by Maja Zwick- 24 November 2025

From Literatur.Review

The 14th of November this year marked the 50th anniversary of the illegal Madrid Accords, by which Spain transferred administrative control of its colony Western Sahara to Morocco and Mauritania. This act facilitated the annexation of Western Sahara, already underway since late October 1975. While Mauritania withdrew in 1979, Morocco today occupies more than 80 percent of Western Sahara. Spain has failed to fulfil its decolonisation responsibility to this day. 

The recent adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2797(2025) on 31 October 2025 adds a new layer to this unresolved colonial legacy. For the first time, the resolution explicitly endorses Morocco’s autonomy plan as a “serious and realistic basis” for resolving the conflict. This violates the international status of Western Sahara as a decolonisation issue and marks a significant shift from how the Security Council has previously addressed the issue in accordance with the principles anchored in the United Nations Charter. Thus, the resolution deepens the contradiction between Spain’s historical responsibility and the UN’s evolving position, as it effectively legitimises an occupation that originated in the unlawful transfer of power fifty years ago (1). While Spanish civil society supports the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination and independence, the Spanish government continues to stand with Morocco (2), reinforcing the unresolved moral and political debt of 1975. 

This essay addresses one of the most enduring traces of Spanish colonial rule: the Spanish language. Besides Equatorial Guinea, Western Sahara is the only hispanophone country in Africa. Although Spain withdrew in 1975, its language continues to circulate through migration, education and media – producing a layered field where colonial remnants, anticolonial resistance and new solidarities intersect. Thus, Spanish mirrors the unfinished process of decolonisation of Western Sahara.

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Maja Zwick is a sociologist specialising in the Western Sahara conflict, transnational mobility and protracted refugee situations in the Global South, particularly the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria, where she has conducted extensive field research. She completed her doctorate at the Free University of Berlin on the relationship between place and belonging in the context of flight, migration and return. Her research combines social anthropological, postcolonial and decolonial approaches with participatory qualitative methods. Her work has been funded by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and the DAAD. 

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