Sandblast

We have moved!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 09:37:00 +0000

This blog is no longer active, our apologies for any inconveniences. But not to worry, we haven't disappeared, we have just moved! To read more news about Sandblast and the Western Sahara, please go to our website or to our new blog.

Mine victims, by Nick Jubber

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 08:52:00 +0000

In a flaky pink apartment block in the Nahader district, a girl with henna on her hands pulled back the metal door and ushered me up the stairs. In a large room fringed with cushions, I sat on the woollen rug of a guest room while Mohammed Ali, director of the local mine victims’ association, prepared tea on a coal stove. I had come to listen to Ahmed, a student in his early twenties who was involved in a landmine accident a couple of years ago.

‘I was visiting my friend in an area south-east of Laayoune, about three hundred kilometres south,’ said Ahmed. He was an angular young man in his early twenties, his square-cut face softened by his glasses. ‘I was in the Land Rover with my friend’s father, Mohammed Nadher. He kept camels and around three hundred goats and we were driving between his tent and the field where he kept his goats when the back wheels went over an anti-charge. I remember running – about fifty metres away – I just ran – it was only when I was away from the explosion that I understood what had happened. My friend’s father was lying on the ground near the car. I pulled him away but the explosion had torn his feet open so he couldn’t walk. His sons heard the explosion and they came to find us, followed by the police who took us to Mohammed’s tent.’

An ambulance came, much later, carrying Ahmed and Mohammed to the military hospital in Laayoune.

‘But,’ he explained, ‘they only looked at our injuries. I was burned all the way up my leg. They refused to do anything for us, so we were taken to another hospital, and by this time it was too late to save Mohammed’s foot so his toe had to be amputated.’

It was only after several months of recovery that Mohammed went back to his flock; but now, unsteady on his feet, he was unable to herd them as well as in the past, so he sold up and moved to Laayoune.

‘What about you?’ I asked. ‘Did you have any after-effects?’

‘I hear a buzzing in my ears sometimes,’ he said, ‘but I am strong, I’m not afraid.’

For Mohammed Ali, it was clear who was to blame.

‘The Moroccan government,’ he said, ‘doesn’t even publicise the mine situation – there are no posters about it, they never mention it on TV or radio, so people aren’t educated about it. Especially people who live in the desert – they need to know about the mines but many of them don’t even know what a mine looks like.’

Saharawi landmine victim (in the camps).
Photo by Bernat Millet

Mohammed and Ahmed talked angrily of the Moroccan government’s failure to sign the Ottawa accord guaranteeing reparations to victims, or to make substantial efforts to map the mined areas.

‘It’s not only Morocco who planted the mines,’ said Mohammed, ‘Mauretania, Spain and the Polisario have all been responsible, but it is Morocco that has the authority here and they do nothing to help us. We’re Saharawi – we love the desert, it’s part of us. I like to spend my time in the city but also in the desert. But we have to be so careful when we go into the desert because of the mines.’

‘Without the desert,’ said Ahmed, ‘we are like fish out of water. But how can we use the desert when we are afraid we may step on a mine?’

Mohammed Salim – the Sheriff of Gudaym Izik (Gdeim Izik), by Nick Jubber

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 11:15:00 +0000

One of the activists who had taken part was sitting on the carpet at Abdelhadi’s, the house I went back to after the demonstration on Avenue Smara. He was called Mohammed Salim. I sat down next to him and asked him to tell me about his experience.

‘I loved it there,’ he said.

He was sitting with his legs stretched out on the woollen rug. Our host was preparing tea, the wash of hot water against the glasses mingling with the crackle of the coals on the stove as we talked.

‘I was unemployed,’ Mohammed Salim explained. ‘I was unhappy because it’s so hard for us to find work, so I joined the camp. I found freedom there, I was enjoying the desert more than seeing the Moroccan faces around us in the city. I was in the security attachment, I was like a sheriff.

Saharawis at Gdeim Izik protest camp.
Photo from Territorios Ocupados Minuto a Minuto

‘On the 28^th day, I was woken by the sound of the attack – guns and helicopters, people shouting. I saw the gendarmerie coming in with helmets and plastic shields. There were vehicles all around us – tanks, trucks, everything. It was confusing. You could hear gunshots, you could smell gas. I saw two gendarmerie picking up an old woman and beating her with batons, dragging her by the hair. I saw them grab a woman with an infant and throw her into a truck. They were shouting at us: ‘you dirty Saharawis.’ They called the women bitches. They used shameful words, they didn’t care, they kicked the women with their boots.’

Mohammed Salim managed to jump into a Land Rover and get himself back to Laayoune. But he was so angry about the way the camp had been destroyed that he joined a group of demonstrators protesting outside the central police station.

‘They didn’t care about our protest,’ he said. ‘They shot six of us, including me. They got me in the shoulder. But they wouldn’t treat me in the hospital so I had to use traditional medicine – hameiria and sheep’s grease – to ease the pain. Can you imagine how much it hurt? I could hardly move my arm. I didn’t get any proper treatment until a year later, when I went on the UN programme to the camps in Algeria and they treated me in the hospital.’

Exodus, by Nick Jubber

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 13:26:00 +0000

If there was one subject all the Saharawis I met in Laayoune wanted to talk about, it was Gudaym Izik (Gdeim Izik) – the protest camp set up in November 2010.

‘I was in the first group,’ explained Ali Salem, a veteran activist in his forties. ‘We went to an area called Gudaym Izik (Gdeim Izik), twelve kilometres to the east of the city, and set up a camp. At first there were thirty-five tents, but over the days it grew. People came out from Laayoune to join us and we had 20,000 by the peak in 6,600 tents. We called it our ‘Exodus’ camp, it was a protest against the social marginalisation and the lack of decent jobs, decent housing, legal rights. But it became something more than that – people came to the camp to go back to their roots, back to what being a Saharawi is about. We wanted to show the world we can live on our own, we can live away from civilisation, we belong to the desert.

Gdeim Izik protest camp on Nov 5, 2010.
Photo by Tenerife con el Sáhara

‘Many young people joined the camps – people who had been irresponsible in the town, they just hung about doing nothing with their lives, but in the camp they were transformed. They set up committees for nutrition, hygiene, security, administration. They helped organise the food. Going back to their roots brought something out of them. There was no crime, no complaining. People lived in the tents together. As long as you were Saharawi you didn’t care if you weren’t related.’

‘It was like a utopia,’ said his friend Mohammed. ‘Rich and poor joined in, people from different cities, young and old.’

‘They tried to do the same in other cities,’ said Ali, ‘in Dakhla, Smara, Goulmime, but the police arrested them, harassed them, took them to prison. But Moroccans who were living here, and also some Saharawi bloodsuckers who’ve benefitted from the system, were anxious. They saw a young generation who wouldn’t let them carry on benefitting from our resources. So one morning at 5 am the people in the camp were woken by the sound of helicopters and voices telling them in Hassaniya: ‘You can go home now, your complaints are being answered.’ Then the forces moved in, they burned the tents and destroyed equipment, people started panicking. They chased people, beat them up, especially the young ones. Or they told them, ‘come in the van, we’ll take you back to Laayoune’ – and instead they took them to prison.’

Destruction of the protest camp by Moroccan authorities
on Nov 17, 2010. Photo by Ceasefire Magazine

ARTifariti 2012: can an artist promote freedom?

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 12:28:00 +0000

The Reina Sofía Museum, in Madrid, hosts the presentation of ARTifariti 2012 with a roundtable on art, conflict and human rights.

Performance Gdeim Izik (students of the Art School of Mostaganem).
International Encounter of Art Students and Saharawi Refugees

After the Arab Spring, which was born in the Western Sahara, is it possible to have a proactive type of art, at the same time transformational, that provokes real social change?

The American philosopher Noam Chomsky suggested to the world that the waves of protest that originated in North Africa had really started in Western Sahara at the end of 2010. In fact, the organisational scheme that was imposed in the freedom squares and that Evru collected for the project "The book of the squares" for ARTifariti 2011, had previously designed in the camp of dignity of El Aaiun, Gdeim Izik, brutally dismantled on November 8 by the Moroccan forces with terrible consequences. The same patterns were repeated, as if in a chain revolution, in Western Sahara, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen... The popular action managed to modify the course of history in many of this places. And among the people demonstrating in the squares, there were cyberactivists and artists who used the Internet to spread their messages and images of change.

Last June 29, in the space REDES of the Reina Sofía Museum, the seminar "Art, conflict and human rights. ARTifariti" took place. At the same time, and supported by a video edited by Jan Busowsky, ARTifariti 2012 was presented. The 6th edition of the International Art Encounters of the Western Sahara will be starting next October 20. Its commissioner, Isidro López-Aparicio, has launched a defying proposal: "The ideal project, the one we are looking for, will free the Saharawis from their exile in the refugee camps. While we wait for this one, every proposal that contributes to give them a voice, take the to the present time and help them to get out of the isolation the have been immersed into through the art will be welcome."

Apart from the invited group, made up of creators who in a certain way have already made their revolution, such as Isidoro Valcárcel Medina, Esther Ferrer, Gao Brothers, Santiago Sierra, Democracia, Gilles Fontolliet, Mohammad Shaqdih, Los Torreznos, Miquel Barceló, Antoni Muntadas, Andreas Kaufmann, Alain Ayers, Daniel G. Andujar, Left Hand Rotation, Tom Hall and the "bus of Art"; any artist could present a proposal.

Documentary by Jan Bosowsky and Isidro López-Aparicio

Can art really detonate these changes? This was the core of the debate that took place after the presentation with Isidro Valcárcel Medina, Pablo España, poet Bahía M. Awax and Isidro López Aparicio.

Since 2007, ARTifariti has been promoting contemporary artistic practices as tools of demonstration, transformation and activation of a specific social, cultural and geopolitical context. A yearly encounter whose central theme is the conflict that derived from the "decolonisation" of the Western Sahara and the continues violations of collective and individual human rights in this territory. ARTifariti is part of an international group of activities and projects that examine the relationship of art and human rights while promoting the art linked to a local community and outside the study room or the museum.

The project is framed in a multi directional and interdisciplinary structure that is thought to address creative spaces at different levels: international encounters of students, diverse actions, communication technology labs and seminars about contemporary arts and culture. Every year, international and local artists share projects that link art and social commitment in an open encounter that aims to enrich and ensure the continuity of the social network in which it is structured.

Isolation. Isidro López-Aparicio

Please note: information and pictures taken from ARTifariti's blog.

Salaam's Story, by Nick Jubber

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 10:15:00 +0000

Back at the house of one of Ahmed’s friends, I was shown photos of other demonstrations – an old man with blood on his lips; a woman’s bare red back, rashed by a police baton; a youth with a red gash on his forehead from a stone thrown by a policeman. The range of ways in which people had been attacked was telling, as was the volume of the material.

Nick making Saharawi tea

But it was the stories they told that struck me more forcefully than the pictures, and none more so than Salaam’s.

She had been taking part in demonstrations since she was fifteen, when her mother had to go and pick her up at the police station after she was kept in overnight.

‘Of course we take part in demonstrations,’ she told me, ‘we must! It is our land as much as the men’s. And a lot of the men can’t take part because they will lose their job if they are seen at the demonstrations, or maybe they are already in prison. You must understand, we are different from women in Morocco. Our status is different. We have respect in society. If you are a woman in Morocco, your husband will beat you all the time and you cannot complain, but it isn’t like that here. In Saharawi culture, if a man beats his wife it is very shameful. We will go to our family and the man must do a lot to get us back.

‘Once I stood in front of fifty policemen, we were demanding freedom, work, our resources, the opportunity to bury our martyrs. They shouted back at us. They said, ‘you’re mercenaries’, and the deputy police chief hit me with his baton, they knocked me over and pulled off my milfha. You know, in our society, this is a great shame. They surrounded me, dragged me away from the others and pulled me by the hair and threatened me with rape.’

‘Are you ever nervous before the demonstrations?’ I asked.

‘Never! I feel hatred against them. When fifty policemen are facing you and I am only a single woman. I don’t feel scared, I feel hatred for them. Women are more involved than ever now,’ she said, ‘that is since Gdeim Izik. It was a breakthrough, it changed the mentality for women, now a lot of women who used to sit around gossiping, they talk about the political situation.’

Saharawi girls, by Nick Jubber

First Steps in Laayoune, by Nick Jubber

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 10:32:00 +0000

It’s hard in Laayoune to ignore the military presence. Every corner produces another military kiosk, and every time you cross the road you have to watch out for another artillery-loaded truck roaring round the corner. Wandering under schoolyard murals of the Moroccan army or portraits of King Mohammed, you can feel the weight of a city living under the heavy cloak of oppression. But in many ways, it’s the most innocuous details that are most telling: the empty teahouses, the lack of young men loitering about, the uncracked roads, the huge public squares with their squat palm trees and bougainvillea, gaudily sprayed about like an uninvited guest’s faltering attempt at charm. And occasionally, more specific signs of the political situation seep through – from the heavily gated compounds of the rich Moroccans who’ve made their fortunes off Western Sahara’s resources to the pink Lux minivans, their back windows taped with signs for the UNHCR “Saharawi Family Visits Programme” – underlining the population displacement caused by the Moroccan invasion of 1975.

A house in Laayoune, Nick Jubber

On a hot street of orangey-pink hardware stores and tailors’ workshops, where the bench outside the local eatery was full of men in workmen’s overalls and the air pulsed to the beat of jackhammering, I met a group of Saharawi activists.

‘You chose the right day,’ said one of them, called Ahmed. ‘There’s a demonstration this afternoon.’ He looked at his friends, before adding with a dark grin: ‘but it would be the same if we met you tomorrow. Most days, there’s a demonstration.’

School murals in Laayoune showing the Green March
and the Moroccan invasion, Nick Jubber

This one took place on Avenue Smara, one of the longest roads in the city. Wearing a white djellaba, Ahmed sat beside me in the back of a car. Beside him was Salaam, a young woman in a midnight blue milfha, who carefully folded a pair of gloves over her hands and tightened her head covering so she wouldn’t be easy to identify.

‘Wrap your turban tighter,’ she told me – I’d been given a black one to hide my face and told to keep my giveaway white hands under the window.

A schoolyard in Laayoune with the Moroccan flag, Nick Jubber

A dozen dark blue police trucks lined the road. Helmeted officers stood outside them, holding plastic shields and gripping their batons in their fists. The white vans of the auxiliary forces were parked in the side alleys. As we drove down the road, you could see the crowd gathering – jaws were stiffening, lips were being bitten, brows were being creased. Secret policemen swarmed between them - ‘You see the men on the motorbikes,’ said Ahmed, ‘that’s them – watch out. If they find out about you they’re gonna give you hell.’

Into the Deep, by Nick Jubber

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 16:26:00 +0000

It felt like the world was dying. After the lush green hills of North Morocco and the palmeraie of the south, now I was surrounded by nothing except for vast dunes of powdery dust.

The desert of Laayoune, Nick Jubber

I had boarded an overnight bus at Inezgane, one of Morocco’s chief transport hubs. Sitting around me were a group of teenage boys who were all returning from a camping trip. It had been organised by the Justice and Development Party – currently the largest party in the Moroccan parliament.

‘Oh yes, we are all Saharawis,’ one of them, Ibrahim, told me. No, he admitted, his parents hadn’t actually been born there, ‘but there is a lot of work to be done because Western Sahara is in need of development.’ One of his friends, Mehdi, was more forthright. ‘You need to understand something,’ he said. ‘Maybe you will meet people and they will say they are the only true Saharawis. But they want us to do all the work for them. My father and his father,’ he continued, wagging a finger at Ibrahim, ‘they are the people who are making this land something more.’ This issue – the settlers and their children versus the indigenous Saharawis – has become one of the core issues in Western Sahara, especially in regard to the proposed UN referendum to decide the fate of the region.

Camels in Laayoune, Nick Jubber

Blinking into the glare, as the sun floated over the roof of the bus, we looked across the rocky desert towards Laayoune. We passed a wind turbine, a dairy farm and a cement works. Farmsteads built from the abundant local stone skulked beside acacia groves. Most noticeable of all, though, was the checkpoint: a small pink kiosk where a soldier in grey sat behind his ledger and a tea tray buzzing with flies. Black and white mug-shots of ‘miscreants’ (many of them simply Saharawi activists against the occupation) were tacked to the wall above him. He asked me why I was visiting Laayoune and suggested I move on to Dakhla.

‘You can windsurf there,’ he explained.

Red flags with green five point stars – trumpeting Moroccan sovereignty – fought against the breeze and an archway hooped over us, patterned with seashells in the spandrels. Beyond the Oued Sakiya, military trucks loaded with artillery and Sûreté Nationale vans trundled around us, soldiers in olive-green uniforms picking their way between the early-morning strawberry cart pushers and women in brightly coloured milfhas or men in loose blue dira’a robes. I found myself a room in a downtown hotel above a café frequented by football enthusiasts. I was itching to explore – and to find out for myself what’s really going on in Laayoune.

Stories from the Occupied Territories

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 16:15:00 +0000

We're starting a new series of short stories (in English) by people from occupied Western Sahara or who have travelled there and want to share their experience. Do you want to participate? Just write an email to us with your story and we'll publish it on our blog. Don't forget to include some pictures!

Map of occupied Western Sahara and surrounded
territories painted on a wall in the camp February 27.
Photo by Danielle Smith

Saharawi arts and culture at the V&A

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:13:00 +0000

Last Saturday 23rd June Sandblast, with the support of the V&A Museum and in an event linked to Refugee Week, put together 'Out of the Sand - We are Saharawi', a sensational Saharawi arts and culture day at the Sackler's Centre of the museum. The event run from midday until approximately 4.30pm, and involved music, film, talk and a jewellery making workshop.

MUSIC: EL ANDALUZ

El Andaluz at the V&A Sackler's Centre

Fantastic Algerian music group El Andaluz Band, made up of Yazid Fentazi (oud), Karim Dellali (darboucka) and special guest Redha Boudbagh (voice and Algerian and oud), kicked off the afternoon with some incredible music. Having collaborated with Saharawi musicians in several occasions in the past (they performed in the jam session at Sahara Nights and Karim has travelled to the Saharawi refugee camps), these musicians offered the audience the perfect musical set up for the day. We were all soon tapping our feet and clapping to the intricate melodies and uplifting rhythms of the classic Arabic and Andalusian music they were performing.

FILM: BEAT OF DISTANT HEARTS

Umm Deleila, Saharawi singer
featured in Beat of Distant Hearts

Danielle Smith, filmmaker, photographer, anthropologist and Sandblast Founding Director, travelled to the Saharawi refugee camps for the first time in 1991. From the very beginning her imagination was captured by the inspiring Saharawi culture and the powerful role the arts, especially the music and poetry, but also the newly developed painting style, had played during the revolution and the 16 years of war (1975-1991). She decided to film a documentary showcasing this part of the story and Beats of Distant Hearts, the Art of the Revolution in Western Sahara was born. Although filmed in 1996, it was not released until 2000. Twelve years later, the film is still relevant today as it shows how the Saharawi arts and culture continue to be the best way of reaching international audiences and raise awareness about the Saharawi situation. After the screening, there was a Q&A with the filmmaker.

JEWELLERY MAKING WORKSHOP
In 2007, French Florie Salnot, a design student from the London Metropolitan Art Media & Design was challenged by her professor to develop a design project that could benefit both a community and the environment. Inspired by a talk by Danielle Smith, she developed a unique craft technique using hot sand and plastic bottles, both available in the refugee camps, and taught it to twenty-one Saharawi women to re-discover an ancient tradition of creative expression of their cultural identity.

Danielle shows us the thin strip of plastic
she's cutting off a bottle. At the back,
Florie supervises another workshop attendant

The technique is the following: the plastic bottle is first painted and then cut into thin strips. After that, any type of pattern can be made by positioning nails into the holes of a nail board: the plastic strip is placed around the nails and the whole board is submerged into hot sand. The plastic strip reacts to the heat by shrinking to fit the nail drawing, and keeps its shape when removed. The piece of jewellery then requires a few last steps and fittings to become finished.

On Saturday, Florie gave a workshop at the V&A for the attendants of 'Out of the Sand'. In a couple of hours each of us created a small ring out of thin strips of golden plastic using small copper sticks to shape the pieces of jewellery; it was fascinating to see how an everyday plastic bottle can become something so pretty and decorative!

Sahara Nights review

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:53:00 +0000

The Roundhouse Studio-Theatre was filled to the brim last week for Sahara Nights on June 6. The multi-arts launch for the Studio-Live music empowerment project brought the house down with an array of film, photography, short story presentations and wonderful music to provide rich glimpses of the Saharawi world, culture and plight.

Nigerian playwright and poet Inua Ellams,
Saharawi short stories readings, with Celtic violinist Lizzie Ogle and
Guinean kora player Mosi Conde © See Li

The launch was interlaced with fantastic first-class performances from a wide range of international artists...

Guinean kora player Mosi Conde
with photography by Ed Harriman © Tania Jackson

British-Congolese Binisa Bonner
from Ruby and the Vines © See Li

Venezuelan Luzmira Zerpa
from Family Atlantica © See Li

Hispano-Saharawi
singer and guitarist
Suilma Aali and percussionist
Nico Roca © Bela Molnar

The evening culminated with a stellar performance from Aziza Brahim. Born in the refugee camps, educated in Cuba and now based in Spain, Aziza is considered the new musical voice of the Saharawis, dedicating all her songs to the struggle. Her music is inspired by her poetess grandmother Mabruk, the only Saharawi female poet who has dedicated all her poetry to documenting the 16 years of war and to whom Aziza has dedicated her new album (released June 11).

Aziza with Spanish guitarist
Gonzalo Ordás © Bela Molnar

Aziza and Gonazalo © See Li

Aziza Brahim © Julia Ridlington

Sahara Nights was capped with the mother of all jam sessions. Virtually all the musicians of the evening joined along with a few new guests from Algeria to rocket the night into another music stratosphere that got the room dancing with abandon.

Final jam session © Julia Ridlington

What people have said:

It was a rich and diverse gathering with original and soulful music and poetry (hearing Aziza live and discovering her grandmother was incredibly emotional). Your passion and dedication for the Saharawi cause and its people was truly palpable. Meriem Aissaoui

Aziza and the Sahara Nights crowd © See Li

A fantastic evening and very informative in a sensitive way. Thomas Elliot

What an amazing evening. Congratulations on such a success, and thanks so much for letting me show part of our film. You know how important your support was to us when we started filming so I'm forever indebted to you. Saeed Taji Farouky

Programme

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 07:37:00 +0000

SAHARA-NIGHTS

Studio-Live launch

Roundhouse, June 6, 2012

7.00-10.30pm (doors open 6.30pm)

Pre-show

· Ed Harriman, photographer – photo slideshow

· Mosi Conde, kora

PART I

· Suilma Aali, music duo

· The Runner, by Saeed Taji Farouky, filmmaker – preview clip

· Inua Ellams, poet and playwright – Saharawi short stories reading

· Danielle Smith, Founding Director of Sandblast – talk

· Steve Stavrinides, Founding Director of Fairtunes – talk

· Luzmira Zerpa and Family Atlantica, music band

BREAK (8.10pm - 8.30pm)

· Bernat Millet, photographer – photo slideshow

· Sandtracks, Saharawi music CD

PART II

· Inua Ellams, poet and playwright – Saharawi short stories reading + music by Lizzie Ogle, violin, and Mosi Conde, kora

· Ruby and the Vines, music band

· Lkhadra Mabruk, by Noë Mendelle, filmmaker – preview clip

· Aziza Brahim, music band

BREAK (9.45pm - 10pm)

· Andrew McConnell, photographer – photo slideshow

FINAL JAM SESSION

Led by Aziza Brahim

Night compered by Dan Tsu (Lyrix Organix)

Film

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 06:49:00 +0000

These are the two filmmakers, and short a teaser from their films on Western Sahara, featuring in Sahara Nights.

Saeed Taji Farouky is a documentary photographer, filmmaker and writer who specialises in documenting issues of human rights and social justice in the Middle East and North Africa. His work has been published by The Observer, The Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, BBC Online and The Economist Group amongst others. He is currently a TED Senior Fellow, was previously named Artist-in-Residence at the Tate Britain and The British Museum, and is Director of the award-winning documentary production company Tourist With A Typewriter.

The Runner is a film about endurance. It is the story of a champion long-distance runner whose journey transformed him from an athlete into the symbol of a national liberation movement. Salah Ameidan from Western Sahara is willing to risk his life, his career, his family and his nationality to run for a country that doesn't exist.

Noë Mendelle is particularly interested in aspects of narrative and new directions within the documentary format. Particular research themes include women, migration and stories of transgression. Since the 1980s she has produced and directed over 30 films, mainly for British and French television, widely distributed at international festivals and which have won awards. She also develops documentary networks across countries and continents: "Bridging the Gap" (Scotland); "Constructing Reality" (Europe); "Africadoc" (Portuguese and French speaking African countries).

Lkhadra Mabruk is a short documentary on camp-based poetess Lkhadra Mabruk, Aziza Brahim’s grandmother. Mabruk was the only Saharawi female poet who documented the 16 years of Saharawi war through her poetry.

http://seyretmelik.com/ljadra-mint-mabruk-fi-la-grara-en-la-grara/35821288

More info:

Saeed Taji Farouky: www.taji.co.uk

Noë Mendelle: www.scottishdocinstitute.com/tag/noe-mendelle

Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 22:31:00 +0000

This is a taster for the amazing photography you'll be seeing at Sahara Nights.

Women raising tents, Ed Harriman

Ed Harriman graduated from Amherst College in Mass., USA. He has dedicated his life to producing political and investigative documentaries and is a regular contributor to the London Book Review. Has worked closely with John Pilger on a number of films and just recently finished a film investigating massive scale US corruption linked with “rebuilding” Iraq.

View of Smara camp, Bernat Millet

Bernat Millet is a Spanish London-based photographer and visual media artist who recently won the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize (2011), having one of his pictures on Saharawi landmine victims exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery (London). His project Saharawis aims to expose the consequences of state violence by Moroccan forces as well as the ineffectual efforts of the UN and international community to resolve the situation.

Starry night, Andrew McConnell

Andrew McConnnell is an award-winning Irish photographer who began his career as a press photographer covering the closing stages of the conflict in his homeland before transitioning to more in-depth social documentary work around the world. His images have appeared internationally in publications such as National Geographic Magazine, Newsweek, Time magazine, The New York Times, The Guardian, FT Magazine, Vanity Fair, the Sunday Times Magazine, Der Spiegel, L’espresso, and Internazionale. His collection The Last Colony is an innovative and highly personal portrayal of the Saharawi people.

More info:

Bernat Millet: www.bernatmilletphotography.com

Andrew McConnell: www.andrewmcconnell.com

Mosi Conde

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 20:49:00 +0000

One more of our great artists from Sahara Nights.

Mosi Conde is a West African artist now living in London. He specialises in voice, percussion and West African string including Kora (21 string African harp), Ngoni (4-6 string wooden lute), Balafon (wooden xylaphone) Guitar, Bolong (african bass), Western bass, kit drum, djembe, dun dun, you name it!! Mosi is a young griot from Guinea Conakry’s leading family: Sekouba ‘Diamond fingers’ Diabate is his uncle and his family are the inspiration for extended family and friends from Mory Kante to Salif Keita. Not yet 30, Mosi already has a long professional career to his name having started playing the many instruments he is master of at 4 and touring from 15. Much in demand to play with every leading African band, Mosi now introduces his own matchless crew drawing in superb fellow musicians. As a soloist Mosi Conde has played at WOMAD, for Nelson Mandela and at numerous festivals and gatherings and brings all this experience to leading Kaira Kora Africa. (Info from MySpace)

More about Mosi:

MySpace: www.myspace.com/mosiconde

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mosi.conde

Luzmira Zerpa and Family Atlantica

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 20:33:00 +0000

Sahara Nights is around the corner! Today we introduce...

Luzmira Zerpa is one of the most celebrated Venezuelan artists working in the UK today. She comes from the immensely rich lineage of Venezuelan folk music and plays traditional instruments such as the cuatro (Venezuelan four string guitar) and maracas. Her powerful voice and stage presence have enchanted audiences across Europe, in venues such as Chesky Krumlov Castle, London’s Barbican, the Royal Academy

of Music, Purcell Room among others. She has collaborated with some of the worlds finest musicians such as Alirio Diaz and Pavel Steidl. She is the founder of music and dance group Family Atlantica.

More info:
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/luzmirazerpa

Inua Ellams

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:51:00 +0000

More wonderful artists performing at Sahara Nights!

Born in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria ‘1984, Inua Ellams is a Word and Graphic Artist, a writer with a style as influenced by Classic literature as it is by hip hop, by Keats as it is by MosDef. Rooted in a love for rhythm and language, he crosses 18th century romanticism & traditional story telling with contemporary diction, loose rhythm and rhyme. However, his first love was visual art; the first time he toyed with a pencil, he fell for the magic of line and form. He works extensively as a graphic designer / visual artist and also tries to mix the old with the new juxtaposing texture and pigment with flat shades of color and digitally created designs. He works in online and print. (Info from MySpace)

Inua will be reading amazing stories by Saharawi ex-political prisoner Mustafa Abdel Dayem.

More info about Inua:

MySpace: www.myspace.com/phaze05

Phaze 05: www.phaze05.com

Inua Ellams: inuaellams.com

Twitter: @InuaEllams

Lizzie Ogle

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Thu, 31 May 2012 12:21:00 +0000

We're featuring today our great Scottish violinist performing at Sahara Nights.

Lizzie Ogle is a violinist, singer and percussionist who first visited the Saharawi refugee camps in 2007. She plays celtic-influenced alt-folk music in a band called Blue Rose Code, who has just been on a UK tour and are about to release a debut album, and she plays (and learns) a style of roots music from the north-east of Brazil called maracatu. Collaborating with Saharawi musicians in the camps remains a seminal experience for her as a musician. She also currently works as a Peaceworker for Quaker Peace and Social Witness.

This is a video of Blue Rose Code with Lizzy as violinist

More info:

Blue Rose Code: www.bluerosecode.com

Dan Tsu

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Tue, 29 May 2012 20:19:00 +0000

Our incredible word master for Sahara Nights is our next feature:

Dan Tsu (aka ‘Killa Dan’ or ‘Tat Yin’) is an event producer, promoter, workshop leader, poet, MC and DJ – as well as Artistic Director and Founder of Lyrix Organix. Simultaneously defying pigeon-holes and common-sense, he has spent the last 16 years on microphones, turntables and stages trampling a dusty path on a voyage of musical misadventure.

A refreshing and versatile wordsmith that is carving his own niche on the Spoken Word circuit, Dan paints lyrical pictures with fire in his belly and ice on his tongue. Clever wordplay, wry humour and powerful stage presence combine to deliver an insight into the skewed mind of a twisted soul. Drawing influences from Hip Hop to Folk, he traverses political, natural and abstract landscapes in search of answers… but finds only more questions. (Info from Lyrix Organix website)

Suilma Aali

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Mon, 28 May 2012 11:11:00 +0000

Today we are featuring another great artist from Sahara Nights.

Hispano-Saharawi singer and guitarist Suilma Aali doesn't remember devoting herself to anything else but music. Since she was very young, she led different junior rock, soul and funk bands and throughout her career she has played with some of the most talented Spanish artists, such as Rosana and Nacho Campillo. She has just released her first solo album, Aali, a series of ten very intimate and personal pieces mixing reggae, nu soul, pop and jazz. The album has been completely self-produced under the advice of Jorge García and Nico Roca, the percussionist who will be accompanying Suilma at Sahara Nights. Even though not in a very obvious musical way, Suilma is committed to her Saharawi roots and has performed at numerous events in support of her people's culture and right to self-determination.

Further info:

MySpace: www.myspace.com/suilmaaali

Facebook: www.facebook.com/suilmaaa
Twitter: @SuilmaAali

Ruby and the Vines

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Fri, 25 May 2012 22:05:00 +0000

We continue with our mini features on the artists participating @ Sahara Nights.

Ruby and the Vines, fronted by vocalist/bassist Binisa Bonner, fuse influences as diverse as rock, jazz, afro-beat and reggae. The line-up is completed by guitarist Greg Sanders and drummer Ben Assiter, who complement Binisa's soulful, frank vocal delivery and deftly melodic bass lines with a meticulous groove. Binisa comes from a mixed English/Congolese background and grew up in multicultural Brixton, London. As a singer - with vocal training in jazz, pop and South African singing - Binisa has a distinctive approach to songwriting with compositions originating from melodic use of the bass. Ben and Greg, both also Londoners, have backgrounds in many different styles of music from funk and ska through to hip-hop, jazz and beyond. They have one album on the market, Red Storm, and are working on their next one. (Info from MySpace).

More info about Ruby and the Vines:

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/rubyandthevines

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RubyandtheVines

Twitter: @rubyandthevines

Sahara Nights on Songlines!

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Fri, 25 May 2012 09:20:00 +0000

Aziza Brahim

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:36:00 +0000

We're doing mini features of our wonderful artistic line-up @ Sahara Nights. And we're starting with fantastic Saharawi singer and percussionist Aziza Brahim.

Aziza is regarded one of the most talented musical voices from Western Sahara. She was born in the Saharawi refugee camps, but spent many years studying in Cuba. This influenced her music, an innovative blend of traditional Saharawi hawl, West African rhythms and Latin Jazz. Singing in Hassania, the native language of her homeland, and Spanish, Aziza has been a great ambassador for the Saharawi cause, dedicating all her singing to her people. Many of her songs are influenced by the breath-taking poetry of her grandmother, Lkhadra Mabruk. Aziza’s new album, Mabruk, which will be released in June, is an homage to her and her great labour as commentator of the 16 years of Saharawi. This is a video of single "La tierra derrama lágrimas."

Further info about Aziza:

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/azizabrahim

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aziza.brahim.official

Blog: http://aziza-brahim.blogspot.co.uk/

noreply@blogger.com (Sandblast Team) — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:44:00 +0000

May 2012

PRESS RELEASE: for immediate release

Sahara Nights:

Ken Loach endorses small charity’s ambitious LONDON launch of Studio-Live, a project aiming to give forgotten Saharawi refugees a voice through music

Date: June 6, 2012, 7:00pm-10:30pm (doors open at 6:30pm)

Venue: Studio-Theatre, Roundhouse, London Tickets: £15-25

“Studio-Live is a great idea. The music of the Saharawi’s will inspire many to take up their cause and also enjoy their performances. Good luck to the project” Ken Loach (Sandblast Patron)

On June 6, 2012, the Roundhouse Studio-Theatre will be transported to the Sahara under a canopy of authentic tent material made by Saharawi refugee women, hosting a spectacular line-up of live music and spoken word acts, supporting music-making for freedom. Featuring special guest artist Aziza Brahim from Western Sahara, the event launches Sandblast’s ambitious music empowerment project Studio-Live. The initiative aims to engage UK-based musicians, producers, technicians, and music industry specialists in building a Saharawi music industry from scratch in the refugee camps in the Algerian desert.

The indigenous Saharawi people were displaced when Morocco occupied their native homeland of Western Sahara in 1975. Since then they have been struggling to gain international attention and support for their self-determination cause. Sandblast's mission is to empower the Saharawis to tell their own story through creative expression.

Sandblast charity’s founding director, Danielle Smith, says: “Studio-Live is responding to overwhelming Saharawi aspirations to express their struggle peacefully through the arts. There is abundant musical talent in the refugee camps crying out for recognition but with little opportunity or means to develop." Over the next three years Studio-Live intends to equip refugee artists with the resources and training to be able to record, showcase and promote their music at levels not previously achievable in the camps. The project also hopes to encourage international music collaborations and the production of more high-calibre music such as the much-acclaimed Sandtracks debut album by Saharawi refugee band Tiris.

“The album Sandtracks by Tiris stands out from the crowd…What’s more, the Sandblast project [Studio-Live] that is behind this CD release are moving mountains to engage with musicians in the Saharawi camps in a meaningful and long-term way, and for that they deserve respect and support.” Andy Morgan (writer, Africa Express online)

-ENDS-

Contact:

Founding director, Danielle Smith at sandblastarts@yahoo.co.uk or call 07838 463 310

Press officer, Rachel Zoldan rachel.zoldan@gmail.com or call 07713 652 217

Notes:

Artists and partners supporting Sahara Nights Compered by Dan Tsu from Lyrix Organix, the evening will include the divine Congolese British vibes of Ruby and the Vines, short Saharawi stories and poems presented by playwright Inua Ellams, the inimitable Venzuelan singer Luzmira Zerpa with her Family Atlantica, mesmerizing Gambian kora player Mosi Conde, Celtic violinist Lizzie Ogle, Karim Dellali from El Andaluz and special guest artist Aziza Brahim from Western Sahara. She recently won the Best Soundtrack award for the movie Wilaya at the 2012 Fisahara International film festival. Hispano-Saharawi singer Suilma Aali and young Saharawi journalist Asria Taleb will be present, too.

Audiences will also have the chance to be immersed in the Saharawi world through photography by Ed Harriman (showing a rare collection of images taken in 1976 in the early days of the Saharawi exodus), Bernat Millet and award-winning Andrew McConnell, and preview clips from two new films, The Runner, by Saeed Taji Farouky, and the portrait of poetess Lkhadra Mabruk, Aziza Brahim’s grandmother, by Noë Mendelle. Key partners for the launch are FairTunes, Lyrix Organix, Refugee Radio, SOAS Radio, The Moringa Tree and Roundhouse. Fairtunes is Sandblast’s main partner for Studio-Live in the camps for the setting up of the sound recording studio and providing sound engineering training.

Sahara Nights is supported by a grant from Arts Council England.

Aziza Brahim is regarded one of the most talented musical voices from Western Sahara. She was born in the Saharawi refugee camps, but spent many years studying in Cuba. This influenced her music, an innovative blend of traditional Saharawi hawl, West African rhythms and Latin Jazz. Singing in Hassania, the native language of her homeland, and Spanish, Aziza has been a fantastic ambassador for the Saharawi cause, dedicating all her singing to her people. Many of her songs are influenced by the breath-taking poetry of her grandmother, Lkhadra Mabruk. Aziza’s new album, Mabruk, which will be released in June, is an homage to her and her great labour as commentator of the 16 years of Saharawi war. For more information, click here.

Studio-Live is an innovative music empowerment initiative being set up in the Saharawi refugee camps in South-West Algeria, being led by UK-based charity Sandblast in close partnership with Fairtunes, SOAS Radio, The Moringa Tree and the Saharawi Ministry of Culture in the refugee camps. The initiative is already generating wide support from personalities such as Ken Loach, Robin Denselow, Emmanuel Jal, Carlos Reyes Manzos and more. Funds raised will go towards facilitating the flowering of professional music-making in the camps.

Sandblast is an arts and human rights charity working with the indigenous people from Western Sahara, the Saharawis, whose identity and culture is threatened by the impact of exile and Morocco’s occupation. Sandblast’s mission is to empower the Saharawis to tell their own story through the arts. www.sandblast-arts.org

Background history Western Sahara is the last colony in Africa and the site of a protracted territorial dispute between the Moroccan kingdom which claims sovereignty and the Polisario Front, the Saharawi liberation movement which seeks independence. The majority of the Saharawis are refugees today in one of the harshest deserts in the world. Despite extreme hardships, the Saharawi refugee community has managed to build a democratically-run nation-in-exile, where women play a prominent role, defying Western preconceptions of Arab-Muslim societies. Thousands more Saharawis live under Morocco’s occupation in Western Sahara, deprived of their basic human rights.

Last weekend's activities

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:37:00 +0000

To all those who attended the Run the Sahara 2012 launch at the weekend, thank you for your interest and we hope the afternoon's events tempted you further!..

If you missed out on Saturday, here's some avenues for you to explore:

>> Further info can be found on our webpages

>> You can also visit our blog, where we share past participant's stories plus more

>> Or how about twitter! We tweet motivational running quotes, provide news & info about the race, Western Sahara and share 'tips & tricks' to help you train! Follow @RuntheSahara_SB or find us through @sandblastarts

Best wishes,
Sandblast Team.