Images of Daily Life in Morocco
Schoolyard map
Zagora, Draa Valley, Province of Ouarzazate
Moroccans are proud of their long history as a separate nation, which reaches back to the establishment of Fez by the newly arrived forces of Islam in the 700s A.D. Morocco was colonized by the French and Spanish from 1912 until 1956, when independence was regained. In the mid-1970s, Morocco moved to take the territory of the Spanish Sahara, a Spanish colony of 176,000 mi 2 to the south. Despite all objections and the active opposition of the Saharawis, or indigenous people of the Western Sahara (as the territory has come to be known in diplomatic circles), the Moroccan will to occupy the territory has prevailed. In 1994, a United Nations Peacekeeping Force (known as MINUSRO), is preparing for a much-delayed plebiscite in the area.

-Look at a world map to get an idea of the relative sizes of Morocco and the Western Sahara.

-Are there other countries that have aDDed to their national territory in the last twenty years?

-How much bigger is Morocco with the aDDition of the Western Sahara?

-Why would the Moroccans insist on the fact that the Western Sahara is theirs, and that the Sahawaris belong to Morocco?

Here, a schoolyard is decorated with a map of the country on the side of an elementary school in the southern oasis town of Zagora. Zagora is capital of the Draa Valley, Morocco's longest riverine oasis, and near, but not in, the Western Sahara. The map, drawn by the students, proudly displays Morocco including the Western Sahara. Moroccans all are united in their belief that the Western Sahara is rightly theirs; a piece of Morocco temporarily detached by the interruptions of the colonial period. Like all bounded spaces in the southern oases, the schoolyard is walled by an adobe wall. Date palms in the oasis are the dominant -- and often only -- vegetation.

-In America, the exterior walls of many schools are covered with grafitti. The Moroccan school is decorated quite differently. Comment on those differences.