ABSTRACT
Among nomadic populations, territories – not borders – are of vital importance to their daily life. And just as these territories, the nomads’ living areas, are continually redefined along the lines of the balance of power between the different tribes, the border itself – both territorial and social – does not have a permanent meaning, but rather changes within time and space according to situations, interests and the balance of power. Thus the notion of a political border, of a permanent limit, is by essence foreign to the nomads’ way of life. The history of Western Sahara in the past decades and the way in which the Sahrawi populations have adapted, used and experienced borders, according to the needs of the time, provide a telling example of this fact.
