ABSTRACT
Since before the turn of the century critics have been actively analyzing representations of immigration in Spain, yet the voices of immigrants themselves have received less attention, particularly in the field of poetry. 1 In the case of Saharawi poets, this elision is noteworthy because their poetic community has been prolific, having published many works by immigrants living predominantly in Madrid and active in the group La Generación de la Amistad [The Generation of Friendship]. 2 Saharawi authors have produced more than ten poetic anthologies, including Añoranza (2002) [Longing], Bubisher (2003) [Bird Announcing Good News], Um Draiga (2006) [Desolate Gorge], and La primavera saharaui (2012) [Saharawi Spring]. 3 They have also published numerous individual poetic works, including Ritos de Jaima [Tent Rites] by Limam Boisha, 4 Versos refugiados [Fugitive Verses] by Bahia Mahmud Awah, La música del sirocco [Music of the Saharan Wind] by Ali Salem Iselmu, and Nada es eterno [Nothing Is Eternal] by Fatima Galia, to name only a few. 5 In the 2011 study “La literatura africana en español” [African Literature in Spanish], M’bare N’gom Faye notes that analyses of African literature written in Spanish have been late to develop, and that much of the relatively un-studied work comes predominantly from two main regions—Equatorial Guinea and Western Sahara (3). 6 He traces how, starting in the 1990s, critics began to pay “timid” attention to Equatorial Guinean literature, but that Spanish literature from Western Sahara has remained relatively unexplored, due partly to the ongoing territorial conflicts that make the structures of support for that region’s literature less stable (3). Clearly the political uncertainty in Western Sahara has implications for the dissemination and reception of literary texts, but as noted above, the Saharawi community in Spain has maintained prolific literary production despite such challenges. Indeed, one might wonder if the dearth of critical study related to Saharawi literature has perhaps as much to do with genre as with politics. Poetry is the dominant form chosen by Saharawi immigrant authors, but most literary critics of immigration in Spain have tended to focus mainly on narrative and film in their analyses. 7 However, as Castelli Gattinara argues, poetry is of primary cultural importance for North African nomadic cultural groups. 8 This study expands the current scholarship on African immigrants and Spanish literature by focusing on the anthology Um Draiga, a collection that uniquely demonstrates how the contemporary Saharawi community in Spain employs poetry as a medium for voicing the trauma of displacement and interpellation, as well as the possibility of resistance. 9 The study will be organized around two topics: First, a discussion of Um Draiga focused on its relationship to Saharawi history, trauma theory, and Spain’s own colonial legacy in Western Sahara, followed by a close reading of two poems from two of the volume’s contributors, Ali Salem Iselmu and Bahia Mahmud Awah. Their works attest to the challenges of being part of Spain’s ongoing colonial legacy in Africa and demonstrate the privileged role of poetry in the struggle faced by contemporary Saharawis in Spain.
