ABSTRACT

One of the most active groups of immigrant writers in Spain over the past two decades has been the Generación de la Amistad Saharaui. This group of poets, journalists, and political activists has published a wide range of works, including group anthologies, single-authored poetic texts, short story collections, historical and literary analyses, and numerous online blogs and other forms of digital media. However, while male Saharaui authors have received some emerging critical attention, very little has been written about Saharaui women, particularly female immigrant authors. This chapter analyzes the contributions of three Saharaui women poets whose work appears in the digital collection Mil y un poemas saharauis II [One Thousand and One Saharaui Poems II]. I argue that these North African immigrant authors offer literary and cultural perspectives that resist the male-dominated and Franco-era inspired concept of a Spanish-Saharawi fraternity, instead focusing on transnational feminist concerns in an effort to critique not only the plight of the contemporary Saharaui community but also the gendered and paternalistic colonial history of Spanish, Moroccan, and European interventions in Western Sahara.