nickbrooks

There are some good places to visit in Tunisia, and it’s not a bad place to travel around for the most part. If you fancy Tunisia, I’d also recommend Libya, which has even more to offer, being a much bigger and more diverse place, and is just a delight to travel in.

Although I’ve been to Morocco 3 times, I can’t bring myself to go back since spending time in Western Sahara, which Morocco invaded in 1975 and still occupies, with much oppression. In solidarity with my Sahrawi friends, displaced by the Moroccan invasion and now living in refugee camps in Algeria, I would urge people to think seriously about visiting Morocco, and effectively supporting the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. Morocco makes a lot of money from tourism and portrays itself as a stable country friendly with the West. As long as people ignore the Moroccan government’s continuing occupation of Western Sahara, the resolution of this situation is unlikely. In the meantime, no nation has recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, while many (some 65-70) recognise the exiled Sahrawi government. The UN has so far failed to organise a referendum on independence for Western Sahara, altough an observer mission has been there since 1991 with this mandate.

But I dont’ want to spoil anyone’s Moroccan holiday if they’ve already booked – most people have no idea of what is going on in Western Sahara, and are surprised to find out about it as it receives so little coverage. If you are going to Morocco I’d recommend Marrakech and Taroudant, but advise you not to bother with Casablanca.

If you haven’t booked that Moroccan holiday yet, and are feeling adventurous, come to Western Sahara instead!

More information on this issue via these sites:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/western_sahara_project/
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~e118/wsahara.htm

For information on, and images of, the Fezzan, in south-west Libya, have a look at these sites, which focus on archaeology:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fezzan/
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~e118/Fezzan/fezzan_home.html

I stumbled across 43 Places by accident and found that there are a few people who want to go to Western Sahara, so thought I’d sign up, as I run a field project in Western Sahara, looking at archaeology and past environmental change. I also have an ulterior motive, which is that I’m taking a small number of paying guests into the field each season in order to help fund the research. But I’ll keep the sales pitch low key here, except to say that if anyone is interested in joining us in this capacity they are welcome to get in touch with me. It’s not cheap, but comparable with the cost of a specialised adventure or safari holiday, and would be quite an amazing trip (the people and landscapes are great, the archaeology is fascinating, and the area is closed to tourism).

I’m also happy to answer questions about Western Sahara if anyone wants to pick my brains just out of interest. It really is an amazing place, and the Sahrawi (the indigenous inhabitants) have had a really rough time as a result of the Moroccan invasion and occupation. The territory is now effectively partitioned between the Moroccan-occupied zone and the “Free Zone”, controlled by the Polisario independence movement. We work in the Polisario zone.

You can see photos and find more information about the project on the following sites:

http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~e118/wsahara.htm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/western_sahara_project/

Contact details are also available on the above sites.

All the best

Nick