Smara
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Smara, also Semara, is a Sahrawi city (50,000 in 1999) in the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. Present population estimated at 40,000.
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History
The largest city in its province, Smara was founded in the Saguia el-Hamra as a capital and religious center in 1898 by shaykh Ma al-'Aynayn, in what was then Spanish Sahara. The location of the city was intended to ensure its becoming a caravan trade hub in the sparsely populated Sahara desert. The construction of Smara was carried out by thousands of local Sahrawis, who assisted him in the construction, as well as the Sultan of Morocco, who sent craftsmen and materials. In 1902, shaykh Ma al-'Aynayn moved to Smara and declared it his holy capital. Among other things, he created here an important Islamic library, and the town became a center of religious learning.
In 1904 the shaykh declared himself an imam and called for holy war (jihad) against French colonialism, which was increasingly pressing into the Sahara at this time. During the campaign against Ma al-'Aynayn, Smara was sacked in 1912 by the French Army, and its library destroyed. In 1934 the town was once again destroyed after Sahrawi rebellions. It was eventually rebuilt, something made easier by the nomadic lifestyle of the Sahrawis, which did not necessitate large numbers of permanent structures for a city to function.
After 1975
In 1975, Morocco invaded Western Sahara as Spain withdrew. The Moroccan army took the city from the indigenous Polisario Front in 1976, sparking an exodus of Sahrawis towards Algeria to escape Moroccan retribution for their part in the revolt. On the way to Algeria the Moroccan airforce napalmed the refugees; Amnesty International has estimated the casualites at almost 530. In the area south of Tindouf, Algeria, there still exists a large Sahrawi refugee camp named after Smara.
Lately, Smara has seen small-scale uprisings and demonstrations against Moroccan rule, for example during the "Smara Intifada" (1999) and the ongoing "Independence Intifada" (2005).
The town is presently controlled by the Moroccan authorities, as part of what the government terms its Southern Provinces, and enclosed by a section of the Moroccan Wall.
The Vieuchange brothers
Reaching Ma el Ainain's mysterious Smara was the goal of the brothers Vieuchange, early 20th century French writers and romantics. Michel Vieuchange's painful journey through the rebel-held Sahrawi lands in 1930 disguised varyingly as a tribesman, a Muslim woman and an American businessman, and the illness that lead to his death on the way back, is documented in his travel diaries. They were published posthumously as Smara: The Forbidden City (1932) by his brother Jean, and remain a minor cult classic.