Djema'a

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Djema’a (also spelled Djemaa) means “gathering.” In Western Sahara it refers to two related things. First, a tribal council of elders and elected leaders that ran a tribe’s affairs—war plans, raiding, lawmaking, diplomacy, and resolving disputes. Second, a larger assembly called the Ait Arbein (Council of Forty) made up of elders from several tribes to organize against foreign threats.

The Djema’a varied by tribe but usually blended Berber and Arab traditions and used Islamic law. Women took part in some Djema’a. Tribal life was a powerful force in Sahrawi society, but colonization and modernization gradually weakened it. When Spain and France moved into the area in 1884, the Djema’a stayed active, but the colonizers pressed hard, sometimes killing or jailing leaders or bribing others to cooperate. Uprisings like Ma al-Aynayn in the early 1900s were seen as a last stand of traditional tribal authority.

By the 1950s, urban life and new ways of governing reduced the influence of the Djema’a. Repressive Spanish measures after the Ifni War sped up this decline. In 1967, Sahrawi nationalist politics organized into a modern party, Harakat Tahrir. Although tribal traditions remained, the formal Djema’a system had largely fallen apart as modern state structures took over.

The Polisario Front, which fought for Sahrawi independence, was often hostile to tribalism, arguing it was undemocratic. It criticized tribalism in refugee camps and in Western Sahara. Morocco, on the other hand, generally relied on tribal elders to win loyalty in areas it controlled.

A version of the Djema’a existed as a ruling council created by Spanish authorities in May 1967. Elections were held in 1967 and again in January 1971, but it never gained real power. Its job was mainly to give the appearance of traditional legitimacy to Spanish rule and to send representatives to Madrid.

In 1974–75, the Djema’a lost influence as Spain formed a new political group, the Sahrawi National Union Party (PUNS), which absorbed many of its members. With Spain moving out, many Djema’a members defected to Polisario, others to Morocco or Mauritania. After the 1975 Moroccan-Mauritanian invasion of Western Sahara, most Djema’a members fled as refugees.

In October 1975, a Polisario-backed congress in Ain Ben Tili voted to denounce the Moroccan invasion, support Polisario, and dissolve the Djema’a so its leaders couldn’t be used for political purposes. Later that year, Morocco held a meeting in Morocco to declare support for annexation, a move Polisario rejected. On February 27, 1976, Polisario proclaimed the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic to replace the Djema’a as the Sahrawi ruling body. Neither side recognized the Djema’a’s authority, and both used these events as arguments in the ongoing Western Sahara conflict.