Algeria Fails to Seize the Land, Tries to Penetrate Morocco’s Hassani Cultural Heritage
By: ALDAR/ Analysis
After more than fifty years of political failure to assert its control over the Moroccan Sahara, Algeria has turned to a new tactic in its undeclared war against Morocco: an attempt to appropriate the Hassani cultural heritage — one of the key pillars of Moroccan Saharan identity. With military and diplomatic bets on a fictitious entity yielding nothing but isolation and disappointment, Algeria has launched a symbolic yet dangerous “soft war,” centered on cultural appropriation. This is taking place through events that aim to incorporate elements of Hassani culture into what it calls the “Algerian national identity,” in open defiance of historical and geographic truths that are beyond dispute.
The clearest manifestation of this was Algeria’s organization, in June of this year, of an event labeled “Algeria: Capital of Hassani Culture.” The move sought to impose an artificial cultural reality, linking Tindouf and Saharan Moroccan culture to what it describes as a “natural extension of Algerian identity.” The event featured representatives of the Polisario Front, as well as officials from Algeria and Mauritania. Traditional customs, dress, and Hassani music were presented as part of Algerian cultural heritage — blatantly ignoring the fact that this heritage has already been documented and registered within Moroccan heritage by international bodies, including UNESCO itself.
Morocco’s response was swift. It had already issued strong criticisms of similar past attempts, most notably when Algeria submitted a file to UNESCO attempting to register the Moroccan caftan as part of Algerian heritage. Rabat formally objected, and UNESCO ultimately removed the Moroccan image from Algeria’s submission. This repeated behavior reveals a clear desire on the part of Algeria to confiscate Morocco’s achievements and identity — not only in the Sahara, but also in the fields of culture, arts, and traditional dress.
Hassani culture, as recognized by scholars and historians, spans a geography that includes Laayoune, Smara, and Dakhla in Morocco, extends through northern Mauritania, and reaches the borders of Mali and Niger. It is a Bedouin Arab-Amazigh culture par excellence, forming a unique fabric of Moroccan Saharan identity over centuries. Algeria’s attempt to claim it as part of its national heritage is a deliberate distortion of history and a disregard for international standards that emphasize the importance of geographic and historical context in defining cultural heritage.
What is truly disheartening is that Algeria — which has no genuine cultural connection to Hassani heritage — is now attempting to use this legacy as a tool of political propaganda. This, in reality, harms the heritage of the Sahara itself, stripping it of its authenticity. A culture that is not preserved by its own people and not narrated from its true roots becomes nothing more than material for exploitation and symbolic theft — and that is exactly what Algeria is attempting to do.
Meanwhile, Morocco continues its efforts to register Hassani cultural elements on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage, document Hassani poetry, melhoun oral traditions, crafts specific to the desert regions, and constitutionally and institutionally celebrate the Hassani component of its national identity. Algeria, on the other hand, seeks an illusory victory in terms of image and symbolism — without possessing the cultural or historical legitimacy to do so.
Cultural appropriation, like political failure, produces nothing but the illusion of triumph. And Algeria — having failed to undermine Morocco’s sovereignty over its southern provinces — will also fail to steal the memory or identity of a people. Culture is not a slogan hoisted at a festival, but a deep-rooted extension of consciousness, forged by the land, the people, and history.
