WESTERN SAHARA: Sahrawis celebrate the animal closest to their hearts at Laayoune's first international camel festival

Record ID: 1537037

  • Title: WESTERN SAHARA: Sahrawis celebrate the animal closest to their hearts at Laayoune's first international camel festival
  • Date: 10th March 2008
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF CAMELS IN FAIR (5 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 25th March 2008 18:22
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Western Sahara
  • Country: Western Sahara
  • Topics: Nature / Environment,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVA83R2CMG0BTYD2AF3G97VD4JEN
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: The people of the Western Sahara celebrate the animal closest to their hearts at Laayoune's first international camel festival.
    Sahrawis paid tribute to their favourite animal for three consecutive days at Laayoune's first International Camel Festival from March 6-8.
    For centuries the legendary animal has made life possible for the people of the Western Sahara, a desertic territory of northwest Africa bordered by Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Atlantic ocean.
    The Laayoune province boasts 85,000 camels, 45 percent of the Western Sahara's entire camel population.
    Local officials decided to dedicate an entire festival to the revered animal after the success of a camel race they underwrote in 2007.
    "This kind of event really resonates with the local inhabitants.
    Last year's camel race gave us a taste of what the population of Laayoune wanted. In the beginning it was just an idea which today has been implemented.
    Today we have a festival and we hope that it will be bigger and better in the future," said chair of the festival Hjabouha Zoubeir.
    Sahrawis have long used the camel as a means of transportation and a source of meat, milk and wool. It is also central to their bedouin culture, where it is a symbol of pride, wealth and power. Camels can also be offered as marriage dowry, or as compensation for a death.
    "We inherited this legacy from our fathers and forefathers and it is impossible for us to abandon it. If we do, we will be sick. We use camels to travel, we eat their meat and they cure illnesses," camel breeder Hamdi Boujdour said.
    The people of one the most sparsely populated areas in the world still hold fast to their Bedouin ways, and life outside central Laayoune is still quite similar to the way it has been for hundreds of years, with nomads travelling on camel-back and living in tents.
    "Technology has had an impact on the preservation of our heritage and traditions, especially our Sahrawi heritage. But there are some young people who are trying to preserve the culture we inherited from our fathers and forefathers so that we can pass it on to our children and grandchildren," 18-year-old Mustafa Salki said.
    One of the festival highlights was the camel race, which drew hundreds of enthusiastic supporters. Contrary to most racing events, this one starts fast and the camels gradually reduce their pace. The winner is the jockey who can most skilfully coach the camel to a slow pace on its way to the finish line.
    Since independence from Spain in 1934, the Western Sahara has been the subject of an ongoing dispute between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, a militant group that claims to be the sole representative of the Sahrawi people.
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