In a research paper entitled “The Map and Sovereignty Traps.. Algeria and the Pre-Endgame Interview,” Jilali El-Adnani said France did not define the eastern borders beyond what was signed in the Treaty of Lalla Maghnia in 1845. Stating that the borders were not drawn from Morocco towards Algeria, as was the case until the 18th century and early on the 19th century, but rather from Algeria towards the Atlantic Ocean across border lines.
Article text:
Did Algeria fall into the sovereignty trap, which contradicts the concept of sovereignty inherited from colonialism inspired by the circumstances of the Sand War and the establishment of the Organization of African Unity in 1963?
It unquestionably asserts that the principle of inherited borders is meaningless, while Algeria, as the sole heir of the colonial empire, adopts the principle of borderlessness.
As France did not definitively define the eastern borders beyond what was agreed upon in the Treaty of Lalla Maghnia in 1845, and the agreements of 1901 and 1902 did not respect their clauses, which guaranteed Moroccan borders at Oued Guir and Saoura, leaving the door open for Moroccan areas through its historical connections with West Africa.
The sovereignty traps are embodied in the logic of borderlessness adopted by Algeria under the banner of self-determination, comprising six or seven principles.
The borders were not drawn from Morocco towards Algeria as was the case until the 18th and early 19th centuries. Instead, they were drawn from Algeria across the Atlantic Ocean via border lines, namely the Treaty of Lalla Maghnia line in 1845, the 1910 Warnier line, the Trinquet line in 1938, and then the 1957 line through which France annexed the areas of ،Kuelkuem, Zemmoul, and Oum El-Achar.
To verify the borders, one needs only to refer to the letters of Emir Abdelkader in the Aix-en-Provence archive or the writings of Tijani Muhammad ibn El-Mecheri, the author of “Al-Jaami’,” who did not hesitate to refer to his arrival in the city of Mecheria in Morocco, which also happens to be the current city of the current President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. Tijani order does not only give directions but also draw maps of routes and countries, as was then said. Anyone who desires to verify can simply follow the steps of the colonizer when translating the travels of Abu Salim al-‘Ayyashi and Ahmed An-Nasiri, to understand the geographical and cartographic knowledge that proved what we say.
The maps we published in our book “The Sahara at Stake: For a New Vision of Territorial Issues,” or those yet to be published, precisely demonstrate that Algerian Sovereignty undermines the principle of sovereignty inherited from colonialism and that it envisions reaching the ocean through the use of a separatist entity which crystallized with Morocco’s retrieval of Tarfaya region from the colonizer, who sought to punish Morocco and the late Mohammed V who rejected the idea of Morocco joining the Common Organisation for Saharan Regions (OCRS). Along with the idea of settling the eastern borders. The French project included the idea of creating a railway line that would contribute to economic cooperation rather than adopting a line that would later be adopted in the separatist project.
The secret maps, which have become available, accurately show that any attempt to reclaim the lines goes through space and time into Moroccan territories, that have become, through the power of the colonizer, affiliated with the Algerian colony. Thus, the principle of sovereignty is a sieve hiding the historical sovereignty of Morocco. Hence, it becomes evident that the principle of sovereignty inherited from colonialism contradicts the secret agreement of 1961, which was followed by statements by Farhat Abbas and Ahmed ben Bella, stating that the Algerian revolution and the independence of the country would not be satisfied with colonizing Moroccan territories occupied by French military forces and annexed to the Algerian colony (see the map).
As the principle of land expropriation towards Morocco relied on a special logic—Algeria being French national territory and Morocco being a foreign country subject to the French protectorate—Algeria still glorifies the colonial legacy (Algeria as a continent) and considers Morocco a foreign country regarding the Moroccan Sahara.
The Algerian sovereignty replaced the empty land principle adopted by France with the principle of considering Morocco as a foreigner regarding the Eastern and Western Sahara. This was clarified in our book in 2014, considering that the Eastern and Western Sahara constituted one map and one territory called the Western Sahara. Besieging Morocco from the south through the establishment of a French Protectorate Mauritania under the supervision of Coppolani, before it was turned into a colony in 1920, or the creation of the Border Command in 1933, and until 1955, it intended to wait for a change in Spain’s position, particularly its withdrawal from the Sahara, for France to include all of Southern Morocco towards the Atlantic Ocean in favor of the Algerian colony. This was the project or dream that Jules Cambon had always wanted, setting the borderline of Tarfaya for this purpose. After Morocco retrieved the Tarfaya region, France had no hope left but to pass a railway line towards the Atlantic Ocean. This proposal, which Morocco rejected, hoped it would be achieved with the eastern neighbor. Which was merely achieved on paper between Morocco and Algeria in 1972. There is a difference between the project of a railway line seeking peace and cooperation and a territorial line with separatist intentions that did not mark the Sahara for over 12 centuries.
As Algeria did not recognize the existence of the Sahrawi people, it initially demanded from Tindouf that it become an interested party and then demanded that it be recognized as an involved party.
Starting in 1966, Tindouf became interested in accessing the Atlantic, even through a dedicated gateway.
This is one of the most significant traps and illusions of Algerian sovereignty, penetrated by the line of preservation of the colonial legacy to seize liberated territories encompassed by resistance operations from 1900 to 1958 before becoming a field for political and diplomatic activity, which achieved remarkable gains away from the verbal, ideological, and military violence.
Those seeking to preserve what remains of the territory of the Cherifian Empire are distinguished from those who adopt the principle of preserving territories taken from Morocco. So, where does Algerian sovereignty lie?
Is it in preserving the territories inherited from colonization or in settling the territories that Morocco reclaimed from colonization? There is a stark difference between preservation within the colonizer’s borders and adopting the settlement of colonization outside the borders, in the name of sovereignty, which yearned for the Atlantic waves which constitute Morocco’s last resort after the annexation of Tindouf, Touat, and the Saoura Valley to the Algerian colony to link it to Western Africa.
Delving into the history of Moroccan-African relations might take too long, but the narrative of the stability model of Soninke traders in Sijilmassa in comparison to the stability of Moroccan traders in Aoudaghost in the kingdom of Ghana serves as evidence of a mutually beneficial approach or South-South cooperation since the Almohad era.
The concept of borderlessness adopted by France by moving the borders from Mecheria and Tafna to Lalla Maghnia and Figuig and from there towards the Valley of Draa and the Atlantic Ocean was merely a trick to extend the colony’s territory towards the ocean. Algeria expressed this hidden intention under the name of sovereignty, playing a symbolic battle that does not rise to the level of pre-endgame.
Africans and African Americans have exploited sports to reject renouncement and contempt. However, exploiting the map of Morocco to defend Algerian sovereignty in accordance with colonial norms, concepts, and intentions is a scandal that calls all living forces to reconsider the origin and reality of colonial dualism and the ways to settle it. The archives of France, especially at the Center for Overseas at Aix-en-province, constitute a huge material to settle the colonial legacy instead of investing in bids that proliferate through memory wars.
Space is about boundaries, movement, and will, regardless of its intentions. You may read the map below regarding the movement of borders towards the ocean. Likewise, Algerian positions, which have taken the same direction in accordance with the legal status of the United Nations are documented and formalized, as required by Algeria: an interested party/an involved party/a direct and responsible party, which Algeria tries to evade when called to the tables of dialogue and negotiation tables, turning “Algerian sovereignty” into a struggling entity.
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This paper was translated from Arabic by Wissal Mellal
