Tent Maker / Grandmother

I was born in Saguia Valley [Western Sahara], I don’t know but I think I am 70 years old. I grew up as a nomad in Western Sahara; we traveled from Alguelta to Layun to other places. In Western Sahara, we lived in tents that we made from goat and camel hair. I learned to make tents when I was 14. I learned from my mother and the neighboring women. When the war broke out, we left everything behind and ran for safety. We were among the first arrivals in Algeria in 1975. We left our tents, our animal herds and our belongings. When we arrived here, there was nothing. The Algerians brought us food and water. There was a huge number of people in one place. The first thing we did was that we built tents for everyone; we used what we could find. We used our Melhfas [Sahrawi women dresses] and clothes to make our first tents. We later started to put together patchwork to strengthen our tents to shelter us from the blazing sun. We also built fabric tents for cooking. We spent many years in this miserable situation. When the UNHCR distributed new fabrics, we made new tent designs. The camps have been changing a lot, but I lived all my life in tents, and I want to keep making tents and live in them. They are cool during the summer and warm in the winter. We have always been nomads, and our tents are important for us. We cannot live without them.

Works:

Tent Making, 2024