Their freedom is also important to us
GLOBAL Spotlight
WE SOUTH Africans can’t cherry pick our issues. If we care about the freedom and self-determination of the Palestinians, we cannot care any less about the people of Western Sahara.
Just as Madiba when president said that our freedom would not be complete without the freedom of the Palestinians, so President Cyril Ramaphosa said this week: “The gains of our democracy cannot be complete while the Saharawi people’s yearning for freedom and justice is not realised.”
It seems our basket of revolutionary causes never empties.
The oppression of the Saharawis has gone on for decades, but has somehow failed to capture the international headlines or the imagination of the world’s solidarity groups.
Africa’s last colonial outpost seems to have largely become a forgotten conflict, which is primarily referred to inside the halls of the African Union, the European parliament, the UN general assembly or the International Court of Justice.
There are no official Boycott, Divestment or Sanctions campaigns against Morocco as the illegal occupier of Western Sahara and no sustained demonstrations in capitals around the globe.
Civil society pressure against the foreign policies of Western governments that cosy up to the Moroccan king is minimal.
It just so happens that Moroccan tagines are one of my culinary favourites. I also like Moroccan lanterns, silver tea sets and mosaic furniture.
So it has taken some restraint to take a principled decision not to go and walk the streets of ancient Fez and sip Moroccan mint tea, to the sound of the Azaan at sunset.
It was what black South Africans