Narratives of resistance of Saharawi women from feminist and decolonial pedagogies

Abstract

In a context of constant conflict and refuge, the Saharawi people have much to contribute from their personal and collective experiences of struggle and resistance and, in particular, the Saharawi women as leaders, organizers and supporters of life in this context traversed by multiple forms of violence.

This article has a double objective, on the one hand, to collect and analyze the narratives of Saharawi women who carry out tasks of social, political and educational organization in the camps to extract pedagogical knowledge from decolonial feminisms; and on the other, attribute better critical educational skills to initial teacher training. A biographical-narrative research method is applied in a discursive format based on 12 semi-structured interviews that collect life experiences in the context of the wilaya and in a situation of exile-refuge.

For the analysis, four categories have been proposed that have guided the interview protocols: memory and political experience of the conflict; collective role of women as sustainers of life; collective culture of resistance to conflict; and elements of decolonial feminist pedagogy.

The extracted results revolve around the strategies that Saharawi women have in the face of the conflict situation, as highlighted: the construction of their own spaces where the public and private are transcended, the work of political organization together with the maintenance of life ; the construction of a cultural and political identity of decolonial resistance; the importance of community and traditional education in intergenerational female spaces; the need to have transnational support networks and to design transformative resistance strategies with a projection to the future. These elements are discussed from the contributions of feminist, decolonial and intersectional pedagogies as an epistemic and action framework for a more critical and committed initial teacher training.