STOKE-ON-TRENT TO THE SAHARA

This film is a video record by Ray Johnson of an aid convoy from Stoke-on-Trent to the Sahara desert and the refugee camps of the Saharawi people - ousted from their homeland of Western Sahara in a war with Morocco in the 1970s. Over 20 years later the five camps - named after districts in Western Sahara - were still there, with no roads, no maps and still technically at war with Morocco.

This convoy of 2002 was organised by the Saharawan Aid Trust and was carried out by the Rainbow Rovers organisation. The 16 vehicles were mainly Land Rovers and customised Land Rovers, plus coaches and some lorries filled with aid supplies and Land Rover spare parts. Vehicles were painted in rainbow colours - red at the front through to violet at the rear - so that they could be easily identified at a distance - because of the region’s tensions at the time. The symbol of the Saharawi is a rainbow over the desert.

After a ferry across to Northern Spain, the convoy of 42 participants travelled for seven days - down through Spain to Alicante for the ferry across the Mediterranean to Oran, then Southwards avoiding Morocco and into the empty desert to camp overnight in the open. It took another day to reach the Reception Centre for the camps at Rabouni. On arrival, there was an immediate request for the convoy to travel a further 170 kilometres the next day to reach the furthest camp Dakhla - which had never received a convoy before.

At dawn on Wednesday May 1st 2002 the convoy set off following a ‘pilot’ vehicle across some problematic patches of varying desert to Dakhla - where we arrived to the most overwhelming welcome. In the following days we took supplies directly to schools, hospitals and community groups.

I was filming and interviewing continually - and two seasoned colleagues took me to places where previous aid had failed through lack of back-up and sustainability and gave insight into the problematic nature of supplying aid.

We returned by flying out from a small military airfield at Tindouf and changing flights at Algiers - having left  all the vehicles, supplies and much of our luggage at the base camp.

Now those refugee camps have been in the desert for 50 years. Morocco laid what might be the biggest minefield in the world along its Eastern border - there was no going back. Saharawi leaders we met are ageing or gone, children we met are now adult.

The video will begin with an expert introduction to the Saharawi story with archive footage of the war and the exodus from their homeland. We will end with an update on the life and activities of the camps today - and dedicate this screening to the undying spirit of the Saharawi.