Western Sahara, located in North West Africa is often referred to as “Africa’s last colony” as it’s the last African colonial state yet to achieve independence. In 1975 when Spain the former colonial power pulled out of the country, it facilitated Morocco’s invasion and occupation of the territory. A large number of the Saharawi population fled the invasion across the desert into neighbouring Algeria where they set up camp and have remained in exile ever sense making it the second oldest refugee camp in the world. The Saharawi government operates as a government in exile from the refugee camps in Algeria. Those that didn’t manage to escape live under Moroccan occupation and experience daily human rights violations.

A conflict between the countries lasted from 1975-1991, until a negotiated UN backed ceasefire with the promise of a referendum to decide the future of the country. The promised referendum never took place, the ceasefire was broken in 2020, although a return to full conflict has not yet taken place. Taking inspiration from other cultural movements, during the prolonged years of a stalled referendum to determine their right to self-determination rather than return to conflict the Saharawi people decided to engage in the arts as the best way to defend their cause. It was in this context that artist Augustine O Donoghue had the honour of being invited to Tinduff refugee camp in the Sahara desert to develop an art project that would engage with the issues of the Western Sahara and the problem of forced disappearances.

A feature of the Western Sahara conflict has been the forced disappearances of civilians over 30,000 people have been disappeared since the beginning of the conflict. The Disappeared  was developed as a collaborative art project with human rights organizations AFAPREDESA -The Association of Relatives of Saharawi Prisoners and Disappeared Persons and Saharawi refugees in Tinduff refugee camp. The project involved creating portraits of disappeared Saharawi people on the palms of hands using henna a natural plant dye for the skin. Henna art is part of the cultural tradition of the Saharawi people, the work was made in collaboration with Saharawi henna artists Senia Babr incorporating traditional Saharawi designs. The personal stories of the disappeared people were recorded from family members who lived in the camps and from the AFAPREDESA archives. The work unfolded as a performance work, as the henna design was applied by the artists to the hand the story of the disappeared person was told to the person receiving the design. The person receiving the design was then asked to pass the story onto another individual before the image fades from their hand, henna lasts 2-3 weeks on hands.

Originally, it was envisaged that the artwork would be created on the hands of international visitors to the refugee camp as a way of  bring the stories of the Saharawi people and their struggle to an international audience something the Saharawi people were keen to achieve. However, the Association of Relatives of Saharawi Prisoners and Disappeared Persons felt it was also really important that Saharawi people didn’t forget about their own people, especially the younger generation. In response, the project shifted to include developing the artwork on the hands of other Saharawi refuges living in the camp as a way to remember their own people. This in turn created a new unexpected layer to the work as many of the Saharawi refugees receiving the portraits on their hands began to recall and tell the own personal stories of family members disappeared during the conflict reflecting the extent to which the issue impacted so many people.

The second part of the project involved making henna art kits. The kit included henna; stencils of disappeared people incorporate traditional Saharawi designs and stories of the disappeared people as well as information on the history the Western Sahara conflict. The idea was that the kits would be distributed to International human rights organizations and cultural Institutions so the work has the potential to be reactivated at different locations around the world be it as cultural events, human rights political events or at home in people’s houses.