On Tuesday, the University of Zaragoza hosted the presentation of the event and a tribute to Luis Ganell, journalist and author of the book “Return to the Sahara”.
Until March, the Aragonese capital will be the setting for several conferences and documentary screenings on the historical, colonial and current context of Western Sahara. The initiative, which comes from the Saharawi collective Lefrig, Doctors of the World and Engineering without Borders, was presented this Tuesday in the María Moliner Unizar Assembly Hall. The journalists Ramón J. Campo and Miguel Mena were present to explain the cycle and pay tribute to the journalist and activist Luis Grannel, who died in February this year.
Luis Grannel published ‘Return to the Sahara’ in 2020, a work that delves into his life experience in Sahrawi territory and, almost in the form of a report, portrays the history of the territory from the colonial era to the present day. Grannel did his military service in the Sahara between 1972 and 1973. He returned 40 years later as a journalist to expose to the reader the great injustice that has been and still is being done to the Saharawi people.
The former geographer and president of the Association of Aragonese Journalists was a fervent defender of causes such as the reopening of the Canfranc, environmentalism and justice for the Saharawi people.
Ramón J. Campo and Miguel Mena recalled the figure of Grannel during the event on Tuesday and explained the programme of the event that will begin on the 9th of January and will be held every Wednesday at 18.00 hours in the Aula Magna Paraninfo, the Zaragoza Film Library and the María Moliner Assembly Hall.
Programme
9 January 2023 at 18.00 – María Moliner Unizar Assembly Hall: Western Sahara on the International Board. Natividad Fernández.
16 January 2023 at 18.00 – Aula Magna Paraninfo: 2 years and 2 months of war in Western Sahara. Ignacio Cembrero.
23 January 2023 at 18.00 – Filmoteca de Zaragoza: Documentary screening “Ocupación S.A”. Hassana Alia.
30 January 2023 – María Moliner Unizar Assembly Hall: The relationship between migratory movements to the Canary Islands and the Peninsula with the territory of Western Sahara. Nicolás Castellano.
6 February 2023 at 18.00 – Filmoteca de Zaragoza: Recording what happens in Western Sahara I: Professional experience. Yolanda Sobero.
13 February 2023 at 18.00 – Filmoteca de Zaragoza: Recording what happens in Western Sahara II: Equipe Media’s political militancy. Ahmed Ettanji.
20 February 2023 at 18.00 – María Moliner Unizar Assembly Hall: Report “Western Sahara, a desert for journalism”. Edith R.Cachera.
27 February 2023 at 18.00 – María Moliner Unizar Assembly Hall: Journalistic contextualisation of the colonial and provincial eras of Western Sahara, and the present. Pablo Ignacio Dalmases and Fatma Galia Mohamed Salem.
13 March 2023 at 18.00 – Aula Magna Paraninfo: The Interests of Media Groups vs Human Rights. Bachir Mohamed.
