Still having camera issues, so the Haidar reception post isn't going to be up today. Instead, today's Western Sahara topic is Radio Algeria, a CD that rocks.
From what I heard at the reception, going to the Western Sahara really means going to the refugee camps in the west of Algeria (travelling through Morocco is problematic). More than that, though, Algeria has been intimately linked with the Western Sahara struggle since before decolonization. This makes Algerian culture relevant to independence. Plus, I needed music to listen to while I study Arabic.
Radio Algeria was made by Sublime Frequencies, a group that makes collage remixes of foreign radio stations. I enjoyed their remix of North Korean pop and martial music, Radio Pyongyang. I think Radio Algeria is even better, though.
While Radio Algeria has no song about the Western Sahara, it does feature a song called "Saharan Mosaic." It's different from the rest of the CD, which is mostly a melange of European and Arabic pop. "Saharan Mosaic" is a return to Algeria, and the regions, desert origins.