The wall as ecology

Abstract

This article investigates the Moroccan wall in Western Sahara to examine how militarized infrastructures unfold as dynamic ecologies in motion. Often perceived as a static defensive barrier against people, animals, and vehicles, the wall, in fact, permeates the daily lives of Saharawis far beyond its physical boundaries. I ask: What ecological forms does the wall take and animate, and how do people engage with and navigate these emergent ecological terrains of walling? Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork with Saharawis in refugee camps and pastures, I trace the wall's unexpected movement and explore how it is experienced as an ecological composition by people far from its delimited zone. I demonstrate how a range of human and more-than-human relations bring the wall into life: landmines drifting with desert rains, fungi that both sustain and harm, sand burying shifting ordinances, and herds and people foraging and migrating seasonally to sustain livelihoods and meet ethnoveterinary needs. By deepening our understanding of what animates the wall and tracing people's experiences within these terrains, this article develops the concept of “wall as ecology.” This challenges and extends the burgeoning research at the intersection of political ecology, conflict, and border studies, which increasingly explores violent environmentalism and the emergence of walling as ecological paradigms.