Mariem Hassan’s Farewell

 

Aware that she had few weeks left to live, Mariem Hassan read a farewell to her family, friends and fans. Manuel Dominguez, Mariem’s producer and friend explains what happened in the last few months: “Some months ago, Mariem decided to stop chemotherapy; her liver was severely damaged, and she placed herself in the hands of Mulana “(God). In late February 2015, taking advantage of the end of the chemotherapy, she returned to the refugee camps to participate in a Congress of Culture. She presented her “Farewell” and was only able to read, because she did not feel well enough to sing. However, the next day, just before heading back to Spain, she sang it a capella for me in her tent and I recorded it. I uploaded that “Farewell” to YouTube with a montage of photos she had done in May 2014, also in her tent.

 

 

Mariem had great faith in the healing properties of camel milk and when she got back tests, they showed an improvement that encouraged her. Therefore, as soon as she could, she returned to Camp Smara (Tinduf, Algeria) and joined her family, including her 103 year-old mother, her sister Kaltum (who carries the weight of the organization of the tent and the family) and nieces and nephews. They prepared a tent and went to the Mjeriz area in the “liberated territories” of Western Sahara, outside of the wall built by Morocco and therefore beyond the control of the invader.

There, Javier Corcuera filmed a couple of songs for a film on Saharawi music. Javier told me that to get to that place, Hassan, Mariem’s nephew, had to travel to Smara Camp with a four-wheel drive to pickup the 4-man crew. They would only let them leave with an escort during the three days they were away. They were escorted by an Algerian military Land Rover. The journey through the desert roads lasted 14 hours. Without the help of Hassan they would have never found the location where the tent had been erected.

Staying in the pure wilderness, Mariem felt even better. Agaila, her youngest daughter, who is a nurse, kept me up to date on the situation. A month ago, Agaila informed me that Mariem had gotten worse and she wanted to leave to go to the camps to await death. It caught us by surprise while we were in Berlin. On August 5, Zazie [Manuel’s partner] and I went to Sabadell to say goodbye. We spent the day with her and found her completely lucid. I even played for her some of the songs that we recorded and have not yet been published. The next day, she traveled with her daughter Fatimetu to Tinduf, and three days later her daughter Agaila followed. This past Monday, Bachir, her husband, called me and said that he was going to travel to the camps because Mariem’s health was worsening. They had to take her twice to Rabuni hospital (located in the camps).

Mariem finally died yesterday in her tent, calm and surrounded by her family.”