On November 5, 1975, from the city of Agadir, the late King Hassan II addressed the Moroccan people, saying: “My dear people, we have resolved, and we have all resolved, as always in history, we have decided to make our resolve, and we have decided to proceed with a peaceful green march, supported by our rights, surrounded by our brothers and comrades, relying above all on our will and faith,” adding: “Tomorrow, God willing, you will cross the borders, tomorrow, God willing, the march will begin, tomorrow, God willing, you will set foot on your land, you will touch your sand, and you will kiss the ground of your dear homeland.”
With these words, the late King officially launched one of the greatest peaceful epics and events Morocco has witnessed since independence: the Green March. This march brought together more than 350,000 Moroccan men and women from across the Kingdom's various regions and provinces to reclaim their southern provinces and complete their territorial integrity. This event was a living testament to the collective belief of Moroccans that land may not be recovered through war, but it can be regained through unity and a shared conviction in the justness of their cause.
The Green March, whose fiftieth anniversary is being celebrated, was not just a liberation step, but rather the establishment of a new awareness of the roles of the state and the citizen. Moroccans realized, as King Mohammed VI said in his royal speech on the occasion of the forty-fifth anniversary of this event, that “the Green March is not just a prominent national event in the process of completing territorial unity, but a renewed and continuous march, working to consolidate the Moroccan identity of the Sahara internationally, and making it an engine for development at the regional and continental levels.”
The march succeeded in expelling the occupation from the Sahara, but it did not stop at its sands alone, but rather it turned into a philosophy for its development within the framework of a free and unified Morocco, so that the Kingdom of Morocco turned the concept of the “March” into a state policy; in one of his speeches, King Mohammed VI said: “Morocco, which is attached to its existence on its land, and confident in its sovereignty over it, will continue the march of comprehensive development of the Saharan provinces, relying on the broadest meanings and practices of democracy, the highest degrees of regionalization, decentralization and non-centralization, and the strongest bonds of unity and the foundations of national sovereignty.”
Thus, the “Massira” has transformed from reclaiming land to building people, society, and infrastructure in the southern regions of Morocco, within the framework of a comprehensive national project, establishing a continuous developmental and diplomatic path led by the country’s monarch in these regions.
This has transformed the Sahara from a potential conflict zone into a key pillar of stability and development in North Africa and Africa as a whole. This has reshaped the international view of the Kingdom and its Sahara, and has resulted in historic international decisions that have championed the language of Moroccan achievement, the latest of which is the recent Security Council resolution that enshrined the victory of the gradual path adopted by Rabat, from liberation action to development achievement, and from internal building to international recognition.
Today, Moroccans celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Green March, affirming that its essence was never about crossing the sands, but about overcoming challenges. The strength and historicity of this event lies not only in taking pride in the past and acknowledging the sacrifices, but also in the strategic lessons it established. It demonstrated how a single sincere national action can transform into an integrated approach in politics, development, and diplomacy, establishing a new meaning for the strength of Morocco, which confirmed to the world that the combination of a people's will and a king's wisdom is capable of making history.
Thus, the Green March also transformed from a grassroots call to action into a system of values that governs Moroccans' relationship with their future, a system that is renewed today in the form of other marches towards social justice and the continuation of the development process on all levels. As the King said in his speech on the 49th anniversary of this national epic: “The sacrifices made by the generation of the march motivate us to further mobilize and remain vigilant, in order to consolidate the gains we have achieved in establishing the Moroccan identity of the Sahara, and to continue the development renaissance that our southern provinces are witnessing. In the same spirit, we must work to ensure that the fruits of progress and development include all citizens in all regions, from the countryside to the Sahara, from the east to the ocean, passing through the mountainous, plains, and oasis regions.”
