The documentary podcast 'La Provincia 53' from the radio station Onda Cero has won the VIII Premio Saliou Traoré for journalism in Spanish about Africa, awarded by Casa África and the Agencia EFE, for its exercise in memory and reflection on the Spanish presence in Western Sahara, the award jury announced this Monday.
La Provincia 53 is a 15-episode documentary podcast broadcast on Onda Cero in 2025 about the history of the Spanish presence in Western Sahara, from its colonization in the 19th century to the withdrawal of civilian and military personnel from the then province number 53, after the so-called Green March in 1975.
It is a work "to remember (and vindicate) the ties that unite the Sahrawi and Spanish peoples, united by almost a century of history and coexistence," in the words of its authors.
The podcast, which features about twenty experts, Spanish and Sahrawi historians, military personnel, and direct witnesses to the events, is written, directed, and produced by Jorge Abad, a journalist with 25 years of experience and deputy director of the program Más de uno on Onda Cero, and features narration by Carlos Alsina and production by María Jesús Moreno.
The jury, which announced the award coinciding with Africa Day, celebrated every May 25, highlighted the "very high quality" of the winning podcast, its "impressive" documentary value, the timeliness of its publication on the 50th anniversary of the Green March, and its invitation to reflect on Spain's ties with the Sahara.
In this eighth edition, the jury was chaired by the Director General of Casa África, José Segura, accompanied by the President of Agencia EFE, Miguel Ángel Oliver, the journalist from Cadena SER Nicolás Castellano Flores, and the editorial advisor of the newspaper El Mundo and professor of International Relations at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Felipe Sahagún.
Also part of the jury were Antonina Cupe, Head of Communication at the Women for Africa Foundation, and as new members Jean-Arséne Yao, publication director of VisionAfriQ magazine and member of the Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Chair of African American Studies, and the writer and columnist Asaari Bibang.
The Director General of Casa África has highlighted that this edition, which received 29 candidacies, mostly from Spain (24) and the rest from Argentina (2), Italy (1), Mexico (1), and Peru (1), "has been one of the richest in content and variation in recent years".
Opportunity, reflection, and memory
"The winning work is exceptional, very timely" and addresses a topic that "still raises many questions," Segura commented on 'La Provincia 53'.
For the president of the EFE Agency, the podcast "has a very notable impact and also appeals to a historical responsibility" that has created "bonds" between the Sahrawi and Spanish peoples.
It is an "overwhelming" work, "that makes you reflect on the Sahara and brings your mental focus there, with an elegance in its treatment that forces you to reflect without seeing it from a Manichean perspective," Oliver argued.
In the same vein, Bibang underlined the reflection that the podcast invites, while the director of publication of VisionAfriQ valued its relevance on the anniversary "of a fundamental event" in the history of Spain.
In Sahagún's opinion, it is "an exercise in journalistic memory that is uncomfortable because it focuses where it should, without noise, without bombastic statements or outlandish adjectives, without wanting to denounce who is responsible or not in the Sahara."
For his part, Cupe praised the "impeccable editing" of the podcast and that it deals with a "super relevant" topic and contextualizes it "in an incredible way."
Meanwhile, Nicolás Castellano maintained that "there is brutal historical work" due to the script and the quantity and quality of the testimonies, as well as an "impressive" level of documentation.
Awards for a rigorous look at the continent
The Saliou Traoré Award is named after the veteran Senegalese correspondent of EFE who passed away on October 13, 2018, in Dakar, and its objective is to recognize professionals who offer a rigorous look at the reality of the African continent.
With a prize of 5,000 euros and a statuette by the artist María de Frutos, National Prize for Plastic Arts (2015), it is open to journalists of any nationality, as well as institutions and professional associations wishing to propose candidacies.
In this VIII edition, it has the general sponsorship of the Government of the Canary Islands and the collaboration of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria City Council and RIU Hotels & Resorts.
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