Jaima
Speos x Magnum 2025-2026
Jaima chronicles the experiences of the Western Saharan Diaspora living in France. Following Spain’s incomplete decolonization of the territory in 1975 and the unfulfilled promise of a UN referendum in 1991, many Sahrawis were displaced, fleeing conflict and the Moroccan occupation of their territory. France has become home to a sizable number of the diaspora community. Today, the struggle for self determination for many Sahrawis continues from afar over a territory they call home, but Morocco administratively controls.
The project explores how cultural identity endures and is reshaped in displacement, and how a sense of home persists across distance. Developed over sustained access to families and community gatherings, the photographs move between interior and exterior spaces: attending to
At home, the photographs attend to intimate moments, routines and gatherings. Outside, portraits situate Sahrawi subjects in French public places, tracing a physical presence of home, while holding another one elsewhere. Community anchors personal narratives within an ongoing political reality, where identity is not only lived, but continually asserted as a shared responsibility.
At the centre of the project is a question that is perhaps most acute for the younger generation — those who grew up here, for whom France is simply home, and yet who carry another place inside them that they have never, or barely, lived in. Jaima is an attempt to honour that tension: to sit with what we carry when we cannot go back, and what we become when we stay.
A game of sigue draws families together. Played with eight reed or wooden sticks, the objective of the game is to eliminate the other team's pawns. The game is a long-standing Sahrawi tradition.
Paris, France, 2026. Members of the Sahrawi diaspora join a solidarity including dozens held in Moroccan prisons for advocating Sahrawi
solidarity march calling for the release of political prisoners, Sahrawi self-determination.
Nueil-les-Aubiers, France, April 2026. A child holds the Sahrawi flag at a cultural celebration proclamation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the
Toulouse, France 2026. A table is set for iftar, the evening meal that breaks the daily fast during Ramadan.
Bressuire, France, 2026. Hassaniya, the Arabic dialect of the Sahrawi people, is taught on weekends to children growing up in France.
Salle de la Résistance, Paris, November 2025. Delegates gather at the 49th EUCOCO conference. Held annually in a different European city since 1975, EUCOCO is the principal international solidarity conference for the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination.
This work would not exist without the trust and generosity of Mamia, Habda, Yasmina, Naama, Jalal and Nabila, who opened doors to their families, friends and the wider Sahrawi community in France. Thank you for letting me in.
Ivan Badanjak is a documentary photographer and aspiring researcher whose work explores themes of migration, identity, and cultural preservation. He holds a Master's degree in Migration, Mobility and Development from SOAS University of London, where he developed a strong interest in integration/assimilation, the everyday experiences of diaspora communities and the ways cultural identity is maintained far from home.
Alongside his documentary work, he practices street photography as a way of exploring the city and its rhythms. He is also known for stopping to greet nearly every dog he encounters and take fabulous pictures of them. He attends protests to photograph and convey the intensity of collective movements.
Ivan'sworkisinformedbyhisbackgroundinhumanitarian organizations and reflects an ongoing interest in the intersection of visual storytelling, social inquiry, and contemporary migration narratives.