Slavery in Mauritania

Officially, Mauritania was the last country in the world to abolish slavery. It was in 1981. But 33 years later, it is clear that it has never really stopped.

According to the 2013 report of the Australian NGO Walk Free, this 3.8 million inhabitants country would be the biggest slave country in comparison to its population. Indeed 150.000 are enslaved, ie 4% of the population, including women and children.

According to a local NGO the amount of slaves would be much higher, around 20% ! It's hard to have reliable data but even if the one of Walk Free is the good one it is still incredibly high.

I was like an animal living with animals

An escaped slave

Most of the time, slaves are the descendants of black Africans abducted into slavery : those "black", as they're called, or haratin, generally serve the lighter skinned Moors. The problem is that, even if slavery has been abolished in 1981 and considered as a crime in 2007, the authorities deny it exists. Since 2007 there has been only one conviction against slave owners...

Fortunately some people fought this situation on the battlefield, like Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid. In 2013 his NGO, Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement, has been reward by the UN with the Human Rights Award.

According to Biram Dah Abeid "slaves are not restrained by chains in Mauritania but are part if a rigid socio-economic structure and division of labor steeped in racism". Slaves over there are not the caricature of the slave with ball and chain, they're just reduced to almost nothing because of their illiteracy, their origins... So they're mentally conditioned to be enslaved.

Recently there was the presidential election but it didn't changed anything, but for a few weeks voices are raising against the situation, let's hope it's the beginning of something sustainable.

There's a petition online to support Mauritanian, sign and share, it only takes 30 seconds !

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