by ABDA WONE
To better comprehend Mauritania, one should understand that slavery has been abolished three times! The fourth abolishment of slavery is yet to be announced as the widespread practice continues unabated.
The West cum North African country’s first abolishment was put on paper in 1905 when the country was colonised by France.
The second, as a result of a continuing of the practice, was to be enforced when Mauritania joined the United Nations. But that second abolishment law was so ambiguous it only implied that the practice would be prohibited under the constitution. At a later date!
The third was in 1981 by the Military Committee of National Salvation, under Mouhamed Khouna Ould Haidallah.
In what is seen as an incredible disrespect for the sanctity of the law, the three too-many abolitions are not clear and the language used to enforce them remains ambiguous.
The very classes who are in charge of the laws are the same who benefit from slavery, and the regime continues to exploit the citizenry considered as “slaves”. There are no signs that the authorities are sincere about any talks of freedom, be it of movement, thought or economic.
Consequently, some blacks, known as “Negro-Mauritanians”, are still owned as slaves by rich Arab masters, who despite being African prefer being referred to as Arab.
So, such is the struggle in 2012 to free slaves in Mauritania in a modern society.
The pre-historic political consciousness is such that Birame Ould Dah, a Mauritanian abolitionist and leader of the Initiative for the resurgence of the abolitionist movement (IRA-Mauritania) has been in detention since April 2012.
Tens of thousands of Black slaves in Mauritania? The property of Arab-Berber masters?
Birame has been accused of burning scholarly Muslim works, while insisting that their authors justify the practice of slavery in Mauritania by virtue of Islam. National and international opinions associate his arrest to his anti-slavery activism and his fight to inform the world about what is really taking place in his country, Mauritania.
Birame’s imprisonment does not meet standards designed for stray animals being led to the slaughter and without much surprise his life is in grave danger due to his condition of health. A condition designed by the very authorities who on three occasions have banned the very practice Birame is reminding them of.
Sudan and Mauritania, where blacks and so-called Arabs co-exist in the same geographical space, have long been in the business of slavery.
Dr. Samuel Cotton, author of the masterpiece “The Silent Terror: a Journey into Contemporary African Slavery”, expresses his shock upon discovering the extent of slavery.
The Africa Report for more