Evidentia

In our series of blogs on contemporary slavery, we continue to investigate the plight of the world’s 29 million slaves. In today’s blog, Mohamed Yahya Ould Ciré, a former diplomat of Mauritania now living in exile, explains how sermons destined for the Haratin of Mauritania are a form of ideological manipulation. Mauritania is an Islamic republic in West Africa, where Arabic-speaking Moors dominate the black Haratin population, much of which is still enslaved in the 21st century.

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Slavery in Mauritania is built on an ideology nourished by Islamic rules and customs. Imams, Sheikhs, the Saints, the Sherifs (descendants of the Prophet), the Marabouts [Islamic holy men in North Africa], constantly nourish this ideology by means of poetry, proverbs, sayings, unofficial religious literature, etc.  These sermons have proven to be an effective means for spreading the ideology of slavery.

Mauritania is in West Africa

In September 2005, Sheikh Tijani Ould El Hadi Ould Vall Maouloud [1] of the Tijania Brotherhood, a member of the Idaïghib tribe on his father’s side, and Idaouali on his mother’s side, gave a sermon in a small mosque in Umm Oulad Eid El Ghouri. This village is located in the region of Trarza R’kiz department, in the Tekan district.

The audience was made up of Haratin. Sheikh Tijani spoke the following words, in Hassania [the dialect of Arabic spoken in Mauritania]:

“Eli dawr messsal’hou
Yikhdem messalih El Bidhan”

Or in other words, in English:

“Whoever seeks to pursue his interests
Has nothing more to do than look after the interests of the Moors.”

This message was contained in a sermon, supposedly devoted to religion. But the sermon actually encouraged the Haratin to accept Moorish domination and favour the interests of the Arab-Berber population. The reality is that behind Islam are hidden political objectives aimed at preserving Moorish supremacy, whether economically, politically or socially. Mosques in Haratin circles (Adouaba, in camps, etc.) are run by Arab-Berbers as a way of maintaining Moorish domination.

Arab-Berber preachers threaten any Haratin refusing to obey Moorish commands with hellfire after death.

In places like Chinguetti, Islam has been combined with Arab-Berber tribal culture to discriminate against black Haratin

The Moors use religion to keep the Haratin under their yoke. “We found in all Moorish tribes a ‘revelatory’ dream of a great saint, variously adapted by each marabout family, the dream being taught to all children at a young age. The marabout says that after the death of a pious slave, he sees in a dream that the slave divides into two, half snow and half fire. The marabout expresses his surprise, and asks the slave about this, who replies: ‘I was condemned to eternal purgatory, because I fulfilled my obligations towards God while neglecting those towards my master, and now I have my reward.’” [2]

In order to put an end to this ideological manipulation, I wrote a doctoral thesis in French entitled “The abolition of slavery in Mauritania and the difficulties of its application.” [3] In my thesis, I propose the creation of  mosques, mahadras and brotherhoods headed by Haratin themselves.

Mohamed Yahya Ould Waxed
President AHME

Footnotes:
[1] Sheikh Tijani Ould El Hadi Ould Vall Maouloud is a former officer of the Central Bank of Mauritania – he worked there for at least ten years. Upon the death of his father (a spiritual leader in the 1980s), he took on a similar leadership role. Although he has a certain amount of education (at the lycée of Nouakchott), and has served the State, he is now reinforcing the practices of slavery and racism, in a way worthy of the worst illiterates of Mauritania. His behaviour is worse than that of his father El Hadi.
[2] Hormatallah ( Abdallahi), «Le cri de l’esclave, mécanisme et enjeux d’une domination» in Regards sur la Mauritanie, L’Ouest africain, Cahiers d’études pluridisciplinaires, vol n°4, 2004, Editions l’Harmattan
[3] Université Paris II, Bibliothèque Cuja

Most of Mauritania is desert - photo by Yann Arthus-Bertrand