Unending slavery in Mauritania?

Mauritania is not one of those countries I have ever thought of visiting to pose, do nothing, and keep posing then call it a holiday. No. But it’s been on my mind, as part of my bucketlist, so I visiting it would be a mission to satisfy my growing curiosity.

I want to see slavery in their country. That is the curiosity I need to satisfy. This is a country with ongoing slavery. Slaves born from slave parents.

It’s not the slavery that we know thanks to many slave movies where we can imagine: tall, dark, male slaves chained at their hands and feet, wearing brown trousers and no upper clothes and have huge hair like afros and possibly hairy beards. Nope. Kill that image – quick plus fast minus slow.

Slavery the best kept secret in Mauritania. It is estimated that there are at least 600, 000 slaves: men, women and children. Hmmmm...…almost 20% of the country’s population of 3, 069, 000 people.

It was banned, officially in 1981, but nobody paid attention. August 8, 2007 the parliament passed the long-anticipated bill criminalizing the practice of slavery. Mauritania has two communities: the Moors, who constitute the majority, and the black, ethnic tribes like the Soninke and the Poular.

The Moors community is assumed to be the cause of this problem. The Moors are made up of two groups: the white Moors (light-skinned, mainly Arab and Berber in origin) and the black Moors or the Haratine (the slave descendants). The white Moors are the politically dominant class whereas the Haratine, who are African in origin, grew side-by-side with them, yet as their slaves.

The emergence of a whole class that is born out of slavery (i.e. the Haratine) is what builds the complexity of the phenomenon. They are victims, if not to slavery by itself, then to its aftereffect.

Slavery in Mauritania was officially banned in 1981 but the law lacked efficient mechanisms to eradicate slavery and the practice remained intact as the government stuck to the stance of denial.

There are your rights as a slave:

1. You will never earn a salary.

2. You are entitled to constant beating which is your return on investment – for the work you do.

3. You don’t own anything not even a goat.

4. Being raped is a part of the job description.

5. You will most probably not know your surname or age since your family lifeline’s career has always been slavery.

6. Nobody can save you to fight for your non-existent rights not even Amnesty International as they are not allowed into Mauritania

7. And the some officials in this country have never heard of any slavery here.

Nigeria ooo – how far?

Elections in Africa are really becoming a cauldron of absolute contagious madness.

April 2011 – Nigeria has elections. Jonathan Goodluck is standing, yes, Goodluck to him. Its only December 2010. To be precise it’s Thursday, today. Drums roll please….the drama has started.

Yes it’s the same election where Ibrahim Babangida, the one and only; IBB, wants to be president. He even has a website that called Vote IBB. I am not campaign for him but I had to put this site link here: http://www.voteibb.org/

Back to the story at hand: This is one election to watch. But the drama has started so I guess we better pull put our popcorn, soda or tea and bread (I prefer tea, some nice Kenyan tea, lots of milk, bread with some nice Kenya Gold butter and jam), sit back and observe. Why? Because the election machines have already been stolen, these are the Direct Data Capture (DCC) machines. These were stolen on Monday night, this week. The cargo plane landed in Murtala airport in Lagos and some random thugs rocked up and took the machines away.

An investigation has been launched to scrutiny. Great script for the 4 hour movies on my bestest channel – Africa Magic.

Good old Fela Kuti – maybe its time I listen to his song – you be tief (thief)

The end.