The unspeakable truth about slavery in Mauritania
For all the government’s denials, slavery persists in Mauritania. In a rare insight into the lives of the tens of thousands of people affected, photojournalist Seif Kousmate spent a month photographing and interviewing current and former slaves. While there, he was arrested and imprisoned by police, who confiscated his memory cards, phone and laptop
In 1981, Mauritania made slavery illegal, the last country in the world to
do so. Nonetheless, tens of thousands of people – mostly from the
minority Haratine or
Afro-Mauritanian groups – still live as bonded labourers, domestic servants or
child brides. Local rights groups estimate that up to 20%
of the population is enslaved, with one in two Haratinesforced to work on
farms or in homes with no possibility of freedom, education or pay.
Slavery has a long
history in this north African desert nation. For centuries, Arabic-speaking
Moors raided African villages, resulting in a rigid caste system that still
exists to this day, with darker-skinned inhabitants beholden to their
lighter-skinned “masters”. Slave status is passed down from mother to child,
and anti-slavery activists are regularly
tortured and detained. Yet the government routinely denies
that slavery exists in Mauritania, instead praising itself for eradicating
the practice.
Members of
Mauritania’s leading anti-slavery organisation, the Initiative for the
Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA), hope to oust the majority
Arab-Berber government in national elections next year. The IRA leader, Biram
Ould Abeid – a former slave who was imprisoned for years before coming second
in 2014’s national elections – has vowed to remove President Mohamed Ould Abdel
Aziz, who came to power in a 2008 coup and
has since dismantled the Senate in what critics see as a bid to broaden his
powers… read more and see photos:
