Much of this week's media coverage of elections in the Middle East has focused on Bahrain's two-stage parliamentary elections (see Mahmoud Al-Yousif's pessimistically cheery take on the results). But at the other end of the region, Mauritanians are hitting the polls in a similar two-step process to elect a new parliament.
After 21 years of dictatorial rule by Colonel Taya, an estimated 600,000 voters are elligible for these landmark elections under a ruling junta that claims it will soon cede power in a democratic manner. The AFP analyzes the election dynamics (reporting that 20% of seats are reserved for women), and colorful commentary on Mauritanian politics can always be found (in French) on the cryptic X Ould Y blog, a Mauritanian version of Wonkette-meets-the Huffington Post.
If Mauritania is indeed opening up to a transparent democratic process for all citizens, then the spotlight may fall on the country's largest "ethnic" bloc: black slaves and former slaves known as haratines. Though under the dominance of the minority Arab-Berber elite that has run Mauritania for centuries, the haratines actually comprise a plurality of the Mauritanian population.
In honor of the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, which comes just as Mauritanians are voting, Reuters has an interesting new report on the changing conditions for haratines:
Born a slave, like his entire family, Matalla Mbreik toiled from dawn to dusk selling water and tending his master's flocks on the lonely fringes of the Saharan desert, until he could take no more.
"I still have the scars from my beatings, like my mother and sisters," said the 32-year-old Mauritanian, staring at the floor, dressed in flowing pale-blue embroidered robes. "All they gave us to eat were leftovers."
After years spent dreaming of escape, Mbreik seized his chance two months ago when a Mauritanian army truck passed him searching for an oasis in the desert.
"I told them to shoot me rather than take me back to my master," said Mbreik, red-faced with shame, sitting in the office of anti-slavery group SOS-Slave.
Although banned by law in 1980, slavery in Mauritania has persisted, perpetuated by poverty and rigid customs. Authorities long denied its existence but campaigners estimate there are still hundreds of thousands of slaves among the 3 million population -- the highest ratio in the world.
Chattel slavery, where one person is the property of another, has existed in the impoverished West African country for more than 800 years, since Arab-Berber raiders swept across the Sahara to subjugate black African tribes.
Traditionally, members of the haratin slave caste must marry who their masters say and can be given as gifts, bought and sold, or presented to the poor as charity.
Children are often separated from their mothers and sent to work in other homes. Girls frequently suffer sexual abuse.
"Westerners think of slaves as people in chains," said Boubacar Messaoud, head of SOS-Slave. "Slaves here have no need to be chained up because they are educated in submission ... They are chained in their heads."
Just as Christianity was once used to justify the transatlantic slave trade, rights workers say many Muslim teachers, or marabouts, in Mauritania preach subservience. "Paradise under your master's foot" is a Mauritanian saying.
"If my master had been kind, I would not have left him," said Mbreik, tightly gripping the edge of the sofa.
..."We are a country of castes, like all the other countries in this region," said Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, the head of Mauritania's military junta which seized power last year, vowing a transition to democracy after decades of dictatorship.
"But Mauritania, more than other countries, is addressing this problem of castes and their consequences on post-independence society," he said, pointing to the adoption of international conventions and efforts to educate former slaves.
SOS-Slave's Messaoud says the situation has improved since the junta ousted former president Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya in a bloodless coup. He hopes the transition to presidential elections in March will bring freedom for all Mauritanians.
"We are optimistic because Mauritania's rulers now acknowledge that slavery exists," said Messaoud, who was jailed several times under Taya's regime. "If the elections are transparent that will be a real victory."
With many escaped slaves unwilling or too ashamed to prosecute their former masters, SOS-Slave is campaigning for the right to bring third party prosecutions against slave-owners.
"Mauritania has never convicted anyone for practicing slavery. That would mark the start of recognition that slavery is no longer acceptable," he said. "The laws forbid slavery, but they are new and traditions are very old..."
Notice that Col. Vall doe not uses the word "slavery" but rather the euphamism "this problem of castes." There is a good reason for his diplomatic choice of words: The enfranchisement of hundreds of thousand of haratines threatens the power of the ruling Arab-Berber minority.
Still, if human rights activists sense a growing social awareness that slavery must be addressed - and if they at least have the freedom to discuss the problem openly - then it is major step forward for Mauritanian society. While it will likely take decades, even centuries, to undo the harm caused by slavery, it's worth noting the new openings.
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