Affirming Identity in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania: The ‘Abolition Crisis’ of 1980-1983

The Maghreb Review, Vol. 39, 2, 2014 © The Maghreb Review 2014 This publication is printed on longlife paper AFFIRMING IDENTITY IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF MAURITANIA: THE ‘ABOLITION CRISIS’ OF 1980-1983 E ANN MCDOUGALL* INTRODUCTION: ‘THE NARRATIVE’ In 1980-81, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania abolished slavery by proclamation and legislation (United Nations, 1984: Annexes IV, V); two years later, land reforms were implemented to buttress abolition by freeing up ‘dormant’ land, ostensibly to newly freed slaves (RIM 1983). Abolition and its subsequent supporting legislation were widely interpreted as President Colonel Mohamed Kouna ould Haidallah’s response to human rights concerns raised both domestically and internationally 1 . But the unavoidable question remains: how could slavery still need to be abolished in the late 20th century? After all, this was a former French colony wherein the abolition of slavery was a cornerstone of colonial legitimacy (“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”), an ongoing effort during France’s half-century of colonial mastery over Mauritania. In 1948-9, a United Nations questionnaire was circulated requesting information relative to the current situation of “slavery and servitude”. One G. Poulet responded 2 on behalf of Mauritania that the ‘problem of serviteurs’ was tied to the question of religion; Islam permitted slavery and abolition was therefore in conflict with rights officially recognized by the French and ‘newly consecrated’ as recently as 1946 (Droit du statut personnel). That said, his responses emphasized the domestic nature of the problem: most slaves were really ‘serviteurs’ in the house of a master who fed and clothed them – they were ‘well treated’; most masters had only a few serviteurs and they were, for the most part, born in the household; while slaves occasionally changed hands from one master to another or were ‘loaned’ to guarantee (or work off) a debt, ‘transactions in slaves’ can be considered to be disappearing little by little. In his ‘aperçu’ accompanying responses to the questionnaire, Poulet emphasized the emergence of the hratani (freed slave) class and an ongoing ‘exchange of services’ between it and former masters as indicating an important transition in society that needed to be supported (Poulet 1949) 3 . * University of Alberta, Canada 1 Discussion of these issues can be found in many sources; for a useful starting point see McDougall 2005: 963,4 and Idem. 2010: 262-4 (and bibliographies). 2 Seemingly to the Governor of the French Sudan, although the document does not indicate its recipient (17 Mai 1949) 3 This report and the larger response from the Governor of the French Soudan which incorporated it (1950) is discussed in more detail in McDougall 2007: 252-6. [Note: G. Poulet was not ‘Governor General’ as indicated in that text, that was an error. But nor is this 192 E ANN MCDOUGALL From another perspective, 1980 was, after all, more than thirty years after the post-WWII world saw the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights reject any form of exploitation, and almost twenty years after Mauritania’s first president Mokhtar ould Daddah, signed that Declaration on behalf of his newly independent country (McDougall 2005: 961) 4 . The 1980 declaration, then, was a long time coming and equally -- long over-due. Consequently, when it failed to have any noticeable impact, when the subsequent legislation failed to be implemented and when the 1983 land reform favoured those with the means to purchase it (the ‘nobility’, the slave-owning class) rather than former slaves who worked the land (Leservoisier 1995: 348,9 5 ), the government lost a great deal of credibility both domestically and internationally. Ould Haidallah’s successor, Colonel Maaouya ould Sidi Ahmed Taya, seized power in a military coup d’état in December1984. 6 During the twenty years he ruled (for the most part through single-party dictatorship 7 ), the rhetoric around slavery and abolition remained much the same. But according to repeated reports from international agencies and ‘fact-finding missions’ (of varying repute), little changed for those living in ‘slave-like’ conditions (United Nations, Annex VI 1984; McDougall 2005: 967, ft. 28; 2010: 265, 6). 8 Domestically, voices speaking out on behalf of slaves and former slaves – for the most part by former slaves themselves (haratin), grew louder. From a 1970s association...

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