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Poverty and tradition shackle Mauritania's slaves
<http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=reutersEdge&story
ID=2006-12-04T111738Z_01_NOA440549_RTRUKOC_0_MAURITANIA-SLAVERY.xml>
Mon Dec 4, 2006 11:18 AM GMT
By Daniel Flynn
NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - 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 trans-Atlantic 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.
MILLIONS OF SLAVES
The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery on December 2 marks
the landmark 1949 U.N. convention against people trafficking.
Anti-slavery campaigners estimate there are still more than 25 million
slaves worldwide.
Slavery remains rife in many parts of West Africa's arid Sahel region,
such as neighbouring Mali or Niger, ranked among the poorest countries
in the world.
"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 practising 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."
POVERTY BREEDS SLAVERY
Former slave owner Mohamed Salem Ould Hamada's family willingly freed
all their slaves in 1991. He now condemns slavery as unjust but
understands how the ancient practice came to exist.
"In our religion slavery is a bad thing," said Hamada, citing the
Koranic story of Yusuf sold into slavery in Egypt. "It exists because
there are problems which are worse: poverty."
"In many cases, it is the slaves themselves who want the procedure,"
said Hamada. "While problems of poverty continue to exist, slavery will
continue."
In a poor shanty-town near Nouakchott's airport, where corrugated iron
shacks dot the sand dunes and goats nibble at piles of rubbish,
SOS-Slave has helped Aichana start a new life.
Children in torn rags play beside the "street", marked by car tyres
planted in the sand, outside the small shop which she established with
money from the group.
"Before when I worked, it was never for me -- even if I earned money I
had to give it to my master," Aichana said, sat inside on a red mat
beside shelves stacked with couscous, soap, dry biscuits, pasta, and
condensed milk.
"When I was young, I thought life was like that, but as I grew older and
saw how other people lived, I felt ashamed," she added, as flies settled
on her face in the morning haze.
"Now, all I want is to be able to earn my living honestly ... for my
children to go to school, for them to be honest and grow up like normal
people."
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