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Educational project for descendants of slaves in Mauritania seeks funding
UNPO, IRA Mauritanie launch literacy project aimed at empowering Haratin children · The Haratin continue to suffer intense forms of political and social discrimination, some of them remained enslaved
The project aims to break the "cycle of discrimination and exclusion" that those children have inherited from their parents and grandparents. The action will focus on communities in Dar El Beida and Riad, in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, where Haratin children will receive lessons in reading and writing for 6 months.
"Having even basic literacy skills will transform their chances for employment and earning a livelihood," the two organizations argue. IRA Mauritanie and UNPO are seeking to fund the project through a crowdfunding platform in order to pay for teachers and materials needed for the action. The total amount requested is 3,000 dollars.
Three major population groups in Mauritania
The Mauritanian society is split into three main groups. According to Minority Rights Group, the Beidane -or white Moors- make up 15% to 20% of the population. They are the country's elite, as they "control the economy and the vast majority of the administrative State, including the Government, the military and the police," a 2010 UN report of the United Nations reads.
The Haratin are the second group, some 40% of the population. Largely descendants of black African populations having been Islamised and Arabised, the Haratin were for centuries enslaved by the Beidane. Over the 20th century, part of the Haratin achieved freedom, while others continued to live under various forms of slavery, despite the fact that the practice was banned by French and Mauritanian laws.
According to the Global Slavery Index, 4% of the Mauritanian population continues to live under slavery. Other sources raise the figure up to 15%.
Freed Haratin usually become the poorest class among free Mauritanians. As a consequence, they suffer several kinds of discrimination, which in the case of women are particularly serious.
The third largest population group are the non-Arab peoples of the south, which make up between 40% and 45% of the population -other sources lower the share to 30%. The largest ethnolinguistic groups among them are the Wolof, the Soninke, the Toucouleur and the Peul.