Mauritanian Social System

I have really neglected to explain the Mauritania social system. I know you’ve all been at home, waking in the night going , “Dang, I wish she’d hurry up and describe the social structure in Mauritania already!” Basically, there are three main groups: White Moors, Black Moors, and Black Africans. Guess which ones are in power.

Moors are divided into two groups which are unified by a common culture and language, Hassaniya. People here claim that Hassaniya is the purest Arabic dialect, the closest dervied from classical Arabic. About 70-75% of Hassaniya is Arabic with the other words coming from Berber, Wolof, French, etc. For example, potato is “bombiterr” , a funny take on the French “pomme de terre.” The terms “white moor” and “black moor’ are misleading because some white moors are dark and some black moors are light.

White moors are a mix of Berber and Arab blood. Berbers first settled in Mauritania in the 11th century, after overthrowing the ruling kingdom of Ghana. The Arabs conquered and colonized the area in the 14th century. White Moors identify with the Arab world and often seem to strive to be “more Arab than the Arabs,” as my PCV colleagues joke. They watch mostly Arabic satellite TV, including Al Jezeera, which is, by the way, just a news network (not a terrorist organization), no better and certainly no worse than Fox News.

The black moors are actually of many different west African ethnicities, previously enslaved by the white moors. In the same way that ethnically diverse African slaves were forced to assimilate the language and culture of their American masters, black moors speak Hassaniya and share a common culture with their former masters. Black moors are divided into haratin, freed slaves like my host family, and abid, slave slaves. I was hanging out with Youma and the kids last night and her little five year old, Abdrahaman, joked, “I’m an abid and you and Hassina (his 3 year old sister) and haratin.” I asked Youma if there were still abid in Mauritania and she scoffed, “Lots!” She said that in town you’ll find only a few, but in the desert there are still many abid. Slavery was outlawed in 1961, 1981, and 1991, but I guess some of the nomads didn’t get the message.

Even though slavery is illegal, the racial attitudes are still vey much in place. Haratins are the poorest of all the groups in Mauritania. I have never seen a white moor do physical labor. In Magtalahjar, ALL physical and domestic work is done by black moors. I haven’t spent enough time in black african towns to see how it goes there, but I assume the black africans do their own work. Youma talks about her friend Khadi all the time. “I’m going to Khadi’s! Khadi this, Khadi that!” One day I stopped by Khadi’s while Youma was there and was shocked to see Youma doing Khadi’s dishes and sweeping. She’s Khadi’s servant! But Khadi doesn’t pay her! Khadi’s son teaches Abdrahaman Koranic lessons, and she occaisionlly will give Youma a second hand veil or a couple packets of tea as payment. Even my friend, Limnaya, who is in many ways bucks the Moor social system (she’s 25, unmarried, educated and sasssssssy) has a black servant who does all the house work. White moors often say that only blacks are theives. Black moors are considered to be of the same tribe as their masters or former masters. I know blacks and whites intermarry, but I don’t know to what degree or in what circumstances.
Moorish society is divided into tribes. The tribes originally formed for mutual protection on the desert, in the constant search for water and pasture. Loyalty is first to the family, then to the tribe. People have told me that people will fight each other within the tribe, but when faced with an outside threat, will come together to defend the tribe.
The third group is the Black Africans, which is comprised of Pulaar, Soninke, and Wolof peoples. The black africans live mostly in the south. There are only a handful of them in Magtalahjar. They too are Muslim, but generally not as conservative as the Moors. The women wear bright colorful dresses. The men tend to wear equally bright African or Western clothes. The Pulaar are part of a huge group of people that are found allllllll across West Africa and even stretch across Niger and Chad. Their long, thin cousins, the Fulbe, used to come in from the bush and sell milk from the huge calabash bowls on their heads in Bol. The Soninke’s cousins are also spread all across West Africa. The Wolof are also found in Senegal and the Gambia and make THE best food in Mauritania.
The relations between groups are complex. White moors have a firm grip on political power, though many black africans work for the government. Black moors are busy making bricks in the noon day sun. Black Africans and White Moors both hold considerable economic power. There’s a lot of mistrust floating around in this country. White Moors tend to think of black africans as foreigners and often call them Senegalese, though they’re Mauritanian. Black Africans distrust Moors and see them as corrupt and racist.
By the way, I paraphrased most of that from a Peace Corps cultural manual, so don’t go thinking that I have been blessed with great powers of observation by the social studies genie. The witty asides are all mine, though.
Seeing as it’s been a month since I started writing this, I guess I’ll wrap it up. I hope all is well wherever you are. If you decide to give up on the Mauritanian mail system, my email is kravte@yahoo.com and I now have fairly reliable email access once a month or so.

Love,
Kate