Mauritania

• 1. Introduction

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  Near the town of Ouadane, on the Adrar Plateau in Mauritania, the desert floor is marked by a set of concentric rings. From above, the formation looks like a giant eye. It is called the Richat Structure, and it has been dubbed the Eye of the Sahara. In 2020 the series Atlas of Cursed Places, shown on the Discovery Channel and National Geographic Channel, floated the rings as a possible site for the lost city of Atlantis. That is a television theory, but it shows how strange this country looks to outsiders.

  Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, sits in Northwest Africa and is home to roughly four million people. Most of them live in the greener south, and about a third crowd into a single Atlantic port, Nouakchott. The rest of the map is mostly sand.

  This documentary asks how such a place came to hold so many peoples. It asks who named the country, and why the name belongs to a kingdom that lay far away. It asks how a French colonial outpost became a nation, why soldiers have so often taken power, and what lies behind the country's hardest questions about freedom.

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• 2. Sand and Scarps

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  Mauritania covers 1,030,000 square kilometers, which makes it the 11th-largest country in Africa and the 28th-largest in the world. About 90 percent of that territory lies in the Sahara. The land is generally flat, a set of vast, arid plains interrupted by occasional ridges and cliff-like outcrops. Severe drought has pushed the desert outward since the mid-1960s.

  A line of scarps facing southwest cuts through the middle of the country. They separate sandstone plateaus, and the highest is the Adrar Plateau, which reaches 500 meters. Spring-fed oases lie at the foot of some of the scarps. Isolated peaks, often rich in minerals, rise above the plateaus. The smaller ones are called guelbs and the larger ones kedias. The tallest is Kediet ej Jill, near the city of Zouîrât, at 915 meters.

  In the northeast the plateaus slope down into El Djouf, the Empty Quarter. This barren region of huge dunes merges into the wider Sahara. Closer to the ocean, flat clayey plains called regs alternate with dune fields called ergs. High winds slowly shift some of these dunes, and the dunes grow larger and more mobile toward the north.

  Along the Senegal River in the far south, there are traces of tropical forest. Moving east and north, the vegetation thins to brush and savanna in the southeast, and then to bare sandy desert across the center and north. The country holds seven terrestrial ecoregions, from Sahelian Acacia savanna to Atlantic coastal desert.

  At roughly 19 degrees north, the country crosses a biological border. The northern part belongs to the Palearctic realm, and the south belongs to the Afrotropical realm. Numerous birds from the Palearctic spend the winter here.

  Two wetlands are formally protected. Banc d'Arguin National Park shields shallow coastal and marine waters where the sea meets the desert. Diawling National Park forms the northern part of the Senegal River delta. Elsewhere, wetlands rely on seasonal rainfall and tend to be short-lived.

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• 3. Roots, Names and Peoples

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  In the third century BC, a Berber kingdom called Mauretania began to flourish far to the north of today's country. It later became a Roman province that lasted into the seventh century AD. It stretched along the western half of Africa's Mediterranean coast, so it does not overlap with modern Mauritania. The name comes from the Greek and Roman word for the kingdom's Berber people, the Mauri. That same word is the root of the name Moors.

  Arab geographers used a different name. They called the region Bilad Chinqit, the land of Chinguetti. In 1899 a ministerial circular officially used the term Mauritanie occidentale. It was proposed by Xavier Coppolani, a French military and colonial administrator. The French term gradually replaced the older designations.

  The earliest inhabitants included Berber, Niger-Congo and Bafour peoples. The Bafour were among the first Saharan peoples to give up nomadic life for farming. As the Sahara slowly dried out, they moved south. Many Berber tribes claim Yemeni or other Arab origins. Little evidence supports this, though a 2000 DNA study of Yemenis hinted at some ancient connection.

  By the end of the seventh century, the Umayyads had entered the region and settled there. Many Berber tribes fled toward the Gao region in what is now Mali. Arab tribes brought Islam, Arab culture and the Arabic language.

  In the 11th century, several nomadic Berber confederations in the desert joined to form the Almoravid movement. Their empire eventually stretched from the Sahara to the Iberian Peninsula. A disputed Arab tradition says they conquered the Ghana Empire around 1076.

  From 1644 to 1674, the peoples of the area made a last, failed effort to push back invading Maqil Arabs. This was the Char Bouba War, and the invaders were led by the Beni Hassan tribe. Their warrior descendants became the upper stratum of Moorish society. The bedouin dialect named for them, Hassaniya, became the dominant language of a largely nomadic population.

  Today the Haratin make up 40 percent of the population, the Bidhan 30 percent, and various sub-Saharan groups the remaining 30 percent. The Bidhan, or white Moors, are of mixed Arab-Berber descent. The Haratin, or black Moors, are believed to descend from ancient Saharans, including the original inhabitants of the Tassili n'Ajjer and Acacus Mountain sites. The sub-Saharan groups include the Halpulaar, Soninke, Bambara and Wolof.

  Arabic is the official language, but the local Hassaniya contains many Berber words and differs sharply from the Modern Standard Arabic used officially. Pulaar, Soninke and Wolof are national languages too. French has lost official status but still serves in administration, schools and business. Nearly everyone is Muslim, mostly Sunni, and the Sufi orders Tijaniyah and Qadiriyyah carry influence far beyond the country's borders.

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• 4. The French Frontier

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  In 1901, Xavier Coppolani took charge of the French imperial mission in the lands north of the Senegal River. His method mixed alliances with Zawaya tribes and military pressure on the Hassane warrior nomads. Between 1903 and 1904, French armies occupied Trarza, Brakna and Tagant. In 1904 France organized the territory as part of French West Africa, first as a protectorate and later as a colony.

  The northern emirate of Adrar held out longer. It was backed by the anticolonial jihad of shaykh Maa al-Aynayn and by insurgents from Tagant and other occupied regions. French armies finally defeated Adrar in 1912 and folded it into the territory.

  French rule brought legal bans on slavery and an end to warfare between clans. Even so, 90 percent of the population stayed nomadic through the colonial period. Meanwhile, some people from sedentary groups, whose ancestors had been expelled centuries earlier, gradually drifted back.

  The colony had no real capital of its own. Until 1902, the capital of French West Africa stood at Saint-Louis in what is now Senegal. From 1902 to 1960 it moved to Dakar. When Senegal gained independence in 1960, France picked Nouakchott as the capital of Mauritania. At that moment it was barely more than a fortified village, or ksar.

  After independence, larger numbers of Haalpulaar, Soninke and Wolof people arrived, mostly settling north of the Senegal River. Many had been schooled in French language and customs, and they became clerks, soldiers and administrators in the new state. At the same time, French forces were suppressing the most defiant Hassane tribes in the north. That pressure upset the balance of power and sparked new conflicts between southern populations and the Moors.

  The great Sahel droughts of the early 1970s then devastated the country and deepened poverty and conflict. The Arabized elites responded by pressing to Arabize law and the education system. Arab nationalist calls from abroad added to the push, and so did resentment of French domination.

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• 5. One Party, One War

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  In 1960 Mauritania became independent, and in 1964 President Moktar Ould Daddah, originally installed by the French, introduced a one-party constitution. His own Parti du Peuple Mauritanien became the sole ruling organization. He argued that the country was not ready for Western-style multiparty democracy. Uncontested elections returned him to office in 1976 and 1978.

  The war that ended his rule began in 1976, when Mauritania and Morocco annexed Western Sahara. Daddah's plan to take its southern part was framed as a step toward a "Greater Mauritania". The Polisario Front, heavily armed and backed by Algeria, handed the Mauritanian army several defeats. On the 10th of July 1978, Daddah was ousted in a bloodless coup. He had brought the country to the edge of collapse.

  Mustafa Ould Salek's Military Committee for National Recovery could not build a strong base or end the conflict. It fell quickly and was replaced by the Military Committee for National Salvation. Colonel Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah emerged as its strongman. Mauritania withdrew from Western Sahara in 1979, and Morocco took over its claims. Peace with Polisario improved relations with Algeria, but ties with Morocco and its European ally France worsened.

  Haidallah's regime was plagued by attempted coups and military intrigue. His harsh measures against opponents saw many dissidents jailed and some executed.

  In 1981 a strange mistake briefly put Mauritania in American headlines. United States newspapers wrongly reported that the CIA planned a covert operation to overthrow its government. Journalist Bob Woodward later wrote that "White House aides unfamiliar with the world" had meant to leak news of an operation planned for Mauritius.

  In December 1984, Colonel Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya deposed Haidallah. He kept tight military control but relaxed the political climate. He restored ties with Morocco in the late 1980s, and since that decade the country's position on Western Sahara has been strict neutrality.

  The gravest crisis of his rule began in Diawara, where Moorish Mauritanian herders and Senegalese farmers clashed over grazing rights. On the 9th of April 1989, Mauritanian guards killed two Senegalese. Riots followed in Bakel, Dakar and other Senegalese towns, aimed at the mostly Arabized Mauritanians who dominated local retail. A campaign of terror against black Mauritanians followed, since the Bidhan often see them as Senegalese whatever their nationality.

  Low-scale conflict continued into 1990-91, and the Mauritanian government encouraged violence and seizures of property against the Halpularen. International pressure produced an airlift agreed by both countries. Thousands of black Mauritanians were expelled, and the source puts the figure in the late 1980s at some 70,000. By June 1991, the UN refugee agency counted 52,995 Mauritanian refugees in Senegal and at least 13,000 in Mali. Many were repatriated after 2007.

  A new constitution in 1991 legalized opposition parties and ended formal military rule, though some opposition groups called Taya's election wins fraudulent. His pro-Iraqi stance in the 1991 Gulf War left Mauritania isolated and strained relations with Western countries. From the mid-to-late 1990s he turned toward the United States and Europe. On the 28th of October 1999, Mauritania became one of only four Arab League members to recognize Israel, alongside Egypt, Palestine and Jordan.

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• 6. Coups and Ballots

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  On the 3rd of August 2005, Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall ended Taya's 21 years of rule while the president was away at the funeral of Saudi King Fahd. Officers, including members of the presidential guard known as BASEP, seized key points in Nouakchott. Nobody was killed. Calling themselves the Military Council for Justice and Democracy, they promised to end what they called oppressive activities of the defunct authority. Vall had once been Taya's firm ally and Security Chief, and had helped him take power in the first place.

  The junta kept its promise to hold elections within two years. In a referendum on the 26th of June 2006-97 percent of voters approved a constitution limiting how long a president can stay in office. On the 11th of March 2007, Mauritania held its first multi-candidate presidential election since independence in 1960. Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi won in a second round.

  His presidency lasted barely a year. On the 6th of August 2008, the day after 48 lawmakers from the ruling party resigned in protest, the head of the presidential guard took over the palace in Nouakchott. The president had just fired senior officers, including that same guard commander. Soldiers surrounded key government buildings, including the state television building. The president, the prime minister and the interior minister were arrested. Abdallahi's daughter, Amal Mint Cheikh Abdallahi, said: "The security agents of the BASEP (Presidential Security Battalion) came to our home and took away my father."

  The coup was coordinated by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who had recently been fired as army chief of staff and guard head. A lawmaker, Mohammed Al Mukhtar, claimed many people supported the takeover because Abdallahi's government had become authoritarian. Even so, the new regime faced sanctions and canceled aid, and it banned demonstrations when parties rallied behind Abdallahi. Abdallahi was eventually moved to house arrest in his home village, and the new government broke off relations with Israel.

  In spring 2009 the junta negotiated an understanding with some opposition figures and foreign parties. Abdallahi resigned under protest, and France and Algeria lined up behind Abdel Aziz. On the 18th of July 2009, Abdel Aziz won the presidency with a 52 percent majority. Critics called it a political ploy, but Western, Arab and African countries accepted the result and lifted sanctions.

  In February 2011, the Arab Spring reached Mauritania, and thousands of people took to the streets of the capital. In 2017 the Senate rejected the president's proposed constitutional changes. He called a referendum in August, and the Senate was abolished. That same month, on the 5th of August 2017, two red stripes were added to the national flag to symbolize sacrifice and defense of the country.

  In August 2019, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani was sworn in after elections regarded as the first peaceful transition of power since independence. Abdel Aziz was arrested in June 2021 amid a corruption probe over alleged embezzlement. In December 2023, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

  The state he left behind is a semi-presidential republic. The president is directly elected for a five-year term, with one more allowed, and appoints the prime minister. A single chamber, the 176-member National Assembly, now makes the laws. Local administration follows a French-style model, with 15 regions called wilaya and 44 departments called moughataa.

  In early 2024, a sudden rise in migrants reaching the Canary Islands by boat brought European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez to the country. The EU then signed a €210M deal with Mauritania to reduce migrant passage through its territory. The UN estimates that 150,000 people from Mali have fled into Mauritania. Voters returned Ghazouani for a second term in June 2024, in an election held on the 29th of June.

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• 7. Slavery and Rights

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  In 1905, the French colonial administration declared an end to slavery in Mauritania, with very little success. Mauritania ratified the Forced Labour Convention in 1961, after implicitly enshrining abolition in its 1959 constitution. A presidential decree nominally abolished slavery in 1981. Yet a criminal law against owning slaves came only in August 2007. Slavery has therefore been officially abolished three times and still persists.

  It is rooted in a historical caste system and passes down by descent. The people held in bondage are generally the darker-skinned Haratin, and their owners are often lighter-skinned Moors. Slavery also exists among sub-Saharan groups in the south. Some estimates even say it is more widespread there.

  A U.S. State Department report on 2010 stated that government efforts to enforce the antislavery law were not sufficient. It noted that no case had been successfully prosecuted despite the existence of de facto slavery.

  Numbers are fiercely contested. A 2012 CNN documentary, "Slavery's Last Stronghold", estimated that 10 to 20 percent of the population, between 340,000 and 680,000 people, lived in slavery. Several academics consider that grossly overstated. In the same year, a government minister said slavery "no longer exists". The 2018 Global Slavery Index, from the Walk Free Foundation, estimated about 90,000 enslaved people, roughly 2 percent of the population.

  Three obstacles stand in the way of ending it. Laws are hard to enforce across a vast desert. Poverty leaves freed slaves few ways to support themselves. And many people believe slavery is part of the natural order of their society.

  Other rights concerns run deep. In 2008, Amnesty International alleged that torture was "deeply anchored in the culture of the security forces". It listed cigarette burns, electric shocks and sexual violence. In 2014 the U.S. State Department named torture by law enforcement as one of the country's "central human rights problems". In 2016 UN expert Juan E. Méndez pointed to an "almost total absence of investigations into allegations of torture".

  Religious freedom is also sharply restricted. On the 27th of April 2018, the National Assembly passed a law making the death penalty mandatory for "blasphemous speech" or acts deemed "sacrilegious". It removed the option of swapping prison terms for the death penalty for some offenders who promptly repent. Atheism is punishable by death, and homosexuality is a capital offense.

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• 8. Iron, Oil and Verse

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  Iron ore accounts for almost 50 percent of Mauritania's exports. The country is rich in natural resources yet has a low GDP, and most people still live off agriculture and livestock. Recurrent droughts in the 1970s and 1980s drove most nomads and many subsistence farmers into the cities. Gold and copper companies are opening mines in the interior, such as Firawa, and gold production reached 9 metric tons in 2015.

  In 1986, the first deepwater port opened near Nouakchott. In March 1999, the government agreed a $54 million enhanced structural adjustment facility with a joint World Bank and International Monetary Fund mission. Oil was discovered in 2001 in the offshore Chinguetti Field by the Woodside Company. One description called the country a "desperately poor desert nation, which straddles the Arab and African worlds and is Africa's newest, if small-scale, oil producer". More oil may lie inland in the Taoudeni Basin, though the harsh environment would make extraction expensive.

  Mauritanian culture draws on Arab-Berber, African and Islamic influences. Metalwork, leatherwork and textiles are the best-known crafts. Silversmiths make ornate Berber-style jewelry worn by women and men. Women traditionally produce the leather bags, saddles, cushions and tent decorations. The melfa, a long loom-woven cloth, is worn by women.

  Music follows modal systems known as al-'igga, performed by hereditary musicians called iggawen. The core instruments are the tidinit, a lute, and the ardin, a harp-like instrument played by women. Dimi Mint Abba helped introduce Mauritanian music to audiences abroad.

  Oral literature is among the richest in the Sahara. Poets writing in classical Arabic and in Hassaniya have long held high social standing. The T'heydinn is a cycle of epic poems in Moorish oral heritage. The Soninke keep their own epics, and Halpulaar griots, called géwél, perform praise songs.

  Written literature is deep too. Ulrich Rebstock's three-volume Maurische Literaturgeschichte, published in 2001, documents about 10,000 works by around 5,000 authors from the sixth to the eighteenth centuries. The libraries of Chinguetti hold thousands of medieval manuscripts.

  The landscape has also drawn filmmakers. Fort Saganne in 1984, The Fifth Element in 1997, Winged Migration in 2001, Timbuktu in 2014 and The Grand Tour in 2024 all filmed here.

  Football is the most popular sport, followed by athletics and basketball. Mauritania was ranked the fourth-worst team in the world in 2012, yet it qualified for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. In 2023 it beat Sudan in the qualifiers for the 2023 tournament.

  Hospitality has its own ritual. Green tea with mint, called atay, is prepared and served in three rounds, and the cups symbolize welcome to a guest.

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