'Mauritania' ( Mūrītāniyā), officially the 'Islamic Republic of Mauritania', is a country in northwest
Africa. It is bordered by the
Atlantic Ocean on the west, by
Senegal on the southwest, by
Mali on the east and southeast, by
Algeria on the northeast, and by the
Moroccan-
annexed territory of
Western Sahara on the northwest. It is named after the ancient
Berber kingdom of
Mauretania. The capital and largest city is
Nouakchott, located on the Atlantic coast.
History
Main articles: History of Mauritania
From the fifth to seventh centuries, the migration of Berber tribes from
North Africa displaced the
Bafours, the original inhabitants of present-day Mauritania and the ancestors of the
Soninke. The Bafours were primarily agriculturalist, and among the first Saharan people to abandon their historically nomadic lifestyle. With the gradual desiccation of the
Sahara, they headed south. Following them came a migration of not only Central Saharans into
West Africa, but in 1076,
Islamic warrior monks (
Almoravid or Al Murabitun) attacked and conquered the ancient
Ghana Empire. Over the next 500 years,
Arabs overcame fierce resistance from the local population (Berber and non-Berber alike) and came to dominate Mauritania. The
Mauritanian Thirty-Year War (1644-74) was the unsuccessful final effort to repel the
Yemeni
Maqil Arab invaders led by the
Beni Hassan tribe. The descendants of the Beni Hassan warriors became the
upper stratum of
Moorish society. Berbers retained influence by producing the majority of the region's
Marabouts—those who preserve and teach Islamic tradition. Many of the Berber tribes claimed Yemeni (and sometimes other Arab) origin: there is little evidence to suggest this, though some studies do make a connection between the two.
[2] Hassaniya, a Berber-influenced
Arabic dialect that derives its name from the
Beni Hassan, became the dominant language among the largely
nomadic population.
French colonization gradually absorbed the territories of present-day Mauritania from the Senegal river area and upwards, starting in the late 1800s. In 1901,
Xavier Coppolani took charge of the colonial mission. Through a combination of strategic alliances with
Zawiya tribes and military pressure on the
Hassane warrior nomads, he managed to extend French rule over the Mauritanian
emirates:
Trarza,
Brakna and
Tagant quickly submitted to treaties with the colonial power (1903-04), but the northern emirate of
Adrar held out longer, aided by the anticolonial rebellion (or
jihad) of shaykh
Maa al-Aynayn. It was finally defeated militarily in 1912, and incorporated into the territory of Mauritania, which had been drawn up in 1904. Mauritania would subsequently form part of
French West Africa, from 1920.
French rule brought legal prohibitions against
slavery and an end to interclan warfare. During the colonial period, the population remained nomadic, but many sedentary peoples, whose ancestors had been expelled centuries earlier, began to trickle back into Mauritania. As the country gained independence in 1960, the capital city
Nouakchott was founded at the site of a small colonial village, the Ksar, while 90% of the population was still nomadic. With independence, larger numbers of indigenous
Black African peoples (
Haalpulaar,
Soninke, and
Wolof) entered Mauritania, moving into the area north of the
Senegal River. Educated in
French language and customs, many of these recent arrivals became clerks, soldiers, and administrators in the new state. This, occurring as France militarily suppressed the most intransigent
hassane tribes of the Moorish north, shifted old balances of power, and created new cause for conflict between the southern populations and Moors. Between these groups stood the
Haratin, a very large population of Arabized slaves, who lived within Moorish society, integrated into a low-caste social position. Modern day slavery is still common practice in this country, for more information please read slave owner Abdel Nasser Ould Yasser account in "Enslaved, True stories of Modern Day Slavery" edited by Jesse Sage and Liora Kasten, directors of the American Anti-Slavery Group.
Moors reacted to the change, and to
Arab nationalist calls from abroad, by increasing pressure to
Arabize many aspects of Mauritanian life, such as law and language. A
schism developed between those Moors who consider Mauritania to be an Arab country and those who seek a dominant role for the non-Moorish peoples, with various models for containing the country's cultural diversity suggested, but none implemented successfully. This ethnic discord was evident during intercommunal violence that broke out in April 1989 (the "
1989 Events"), but has since subsided. The ethnic tension and the sensitive issue of slavery - past and, in some areas, present - is still a powerful theme in the country's political debate. A significant number from all groups, however, seek a more diverse, pluralistic society.
Politics
Main articles: Politics of Mauritania
Politics in Mauritania have always been determined by personalities and tribes more than ideologies, with any leader's ability to exercise political power dependent upon control over resources; perceived ability and integrity; and tribal, ethnic, family, and personal considerations. Conflict between white Moor, black Moor (Haratine), and non-Moor
ethnic groups (Haal Pulaars, Soninkes, Wolofs and Bambaras), centering on language, land tenure, and other issues, continues to be the dominant challenge to national unity.
The government
bureaucracy is composed of traditional ministries, special agencies, and parastatal companies. The Ministry of Interior spearheads a system of regional governors and prefects modeled on the French system of local administration. Under this system, Mauritania is divided into thirteen regions (''
wilaya''), including the capital district, Nouakchott. Control is tightly concentrated in the executive branch of the central government, but a series of national and municipal elections since 1992 have produced some limited
decentralization.
Mauritania, along with
Morocco, annexed the territory of
Western Sahara in 1976, with Mauritania taking the lower one-third at the request of former colonial power, Spain. After several military losses to
Polisario,heavily armed and supported by Algeria, the local hegemon and rival to Morocco, Mauritania retreated in 1979, and its claims were taken over by Morocco. Due to economic weakness, Mauritania has been a negligible player in the territorial dispute, with its official position being that it wishes for an expedient solution that is mutually agreeable to all parties. While most of the former Spanish or Western Sahara has been woven into Morocco, the UN still considers the Western sahara a territory that needs to express its wishes with respect to statehood: a referendum is still supposed to be held sometimes in the future, under UN auspices, to determine whether the "saharaouis" wish to remain part of Morocco or not. The Moroccan authorities, on their part, wish the sharaouis to remain part of Morocco and, as such, have made significant investments in the area.
The discovery of
oil in 2001 in the offshore
Chinguetti deposit will be a test for the current government since, according to human rights activists, it can be a blessing for one of the poorest countries in the world as well as a curse bringing corruption and violence to the country.
The Ould Daddah era (1960-78)
After independence,
President Moktar Ould Daddah, originally installed by the French, formalized Mauritania into a
one-party state in 1964 with a new
constitution, which set up an
authoritarian presidential regime. Daddah's own
Parti du Peuple Mauritanien (PPM) became the ruling organization in a
single-party system. The President justified this decision on the grounds that he considered Mauritania unready for western-style
multi-party democracy. Under this one-party constitution, Daddah was reelected in uncontested elections in 1966, 1971 and 1976. He was ousted in a
bloodless coup on
July 10,
1978, after bringing the country to near-collapse through a disastrous
war to
annex the
southern part of
Western Sahara, in an attempt to create a "
Greater Mauritania".
CMRN and CMSN military governments (1978-84)
Col. Mustafa Ould Salek's
CMRN ''junta'' proved incapable of either establishing a strong base of power or extracting the country from its destabilizing conflict with the
Sahrawi resistance movement, the
Polisario Front. It quickly fell to be replaced by another military government, the
CMSN. The energetic
Col. Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah soon emerged as its main strongman, and by giving up all claims to Western Sahara he found peace with the Polisario, and improved relations with its main backer,
Algeria - but relations with the other party to the conflict,
Morocco, and its European ally
France, deteriorated. Instability continued, and Haidallah's ambitious reform attempts foundered. His regime was plagued by attempted coups and intrigue within the military establishment; in 1984, finally, he was deposed by
Col. Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya.
Ould Taya's rule (1984-2005)
The ''
Parti Républicain Démocratique et Social'' (PRDS), formerly led by President
Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, dominated Mauritanian politics following the country's first multi-party elections in April 1992 following the approval by
referendum of the current
constitution in July 1991. President Taya, who won elections in 1992 and
1997, first became chief of state through a December 12, 1984 bloodless coup which made him chairman of the committee of military officers that governed Mauritania from July 1978 to April 1992.
Political parties, illegal during the
military period, were legalized again in 1991. By April 1992, as civilian rule returned, 16 major political parties had been recognized; 12 major political parties were active in 2004. Most opposition parties boycotted the first legislative election in 1992, and for nearly a decade the parliament was dominated by the PRDS. The opposition participated in municipal elections in January-February 1994 and subsequent
Senate elections, most recently in April 2004, gained representation at the local level as well as three seats in the Senate.
Mauritania's
presidential election, its third since adopting the
democratic process in
1992, took place on
November 7,
2003. Six candidates, including Mauritania's first female and first Haratine (former
slave family) candidates, represented a wide variety of political goals and backgrounds.
Incumbent President
Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya won reelection with 67.02% of the popular vote, according to the official figures, with
Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla finishing second.
Sid'Ahmed Taya recognized
Israel (see
Foreign relations of Mauritania), which made Mauritania the only Arab country not neighbouring Israel which recognized the latter (Morocco and Qatar have official ties with Israel, but do not fully recognize it). He also started cooperating with the United States in antiterrorism activities, which was criticized by human rights NGOs, who talked of an exaggeration and instrumentation of alleged terrorist activities for geopolitical aims.
[3][4]
A group of current and former Army officers launched a bloody but unsuccessful coup attempt on June 8, 2003. The leaders of the attempted coup were never caught.
August 2005 military coup
On
3 August 2005, a military coup led by Colonel
Ely Ould Mohamed Vall ended Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya's twenty-one years of strong-arm rule.
On August 3, the Mauritanian military, including members of the presidential guard, seized control of key points in the capital of
Nouakchott. They took advantage of President Taya's attendance at the funeral of
Saudi King Fahd to organize the coup, which took place without loss of life. The officers, calling themselves the Military Council for Justice and Democracy, released the following statement:
:''The national armed forces and security forces have unanimously decided to put a definitive end to the oppressive activities of the defunct authority, which our people have suffered from during the past years.''
(BBC)
The Military Council later issued another statement naming Colonel Vall as president and director of the national police force, the ''
Sûreté Nationale''. Sixteen other officers were listed as members. Colonel Vall was once regarded as a firm ally of the now-ousted president Sid'Ahmed Taya, even aiding him in the original coup that brought him to power, and later serving as his security chief.
Applauded by the Mauritanian people, but cautiously watched by the international community, the coup has since been generally accepted, while the military ''junta'' has organized elections within the promised two year timeline. In a
referendum on
26 June 2006, Mauritanians overwhelmingly (97%) approved a new constitution which limited the duration of a president's stay in office. The leader of the junta, Col. Vall, promised to abide by the referendum and relinquish power peacefully. Mauritania's establishment of relations with the
State of Israel - it is one of only four Arab states to recognize Israel - was maintained by the new regime, despite widespread criticism from the opposition, who viewed it as a legacy of the Taya regime's attempts to curry favor with the West.
Parliamentary and municipal elections in Mauritania took place on
19 November and
3 December 2006.
2007 Presidential election
The first fully democratic Presidential election since 1960 occurred on
11 March,
2007. The election is the final transfer from military to civilian rule following the military coup in 2005. This is the first time the president will have been selected by
ballot in the country's history
[1].
The election was won by
Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.
Regions and departments
Main articles: Regions of Mauritania,
Departments of Mauritania
'Mauritania' is divided into 12
regions (''régions'') and one
capital district, which in turn are subdivided into 44
departments (''départements''). The regions and capital district (in alphabetical order) and their
capitals are:
Geography
Sand dunes altered by traces of the
Dakar Rally; Desert scenes continue to define the Mauritanian landscape.
At 397,929
mi² (1,030,700
km² [5]), Mauritania is the world's 29th-largest country (after
Bolivia). It is comparable in size to
Egypt.
Mauritania is generally flat, its 1,030,700 square kilometers (397,850
sq mi) forming vast, arid plains broken by occasional ridges and clifflike outcroppings. A series of scarps face southwest, longitudinally bisecting these plains in the center of the country. The scarps also separate a series of sandstone plateaus, the highest of which is the
Adrar Plateau, reaching an elevation of 500 meters (1,640
ft). Spring-fed oases lie at the foot of some of the scarps. Isolated peaks, often rich in minerals, rise above the plateaus; the smaller peaks are called guelbs and the larger ones kedias. The concentric
Guelb er Richat (also known as the Richat Structure) is a prominent feature of the north-central region.
Kediet Ijill, near the city of
Zouîrât, has an elevation of 1,000 meters (3,280 ft) and is the highest peak.
Approximately three-fourths of Mauritania is desert or semidesert. As a result of extended, severe drought, the desert has been expanding since the mid-1960s. The plateaus gradually descend toward the northeast to the barren El Djouf, or "Empty Quarter," a vast region of large sand dunes that merges into the Sahara Desert. To the west, between the ocean and the plateaus, are alternating areas of clayey plains (regs) and sand dunes (ergs), some of which shift from place to place, gradually moved by high winds. The dunes generally increase in size and mobility toward the north.
Economy
Main articles: Economy of Mauritania
A majority of the population still depends on
agriculture and
livestock for a livelihood, even though most of the nomads and many subsistence farmers were forced into the cities by recurrent droughts in the 1970s and 1980s. Mauritania has extensive deposits of
iron ore, which account for almost 50% of total exports. With the current rises in metal prices, gold and copper mining companies are opening mines in the interior. The nation's coastal waters are among the richest fishing areas in the world, but overexploitation by foreigners threatens this key source of revenue. The country's first deepwater port opened near
Nouakchott in 1986. In recent years, drought and economic mismanagement have resulted in a buildup of foreign debt. In March 1999, the government signed an agreement with a joint
World Bank-
IMF mission on a $54 million enhanced structural adjustment facility (
ESAF). The economic objectives have been set for 1999-2002. Privatization remains one of the key issues. Mauritania is unlikely to meet ESAF's annual GDP growth objectives of 4%-5%.
Dispute with Woodside Petroleum
In February 2006, the Mauritanian government denounced amendments to an oil contract made by former leader Maaouiya Ould Taya with
Woodside Petroleum, an
Australian company. In 2004, Woodside had agreed to invest $US 600 million in developing Mauritania's
Chinguetti offshore oil project. The controversial amendments, which Mauritanian authorities declared had been signed "outside the legal framework of normal practice, to the great detriment of our country", could cost Mauritania up to $200 million a year, according to ''
BBC News''. Signed by Woodside two weeks after the February 1, 2005 legislation authorizing the four amendments, they provided for a lower state quota in the ''
profit-oil'', and reduced taxes by 15 percent in certain zones. They also eased
environmental constraints, and extended the length and scope of the exploitation and exploration
monopoly, among other measures.
The disputed amendments were signed by former oil minister
Zeidane Ould Hmeida in February 2004 and March 2005. Hmeida was arrested in January 2006 on charges of "serious crimes against the country's essential economic interests".
Nouakchott's authorities declared that the government would likely seek international arbitration, which Woodside (which operated for
Hardman,
BG Group,
Premier,
ROC Oil,
Fusion,
Petronas,
Dana Petroleum,
Energy Africa and the
Hydrocarbons Mauritanian Society) also contemplated.
Discovered in 2001, Chinguetti has proven reserves of about 120 million barrels of oil. At the end of December 2005, authorities estimated that in 2006, the oil profits would be 47 billion ''
ouguiyas'' (about US$180 million) and represent a quarter of the
state budget, according to ''
RFI''.
[2]
The Australian Federal Police are currently investigating Woodside for allegations of bribery and corruption in Mauritania (according to the Sydney Morning Herald
[6] [7]).
Demographics
Main articles: Demographics of Mauritania
; Population : 3,177,388 (July 2006 estimate)
;
Life expectancy at birth : 53.12 years (2006 estimate)
; Ethnic groups : 40% mixed Arab/black; 30% Arab; 30% Black
; Religions : 99.84%
Muslim, most of whom are Sunnis.
; Languages :
Hassaniya dialect of
Arabic (official and national);
Other languages spoken include:
Pulaar,
Soninke,
Wolof and
French.
Culture
★
Music of Mauritania
★
Modern day slavery [8]
★
Islam in Mauritania
★
Status of religious freedom in Mauritania
★ Mauritania and
Madagascar are the only two countries in the world not to use
decimal-based currency. The basic unit of currency, the
ouguiya, comprises five
khoums.
See also
★
Association des Scouts et Guides de Mauritanie
★
Communications in Mauritania
★
Education in Mauritania
★
Military of Mauritania
★
Music of Mauritania
★
Sports in Mauritania
★
Transport in Mauritania
; Lists
★
List of cities in Mauritania[3]
★
List of Mauritanian companies
Notes
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6440597.stm
2. Mauritania and firm row over oil Crise ouverte avec la compagnie pétrolière Woodside
3. Includes the ten largest cities' populations according to the 2000 census.
References
★
CIA World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mr.html
★
US State Department, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5467.htm
★
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Mauritania - Country Page
External links
; Government
★
République Islamique de Mauritanie official government site
★
Assemblée Nationale Mauritanienne official site
; Discussion boards
★
A multilingual bulletin board dedicated for Mauritanians and people having relations with them
; Slavery
★
One of many sites about slavery in modern Mauritania
★
Slavery still exists in Mauritania
; News
★
AllAfrica.com - ''Mauritania'' news headline links
★
News and Views of the Maghreb
; Overviews
★
Arab Gateway - ''Mauritania''
★
Encyclopaedia Britannica, ''Mauritania'' - Country Page
★
BBC News Country Profile - ''Mauritania''
★
CIA World Factbook - ''Mauritania''
★
US State Department - ''Mauritania'' includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports
★
Mauritania's location on a 3D globe (Java)
★
US Library of Congress - Country Studies
★
country info & who's who
; Directories
★
Columbia University Libraries - African Studies: ''Mauritania'' directory category
★
Open Directory Project - ''Mauritania'' directory category
★
Stanford University - Africa South of the Sahara: ''Mauritania'' directory category
★
The Index on Africa - ''Mauritania'' directory category
★
Yahoo! - ''Mauritania'' directory category
; History
★
RaceandHistory.com: Present day slavery in Mauritania
; Tourism
★
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