All letters were sent to:
Ms. Kateri Clemen Directeur, Corps de la Paix BP 222 Nouakchott, Mauritanie
April 15th, 2002
Dear Ms. Clement,
I am a returned volunteer from Mauritania who served in Rosso from 1988-1990. At that time I taught English at the Lycee de Rosso. Currently, I teach English and Current Events at a high school in Bremerton, Washington. My colleagues and I are doing a unit on World News. For Peace Corps Day we gave our students two articles to read about Mauritania.
The first article that the students read was Elinor Burkett's God Created Me To Be A Slave, from the October 12, 1997 New York Times Sunday Magazine. I am aware that many Peace Corps Volunteers and Mauritanian enthusiasts disagree with this article, but it was chosen to raise the awareness of the existence of slavery in places other than the United States. It also puts slavery in a very different context than our own history with it. Finally, I think the article paints a realistic picture of life in Mauritania and the level of poverty in which Mauritanians live.
The second article we read was Howard French's Dagana Journal; Where Proud Moors Rule, Blacks Are Outcasts, also from The New York Times, dated January 11, 1996. This article is a little more near and dear to my heart because, even though I did not see evidence of slavery in Mauritania, I was there during "les evenements" in 1989, watching Rosso go from a bustling border town to a virtual ghost town. I watched from my rooftop as my students, part of the angry mob, pounded on my neighbors' doors, demanding "carte d'indentitie!" It was a frightening time living under the restrictions of a 24-hour curfew and a Nouakchott consolidation. By the time I returned to Rosso in the fall for the start of school, many of my friends, neighbors and colleagues were gone. It was like starting all over. The purpose of these letters is to hopefully get an update from the current volunteers about living conditions in Mauritania today. I'd like my students to ask volunteers their opinion about these articles, as well as how things have changed since the time they were written. Please share our letters with some volunteers and encourage them to write back to us. We anxiously await your response.
Salaam, LIZ FININ
[Responses are encouraged. All letters received will be published in the next issue of DELIRIUM and sent to Miss Liz Finn and her students.]
Dear Peace Corps Volunteer,
My name is Deneva Broughton-Neiswanger. I live in Bremerton, Washington and attend Renaissance High School. Writing to you is an assignment for my Current Events class. I'm glad my teacher, Sam, gave me this assignment because I'm considering joining the Peace Corps after college. Through this letter I can get information about what it's like to be a member of the Peace Corps.
In class students were handed out two articles about conditions in Mauritania. The first article, Where Proud Moors Rule, Blacks Are Outcasts, talks about black Africans being kicked off their own land. Some of the people who were exiled found their way to refugee camps. Some of the young refugees tried to take back their land with guns and violence. The second article, God Created Me To Be A Slave, is the story of Fatma, a former slave girl. She is now technically free, but in her mind she will always think herself a slave. For Fatma and her family being a slave is just how it is and there is nothing wrong with that. The only reason she ran away was because she was convinced her master would kill her. In Mauritania all slaves are technically free, but since they don't have enough education to know this or find out ways to enforce the law, they just go on being - from the sounds of it - completely submissive slaves.
Are these two articles painting an accurate picture of what is happening in Mauritania? How in this day and age could slavery still be going on? The people in Mauritania have to realize it's wrong. I mean they are the only country in the world who hasn't outlawed slavery. In your opinion, is slavery going on in Mauritania? From these two articles, it seems like Mauritania is a horrible place to be if you are a black African? Would you agree or disagree with this statement?
What is the Peace Corps doing in Mauritania? Are you doing anything to help calm down the conflicts between the Moors and the black Africans? It sounds like trouble is brewing between these two groups of people. For you, what is your daily life like as a Peace Corps volunteer? Is your assignment like you expected it to be? As someone who has been a part of the Peace Corps would you recommend going to Mauritania on an assignment?
I hope this letter finds you in good spirits. Please do write our school back with information on the current situation in Mauritania. I do hope the conditions have changed since those articles were written about three years ago. We would like to know about conditions in Mauritania today, as well as personal stories from your experiences. I hope to hear from you soon. Thank you for taking the time to read our letters.
Sincerely, Deneva B-N
Peace Corps Volunteer,
I'm just a humble high school student who happens to have a teacher named Liz Finin, who was in the Peace Corps years ago. Oh, I forgot, my name is James Benton, but that's not important, is it?
The purpose of this letter is to ask you a few things. During my assignments I have received an interesting article, though not entirely surprising, having to do with slavery and racial tensions against blacks in Africa, of all places. It explains situations of people in Mauritania being thrown out of their homes and having their identities stolen. These tensions are between Arab-descent Mauritanians who use poor excuses to clash with the country's black minority.
Anyway, my point is to ask if you've encountered similar problems in the Peace Corps. I'm sure that volunteering was a life changing experience for all of you. Good show! You honor us by reading this letter.
Signed, James B.
Dear Peace Corps Volunteer,
Hello my name is John Hunter. I'm twenty years old and I live in Bremerton, Washington and attend Renaissance Alternative High School. I'm doing research on the actions in Mauritania and the refugee camps.
In some the research I was doing, I found some articles stating facts about seventy thousand Mauritanians in refugee camps because of being black. Is this true? I also read about a full-blown crisis between Mauritania and Senegal. Did you witness these actions and watch the killings or were you also running for your life? In the articles, it also mentions Mauritania as being under attack by international human rights groups because Mauritania is one of the last bastions of slavery still in the world. Is this true? Have you seen these human rights groups trying to help?
I was told of a woman named Fatma Mamadou who doesn't know her own age and can't count. Are a high majority of Mauritanians like this? When Mrs. Mamadou was asked if she had been raped, she stated the following: "of course they would come in the night when they needed to breed us. Is that what you mean by rape?" These things I've read make me sick to my stomach. If this is true, have seen this and do others try to stop it, or do they go along with it like it's an everyday thing?
I looked up Mauritanian living conditions like homes and accessories and things. All I found was an article stating that Mauritanians lived in little nine by twelve foot rooms cobbled together with scraps of wood scavenged from building sites, lacking furniture, chairs, beds, or tables. Is this the way you have to live while volunteering, or do you get stationed in other places?
I'd like to thank you for the time you've taken to read my letter. In times like these, I'd like to thank you for standing up and volunteering in places like this. I'd also like to thank you for being a role model for me; I'd like to take on something like this for our world but it takes a lot of guts, and you obviously have those. Good luck and thank you again.
Sincerely Yours, Jon H.
Dear Liz and students of Renaissance High School,
My name is Tony Grossman and I am a PCV in Maderdra, Mauritania, located in the region of Trarza. I have been here for twenty-two months and can tell you that "slavery," in all its blurry forms, is something I think often about. I can also say that it is one those things never really understood by a foreigner, even after living here for two or more years. I will give you some of my opinions related to what I see and hear in my village, a community made up of white and black Moors.
Slavery as we know it does not exist in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. There are no chains, no whips, no auctions - though there most probably were before the 1967 emancipation act. Through my talks with Mauritanians I have come to understand that as Arab/Berber tribes migrated south through the Western Sahara, they begin to take up slaves. Contrary to much popular belief, the original black slaves were not always children stolen from defenseless Pulaar and Soninke tribes. A large percentage of the original slaves, it seems, were either sold or traded to the migrating Moors. It should also be noted that many of these black Africans were already slaves in their own respective tribes. Yes, black Africans also had slaves. Over the decades, many of these slaves acquired the characteristics of their owners and earned their freedom. They are known as Black Moors today.
The current status of slavery in Maderdra is best described as a "worker caste." Nearly all manual labor done in Maderdra is done by Black Moors. Do they get paid for this work? Sometimes. Is it enough? It is enough to live on, but rarely enough to take a day off. I would say ninety percent of black families in Maderdra struggle everyday to put food on the table and clothe their children. Quite the opposite is the case with the typical White Moor family. Many eat four healthy meals a day and spend much of the day resting, while being served by the so-called "working caste." Moreover, it is extremely rare to see a White Moor family struggling to survive, and even rarer to see a dark-skinned Moor in a position of political power. The economic disparity between White and Black Moors is very clear-cut, while what is considered slavery much more vague.
To explain to you how blurry the lines between slavery and freedom are, I will describe for you my current living situation with my host-family in Maderdra. I spend approximately four hours a day with them, taking lunch and dinner. We usually have meat and rice with very few carrots and sometimes Moringa leaves (courtesy of yours truly - the introduction of this beneficial tree is my primary project in the Agro-forestry sector of Peace Corps) for lunch, and cous-cous for dinner, followed by tea. My father is a White Moor. My mother is a Black Moor, on her second marriage. Rumor has it that she and her daughters were slaves before marrying my father, Moctar. One of the ways Black Moors gained their independence was by marrying a White Moor. There are two black daughters and three mixed siblings in the household. There is also a grandmother of Black Moor/Wolof descent. The three mixed siblings do the least amount of work, by far. Again the "worker caste" mentality fully applies, even within the family.
My mother's sister lives next door to us with her whole family. Although we are cousins, the black children in her household are treated different - and it's obvious. If there is something to do, they are ordered to do it. What really bothers me, though, is when they are called, not by their real names, but by "mint mbarka" or "mbarak," appellations considered disparaging because associated with slavery - or property, so to speak. I would think that my family would try to treat their cousins better, or would shy away from this seemingly blatant racism, echoing times of old. Sadly to say, however, the family life I observe here has all become so normal to me, I could not tell you if their actions are justified or not, right or wrong. All moral distinctions and ready-made value judgments are prone to error and misinterpretation, especially for a foreign on-looker. I wish I could fully understand this "worker caste," and tell you that much of what we consider slavery to be is a thing of the past. Unfortunately, however, I am left asking many of the same questions as you. Will the plight of the Black Moor improve one day? All one can say is inshallah.
Ma'assalam, Tony Grossman PCV Maderdra