The Haratin people of Mauritania make up the majority of the country’s enslaved population, but ironically, the literal definition of the word Haratin is “freed slaves.” In Mauritania, the Haratin people are bound to a linguistic system that diminishes their self-worth, invalidates the reality of their situation, and further reinforces their enslavement.Calling the Haratin people “freed slaves” intrinsically links the community to the enslavement so many of them face, and circumvents them from escaping the linguistic category that further oppresses them. It gives the people a diminished and inferior sense of self-worth. One man, Boubacar Messaoud, grew up farming, making mere pennies for his work. He recalls, “One day when we were about seven, the slave owner’s son, whose name was also Boubacar, said I should be called Boubacar abd [the black slave], so people didn’t confuse us. That was when I understood.” By attaching the word slave to Boubacar’s name, he was further branded by his identity as slave, instead of a human, destroying the worth he prior had believed he had.“May God love them more”. These are the words of a Haratin woman in the deserts of Mauritania on her hopes for her children. Two reporters from CNN travelled to Mauritania and were able to interview a few locals, including this one enslaved mother. Her response connects freedom from slavery with love from God and implies that she, as a slave, is unloved or loved less by God than the free. Another woman, also enslaved, stated that, “God decided to weaken this kind of people.” The Haratin people construct their identities in part by language, resulting in a conclusion that they are inherently an unfree people, that they are less desirable, that they are less worthy than their lighter-skinned counterparts. The Haratin people have come to accept their status as enslaved and feel that it is rightfully so, making liberation harder to obtain.The enslaved are often referred to as property (i.e. are placed in the same linguistic category as land and animals) by their enslavers in order to justify their treatment or ownership. In the same CNN interview, one light-skinned man named Muhammad was asked if he paid the Haratin that were working for him. “Pay them for what?,” he replied. “They just farm… They are part of the land.” He talked of the Haratin peoples as if they had no worth as a collective, as if they were just commerce meant for use, abuse, and exploitation. Biram Dah Abeid, an abolitionist in Mauritania, recounts the circumstances his father faced as he tried to stay with his wife while they were both enslaved. In court, his father was told “he could buy his wife because she was just like their cow or their sheep. And he said, OK, in that case I’m going to take my kids. And the judge said that these kids don’t have a father, they only have a progenitor.” The father’s rights to be with his family, to marry, and to even say he has children were stripped in order to suit the needs of the slaveholders and to let them retain their full control. One can only imagine what being called a piece of property and an animal can do to the human soul.While the term Haratin ties the group to slavery, it fools others who are unfamiliar with the realities they face into thinking they have escaped and are truly free. The government goes so far as to claim that Mauritania has full “equality” of all people. In the aforementioned interview by CNN, one man was stopped and asked whether he was free or enslaved. He replied, “Us? We’re free. We’re dependent on ourselves. Because you will not see any Arabs here. If we were slaves, you would find us living with Arabs. Did you hear that? But when you see a family like this, it means they’re dependent on themselves.” In instances like such, where the enslaved persons regard themselves free, along with the assistance of their government, the issue of enslavement resists being easily addressed.Finally, enslavement is weaved into the notion of family in order to further hold the Haratin to their Berber “families.” A now fully freed Haratin, Yebawa, told interviewers that, “from the moment [he] was born, [he doesn’t] remember working for anyone. [His] family is really them. [He] only work[s] for [himself] and [for his] family”. Even now as a free, paid worker, Yebawa believes that he was never enslaved, just working for his master, his family. Another freed Haratin with a clearer notion of freedom than Yebawa told CNN, “People often say here, “You can’t be better than your father.” In this case, traditional concepts of family are used to make the Haratin feel that they are trapped in their situation by emphasizing their lineage and its history of enslavement in a personal and degrading way.Until the language use to refer to the Haratin people changes, the enslaved will be inescapably bound to a cycle of enslavement. But there is opportunity for liberation from this cycle — as Boubacar Messaoud, no longer known as Boubacar “the black slave,” says, “One can be better than one’s father… You can search for something else. You can find complete human dignity.”
The Haratin people of Mauritania make up the majority of the country’s enslaved population, but irronically, the literal definition of the word Haratin is “freed slaves.” In Mauritania, the Haratin people are bound to a linguistic system that diminishes their self-worth, invalidates the reality of their situation, and further reinforces their enslavement.Calling the Haratin people “freed slaves” intrinsically links the community to the enslavement so many of them face, and circumvents them from escaping the linguistic category that further oppresses them. It gives the people a diminished and inferior sense of self-worth. One man, Boubacar Messaoud, grew up farming, making mere pennies for his work. He recalls, “One day when we were about seven, the slave owner’s son, whose name was also Boubacar, said I should be called Boubacar abd [the black slave], so people didn’t confuse us. That was when I understood.” By attaching the word slave to Boubacar’s name, he was further branded by his identity as slave, instead of a human, destroying the worth he prior had believed he had.“May God love them more”. These are the words of a Haratin woman in the deserts of Mauritania on her hopes for her children. Two reporters from CNN travelled to Mauritania and were able to interview a few locals, including this one enslaved mother. Her response connects freedom from slavery with love from God and implies that she, as a slave, is unloved or loved less by God than the free. Another woman, also enslaved, stated that, “God decided to weaken this kind of people.” The Haratin people construct their identities in part by language, resulting in a conclusion that they are inherently an unfree people, that they are less desirable, that they are less worthy than their lighter-skinned counterparts. The Haratin people have come to accept their status as enslaved and feel that it is rightfully so, making liberation harder to obtain.The enslaved are often referred to as property (i.e. are placed in the same linguistic category as land and animals) by their enslavers in order to justify their treatment or ownership. In the same CNN interview, one light-skinned man named Muhammad was asked if he paid the Haratin that were working for him. “Pay them for what?,” he replied. “They just farm… They are part of the land.” He talked of the Haratin peoples as if they had no worth as a collective, as if they were just commerce meant for use, abuse, and exploitation. Biram Dah Abeid, an abolitionist in Mauritania, recounts the circumstances his father faced as he tried to stay with his wife while they were both enslaved. In court, his father was told “he could buy his wife because she was just like their cow or their sheep. And he said, OK, in that case I’m going to take my kids. And the judge said that these kids don’t have a father, they only have a progenitor.” The father’s rights to be with his family, to marry, and to even say he has children were stripped in order to suit the needs of the slaveholders and to let them retain their full control. One can only imagine what being called a piece of property and an animal can do to the human soul.While the term Haratin ties the group to slavery, it fools others who are unfamiliar with the realities they face into thinking they have escaped and are truly free. The government goes so far as to claim that Mauritania has full “equality” of all people. In the aforementioned interview by CNN, one man was stopped and asked whether he was free or enslaved. He replied, “Us? We’re free. We’re dependent on ourselves. Because you will not see any Arabs here. If we were slaves, you would find us living with Arabs. Did you hear that? But when you see a family like this, it means they’re dependent on themselves.” In instances like such, where the enslaved persons regard themselves free, along with the assistance of their government, the issue of enslavement resists being easily addressed.Finally, enslavement is weaved into the notion of family in order to further hold the Haratin to their Berber “families.” A now fully freed Haratin, Yebawa, told interviewers that, “from the moment [he] was born, [he doesn’t] remember working for anyone. [His] family is really them. [He] only work[s] for [himself] and [for his] family”. Even now as a free, paid worker, Yebawa believes that he was never enslaved, just working for his master, his family. Another freed Haratin with a clearer notion of freedom than Yebawa told CNN, “People often say here, “You can’t be better than your father.” In this case, traditional concepts of family are used to make the Haratin feel that they are trapped in their situation by emphasizing their lineage and its history of enslavement in a personal and degrading way.Until the language use to refer to the Haratin people changes, the enslaved will be inescapably bound to a cycle of enslavement. But there is opportunity for liberation from this cycle — as Boubacar Messaoud, no longer known as Boubacar “the black slave,” says, “One can be better than one’s father… You can search for something else. You can find complete human dignity.”
The Haratin people of Mauritania make up the majority of the country’s enslaved population, but irronically, the literal definition of the word Haratin is “freed slaves.” In Mauritania, the Haratin people are bound to a linguistic system that diminishes their self-worth, invalidates the reality of their situation, and further reinforces their enslavement.Calling the Haratin people “freed slaves” intrinsically links the community to the enslavement so many of them face, and circumvents them from escaping the linguistic category that further oppresses them. It gives the people a diminished and inferior sense of self-worth. One man, Boubacar Messaoud, grew up farming, making mere pennies for his work. He recalls, “One day when we were about seven, the slave owner’s son, whose name was also Boubacar, said I should be called Boubacar abd [the black slave], so people didn’t confuse us. That was when I understood.” By attaching the word slave to Boubacar’s name, he was further branded by his identity as slave, instead of a human, destroying the worth he prior had believed he had.“May God love them more”. These are the words of a Haratin woman in the deserts of Mauritania on her hopes for her children. Two reporters from CNN travelled to Mauritania and were able to interview a few locals, including this one enslaved mother. Her response connects freedom from slavery with love from God and implies that she, as a slave, is unloved or loved less by God than the free. Another woman, also enslaved, stated that, “God decided to weaken this kind of people.” The Haratin people construct their identities in part by language, resulting in a conclusion that they are inherently an unfree people, that they are less desirable, that they are less worthy than their lighter-skinned counterparts. The Haratin people have come to accept their status as enslaved and feel that it is rightfully so, making liberation harder to obtain.The enslaved are often referred to as property (i.e. are placed in the same linguistic category as land and animals) by their enslavers in order to justify their treatment or ownership. In the same CNN interview, one light-skinned man named Muhammad was asked if he paid the Haratin that were working for him. “Pay them for what?,” he replied. “They just farm… They are part of the land.” He talked of the Haratin peoples as if they had no worth as a collective, as if they were just commerce meant for use, abuse, and exploitation. Biram Dah Abeid, an abolitionist in Mauritania, recounts the circumstances his father faced as he tried to stay with his wife while they were both enslaved. In court, his father was told “he could buy his wife because she was just like their cow or their sheep. And he said, OK, in that case I’m going to take my kids. And the judge said that these kids don’t have a father, they only have a progenitor.” The father’s rights to be with his family, to marry, and to even say he has children were stripped in order to suit the needs of the slaveholders and to let them retain their full control. One can only imagine what being called a piece of property and an animal can do to the human soul.While the term Haratin ties the group to slavery, it fools others who are unfamiliar with the realities they face into thinking they have escaped and are truly free. The government goes so far as to claim that Mauritania has full “equality” of all people. In the aforementioned interview by CNN, one man was stopped and asked whether he was free or enslaved. He replied, “Us? We’re free. We’re dependent on ourselves. Because you will not see any Arabs here. If we were slaves, you would find us living with Arabs. Did you hear that? But when you see a family like this, it means they’re dependent on themselves.” In instances like such, where the enslaved persons regard themselves free, along with the assistance of their government, the issue of enslavement resists being easily addressed.Finally, enslavement is weaved into the notion of family in order to further hold the Haratin to their Berber “families.” A now fully freed Haratin, Yebawa, told interviewers that, “from the moment [he] was born, [he doesn’t] remember working for anyone. [His] family is really them. [He] only work[s] for [himself] and [for his] family”. Even now as a free, paid worker, Yebawa believes that he was never enslaved, just working for his master, his family. Another freed Haratin with a clearer notion of freedom than Yebawa told CNN, “People often say here, “You can’t be better than your father.” In this case, traditional concepts of family are used to make the Haratin feel that they are trapped in their situation by emphasizing their lineage and its history of enslavement in a personal and degrading way.Until the language use to refer to the Haratin people changes, the enslaved will be inescapably bound to a cycle of enslavement. But there is opportunity for liberation from this cycle — as Boubacar Messaoud, no longer known as Boubacar “the black slave,” says, “One can be better than one’s father… You can search for something else. You can find complete human dignity.”
