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Mauritania
Index
Upon taking office in 1984, Taya pledged to promote political
unity and stability by improving the economy, redressing the
erosion of civil and human rights, and ensuring Mauritania's
strict neutrality in the Western Sahara conflict. During the
first two years of Taya's administration, Mauritania's economic
performance improved, even though attempts to halt or slow
desertification proved ineffectual
(see Balance of Payments, Debt, and Foreign Assistance
, ch. 3). Revenues from agriculture,
mining, and fishing increased from the depressed levels of the
drought years; the rate of inflation decreased; and the
World Bank (see Glossary)
stepped up lending, following a currency
devaluation in 1985. In keeping with his promise concerning human
rights, in late 1984 and early 1985 Taya freed many of the
political prisoners jailed by his predecessor. More important, he
successfully organized Mauritania's first elections.
Taya himself, known as a diligent, loyal, disinterested
professional, remained a popular figure. At least at the outset,
his tenure attracted support from Mauritania's principal
constituencies, including
harratin (see Glossary),
labor,
and students, as well as from the exiled, pro-Moroccan Alliance
for a Democratic Mauritania (Alliance pour une Mauritanie
Démocratique--AMD) based in Paris and the Organization of
Mauritanian Nationalists (Organisation des Nationalistes
Mauritaniens) formed in Senegal. His general amnesty for
political prisoners pleased both domestic and external
dissidents, and his ban on alcohol won support from Islamic
fundamentalists.
In spite of Taya's successes, internal politics in 1987
remained unsettled. Alternative political choices were still
banned, and neither of the two exiled dissident groups chose to
return. Corruption, which had flourished under Haidalla, was
still a significant problem. The number of nomadic herders
dropped from 85 percent of the population to 15 percent, with
former nomads settling in Nouakchott and other cities and vastly
inflating the number of unemployed or underemployed living in
kébés (shantytowns) surrounding Nouakchott.
Harratin, who previously had worked for the nomads, also
entered the labor market, often in competition with their former
employers for scarce or nonexistent jobs. Wealthy speculators
exploited the difficulties of the nomads by purchasing their
herds at distress prices and then selling them to farmers in the
south. The economy, which had rebounded somewhat during Taya's
first two years in office, stagnated. The government raised
prices for staples and simultaneously devalued the ouguiya.
Revenues from mining, fishing and agriculture dropped. To prevent
a financial collapse, the World Bank took control of the
International Bank of Mauritania (Banque Internationale pour la
Mauritanie--BIMA). Finally, southern blacks, and the Toucouleur
in particular, charged the Taya government with discrimination
and bias, and in frustration they took their grievances to the
streets.
Internal divisions based on race remained Taya's most
critical domestic problem in 1987, in spite of his insistence
that racism was of no consequence in Mauritania. Since
independence, some black groups repeatedly had charged the
government with discrimination, alleging underrepresentation of
blacks in important posts in government, education, and business.
Other grievances included supposed favoritism by the state in
allocating resources, such as bank loans and scholarships, and a
land reform act that seemingly gave Maures preference in the
acquisition of irrigated land along the Senegal River. The 1983
Land Reform Act maintained that as the owner of all unimproved
and undeeded land, the state had an inherent interest in its
development. The act stipulated that in accordance with relevant
provisions of sharia, the government was permitted to cede land
to those committed to improving it
(see Farming
, ch. 3). Although
the policy of providing parcels of fallow, irrigable land to
those willing to farm it was economically sound, ambiguities
surrounding the implementation of the Land Reform Act raised the
specter of wealthy land speculators from Nouakchott and
Nouadhibou appropriating tracts of rich agricultural land along
the Senegal River and displacing blacks whose roots extended back
for generations. Complicating the issue was the fact that wealthy
blacks from the Senegal River Basin were also interested in
assembling large, capital-intensive farms on riparian lands and
were very much in favor of the government's efforts on their
behalf.
President Taya attempted to deal with racial controversy by
creating a national constituency to replace local or regional
(often ethnically based) affiliations. To this end, he sought to
eliminate racial and ethnic labels. He continued to bring
southern blacks and harratin into his government, in mid1987 he named three women to cabinet positions, and he earmarked
agriculture along the Senegal River, historically a black
enterprise, for heavy investment. Notwithstanding such efforts,
local blacks, Mauritania's black African neighbors, and many
foreign observers shared the perception that Maures formulated
and carried out the political agenda. Moreover, frequent cabinet
changes, coupled with the rapid rotation of regional governors
and military commanders, have prevented Mauritania's political
leaders from acquiring managerial expertise.
Data as of June 1988
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