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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Mauritania
Index
Laborer at Oualâta digging slabs of salt, for
centuries a valuable commodity of West African trade
MAURITANIA'S NINETEENTH-CENTURY French colonizers envisioned the
country as a geographic and cultural bridge linking North Africa
and West Africa. In the late 1980s, however, Mauritania bore
little resemblance to this vision. Instead, it was a society
undergoing profound transformation, torn between two cultural and
linguistic traditions. The process of compelling nomads to settle
that was begun by the colonial government earlier in the
twentieth century was accelerated by the severe drought that
began in the mid-1960s. For the next two decades, the rate of
urbanization was unprecedented; Mauritania was transformed from a
nomadic pastoral society to a predominantly urban one. Large
pastoral populations were forced to leave land that could no
longer support them. The already-overpopulated cities, almost all
of which were located in the far south, were unprepared to
receive these displaced populations.
The drought had begun in the mid-1960s, largely as a result
of shifting continental rainfall patterns. Of all
Sahelian (see Glossary)
countries, Mauritania was the most vulnerable because
about 75 percent of its land was desert or semidesert under the
best conditions.
Although partially offset by continuing high infant mortality
rates, population growth during the 1970s and 1980s exacerbated
problems of urbanization. Combined with a depressed economy,
urbanization and overpopulation contributed to a generally low
standard of living. In the 1980s, the government used its meager
resources to increase investment in education, housing, and
health care services, hoping to reduce the effects of widespread
poverty.
In the late 1980s, Mauritania's population continued to be
divided along ethnic and regional lines. Maures from the north--
whites and black descendants of former slaves who identified with
Maure values--made up a traditional elite. The other major group
was composed of people of black African ancestry, most of whom
lived in the south and identified with African cultural and
social values. The legacy of Maure domination and enslavement of
blacks had been blurred by intermarriage and assimilation into
Maure culture; still, the gap between these two groups remained
wide, reflecting the weak basis for social cohesion or national
consciousness. Social tensions were evident in frequent clashes
over state policy, political appointments, and charges of
domination, all based on deep-seated cultural antipathies.
In the late 1980s, ethnic tensions further contributed to an
unstable social environment. Even the similarities that linked
Maures with peoples of African descent were relatively
superficial. Religious unity within Islam, for example, masked
wide differences in religious observances among Maures and
blacks. Government officials hoped that the nation's rapid
urbanization might increase social and cultural interaction and
reduce prejudices, but most admitted that the task of developing
a true national identity and a unified society promised to be
long and difficult.
Data as of June 1988
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