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They have Hannibal Barca as black again and Eurocentrics are mad again
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by the lioness,: [QB] [QUOTE]Originally posted by Ish Gebor: [qb] [QUOTE]Originally posted by the lioness,: [qb] [QUOTE]Originally posted by Ish Gebor: So, we're talking about the Zenaga (Sanhaja) from Mauri specifically? [/qb][/QUOTE]Haratin in Mauritania[edit] See also: Slavery in Mauritania In Mauritania, the Haratin form one of the largest ethnic groups and account for as much as 40% of the Mauritanians. They are sometimes referred to as "Black Moors",[2] in contrast to Beidane, or "White Moors". The Haratin are Arabic-speakers and generally claim a Berber or Arab origin. This is unlike the sub-Saharan African peoples in southern Mauritania (such as the Wolof and the Soninke). The Haratine, in contrast, consider themselves part of the Moorish community. Their origin is unclear: some are thought to be the descendants of traded slaves from other regions of Africa (Central and Eastern Africa Sahel region) while others are thought to be descendants of a sedentary population of who have lived in the location since the Neolithic period when the Sahara was occupied by black skinned people.[3] Most Haratine are descended from Bambara, Fulani, Soninké and Wolof people, groups that fled south beyond the Senegal River valley when the Berbers, and later the Moors, settled in the region during the 3rd century CE. Those who remained intermarried with the Berbers and Arabs.[4] They were historically the rulers of kingdoms spread all over North Africa.[5] Although the Mauritanian government has issued emancipation declarations, discrimination against Haratin is still widespread, and some continue to be, for all practical purposes, enslaved, while large numbers live in other forms of informal dependence on their former masters. Amnesty International reported that in 1994 90,000 Haratine still lived as "property" of their master, with the report indicating that "slavery in Mauritania is most dominant within the traditional upper class of the Moors."[6] The report also observed that "[s]ocial attitudes have changed among most urban Moors, but in rural areas, the ancient divide is still very alive." There have been many attempts to assess the real extension of slavery in modern Mauritania, but these have mostly been frustrated by the Nouakchott government's official stance that the practice has been eliminated. Amnesty further estimated that some 300,000 freed slaves continued to serve their former masters because of psychological or economic dependence.[6] ________________________ http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2012/03/world/mauritania.slaverys.last.stronghold/index.html [URL=http://www.ephotobay.com/share/screen-shot-2016-06-20-at-1-00-57-am.html] [IMG]http://www.ephotobay.com/image/screen-shot-2016-06-20-at-1-00-57-am.png[/IMG][/URL] [/qb][/QUOTE]That is a western interpretation. You still haven't told my which ethnic (tribe) groups in particular did what and what not. And what kind of slave work did/ does the Haratine fulfill? What I notice in your post are building contradictions. [/QUOTE]Mauritania has a caste system and it doesn't go strictly by tribal groups and contradictory aspects are a reality there. What is different from India is that there is more mixing between the groups. The upper caste are those people who claim more Arab ancestry. http://mauritania.usembassy.gov/uploads/images/o39wijI-r0pvc5_y22VocA/MauritanianSocialStructure.pdf [b]Mauritanian Social Structure[/b] Mauritania’s socio-cultural situation often strikes outsiders as unusually complex and difficult to understand. It certainly is different from which most westerners are acculturated and provides a refreshing opportunity to cleanse one’s mind of numerous ethnocentric stereotypes. This is especially true of four crucial concepts: tribe, ethnic group, class and caste. These four terms are continuously confused and the term “tribe” is often misused. A tribe is a political unit. This unit may claim descent from a common ancestor or not. What is important is they recognize belonging to a unit that is based on some present or past common interest in exerting power: either to obtain or protect themselves, or their resources. Tribes are concrete entities made up of individual members who can gather, appoint leaders, make war, etc. People can be admitted into or thrown out of a tribe. For westerners, a tribe is very similar to a Scottish clan. An ethnic group is a somewhat more abstract entity than a tribe. Its existence is based on the feeling of a shared identity on the part of people who possess a common life style, language, religion, or other major cultural institution. One belongs to an ethnic group because both the individual and others “feel” they belong. A person is neither admitted into nor thrown out of an ethnic group. Often, people of the same ethnic group deny the legitimacy of each other’s claimed identity. There is no inherent political basis to ethnic identity, though political units can manipulate ethnic differences for such purposes. Members of the same ethnic group need not be allies and in fact, may have been enemies. Class is a still more abstract concept than ethnic group. People are members of the same class when someone “classifies” them together as members of a certain class. There is not a prerequisite for ascribing membership. Someone can be classified as a member of the working class based on the job he does even if he believes he is a descendant of the King of England and entitled to be considered as royalty. Caste is the most specific of these crucial concepts. When applied to West African societies, it is used in the very general meaning of the division of societies into hierarchically-ranked, endogamous-occupational groups. The relationship between these has ritual as well as economic significance. All of the groups in the western Sudan who were integrated and functioning parts of one or more indigenous empires of the past, share a basic common class structure: Free People (nobles and commoners), Casted People (different craftsmen), Artisans and Entertainers (griots), Freed People (former slaves) and Slaves. Likewise, the caste division of these structures is largely the same (weavers, leatherworkers, entertainers, etc...). The similarly of social structure, the migratory nature of the area’s population, the fact that marriage rules apply more strictly to first marriages and become progressively looser thereafter, and that except for slave status, the offspring’s status follows the father’s, permits a much greater social mobility over a generation or two than would otherwise seem likely. To understand Mauritanian society, one must understand its ethnic groups, its tribes, social-economic classes and its castes. The major ethic groups and subdivision are as follows: The Hassaniya speakers who predominate over the majority of the country except along the river are divisible into two crucial subgroups – the Beydane or white Moors and the Haratine or black Moors. The Beydane are traditionally further divided into Z’waya (religious or marabout groups), M’allmin (craftsmen) and Igawen (entertainers). Besides the traditional occupation by which these subgroups are identified, they generally involve themselves in some other types commercial trading, livestock raising or both. The Haratine are commonly referred to as “freed slaves,” in contrast to the term Abid that means a captured slave. They are viewed as the descendants of former black slaves that were originally taken from along the river, Mali or Senegal. Some live as an integral part of a larger Beydane encampment. Others have their own encampments and work as herders or are settled in Haratine agricultural communities. Haratines generally categorize themselves in the following groups:[b] Arabs, Africans or distinctly different group. While they are generally held in low esteem in some areas of Mauritania, Haratine are considered higher than Zenaga. This is especially true in eastern areas where some Haratine groups have risen above their normal sharecropper role to acquire considerable herds of animals.[/b] The Halpulaar are speakers of the Pulaar language. The largest group is the Toucouleur, and make up the agricultural populations that dominate both sides of the Senegal River. Prior to colonial domination, they lived under a highly stratified theocracy. While the traditional division of their society into Rimbe (free men), Nyenybe (artisans) and Maccube (captives) still has meaning in terms of individual social status, it no longer dictates actual occupations or the power relationships between different subgroups and particular individuals. The Peul (Fulbe, Fula or Fulani) are Halpulaar cattle pastoralists whose migration patterns often include Mali and Senegal. In terms of social status, the Peul largely function as a semi-itinerant cattle-owning class, equivalent to status to the Trobe (Halpulaar religious nobles). Some confusion as to their practices and class exist because many of their former slaves (Rimiibe) have adopted their lifestyle and present themselves as “authentic Peul.” The Soninke (Sarakolle) are predominant in the Guidimaka region, which borders eastern Senegal and Mali. They still maintain a highly stratified social structure and their organization closely resembles that of the Malian Bambara. This social structure includes slavery. It stresses hard work, close cooperation and extremely tight extended family relations under the authority of a patriarch. From the beginning of their history, the Soninke have been closely associated with male exploitation of migratory economic activities either as traders or laborers. Local power was traditionally allotted and maintained by several powerful lineage groups. Perhaps the greatest reversal they have suffered since independence is to see their region of Mauritania, which was a favored commercial river trade outlet in colonial times, become a backwater to a distant coastal capital. The Wolof is the single largest ethnic group in Senegal. While they too have a traditionally stratified class society, its traditional divisions are largely meaningless today. This is especially true among the expatriate communities found in Mauritania near the border region around Rosso and in the capital, Nouakchott. Because they are the predominant group in Senegal, they can more easily integrate into the Senegalese society. Therefore, their presence in Mauritania generally represents a response to opportunities that already existed and they profitably exploited (i.e. urban skills such as carpentry, masonry, etc.). [b]Of all these groups, only the Hassaniya-speaking Beydanes and Haratine have tribes. The Toucouleur, Peul, Wolof and Soninke are not tribes nor do they belong to tribes. They are united in extended family groups of different sizes and cohesion while their settlements may be divided into sections referred to as Halagaiz, Halgay or Halagai (circles).[/b] The Toucouleur and Wolof live in settled communities along the river that are not only permanent but are quite ancient in some cases. Such settlements are often characterized by substantial investments in both personal and community physical infrastructure (houses and mosque). Depending on size, they are further divisible into neighborhoods (quartiers) and family concessions. The same is true of the Soninke, except that these communities are usually inland and more cohesive than those of the Toucouleur and Wolof. The Peul tend to live in smaller hamlets (wuro) usually composed of straw huts that are sometimes surrounded by flimsy fences. If the whole family travels with the herd, these are occupied seasonally. Other times, only specific herders (teenage boys) will leave with the animals and the others stay home. This pattern generally is referred to as transhumance – having fixed home locations but with substantial seasonal movement of at least some members of the household. However, these fixed locations are neither as permanent nor do they function as an interdependent community as do Toucouleur communities. Of course today the situation is rapidly changing. In the last two decades, the country’s population has gone from being two-thirds nomad, one-third sedentary, to exactly the opposite (one-third nomad, two-thirds sedentary). The change has been so recent that Mauritania does not yet have a well-established urban population with severed ties from the rural population. Most urban dwellers from the head of state to the unemployed squatter, are still closely tied to rural values and specific rural communities. [b]Hassaniya or Moor culture has traditionally been a nomadic society with links to trading, religious centers, and oases areas. Most of the relationships that unite people are therefore more social than residential due to the fluid residential patterns. [/b]Geographic identity is very important. It usually occurs on the level of regional identities and is expressed when people find themselves third-party strangers (i.e. in Nouakchott, people often see a unity among those from Trarza, as opposed to others from Tagant or Adrar). This phenomenon is being somewhat both expressed and catered to by the government’s decision to denote administrative regions by their traditional names. The social cement that unties people extends across regions. [b]Basically, a Beydane belongs to one of a large number of tribes or clans (Qabila) whose members theoretically descend from a common ancestor. These, however, generally are large and ancient to the point of having little meaning in terms of the management of everyday life. As a result they break down into smaller factions called Fakhdh or fractions. In theory, members of the same Fakhdh also descend from a common descendant of the original founder of the Qabila. In reality, membership in both a Qabila and Fakhdh can change, which are as much an alliance of people with similar social status as they are actual kin groups.[/b] It is usually the Fakhdh that is the actual functioning alliance and members of different Fakhdh of the same Qabila may be actually allied against each other. The Fakhdh themselves are composed of patrilineal extended families (father and sons) called Ahel. The Ahel are the most fundamentally important kin units, especially since divorce is quite frequent in many areas and the nuclear family of husband, wife and children is unstable. In the rural areas, the basic living unit is the Khayma or tent. It is generally synonymous with the nuclear family. The Frig is the encampment of which three different categories are generally recognized: (1) small Frig from 1-15 tents, generally referred to as a Khyam; (2) Frig of 10-20 tents called Nezla; and (3) very large encampments are called V’rig Massa. The Massa where the chief has his tent is referred to as Helle or El Qariya (the tribal center). It can be said that tribal and social barriers tend to merge and Mauritanians from all areas can be found in government positions and all tend to interact socially. While change is occurring in regard to ethnic, tribal and class identity, the old categories are still operative, applicable, and crucial for a proper understanding of the country’s present socio-economic situation. A brief description such as this cannot do justice to either the complexity of the subject for the reader who wishes to acquire a profound knowledge of the culture. It is hoped, however, that it will provide what is necessary to understanding the basic milieu. _______________________________________ https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/africa/mauritania/report-mauritania/ [b]2014 Apostasy Executions[/b] In December 2014, Mohamed Mkhaïtir, a blogger who was held in pre-trial detention for almost a year, was sentenced to death for apostasy at the Nouadhibou Court in northwest Mauritania. He had written a blog criticizing the use of religion to marginalize certain groups in society, and was still in detention at the end of 2015.2 In January, the Rosso Court in southern Mauritania sentenced Brahim Bilal Ramdane, Djiby Sow and Biram Dah Abeid, a former presidential candidate and president of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement in Mauritania, to two years in prison for belonging to an unrecognized organization, participating in an unauthorized assembly and assaulting security officers. The three activists were arrested in November 2014 with other protesters while campaigning against slavery and raising awareness among the local population of the land rights of people of slave descent. Their sentences were upheld by the Appeal Court of Aleg in August 2015.3 In August, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association called on the National Assembly to reject a draft law on civil society associations that had been approved by the Council of Ministers without public consultation. In November, retired colonel Oumar Ould Beibacar was arrested at a political rally in the capital Nouakchott, during which he spoke of the extrajudicial execution of military officers in the 1990s. He was detained at the Nouakchott Directorate for National Security and released six days later but remained under judicial supervision. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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