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| Mauritania Man Appeals for Enslaved Family |
| 2004-02-19 |
| EFL A free man in Mauritania pleaded for the liberation of a wife and children he said were still caught in slavery, saying they were being held by their owners in Mauritania’s remote east. The account of Cheikhna Ould Beilil, a free-born man who says he is married to a slave, Kelizima Mint Bota, was the second case to emerge in recent weeks of traditional slavery that international rights groups say still binds hundreds of thousands into servitude in West Africa. Local anti-slavery and rights groups brought his case forward this week. "It’s good fortune" to have had two cases of slavery come to light in such a short period, said Boubacar Ould Messaoud, president of SOS Esclave. "It’s not from the same family. It’s not from the same region. That’s because slavery exists everywhere in Mauritania," Ould Messaoud said. Africa is a parallel universe, in which Jefferson Davis triumphed. Mauritania, a nation of some 3 million people, outlawed slavery in 1981, and says the practice no longer exists within its borders. A top Interior Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the government would have no comment on the allegation. Ould Beilil’s story started eight years ago, when he met alleged slave Mint Bota at the market in Guerrou, a town in the Mauritanian desert 300 miles east of Nouakchott. It must be tough being an alleged slave. I bet all the good jobs go to the fully qualified slaves. He later married her -- a rare event between free Mauritanians and slaves. Ould Beilil and his wife, both black Africans, settled just outside the compound of the Arab family that owned her, he said. After Ould Beilil squabbled with Mint Bota’s masters, he attempted to move his family away from the compound -- but the owners prevented her and the children from leaving in March. "That’s when the problems started," said Ould Beilil. "The masters said no, ’Because your wife is our slave and she has to stay with us.’" Traditionally, a slavewoman’s children become her masters’ property, even if the father is a free man. I remember that tradition from the mini-series of Alex Haley’s book Roots. I Must have misunderstood the show’s premise though. I thought it was a historical drama. Ould Beilil provided the AP with a copy of what he said was a ruling from a local Sharia court, enforcing Islamic law, in June. The alleged ruling said the family should be together under Ould Beilil’s direction. It said nothing about slavery. Despite the ruling, Mint Bota’s masters still will not allow his family to leave their conditions of forced work -- and local police have told him to forget the family, Ould Beilil said... While slavery has been outlawed across Africa, the United Nations, U.S. State Department and human rights groups have said it persists in the continent’s north and west. The American Anti-Slavery Group says more than 200,000 people currently labor as slaves in Mauritania, Niger and Sudan, nations on centuries-old Arab-African Saharan trade routes. Some 100,000 of those are in Mauritania, the Boston-based group says. The question of slavery remains a taboo topic in Mauritania, with the government jailing Ould Messaoud and other rights activists in the 1990s for charging that slavery persists. We’ll show you some slavery. Get to work on that rock pile. The other recent, rare public case of Mauritanian slavery saw Matalla, a 20-year-old camel herder, allegedly flee his masters, ultimately winding up in the protection of a free relative. Officials for SOS Esclave -- who fear that Matalla could be recaptured by his masters -- said Tuesday he is still free. Don’t let him come to America, I don’t know that Dred Scott was ever repealled. |
| Posted by:Super Hose |
| #6 a ruling from a local Sharia court, enforcing Islamic law, in June. The alleged ruling said the family should be together under Ould Beilil’s direction. It said nothing about slavery. When Allah created the universe, a couple of his main ideas were 1) that African Negros should be slaves of Arabs, but 2) that slave families should stay together under the husbands' direction. |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-2-19 7:32:15 PM |
| #5 the United Nations, U.S. State Department and human rights groups have said it persists in the continent’s north and west. These kind of statements drive me nuts. Slavery does not result result from geographic factors. Therefore to say it occurs in certain geographic locations without saying why amounts to dis-information. A truthful version of this sentence would read - 'the United Nations, U.S. State Department and human rights groups have said it persists in muslim dominated areas in the continent’s north and west. Otherwise to TS - My sentiments exactly! |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-2-19 7:21:58 PM |
| #4 The reason the left doesnt care about this is because the slave owners are MUSLIMS(and also not white)...and God forbid any bad thing about Islam ever be said in liberal circles. Not to mention it might make African-American org's start focusing on modern day slavery, instead of blaming white people today for slavery in the past. They cant have that now can they? I guarantee you if it was white people in Africa owning slaves, and doing slave raids such as are carried out in Sudan, liberals would be all over it!!! How about the fact that alot of these slaves are sex slaves...if there were white people with black sex slaves..OH MY GOD, it would be the number one cause of liberals. Damn hyprocrites! But since its Muslims w/o a fair complexion doing the enslaving they just let it slide. Disgusting! The biggest groups trying to stop this slavery are Christian groups...and while the left find it easy to have solidarity with Muslims, they surely will never let theirselves find any solidarity with Christians...not even to end modern day chattel slavery! Its so wretched of the left, it makes me wanna puke. |
| Posted by: TS 2004-2-19 6:29:48 PM |
| #3 Slavery in the Third World? There's nothing there for the leftist to feel special about. Who cares if it's a tragedy, who cares what misery it causes -- since EVERYONE in the West agrees slavery is evil, opposing it has no emotional payoff for the leftist. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-2-19 4:10:23 PM |
| #2 The silence from the Randall Robinson crowd is deafening. |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-2-19 12:12:15 PM |
| #1 Cybil et al and NMM there's something for you to rant against. Better yet, lead a march against this inhumane practice. |
| Posted by: GK 2004-2-19 12:11:53 PM |