Modern Day Slavery: Mauritania

Fascinating People Fascinating Places

Mauritania, one of Africa’s largest yet least talked about countries holds a dark secret: slavery. While slavery in various forms continues to exist around the world, in Mauritania its on a massive scale having been woven into the very fabric of society. In fact, the loathsome practice was only criminalized 15 years ago. But whereas the emancipation proclamation and subsequent events in the US eventually led to the visible liberation of milions of people, the new law in Mauritania had no such effect. Indeed, the government quickly moved on from criminalizing the trade to claiming there were no slaves in the country. Those suggesting otherwise risked harassment and arrest while the practitioners of the trade were largely undisturbed.

But the situation is starting to improve in part because of the work of organizations such as anti slavery international. An entity founded in 1837 and designed to bring an end to the Atlantic slave trade. Almost two hundreds years later, despite much success, the groups work is not done, as Emma Cain Programme Quality and Impact Manager explained to me.

Learn more at and help fight slavery today by going to AntiSlavery.org

Music: Pixabay

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