SPIRITUAL HISTORY OF MAURITANIA

Pre Islam
Around the 3rd century, Berbers from North Africa moved south into Mauritania.  Like the peoples who preceded them, they were animists who wore charms to protect themselves from evil spirits. The practice continues today in a folk Islamic form.

Arrival of Islam
The Berbers of Morocco brought Islam to Mauritania in the eighth century.  In the eleventh century, a fundamentalist movement called the Almoravids arose, converting the principal Berber tribes of the region, then launching a war against the animists of the Ghana Empire.  Their victory in 1076 led to the spread of Islam throughout Mauritania and the western Sahara.

Arab colonization
At the end of the 12th century, nomadic Arab warriors started to colonize Mauritania.  The centuries-long struggle between Arabs and Berbers culminated in a 30-year war (1644-1674).  After this conflict the Arab warriors became the ruling class.  The descendents of Arabs and Berbers have become the White Moors of today.  The White Moors’ black African slaves adopted the religion of their masters and have become the Black Moors of today.

Black African tribes

The south of the country has long been home to various black African tribes, including the Fulbe (Pulaars), Soninke and Wolof peoples. The range of influence of these peoples with regard to Mauritania as a whole has ebbed and flowed over the centuries, as the balance of power between Moors and Africans has shifted.   

 
Arrival of Christians and colonists
In 1443, a Portuguese ship arrived at the shores of Mauritania and took back 29 slaves. This insignificant event was the start of the infamous centuries-long West African slave trade.  The French at St-Louis actively promoted civil war among the feuding Mauritanian kingdoms in order to divert trade and slave victims of battle in their direction.  But in 1820 the slave trade was abolished throughout the French territories.  At the end of the nineteenth century, the French started to penetrate the interior of Mauritania.  The assassination of a French commander in 1905 ended a period of relatively peaceful expansion and brought on a five-year reign of terror in the territory.  Complete “pacification” wasn’t achieved until 1933.

Independence
On the 28th November 1960 the Islamic Republic of Mauritania was created.  Since then Mauritania has had no less than six military coups, three successful and three unsuccessful.  The nation has been marked by serious racial tensions, giving way at times to rioting.  In 1989, a minor incident triggered ethnic tensions that boiled over and led to attacks on Mauritanian shops in Senegal and the deaths of dozens of Moors.  In Mauritania, there were retaliatory attacks by both White and Black Moors on Senegalese and Mauritanian Pulaars.  Tens of thousands of Pulaars died or were forcibly expelled and their lands seized.  Tension between the different ethnic group continues today.

  The slave trade was officially abolished in 1980: one of the last countries in the world to do so. 

A primary source of income in Mauritania is from fishing contracts signed with the European Union, Russia, Korea and Japan.  These result in rich profits for foreign corporations but a massive reduction in catches for Mauritanian fishermen.  The discovery of offshore oil looks like it will continue the same pattern as fishing, making a few people rich but not touching the lives of the majority.

In 1987, partial Islamic law was introduced by the president but since then there has been a relaxation of this law as the government has increasingly looked to the west for support.  This pro-western stance is widely unpopular and there is a constant danger of a pro-Islamic coup.