Where slavery persists
Despite its official ban, the practice continues in present-day Mauritania.
A slave woman sits in a tent in the desert with her child June 15, 1997 near Chegar, Mauritania. (Photo by Malcolm Linton/GETTY)
On Monday, August 12 at 19:30 GMT:
“Slavery is alive and well in Mauritania”, according to the president of Mauritania’s parliament. Back in 2007 his country became the last in the world to make slavery a crime. Since then, however, only one slave owner has been successfully prosecuted. Despite government claims that the practice is officially a thing of the past, large numbers of former slaves, locally known as the “haratin”, are still trapped in exploitative systems. We’ll find out why at 19:30 GMT.
In this episode of The Stream, we speak to:
Bakary Tandia
Human rights activist
Abidine Ould-Merzough
Anti-slavery activist
Nasser Weddady @weddady
Mauritanian activist
Saidou Wane @SaidouWane
Human rights activist
What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Published On 12 Aug 2013