Slavery Persists: Living History in 2013
JENNY LEE
Staff Writer
People are born and remain free and equal in rights.
This idea has fueled history. It has driven the thirteen colonies to fight for their freedom and it has driven African Americans to fight for equal rights. Although we all know discrimination still lingers, slaves are nonexistent today, thanks to the Emancipation Proclamation, signed 150 years ago.
However, what if we were told that slavery still exists today? To most people living in slave-free nations, slavery is history. To the people living among the sandy dunes of Mauritania, slavery is their lifestyle.
In 1981, Mauritania was the last country to abolish slavery, and this boundless desert land finally made slavery a crime in 2007, but these laws are meaningless. About 3.4 million of its denizens are living in slavery, so how is it that only one slave owner has ever been successfully prosecuted? In fact, Mauritania’s government denies the existence of slavery and even arrest anti-slavery activists. As for the citizens, they are entrapped within the mentality that slavery is normal and don’t realize the unethical gravity of slavery.
When Moulkheir Mint Yarba’s master left her baby to die, Yarba began having second thoughts. Her master had compared the baby’s soul to a dog’s soul. Yarba compared her childhood life to an animal’s. Yarba and the baby are human beings, not animals, but with the way they are treated, it’s hard to tell the difference. Frankly, my pet goldfish from 10 years ago lived in luxury compared to the hardships Mauritania slaves endure.
Fortunately, this mindset is gradually changing. Abdel Nasser Ould Ethmane was a former slave master before he stumbled upon a book on human rights. One line—the one line that propelled people to fight for their rights—would impact his life forever:
“Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.”
When he told his slaves they were free, they were at a loss. What was freedom? Living in a land centered around freedom and liberty, it’s difficult to imagine their situation and understand how they can live and accept the fact their lives are shackled down by others.
Ethmane and his former slave, Boubacar Messaoud, ended up fighting for Yarba’s freedom. These now anti-slavery activists once accepted this immoral practice before being enlightened by education or by ethical thought. A crucial pattern is woven between these modern-day civilians who once practiced slavery. These submissive mindsets are caused by a lack of education, government support, geographical isolation, racial unawareness, poverty and/or religious beliefs that justify slavery.
Changing the country’s mentality is no easy feat, especially when the government seems to ignore and even support it. CNN calls Mauritania “slavery’s last stronghold” and this phrase holds a sliver of hope within the keyword: last. If Mauritania is slavery’s very last stronghold, then eradicating slavery from the nation may finally erase slavery from the present. Slavery would then truly be history.
Some claim slavery doesn’t officially exist in Mauritania. Slavery is prevalent there because of the people’s yielding mentality and unenforced laws; people get taken advantage as a result. Our world should be more aware of this issue and Mauritania’s government should begin abiding and enforcing their own laws and educating themselves beyond their small country.
Slavery is technically a crime and said to be abolished, but the practice hasn’t stopped. How can we say slavery doesn’t exist there when the facts all point toward slavery? Slavery by any other name or disguise is still slavery.