Haratin di Mauritania: da status ascritto a rivendicazione identitaria. La schiavitù in prospettiva postcoloniale

The dissertation analyses the construction of the community of the Haratines of Mauritania, ethnic group of former slaves and their descendants, of black origins and Arabised over time. Despite abolition of slavery, 10-15% of the Haratines are still considered in dependence on their former masters, especially in rural areas. The study highlights the transformation of what to be “Haratines” meant over time and what concurred to transform a social status into an ethnic group, whose members are actually affirming their autonomous identity from the beydane society, in which they were usually included in the past. Until independence (1960) the term Haratines (sing. Hartani) was only referred to freed slaves and their descendants, whereas slaves were called ‘abid (sing. ‘abd), then constituting the two lower social status of the Arab-Berber (beydane) society of Mauritania. Even if French colonisation didn‟t deeply change their condition, some antislavery policies were applied at the beginning of the territorial expansion. From late 1880s, especially in northern Senegal and Mali, the French tried to carry out an antislavery action by creating some „freedom villages‟ where runaway slaves could find a place to live and work freely, receiving „freedom licenses‟. Moreover, treats with local chiefs established the transformation of slavery into temporary forced labour, freeing slaves ten years later. The expansion in the North of the Senegal River Valley and the need to administrate a vast desert area, populated by few nomadic people, forced France to substantially maintain traditional leaderships and the Arab social organization. Indeed, echoes of emancipation and some wage labour (boys, interpreters, guides, cooks, etc.) reached slaves and Haratines. Moreover, a few Haratines attended French schools in the villages. These men founded the El-Hor antislavery movement in 1974, which later fought against slavery, thus obtaining its abolition in 1981, even if it was just a formal one. The term ‘abid (sing. ‘abd) went out of use, and „Haratines‟ was extended to people still in dependence, too. Desertification and urbanization concurred to free some slaves, who moved in the ghettos of Nouakchott where they began to be aware of their exploitation and of their different identity from Arab-Berber masters. From 2008, a new impulse to antislavery fight came from IRA Mauritanie, which leader Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid innovated and radicalised the protest. Moreover, IRA Mauritanie affirms that the Haratine community is different from the Arab one and that the Haratines have an autonomous identity, which is characterised by race (“Haratines are black”) and their own Haratine culture.