the threshold of independence, while Mauritania had to build: the state, national unity, the economy. Fifty years later, weakened by coups and authoritarian tendencies to repetition, it still seeks the path of development.
On 28 November 1960, is in a hangar, Nouakchott, that Mokhtar Ould Daddah proclaims independence. The capital is then a simple fort of 5000 souls. The young Islamic Republic Mauritania, with its million km2 (twice France), two-thirds in the Sahara, has virtually no basic infrastructure, colonial France preferred to focus its efforts on the outskirts of the Senegal River and St. Louis, the capital of French West Africa (AOF), and therefore the territory of Mauritania until July 1957.
The task ahead is immense Mokhtar Ould Daddah. Everything is built: the state, national unity and the economy. At the time, the latter relies on the exploitation of iron and a large agricultural sector. Nomadism is prevalent, and less dense urban fabric.
Fifty years later, the company is largely sedentary and urbanized (over 40%), a movement begun in 1973, following severe droughts that have led many rural dwellers to cities. From 1970 to 1990, the average annual urban population growth was also 7.7%, against 2.9% from 2000 to 2010. Activity agropastoral contributes 20% of gross domestic product (GDP), while sea fishing, operation of iron and, since 2006, oil (25% of GDP) are the main providers of foreign exchange. If GDP grew, poverty, almost everywhere in 1960, still affects over 45% of the 3 million Mauritanians, and social inequalities have widened.
Two other problems, which undermine national unity: slavery, although officially abolished in 1980 and criminalized by law in 2007, and tensions between Moors and black Mauritanians, the regimes that have successive failed to reconcile.
Colors, languages and identity
junction point between Africa and white Arabic speaking black Africa, Mauritania is inhabited by Arab-Berber Moors white (the Beydanes) and black (Haratins, descendants of their former dependent ), whose language is Arabic Hassaniya, as well as black Mauritanians - Toucouleurs Peul, Soninke and Wolof - originating in the Senegal River region, speaking French and their own languages (Pulaar, Soninke and Wolof) .
If all have in common is Islam, the black Mauritanians do not recognize, however, the Arab identity claimed by almost all regimes that have ruled the country. The first riots broke out in 1966, following a decree on the Arabization of secondary education, and exacerbated in 1968 when the National Assembly is of Arabic an official language, alongside the Pulaar, the Soninke, Wolof and French.
In the wake of Arabization, the country comes out of the franc zone in June 1973 for circulating its own currency, the Ouguiya, and in November of that year, joins the Arab League. In December 1980, Arabic was declared the only official language.
The tensions arising from this policy, which keeps the country from its francophone neighbors, reach their climax under Ould Taya, when broke in April 1989, the conflict between Senegal and Mauritania. It all started with a clash between herders and farmers Mauritanian Moorish Soninke of Senegal, to Diawara, Senegal Oriental, leading to clashes between two communities in Nouakchott and Dakar. Appraisal: thousands of dead and wounded, tens of thousands of refugees from both sides. In August 1989 the two countries closed their borders and sever diplomatic relations, which will not be restored until May 1992. A power militarized
The choice of Arabism did not mean ease relations with Arab neighbors. At the time of independence, Morocco, then followed by the Arab League refused to recognize the new state. The two countries are close in November 1975 with the signing of Madrid, on the sharing of Western Sahara between Morocco (two thirds) and Mauritania (third), thus annexing the region of Dakhla (renamed Tiris el- Gharbia) and agrees with Morocco, in a war against the Polisario, backed by Algeria. Coupled with the rise of the protest, among both black Mauritanians only a fraction ultranationalist Arabic, this costly war in two years will be fatal to Ould Daddah. Some will
the mixed record of fifty years of independence of the country on account of lack of political will of most of its leaders, more concerned with ideology than with the development and modernization of the country, and instability born of repeated coups.
Since the overthrow of Ould Daddah in July 1978, Mauritania has indeed experienced seven Heads of State - All Moors - including six soldiers. Militarization of power that democratization began in 1991 has not stopped. Moreover, a few years later, Ould Taya is not encumbered of human rights, exacerbating the racial issue in passing by several officers shot Fulani accused of wanting to overthrow him.
is "to end the totalitarian regime of President Taya," they will say then, that the military eventually overthrow him in August 2005, under the guidance of one who was responsible for its national security for ten- eight years, Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall. The latter, faithful to his promise, does not appear on the March 2007 presidential, which was won by a civilian: Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi. But August 6, 2008, a new coup brought to power General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz. He is elected president a year later, in the first round of voting, with over 52% of the votes cast.
addition to socio-economic challenges, Aziz inherited the long record of radical Islamism, whose first actions dating back to 2003 with the attempted murder of Ould Taya by the "Knights of Change". Since 2005, the country is hit by a wave of attacks by jihadis: murder of four French tourists in Aleg (South East) in December 2007 attack on Israeli embassy in February 2008, suicide attack against the Embassy of France in August 2009 ... events that have not fail to surprise the "land of Chinguetti, once known for his wise scholars and tolerant Islam.
The threat of radical Islam
Various factors have contributed to the rise of Islamism. Modernist ideologies (Nasserism, Baathism) that developed in the country in the 1970s prompted a defensive reaction within conservative circles. The policies pursued by successive regimes in the direction of a fold of Islam (introduction of sharia in 1978 by Ould Daddah and Ould Haidallah in 1980) or an opening to the West (reconciliation with the United U.S. and diplomatic relations with Israel under Ould Taya) also contributed to the emergence of these radical movements.
If the raid by the army in July 2010 against a camp of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has not helped save French hostage Michel Germaneau a point, however, was marked by the State Mauritania: nine AQIM fighters were killed.
Still, the radical currents are becoming increasingly popular among the lower classes, especially among Haratins, impoverished by economic hardship. In this, the two priority projects of the mandate of Ould Abdelaziz, countering radical Islam and the country on the path of growth are intimately linked.
Source: Jeune Afrique
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