Mauritania was the capital of the Empire of Ghana, which at one time extended on most of Africa. Vestiges of this presence are still visible in the fine bottom of Mauritanian desert. Mauritania obtained its independence from France in 1960.

 

The country was controlled until 1978 by Moktar ould Daddah, which had founded a civil mode of sole party. Originating in Boutilimit, Daddah had an ideological vision of Mauritania, vision which was worth the reputation to him to have nationalism and a will to make leave the country the desert and misery.

 

The mode will remain very appreciated and regretted by the whole of Mauritanian population. President Ould Daddah is reversed, in 1978, by a military junta which colonel Ould Haidalla directs quickly, himself reversed in 1984 by colonel Ould Taya. President Maaouiya Ould Taya was the subject of three recent coups d'etat (on June 8, 2003, August 9, 2004 and August 3, 2005).

 

The two first failed; The third, carried out by the Colonel ELY ould Mohamed diretor of  national security and Colonel Ould Abdel Aziz chief of the presidential guard, gave birth to a junta called Military council for justice and the democracy,

Who committed himself “creating the favorable conditions of an open and transparent democratic game about which the civil society and the political actors will have to come to a conclusion freely”.

 

It annexed one the southern third of the old Spanish Sahara (from now on it [[the Western Sahara]) in 1976 but it gave up it after three years of raids of the Polisario Face which asserted the sovereignty of this territory.

 

In 1991, the opposition parties were legalized and a new constitution was phased in. Since, three presidential elections multi-parties took place but are largely regarded as distorted; Mauritania thus remains actually a state with sole party.

 

In absence of the official reliable data, according to the world Factbook (the CIA), the various groups of populations were left again between 60%   mix Moors, 31% Moors and 33% of black moors.

The Moors tribes of the east of the countries, known as Arab in the local jargon, comprise an important interbreeding. Although a very great majority of population is of the rather African and not-Semitic origin but speaking Arabic, Mauritania belongs to the “Arab League”.

 

It seems that the acculturation of the populations living this territory produced by the Islamization and the teaching of Arabic led to a confusion of identity in the collective conscience of this young nation, confusion between on  one hand liturgical language and religious practices and on the other hand ethnic identity and ancestral traditions.

Slavery was officially abolished with four recoveries (the last time in 1980, with a mitigated success) but the racial segregations, tribal or castes remain there.

 

Mauritania attracted itself the anger of certain Arab countries by establishing a diplomatic relations with Israel, in a shy attempt at standardization and external opening (the country does not have any disagreement with Israel and even tries to forge a strategic alliance with the USA). This choice of foreign policy remains the least included/understood and more disputed by the public opinion of the country, always an “Islamic” republic.

 

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