Representing the Nation Horizontally and Vertically

Abstract

This article retraces the parallel and contrasting developments of state formation and of citizenship in Mauritania, recasting the reflection on postcolonial and anthropological debates on citizenship and state and civil society. In this perspective, cultural, ethnic and even “racial” differences – such as the Arabs/Africans or White/Black peoples dichotomies – have alternatively been considered as a social resource for consolidating a postcolonial nation or a threat to social harmony and to political development. The article deconstructs both of these positions in order to show their common features in their tendency to reduce state and civil society relationships to a matter of “horizontal” interactions between social groups. The hypothesis is that these visions have historically played a depoliticizing role, hiding the “vertical” dimension of relationships between hegemonic governing elites and social groups that are economically and socially fragmented, hierarchized, and even discriminated against. The article proceeds in three steps. First, it shows the way in which issues of identity are highly sensitive in contemporary Mauritania, relying particularly on a recent case of ethnic discrimination during a census campaign. It then retraces the evolution of political and intellectual debates on identities in Mauritanian society, putting them in perspective with the evolution of political power or of the political interests and views of social and political actors. Finally, it relies on historical and ethnographic records about a particular social group (a pastoral Fulani lineage), which does not fit into usual ethnic categories and dichotomies, and by that ultimately shows the political value of discourses on identity.

Haratin activism in post-slavery Mauritania: Abolition, emancipation and the politics of identity

“…10 This includes not only the supersession of the Amazigh by the Arabic language but also the imposition of an Arabo-centric Islamic historiography that excludes the history of earlier populations indigenous to the Western Sahara (Freire 2011) and supports the superiority of groups who claim genealogical links to the Arabian Peninsula and the early Muslim community. 11 This dual representation of 'white' nomads and 'black' sedentary agriculturalists (with each group settled in its respective 'ecological habitat') that developed with French colonial policies is not fully adequate, however (Ciavolella 2014). The Bīḍān also relied on oasis agriculture (although they assigned this work exclusively to slaves and Ḥarāṭīn), and some Halpulaaren groups traditionally practised nomadic pastoralism as well.…”

“…On the other hand, 160,000 Mauritanian nationals were also expelled from Senegal. See also Fresia (2009) and Ciavolella (2014). 35 An especially heinous event took place on Mauritania's national Independence Day on 29 November 1991, at the prison of Inal, a remote village located in the Dakhlet Nouadhibou region of northwestern Mauritania.…”