Haratin: Biram Dah Abeid Emerges As Main Rival In Presidential Election
The upcoming presidential election in Mauritania, scheduled for 21 June 2014, has brought the issues of slavery and racism to the headlines, with anti-slavery activist Mr. Biram Dah Abeid emerging as the main rival to current president Mr. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. However, despite the fact that Mr. Abeid has gained large-scale support, some boycotts by a part of his supporters might be organized because of irregularities expected to take place during the elections.
Bellow is an article published by La Libre.be:
At the age of 49, Biram Dah Abeid certainly is the main rival to the outgoing Mauritanian president, ex-general Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz who gained power after a coup-d’Etat in 2008, in the upcoming presidential elections of June 21st, 2014.
Son of a freed slave, Biram Dah Abeid is running for the elections on behalf of the 20 to 30% of the 3.5 million slave-descendent Mauritanians, recognizable by their names and victims of discrimination, and on behalf of the 20% of Mauritanians who are still in a situation of contemporary slavery.
Mauritania is indeed the country that counts the most enslaved people: around 600.000 individuals, mainly women and children, can be sold, are deprived of the access to education. Their lives completely depend on their master’s decisions, according to the anti-slavery activist.
Biram Dah Abeid has for a long time advocated against slavery within organizations before creating his own political party in 2013, Radicaux pour une Action Globale (RAG). This party was not recognized by the Mauritanian government, - dominated by Arab-Berbers although they account for a third of the Mauritanian population -, and could not therefore participate to the legislative elections of November 2013 which ineluctably resulted in an overwhelming majority of the presidential party.
A part of the Mauritanian opposition is intending to boycott the presidential polls of June due to expected irregularities. Except for the candidate defending slaves. “We know that the president and his entourage will use all means, the authority and the State money to conduct their election campaign”, Biram Dah Abeid explains to La Libre Belgique during a telephone interview.
“Last Wednesday[11 June 2014], the country’s businessmen pledged an oath to the president during a gala organized at the Congress Palace. We don’t have access to this type of financial means, but my candidature benefits from the general middle and intellectual classes’ enthusiasm, as well as the support of Negro-Mauritanians and enslaved people who are victims of blatant racial discrimination”. Those less well-off individuals have funded a campaign entitled the ‘Candidate of Rupture’, because Biram Dah Abeid is “the one who personifies the difference with this system, this political, religious and ideological conformism to the traditional domineering society”, he explains.
Until now, “the political competition has always opposed parties coming from the same pro-slavery community which support the continuation of the feudal system”. These parties also stand for the conservation of the Mauritanian version of the Sharia called l’Abrégé, dated back to the 9th century. Contrary to the Koran, this interpretation of Sharia law justifies the enslavement of any Black person, - including Muslims -, and thus “legitimizes inequalities between Whites and Blacks, as well as the inferior status of women”.
Mr. Abeid and his colleagues from his NGO publicly burnt specific excerpts of the Mauritanian Sharia book in 2012, which led to judicial proceedings for apostasy, infringement to Islamic precepts and State security. The Mauritanian president and imams, who “in Mauritania, are all from the Arab-Berber community” according to Mr. Abeid, demanded the death penalty for Mr. Abeid and members of his NGO. However, slavery descendants massively gathered in the streets for months, threatening to revolt in case of their condemnation. It subsequently resulted in their [conditional] release.
Mr. Abeid is aware of the personal danger he is exposed to while running for the presidential elections. However, he wants to “call the international community to witness” of the “capacity to monopolize power and national economy of a minority devoid of democratic and demographic legitimacy. The current government will struggle to win these elections without getting its fingers burnt”, he predicts.
Videos of his campaign show how Biram Abeid is applauded by his sympathizers, including Arab-Berbers, when he evokes a “Democratic Mauritania” which could, by tomorrow, “be rid of slavery and racism” and allow ”fraternal relations between ethnicities”.
