Ending Slavery: Hierarchy, Dependency and Gender in Central Mauritania

Abstract

"Ending Slavery" offers insights into the "how" of practices of slavery that persist in parts of Mauritania up to the present day. It brings to the light the gendered structures of Moorish slavery, and examines their impact on strategies and tactics designed to bring this institution to an end. Underlying this study is empirical data gathered during two periods of field research in rural central Mauritania. The analysis of life histories of slaves and freed slaves, but also of tributaries and free Moors plays a key role in the book.