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" “Making a Way Out of No Way:' Haratin Muslims' Initiatives to Gain Respectability in Post-Emancipation Mauritania "
Esseissah, Khaled Mohamed
Hanson, John H
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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1052177
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| Doc. No
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TL51294
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| Main Entry
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Esseissah, Khaled Mohamed
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| Title & Author
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“Making a Way Out of No Way:' Haratin Muslims' Initiatives to Gain Respectability in Post-Emancipation Mauritania\ Esseissah, Khaled MohamedHanson, John H
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| College
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Indiana University
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| Date
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2019
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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2019
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| Note
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214 p.
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| Abstract
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This research concerns the social transformations associated with the abolition of slavery in Mauritania, with a focus on the recent history of the Harāṭīn community and its diaspora. The Harāṭīn diaspora originated and developed out of the trans-Saharan slave trade with the displacement of sub-Saharan populations across North and West African regions. In this work, I investigate the Muslim initiatives of Harāṭīn communities, including the performance of el-medh and mosque-building, in colonial and post-colonial Mauritania. It draws on Arabic materials, government documents, French writings, and oral interviews with a cross-section of Mauritanians to examine how Harāṭīn men and women negotiated their social and religious status as French rule (1902 through 1960) and slavery’s gradual abolition transformed Mauritanian society in the colonial and post-colonial eras. Harāṭīn Muslims lived in a world dominated by the Bīẓān, who define themselves as “white” and include Arabs, Berbers, and other tributary Saharan groups. Through cultural and entrepreneurial initiatives, including mosque-building and performing Sufi rituals, the Harāṭīn have asserted a shared Islamic identity with the Bīẓān. But these Muslim expressions have not been welcomed by most Bīẓān: Harāṭīn mosques have been destroyed, and Harāṭīn performance of el-medh has often been marginalized and treated as unrefined Sufi devotional music. My goal is to show how Harāṭīn socio-political actions have changed their status in northwest African hierarchies, and how el-medh and mosque-building reflect their investment in religious practices that strengthen their sense of community and cohesive group identity. By focusing on the contested processes of Harāṭīn mosque-building and the performance of el-medh, this dissertation illuminates the growth of Muslim consciousness among Harāṭīn Muslims and analyzes interconnections between religious practice and assertions of social equality. It also exposes tensions within Muslim beliefs and practices, as well as the overlap between social and religious struggles over power and authority in 20th-century Mauritania.
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| Descriptor
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Abolition of slavery
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African history
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Diaspora
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Mosques temples
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Muslims
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Hanson, John H
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Indiana University
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