Beidane
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Beidane or Bidān, also spelled Baydan or Beydan (), is an Arabic term used in
Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...
to refer to lighter-skinned or "white
Moors The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a s ...
", in contrast to the term Haratine, which refers to those with a darker complexion or "black Moors". The Beidane, who are of mixed
Arab Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
and
Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
ancestry, represent 30% of
Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...
's population. The language of the Beidane is
Hassaniya Arabic Hassaniya Arabic (; also known as , , , , and Maure) is a variety of Maghrebi Arabic spoken by Mauritanian Arabs, Malian Arabs and the Sahrawis. It was spoken by the Beni Ḥassān Bedouin tribes of Yemeni origin who extended their authority o ...
. Al-Bidān (which literally translates to "Land of the whites") is an
endonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...
used within Mauritania and
Western Sahara Western Sahara is a territorial dispute, disputed territory in Maghreb, North-western Africa. It has a surface area of . Approximately 30% of the territory () is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 70% is ...
by the Bidān people to refer to themselves. The name used by outsiders to refer to the Beydane is Moors from which the country of Mauritania derives its name from the Latin designation of their inhabitants (Mauri) as the Bidan form the majority of the population. "Moor" is not the term for a specific ethnic group, but rather the term used by the European Christians in reference to the Arab populations that hailed from
North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...
in the
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period and took control of parts of
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,
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,
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,
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, and the southern part of
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. Another term used in reference to Arabs at this time was "
Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Rom ...
". This was largely used to refer to the peoples of the entire Arab Islamic empire, mostly by
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and other
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to the north. The term largely fell out of use after the Middle Ages.


Societal hierarchy

The Beidane people comprise roughly 30 percent of the population, making them the largest ethnic minority. Haratines (Black Moors) make up roughly 40 percent of the population and constitute the ethnic plurality. The remaining 30 percent are "Sub-Saharan Mauritanians," according to the 2023
CIA World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print ve ...
entry on Mauritania. Within Mauritanian society, there remains minority control of the country, with the Beidane (white Moors) controlling the national economy as well as a significant majority of the state including but not limited to the government, military, and the police force. Since there is no ethnicity data on the Mauritanian census, the government has reported that the majority of the population (the 70% consisting of Beidane and Haratine peoples) as ''Maure,'' which means "speaker of
Hassaniya Arabic Hassaniya Arabic (; also known as , , , , and Maure) is a variety of Maghrebi Arabic spoken by Mauritanian Arabs, Malian Arabs and the Sahrawis. It was spoken by the Beni Ḥassān Bedouin tribes of Yemeni origin who extended their authority o ...
." However, while most Beidane peoples would associate themselves with the term, the majority of Haratines would distance themselves from the term as they consider themselves a separate ethnic group. Haratines are almost exclusively of black African origin, but are closely aligned with the Moorish population in terms of language and culture. According to
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"they have lost virtually every aspect of their African origins except their skin color." Their Moorish culture and their language are the result of generations of enslavement. They are thus referred to as "black Moors" to differentiate them from the "white Moors" who enslaved them, and from black Mauritanians who have not been enslaved by the Moors.


Slavery

The nation has a long and extensive history of enslavement and racial slavery, with the Beidane or "white Moor" peoples historically ruling over the "black Moor" population. During French
colonial rule Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an imperialist project, colonialism can also take ...
of Mauritania, France declared in 1905 that it would put an end to slavery in the country. The colonial power however, neglected to enforce such a decree and it was only officially outlawed in 1981, making it the last nation in the world to make such a law.


Continued Slavery in the Modern Era

According to the Unrepresented Nations and People Organization (UNPO), Mauritania passed a 2007 law that criminalized the possession of slaves as well as making special provisions and rules for the payment of slaves via their masters. This law, however, did not deter the owning and trading of slaves in Mauritania, and in an independent report from a United Nations independent expert, Gulnara Shahinian (the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery), she states "There are all forms of slavery in Mauritania. There is child labor, domestic labor, child marriages and human trafficking." She estimates that roughly 18 percent of Mauritania's current population of around 3.5 million people are enslaved as of 2009. While slavery has officially been abolished by law in 1981, many Mauritanians, specifically the Haratine plurality, remain stuck in a "slave limbo" similar to
indentured servitude Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract called an " indenture", may be entered voluntarily for a prepaid lump sum, as payment for some good or s ...
, where they continue to be socio-economically dependent on the Beidane "masters" due to their position within the societal hierarchy.


References


Notes


See also

{{see also, Sahrawi people Maghreb Human skin color Ethnic groups in North Africa Arabic words and phrases