Book 146: Mauritania (French) – Yessar: de l’esclavage à la citoyenneté = Yessar: from slavery to citizenship (Ahmed YEDALY)

In the part of Mauritania where I was born and where I grew up, there were several forms of “acquisition” of slaves: inheritance, cession or purchase, in exactly the same way as for camels or sheep.

These three ways of appropriation, in the Moorish society of the time, were “legalised” and treated in very different manners according to the social status and activity of their masters.

Generally, they could claim their freedom, either by their master’s will, which made them Haratines (free men), by desertion, along with the concomitant risks, or, more recently, by the application of State laws forbidding slavery and the exploitation of man by man.

 

[from the author’s Prologue; my translation]

 

I suppose the title says it all; Yessar is on a journey from bondage to freedom, as is his country Mauritania. It is based on the life of a real person known to the author. Mauritania is sadly one of the few countries left where slavery is still an accepted part of society.

From his birth Yessar realises that he’s different to others – he has ‘masters’. However his father has managed to free himself, and Yessar is determined to do the same not only for himself but for his entire family. He studies the Shari’a (Islamic law) and succeeds in making money for his masters by teaching. Eventually he reaches a high position in now independent Mauritania.

Slaves do have rights under the Shari’a. They can work for their freedom, but is it possible to escape 100%? They are still subject to obligations to their former masters, such as from business ties. The latter have difficulty in changing their opinions about ex-slaves (for example, still expecting them to do things for them).

On the whole, this novel was a fascinating look into slavery in an Islamic society, as well as some other issues (social change, gaining independence from colonial [French] rule, the tensions between the Arabic north and the African south of the country, and the war with the much more powerful Morocco. A lot of the functioning of slavery was new and intriguing to someone mainly familiar with its very different operation in the US.

Yessar (and the man he was based on) was an extraordinary man and not typical of the experience of slaves there. The ship of slavery in Mauritania does have holes, but not everyone escapes it, even today.

YEDALY, Ahmed, Yessar: de l’esclavage à la citoyenneté, Roissy-en-Brie France, Editions Cultures Croisées, 2007, ISBN 2-913059-31-7