[lg policy] Mauritania:Students clash over language policy

[Harold Schiffman]

MAURITANIA: Students clash over language policy
Tunde Fatunde
25 April 2010
Issue: 0052




Violence broke out on the campus of the University of Nouakchott, in
the Mauritanian capital, among students divided over the use of Arabic
and French as the country's common languages. University authorities
called in security agents to subdue the violence, which left several
students seriously wounded. This latest clash is a symptom of
ancestral mistrust and power struggles between Mauritanians of African
descent and those of Arabic origin An announcement by Mauritania's
Prime Minister, Moulaye Ould Mohammed Lagdaff, over the status of the
Arabic language provoked the clashes on the campus. At a ceremony to
celebrate the language, the Prime Minister declared that Mauritania
would soon introduce compulsory Arabic as the only official lingua
franca in the country.

His statement reactivated an ancestral quarrel that needed only a
spark to erupt among the university's students. At first, there were
sharp verbal disagreements and heated debates between students of
African descent, known as 'Negro-Mauritanians', and those of Arab
descent, called 'Arabo-Berbers'. The arguments later flared into
serious violence that police used teargas to control. The
Negro-Mauritanians insisted that the official use of French and Arabic
as the country's bilingual common languages should be retained. They
maintained that any attempt to impose Arabic as the only means of
official communication would be tantamount to internal colonisation
and domination.

"Our ancestors were brutalised and enslaved. We don't want to inherit
cultural oppression and linguistic humiliation. French should be
accorded the same status as Arabic," Ismaila Diop, a
Negro-Mauritanian, told an online local newspaper. But Arabo-Berber
students pointed out that the country's Constitution recognised Arabic
as the only official language. "Consequently, the Constitution must be
adhered to. Those who are clamouring for the co-existence of French
and Arabic as two official languages are agents of imperialism - and
we shall resist them," warned Mohamed Ould Soulaiman, an Arabo-Berber
student of Islamic Studies at the same university.

The current controversy over the use of both French and Arabic as
official means of communication is just one illustration of a long
struggle for power and control between two antagonistic communities.
The crisis of cultural and linguistic identities of the country dates
back to when Mauritania became part of the French empire as a
consequence of the 1884-85 Berlin Conference, which led to the
creation of African colonies by European powers.

Before the establishment of the colony of Mauritania the local
minority elite, which was mainly of Arab descent, imposed slavery on
the majority population of Africans. French colonial policy did not
interfere with this master-slave relationship. At independence in 1960
France handed over power to the Arabo-Berbers. This was to the
detriment of the Negro-Mauritanians, but they benefited from French
formal education and gradually established an intelligentsia who
wanted to assert its independence and competence. Encouraged by
French-speaking intellectuals in West Africa, the Negro-Mauritanians
insisted that French must have equal recognition and co-existence with
Arabic.

The Arabo-Berber students responded to the Prime Minister's
announcement as a 'wake-up call' to defend their supremacy against
students whose ancestors were slaves to their grandparents. It was
only a few years ago that Mauritania officially declared slavery as
illegal. National civil societies have appealed for calm and dialogue
to resolve the present dispute on the campus. The Independent Union of
Mauritanian Students released an online communiqué condemning the
Prime Minister's speech, and union leaders warned he should be held
responsible for inflaming emotions.

A notable declaration against the Prime Minister's statement came from
an 'Association of Concerned Citizens', whose membership of 100
comprised university teachers and influential professionals from both
public and private sectors.  They pleaded for restraint and moderation
from opinion leaders, religious authorities and trade unionists,
warning that inflammatory comments could lead to murderous
confrontations. Diplomatic sources said the President, Mohamed Ould
Abdel Aziz, intended to summon political and religious leaders to find
a solution to the language crisis.

 http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20100424181813316&mode=print


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