- Colonization of Mauritania
- After studying the book containing information about Mauritania, I managed to gain much information about the country itself. The country has a total surface area of 1025520km2. The total population of people in Mauritania is approximately 3 million while most of the citizens reside in the capital city. Most parts of the country are in a desert land where the total water surface is 0.0km2 in a population of about 1000 people. Eighty percent of the northern part contributes to barren desert while only 20% of the country receives small-scale irrigation from the Senegal River.
- Sidiya Mohammed, 25 and a computer science major is a young man with an interest of studying in the United States after which to graduate within three years. He told me they are three brothers and two sisters in his family. He explained to me that he decided to study abroad especially in the United States for various reasons. The main reason for choosing the United States is the priority of education. He also illustrated that there the spaciousness of the American people contributed to his will in studying at this particular country. I asked Mohammed how the Americans react after meeting a foreigner for the first time. He replied that the Americans are good and friendly to visitors especially the first time.
- As the conversation proceeded, I managed to ask him about the meaning of colonization or dependency. He explained that colonization refers to a country that holds political and economic power over another. He said he was aware that the France colonized his country since year 1814. He explained that although his country got independence in 1960, it is still dependent on France. Mohammed indicated that his native language is Arabic. However, he manages to speak French.
- I asked him how he came to know English language and he quickly gave me the answer. He said that many people advised him to study English because of the benefits that the language has. He also said that people who are competent in English speaking from his home country has an advantage of securing employment when they return to their home country. He stated that apart from the English language, he is eligible to communicate in Spanish. He stated that his brother, who studied his Masters degree at one of the United Universities, played a significant role in helping him to get in the country. He explained that despite managing to achieve one of his targets in life of speaking English, he could like to learn more about the Spanish language and culture of the Spanish people. I asked him about whether there are words included in their native language and not present in English. He said that there are no such words that he could depict. I inquired to know whether by speaking various ethnic languages affect the way he sees and think about the world. He said that he was able to understand about different cultures and civilization of people that he is able to speak their language. He said that he has a couple of friends from America, France and Britain and all of them are because of the languages that he is to speak.
- I managed to ask Mohammed what it means to live in a country that is a former colony of France or is a dependency of France. He said that he had lived for two years in Morocco and experienced much about how colonization affected the country. He explained that two countries namely, France and Spain colonized Morocco and contributed to various negative impacts to the country. I asked him whether France influenced life in his country and he gave a profound answer arguing that he found himself relaxed a bit in his country. He added that he thank God that his country had not yet colonized another country. I also managed to ask Mohammed why he thinks that France colonized his home country and why it had power over it. On the same time, I asked him how he thinks about the effects that colonization or the dependency status had on his home country. Mohammed stated that colonization had contributed to a few positive issues in his country. Some of the few positive things that colonization brought include building of various infrastructures that benefited the society into some extinct.
- He said that most of the effects of colonization were negative that any country cannot recommend. He described the colonizers as armed robberies who used to control people by means of applying force. According to Mohammed, the disadvantages of colonization include exploitation of a country’s economic resources. The colonizers also contributed to the destruction of civilization and cultural heritage of a country. He also indicated that colonization brought to the imposition of the colonial culture that was not acceptable to the community.
- Conclusion
- Mauritania gained its independence on 1960 after being under the rule of French colonizers since year 1814. Most of the citizens in Mauritania were nomads while others practiced farming in the areas that the colonial government was not using. The country was a centre for most of the trading activities that took place at the end of the first millennium. According to the history of this country, the capital city known as Nouakchott was a tiny region located between St Louis and Port Etienne, currently referred to as Nouadhibu. The region is one of the main commercial centers in the country. The colonization of this country resulted in much suffering to the local people even after gaining independence (Knapman 24). The sufferings that most of the citizens experienced gave birth to ethnic clashes between the black Africans and the Arab communities. The clashes led to deportation of many black Africans in Senegal while others fled in Mali.
- Mauritania had a challenging moment of making necessary reforms after being under the colonial rule for many years. The reforms took place after the First World II, which later contributed to countries like Mauritania and Senegal gain independence. The presence of the slave trade and colonization made the country fail to develop in matters relating to social and political impact. There was a need for reforms in order to settle various problems like settlement of people. Areas that were income generating like in mining industry-needed reforms so that qualified expertise could be given the opportunity to offer reliable utility services. The reforms were of a significant importance to the people of Mauritania because they needed to enjoy their freedom and favors that come from the new government (Knop 15).
- Most of the Mauritius citizens were happy after they were free from the colonial rule. However, soon after experiencing some reforms, tensions developed between various communities in the country. Unfortunately, the government did not manage to control the tension that existed in the country. The tension resulted to war back in the year 1989. The war was between the black African communities and the Arab Berbers (Heinze & Fitzmaurice 120). The government of Mauritania was supporting Arab Berbers during the war. This led to killings of most black Africans by their counterparts, which made them free to the neighboring countries. The government of Mauritania sponsored major killings that led to many of the black Africa flashed out of the civil service and military jobs.
- The government of Mauritania comprises of ministries, special agencies and the parastatal companies. The ministries have the obligation of making sure that every regional has effective administrative governance (Bertocchi & Fabio 1853). The other role of the ministries is to make sure that all the regions in the whole country receive equal distribution of resources from the government. In order to accomplish this goal, the country has 13 regions known as “wilaya”.
- The special agencies in the country comprise bicameral legislature. One of the components in the legislature is the National Assembly. The citizens of Mauritius are eligible to hold national elections after every five years. The election of senate members takes place after every six years and only the councilors are have the right to participate in this election. Mauritania is one of the poorest countries in the world according to the ranking of United Nations.
- Works Cited
- Bertocchi Graziella and Fabio Canova, Did colonization matter for growth? An empirical
- exploration into the historical causes of Africa’s underdevelopment, European
- Economic Review, 46, 2001, p.1851-1871.
- Brown, David. Democracy, colonization and human capital in sub-saharian Africa, 2000,
- Studies in Comparative International Development, 35(1).
- Heinze, Eric, & Mark Fitzmaurice. Landmark cases in public international law. New York: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2008.
- Knapman, Michael. Coup in Mauritania as president, PM arrested(AFP). Journal of African
- History, 3.1 2008.
- Knop, Karen. Diversity and self-determination in international law. Journal of History, 4.2
- 2002, 14-32.
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