Is climate change abolishing descent-based slavery in Mauritania?

ABSTRACT

Climate change, environmental degradation, and descent-based slavery are prevailing issues in Mauritania. The relationship between the three phenomena has rarely elicited investigation, in part due to the perception that chattel slavery is an institution of the past. Despite being the last country in the world to decree its abolition in 1981, Mauritania is alleged to have one of the highest incidences of slavery in the world today. This study explores the nexus between climate change and slavery in Mauritania. The paper seeks to elucidate how the environmental interactions of the Sahel have transformed slavery’s manifestation in this multiethnic northwest African republic for more than a millennium. The author contributes to the rich literature on slavery in Mauritania by arguing that in the twenty-first century, the nexus converges on the issue of development, and that the prevalence of slavery degrades the country’s precarious environment and contributes to its underdevelopment.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• Mauritania
• slavery
• Africa
• environmental degradation
• human security

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 K. Esseissah, personal communication, December 15, 2018.

2 Ely, personal communication, September 2018.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Darryl L. Jones

Darryl L. Jones II is a social scientist, historian, and scholar of African Studies. His varied research interests have explored the nexus of climate change, environmental degradation, and human security in the Sahel, and Black existentialism and notions of being. Darryl holds a PhD and MA in African Studies from Howard University and the University of Ghana, respectively, and a BS in Business Administration from the International University of Monaco.