Messaoud Ould Boulkheir

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Messaoud Ould Boulkheir (born 1943, Fara El Kitane) is a former slave, and the first Haratine to become a political leader in Mauritania. He is the founder of El-Hor ('the free') or the Organization for the Emancipation of Haratine. Messaoud contributed to the abolition of slavery in Mauritania and is the first Haratine to join the government despite numerous difficulties presented to him. He is said to have been profoundly inspired by what had been done to his slave mother. Messaoud also contributed significantly to the end of the 1989 events in Mauritania, protecting the right of the victims and the emancipation of the Haratine in Mauritania with his party.^[1]

Presently, Boulkheir is President of the People's Progressive Alliance, and he has been President of the National Assembly of Mauritania since April 2007.

Contents 1 Summary 2 Family and childhood 2.1 Family history 2.2 Childhood years 3 Early career 3.1 Administrative career and positions 4 Political parties and achievements 5 Presidential campaign 6 References

[edit] Summary

Messaoud Ould Boulkheir is from a Haratine family. The Haratine (Black Arabs) are the slaves of the Beydhan (in Arabic: white Arabs). Ould Boulkheir is the first Haratine leader to become a great politician and to get the highest governmental position in Mauritania. The country is ran mostly by the Beydhan, while the majority of the population belong to the Haratines. Messaoud, a former Mauritanian slave, is fighting for the abolition of slavery in Mauritania and the emancipation of the Haratine.^[2]

[edit] Family and childhood

[edit] Family history

Messaoud Ould Boulkheir was born around 1943; the date is unclear because at that time the birth registration service was unknown. Messaoud is born at Fara el Kitane, located in Nema, south-eastern Mauritania. He is from the Sudan, a known territory for the exchange and trade of slaves. Messaoud’s parents were slaves, captured by the Beydhan. The Haratine have the same culture and civilization as their masters, the Beydhan for example in language (hassaniya: Arabic dialect), manner of living (nomadic) and even manner of dressing. Messaoud’s parents were their slaves but were living independently because they were not directly dependent on their masters. Like most Haratine at that time, his family was subsisted on agriculture, cattle farm and picking fruits. His father also hunted.

Messaoud family was not too large as like other Haratine families. It was composed of his father, mother, elder sister and three brothers of whom Messaoud was the second. Messaoud was also living with his two grandmothers (paternal and maternal), one maternal uncle who was older than his mother and one paternal aunt who was younger than his father. The Messaoud Family was living under a black tent with some domestic animals (sheep and goats). The family of Messaoud ould Boulkheir was near-rebels because they were not submissive like other Haratine to their master. The masters of Messaoud’s family were called “Ahel Taleb Ethmane community”. Messaoud mother had a poor master (a woman) inside the Ahel Taleb Ethmane community. Her master and family were so poor that their cousin (in the Ehel Taleb Ethmane community which is the same family) was not considering them. Messaoud’s mother was taking care of them by feeding and dressing them like their social class (masters).

Messaoud’s mother had taken care of the family until the older sister of her master got married by the Chief of the Ahel Taleb Community. Messaoud’s mother thought that the queen of the community would help her. In contrast to what she thought, the queen of the community was jealous of her and was helping her cousins who ignored her when her family was in a difficult situation. One night, the queen of the community sent her cousin to the Messaoud ould Boulkheir family tent to destroy it and to beat her mother. The queen’s cousins had burned the Messaoud ould Boulkheir tent, destroying everything, took her jewelries and beat Messaoud’s mother until thinking that she was dead. They left the place with a lot of blood and fire. After surviving this event, Messaoud’s mother went directly with her dress covered with blood, to the French colonial administration in Nema to complain. Generally, the colonial administration does not take any part of the problems of the slaves with their masters. After the colonial administrator saw her covered with blood and harmed, they decided to help her. The colonial administration asked for the restitution and reimbursement of all of the things the masters had destroyed and taken and to freed Messaoud’s mother and her family. They suggested that Messaoud’s mother to stay in the city of Nema to avoid this kind of attack. But she refused because she wanted to live in her community and to be respected there. The Messaoud family became the first Haratine family in Mauritania to become free and to live equally in the same community as their ancient masters the Beydhan. Messaoud’s mother died in October 1953. ^[1]

[edit] Childhood years

Messaoud Ould Boulkheir started his primary school in 1950. At that time every family was obligated send one of their sons or daughters to school. Most of the Beydhan did not want to send their children to school because they thought that the French schools were giving their children a Catholic education. Mauritanian people are very conservative and Islamic. Messaoud was sent to a French school because the Ahel Taleb Ethmane family (the masters of the Messaoud family) did not want to send their children to school. It was an obligation to send at least one child in each family. The Ahel Taleb Ethmane family preferred to send one of their slave’s sons who were Messaoud ould Boulkheir. Messaoud’s mother complained and refused, but a woman of the city, who had been to French school, advised her that it was a good idea to send him to school. Messaoud became the first of the Ahel Taleb Ethmane family to go to school. Messaoud left the community to go to the city (Nema) to study; he was living with his community correspondent in Nema who was a woman from another community who was unkind to him. Messaoud missed a lot the love and the protection of his mother and family. Messaoud changed his correspondent to find love and protection from another correspondent. Messaoud was a good student in his primary school. However, the teachers of his school were beating the pupils dangerously. That motivated Messaoud to take his studies seriously. But the death of his parents affected him a lot during his primary studies because no one was there to support him. After these events, Messaoud decided to not trust in ALLAH the Greatest (ALLAH forgives him) until 1967 when he was 24 years old he restarted trusting in ALLAH the Greatest. Messaoud ould Boulkheir obtained his primary studies certificate in 1956. He started his secondary studies in 1957 at the “College Xavier Coppolani” (Secondary school) in Rosso in the southwest of Mauritania. Messaoud did not study there for a long time because with the freedom of the secondary school, he was missing many classes to profit of what he did not get in his primary school. He failed his first secondary year and in 1960 he was dismissed from the school. Messaoud assumed his dismiss but he is sure that if he was a Beydhan, he would not have been dismissed. At the same time that he was dismissed Messaoud lost his only older sister who was struck under their tent. His older sister had been taking care of the family after the death of Messaoud’s parents. She left her two young daughters (three and one years old). With all these problems, shame, deception and humiliation, Messaoud was lost and he even thought about ending his life to run away from these difficult situations. Messaoud did not even know how he overcame this situation with his dismissal from school, which was a synonym to death for him. After these events, Messaoud was alone without anybody; he realized that his only solution was to fight for his right or to perish. Messaoud was too young at that time and he knew that the only way that he could achieve his goals was to have trust and to impose himself in the society. To achieve that Messaoud needed to be very serious, efficient, honest, and right and to overcome all the difficulties in his life. Messaoud is a former slave who wants to affront the Beydhan in the society; this was the most difficult thing for Messaoud. Messaoud’s favorite hobbies were to read and to listen to the radio. In 1958, he was a benevolent secretary of the “Cercle of Nema” (colonial administration). Messaoud was in charge of registering mailings, typing the non-confidential mails. In December 1959, there was a national competition to recruit secretaries of administration. However, the minimum age for the competition was eighteen years old. Messaoud participated with the help of the commandant of the colonial administration of Nema as he was not old enough.^[1]

[edit] Early career

[edit] Administrative career and positions

In 1960, Messaoud Ould Boulkheir was admitted and transferred to Atar the region the most dangerous city and populated by the Beydhan in majority who were exploiting, capturing and selling Haratines (slave). Messaoud was happy about his competition and scared to go to Atar. In July 1960, Messaoud arrived at Atar; he met the commandant of the colonial administrator who was at that time French. A few months later, Mauritania gained its independence from France in November 1960. The colonial administration became administrated by the Beydhan or the negro-Africans (Fulani, Soninke, and Wolof). Messaoud came under the direction of the Beydhan because they were directing the ancient colonial administration. The new administrators made things difficult for Messaoud but Messaoud was very courageous and had a strong character. That is why in 1962 he was transferred to Boghe and Aleg in the south of the country until 1968. Then, Messaoud moved to Aioun el atrouss from 1968 to 1969. He also was transferred to Tichit in 1969 to 1970; Messaoud suffered many difficulties because he was Haratine who was working in the administrations run by the Beydhan who made things difficult for him because he was too young. From 1964 to 1965 he did an internship to promote his level to redactor of Administration, in which he was the major. Five years later he was transferred to Maghama and Gorgol in which he was under the direction of his internship classmate who was a Beydhan. After a long fight for the right to have a good position, the government sent him as a chief of district of Temessoumitt in the department of Moundjeria which was not populated and was without water. This shows the discrimination and the injustice of the Beydhan government for Messaoud a former slave. Messaoud was obliged to live in the main city of Moundjeria due to water problems; he had some problems with the administrator of that department. After being informed of the conflict between Messaoud and his boss, the government decided to transfer him to Ouadane in Adrar in the desert. Ouadane was better than Temessoumitt because the region was more populated. In April 1975, Messaoud was contacted by the Interior Minister, to come to Nouakchott (administrative capital of Mauritania) for a professional formation of cities administrator in which he would be promoted to City Administrator. In Nouakchott, Messaoud heard that there was another national competition for the Public Administration Certificate that was more efficient than City administrator. Messaoud decided to do the two competitions at the same time but he needed the permission of the interior minister. The interior minister contacted Messaoud and told him that he could not do the two competitions at the same time because he did think that Messaoud would not succeed due to the fact that Messaoud was a Haratine. Messaoud told the minister that he could do it and the minister decided that if Messaoud failed the public administration certificate he would no longer work in the government; the minister requested a signed letter from Messaoud. Messaoud agreed to the contract and knew that he was taking a huge risk. Four months later, Messaoud was the third of his promotion for the public administration certificate and the first of the professional formation for city administrator. After the results of the competition, Messaoud was promoted Assistant of the governor of Nouakchott in charge of administrative cases. Three months later, Messaoud was promoted Executive Administrator of Rosso (in the south of Mauritania). In 1981, Messaoud was nominated the governor of Gorgol and Guidimakha (regions) for four years. In 1984, Messaoud the first Haratine entered in the Mauritanian government as minister of rural development.^{[3] [1]}

[edit] Political parties and achievements

Beginning in 1962, Messaoud has started fighting against slavery and the emancipation of the Haratine in Mauritania. Messaoud in his fights again slavery was influenced by the inequality problems in the United States and South Africa. While Messaoud was preparing his Public Administration certificate, he met other Haratines at ENA (National School of Administration) who wanted to fight for their emancipation. In 1978, they created the secret organization “El HOR” which means Organization for the emancipation of Haratine. The creation of this party contributed a lot for the Haratines in Mauritania because a lot of Haratines joined the party. The party was protecting the right of the Haratine by creating small unit of agents in the organization who would stop the trade and the mistreating of the Haratines by the Beydhanes. EL-HOR created a revolution in the country which leads in 1981 to the abolition of slavery in Mauritania. EL HOR was growing and becoming very powerful that is why in 1989 it became officially recognize with Messaoud as leader. They were part of the municipal election in 1989 and they supported the negro-Africans during the 1989 civil war between the Beydhan and the negro-Africans. The government created a lot of problems for the EL HOR party by arresting and torturing its leaders, that is why in 1990 Messaoud created the FUDC (United democratic forces for change). He participated in the creation of UFD (United democratic forces) in 1992 which regrouped all political leaders (Beydhan, Haratine, and negro-Africans) but Messaoud left the party because the leader was a Beydhan. In 1995, he created his own party called AC (action for changes) which regrouped Haratine into a majority. AC was dissolved by the government because of the truth they were telling to the Mauritanians about the government and its membership growth because the Haratines compose about fifty percent of Mauritanian population. Messaoud ended by creating the People's Progressive Alliance (APP), his current political party.^{[4] [5]}

[edit] Presidential campaign

Boulkheir was a candidate in the presidential election of November 7, 2003, taking fourth place with about 5% of the vote.^[6] On November 8, together with the opposition candidates Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla and Ahmed Ould Daddah, he alleged fraud and urged the people to reject the results.^[7]

Following the ouster of President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya in 2005, on January 20, 2007 Boulkheir announced his candidacy in the March 2007 presidential election.^[8][9] In the election, held on March 11, he came in fourth place, receiving 9.79% of the vote.^[10] On March 19, he backed Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi for the second round,^[11] despite the fact that he was part of the Coalition of the Forces for Democratic Change along with the other second round candidate, Ahmed Ould Daddah.^[12] Abdallahi won the election, and on April 26, 2007, Boulkheir was elected president of the National Assembly, with 91 votes out of 93 deputies present.^[13]

On September 2, 2007, Boulkheir said that the APP would not join a new party being formed to support Abdallahi,^[14] criticizing this by saying it would harm pluralism and be a move back to a single-party dominant system.^[15]

[edit] References