Out of Africa

A lot of black Americans hold some resentment toward Africans because our ancestors sold their ancestors into slavery 200 or so years ago. A lot of Africans cannot relate to racism or the culture slavery created for their American counterparts because none of that is a part of our narrative.

While slavery may not be part of many African narratives, for the people of Mauritania slavery is still very real part of their country’s cultural narrative.

One of my classmates posted this blog, which looks at how slavery in Mauritania is comparable to to slavery in the American South. It is an internalized institution where about 40 percent of the country are slaves. There an ingrained mentality of ownership that many of us imagined dissolved years ago …