Crisis of nationalism in Mauritania

The frequent brutality of the Mauritanian response to the events of April 1989, and the obvious gravity of the problem from the perspective of most black Mauritanians, particularly the Halpulaar-en, can only be understood as a crisis of national proportions involving nothing less than the definition of the Mauritanian state. The first section examines linguistic, ethnic, and cultural policy as it most directly impinges on the peoples of the Senegal River basin. The following two sections examine land policy which came to prominence because the Sahelian drought severely decreased the productive capacity of the rest of the state and this, along with declines in revenues from the mining sector, has drastically decreased Mauritania's export earnings and increased its import needs. This has focused Mauritanian government policy on the remaining potentially arable land; the Senegal River basin, whose lands, inconveniently from some perspectives, have long been fully claimed. A final section is intended as a contribution toward a resolution of the crisis, phrased as recommendations to donor agencies and the Mauritanian state. -from Authors