Mauritania's justifications for giving up Arabization
Mauritania, Politics, 4/12/1999

In statements he made to reporters on Friday, the leader of the Mauritanian opposition, Ahmad Ould Dada, apologized to talk at the meantime as he was "not yet briefed about the draft plan, concerning giving up Arabization process in the country."

The Mauritanian authorities justified the plan in a statement made by the minister of information who said that, "Education in the country has achieved good results during the past ten years concerning enrollment rate, but there were certain shortcomings in the increasing costs of multi-class systems, while students' education level is especially deteriorating in scientific subjects and foreign languages.

Analysts view the decision as having foreign and local political implications. They expect that the decision will change the political map, as sought by the authorities. Analysts say the alliance rallied under the opposition parties front will not agree on a common united stand, a matter which put Ould Dada in an embarrassing situation.

Ould Dada himself has been calling during the past few years to stop "random Arabization," when Mauritania was divided between him and President Mu'ayeh Ould al-Taye, on the grounds of the "identity," as proclaimed by Ould al-Taye's supporters.

Ould al-Taye was then defending the rights of the "oppressed blacks," who formed one of his main pillars. In the meantime, Ould Dada leads an alliance including the Labor Party for Change, under which the blacks who split from the opposition leader together with al-Harratin (brown Arabs whose origins go back to the slavery era) are rallied, but they keep a sort of alliance with Ould Dada in the framework of the "parties front."

The Labor Party for Change will not oppose giving up Arabization. Among the front's parties are the Progressive People's Alliance, which is a Nasserite party, and the National Vanguard, which is a Baathist party. Both parties will very strongly oppose the decision to give up Arabization.

Ould Dada's party, the Democratic Forces Federation, has blacks as members but has a majority of Islamists and Nasserites. It is difficult, therefore for the Nasserites of Ould Dada who are usually linked to slogans as such "Arabization will be made by blood and fire" to accept the decision of the government in abrogating Arabization.

However, returning to the French language, which is combined with normalizing relations with Israel, constitutes an effort that targets improving the image of the Mauritanian regime in the eyes of the West, especially as the "educational reform" did not forget the English language, which has become compulsory as from the first preparatory class.

Previous Stories:
  Mauritania gives up Arabization   (4/9/1999)
  Mauritanian opposition leader renews call to investigate Israeli waste   (4/2/1999)
  Morocco deplores Mauritanian official's statements on Sahara   (3/26/1999)

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