Senegal and Mauritania ethnic conflicts

Tags: ethnicity, nationalism, and conflict, mauritania, senegal

Large ethno national sentinent and conflict in 1989-1991, started with dispute of farmers, lead to large scale evictions of Mauritanians from Senegal and afro-Mauritanians from Mauritania

Colonial Experience

• Largely shifting borders before the French came in
• French created two states with the Senegal river as the dividing line
• Senegal considered “black”
• Mauritania considered for the “Moors”
• Created various ethnic regimes in Mauritania
  • Blacks in Mauritania were taxed as residents of Senegal
• Post colonial state powers in Mauritania are mostly held in the Moors

Setup

• Drought in the 70’s and 80’s pushed many into the Senegal river valley
• Resource scarcity and 1987 coup attempt in Mauritania lead to spreading tensions

Ethnopolitical Entrepneurs

• Arab nationalists within Mauritania
• Political powers in Senegal
• Land ownership reformers

What does this indicate?

• Premodern ethnic identification
• Modern nation state tensions
• Assumption of overlap of the political, territoria with the cultural