Mauritania
Continent: AfricaCapital: Nouakchott
Abolition Date:Finally criminalized in August 2007.
Start Date: 1441:Start of European slave trading in Africa. The Portuguese captains Antão Gonçalves and Nuno Tristão capture 12 Africans in Cabo Branco (modern Mauritania) and take them to Portugal as slaves.
Currency: Ouguiya
Languages Spoken: Hassaniya Arabic (official), Pulaar, Soninke, French, Wolof
Population: As estimated in late 2006, is 3,069,000.
National Anthem: Mauritania
Finally criminalized in August 2007. It was already abolished in 1980 though it was still affecting the descendants of black Africans abducted into slavery before generations, who live now in Mauritania as "black Moors" or haratin and who partially still serve the "white Moors", or bidhan, as slaves.
The number of slaves in the country was not known exactly, but is was estimated to be up to 600,000 men, women and children, or 20% of the population.
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