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Goxoxol in Mauritania
Continuing my All 55 African countries project, I came to another stand-still: Mauritania. What happened to Mauritainian artists? I couldn't find any, apart from 2 pop singers. Mauritania is mostly desert, more than 90%, it is also an Islamic country and it is not a democracy. Just about 20 years ago most of the population was nomadic. They seem to be settling down now but I'm not even sure they do it for the right reasons. Such a country could not be an art haven and I could not find one Mauritanian visual artist to post here. May be war is not the major reasonn for art not to grow, after all. May be poverty and culture play a vital role too.
To make up for the absent artist, I am including an amazing photo by Goxoxol, a 58 year basque man who has taken a few pictures of Mauritania. Thank you for showing a bit of such a withdrawn and mysterious country. I must say that I won't give up, despite all this, the quest to find a Mauritanian artist.
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I wasn't happy with this entry, so I kept on the search. Here's what I found:
Mauritania is one of the poorest countries in the world where most people are illiterate and many are nomads.
Mauritania does not live in a democracy.
Slavery was officially banned in 1981 (!)
Mauritania is an Islamic country but it has diplomatic ties with Israel and has been an ally of the U.S. on the "war on terror". Some say the crackdown on Islamists is nothing but the repression of the opposition.
During the Middle Ages, Mauritania was the center of the Almoravid Empire that for a while controlled parts of the Iberian Peninsula.
Those golden days seem to be long gone...