I just recently read about "old" slavery issues in Mauritania in the book, Disposable People, by Kevin Bale. It was a fantastic book and very enlightening. I do think however that the way the book presented the political situation led me to believe that holding elections was not going to be possible for another few decades(granted the revised version was published 5 years ago and political transitions in Africa abruptly change).

Slavery was abolished in this country in 1981, but it was so socially conditioned it was impossible for a slave to break out and survive. Now that the election front-runners are ex-slaves, maybe the situation will change there.

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