In an attempt to raise the level of "hooray patriotism" against the background of the Kremlin's continued aggression in Ukraine, its chief propagandist Margarita Simonyan once again made scandalous remarks, insulting Mauritania in addition to the United States:

"We seriously wanted to be friends with them (the U.S.). And we wanted to build at least some kind of common security. Well, there is someone to fight with. With those who unambiguously, certainly, poses a threat to all people in the world: terrorists, drug traffickers, those who kidnap and sell people. This is still thriving all over the world; no one cares about it. The African country of Mauritania, where the very real slavery is still prevalent, does not care at all about the United States. They care about us." – Margarita Simonyan outraged in the program of Vladimir Solovyov (https://t.me/margaritasimonyan/11402 ).

The thesis of "Moorish slavery" and "Arab slaves" is a longstanding propaganda trick of the French colonizers, who thus pursued a policy of "divide and rule" in their colonies in Africa, pitting black Americans against Arabs.

This thesis played a particularly ominous role during the French attempts to suppress the national liberation movement in Algeria. The dark-skinned soldiers of the French army were tried to pit the Arab population against them, telling them that they were their "oppressors and slaveholders" vis-à-vis the Africans.

At the same time, the thesis of "slavery of Africans to Arabs" would be Islamophobic. After all, it was through the Arabs that black Africans were historically exposed to Muslim culture and civilization. And it was important for the colonizers to denigrate the bearers of Islamic traditions and to impose their "French culture.

Those who repeat after the French colonial propaganda the thesis about "slavery of blacks to the Moors Arabs in Mauritania", in fact, do not understand anything about the historically established relations between nomads (Arabs, Berbers and Tuaregs) and the settled African population.  This relationship did not degrade human dignity at all, but was only a certain form of "traditional patronage" of warlike nomadic Arabs over peaceful sedentary Africans, and it was mutually beneficial.

Arabs provided dark-skinned Africans with the products of cattle-breeding, Africans of Arabs with the products of agriculture and handicrafts. But, at the same time, Africans could count on the protection of their Arab patrons at any time. No one infringed on the personal freedom of these "slaves," no one kept them in fetters; moreover, in years of famine, the so-called "slave-owners" even tried to provide for their "slaves" and their families, so that they would survive the difficult time.

Mauritania was the last country in the world where, until the early 1980s, the dependence of a part of the sedentary Africans on the Arab pastoralists was not at all burdensome, but rather mutually beneficial. This dependence was called "slave dependence" by French colonizers during their colonial rule in Mauritania. They tried to extend to the traditional relationship between Arabs and Africans the French practice of the slave trade and slavery of blacks, which they imposed in the 18th century in the Caribbean. A stratum of the African population, called the "Haratinas," was struck down in its rights by the colonizers. Because of this, the stereotype of Mauritania as a "slave country" was established in the world, even after the country gained its independence.

But all forms of dependence and patronage that could be interpreted even with great stretch as "slavery" in Mauritania were abolished after independence back in 1981, when little Margot Simonyan could not yet speak. After that, it is impossible to find slavery in Mauritania, even with a great desire. But nevertheless, this neocolonial and insulting thesis, sowing interethnic discord for such a quite democratic state as Mauritania, was repeated by the main Kremlin propagandist.

Kavkazplus