Харатин: Этническая группа и социальная история в Магрибе и Сахеле.

Ethnic group in Africa
the wool based stuffing

The Haratin (حراطين, singular Ḥarṭānī), also spelled Haratine or Harratin, are an ethnic group found in western Sahel and southwestern Maghreb. The Haratin are mostly found in modern Mauritania (where they form a plurality), Morocco, Western Sahara, and Algeria. In Tunisia and Libya, they are referred to as Shwashin (Chouachin, Chouachine; singular: Shwashin, Chouchan). The Haratin speak Maghrebi Arabic dialects as well as various Berber languages. They have traditionally been characterized as the descendants of former Sub Saharan slaves. They form the single largest defined ethnolinguistic group in Mauritania where they account for 40% of the population (~1.5 million). In parts of Arab Berber Maghreb, they are sometimes referred to as a "socially distinct class of workers". The Haratin have been, and still commonly are socially isolated in some Maghrebi countries, living in segregated, Haratin only ghettos. They are commonly perceived as an endogamous group of former slaves or descendants of slaves. Traditionally, many Haratin have held occupations in agriculture – as serfs, herdsmen, and indentured workers. This word is absent from the Arabic language and has been used by the Sanhaja tribe and Zenata tribe before the arrival of the Beni Ḥassān. Others claim it comes from the Arabic phrase al Hurr al Thani or second class (second group of free people). Neither of these claims have much proof. In Mauritania, however, where there are nearly 1.5 million Haratin, they have developed a separate sense of ethnic identity. They have historically inherited their slave status and family occupation, have been endogamous, and socially segregated. They became a common target of mandatory conscription by the Moroccan ruler Sultan Ismail Ibn Sharif (himself having a Haratin mother) as he sought to build a military that had no social or cultural attachment to any other Arab or Berber group in Maghreb. He conscripted the majority of able bodied male Haratin and 'Abid that were present in Morocco at the time. This army was then commonly coerced into a series of wars in order to consolidate Ibn Sharif's power.

In Mauritania, the Haratin form one of the largest ethnic groups and account for as much as 40% of the Mauritanians. They are sometimes referred to as "Black Moors", in contrast to Beidane, or "White Moors". The Haratin of Mauritania also primarily spoke Hassaniya Arabic. The Haratin of Mauritania, according to anthropologist Joseph Hellweg, who specializes in West African studies, were historically part of a social caste like hierarchy that likely developed from a Bedouin legacy between the 14th and 16th century. The "Hassan" monopolized the occupations related to war and politics, the "Zwaya" (Zawaya) the religious roles, the "Bidan" (White Moors) owned property and held slaves (Haratins, Black Moors). Each of these were immovable castes, endogamous, with hereditary occupations and where the upper strata collected tribute (horma) from the lower strata of Mauritanian society, considered them socially inferior, and denied them the right to own land or weapons thereby creating a socio economically closed system. In 1981, Mauritania officially abolished slavery. However, even after the formalities, abolishment, and new laws, discrimination against Haratin is still widespread, and many continue to be, for all practical purposes, enslaved, while large numbers live in other forms of informal dependence on their former masters. Amnesty International reported that in 1994, 90,000 Haratine still lived as "property" of their master, with the report indicating that "slavery in Mauritania is most dominant within the traditional upper class of the Moors." According to Mauritanian officials, any master serf relationship is mutually consensual. This position has been questioned by the United Nations and human rights advocacy groups. Haratin have been the slave strata of the Moroccan society through its recorded history. The Moroccan Haritin, states Chouki El Hamel, a professor of history specializing in African Studies, are the diaspora of black West Africans who were forcefully transported across the Sahara and sold in Moroccan slave markets over centuries. They absorbed the "Arabo centric values in the dominant interpretation of Islam", states El Hamel, over the generations and they see themselves as Muslim Moroccans, rather than by their ethnic or native group. Yet, there has been a general lack of historical records about their origins and ethnography, leading to several constructed proposals, and their mention in older Moroccan literature is generally limited to their status as slaves and more focused on the rights on their owners. It is their contemporary economic and social marginalization that has awakened renewed interest in their history and their oral histories. The Haratins historically lived segregated from the main society, in a rural isolation. The social stratification of Haratin and their inter relationships with others members of the society varied by valley and oasis, but whether the Haratins were technically 'unfreed, semi freed, or freed' slaves, they were considered as "inferior" by other strata of the society. The Haratin remain a marginalized population of Morocco, just like other similar groups around the world.

According to Human Rights Watch, Morocco alleges that slavery is widespread in the Sahrawi refugee camps run by the Polisario Front in southwestern Algeria; Polisario denies this and claims to have eradicated slavery through awareness campaigns. A 2009 investigative report by Human Rights Watch interviewed some dark skinned Sahrawi people, who are a small minority in the camps; they stated that some "blacks" are "owned" by "whites", but this ownership is manifested only in "granting" marriage rights to girls. In other words, a dark skinned girl must have an approval from her "master". Without this, the marriage cannot be performed by a qadi.

In the Algerian Sahara, the Haratin, who were marginalized by France during colonization, experienced social and political progress after the country's independence. This integration had started during the war of liberation; a discourse of emancipation and the absence of state racism, which constitutes a tradition of Algerian nationalism, had succeeded in mobilizing this social category. Social success through education allowed the former Haratin to be represented in local communities and to access the most influential positions.