Haratin

Haratin, Arabic حراطين, DMG Haratin ( Pl; sing. m: حرطاني / Hartani. ), The black workers and descendants of slaves in the oases of the Western Sahara. Haratin live mainly in Mauritania, also in the Western Sahara in southern Morocco, Senegal, Algeria and Mali.

The term Haratin Folk etymology is derived from Horr, "free" or "free " and TNAN, "two" or Tani, " the Second ". He can be described as " the subsequently liberated " Compile and is used to differentiate from lighter-skinned Moors, the Beiḍān ("white ").

The Haratin are Arab, rare berbersprachig. In Mauritania, presented Haratin and other dark-skinned populations in the 1960s, 30 to 35 percent of the population. Even in Western Sahara they account for a high proportion of the population. The discrimination of Haratin in Mauritania is widespread. The origin of the Haratin is unclear. Haratin could be the descendants of black people that lived in the Sahara before the Sahara a desert was and before the Berbers came. Such historical derivation can not be proved. Maybe Haratin belong to the descendants of slaves from the southern West Africa in the big landscape Sudan.

In Morocco and Mauritania Haratin are often called the dark-skinned, engaged in agriculture the inhabitants of the oases. They would therefore, emerged from a mixture of Berbers and black Africans. However, such a geographic and ethnic demarcation does not consider the social classes that exist regardless of skin color. Haratin live throughout the area and can just as well be shepherds.

In some Moroccan traditions of oral tradition the Haratin the southeastern oases were the original inhabitants. Overall, this term is less common in Morocco; dark-skinned people are more likely than Ait Dra ( Berber ) or draoua (Arabic ), so called " people from the Wadi Dara ".

Haratin in Morocco are not to be confused with the Gnawa. Thus the members of a national Islamic Sufi order ( Tariqa ) call with black African roots, which are known for their music, dances and rituals obsession ( Derdeba ). As the Moroccan society has modernized and urbanized, the importance of ethnic and social class decreased by migration into the city and through intermarriage. In the up to the middle of the 20th century almost exclusively nomadic way of life in Mauritania, the division into social classes, however, is still present.