Boulkheir Launches Campaign for Change

The Moor Next Door blog has a comprehensive account of internal dynamics behind Mauritania’s upcoming elections. Focusing on presidential candidate Messoud Boulkheir, the article follows his slave origins and Obamaesque rise to the Mauritanian political landscape. His supporters–elites, white Moors, and Haratines (Arabophone black Mauritanians descended from slaves)–admire his emphasis on social justice and commitment to all Mauritanians. Despite being an election “kingmaker” in 2007, Boulkhier now runs a “transformative” campaign calling for change and democracy.

Although popular, Boulkheir is not expected to win: “[t]he political playing field in Mauritania is not level. While social and political mobility is certainly possible (and Boulkheir is not the first fellow with a profile like this), it is limited tremendously by disparities in wealth, tribal politics and the power of the military… it remains too true in Mauritania that who controls the garrisons controls the capital.”