Beidane or Bidān, also spelled Baydan or Beydan (), is an Arabic term meaning 'white' used in Mauritania to refer to lighter-skinned or "white Moors", in contrast to the term Haratin, which refers to those with a darker complexion or "black Moors". The Beidane, who are of mixed Arabs and Berbers ancestry, represent 30% of Mauritania's population.
The language of the Beidane is Hassaniya Arabic. Al-Bidān (which literally translates to "Land of the whites") is an endonym used within Mauritania and Western Sahara by the Bidān people to refer to themselves. The name used by outsiders to refer to the Beidane is Moors from which the country of Mauritania derives its name from the Latin designation of their inhabitants (Mauri) as the Bidan form the majority of the population."Moor" is not the term for a specific ethnic group, but rather the term used by the European Christians in reference to the Arab populations that hailed from North Africa in the Middle Ages period and took control of parts of Malta, Sicily, Portugal, Spain, and the southern part of France. Another term used in reference to Arabs at this time was "Saracen". This was largely used to refer to the peoples of the entire Arab Islamic empire, mostly by Italians and other Europeans to the north. The term largely fell out of use after the Middle Ages.
Within Mauritanian society, there remains minority control of the country, with the Beidane (white Moors) controlling the national economy as well as a significant majority of the state including but not limited to the government, military, and the police force.
Since there is no ethnicity data on the Mauritanian census, the government has reported that the majority of the population (the 70% consisting of Beidane and Haratine peoples) as Maure, which means "speaker of Hassaniya Arabic." However, while most Beidane peoples would associate themselves with the term, the majority of Haratin would distance themselves from the term as they consider themselves a separate ethnic group. Haratines are almost exclusively of black African origin, but are closely aligned with the Moorish population in terms of language and culture. According to Amnesty International "they have lost virtually every aspect of their African origins except their skin color." Their Moorish culture and their language are the result of generations of enslavement. They are thus referred to as "black Moors" to differentiate them from the "white Moors" who enslaved them, and from black Mauritanians who have not been enslaved by the Moors.
During French colonial rule of Mauritania, France declared in 1905 that it would put an end to slavery in the country. The colonial power however, neglected to enforce such a decree and it was only officially outlawed in 1981, making it the last nation in the world to make such a law.
While slavery has officially been abolished by law in 1981, many Mauritanians, specifically the Haratin plurality, remain stuck in a "slave limbo" similar to indentured servitude, where they continue to be socio-economically dependent on the Beidane "masters" due to their position within the societal hierarchy.
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