Moctar Teyeb

About the author: Moctar Teyeb is the American coordinator for El Hor, a Mauritanian antislavery organization run by former slaves, and serves as the outreach director of the American Anti-Slavery Group, a grassroots organization that works to combat slavery around the world.

In Mauritania, slavery is a long-standing institutionalized social system. Black chattel slavery is thriving in Mauritania, where Arab slave owners (beydannes) control African slaves (haratines) by convincing them that serving their lighter-skinned masters is their religious duty. The international community must acknowledge that slavery exists in Mauritania and strive to abolish the practice.

Slavery is not history. From Bombay to Brazil, at least 27 million people are enslaved around the world, more than ever before. Westerners know about forced prostitution in Thailand and carpet-slave children in Asia, but few know that...