Beidane or Bidān, also spelled Baydan or Beydan (Arabic: بيضان), is an Arabic term[note 1] used in Mauritania to refer to lighter-skinned or white Moors, in contrast to the term Haratine, which refers to those with a darker complexion or black moors. The beidane, who are of mixed Arab and Berber ancestry, represent 30% of Mauritania's population.[1][2] 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 Beydane 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 medieval 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 used by Italians and other Europeans to the north. The term largely fell out of use after the Middle Ages.[citation needed]
The Beidane people comprise roughly 30 percent of the population,[3] making them the largest ethnic minority. Haratines (Black Moors) make up roughly 40 percent of the population and constitute the ethnic plurality.[3] (The remaining 30 percent are "Sub-Saharan Mauritanians," according to the 2023 CIA World Factbook entry on Mauritania.[3])
Within Mauritanian society, there remains minority of 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.[4]
Since there is no ethnicity data on the Mauritanian census, the government has reported[when?] 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 Haratines would distance themselves from the term as they consider themselves a separate ethnic group.[5]
During French colonial occupation of Mauritania, It was declared that France would help put an end to the continued use of slavery in 1905.[6] The colonial power however, neglected to enforce such a decree and it was officially outlawed in 1981, making It the last nation in the world to make such a law.[6] However, the nation has a long and extensive history of enslavement, with the Beidane (White Moor) peoples historically ruling over the black moor population.[6]
According to the Unrepresented Nations and People Organization (UNPO), Mauritania passed a 2007 law that criminalized the possession of slaves as well as making special provisions and rules for the payment of slaves via their masters.[7] This law however, did not deter the owning and trading of slaves in Mauritania, and in an independent report from a United Nations independent expert, Gulnara Shahinian (the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery), she states "There are all forms of slavery in Mauritania. There is child labour, domestic labour, child marriages and human trafficking."[8] and she estimates that roughly 18 percent of Mauritania's current population of around 3.5 million people are enslaved as of 2009[8]
While slavery has been abolished by law, many Mauritanians, specifically the Haratine majority, 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.[9]