Portal:Mauritania/Featured article

Featured article 1

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The Mali Empire or Manding Empire or Manden Kurufa (ߡߊ߲߬ߘߋ߲߬ ߞߙߎߝߓߊ) was a West African empire of the Mandinka from c. 1230 to c. 1600. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa I. The Mali Empire had many profound cultural influences on West Africa, allowing the spread of its language, laws and customs along the Niger River. The Mali empire extended over a large area and consisted of numerous vassal kingdoms and provinces.

The Mali Empire grew out of an area referred to by its contemporary inhabitants as Manden. Manden, named for its inhabitants the Mandinka (initially Manden’ka with “ka” meaning people of), comprised most of present-day northern Guinea and southern Mali. The empire was originally established as a federation of Mandinka tribes called the Manden Kurufa (literally Manden Federation), but it later became an empire ruling millions of people from nearly every ethnic group in West Africa.

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The Sahara (Arabic: الصحراء الكبرى, aṣ-ṣaḥrā´ al-kubra, "The Greatest Desert") is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometres (3,500,000 sq mi), it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe. The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean. To the south, it is delimited by the Sahel: a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna that comprises the northern region of central and western Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Sahara has an intermittent history that may go back as much as 3 million years. Some of the sand dunes can reach 180 metres (600 ft) in height. The name comes from the Arabic word for desert: (صَحراء), "ṣaḥrā´" (; [sˤɑħrɑːʔ]).

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Located in the Sahelian and Saharan zones, Mauritania has one of the poorest agricultural bases in West Africa. Most important to the rural economy has been the livestock subsector. Between 1975 and 1980, herding engaged up to 70 percent of the population, and sedentary farmers constituted about 20 percent of the population. The vast majority of the population lived in the southern one-third of the country, where rainfall levels were high enough to sustain cattle herding. Farming was restricted to the narrow band along the Senegal River where rainfall of up to 600 millimeters per year and annual river flooding sustained crop production as well as large cattle herds. In the dry northern two-thirds of the country, herding was limited to widely scattered pastoral groups that raised camels, sheep, and goats, and farming was restricted to date palms and minuscule plots around oases.

A major reason for Mauritania's economic stagnation since the mid-1970s has been the decline of its rural sector. Government planners neglected both herding and farming until the 1980s, concentrating instead on development in the modern sector. The rural sector was severely affected by droughts from 1968 through 1973 and from 1983 through 1985, and it has suffered from sporadic dry spells in other years. In the 1960s, livestock and crop production together provided 35 to 45 percent of GDP (at constant 1982 prices). From 1970 to 1986, their contribution to GDP (at constant 1982 prices) averaged 28 percent, with herding accounting for about 20 percent of this figure and with crop production falling to as low as 3 to 5 percent in the worst drought years. Millet and sorghum production reached 10,000 and 75,000 tons, respectively, in 1999. Other crop production in 1999 included paddy rice, 102,000 tons; and corn, 8,000 tons. Date production was 22,000 tons in 1999.

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The Emirate of Trarza was a precolonial state in what is today southwest Mauritania, which has survived as a traditional confederation of semi-nomadic peoples to the present day. Its name is shared with the modern Region of Trarza. The population, a mixture of Berber tribes, were later conquered by Hassaniya Arabic speakers from the north. Europeans called these people Moors/Maures, and thus have titled this group the Trarza Moors.

Trarza, founded in the midst of the final wars between the local Berber Bedouins and the Arab conquerors of the Maghrib, was a semi-nomadic state led by a Muslim prince, or Emir. Trarza was one of three powerful emirates controlling the northwest bank of the Senegal river from the 17th to the 19th centuries CE: the Trarza, the Emirate of Brakna, and the Emirate of Tagant.

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Portal:Mauritania/Featured article/5 The Mauritania–Senegal Border War was a conflict fought between the West African countries of Mauritania and Senegal during 1989–1991. The conflict began around disputes over the two countries' River Senegal border and grazing rights, and resulted in the rupture of diplomatic relations between the two countries for several years, the creation of thousands of refugees from both sides, as well as having a significant impact on domestic Senegalese politics.

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