Mauritania, that remote country in the far Arab and African West, has always been famous in the Arab imagination as the country of one million poets, while its people were known for their abundance of knowledge and good knowledge, while its lands were known as a vast desert that hardly sees another, but few of the sons of the Arab world know that the land of Mauritania gave birth to heroes who defended their soil and dignity against the French occupier, who was - and still seems - the sons of African Arabs to be second-class human beings who have no right to However, the sons of Chinguetti would not have accepted subordination to the French occupier easily.
Among these men emerged the star of Ould Imsika, who tasted the woes of the French for nearly three decades, and made in the imagination of Mauritanians the image of a popular hero who carried with him only his rifle and his camel traveling from valley to valley and from one bida to another indifferent to his day or tomorrow. How did they treat the people of the country there? How did Ould Imsika grow up in such a harsh environment? How did his life go in the struggle and confronting the occupier? That is what we will share with you in the following lines.
France and the occupation of Mauritania
Since the end of the seventeenth century, France has been in fierce competition against the Spaniards, Portuguese and English to win the areas of West Africa that were commercially and economically coveted, and was able to establish the colony of Saint-Louis in Senegal from an early period, as a springboard for neighboring countries and tribes to plunder and occupy it.
Xavier Kabulani
But France was forced to sign commercial treaties with the Mauritanians of the leaders of the Brakna and Trarza in 1821 in order to continue the gum trade between the two parties, and was also forced to pay large annual sums to the leaders of the Brakna tribe in southern and central Mauritania, and France's treaties with the Mauritanians in 1824, 1826, 1829, 1831, 1832 indicate the extent of its keenness to appease the Mauritanian tribes to provide protection for French merchants and explorers, and to prevent these tribes from raiding French trading centers, especially in their colonies south in and around Senegal. (1)
Indeed, throughout the nineteenth century, France did not stop sending expeditions to find out the internal conditions of the "Mauritanian" Beidan tribes, their areas of influence, ways to achieve peace and trade with them and, most importantly, how to subject them to French occupation in West Africa. In 1899, the Governor of French Sudan (present-day Mali), Xavier Kabulani, was tasked with negotiating with the Mauritanian tribes and Tuaregs, studying them from the French political and colonial point of view, and working to subjugate them peacefully. (2)
The Kabulani Commission submitted a report to the French government in March 1902 explaining that the cultural, intellectual and moral level of the Mauritanians exceeds that of North Africa, in addition to their attachment to their religion, primitive customs and social status, which reveals a civilization superior to that of the ancestors of the Europeans in the Middle Ages. With the help of some of the country's tribal leaders who thought that France wanted peaceful and commercial "cooperation" and unification of the tribes and the country, some issued a fatwa in favor of joining France in this endeavor, and Paris finally made its way into Mauritania in December 1902. (3)
France occupied the country in a more insidious and soft manner at first compared to its rough and military style that was very evident in North African countries such as Algeria, for example, and the French authorities were able to convince some Mauritanians to cooperate with them in achieving their colonial goals, and these were called "comyat", and in order to facilitate the task of full control over the country, it established a road construction company known to Mauritanians as "Samb Tali", and at the end of that decade, the first decade of the twentieth century, specifically in In 1908, Mohamed Ould Msika was born on the outskirts of Mathira in southwestern Mauritania, a city that hosted one of the French occupier's military bases when he entered the country from Senegal in the south.
He was born and oppressed France
Work was born Emsika in his youth as a shepherd of sheep, and as usual the people of Mauritania loved poetry, and poems of the Prophet, and met him with a good voice, became in the language of the people praise people in their joys and seasons to meet them with his poems and voice dewy, as met him qualities of strength of the body and structure and equestrian and carry weapons, became a poet praise delicate sense, and at the same time a strong knight does not shove him dust.
As soon as he grew up, he was fed up with the bad customs of the French occupier, which were contrary to the traditions of the Sahrawi Hassani community in his country, as well as the contempt of the French for his fellow citizens, before he saw this fact for himself when he joined as a "maniver" worker the French road construction company "Samb Tali", which was constructing the old road called "Palmir" connecting the city of Lekwarb (the southern city of Rosso on the border with Senegal today), and the city of Nouakchott, which later became the capital of the country.
Ould Imsika worked in this company as a porter for his strength and physique, but he saw injustice and the erosion of the rights of workers and people, sometimes by the French and by their Mauritanian collaborators at other times, thousands of workers worked under the forced labor system, and for this mistreatment people hid their children away from the hands of oppression, and yet the French were forcing the people of the country to work without mercy or pity. (4)
Ould Emsika
Ould Emkiya hated the grievances inflicted by the French occupier in his country, and decided to carry his gun and take the path of struggle in the fight against this occupier with his effort and effort, even if he was alone, and began to launch individual operations against the French and their collaborators "comites", and was able to change them many times and loot them weapons and money, and the circle of his movements was very wide ranging from the states between the suburbs of Nouakchott in the north to Rosso in the south, as well as in the eastern region of the country, but it was proven that he carried out operations against The French in the West, and his ability to move quickly and hide was amazing, so his biography quickly increased, and the people of Mauritania sympathized with him with all its tribes and ethnicities, as he consoled the weak and needy for the lack of what was in his hand in most cases. (5)
The legend of Emsika's son and its sad end!
The French revolted, and the orders came to arrest Ould Imsika by all means, so they allocated their "agents" to search for him and investigate his impact, and it happened that he was in a concert of the desert concerts and was clicking on the drum in that concert, however, he had disguised well did not know the French agents, but he knew them and realized their purpose and purpose, and after the end of the ceremony was able to kill many of them to increase the anger and anger of the French. (5)
At this turn, the French decided to entrust the task of getting rid of him to a Senegalese man named Moussa Bedi who was known for the accuracy of throwing, aiming and tracking the impact, and he was fierce and strong and does not shove his dust, and they promised him the greatest reward if he got rid of their enemy, and Moussa knew the Senegalese place of the boy Emsika, but the boy of Emsika knew his news, and stood for him on the road without Moses knowing him, and said to him, I will guide you to the boy of Emsika, and then took him to a remote place in the desert away from the city, so he removed the gun The Senegalese is at gunpoint, then robbed of his clothes and left naked, forcing him to go down to the city in this way to go crazy again, and their image collapses and they become the talk of the morning and evening in the country.
Remained born free stuns the French and their helpers, and in their hearts terror, and meets the people of Mauritania as a whole support, help and shelter, even if the summer of 1950 came hot after nearly three decades of struggle against the French occupier, the French monitored a huge reward to capture him this time, a reward drooled by a few of the weak souls of the owners of that fighter, headed by a person named Abdat and another named Sam, decided to agree with the French to hand them over.
While he was born Emsika one day preparing tea under a dune of sand – as usual – in the desert of the state of Brakna in the south of the country, when he saw two men coming, so he picked up his gun and took his position, when the two men approached exchanged with them peace and talk, and then demanded them to reveal themselves, they said to him how do you doubt your friends Sam and Abdat? He secured them a boy Emsika after they gave him documented by God not to tell anyone about him, so he began as usual to honor his guests, and hung his gun on a nearby tree and began to roast meat for his two friends, but Abdat remembered the French prize tempting exchange with his colleague Sam looks of betrayal and cunning, and the fighter was born Emsika meters away from them, so Abdat jumped to the gun of Ould Emsika hanging on the tree, and aimed at his host, who took the covenant and safety from him a while ago, killing him, and not only that, but cut off his head and carried him To the French governor in Aleg, the capital of the state of Brakna, where the grand prize awaits them, as they thought. (7)
Sam and Abdat carried the head of the great fighter to the French ruler, who as soon as he saw the head of Ould Imsika until he went crazy, and scolded them for killing him and cut his head, as the orders coming from Paris provided for his arrest alive, and soon the French commander ordered the arrest of the killers for violating the orders, and ordered to put them in prison, and they finally received the penalty of Sinmar for their act, and we have found in the Mauritanian folk novel that one of the friends of Ould Imsika saw him in a dream while singing:
Kol Elsam Akol Elabdat (Say to Sam and Slaves)
And the people who held me in hand( they arrested me)
About the day of the world Rah is past (the world is late)
We will meet them on the Day of Judgment (we will meet them on the Day of Resurrection)
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Sources