Mauritania Local Customs

- Be open-minded. Time does not exist.

- Program your trip but be ready to change plans often, because the sea is too high, because it´s raining too much, because there are sand storms, whatever.

- Any time is good to drink a tea and have a rest (even if you haven´t done anything in the whole day), laying on the floor and tell stories or just be silent.
Suddenly, your guide will disappear and will come back some hours later. He will have gone in search of family, or friends, or friends´ friends,... among the nomads in the jaimas even if they are some kilometers around, and see if they invite him for tea. If you´re lucky he´ll take you with him, and you´ll see how splendid they are.

- Magic opens doors. If you can make some good magic tricks, and if you can speak basic words in arabic, you will be loved and wanted anywhere.

- If someone invites you to have a meal at his home, you´re supposed to eat with your right hand. It´s very difficult but funny. They still do it (not in restaurants, or modern families). You have to make a small ball with the rice (or cus cus, but most of the times they eat rice) and throw it if you can to your mouth. I was completely unable and left everything surrounded by food, but practise makes one wise.

- Women in Mauritania are very much valued, as they have the power to give children, which is one of the few obligations they have.

They have the right to be the only wife, and the same right to ask for divorce as the husband (following Quran´s precepts). Even more, it is said that a woman gets more and more valuable with every divorce that she has. And when she does, it is the man who leaves the house, children, and everything for her.
This girl in the left is a child from the village of Terjit, a small one where we could meet and try to speak to the women and see how they were making cous cous (I mean the grains) with flour and a little of water, rubbing it with the right hand in circles against a straw plate, once and once again. And as it takes a lot of time, women take advantage of it and gather together at one of the huts and drink tea and speak while they work. And we were so lucky as they were there and received us very very well with the children and started to make jokes among us, about marrying one of them with one of the boys I was with. It was really funny. After that, we played with the about 20 children there and they took a big plate and started playing music and sing. So Tender!!!. After some time later, when we were dating for that night to come back again to keep on singing, the teacher of the village came and throw us out of the village (we ALL were having too much good time)and end of the story. We didn´t want them to have problems and stayed at the oasis near it, green and leafy, among the Mauránidas mountains, with even a fantastic large puddle (not always with much water but to be there it is enough) refreshing the opressive weather surrounding it, helped by the amount of palm trees there were. It is ofter compared to the story of the 'Thousand and one nights'(I don´t know if it is so in english). Highly recommended!!

Mauritania Local Customs

Visiting Mauritania?

Visiting Mauritania?