Mauritania

:Not to be confused with the ancient kingdom of Mauretania

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Main article: History of Mauritania

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From the 3rd to 7th centuries, the migration of Berber tribes from North Africa displaced the Bafours, the original inhabitants of present-day Mauritania and the ancestors of the Soninke. The Bafours were primarily agriculturalist, among the first Saharan people to abandon their historically nomadic lifestyle. With the gradual desiccation of the Sahara, they headed South. Following them came a migration of not only Central Saharans into West Africa, but Berbers and Arabs as well. By the Eleventh Century AD, the once small Bafour people had grown into a very large and wealthy Soninke empire - Ghana, which stretched from Mauritania into the neighboring states of Senegal and Mali. Likewise, in the North, the Arab-Berber population had achieved an impressive empire of their own, the territory of which stretched across the Mediterranean into Spain and Portugal. Local nomadic Berber tribes, on the other hand, though influential, remained largely without power, having been conquered by the Soninke.

Berber: The Berbers (also called Imazighen, "free men", singular Amazigh) are an ethnic group indigenous to Northwest Africa, speaking the Berber languages of the Afroasiatic family. There are between 14 and 25 million speakers of Berber languages in North Africa (see population estimation), principally con...

North Africa: North Africa is a region generally considered to include:...

Soninke: The Soninke (also called Sarakole, Seraculeh, or 'Serahuli) are a Mand? people who descend from the Bafour, and are closely related to the Imraguen of Mauritania. The Soninke were the founders of the ancient empire of Ghana, which was destroyed after repeated raids by both northern Muslim and neig...

Mauritania related Images and Photos (experimental)

Mauritania Colourful Fishing Boats on Shore at Plage Des Pecheurs Near the Capital of Nouakchott

Dromedary Caravan near Nouakchott Mauritania

Local People Travel the Road Between Nouadhibou and Mouackchott Mauritania