Here we have a new country in the first few years of independence. There was reason to hope, there was a new capital, a new industry was coming online, they had taken the name of an ancient empire, and like an ancient empire they had additional territorial ambitions. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
I do like the delicate French style coloring of this stamp. The Barbary sheep is still numerous in Mauritania and the Maghreb. It’s natural predators are the Barbary Lion and Barbary Leopard which are extinct or near extinct. So it’s main threat now is man. I joked above about how the sheep feel about the country’s change. Perhaps there is room to worry, a group of Barbary Sheep is called an anger.
Todays stamp is issue A13, a three Franc stamp issued by the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in 1961. It was a 15 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used with what appears to be an actual postal cancellation.
This area on the West African coast south of Morocco took the name of the old Carthage/Roman era empire, see https://the-philatelist.com/2020/10/29/algeria-1952-french-algeria-remembers-cherchell-when-it-was-a-roman-mauretanian-empire-under-juba-ii-and-cleopatra/ . There is no overlap in territory or tribe with the old entity. During the French colonial period the area went undeveloped as it was viewed as a buffer between Arab Morocco and the more important French African colony of Senegal. The area’s population was mainly nomadic Arab tribesmen.
In the runup to independence, work was done on nation building. A new capital named Nouakchott was laid out and constructed assuming 15,000 people. A large iron ore deposit was discovered and infastructure was put in place to mine it and get it exported. Moktar Daddah, the first Mauritanian to hold a University degree, was chosen by the French as the leader in the hope he could hold together a coalition of the ethnic groups.
Not everything went smoothly but there was a flurry of progress. Daddah did indeed hold together his coalition by banning political opposition. The iron ore mine came on stream in 1962. In addition to French aid, China and Saudi Arabia stepped up with aid. Spain was nearing the end of it’s time in the Spanish Sahara and Daddah worked out a plan to divide it with Morocco.
The problems soon began to mount. The new southern capital attracted many Africans willing to live the city life. Thus the nomadic Arab tribesman resented the powers of the government as they seemed foreign. The mine required 3000 expatriates to run it. The salaries that were paid to the expatriates so dwarfed local wages that the mine attracted the ire of the counties leftists. Attempting to occupy territory in the Spanish Sahara brought conflict with the well armed POLISARIO, that wanted to turn the area into another independent country, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/08/02/saharaui-semi-nation-on-the-other-side-of-the-wall-of-course-with-stamps/ .
Daddah worked hard to keep things moving forward. He nationalized the mine and replaced the Franc with a local currency. He announced an effort toward more Islamic national institutions to placate the Nomadic Arab tribesmen.
Daddah had a long run but it was not meant to be. Coronels from the Army, tired of the northern war, mutinyed and forced Daddah from office and into jail. Daddah eventually was able to depart for Paris where he had earlier studied. If he had held out longer, perhaps the country would have turned enough to what he was trying to build. The country is now much less nomadic with the capital, remember it was designed for 15,000, now having over a million people. Even the best of leaders would have struggled with that level of growth.
Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait till tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.