Fascinating people, fascinating places.

G'd a and welcome to the Dan Mainwearing podcast.

This is where we talk to and about the famous and the infamous,

the celebrated and the obscure, the well-known and the

well-known, the well-known and the undiscovered.

Interviews, articles and discussion from around the globe. Moratania, one of Africa's largest, yet least talked about countries, holds a dark secret, slavery.

While slavery in various forms continues to exist around the world,

in Mauritania, it's on a massive scale,

having been woven into the very fabric of society.

In fact, the loavesen practice was only criminalized 15 years ago.

But whereas the Emancipation Proclamation and subsequent events in the United States led to the visible liberation of millions of people.

The new law in Mauritania had no such effect.

Indeed, the government quickly moved on from criminalizing the trade, to claiming there were no slaves in the country.

Those suggesting otherwise risked harassment and arrest, while the practitioners of the trade were left largely

undisturbed. But the situation is starting to improve, in part because of the work of organizations such as Anti-Slavery International, an entity founded in 1837 and designed to bring an end to the Atlantic slave trade.

Almost 200 years later, despite much success, the group's work is not done as Emma Kane,

program quality and impact manager, explained to me.

Despite the success of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade,

we've been fighting slavery, which has been for everyone everywhere always. It's about

fighting for freedom from slavery for everyone everywhere always. It's about making sure that we stamp it out completely.

With regard to Mauritania, they're the biggest issue is slavery by descent.

That's right.

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