For Immediate Release: November 25, 2019
Press Contact:
-Saidou Wane, 513-429-0573 saidouwane@hotmail.com
-Hawa Sall 443-983-2568. sallha@ucmail.uc.edu
-Houleye Sall 443-854-5114 shouley3@gmail.com
-Abdoulaye Sow 513-341-7093 sow212@gmail.com
Mauritanian Genocide Survivors, Former Political Prisoners, and Awa Harouna to Speak at Freedom Center on November 25
Cincinnati, OH – The Mauritanian community in greater Cincinnati, in collaboration with Mauritanian Network for Human Rights, Muritani Min Njejjittaa, African Immigrant Relief, and US-Mauritanian Diaspora present “The 30th Anniversary of the Mauritanian Genocide” on November 25 from 4 to 8pm at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
Ohio is home to the largest population of Mauritanians in the U.S. Come learn from the people who survived genocide and other atrocities and settled in this state.
WHO: Mauritanian community in greater Cincinnati in collaboration with Mauritanian Network for Human Rights, Muritani Min Njejjittaa, African Immigrant Relief and US-Mauritanian Diaspora
WHAT: “The 30th Anniversary of the Genocide” to Remember Victims of Ethnic Cleansing in Mauritania
WHEN: 4-8pm ET, November 25th, 2019
WHERE: National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (50 E. Freedom Way, Cincinnati OH 45202)
Speakers include Dr. Mamadou Sy, a Mauritanian refugee deported to Senegal during the genocide, Awa Harouna (Appeared on Netflix TV series “Living Undocumented”) and survivors of the notorious Walata prison. Awa Harouna, the daughter of Amadou Sow, who was featured on the Netflix documentary series “Living Undocumented,” will also speak. Footage from actual refugee camps will be shown, and action items will be presented. More info and RSVP here. The event is free and open to the public.
About:
For decades the government of Mauritania in northwest Africa, inspired by an Arab Nationalists’ agenda, has tried to reduce the number of Black Mauritanians in its country through several discriminatory practices. In 1989, over a hundred thousand Black Mauritanians were deported to Senegal and Mali. More than five hundred civilians and servicemen were killed between 1987 and 1990.
On November 28, 1990, the country’s Independence Day, the Mauritanian government executed 28 Black soldiers to commemorate the country’s “freedom.” To now, justice has never been served for the massacre’s victims or widows, and Mauritania continues to abuse its Black citizens with international impunity.
Earlier this year, the Freedom Center hosted “Community Conversations: US Deportations and Modern-Day Slavery in Mauritania.”
Sponsored by the Mauritanian community in greater Cincinnati, Mauritanian Network for Human Rights, Muritani Min Njejjittaa, African Immigrant Relief, US-Mauritanian Diaspora, and Cincinnati Compass.
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