Sean Tenner heads the campaign management organization KNI Communications in Chicago and serves leadership roles in several nonprofit organizations. As a co-founder of the Abolition Institute, Sean Tenner contributes to the fight against human slavery in Mauritania, West Africa.
Not officially criminalized in Mauritania until 2007, the practice of human slavery remains alive in that country. Although global news outlets have reported widely on this issue, the Mauritania government has long denied that slavery exists within the country’s borders.
However, Mauritania has shown glimmers of promise in human rights since its first peaceful transfer of executive power in 2019. At the end of the 2019 presidential election, minister of defense Mohamed Ould Ghazouani replaced his close colleague Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and then surprised the world by allowing the parliament to investigate corruption under the former administration. Since taking charge, Ghazouani has broached race relations and other areas that impact slavery in Mauritania. He also has met with anti-slavery leaders, and perhaps most significantly, admitted that slavery still exists in the country.
Despite these improvements, Ghazouani continues to downplay the prevalence of slavery in Mauritania, and his administration has done little to stop the practice. In the words of local anti-slavery advocate Salimata Lam, “nothing has changed fundamentally.”
