ABSTRACT
This chapter compares and contrasts the colonels' respective approaches to management of, and performance on, the most critical challenge Mauritania has faced throughout its existence as an independent nation, and singularly since the colonels have been in charge of its destiny. This challenge is what most Mauritanians refer to or known as 'the national question', or the difficult 'cohabitation' of the country's ethno-cultural communities. In addition to enacting a law criminalizing slavery and starting the process for the orderly return of refugees, for the first time, President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi officially acknowledged the 'passif humanitaire' and the need to resolve it for national reconciliation. The radicalization of the Haratines has resulted from the extremely slow progress in eradicating slavery and the perception that the state, singularly its judicial system and law enforcement agencies, is on the side of slave owners, certainly since the end of the Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi regime in 2008.
