Young Mauritanians find haven in online life

2008-12-04

In Mauritania, more young people use the internet every day. Some say it is to escape social constraints. Others find the love of their life while surfing the web.

By Mohamed Yahya Ould Abdel Wedoud for Magharebia in Nouakchott – 04/12/08

[Mohamed Yahya Ould Abdel Wedoud] For many Mauritanians, the internet provides a venue for social interaction unavailable in everyday life.

The internet has become increasingly popular in Mauritania in recent years. Observers say its users are multiplying, especially amongst the young.

To the casual observer, internet cafes appear to have doubled in number across Nouakchott and other cities within a short period of time. Customers crowd into them at every hour of the day.

Traditions and society restrictions, observers and users said, may have caused this increase. Young Mauritanians escape those restrictions through creating cyber lives.

"The internet community is a delightful community," said Ahmed Ould Taleb, "one in which all differences disappear and where freedom and equality have the upper hand." Ould Taleb talked to Magharebia from behind a computer screen in an internet café.

"It is a democratic society that accepts all ideas, feelings, and suggestions," he said about the internet. "It knows no discrimination or racism. Therefore, youth should not be asked why they hit the cyber café."

As in many other Arab and Muslim countries, traditions in Mauritania restrict mixed-gender friendships. Therefore, young Mauritanians turn to the internet for compensation, said internet cafes owners. Ahmed Salem Ould Ali, 28, believes this is true.

"Among the reasons that spurred me to look for peers on the internet are the many and diverse redlines in the Mauritanian, if not Maghreb, community as a whole," he said. "We sometimes feel that our identities as individuals are society-dependant. Things thus get mixed up and freedoms, the most precious thing we have, are stifled."

Zeinab said she too spends the night surfing the web. Her conservative family does not allow her to go out with friends at night; one of the parents has to escort her. So, she turns the computer on.

"Loneliness at home triggered me to look for some company, even if it is virtual," she said.

Therefore, chat engines like Skype or Yahoo! Messenger are very popular, as well as social networking websites like Facebook.

Many schools in Nouakchott are surrounded by internet cafes. Vadel Ould Hamidou, owner of a cyber café, said that his place is packed with school kids every day.

"Dozens of young people, aged between 15 and 25, visit our café daily. They often purchase 90-minute periods on the net." He said that he heard that some of his customers skip classes to make time for their "online dates."

Sometimes the internet delivers happy stories.

"I am practically addicted to Skype," said internet café owner Havedh Ould Sidi Ahmed, 25. "This is where I got to know my partner and the girl of my dreams a year ago. We both now recall those beautiful memories."

Internet World Stats, a website that monitors internet usage around the globe, estimates there are 30,000 current internet users in Mauritania, out of a population of more than three million people. Although Mauritania has the smallest population of internet users among Maghreb countries, the number shows a 0.9% penetration; a 500% growth since 2000.

"Demand for home subscriptions has increased substantially," a source at Mauritel, the only internet provider in the country, told Magharebia. "We receive numerous requests each day from all social classes. Internet access is no longer restricted to the affluent. Everyone is now equal, and prices are quite affordable."