The Double Challenge of Education in the Haratin world (Slaves and former slaves in Mauritania) Social ideology and bad official will Communication presented by: Biram Dah ABEID E-mail: wagueye93@yahoo.fr Introduction I am myself a victim of the inequality of opportunities concerning access to education in my country, as I was able to start my graduate studies only ten years after my secondary studies. Here, I would like to draw from the experience of my community, but also from the spirit of the recommendations contained in the draft that I received, and modestly contribute to the effort of generating conclusions that can be the basis for the fulfillment of the right to education of minorities in the world. The definition and categorization of the concept of minority remains risky, and thus should still be open, given the different aspects that can take the expression of identity; I would try to take on this problem from the case of an identity or a class community that represents the Haratin in the Islamic republic of Mauritania. A – The Haratin: a class identity facing inner and hidden slavery in Africa. Firstly, I hasten to mention that this servile population shares the language, religion, and culture of the dominant Arab-Berber community despite some differences in the way of life, work tools, musical instruments, and folklore. It must also be underlined that the racial difference between the two groups is not systematic. However, the Haratins have acquired their identity in their historical, daily, and perpetual confrontation with the ideology and practice of slavery and a merciless caste system, a system whose spine is endogamy. In this system, Islam is the fuel and legitimization of this ideology, and many practices keep the Haratins in their roles of physical endurance, manual labor and labor in the sun, and that hold them carefully outside the educational system. B – The slave education Traditional enslavement and the slavery-like practices still persist in Mauritania in a climate of impunity and concealment maintained by the authorities of the country. From unofficial sources, we figure the number people born as slaves between 300 and 500 thousand. This against the categorical refusal by the state to authorize statistics or to conduct an official survey on the phenomenon. Indeed, according to the Mauritanian code of slavery, these slaves, like their ancestors, are born slaves. And like every good Muslim, to please god and be worthy of paradise, a slave must strictly obey the master, otherwise he is threatened with a curse and hell. Consequently, all domestic work, the care of livestock, and land work are the responsibility of the slave. Moreover, it is formally prohibited for the slave to learn to read or write, or to touch the holy book