”I trust that God almighty will free my wife from the yoke of slavery,” says Cheikhna Ould Beilil, a middle-aged Mauritanian man, fighting back the tears. Ould Beilil’s story constitutes rare testimony to the continued practice of slavery in the northwest African Islamic republic, despite claims by President Maaouya Ould Taya’s government that it has all but been wiped out.