A Columbus-based group of West Africans marched at the Ohio Statehouse Thursday to protest social injustices in their native Mauritania.More than 3,000 Mauritanians live in Columbus, said Idi Idrissa, a spokesman for the Mauritanian Refugees, who organized the march. The Mauritanian government has exiled thousands of blacks and enslaved countless others, she said.”The purpose of the march is to let Americans and Congress know what is going on in Mauritania,” Idrissa said.According to Mamadou Ly, a Mauritanian who attended the march, there have been problems between blacks and the Arab-controlled government ever since Mauritania’s inception.”When the government came to power in 1984, they had a goal: to eliminate the black community of Mauritania, one way or another,” Ly said.According to Ly, in 1989, the Mauritanian government began deporting blacks who had wealth, education or power in the government. Most of the estimated 200,000 exiled people were forced into refugee camps and still live in Senegal and Mali, countries that border Mauritania. A few refugees received political asylum in the United States.Idrissa said she is hopeful that the protest will gain attention so that some day the refugees will be able to return to their home country. “If no one said anything about it, the problem would not get solved,” Ly said. “That’s why we are here.”He added that the government of Mauritania refuses to recognize the refugees as citizens of Mauritania and that their citizenship papers were confiscated before they were deported, which leaves them with no proof of being native-born Mauritanians.According to a 1998 report by the U.S. Department of State, “Mauritanians continue to suffer the effects and consequences of generations of the practice of slavery,” but that whether a widespread system still exists is disputed. The State Department report also states that the Mauritanian government’s human rights record remained poor. The 1997 reelection of President Maaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya, who has governed since 1984, was widely regarded as fraudulent.Nida Niang, a Mauritanian living in Columbus, said he experienced discrimination in Mauritania when he tried to work for their Justice Department. Niang said many blacks are not able to get an adequate education and those that can are victims of employment discrimination. Blacks are not allowed to learn Arabic and sometimes have to sit in classrooms with more than 200 students.”No matter how many degrees you get, even if you have a master’s, if you’re not with the president, you won’t get a job,” Niang said.Alioune Fall, who attended the march, said that despite having an education and a job with an airline, he himself lived as a slave in Mauritania.”I wanted someone to get a gun and kill me; I would’ve been okay,” Fall said. “But I couldn’t stay and live as a slave.”