Messaoud Ould Boulkheir (, born 1943, Fara El Kitane ) is a political figure from Mauritania and a leader in the Haratine community. Messaoud also contributed towards the end of the 1989 events in Mauritania, protecting the right of the victims and the emancipation of the Haratine in Mauritania with his party.
Boulkheir is President of the People's Progressive Alliance, and he was the President of the National Assembly of Mauritania from April 2007 to January 2014.
Family and childhood
Family history
Messaoud Ould Boulkheir was born in 1943; the date is unclear because at that time the birth registration service was unknown. Like most Haratine at that time, his family subsisted on agriculture, including cattle farming and picking fruit, while his father also hunted.
Messaoud's mother had taken care of the family until the older sister of her master got married by the Chief of the Ahel Taleb Community. Messaoud's mother thought that the queen of the community would help her. In contrast to what she thought, the queen of the community was jealous of her and was helping her cousins who ignored her when her family was in a difficult situation. One night, the queen of the community sent her cousin to the Messaoud ould Boulkheir family tent to destroy it and to beat her mother. The queen's cousins had burned the Messaoud ould Boulkheir tent, destroying everything, took her jewelries and beat Messaoud's mother until thinking that she was dead. They left the place with a lot of blood and fire. After surviving this event, Messaoud's mother went directly with her dress covered with blood, to the French colonial administration in Nema to complain. Generally, the colonial administration does not take any part of the problems of the slaves with their masters. After the colonial administrator saw her covered with blood and harmed, they decided to help her. The colonial administration asked for the restitution and reimbursement of all of the things the masters had destroyed and taken and to freed Messaoud's mother and her family. They suggested that Messaoud's mother to stay in the city of Nema to avoid this kind of attack. But she refused because she wanted to live in her community and to be respected there. The Messaoud family became the first Haratine family in Mauritania to become free and to live equally in the same community as their ancient masters the Beydhan. Messaoud's mother died in October 1953.