(vibrant upbeat music) (dramatic music) (helicopter blades whirring) (men speaking faintly) - [Narrator] Our journey
through the hottest place on earth, starts on a
particularly cold day. This is the Atlantic
Ocean at the very edge of the African continent. The coast of Mauritania marks the far west of the Saharan Desert. Miles away from Europe, we're on patrol with the Spanish coast guard, Norles. (men conversing in foreign language) (upbeat lively music) - [Narrator] The Sahara,
Africa's great desert is now Europe's most southern border where it combats migration,
terrorism, and overpopulation. But what do the people of the Sahara think of all this interference? And what can we learn from the
people of the great desert? (dramatic music) There is still a constant
flow of Sub-Saharan Africans coming to Mauritania, but
now they have set their sites not on Europe, but on the fishing here. - [Man] So, eh guys is the fish stinking? - They left this one for a long time, about two weeks or thereabouts
when they brought it so. - [Man] Yeah, but then what
are you gonna do with it? - So we have to process and wash them. These are the fresh ones. - [Man] Okay. (laughing loudly) (men speaking in foreign
in foreign language) - [Man] And are they from Mauritania all this people here? - [Man] They are Nigerians. - [Man] Oh, you're from Nigeria? - [Man] Yes. - [Man] From Niger. - Yeah So these are the dry
ones, how they look like. See, they are no longer stinky. They're no longer smelly. - Now, this is better. That stink, but this doesn't stink. And how come there's no
Mauritanians here, only Nigerians? - They don't eat this. They left it for us. - [Man] Oh, I'm here
for about two years now. - [Man] Okay. - [Man] Yeah. - [Man] You like Mauritania? - I like it, but not as my country. I like my country better. - [Man] Why? - My country has freedom. Here there's no freedom. You understand? - [Man] How do you feel that? - Oh I feel, I know very well, yeah. You can only come here, make
a little money and get out. - [Man] So how they treat black Africans? - Man, they're not too bad but it's not easy being with a
people in different religion. They are not bad. They are good people, yeah. But you don't have freedom, that's all. It's not like your country or mine where you can be free
and do what you like. You know in Holland you can be free. If you're in Amsterdam, you can be free. You can do what you like. - [Man] Yeah. - Yeah, so that is all different. (birds chirping) - [Narrator] Mauritania is a transit zone. This is where black Africa
collides with the Islamic North. Mauritania is an Islamic republic. The only Christians here,
come from down south. This is their only church, very much resembling a flying saucer that has just touched down
on the edge of the Sahara. (worshipers singing in foreign language) - [Man] So this church,
what does it mean to you? - It's a kind of protection to us. Even if they are
disturbing people outside, they don't come easily to
this place to disturb people. - [Man] So it's protected. - Uh-huh, it is somehow
a little bit protected, but there was a hard, there
was a time they came in chasing people into this place. - [Man] Like what, like
being arrested here? - [Man] Yes, they came to look for those people that
doesn't have permits. - [Man] Do they see you as equal? - No, no, not at all. They see us as low-class human. They don't even, you can't, (chuckles) The way they look at us at times is funny, but there's nothing we can do. - 'Cause you have a different skin color? - Mm, part of it but is the issue of social stratification
comes into play here. - Social stratification? - Yes. - [Man] What does that mean? - It means in some people in some country they have free man, slave. Those kind of, you have slave. So they don't look, they look
at themselves as a free man, somebody that's supposed to
be in charge, do everything, then they look at us as slaves. We don't have equal rights with them. There are some things
you don't do with them because you are not like a free man. (soft music) (vehicle hooting loudly) (soft music) (vehicle hooting faintly) (vehicle hooting loudly) (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] Mauritania's
at the western extreme of the great desert. Almost the entire country
is covered in sand. No Dutch camera crew has ever
visited here, since the 1980s. All I know about the country is that it's an Islamic police state, and everyone here is
a child of the Sahara. (child singing in foreign language) (lively soft music) - [Narrator] For centuries
the vast desert formed an impregnable fortress
between Africa and Europe. The European colonist ships preferred to sail straight on past it. It wasn't until the late 19th century that the French dare to dream of a railroad cutting straight through it. The French colonel who was sent out to survey the area, never returned. He was killed by Tuareg nomads. The Sahara shows no mercy to strangers, but in the end, the railroad was built. (bright upbeat music) (people conversing faintly
in foreign language) (bright upbeat music) (train wheels clanging) The Sahara awaits me. The train with which the French wanted to prove their mastery over the desert, is still the best way to
get to Eastern Mauritania. If you can't pay the fare, you travel in the goods
wagons, meant for iron ore. If you want a bit more luxury, you will have to fight for a seat. (crowd speaking in foreign language) (men speaking in foreign language) (men speaking in foreign language) (train squealing loudly) - [Narrator] They say
this is the longest train in the world, three miles of wagons. It holds tons of steel and throws you about
like a tanker in a storm. (men speaking in foreign language) - [Men] Whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, - [Man] Jesus. (men speaking in foreign language) - Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. (men speaking in foreign language) (passengers speaking in foreign language) (men speaking in foreign language) (passengers speaking in foreign language) (men speaking in foreign language) (men speaking in foreign language) ♪ Those messages you're sending ♪ ♪ Just keep telling me
to take what I want ♪ ♪ Baby ♪ (engine rumbling loudly) (gentle music) (man speaking in foreign language) - [Narrator] This must be Sahara Station. The desert sand is like the platform. But if I wanna learn more
about live in the desert, I'll have to let the train go. (bright upbeat music) The thing about traveling
in foreign parts is that you can't place what you see. You're lacking the codes, the secret language
known only to the locals. The author, V. S. Naipaul, called this, "The Enigma of the Arrival." When you arrive at the place
you've never visited before, it's like you're blind to
a lot of things you see. And that's exactly the
way I feel in Mauritania, the land of the Moors. Although in minority, the
white Moors reign here over the black Moors. In hoping to understand (indistinct) hoping to understand a bit
more about the country, I pay a visit to a young artist who has lived here all his life. (men conversing in foreign language) (tense music) (men speaking in foreign language) (slow tense music) (gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] This phase
the expanse of the Sahara fills me with all. Here I realized that I'm
merely a spoiled child of our consumer society. Those able to survive
here are clearly made of stronger stuff than I am. The loneliness of the deep desert, where time seems to have
stopped is so far removed from all the mod cons of the big cities. (tense music) (people conversing in foreign language) (man praying in foreign language) - [Narrator] I had mentioned
all sorts of things about life in the desert, in vain as it turns out as my preconceived ideas get short shrift. (people conversing in foreign language) (laughing loudly) (people conversing in foreign language) (goat bells ringing loudly) (goats bleating loudly) (somber music) (men conversing in foreign language) (dramatic music) (men speaking in foreign language) (people singing in foreign language) - [Narrator] The cities here
are less than 50 years old build when the great
drought of the late 1960s drove the nomads to the coast. So the capital Nouakchott
is a city of nomads where traditions of desert
life are still to be found. (dramatic music) (people conversing in foreign language) (tense music) (people speaking in foreign language) (tense music) - [Narrator] I'm still
struggling to understand what I'm looking at. I wonder who is that woman
clearing the table for instance. Is she the family slave
and how can you tell? (vehicle engine roaring loudly) (man speaking in foreign language) (engine roaring loudly) (men speaking in foreign language) (lively soft music) - [Narrator] Combating the
biggest taboo in Mauritania is fraught with danger. This footage shows Biram Oudi Obeidi. He's an activist whose grandparents were still slaves in Mauritania. Descendants of the slaves
here are called Haratin. Four years ago, Biram burnt some books that justified slavery
using quotes from the Koran. The president called this act blasphemy and demanded the death penalty for him. It was only on the pressure from Europe that Biram's life was spared. As he is followed day and
night by the secret service we have to be careful
in our context with him. (men speaking in foreign language) (tense music) (men speaking in foreign language) (soft music) (men speaking in foreign language) (soft music) - [Narrator] Biram has brought an old lady and our son with him. They turn out to have lived
their entire lives in slavery. I'm speechless. What do you say to a former slave? (speaking in foreign language) (dramatic music) - [Narrator] Shortly after our visit Biram is arrested without charge. He's forced to watch the elections in which he had hoped to be made president from his prison cell. (soft music) Our return to the Saharan coast now patroled by Europe for over 10 years, this beach was for years the departure hold for Africans hoping to reach Europe
via the Canary Islands. The Mauritanians were
not part of this exodus but the coastal fishermen
did well out of it. The government sent Shake Diallo
to discourage the migrants from making the perilous voyage but he then fell prey to
the same temptation himself. (speaking in foreign language) - [Narrator] After two days at
sea, the boat began to leak. Shake watched how 95 people
drowned before his very eyes clinging only to a jerrycan he was able to stay afloat
for over three days. When he finally made it to dry land he turned out to be back in Mauritania. (tense music) (television broadcasting
in foreign language) (men conversing in foreign language) (television broadcasting
in foreign language) (men conversing in foreign language) (child speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) (somber music) (singing in foreign language) (men conversing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (somber music) (speaking in foreign language) (somber music) - [Narrator] This is the big void. A place of fear. Not just because it's easy to get lost in the valence of the desert, it's also a place of no
roads and no authority. Territory of bandits
and jihadist and armies, hoping to contain them. (bright upbeat music) (men speaking in foreign language) (lively upbeat music) (men speaking in foreign language) (lively upbeat music) (vehicle engine roaring loudly) (men speaking in foreign language) (machine gun banging loudly) - [Narrator] We are close to Mali now. Beyond this border, awaits the road to the magical city of Timbuktu. Once the dream destination of
every trans Saharan traveler but now surrounded by jihadist militants. I have been warned not
to go there but I will. (engine roaring loudly) (dramatic music)
