The African nation of Mauritania was the last nation in the world to outlaw slavery—in 1981—and it wasn't until 2007 that a law was passed allowing for the prosecution of slave owners. The situation of slavery in the country is the worst in the world, and in rural areas entire communities of slaves still exist as the authorities turn a blind eye.

The New Yorker's Alexis Okeowo reports on the situation: "No one in their community who looks like them has ever known another way of life. One former child slave told me, 'In the village, when a slave says he does not want to be a slave anymore, people will ask, Why? Who are you? Your mother was a slave; your grandmother was a slave. Who are you?' … 'To the slave, his identity is his master,' [local abolitionist and member of the country's slave caste Biram Dah] Abeid said. 'The master is his idol, one he can never become, and he is invincible.'"

Possible Preaching Angle:

What a description of the enslaving power of sin. Our whole identity can become consumed, leaving us unable to imagine a life of freedom.