Temple of My Familiar

The oldest mosque in Kaedi, a regional capital in southern Mauritania. Mosques are a focal point of Mauritnanian culture and livelihood. Five times a day an Iman,
a Muslim holy man, leads the community in prayer call which summons
worshippers by loud speaker. In my village, my host father is an Iman and every morning I awake to the first prayer call of the day at 5:30 in the morning. Often times the Iman will disclose local happenings which serves as some villagers' only source of news within and outside their communities. After all, Mauritanian is an Islamic Republic. No separation between church and state. Everybody born here must be Muslim. It's the law.