The slave river colours red The events take place in the immediate environment of a reasonably successful development project with the objective of establishing self-sustaining, small-scale irrigation systems for various different tribal communities without any racial distinction in the valley of the Sénégal River. Cas Veldhoen is very skilled in his profession as a constructor of irrigation systems. He is one of the narrators in this second part of the trilogy. He falls head over heels in love with Magatte, a local Toucouleur lady. The stormy and mutual love is at the expense of his relationship at home. Magatte is a main character through the whole trilogy. The young, beautiful, strong Toucouleur mother who as a young 14-year-old girl was repeatedly abused and impregnated by an uncle has recovered to a magnificent, decisive desert rose, a pillar under the project activities. A young Toucouleur girl Fatoumata is added to the construction department as a field liaison As a schoolgirl she has been severely abused by a white brother. She is the second narrator in this second part of the trilogy. Her brother stands up for her in a drastic manner. Is he going to kil the brother and how? Despite of a threat to be prosecuted he assumes powerful leadership and also contribution to the project. All of them support in their own specific qualities the building of capacity and the never-ending resistance of their African community against expulsion across the river. Next to the Dutch hardliners in the project: ‘’no bullshit, let us get things done!,’’ the local staff is exposed to many threatening challenges, even life threatening With the crop farmers among the predominantly Black African population groups, the objectives are by and large achieved and the project can be successfully scaled up toward further diversification of multiple agricultural forms. The black Moors with a low Haratin (slave) status – often still dependent on a white Beydani Moor – and other, free, nomadic livestock herders are not familiar with crop farming or simply want to remain strictly nomadic. They are difficult to help on their way toward and to support in necessary change. Water availability is severely jeopardized by upstream dam construction and desertification. Switching over to irrigation in rice basins is unavoidable for self-sufficiency and a necessary, much higher yield than the traditional millet cultivation, especially now that river water is uphold upstream by a large dam in Mali. Toward the end of the project the prosperous villages are overrun in a process of Arabization and chased across the river by black Moors and Berbers, nomadic livestock herders, under pressure from the white Moors. The Mauritanian army then drives black population groups across the river deep into Senegal and attempts to control North Senegal. This runs out into a bloody conflict over land, but especially land with access to water. The arming of the Berber Moors and livestock herding nomads takes place by the generals, white Moors (Arabic Berbers) who held and still hold power in Mauritania from Nouakchott. They can execute everything by slaves (Abid), serfs, livestock herding bondsmen (Haratin) and a number of Berber and Tuareg mercenaries. Despite the abolition of slavery in 1981! the white Moors in Mauritania still own more than a quarter of the Black population as slaves in the house for work or sex (Abid slaves) or with their herds as serfs or as something that stands close to mobile serfdom (Haratin). Slavery inherits through the woman, independent of who the father is. Most girls become pregnant before their sixteenth year of life. They are owned by their masters and used for everything as property, also by the sons, neighbours or family members. The good land of the black population who have lived in the river valley of the Sénégal for centuries must be seized by the power holders. Africans must get off the land that has now become much more valuable as irrigation land. How to find a way in a labyrinth of power abuse by Dutch developers and local staff with a prize on their head?