|
Books by Chinweizu
The West and the Rest of Us
(1975) /
Decolonising the African Mind
(1987) /
Voices from
Twentieth-century Africa (1988)
Invocations and
Admonitions (1986);
Energy Crisis and Other Poems
(1978);
Anatomy of Female Power
(1990)
Towards the Decolonization of
African Literature (1980).
* *
* * *
Books by
Marvin X
Love and War: Poems /
In the Crazy House Called America /
Woman: Man's Best Friend /
Beyond Religion Toward Spirituality
*
* * * *
Books by Kola Boof
Nile
River Woman (Poems, Feb. 10, 2004) /
Long Train to the Redeeming
Sin-Stories About African Women
(April 6, 2004)
Flesh and the Devil: A Novel
(May 11, 2004) /
Diary of a Lost Girl
(2007)
*
* * * *
Qaddafi apologizes
for Arab slave trade
By Sallie Pisch
CAIRO: Libyan leader Moammar
Gaddafi apologized for the slave trade on behalf of
Arabs at the second Afro-Arab summit in Libya on Sunday.
It may be the first time an Arab leader has
admitted—much less apologized for—enslaving Africans.
While completely unprecedented, the
statement falls in line with Qaddafi’s decade-long
policy of aligning himself with African nations.
“I regret the behavior of the
Arabs… They brought African children to North Africa,
they made them slaves, they sold them like animals, and
they took them as slaves and traded them in a shameful
way. I regret and I am ashamed when we remember these
practices. I apologize for this,” Qaddafi was quoted as
saying.
A number of African leaders,
including Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, were in attendance
at the summit which covered topics ranging from the
Palestinian issue to Sudanese separation.
Gaddafi continued his statement by
saying, “Today we are embarrassed and shocked by these
outrageous practices of rich Arabs who had treated their
fellow Africans with contempt and condescension.”
Gaddafi’s statement was broad, leaving a time reference
open for debate.
There is very little documentation
about the African enslavement in the Arab world. Most
documentation and research focuses on the trans-Atlantic
slave trade, but until the turn of the 19th Century,
Arab slave traders dealt in a lucrative business in
African slaves from the Congo, Rwanda, and particularly
East Africa. In the middle of the ninth century, a
revolt of the Zanj, African slaves held in modern-day
Iraq, lasted for nearly fifteen years.
The Arab slave trade was also
excuse used by Europeans, including King Leopold II of
Belgium, to move into Africa during the age of European
colonization.
There is some documentation of Arab
enslavement up until the mid-1900s. According to a
report by the United Nations in 1957, as much as 20% of
the population of Saudi Arabia consisted of slaves. The
report listed the worth of a girl under 5 years of age
to be between 200-400 British pounds on the Jeddah slave
market, while a man under 40 averaged 150 British
pounds.
It is plausible that Gaddafi’s
statements referenced modern enslavement by Arabs, from
the era of European colonization to the present day. “We
should now recognize this issue, denounce it vigorously
and place it in its true dimension,” Ghaddafi said in
his statement.
In September, UK Channel 4 released
a film version of the story of a Nubian woman named
Mende Nazer. The film, titled I Am Slave, tells the true
story of a girl who was abducted from the Nuba mountains
and was eventually sold into domestic servitude with an
Arab family in London.
In 2000, Nazer’s story made
international news when she managed to escape. Although
the numbers of people living in such circumstances are
difficult to determine, an August article in the UK’s
Telegraph estimated around 5,000 people are currently
working as domestic slaves in the UK.
Either way, the Libyan leader’s
statement is remarkable, even for a man who likes to
make headlines.
12 October 2010
Source:
BikYaMasr
*
* * * *
Reply to Qaddafi, et al.
on Apology for Slavery
By
Marvin X
We must appreciate
the Arab apology for their role in the slave trade. The
French also apologized for slavery and colonialism,
although they insist on citing the positive aspects of
colonialism, indicating a residue of white supremacy and
their need for further recovery. Australia apologized
for genocide of the Aboriginal people. America has yet
to apologize in her hard heartedness and determination
to maintain absolute domination and exploitation of
North American Africans and to remain the last bastion
of white supremacy on the planet.
Throughout the
Americas, we see a majority of nations trying to
establish progressive governments, some with indigenous
people in power, such as Morales in Bolivia. There are
left of center governments in Cuba, Nicaragua, El
Salvador, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile
and elsewhere. These nations are attempting to shake
Yankee imperialism and develop a socialist or more
humanistic form of free market economics, rather than
the blatant system of USA naked capitalism (aka
Globalism) with wage slavery and robbery of the natural
resources of the indigenous people.
In harmony and
unity with the peoples of the Americas, it is incumbent
on North American Africans to make a similar paradigm
shift and move to a more radical agenda in their
political economic philosophy. In short, we must jump
out of the box of American white supremacy ideology. We
not only demand apologies, but reparations for past
indignities, including slavery, colonialism and
neo-colonialism, including the present era domestic
colonialism.
There must be an
immediate redistribution of wealth from centuries of
capital accumulation by Euro-Americans. Without this
redistribution or sharing of wealth, we see a second
civil war on the horizon. North American Africans were
recently scammed and robbed of their basic wealth (home
ownership) with the sub prime loan scheme. Thus their
perennial abject economic condition has worsened,
approaching the abyss while the bandits were rewarded
and replenished for their robbery and naked exploitation
of the middle class and poor. Because this scam was
partly orchestrated by a Black president, who bailed out
the Wall Street bandits who put him in office, we are
not under the delusion hope is still alive, for we have
a plethora of white presidents in black face throughout
Africa and the Caribbean, no better than the
colonialists who preceded them.
Obama is proving he
is in the tradition of these African or black men with
white hearts! He is a neo-colonial Negro in the best
tradition of those who have preceded him throughout
American history. We know the sound of a duck when we
hear it. The sound is unmistakable and we are not
fooled. How can he offer jobs, housing, and education to
terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and
Somalia, if they lay down their guns, but not implement
the same for brothers and sisters in the hood who are
suffering from the same poverty, ignorance, and disease?
Finally, as per
apology for slavery, we await apology from our African
brothers, especially those who still benefit from the
accumulation of wealth from the slave trade. To date,
only one African brother has said to me, "Brother, I am
sorry for my people selling your people into slavery."
Only until this has occurred on a mass level, perhaps in
some gigantic ritual of healing, will relations between
Africans and North American Africans reach closure on
the matter of slavery.
But on the general
condition of slavery and especially the oppression of
women that persists to this present moment, including
the sexual exploitation on the streets of America by
so-called pimps, especially those in black face, along
with the global exploitation of women in sex traffic (no
matter that I support legalized prostitution), and the
mass rape of women throughout Africa and the world,
honor killings, clitoris mutilation and partner
violence, whether physical, verbal, or emotional, these
abominations must be eliminated totally and absolutely.
16 October 2010
Source:
BlackBirdPressNews
*
* * * *
Rehabilitating U.S. Military Intervention in the Age of Obama
*
* * * *
Qaddafi's apology follows on the heels of that by the
United States for its plague visited upon the
Guatemalans. By that of the Congress of the United
States for its exploitation of the African Americans who
built the Capitol at slave wages.
Qaddafi's statement is indeed more remarkable than the
latter two apologies. The United States of America has
yet to apologize for its kidnapping and enslavement of
the sons and daughters of Africa.
Nor has it apologized to Mexico for its theft of much of
what we call the Southwest, including California,
Arizona, and New Mexico.
Nor has it thanked the Haitian people for its aid in
acquiring the Louisiana Territory, which makes up much
of what is the Midwest and the Northwest sections of the
present-day United States.
For those with an interest, you may like to read
Chinweizu's take on Arab slave trade.I challenge Saudi Arabia and Iraq to make similar
apologies. Of course apologies without payment is little
or no apology at all.—Rudy
* *
* * *
It is possible to visit sites in
Mauritania and other sites, where the Arab slave trade happened. there were
some differences between slavery there and here in America, but it was all
racially based. The racism does still exist in all of the Arab world,
despite what the Qur'an says and what the prophet Muhammed (saw) said. I
personally experienced it when I was living in Morocco, and there are videos
of the experience of racism by
"Black" Arabs in Iraq.
This attitude is not at all intrinsic to Islam, but is some cultural crap,
adopted from the dominant group or left over from before Islam. I only need
remind myself, my daughter, and anyone who brings up some racist statement
that the first man to call the adhan, the call to prayer, was Bilal, an
African man.—Iman Zaineb
* *
* * *
Thank you, Brother Rudy. I am so glad
that you brought this up, because it expands the notion that we have of this
time period and places some of the current events in North Africa and Middle
East into a more proper and complex perspective.—Honorée
Fanonne Jeffers
* *
* * *
 |
hello rudy, we are on the same page about
qaddafi's apology; he has always been forthright and from
meeting him back in the 80s when reagan was lying about "libyan
hit squads," today, he is a true muslim, not one who pretends or
stands on ritual.
but as to some of the materials you quoted from
bernard
lewis, i would not take him as an honest scholar, because he
was an economist and knew little of Islam, and made up a lot of
things and exaggerated others; no true scholars of islam or arab
history trust his work because of his use as a zionist
propagandist against islam and the arabs. |
i knew
bernard lewis
before i went to teach at princeton, and often argued with him while here in
princeton; true arab and muslim historians, many of them jews, abhored his
bad scholarship on arabs and islam,and often slanted and biased writings
against islam and the arabs.
do not get me wrong, there is, and has been, a lot wrong in the arab and
muslim worlds, but the prophert muhammad tried to help correct that. but, as
with all religions, not all of it takes. for instance, in one of the
earliest of arab classical poems, there is "Antar," that deals with a black
member of the tribe who desires the hand of the chief's daughter, the chief
and his family are white. the chief says, "no." but later, when antar proves
himself in battle, the chief says, "yes, to the marriage" and antar becomes
the leader of the tribe in time. this showed racial discrimination at that
time, but certainly not slavery as we had it in the west.
but let us go on to other matters that i hope will clarifiy matters a bit
more. i know this is a touchy subject and some would not dare touch it, but
ishmael and marvin both know that i am willing to go where others fear to
tread. but this also to let you know that i agree with qaddafi, and an
apology is owed, as it must be, from america and from other arab and muslim
countries, and they must also apologize to Allah for their misdeeds, then
and today, if necessary.
but also, malik al shabazz, malcom x, was no fool. he saw some things that
he'd never seen, but he saw the real islam, not that which was culture bound
in the arab or islamic world where people do ritual instead of the real
practice of the faith.
1. there was, and still is, discrimination in the arab and muslim
worlds; but, you must understand, the Qur'an is against it.
2. slaves in the muslim world,
were like indentured servants in the west, but
bernard lewis, one
of my former colleagues at princeton, was a notorious creator of materials,
especially against the arabs and islam. he was one of those whose task was
to split islam and the african americans in america and the world with his
books. he also had dual citizenship with israel and america, so u can see
where his sympathies lay.
3. slavery in america was always
brutal, with no sense of human relationships or human respect; in the muslim
world, from what i have read from other scholars in history, was, as i said,
more like indentured servants, and families were not split up as happened in
america and europe. slaves were often prisoners taken in warfare. until the
europeans came, we have no record of them being "sold" as chattel, which
was, and is inhuman, but after the europeans came, there is no doubt that
many went for the money or whatever. this was against qur'anic law, to
"sell" another human being. if u have that person as a, as in western term,
"slave" you must treat him or her with respect, feed , house, and clothe
them and let them do their prayers, etc., and they do the work you assign
them. after a certain amount of time, they may leave if they wish; they are
not bound for life. this is not to justify this matter, but to make clear
that the term "slavery" doesn't have the same meaning in arabic as it does
in english, and islamic and arab types of slavery, though not good, were not
at all like slavery in europe and the americas.
BUT BERNARD LEWIS AND HIS FRIENDS NEVER
EXPLAINED THIS DIFFERENCE BECAUSE THEY HAD THEIR OWN AGENDA.
4. qaddafi always comes out with
the truth, as he did in other matters in the past. i didn't see this quote,
but he has always been forthright on behalf of africans, african americans
and native americans (what he termed, "the red Indians," so as to
distinguish and make clear that they were not indians at all, for to be an
indian, u had to have been from india!)
i'd say more, but i hope this helps clarify some matters. this is not that i
disagree with you, but that there are matters here that i felt needed
clarification.unfortunately, bad discrimination exists and has existed for
too long in the world; rememeber spike lee's, School Daze—it showed
among african amerians discrimination based on light, tan, brown, black, and
blue blacks at an african american college; i taught at howard univ, and it
was evident there while i was teaching there from 1988-95.
we have to do away with all
discrimination of that sort; the qur'an speaks against discrimination, but
what alleged "muslims" do may be the opposite, but that is not the fault of
Islam, nor good muslims, no matter what their color.
peace, salaam, Sam Hamod (October
16)
* *
* * *
rudy,
i'd also like to add something
important that i wrote ishmael about, and will send it as an added essay for
marvin's blackbird jrnl; the americans and europeans fed the muslim "slaves"
pork intestines, who were among the earliest "slaves" brought to E and Am,
from Sierra Leone and Mali. yes, the only meat they would give them, or only
food they would give them was pork, and the intestines, full of shit, as
their food.
this was to help break them from islam, and to insult them and their
religion, in order to help break their spirits.that's why, as i told ishmael,
it's ironic that chittlins is a big food among african americans, when it
was the food the white men used to break the spirit of those from africa.
bernard lewis and
others never mention this; but this comes from some of my own research and
reasoning, knowing the history of the early people who were brought from
africa (as i said, most were muslim).
the next step was the get them to become christians; they would often reward
those people with better food, etc. those who did not give up islam were
more brutalized by the europeans and americans (that is if one can measure
degrees of brutality, when all brutality is wrong!)
again, this is not an apologia for arabs or muslims in the middle east, but
rather, an attempt to clarify matters so that though there were many, too
many, wrongs, some of the matters needed to be clarified. i also agree, more
than just words should be given. as a muslim, born and raised in america,
from lebanese parents, i know there was, and is, still discrimination among
arabs and muslims, and among xian arabs toward others, black, tan and white,
but if they followed Islam and a proper Christianity, they would not have
discrimination based on race, color, ethnicity, religion, or whatever.
peace, salaam, sam (October16 princeton, nj)
* *
* * *
|
Excuse me,
But this APOLOGY is meaningless considering the fact that
SLAVERY has not ended in Sudan, Mauritania or any of the Arab
nations that import them. Even in Libya, Khadafi's own country,
Black slaves can be found toiling on Arab farms and homes.Arab
enslavement of Blacks, not mention genocide, is nowhere near
over. And what the hell is an apology worth?? What does it do
really? Is that what you want for everything your ancestors
suffered 500 years in America—Words? And as an
African mother from Sudan. . . .I completely rebuke this drivel
written by SAM at Princeton. The irony of hatred in the
Afro-Arab world is much more diverse & much more dimensional
than what you have boiled it down to |
 |
I relinquished my Muslim faith years
ago; I try to speak Arabic as little as possible. I do not feel in any way
sympathetic to Khadafi's words (especially since I was once employed by the
man at White Bride, Tripoli) or to yours.—Kola
Boof
* *
* * *
hello kola, i can understand and feel
your anger and pain from this situation, and as a real muslim, not the type
that you have been suffering under, i agree with you; too many who pretend
to be muslims do not behave according to the qur'an.
what qaddafi said was not enough, nor will words ever be enough to repair
the suffering.
my writing, even though you label it as such, was not "drivel," but an
attempt to make clear some facts and history so that it is not
misunderstood. the zionists and others in america and the world would like
to vilify islam, but as i said, too many who say they are muslims, do not
behave as a muslim should—in sudan, the taliban in pakistan and afghanistan,
the iranians dicta, etc. but that is because they cheat and lie, and hurt
people, and use the mask of islam to get out of their guilt.
but, as with so many other things in the world, and there are certainly too
many in the world, and done wrongly in the name of islam, is to oversimplify
and blame islam for the wrongdoings of alleged muslims, is to mix the baby
with the bathwater.—sincerely, sam (October 10)
* *
* * *
Facts &
History:
East & North Africa have been enslaved by Arab Muslim Invaders (now Arab
Imperialists) for 1,000 years. Today, 2010, in Sudan . . . Today in Sudan .
. . we have slavery & genocide and it is based on "Skin Complexion" . . .
Colorism . . . the "Blackest/Purest" must be wiped out and obliterated to
break down Black blood (authentic Africans) and MASS PRODUCE the Arab Rape
Baby who then in turn embraces more & more Arabization and mixing until the
White Arabs have conquered Sudan the same way they conquered the rest of
North Africa.
This is how they destroyed EGYPT and gradually "whitened" and "whitened" it
. . . Queen Cleopatra's Intermarriage Law (making it ILLEGAL for an Egyptian
to marry an Egyptian) being the 1st salvo in Cesar's quest to conquer the
Blood, not just the land.
When I was a child in Omdurman, Sudan . . ..THE MOSQUE taught us that the
"Blacker you were" . . . the less loved by Allah you were. That blackness
was Allah's curse & that we should feel nothing about slaughtering &
pillaging the "Charcoal" original people.
In Mauritania, the Arabs "raise/breed" a Slave Class of Africans from birth.
These particular slaves believe they were born to be nothing more than
slaves & love their Arab master fiercely. There are no PLANTATIONS in Sudan.
Dinka girls sell for $14. They are taken at ages 6, 9, 12 and kept in the
homes as "bed slaves" and maids. Black Boys are chained to the back of Arab
homes & fed from doggy bowls. When it's time to do labor, they unleash and
work the Boy slave, beating him if need be.
Even Palestinians have Dinka girl slaves. They sterilize these girls so they
can rape them w/o producing more Black males. Jordan . . . Syria . . .
Lebanon . . . Saudi Arabia . . . Iraq . . . Palestine . . . Egypt . . . In
each of these nations you will find TODAY (RIGHT NOW) Black women working in
the kitchens with their tongues cut out of their heads—you will find Black
Sex Slaves, MALE & female; you will find Blind African Men in the streets
living on 3 cents a week for "slave" work.
I am not surprised that MANY Colorstruck Black Americans don't immediately
notice this "trick" or that they identify with their "Brown Brothers" (light
skin, slick hair, brownish) . . . totally preferring to look like these
Bastardized Arabs and disassociate
with the Authentic Cushitic Peoples; the real true Black Africans.
I am not surprised that Black Americans "Make Excuses" for why we should
identify with Khadafi and sell out the never ending suffering of our own
ancestors—whether they be West African Slave Trade or the East/North African
Slave Trade.
THE WHITE DEVIL in America . . . don't have shit on the Arab Islamic MONSTER
still pillaging & destroying true African culture. Swahili is not an
indigenous "African" language . . . but an Arab Slave language combining
African Bantu with dominant Arab
language and then FORCED on Eastern Africa nearly 1,000 years ago through
INVASION.
THESE are Facts & History of the Afro-Arab world ...and these abuses &
horrors are CURRENT. This is what needs to be discussed if it's truly
KNOWLEDGE you're claiming to seek.—Kola
Boof
* *
* * *
hello kola, i hear what you are saying.
the imam at your mosque was obviously a lying fool, who knew nothing about
islam; thus, u can't condemn the religion for his abuse of u and others or
the lies he spread. as to the history u speak of, these are matters you know
more of, being on the ground, than i. as to palestinians sterilizing women
to keep them as slaves, etc. this is something i know nothing about so
cannot say if it is true or propaganda against islam.
as with all peoples, there are some
good ones and bad ones, not just among the arabs, but among all people. but,
as with stereotyping of all sorts, it may apply to some, but not to all. may
Allah/God bless you, and help you find peace, sincerely,
dr.hamod
* *
* * *
I'm not condemning the religion Sam
Hamond. I'm saying . . . why should we give a damn about the Arab Muslim
populations period??? The people being Genocided in Darfur . . . are
Muslims. Many of these victims are Muslims . . . but their
skin is Charcoal Black. That is the issue; not religion. Your
conversation is irrelevant. We should be concerned about our
African Slaves . . . and what our ancestors would want us to do.
Not about the "feelings" of the Arab Muslims or Muslims in America.
All this whining & "poor baby" Head-Patting that the Muslims are receiving
is a disgrace when we're doing nothing at all to save, defend or
highlight the suffering the Black Slaves and the Genocide targeted tribes in
Africa!!
The whole conversation about "Islam" should be totally irrelevant!! Would we
care that the German Nazis were Christians or Catholics? No. What we
should care about are Black Africans.—Kola
Boof
* *
* * *
Sam, I have a sliding scale of concern
and concerns. First and foremost are the people of my birth, that is,
African Americans. They are my family and I will defend them to the death.
Second, some of my like-minded Americans (of all colors). Third, the African
Diaspora and black Africans of like minds. And then others slide down my
ladder of concern and concerns.
I have a concern for Islam as well in
that some of my ancestors who came to America were Muslim and many of my
friends are Muslim and have taught me much about Islam so that I have prayed
with my palms and my forehead to the ground turned toward the rising sun. My
interest is thus attached to its Spirituality rather than its rituals and
theological concerns.
I have a keen interest and concern for
the sufferings of all people, whether Jew or Palestinian. I have never been
a fan and upholder of callousness toward the sufferings of others. I do
appreciate and respect the remarks and views of both Sam Hamod and Kola
Boof. I am not an authority on the Quran or an historian of Islam and the
Middle East. But they are among my intellectual interests.
As one involved in the struggles of my
people since a teenager, I indeed find this new Arab development of
noteworthy interest so much so that I have published the news on
ChickenBones.
My concerns about Darfur and Sudan are
such that I have corresponded with Bankie Bankie and have web pages
dedicated to the happenings in South
Sudan I favor a separation of South Sudan and await anxiously the vote.
As far as Gaddafi I trust him as far as I could throw him. He is too self
serving for my comfort. Loving yall madly, Rudy
* *
* * *
|
Orientalism
By
Edward W.
Said
In his most famous book,
Orientalism (1978), Said claimed a "subtle and
persistent
Eurocentric prejudice against Arabo-Islamic peoples and
their culture.”He argued that a long tradition of false and
romanticized images of Asia and the Middle East in
Western culture had served as an implicit justification for
Europe and the US' colonial and imperial ambitions. Just as
fiercely, he denounced the practice of Arab elites who
internalized the US and British orientalists' ideas of
Arabic culture.
So far as the United States
seems to be concerned, it is only a slight overstatement to say
that Moslems and Arabs are essentially seen as either oil
suppliers or potential terrorists. Very little of the detail,
the human density, the passion of Arab-Moslem life has entered
the awareness of even those people whose profession it is to
report the
Arab world. |
 |
What we have instead is a series of crude,
essentialized caricatures of the
Islamic world presented in such a way as to make that world vulnerable
to military aggression.
In
Orientalism, the book, Said asserted that much western study of
Islamic civilization was political intellectualism bent on self-affirmation
rather than objective study, a form of racism, and a tool of imperialist
domination.
Orientalism had an impact on the fields of
literary theory,
cultural studies and
human geography, and to a lesser extent on those of history and oriental
studies. Taking his cue from the work of
Jacques Derrida and
Michel Foucault, and from earlier critics of western Orientalism such as
A. L. Tibawi,
Anouar Abdel-Malek,
Maxime Rodinson, and Richard William Southern, Said argued that Western
writings on the Orient, and the perceptions of the East purveyed in them,
are suspect, and cannot be taken at face value. According to Said, the
history of European colonial rule and political domination over the East
distorts the writings of even the most knowledgeable, as well.—Wikipedia
* *
* * *
When "Negroes"
dominated "Arabs" part 2 (Zanj revolt)
Even mistranslated, as I'm pretty sure
this is, a close look at it really makes the idea that the Zanj revolt was
primarily a slave revolt seem less probable.
Al-Jahiz (776-869) born in Basra: Al-Fakhar al-Sudan min al-Abyadh (the
prides of blacks over the whites):
"The Blacks continue: "Coming from Abyssinia, we were Masters of the country
of Arabia up to Mecca, and on all the country our law reigned. We put to
rout Du Nuwas, killed by the 'Aqyal Himyarites. You, you never dominated our
country.' . . .
"They say; 'If a Zanji and a Zanji woman marry and their children remain
after puberty in Iraq, they come to rule the roost thanks to their numbers,
endurance, knowledge, and efficiency. On the other hand, the child of an
Indian and an Indian woman, or of a Greek and a Greek woman, or of a
Khurasani and a Khurasani women remain among you and in your country in the
same condition as their fathers and mothers.' . . .
"The Zanj also say: 'Among our good qualities are our good singers. As you
can find among the slave girls from Sind. Also nobody is a better cook then
the black slaves from Sind. Also moneychangers will never entrust their
money then to those from Sind or their descendents as they are found to be
better in those affairs, more alert and worthy of thrusting. One hardly ever
finds a Greek or a Khorassan in a position of trust in a bank. When the
bankers of Basra saw the excellent affairs that Faraj Abu Kub, a Sindi, had
negotiated for his master, each of them took a Sindi assistant. They all
wanted to make the profit his master had made. Caliph Sultan Abdelmalik ibn
Mcrwan often said, "El Adgham is a master among all the Orientals.' This El
Adgham is also mentioned by Abdullar ibn Khnazim, who calls him, 'An
Ethiopian, a black son of Ethiopia'."
M. A. Shaban on the Zanj revolt
"If more proof is needed that it was not a slave revolt, it is to be found
in the fact that it had a highly organized army and navy which vigorously
resisted the whole weight of the central government for almost fifteen
years. Moreover, it must have had huge resources that allowed it to build no
less than six impregnable towns in which there were arsenals for the
manufacture of weapons and battleships. These towns also had in their
mammoth markets prodigious wealth which was more than the salt marshes could
conceivably produce. Even all the booty from Basra and the whole region
could not account for such enormous wealth. Significantly the revolt had the
backing of a certain group of merchants who preserved with their support
until the very end. Tabari makes it very clear that the strength of the
rebels was dependent on the support of these merchants."
Ibn Khaldun on Ethopians
"From their country Yemen once had its kings. The king of the Abyssinians
was entitled Al-Negashi, and the capital of his kingdom was the city of
Kaber. The Abyssinians are Christians, but it is said that one of their
kings embraced the true faith when Mohammed visited their country in the
Hijra. They believe that they are destined to become masters of Yemen and
all Arabia."
"From Ethiopia To Yemen" By Richard Pankhurst
The result of such convergent investigations by scholars working in
different fields was that Jacqueline Pirenne, basing herself on the areas
material culture, as well as on linguistic and paleographic data, stood
Conti Rossini thesis on its head. She argued that migration was not from
Yemen to Ethiopia, but rather in the opposite direction: from Ethiopia to
Yemen. . . . Also Arabian origins of Aksum civilization also questioned
here.
"Conceptualizing/re-conceptualizing Africa" page 41
"The Axumite kingdom is an excellent case in point. Being such an important
example of African cultural development, a European myth of external (South
Arabian) origins for this culture solidified in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries and has taken on the quality of truth for most scholars
today. In fact, there is little evidence for this other than the powerful
pull of ideology, which states that Africa cannot produce culture,
civilizations, or history."
* *
* * *
 |
Race and Slavery in the Middle East
By
Bernard Lewis
From
before the days of Moses up through the
1960s, slavery was a fact of life in the
Middle East. Pagans, Jews, Christians, and
Muslims bought and sold at the slave markets
for millennia, trading the human plunder of
wars and slave raids that reached from the
Russian steppes to the African jungles. But
if the Middle East was one of the last
regions to renounce slavery, how do we
account for its--and especially
Islam's—image of racial harmony? How did
these long years of slavery affect racial
relations? In
Race and Slavery in the Middle East,
Bernard Lewis explores these questions and
others, examining the history of slavery in
law, social thought, and practice over the
last two millennia
With 24
rare and intriguing full-color
illustrations, this fascinating study
describes the Middle East's culture of
slavery and the evolution of racial
prejudice. Lewis demonstrates how nineteenth
century Europeans mythologized the region as
a racial utopia in debating American
slavery. Islam, in fact, clearly teaches
non-discrimination, but Lewis shows that
prejudice often won out over pious
sentiments, as he examines how Africans were
treated, depicted, and thought of from
antiquity to the twentieth century. |
"If my color were
pink, women would love me/But the Lord has marred me
with blackness," lamented a black slave poet in Arabia
over a millennium ago—and Lewis deftly draws from these
lines and others the nuances of racial relations over
time. Islam, he finds, restricted enslavement and
greatly improved the lot of slaves—who included, until
the early twentieth century, some whites—while blacks
occasionally rose to power and renown. But abuses ring
throughout the written and visual record, from the
horrors of capture to the castration and high mortality
which, along with other causes, have left few blacks in
many Middle Eastern lands, despite centuries of
importing African slaves.
Race and Slavery in
the Middle East illuminates the legacy of slavery in the
region where it lasted longest, from the days of warrior
slaves and palace eunuchs and concubines to the final
drive for abolition. Illustrated with outstanding
reproductions of striking artwork, it casts a new light
on this critical part of the world, and on the nature
and interrelation of slavery and racial prejudice. —amazon.com
* *
* * *
Escape from Slavery: The True Story
of My Ten Years in Captivity and My
Journey to Freedom in America
By
Francis Bok
Slave: My True Story
By
Mende Nazer
Alek: My Life from Sudanese Refugee to
International Supermodel
By
Alek Wek
* *
* * *
Word, Image, and the New Negro
By
Anne Carroll
Spectres of 1919: Class and Nation in the
Making of the New Negro
By
Barbara Foley
|
The Green Book
By M.
Al Gathafi
Republished in a new translation, "The Green
Book" provides fresh insight into the
thinking of Muammar Al Qaddafi, and his
Third Universal Theory for a new democratic
society. Outlined first is his theory for
direct democracy in society, or Jamahiriya,
focusing on the authority of the people,
renouncing representation or delegation of
authority, and recognizing the need for
organization of the people at lower levels
of society. Part Two suggests an economic
revolution, transforming societies of wage
earners into companies of partners by
applying a political and economic theory of
social organization that gives the
ownership, and regulation of production,
distribution and exchange to the community
as a whole. Part Three launches a social
revolution, presenting solutions to man's
struggles in life, and the unsolved problems
of man and woman, as well as tackling the
situation of minorities by laying out sound
principles of social life for all mankind.
|
 |
* *
* * *
Africans
hunted down in "liberated" Libya /
Kenya,
Niger, Mali troops support Ghaddafi?
My Vision
By
Muammar Gaddafi and Edmond Jouve
* *
* * *
Gaddafi Turns US
and British Guns on His People—February 22, 2011—He
came to power back in 1969 with a coup, and throughout
1970s he developed a reputation not for what he was
doing but because of his rhetoric of pro-Palestinian
Arab nationalism, and even at some point Pan-Arabism. He
was the odd man out. He was dashing, and he had these
female guards that—he was flaunting them here and there.
But most of the power really came from petrodollars, and
that he remained in power as such, petrodollars that
have continued to keep him in power. In fact, these
lucrative contracts with both American and British arm
manufacturers that you just mentioned, in millions of
dollars, the same bullets that now are being used to
mass murder the demonstrators are the result of those
petrodollars. Muammar al-Gaddafi went from being the
"mad dog of the Middle East" (you recall former
president, late president Ronald Reagan called him, back
in 1986) to being considered a person of personality and
experience under President Bush because of the
rapprochement, and also because he kind of addressed the
issue of his involvement, or his government's
involvement, or people on his payroll's involvement with
the Lockerbie terrorist act, and also for abandoning
their nuclear project. His—presumably, he's having
nuclear project. Once that was sorted out, American and
British arm manufacturers were released to sell him as
much arm as he wanted, without any consideration for the
consequences. . . .
So the period of 1970s is a period
of postcolonial anticolonial uprisings, and he, true to
his reputation, was very much involved in those
activism. But you have to keep in mind that this was an
entirely different period. It was in the immediate
aftermath of European colonialism, and European
colonialism not only destroyed the infrastructure and
robbed them of their minerals and resources, but did not
leave behind any foundation for democratic governance in
the aftermath of colonial domination. So Muammar
al-Gaddafi in 1970s represented this so-called
charismatic revolutionary figure that had come to power
in solidarity with revolutionary movements and uprisings
in Africa and Latin America, but in effect becoming an
autocrat and a tyrant in his own country, and nobody
paid any close attention to him.— Hamid
Dabashi is a professor of Iranian studies and
comparative literature at Columbia University.—TheRealNews
* *
* * *
The myth of
invasion—Irregular migration from West Africa to the
Maghreb and the European Union—By Hein de Haas—IMI
research report October 2007—Although there has been
an incontestable increase in regular and irregular West
African migration to Europe over the past decade,
available empirical evidence dispels most of these
assumptions. First, trans-Saharan migration of West
Africans to North Africa is not as new, massive and
Europe-focused as is commonly suggested. While having
much deeper historical roots in the trans-Saharan trade,
migration of (former) nomads, traders and refugees to
Mauritania, Algeria and Libya since the 1970s set the
stage for contemporary trans-Saharan migration. Against
the background of economic decline and warfare in West
and Central Africa, Libya’s new ‘pan-African’
immigration policies are essential in understanding the
major increase in trans-Saharan labour migration over
the 1990s.
Since 2000, a major
anti-immigrant backlash in Libya probably contributed to
a diversification of trans-Saharan migration routes and
the increasing presence of migrants in other Maghreb
countries. Confronted with a persistent demand for
irregular migrant labour in Europe, more and more
sub-Saharan, mostly West Africans started to cross the
Mediterranean. However, the public perception that
irregular migration from Africa is massive and growing
at an alarming rate is deceptive. Illegal crossings of
the Mediterranean by North Africans have been a
persistent phenomenon since Italy and Spain introduced
visa requirements in the early 1990s. The major change
has been that, in particular since 2000, sub-Saharan
Africans have started to join and have now overtaken
North Africans as the largest category of irregular boat
migrants. Recent West African migrants are increasingly
settling in Spain and Italy, where they enter
flourishing underground economies. Even when
apprehended, many migrants are eventually released. Many
have acquired residency through recurrent
regularizations.— IMI
* *
* * *
African migrants
become easy target for racist violence in Libya—Monday,
21 February 2011—Leaving aside the fact that fear of
an African ‘invasion’ is entirely unfounded, what
Gaddafi has been much more keen to hide is that Libya is
an important migration destination in its own right, and
that his guestworker policies are the main explanation
behind a massive increase in the number of African
workers in Libya. Most African migrants have come from
countries such as Niger, Chad and elsewhere in West
Africa to work as low-paid labourers in the oil
industry, construction, agriculture and service sectors.
African workers tend to do the most dangerous and dirty
jobs.
Not many people know that most African migrants do not
use Libya as a passage to Europe, but that they have
come to Libya as part of Gaddafi’s guestworker schemes
or as illegal labour migrants. According to several
estimates, Libya hosts 2 to 2.5 million
immigrants, representing 25 to 30 percent of its total
population. This includes about half a million
Egyptians; several tens of thousands of Moroccans,
Tunisians and Algerians; and 1 to 1.5 million
sub-Saharan Africans (for further information see ‘The
Myth of Invasion’).
Since the 1990s, Gaddafi has actively stimulated
immigration from sub-Saharan countries such as Chad and
Niger as part of his ‘pan-African’ policies. These
immigrants from extremely poor countries were easier to
exploit than Arab workers. From 2000 onwards, violent
clashes between Libyans and African workers led to the
street killings of dozens of sub-Saharan migrants, who
were routinely blamed for rising crime, disease, and
social tensions.
In an apparent attempt to respond to growing domestic
racism, the Libyan regime hardened its policies towards
African immigrants. Measures included lengthy and
arbitrary detention of immigrants in poor conditions in
prisons and camps, physical abuse, and the forced
expulsion of tens of thousands of immigrants. Gaddafi
has been happy to conclude agreements with Italy and
other European states to violently crack down on
immigration in exchange for lucrative trade and arms
deals. This has led to blatant violation of
international refugee law. In many ways, it has served
European countries well that Libya has not signed the
Geneva refugee convention and is not concerned about
human rights at all.
Of course this repression has not stopped migration, but
mainly facilitated exploitation of African migrants in
Libya, whose position became even more vulnerable. While
the Gaddafi regime has tried to put the blame on
immigrants for all sorts of social problems, their
cheap labour force has served Libya very well
economically.— HeindeHaas
* *
* * *
African Migrants
Targeted in Libya—from
Al Jazeera—Dozens of workers from sub-Saharan
Africa are feared killed, and hundreds are in hiding, as
angry mobs of anti-government protesters hunt down
"black African mercenaries," according to witnesses.
About 90 Kenyans and another 64 citizens from South
Sudan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Rwanda, South
Africa, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra
Leone and Burundi landed in Nairobi on Monday, according
to officials. "We were being attacked by local people
who said that we were mercenaries killing people. Let me
say that they did not want to see black people," Julius
Kiluu, a 60-year-old building supervisor, told Reuters.
"Our camp was burnt
down, and we were assisted by the Kenyan embassy and our
company to get to the airport," he said. Rights
organizations say that thousands of workers are stranded
in camps and private homes, protected by their
colleagues as their governments fail to evacuate them
from the chaos. . . . Hundreds of black immigrants from
poor African countries, who mainly work in Libya’s oil
industry as cheap laborers, have also been injured in
the violence. Some were unable to seek medical treatment
for fear of being killed. Saad Jabbar, deputy director
of the North Africa Centre at Cambridge University,
confirms Africans have become targets.
"I tell you, these
people, because of their scheme, they will be
slaughtered in Libya. There is so much anger there
against those mercenaries, which suddenly sprung up,"
Jabbar said. About 1.5m Sub-Saharan African migrants
work in Libya as low-paid laborers in the oil industry,
construction, agriculture and service sectors. Rights
organizations say some anti-Gaddafi protesters wrongly
associate African workers with state-sponsored violence.— BlackAgendaReport
* * *
* *
* *
* * *
 |
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus
Created
By Charles C. Mann
I’m
a big fan of Charles Mann’s previous
book
1491:
New Revelations of the Americas Before
Columbus, in which he
provides a sweeping and provocative
examination of North and South America
prior to the arrival of Christopher
Columbus. It’s exhaustively researched
but so wonderfully written that it’s
anything but exhausting to read. With
his follow-up,
1493, Mann has taken it to a
new, truly global level. Building on the
groundbreaking work of Alfred Crosby
(author of
The Columbian Exchange and, I’m
proud to say, a fellow Nantucketer),
Mann has written nothing less than the
story of our world: how a planet of what
were once several autonomous continents
is quickly becoming a single,
“globalized” entity.
Mann not only talked to countless
scientists and researchers; he visited
the places he writes about, and as a
consequence, the book has a marvelously
wide-ranging yet personal feel as we
follow Mann from one far-flung corner of
the world to the next. And always, the
prose is masterful. In telling the
improbable story of how Spanish and
Chinese cultures collided in the
Philippines in the sixteenth century, he
takes us to the island of Mindoro whose
“southern coast consists of a number of
small bays, one next to another like
tooth marks in an apple.” We learn how
the spread of malaria, the potato,
tobacco, guano, rubber plants, and sugar
cane have disrupted and convulsed the
planet and will continue to do so until
we are finally living on one integrated
or at least close-to-integrated Earth.
Whether or not the human instigators of
all this remarkable change will survive
the process they helped to initiate more
than five hundred years ago remains,
Mann suggests in this monumental and
revelatory book, an open question. |
* *
* * *
|
The Persistence of the Color Line
Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency
By Randall Kennedy
Among the best things about
The Persistence of the Color Line
is watching Mr. Kennedy hash through the
positions about Mr. Obama staked out by
black commentators on the left and
right, from Stanley Crouch and Cornel
West to Juan Williams and Tavis Smiley.
He can be pointed. Noting the way Mr.
Smiley consistently “voiced skepticism
regarding whether blacks should back
Obama” . . .
The
finest chapter in
The Persistence of the Color Line
is so resonant, and so personal, it
could nearly be the basis for a book of
its own. That chapter is titled
“Reverend Wright and My Father:
Reflections on Blacks and Patriotism.”
Recalling some of the criticisms of
America’s past made by Mr. Obama’s
former pastor, Mr. Kennedy writes with
feeling about his own father, who put
each of his three of his children
through Princeton but who “never forgave
American society for its racist
mistreatment of him and those whom he
most loved.” His father distrusted
the police, who had frequently called
him “boy,” and rejected patriotism. Mr.
Kennedy’s father “relished Muhammad
Ali’s quip that the Vietcong had never
called him ‘nigger.’ ” The author places
his father, and Mr. Wright, in
sympathetic historical light. |
 |
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* * *
ChickenBones Store
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update 12 March
2012
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