Beauty Blog

“Memory of the slave Trade Impact on Africa” By Louise Marie Diop-Maes

When the word Arabic is used in the bellow excerpt it should actually be replaced with Berber/Moroccan

“The great Arab traveler of the fourteenth century, Ibn Battuta, praised security and justice found in the empire of Mali. Before the use of firearms, Arabic trafficking remained marginal compared to economic activity and volume of the population…”

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2007/11/DIOP_MAES/15329&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=7&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DThe%2Btruth%2Babout%2Bwhat%2Bslavery%2Bdid%2Bto%2BAfrica%2Bby%2BLouise%2BMarie%2BDiop-Maes%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

The article bellow is talking about the slave trade in East Africa, Songhay was invaded by Morocco

“Myths about the Arab slave trade”

common myths corrected:

*Islam is not an Arab cultural invention but a religion born in a multi-racial Arabia; it was actually perceived as “foreign” by most Arab “tribes.” Islam in Africa is just as old as Islam in Arabia. Islam actually flourishes today because of the legal protection the king of Ethiopia gave it. The ideogical foundation of the 3 Abrahamic faiths is African in origin. It is a denial of African history and agency to deny the significance of Africa in the history and formation of the Islamic faith. It is ony an enslaved mind that rejects its own historical claims allowing others full credit. Later Arab and Turkish dominance lessened this history but it is an African history.

*Arab is not a racial term, to say Arab is almost like saying American: thus, people classified as Arab today, could have been Caucasian (white people), Jewish, Asiatic or even Arabized Africans.

*There was no Arab invasion or destruction of African Egypt, Kemet was concluded centuries before by Persians, then Greeks and then Roman invaders. The 1075 conquest of Ancient Ghana by the Almoravids was done by African Berbers. The sacking of Timbuktu by Morisco mercenaries armed with European-style guns in the service of the Moroccan sultan in 1591.

*There is a low African Diaspora in the Arab lands due to the proliferation of miscegenation, the dynamics of being classified as an Arab, and the degree or easy of Arabization.

*Islam did not bring the Arab slave trade. However, it did respond to it with laws of manumission. These laws were later generally ignored and misinterpretation thus protecting the privilege slaving brought.

*Arabs enslaving Africans would not be interested Proselytism as this would grant the enslaved Africans privileges. Thus slaving and the spread of Islam where in direct conflict and slavers played an opposing role in the Islamization of people (Murray Gordon, “Slavery in the Arab World.”)

*Muslim and Arab is not the same thing.

*Turks are not Arabs, Persians are not Arabs. Berbers are not Arabs, hence the Trans-Saharan or the Ottoman trade is not an Arab Slave Trade.

*Arab slaving was not the oldest slave trade in the world (see India and China). It however, was older than the Atlantic Slave trade, but it was scattered and a low priority until the 18th century.

*After the 18th century, the horrors of procuring Africans, was the most inhuman aspect of the trade, with castrations, transportation and violent slave raids being the main sources of mortality.

*The Arab slave trade in the 18th century was economically tied to the European trade. The Portuguese profited directly and were responsible for the boom in the Arab trade.

*The Arabs did not see all Africans as being of a unified “Black” race.

*Arab enslavement did not only target Africans.

*Arab slavery was primarily domestic, and only in the 18th century was it a mainstay for Arab economies.

*Arab Slavery did not leave the social legacy that the European trade continues to leave: prisons, poor education, mental health, etc.

*The Arab slave trade had a negligible impact on most Africans in the Diaspora today.

*Zanj does not mean all Africans. This is a umptive linguistic superimposition.

*Muslim Africans (and Christians) were not the main suppliers of captives for the Americas. Dahomeny and the Asante kingdom were the main suppliers.

*Many African Muslims Kingdoms were the main aggressors to European advances on the continent. Umar Taal, Malick Sy, Ahmadou Bamba, Samory Toure, etc.”

http://www.africanholocaust.net/news_ah/arabslavetrade.htm#MYTHS

Duration : 0:10:32

Technorati Tags: Africa, Arab, arts, books, communications, gold, History, humanities, inteleculism, islam, math, medicine, salt, science, sultan

Tags: Africa, Arab, arts, books, communications, gold, History, humanities, inteleculism, islam, math, medicine, salt, science, sultan