September 26 -- Oct.5 “Slave Trades, Slavery and Racism”

• Video: ‘Wonders of Africa’

• Visiting Speaker: Guy Thompson (History & Classics/Sociology) September 26 “Slave Trades: why so important in defining African-Arab relations?” Why are the Slave Trades so Important?

• given the wide range of factors that have historically brought Africa and the Middle East together – cultural, economic, political, religious – why should we isolate one particular factor, the slave trades?

• The answer lies in yet another question, one raised by Dunstan Wai in “Afro-Arab relations from slavery to petro-jihad” (see Readings):

“.. Perceptions shape attitudes and attitudes in turn influence opinions and decisions. So what perceptions do Africans and Arabs have of each other?”

• He might well have added ‘and why’? But in fact he goes on to explain: Why are the slave trades so important? Why are the slave trades so important?

• Excerpt contains a number of assumptions that need both further development and further discussion

• – degree to which trade established ‘asymmetrical’ relations being one, • -- degree to which it should be associated with ‘Islamization’ another

• but points to relationship based in slave trading as underpinning a set of perceptions between Africans and Arabs as being ‘key’ to attitudes and actions that have shaped their interrelationship into the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries

(Much of article deals with more recent sets of political and ‘oil’ relationships that we will return to later) Why are the slave trades so important?

• Wai continues in his article to highlight a specific area where this linkage to earlier slave trading is articulated in the context of contemporary politics – namely Malawi Why are the slave trades so important?

• The reference to the Sudan is one being drawn upon elsewhere: namely in the United States ( “Sorrow and Shame: Brutal North • African Slave Trade Ignored and Denied” (Readings) while also having a ‘feedback effect’ on Africa’s view of itself: • "The African never wanted anything to do with the Arab, because he is a slave trader and we have never forgiven him for the slave trade," said Benedict Lagu, the soft spoken and friendly son of the former Vice President of the Republic of Sudan (1978 to 1980). "The Arab will always try to enslave people because it is in his culture to enslave people. The Arab is an expansionist, he will never be satisfied with just the North of Sudan. In reality, he will not be satisfied until the whole world worships Islam. • This is the view of the whole Arab world, they are all fighting against the Southern Sudan, they are all pouring money into Sudan. Iran, Syria, Libya and Egypt-- all of the Arab countries are of one mind. They all support Sudan, so that it can crush the South. They want to enslave the entire south and use its resources. Through the South of Sudan they can move into all of Africa. It is the gateway." Simon Deng, the Minister of Information for the Southern Sudanese Community in America added, "To the Arab, the African is born to be his slave. It does not matter that some have the same skin color as you, color is not the issue here, they consider themselves Arabs. The issue is the mind and the belief of the people and this is a problem that involves two things--race and religion." • They consider all the Southern Sudanese as slaves. When they look at you they say "Abit" which means slave, because if you are non-Muslim and Black you are fit to be a slave." Deng shifts and leans back in his chair. He seems to be looking at me from some distant place and gathering himself. "Arabs are not considered part of Africa," states Deng. "Egypt is not Africa because it is the mother of the Arabs." Deng's perspectives, the enmity that exists between the Arab and the Black African, and the belief systems that say Black Africans are inferior and born to serve the Arab are supported by the historical narrative” Why are the slave trades so important?

• This article (New York, 1995) uses the history of the ‘Arab’ slave trade • to argue for a particular ‘Black’ political position in the US and to chastise Black Americans for supporting Islam – the religion that enslaved their ancestors (or so the argument goes)

• Both Africans and African Americans acknowledge a common place of origin, and both have served as human fodder for the Arab slave trade. However, the Black American appears to have forgiven the Arabs for their participation in the slave trade, while they continue to hold the feet of White Americans and Jews to the fire for their participation. Black spiritual and political leaders travel to Islamic Fundamentalist countries where they have ties and friendships, and sources report that Arab money funds a number of Black politicians. • In view of the above, when the Mauritanians and Sudanese request help from the African- American, will there be enough content in the Black community to offer support?

(It also raises connections with Islam, racism and issues around contemporary slavery and slave trading that we will look at in the coming weeks) Slave trades in History

• So-called ‘Arab’ or ‘Muslim’ slave trades misnomer (neither purely • ‘Arab’ in terms of traders or markets, nor ‘Muslim’ – any more than Atlantic slave trade)

• ‘trades’, plural referring to: - early ‘Zanj’ trade to Persia (East African) - trans-Saharan trade (West/North African) - Ottoman trade (from Africa into various parts Middle East) - Zanzibar trade (East Africa)

• None as ‘black-and-white’ as contemporary portrayals

• None-the-less ‘histories’ around each ‘trade’ or ‘traffic’, in addition to ‘legacies’, strongly shape African-Middle Eastern relations, as well as internal perceptions of different ‘ethnic’ and ‘racial’ groups Early ‘zanj’ slave trade

• Most accounts tie the earliest African influence in the ‘Arab’ world to the so-called ninth-century “Zanj rebellion” in southern Persia

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‘Map of World’ (African-Iranian part) from al-Masudi (916) /// - approximate area of ‘Zanj Rebellion’ Early ‘zanj’ slave trade

• From Hashem Talhami, (‘exigencies’ here referring to the very early presence of ‘outsiders’ along the East African Coast): Early ‘zanj’ slave trade

• He goes on to point out the impact it has had on the very writing of East African history by referring to one of the principal works [East Africa and its Invaders by Reginal Coupland] in which the author referred to this ‘Lure’ as a “Theme that would run like a scarlet thread through all the subsequent history of East Africa until our own day”(p.443) • The article compares ‘western’ with ‘Arab’ accounts and questions the use of term ‘Zanj’ (said to refer to East African coast) – noting that westerners are the ones who attach the term to major slave trading in early centuries, not Arab writers who almost never mention trade in ‘Zanj’ slaves • They do mention other ‘sudanic’ slaves and use the term ‘Zanj’ interchangeably with ‘sudan’ and ‘negro’ (therefore even when mentioned, it did not necessarily – or even likely – refer to slaves) • The author goes on to examine sources describing the ‘rebellion’ more closely and argues that principals involved were not ‘Zanj’ or even slave at all Early ‘zanj’ slave trade

•Rebellion took place in Basra region, slaves involved in salt making and reclaiming of marshland: Early ‘zanj’ slave trade

• Conclusion: slaves were only one of several oppressed classes who participated in the rebellion – it was an attack on social inequality not slavery [which coincidentally reflects one of the points made earlier in the course about the appeal of Islam around issues of social injustice – in this case the Kharajites had rebelled against the Caliphate in Bagdhad because it had become elitist and ‘lost the way of Islam’]

• In terms of the ‘impact’ of the early slave trade, this analysis strongly questions the reality of the trade itself, let alone the ‘scarlet thread’ said to characterize Arab interest in East Africa until ‘our own day’. • (Nevertheless, see ‘The Omanis in Zanzibar’ below, for another example of how this ‘theme’ shapes understanding) Trans-Saharan Trade(s)

• During the medieval era (9th-15th C.) the Sahara became part of the expanding Islamic world. • Whole clans devoted themselves to the study and teaching of religion: The eastern regions looked to Egypt and then to the emergent Ottoman power (15th-16thc); the west to the powerful Almoravid movement which tied it firmly to the politics of the Iberian peninsula and Marakesh ( Morocco). • Others, while nominally Muslim, concentrated on warfare, protection of trade and travel • To the south, the resources provided by desert-side development fostered several states, some of which became the medieval empires of Ghana, Mali, Songhay and Kanem-Bornu (see lecture on Spread of Islam). Trans-Saharan Trade(s)

• In this context trade in slaves arose: fed markets both across the Sahara to the north and in the Sahara itself • Southern empires traded gold and slaves (acquired through war, sometimes in the process of state-building, sometimes as products of slave raids/wars) for valued Saharan resource - salt. • Salt-gold/slave exchange basis of much Saharan trade • Little use for slaves in herding-pastoral societies but in high demand in oases of desert and towns and cities of north • By the 15th -16th centuries, commercial networks in the hands of Saharan merchants (of the ‘religious’ clans, protected and taxed by the ‘warriors’) moved slaves and gold (among other goods) between Timbuktu and the Atlantic on one side, and east into Bornu, Egypt on the other – intersecting routes leading north-south across the desert

Trans-Saharan Slave Trade

• Between the 16th and 18th centuries, growing Ottoman empire increased demand for Saharan slaves (see below)

• Morocco (not under Ottoman control) new Alawite dynasty: pushing state control into the Sahara, seeking control of Salt mines (taxes) and trade

• Armies of slaves, haratin (freed-slaves), and Saharans, raiding and trading for slaves in and south of the Sahara, supplied the Sultan's slave markets

• Sahelian confederations dissolved into competing states whose internecine wars fed desert-side slave markets Trans-Saharan Slave Trade

• In the 19th century, some ‘shifts’ occurred in terms of major slave-trading routes, influenced by abolitionist efforts (on one hand) and ending of Atlantic slave trade (on the other)

• Ottomans increasingly forced to close down north-African slave markets (much of their trade shifted to East Africa/Hijaz although clandestine traffic continued through Tripoli for much of century) – routes shifted to Moroccan markets

• Ending of Atlantic trade shifted direction of internal trade: Saharan merchants central to process of ‘absorbing’ slaves

• Moved slaves east-west across West African sahel, and into as well as across the Sahara Trans-Saharan Slave Trade

• What complicates the story of ‘trans-Saharan’ trade by which supposed Arabs exploited ‘Black Africa’ is the following: - Saharans were Africans: North African merchants or ‘Arabs’ neither ‘produced’ nor traded these slaves (at least across the desert) - many slaves moved around within the desert and sahel: in the nineteenth century it may well be that more remained within Africa than left it through north-African markets - in the Sahel, slave owners were ‘black’ and muslim - in both the Sahel and Sahara, slaves often converted to Islam and so were muslim themselves (the implications of this will be discussed next day) - in both the Sahara and North Africa, slaves often assimilated not only in terms of religion but culture (language, association with families) becoming haratine • During the Colonial era, as ‘trade’ per se declined, slave reproduction and the role of haratine increased Ottoman Slave Trade

Ottomans c.1400 Ottoman Slave Trade

• Ottoman Emperor Selim I defeated Mamluks of Egypt and Syria

• took Cairo (1517) and assumed succession to the caliphate

• Under Suleyman ‘the magnificent’ empire reached largest geographcial expanse – Ottoman administration, law and culture spread with his conquests

Suleyman 1: ‘The Magnificent’ (1520-1566 Ottoman Slave Trade

Ottoman Empire 1566 Ottoman Slave Trade

Expansion Into North Africa Enabled Significant Extension of Trading and Commercial Interests Into the Sahara and West Africa Ottoman Slave Trade

• It has been said that the Ottoman Empire was based on the slave trade (more next day on what that means in terms of ‘slavery’ itself) • In early days of expansion, slaves were primarily those taken in war, therefore from regions into which empire was expanding (including Mongols, Berbers) • In addition, slaves began to be purchased from various Asian markets drawing on regions outside the empire as frontiers began to be stabilized • One major area of slave importation southern (former) Soviet Union – Ukraine, Circassia and Georgia: mostly women traded by Tartar merchants • Others from Ethiopia (hightly valued) andPersia • Overall, slaves from these last regions largely ‘white’ (or at least light skinned – even Indian slaves tended to be ‘half- caste) and female Ottoman Slave Trade

• Between 16th and 18th century most significant change: degree to which source of slaves became markets lying just beyond African territories and degree to which they were black • Ethiopians continued to be imported but included blacks as well as light-skinned women • Increasingly, slave imports were ‘Black’ Africans from sub- Saharan regions, both men and women, followed trails across the desert to several north African markets •Since 16th century coastal region modern Algeria under Ottoman sway, protected by active pirate activity in Mediterranean: Algiers major port for Saharan slave trade • Tunis and Tripoli were also Ottoman Beylicks (principalities). And Mediterranean ports for the slave trade which fed the empire -- Turkey, Syria, the Balkans and Egypt Ottoman Slave Trade

• Between 18th and 19th centuries, prices of ‘white slaves’ rose to four to six times that of African slaves, increasing the demand for ‘blacks’ (related to Russian control of former markets) • Ironically, in the 19th century as abolitionist movements in Europe were growing in voice and numbers, the trade in slaves across the Sahara was equally expanding • Sources varied: in Darfur, a Tunisian traveler recounted that: “Certain rich people living in the town have installed these blacks [from the neighboring mountains] on their farms, to have them reproduce, and, as we sell sheep and cattle, so they, every year, sell those of their children that are ready for this. There are some of them who own five or six hundred male and female slaves, and merchants come to them at all times, to buy

male and female slaves chosen to be sold." • Across the west African sahel, jihads or holy wars seeking to purify Islam also produced thousands of slaves, many of whom found their way into the trans-Saharan trade feeding the extensive Ottoman empire Ottoman Slave Trade

(From Toledano The Ottoman Slave Trade) Ottoman Slave Trade

• Lewis (see ‘Readings) refers to the growth of Libyan markets – Tripoli and Benghazi – that drew from ‘as far as Nigeria’: being fed by the rise of a new Muslim state (the Sokoto Caliphate) in the northern regions • Slaves produced in the jihad wars gave way to those acquired by state armies who continued to raid non-Muslim neighbours

• Also fed by the activities of Muhammed Pasha in Egypt: nominally under Ottoman control, he built his own ‘empire’ up the Nile reaching as far as contemporary Uganda • Used Khartoum as a ‘base’ to expand slaving activities – slaves basis of army as well as feeding trade Ottoman Slave Trade

Sahelian jihads Ottoman Slave Trade

• Other region becoming major source of slaves during 19th was Hijaz • Late nineteenth century reports show Mecca to have become important source of slaves – increasingly important because it lay beyond effective control of Istanbul and efforts at abolition • In 1877, the following report: “Having brought to the notice of the new Governor General, Zia Pasha, the practice of importing African slaves from the markets of Mecca, with the [Pilgrim] Caravan, for sale in Syria, His Excellency informed me that he had already given very strict orders to prevent such abuses. His Excellency's orders have not, however, met with the success which he

stated to me he expected, as slaves were brought as usual." • Many of these were coming from East Africa, feeding into the annual ‘hajj’ Ottoman Slave Trade

Persia

Darfur

19th century trade centuring on Hijaz Zanzibar Slave Trade

• Oman was a Muslum sultanate, engaged in maritime trade throughout Indian Ocean and as far east as China • When Portuguese entered Indian Ocean world in 16th c, Persiaboth East African Coast and Oman’s capital of Muscat became part of its ‘seaborne empire’ • Portuguese occupied several East African ‘city states’ and Muscat • Driven from Muscat 1750 • Oman assisted several East African ‘sultans’ to drive out Portuguese but then claimed controlDarfur of the region • Rebuilt power both at home and at sea late 18th c • Consolidated under rule of Sayyid Said bin Sultan (1804-1856) • During his rule Oman reached its zenith as a regional power: possessions on both sides of the Gulf and in East Africa • Sayyid Said concentrated on developing country’s economy and commerce: saw East Africa as ‘key’ to development

Zanzibar Slave Trade

• 1830s, Sultan chose Zanzibar and surrounding islands as centre of clove and spice production • Encouraged migration Omani merchants, traders • Drew on Indian trade network to attract Indian financial capital • Drew on East African slave trade to purchase slaves for plantation development • 1840 moved capital definitively to Zanzibar • Expanded Ivory and slave-trading network to interior; established grain plantations on mainland to feed slave trade and slave workers • Indian merchants provided credit for goods that moved as far inland as (today) eastern Congo • New settlements grew up to facilitate and feed trading network • ‘Swahili’ traders of mixed cultural descent operated caravans • Expanded Sultan’s ‘domains’ half-way across the continent taking language, culture and religion with them Zanzibar Slave Trade

• Famous ‘Tippu Tip’ epitomized system at most effective • Tippu Tip (Muhammad bin Hamid c.1830-1905) ruled a commercial empire in Equatorial Africa from the 1860s to 1890. • Born in Zanzibar of a Swahili merchant and a Nyamwezi (African) mother, he began his ventures in the early 1860s south of Lake Tanganyika • Expanded as far as Congo (1875) establishing his own ‘state’ • Both traded in slaves (to the coast), used slave labour in plantations and built slave-army Zanzibar Slave Trade Zanzibar Slave Trade

Dhow used in Indian Ocean Trade Old Zanzibar Slave Mart Zanzibar Slave Trade

• Ottoman connections during reign of Sultan Abd al-Hamid (1876-1909) strengthened by growth of ‘pan-Islamism’ • Sultans of Zanzibar visited Ottoman court, exchanges between scholars, ‘intellectuals’ • Same time as slave trade through Zanzibar feeding Hijaz trade to Ottoman empire (see above) • East African trade also supplying slaves to Qajar Persia (1800-1907), though this was gradually reduced in the course of the century [see Niambi Walker “Persian Slavery” in Readings]

(From Walker, “Persian Slavery” Zanzibar Slave Trade

• Like the other trades we have looked at, there are complications in reading the East African trade in ‘black and white’ terms as well: – It is debatable that the Omanis who established themselves in Zanzibar should be considered ‘Arabs’ per se: they settled permanently in Zanzibar, contributed to both its religious culture and its economy: their slaves were used in Africa (mainland grain farms; island clove plantations) – It is even less debatable that what came to be known as ‘Swahili’ traders like Tippu Tip were Arabs – his father, like him, was a Muslim Swahili speaker who married an African woman and settled in the interior (Tabori in his case) – And the slaves they used were entirely employed in Africa – It is also to be noted that after the Omani capital was established in Zanzibar, many Omani moved to East Africa, settling both on the coast and in the interior, becoming part of the African community but not in fact, only engaging in the slave trade. They were more interested in other commodities like ivory and the trade in imported goods through Zanzibar Concluding comments :

• Without engaging in the ‘numbers game’ that so obsesses the study of the ‘Atlantic trade’, it is likely that the quantity of Africans that ended up in the ‘Middle Eastern Muslim World by means of all these trades exceeded that of the ‘Atlantic New Worlds’ • No way of knowing numbers, though recent estimates on the Saharan trade alone (including the Nile trade) are about equivalent to the ocean trade (range of 11-15 million, depending on source); adding in the East African trade puts estimates at 20 million or more • What distinguishes analysis of these trades: - carried on (in significant numbers) since at least tenth century but varied by region and era; NOT the intense and largely measurable, map-able trade of the Atlantic that took place almost exclusively between fifteenth and nineteenth centuries with by far the greatest ‘flow’ taking place in the 18th century Zanzibar Slave Trade

-ultimate ‘market’ was never clear as ‘Muslim societies’ existed throughout much of the region through which slaves passed, so Saharan trade was trade into Saharan communities, also into north African communities, into Arabian peninsula and/or into heart of Ottoman empire - East African trade fed armies and plantations in the interior; grain plantations on the coast; clove plantations on the islands and a trade into Egypt and the Hijaz

-This complicates the issue of determining how slavery itself developed in the African-Middle Eastern muslim worlds as each region, each community tended to reflect the specific nature of the trade that supplied it (or, increasingly towards the end of the 19th century, did not supply it) as well as the local culture in which it grew