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Slave Trades, Slavery and Racism” 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 //// ‘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
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