West African Islam in Colonial and Antebellum South Carolina (original) (raw)
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The urban background of Enslaved Muslims in the Americas
Slavery & Abolition, 2005
questions of how enslaved Muslims responded to slavery in the Americas. The responses of these individuals to their captivity and exploitation provide a critique of the socialization and cultural process that is sometimes called "creolization." Admittedly, the history of Muslims does not conform to normal patterns of "creolization," if there was such a thing as "normal" in relation to slavery, nor should their profiles be considered representative of anything except themselves. Methodologically, one of the aims of this approach is to identify cohorts of people who can be subjected to sociological analysis, to test the claims of Orlando Patterson that the enslaved experienced "social death" or otherwise adopted mechanisms of survival that drew on past experiences. The analysis builds on my earlier work, including that which highlights the relative involvement of Muslim areas in the Atlantic slave trade, and the important influence of Muslim merchants in the slave trade. In this regard, I would reiterate, in summary, that Muslim regions were relatively under-represented in the slave ledgers of the Americas, and that this under representation was in part, at least, the result of conscious Muslim policy against selling slaves to anyone other than Muslims, and certainly not to Christians. 4 The evolution of Muslim attitudes towards slavery and who could be enslaved and who should not be, and who it was legitimate to sell slaves to, and who it was not, was the subject of a long debate in West Africa, and articulated most fully in the writings of Aḥmad Bābā of Timbuktu (1556-1627). 5 Another component of my argument rests on the demographic profile of the enslaved population leaving the interior of West Africa, which has been demonstrated previously as being primarily comprised of young adult males, a profile that reflects a disproportionately large number of males when compared with the trade as a whole; this anomaly draws attention to the gender construction of the interior trade and its relationship with the trans-Atlantic, and indeed the trans-Saharan, trades. 6 This article addresses another feature of trade, viz., that enslaved Muslims, while probably fewer in number than might otherwise have prevailed, were nonetheless over-represented in terms of those coming from urban backgrounds in Africa. Indeed, it is argued here that virtually all Muslims came from urban settings in Africa. Such a conclusion affects the analysis of the expectations of the enslaved, as influenced the perceptions of both the trans-Atlantic and trans-Saharan links, and the degree of "feedback" via travelers and former slaves, returning from the Americas or North Africa, or filtered through those who traveled to Europe and the Americas or made the pilgrimage to Mecca.
America's First Muslims Were Slaves: A Forgotten History.
This article delves into the often-overlooked history of Muslims in the United States prior to its formation as a nation, focusing on the life of Omar Ibn Said, an enslaved African Muslim. Said experienced enslavement for over five decades, during which he authored a remarkable Arabic autobiography detailing his life experiences. This narrative challenges prevailing assumptions about the literacy and cultural backgrounds of enslaved Africans, revealing Said's proficiency in Arabic and his role as a teacher in his homeland. Despite being captured and transported to the United States, Said's literacy persisted, resulting in the creation of numerous texts in Arabic during his captivity. The acquisition of his manuscript, titled "The Life of Omar Ibn Said," by the Library of Congress in 2017, sheds light on the early presence of Muslims in the United States and counters the notion that Muslims solely arrived as immigrants in the 20th century. The article also delves into the erasure of African Muslim identities within the context of racial classification and societal stereotypes.
New Perspectives on African Americans and Islam
Journal of African American History, 2017
A welcomed addition to the literature on Islam in the United States, Africana Islamic Studies provides readers with an array of thought-provoking and insightful examinations of the legacy and influence of Islam. This edited volume offers an outstanding and diverse set of voices on the history of the Nation of Islam (NOI), the historiography of Pan-Africanist thought, the NOI’s Elijah Muhammad, literary analyses and discussions of the place of Islam in the Africana literary tradition, and studies of Malcolm X, including comparisons with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. One important, albeit coincidental, aspect of this text is its timing, as it was published the year before one of the most significant shifts in United States policy towards Muslims (both at home and abroad). Since the election of the 45th U.S. President and some of the most sweeping changes we have witnessed exercised through executive power, it has become evident that the category of “Muslim” is under attack in a conscious...
2011
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A history of Islam among the African American Muslims of Richmond
The Muslim World, 1994
A HISTORY OF ISLAM AMONG THE AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSLIMS OF RICHMOND I We strongly believe that there must have been some Muslim slaves in Richmond before 1950. That we are unable to Locate their history does not mean that black Muslim slaves never lived in Richmond. They hardly experience color discrimination. And if there is any discrimination against them, it is minimal and primarily not because of their color or religious beliefs but because of prejudice in their professions. Apparently some white Americans prefer to hire an immigrant rather than African Americans because the immigrants are easier to control and often pose no threat to the white administration. 258 The majority of the immigrant Muslims are white. * African Americans are fond of choosing Muslim names for their children. They try to give their own meanings to the name chosen even when those names have no proper meaning in the Arabic language. Not all Arab names are Islamically meaningful, yet African Americans find meanings for them because of their longing for identity. James Shabbaz used to come to Richmond in the early stages to lead the Muslims and deliver to them the message of the Nation of Islam. When he ceased to come. brother Isaiah Kareem and a minister from Washington. brother Loonie Shabbaz. used to come to Richmond. Our informants told us that many ministers from the Nations of Islam frequently visited Richmond. including Malcolm X , to educate the people.
2018
Literate African Muslim slaves were differentiated from the rest of the slaves and given a special status and some of them could leave back to Africa having shown their unworthiness of slavery. African Muslim slaves in British North America have left important biographical and autobiographical evidence of their presence. Literacy was the key factor in a context where a literate African slave was an oxymoron in antebellum America whose vision of the world was governed by the dominant white racial frame. The racial discourse of Enlightenment admitted the presence of exceptions to the general rule of Africa as devoid of any attainments of civilization: this was prompted by the presence of literate Africans; literacy was a sign of reason that gave enlightened Europeans and Americans a pause for thought regarding Africa that soon dissolved into the sea of a dominant white racial frame. Muslims were not exempted from racism even though they were placed above illiterate Africans. Orientalism preached a different type of racism based on culture not on biology. In the midst of it all, African Muslim slaves worked hard to maintain their identity through writing, ritual practice, using their Arabic names. Literacy put them on equal cultural footing with intellectuals of the time but that did not change the asymmetrical relationship of power in favour of the white slave owner.