blackandbrownlove:Confronting Anti-Black Racism in The Arab World (Important Read)In response to an
blackandbrownlove:Confronting Anti-Black Racism in The Arab World (Important Read)In response to an essay I wrote recently regarding the “essentialblackness” of the Palestinian struggle, I received this reaction, amongothers: “What about Arab anti-black racism? Or the Arab slave trade?”The Arab slave trade is a fact of history and anti-blackracism is a fact of current reality, a shameful thing that must be confrontedin Arab societies. Though I claim no expertise on the subject, I think thatapplying notions of racism as it exists in the US will preclude a realunderstanding of the subject in the Arab world.I spent much of much of my youth in the Arab world and I donot recall having a race consciousness until I came to the United States at theage of 13. My knowledge of Arab anti-black racism comes predominantly from ArabAmericans. Like other immigrant communities, they adopt the prevailing racistsentiments of the power structure in the US, which decidedly holdsAfrican-Americans in contempt.This attitude is also becoming more prevalent in Arabcountries for various reasons, but mostly because Arab governments,particularly those that import foreign labour from Africa and Southeast Asia,have failed to implement or enforce anti-discrimination and anti-exploitationlaws.In many Arab nations, including Kuwait where I was born, workersare lured into menial jobs where their passports are confiscated upon arrivaland they are forced into humiliating and often inhuman working conditions. Theyhave little to no protection under the law and are particularly vulnerable toexploitation, including extraordinarily long working hours, withholding ofsalaries, sexual, mental, and physical abuse, and denial of travel.The recent case of Alem Dechesa brought to light the horrorsfaced by migrant workers in Lebanon. Dechesa, a domestic worker from Ethiopia,committed suicide after suffering terrible mental and physical abuse at thehands of her Lebanese employers, whose savage beating of her in front of theEthiopian Consulate went viral last year.Defining beautyAn extension to Arab anti-black racism is an aspiration toall that our former - and current - colonisers possess. Individuals aspire towhat is powerful and rich, and the images of that power and wealth have lightskin, straight hair, small noses, ruddy cheeks and tall, skinny bodies. Thatimage rejects melanin-rich skin, coiled hair, broad or pointy noses, shortstature, broad hips and big legs. So we, too, reject these features, despisingthem in others and in ourselves as symbols of inferiority, laziness, andpoverty. That’s why the anglicising industries of skin bleaching and hairstraightening are so profitable.And yet, when Palestine went to the UN for recognition ofstatehood, the vast majority of nations who voted yes were southern nations.The same is true when Palestine asked for admission to UNESCO. In fact, whenthe US cut off funding to UNESCO in response to its members’ democratic vote toadmit Palestine, it was the African nation of Gabon that immediately stepped upwith a $2m donation to UNESCO to help offset the loss of income.It was not Saudi Arabia, or Kuwait, or Qatar, or Lebanon, orSweden, or France. It was Gabon. How many Palestinians know that, much lessexpressed gratitude for it?So concerned are Palestinians with what the European Unionand the United States think of us. So engrossed are we in grovelling for theirfavour and handouts as they support a system of Jewish supremacy pushing ourancient society into extinction. We dance like clowns any time a Europeanleader spares us a thought. Have we no sense of history? No sense of pride? Nocomprehension of who is truly standing with us and who is sabotaging us?In a world order that peddles notions of entire continentsor regions as irreducible monoliths, the conversation among Arabs becomes adichotomous “Arab” versus “African”, ignoring millennia ofshared histories ranging from extensive trade and commerce, to the horrors ofthe Arab slave trade, to the solidarity of African-Arab anti-colonial unity, tothe current state of ignorance that does not know history and cannot connectthe dots when it comes to national liberation struggles. Arab slave tradeWhen I was researching the subject of the Arab slave trade,I came upon a veritable treasure of a website established by The AfricanHolocaust Society, or Mafaa [Swahili for “holocaust”], a non-profitorganisation of scholars, artists, filmmakers, academics, and activistsdedicated to reclaiming the narratives of African histories, cultures, andidentities. Included in this great body of scholarly works is a comprehensivesection on the Arab slave trade, as well as the Jewish slave trade,African-Arab relations over the centuries, and more, by Owen Alik Shahadah, anactivist, scholar and filmmaker.Reading this part of our shared history, we can see how alarge proportion of Arabs, including those among us who harbour anti-blackracism, are the sons and daughters of African women, who were kidnapped fromEastern African nations as sex slaves.Unlike the European slave trade, the Arab slave trade wasnot an important feature of Arab economies and it predominantly targeted women,who became members of harems and whose children were full heirs to theirfather’s names, legacies and fortunes, without regard to their physicalfeatures. The enslaved were not bought and sold as chattel the way weunderstand the slave trade here, but were captured in warfare, or kidnappedoutright and hauled across the Sahara.Race was not a defining line and enslaved peoples were notlocked into a single fate, but had opportunity for upward mobility thoughvarious means, including bearing children or conversion to Islam. No-one knowsthe true numbers of how many African women were enslaved by Arabs, but one needonly look at ourselves to see the shadows of these African mothers who gavebirth to us and lost their African identities.But while African scholars at the Mafaa Society makeimportant distinctions between the Arab and European slave trades, enslavementof human beings is a horror of incomprehensible proportions by any standard,and that’s what it was in the Arab world as it was - or is - anywhere. Thereare some who argue that the Arab slave traders were themselvesindistinguishable from those whom they enslaved because the word“Arab” had cultural relevance, not racial.One-way streetThis argument goes hand-in-hand with the discredited excusethat Africans themselves were involved in the slave trade, with warring tribescapturing and selling each other. But no matter how you look at it, the slavetrade was a one-way street, with Africans always the enslaved victims. I knowof no African tribe that kidnapped Europeans and put them in bondage forgenerations; nor do I know of an African tribe that captured Arab women forcenturies and made them sex slaves.I think humanity has truly never known a holocaust ofgreater magnitude, savagery, or longevity than that perpetrated against thepeoples of Africa. This Mafaa has never been fully acknowledged and certainlynever atoned for - not that the wounds or enduring legacies of turning humanbeings into chattel for centuries can ever be fully comprehended or atoned for.But one must try, because just as we inherit privilege from our ancestors, sodo we inherit their sins and the responsibility for those sins.Gaddafi’s roleThe late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi understood this and he usedhis power and wealth to try to redeem our shared history. He was the first Arableader to apologise on behalf of Arab peoples to our African brothers andsisters for the Arab slave trade and the Arab role in the European slave trade.He funnelled money into the African Union and used Libya’swealth to empower the African continent and promote pan-Africanism. He was aforce of reconciliation, socialism, and empowerment for both African and Arabpeoples. Gaddafi’s actions threatened to renew African-Arab reconciliation andalliances similar to that which occurred at the height of the Non-AlignedMovement during the presidencies of Jamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and KwameNkrumah of Ghana. Thus, NATO’s urgency to prevent “massacres” and“slaughter” in Libya was manufactured and sold wholesale. The fear ofAfrican-Arab solidarity can be seen in the way the US-backed Libyan insurgencyspread rumours that “black African” mercenaries were committingatrocities against Libyans. Gaddafi became an even bigger threat when anagreement was reached with the great anti-imperialist force in South America,Hugo Chavez, to mediate a solution to the uprising in Libya.Now both of these champions of their people are gone, andthe so-called Libyan revolutionaries are executing “black Africans”throughout the country. Gone, too, is NATO’s worry about slaughter in Libya,and another high-functioning Arab nation lies in ruin, waste and civil strife -primed for rampant corporate looting.I wrote previously that the Palestinian struggle against theerasure of our existence, history and identity was spiritually and politicallyblack in nature. So, too, are other struggles, like that of migrant workersthroughout many Arab nations. These are our comrades. They are the wretched,exploited, robbed, and/or, at last, liberated.I refer to Black as a political term, not necessarily aracial or ethnic descriptor. In the words of Owen Alik Shehadah: “BlackPeople is a construction which articulates a recent social-political reality ofpeople of colour (pigmented people). Black is not a racial family, an ethnicgroup or a super-ethnic group. Political Blackness is thus not an identity butmoreover a social-political consequence of a world which after colonialism andslavery existed in those colour terms. The word “Black” has nohistorical or cultural association, it was a name born when Africans werebroken down into transferable labour units and transported as chattel to theAmericas.“But that word has been reclaimed, redefined, and injectedwith all the power, love, defiance, and beauty that is Africa. For the rest ofus, and without appropriating the word, “black” is a phenomenon ofresistance, steadfastness - what we Palestinians call sumud - and the beauty ofculture that is reborn out of bondage and oppression.Right to look the other wayFinally, solidarity from Africans is not equivalent to thatwhich comes from our European comrades, whose governments are responsible forthe ongoing erasure of Palestine. African peoples have every reason to look theother way. Ethiopians have every reason to say: “You deserve what you getfor the centuries of enslavement and neo-enslavement industry by your Arabneighbours.” African Americans have every reason to say: “Why shouldI show solidarity with Arabs who come here to treat us like white people do,and sometimes worse?”Malcolm X once said: “If I was that [anti-American],I’d have a right to be that - after what America has done to us. Thisgovernment should feel lucky that our people aren’t anti-American.”We can substitute the word “Arab” for“American” in that sentence and it would be a valid statement. Andyet, Africa is right there with us. African American intellectuals are thegreatest champions of our struggle in the United States. The impact ofsolidarity from four particular individuals - Desmond Tutu, Alice Walker,Angela Davis and Cynthia McKinney - can never be overestimated.Last month, the former South African ambassador to Israelrefused a “certificate” from Israel confirming the planting of treesin his name. In his letter, he called Israel a racist, apartheid state and saidthe gift was an “offence to my dignity and integrity”. He added:“I was not a party to, and never will be, to the planting of ‘18 trees’,in my ‘honour’, on expropriated and stolen land.”I would like my countrymen to think long and hard about thisuntil they truly comprehend the humbling beauty of this solidarity from peoplewho have every reason to be anti-Arab. I wish my countrymen could look throughmy eyes. They would see that black is profoundly beautiful. They would see thatAfrica runs through our veins, too. Our enslaved African foremothers deserve tobe honoured and loved by their Arab children. And it is for us to redeem theirpain with the recognition and atonement long owed.Arriving at this understanding is a good starting place forreciprocal solidarity with nations and peoples who are standing with us, inheart and in action.…….Susan Abulhawa is a Palestinian writer and the author of theinternational bestselling novel, Mornings in Jenin (Bloomsbury 2010). She isalso the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, an NGO for children.Follow her on Twitter: @sjabulhawaSource: Al Jazeera ______________________________________________________________The Arabic Slave Trade is something that is rarely spoken about and often goes unheard of. When we speak of the enslavement of Africans, many of us like to connect it with Europeans, which is fine, but we should never forget they were not the only ones. For over 900 years, Africans were enslaved by Arabic slave traders. They would take Africans from all over the continent including West, East, and North Africa forcing them to march thousands of miles to Slave Markets. The Men, Women, and Children were bound together by the waist and neck so that if one died the rest could drag him or her along. These walks became known as the “Death Marches” and an estimated 20 million Africans died on these walks alone. The Arabs believed it was God’s wish to see Africans enslaved and believed they were uncivilized animals. Sound Familiar? Slaves were beaten and abused regularly. Many African Women, young Girls, and Boys would be used as Sex slaves for their owners. Islamic Slave holders would stick their swords and other weapons into the Vagina’s of Black Women and cut off the penis of African Men. This was done because they believed Africans had an uncontrollable sex drive. Many Africans would be forced to convert to Islam believing if they shared the same religion, it would stop the abuse. Muslim slave traders would also promise them Freedom after conversion. This did not stop the abuse nor did it gain them their freedom. In Fact, one can argue it made them even more enslaved. When Europeans entered the slave industry, Muslim Slave traders would use the religion to exploit Islamic Africans to bring them other Africans. These Africans would then be sold to Europeans. Slavery in the holy city of Mecca would not be outlawed until 1966 and in all other Arabic countries until 1990. The Islamic Slave Trade began almost 500 years before the Europeans would come to Africa. It would be a catalyst for the dismantling of the continent and the massive expansion of the Religion. Had it not been for Islam, European Chattel Slavery may never have occurred. History is quite a teacher and once again as the late Dr. John Henrik Clarke once said, “Africa has no friends. If you want a friend, look in the mirror.”Written by @KingKwajo - Via: SanCopha League -- source link