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Recently, Sylviane Diouf did a talk with Imam Zaid Shakir in Berkeley at Zaytuna College. This prompted me to pick up her book Servants of Allah: African Muslims enslaved in the Americas.
I knew that Muslims were brought to America as slaves. This is not surprising-- what I did not know was the significant wealth and educational attainment of the peoples who were enslaved. Islam came to Western Africa about 150 years after the death of the Prophet, may peace and blessings be upon him, and meshed quickly with the culture. This was about 800 CE, 700 years before the American slave trade began in earnest.
I'm reading about how the leaders in West African countries paid for architects, artisans, legal scholars and religious scholars to come from Spain, Mahgreb (Morocco, Tunisia, Libya) and Arabia to spread education throughout Mali and neighboring lands. Girls were educated. Women were more learned at men at Qur'anic teachings. Western Africa was one of the central and most venrated hubs of Sufism as well.
Colonialism ain't no joke ya'll. Because even though I know lots of African slaves were literate, cultured, religious and learned-- I'm always flabbergasted at the naked children image that colonial apologists present of Black people. I'll be reading about a scholar who went to his aunt for religious advice because she was more learned than he-- and be like "OH THOSE WHITE PEOPLE!!" Because they twisted things so severely and people believe it-- and even me, who doesn't believe it, let's it exist as static in my head. A sort of default notion that I have to mentally move aside before processig a thought. It's like switching from English to Spanish-- right now, because I've spoken mostly English for the last 25 years, I have to shove English aside when I want to say something in Spanish. The Spanish is there, just like the knowledge of the people who were enslaved, but the familiar is also there; whether it be English or the idea of primitive Africans, and I have to consciously move it away.
So yeah. I'll be posting updates from this book here and there.
Surah Saturday has been on hold for the last couple of weeks-- I had a friend in town last week and this week I painted my bathroom on Saturday. I'll be painting again this coming Saturday, inshAllah, so it'll probably return at the end of the month.
But I'll be reading this book bit by bit, so look for that.
I knew that Muslims were brought to America as slaves. This is not surprising-- what I did not know was the significant wealth and educational attainment of the peoples who were enslaved. Islam came to Western Africa about 150 years after the death of the Prophet, may peace and blessings be upon him, and meshed quickly with the culture. This was about 800 CE, 700 years before the American slave trade began in earnest.
I'm reading about how the leaders in West African countries paid for architects, artisans, legal scholars and religious scholars to come from Spain, Mahgreb (Morocco, Tunisia, Libya) and Arabia to spread education throughout Mali and neighboring lands. Girls were educated. Women were more learned at men at Qur'anic teachings. Western Africa was one of the central and most venrated hubs of Sufism as well.
Colonialism ain't no joke ya'll. Because even though I know lots of African slaves were literate, cultured, religious and learned-- I'm always flabbergasted at the naked children image that colonial apologists present of Black people. I'll be reading about a scholar who went to his aunt for religious advice because she was more learned than he-- and be like "OH THOSE WHITE PEOPLE!!" Because they twisted things so severely and people believe it-- and even me, who doesn't believe it, let's it exist as static in my head. A sort of default notion that I have to mentally move aside before processig a thought. It's like switching from English to Spanish-- right now, because I've spoken mostly English for the last 25 years, I have to shove English aside when I want to say something in Spanish. The Spanish is there, just like the knowledge of the people who were enslaved, but the familiar is also there; whether it be English or the idea of primitive Africans, and I have to consciously move it away.
So yeah. I'll be posting updates from this book here and there.
Surah Saturday has been on hold for the last couple of weeks-- I had a friend in town last week and this week I painted my bathroom on Saturday. I'll be painting again this coming Saturday, inshAllah, so it'll probably return at the end of the month.
But I'll be reading this book bit by bit, so look for that.
