Blacks, Islam and slavery in Africa

Raymond Chickrie:

It is a well established fact that Africans prior to Islam practiced genital mutilation and it is mostly in the African continent where this barbaric practice continues; it has its root in tribalism and not in Islam. Slavery or oppression in the Sudan or in Mauritania has nothing to do with the Arabs today; sadly it's the season to "blame it on the Arabs." There is a trend globally; the lighter skinned Africans/Blacks feel superior, and quite often are given more opportunities than their darker skinned brethren. Here in the West Indies the lighter skinned Blacks are the privileged minority.

The weak and most vulnerable have always been preyed on. The so called slavery in the Sudan and Mauritania is perpetrated by Africans. Some Africans do speak Arabic. There is slavery and oppression in the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya or Namibia where there is no Islam, how can Mr Barnet refute this phenomenon? These are not Arabs in the Sudan. In my opinion they are all Blacks, except that some speak Arabic. Calling the Sudanese Arab is like calling the Dominicanos Spanish. They are called Arabs only because they identify with similar language. It's Black vs Black or let's say African vs African. The history of slavery practiced by Africans is well documented. "The Asanti (the capital, Kumasi, in modern Ghana) had a long tradition of domestic slavery." Commenting on Songhay, the young Moroccan traveller and commentator, Leo Africanus, wrote, "...here there is a certain place where slaves are sold, especially on those days when the merchants are assembled. And a young slave of fifteen years of age is sold for six ducats, and children are also sold. The king of this region has a certain private palace where he maintains a great number of concubines and slaves."

In the early 18th century, Kings of Dahomey (known today as Benin) became big players in the slave trade, waging a bitter war on their neighbours, resulting in the capture of 10,000, including another important slave trader, the King of Whydah. King Tegbesu made £250,000 a year selling people into slavery in 1750. King Gezo said in the 1840s he would do anything the British wanted him to do apart from giving up the slave trade: "The slave trade is the ruling principle of my people. It is the source and the glory of their wealth...the mother lulls the child to sleep with notes of triumph over an enemy reduced to slavery..."

Today even children are subject to these horrors. UNICEF estimates that 200,000 children from West and Central Africa are sold into slavery each year. In 2000, the US State Department reported that over 15,000 children between the ages of nine and 12 "have been sold into forced labor on plantations". The BBC has also covered extensively West African child slave trade. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/africa/412628.stm). The issue of limited resources, poverty, famine and dictatorship needs to be addressed to solve this issue of slavery which is prevalent in many parts of Africa; and not just in the Sudan or Mauritania as alleged.

The conflict in Darfur is not one of race or religion, but a battle for survival on limited resources; in this case fertile land. Two factions are competing for scarce resources. African problems today are caused by Africans and not Arabs or Europeans. Dictatorship, tribalism, diseases, deforestations, desertification, and corruption are prevalent in Africa.

Scale of African slavery revealed

Child slavery: Africa's growing problem