“The attitude of Muslim superiority, to the degree that it in fact existed, must first be explained within the context of the West African background. The probability that these people themselves have been slaveholders in the Old World influenced their view of slaves. Their African experience was shaped along the lines of highly stratified societies in which the servile population was seen as inferior. The ethnic factor is relevant here as well, in that there are considerable data on the ethnocentricity of the Fulbe of West Africa. Originating long ago in present-day southern Mauritania, many of the Fulbe claim descent from the Arab general ‘Uqba b. Nafi’, who in 667 led Muslim armies as far south as Kawar in the Fezzan….” “A second factor in explaining Muslim attitudes of superiority concerns Islam itself. To live as a Muslim in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century West Africa was to live in an increasingly intolerant society. This was the period of jihad, of the establishment of Muslim theocracies, of self-purification and separation from practices and beliefs seen as antithetical to Islam….” “But a third factor in Muslim attitudes of superiority is as important as the first two-namely, a number of these Muslim slaves were from prominent backgrounds in West Africa. For example, Abd al-Rahman was a scion of Almaami Ibrahima Sori. Ayuba b. Sulayman’s father was a leading cleric in the upper Senegal valley. Several Muslims boasted of extensive educations in West Africa, including Lamine Kaba, Bilali, and Umar b. Said. In fact, it was more common than not that West African Muslims were recipients of an Islamic education and were therefore literate, and the various documents that concern notable Muslims invariably comment on the fact they could write in Arabic. From the observer’s vantage point, this was quite incredible. However, it should be appreciated that literacy within the West African Muslim community was widespread; most Muslim villages and towns maintained madrasas (Qur’anic schools), to which children from ages seven to fourteen went for instructions, boys and girls. At madrasa, the Qur’an was memorized by heart and Arabic grammar was introduced….” Michael A. Gomez “Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South” Page 84
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 23:53:11 +0000
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