Part of the difficulty in looking at the Arab presence in Africa is how broad (or loose?) a definition of Arab to use. Where as today countries like Egypt and Morocco are clearly part of the Arab world, in the age of antiquity they were culturally separate. Same thing for “North” Sudan. Secondly after the rise of Islam in the 7th century the history of the Arab presence in Africa and the Islamic presence in Africa become intimately intertwined. So I will use a broad definition and will often not strictly differentiate between strictly Islamic and Arabic culture in sub-Saharan Africa.
With that be said let’s review part one of my look at the Arab presence in Africa ( The Arab slave trade in Africa)
The Arab slave trade originated before Islam and lasted more than a millennium. The slave trade began to meet the demand for intense difficult plantation labor, these captured “Zanj” slaves were shipped across the Middle East.
- The Sahara was thinly populated. Nevertheless, since ancient times there had been cities living on a trade in salt, gold, slaves, cloth, and on agriculture enabled by irrigation.
- In the Middle Ages, the general Arabic term bilâd as-sûdân ("Land of the Blacks") was used for the vast Sudan region (an expression denoting West and Central Africa, or sometimes extending from the coast of West Africa to Western Sudan. It provided a pool of manual labor for North and Saharan Africa. This region was dominated by certain states and people: the Ghana Empire, the Empire of Mali, the Kanem-Bornu Empire, the Fulani and Hausa.
- In the Horn of Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and Indian Oceans were controlled by local
Somali and other native Muslim converts. Yemen and Oman (on the Arabian peninsula) had merchant posts along the coasts. The Ethiopian coast had long been a hub for the exportation of slaves from the interior by the Kingdom of Aksum and earlier lands. The port and most coastal areas were largely Muslim, and the port itself was home to a number of Arab and Indian merchants. Ethiopia often exported Nilotic slaves from their western borderland provinces, or from newly conquered southern provinces.The Somali and Afar Muslim sultanates, such as the Adal Sultanate, also exported Nilotic slaves that they captured from the interior, as well as foes vanquished during battles.
- In the African Great Lakes region, Oman and Yemen traders set up slave-trading posts along the southeastern coast of the Indian Ocean; most notably in the archipelago of Zanzibar, along the coast of present-day Tanzania. The Zanj region or Swahili Coast flanking the Indian Ocean continued to be an important area for the Arab slave trade up until the 19th century.
- British explorers under Stanley Livingston were then the first Europeans to penetrate to the interior of the Congo Basin and to discover the scale of slavery there. The Arab Tippu Tip extended his influence there and captured many people as slaves. After Europeans had settled in the West Africa (Gulf of Guinea), the trans-Saharan slave trade became less important. In Zanzibar, slavery was abolished late, in 1897, under Sultan Hamoud bin Mohammed.
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Arabic as Africa’s Language of Learning
Although in East Africa both Ethiopia and Nubia had their own native written languages. most of West Africa used Arabic as their primary literary script. Arabic was used by West Africa’s nobility in a manner similar to how Greek, Latin and later German served as the written language of the educated nobility of Europe. Latin especially was used by many European nations until they developed written versions of their native tongues.
As a side note European slave traders who purchased slaves from West Africa knew that many of the slaves they purchased were Muslims (approximately 20%). But after the "trouble" Brazil had with Muslim slaves in the 19th century, that information was furiously suppressed.
The Malê revolt also known as The Great Revolt is perhaps the most significant slave rebellion in Brazil. On a Sunday during Ramadan in January 1835, in the city of Salvador da Bahia, a small group of black slaves and freedmen, inspired by Muslim teachers, rose up against the government. Muslims were called malê in Bahia at this time, from Yoruba imale that designated a Yoruba Muslim.
The uprising took place on the feast day of Our Lady of Guidance, a celebration in the Bonfim’s church’s cycle of religious holidays. As a result, many worshipers traveled to Bonfirm for the weekend to pray or celebrate. Authorities were in Bonfim in order to keep the celebrations in line. Consequently, there would be fewer people and authorities in Salvador, making it easier for the rebels to occupy the city.The slaves knew about the Haitian Revolution (1791−1804) and wore necklaces bearing the image of President Dessalines, who had declared Haitian independence.
European slave masters quickly learned that knowledge of one’s culture made slaves harder to control. Also once the Catholic church decided that Africans had human souls, the idea of letting slaves keep a language that would make Christianization more difficult was illogical. These facts lead to the suppression of West Africa’s Arabic writing.
Historians have identified many authentic Arabic texts written in the United States before the Civil War. Many of these manuscripts have been reproduced in the books listed below. When translated, most turn out to be memorized sections of the Qu’ran, revealing slaves’ struggles to maintain differing religious beliefs in an oppressive Christian nation. These writings also reveal high levels of education attained by the authors in Africa prior to enslavement and forced emigration. Unfortunately slavery has largely silenced our present knowledge of these educated people. It is known that slave masters often placed Muslim slaves as supervisors over their fellow bondsmen (Were My African American Ancestors Muslims?).
So what drew Arab traders to West Africa?Important archaeological discoveries in the late 1970's revealed a complex and much earlier development of an ancient civilization, that developed well before that of the famous ancient Ghana of 300 AD. Surveys and excavations in this 'Middle Niger' region found more than forty-three sites of ancient settlement, that belonged to an Iron Age culture that developed there from around 250 BC. These early settlements grew into urban centers.
Large stone masonry villages have also been discovered dating as far back as 1100 BC. Their archaeological finds include roads and walls of 2 meters high very likely erected for defense of the villages.
At its heart was Kumbi-Salah which acted as a hive of extensive trade and attracted caravans from a variety of regions. Famed for its gold deposit from the Wangara region. This city was commented upon by the famed Arab writer Ibn Fazari who called Ghana the land of gold, compered it in size to its northern contemporary Morocco, while salt came to the city from the Sahara.
Due to their expertise with iron and other metals, ancient Ghana traded in some of the finest artifacts in the area. Along side cotton, it was also known for its leather work called 'Moroccan Leather' despite the fact that it indeed originated in Ghana.
At the time of the conquest of Northern Africa by the Arabs (between the periods 639 and 708 AD), some merchants had already penetrated into the Western Africa. They found the powerful King of Ghana.
More wonders from Western African was attested to by another Arab geographer Ibn Haukal, he commented in amazement at the lucrative trade that flourished in the region. His comments in 951 mentions a check produced for the sum of 42,900 golden dinars written for a merchant in the state of Audoghast from a partner in Sidjilmassa in the North. Tales also abound of one particular gold nugget weighing 30 pounds!
Ibn Khaldun the well known Arab historian of the 14th century made mention of the lifestyle of the ancient Ghanaians while quoting from a book written in 1067 by Abu Ubaid Al-Bakri. He describes the Arab Muslim quarter which had sprung up to facilitate the trans-Saharan trade with North Africa, containing 12 mosques, buildings of stone and acacia wood, schools and centers of education. It was described further as 'the resort of the learned, of the rich and pious of all nations'.
A truly cosmopolitan city where the finest silk and brocade were worn by the populace.
In 990 AD the Northern city of Audoghast was captured and included into the sprawling Ghanaian Empire. It boasted a dense population including traders from as far away as Spain. Its streets were lined with elegant houses, public buildings and mosques. The surrounding countryside was rich in pastoral lands including sheep and cattle making meat plentiful. Wheat was found in the market places imported from the North, honey from the South. and a variety of foodstuffs from other regions. Robes of blue and red from Morocco was a popular fashion at the time. All which exchanged hands with payments of gold dust, cowrie shells or salt.
The ruler at the time emperor Tenkamenins court was described in the following terms by contemporaneous Arab historian Al-Bakri;
When he gives and audience to his people he sits in a pavilion around which stand his horses caparisoned in cloth and gold; behind him stand 10 pages holding shields and gold-mounted swords and on his right hand are the sons of the princes of his empire, splendidly clad and with gold plaited into their hair. The governor of the city is seated on the ground in front of the King, and all around him are his ministers in the same position. The gate of the chamber is guarded by dogs of an excellent breed, who never leave the kings seat, they wear collars of gold and silver.'
However in 1079 the land was invaded from the north by Almoravids Arabs from the newly founded Moroccan city of Marrakesh. A mass exodus ensued by the people who fled southwards to escape the conflict. This may go some way in explaining why ancient and modern day Ghana are not in the same place today. This began a pattern of West African empires being repeatedly pillaged from Arab armies from across the Sahara. By 1087 the Almoravids lost control of the empire to the Soninkes, but the empire disintegrated into several smaller states.
THE MALI EMPIRE
The next great ancient African empire to trade with Arabs was the Empire of Mali. Once one of the great centers of Islamic culture and wealth, Mali owed much of its reputation to both its position as a major trading center, and the tax that is levied on it's control of trans-Saharan route.
The Mali Empire was a West African empire of the Mandinka people that lasted from about 1230 to 1600. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa. The Mali Empire had many profound cultural influences on West Africa, especially from the city of Timbuktu. It powerful position facilitated the spread of its language, laws and customs along the Niger River. The Mali empire extended over a large area and consisted of numerous vassal kingdoms and provinces.
Unlike the Ghanian empire, the Malian empire did in fact encompass parts of modern day Mali, and many of the current inhabitants are descendants of the empire's original inhabitants.
The Mandinka kingdoms of Mali had already been in existance for several centuries before Sundiata’s unification as a small state just to the south of the Ghana Empire.
The Keita dynasty from which nearly every Mali emperor came traces its lineage back to Bilal, the faithful muezzin of Islam’s prophet Muhammad. (But it should be noted that it was common practice during the Middle Ages for both Christian and Muslim rulers to tie their bloodline back to a pivotal figure in their faith’s history.) So while the lineage of the Keita dynasty may be dubious at best, oral chroniclers have preserved a list of each Keita ruler from Lawalo (supposedly one of Bilal’s seven sons who settled in Mali) to Maghan Kon Fatta (father of Sundiata Keita).
EMPEROR MANSA MUSA
Mansa Musa, was the tenth mansa, which translates as "king of kings" or "emperor", of the Malian Empire. Musa was a devout Muslim and his hajj (a pilgrimage to Mecca ordained by Allah according to core teachings of Islam), made him well-known across North Africa and the Middle East. His belief in the religion of Islam was deep and more than just the repetition of Qur'anic verses and prayer. To Musa, Islam was the foundation of the "cultured world of the Eastern Mediterranean". He would spend much time fostering the growth of Islam in his empire.
Musa made his pilgrimage in 1324. Mansa Musa's famous hajj (pilgrimage) made his name in history and raised him to the attention of the entire European and Islamic world. 1324 was by the way about the same time the Aztecs began building Tenochtitlan, and the Ottoman Turks began the creation of their empire.
In Mansa Musa's caravan he brought 60,000 people dressed in fine silk and 80 camels carrying 2 tons of gold. Among this throng Mansa Musa had 12,000 servants, 500 of which carried staffs of gold.
If this grand entourage was not enough to catch the attention of the countries he crossed through, his generous giving certainly did. Wherever Mansa Musa's went he gave gold to the needy as charity is a required pillar of Islam. One Arabic writer even suggests that on every Friday during his travel he erected a mosque in the city that he found himself in.
In Cairo, Mansa Musa's gave and spent so much gold that gold’s Egyptian its value did not recover for twelve years. Before he returned to Mali, he had given away or spent so much that he was forced to borrow money from a merchant in Cairo for his return trip. Musa provided all living expenses and necessities for the grand procession. He feed the entire company of men and animals. Musa also gave to the cities he passed along on the way to Mecca, including Cairo and Medina.
Musa's journey was documented by several eyewitnesses along his route, who were in awe of his wealth and extensive procession, and records exist in a variety of sources, including journals, oral accounts and histories. Musa is known to have visited with the Mamluk sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad of Egypt in July of 1324. Al-Omari, an Arabic historian, described Mansa Musa as:
"the most powerful, the richest, the most fortunate, the most feared by his enemies and the most able to do good for those around him" in all of (West Africa).
(Ibn Battuta gives a detailed description of Mali just a few years after the reign of Mansa Musa.)
Musa's generous actions, however, inadvertently devastated the economy of the region. In the cities of Cairo, Medina and Mecca, the sudden influx of gold devalued the metal for the next decade. Prices on goods and wares super inflated in an attempt to adjust to the newfound wealth that was spreading throughout local populations. To rectify the gold market, Musa borrowed all the gold he could carry from money-lenders in Cairo, at high interest. As a side note this is the only time recorded in history that one man directly controlled the price of gold in the Mediterranean.
Culture and religion under Mansa Musa
Most of the inhabitants of ancient Mali were not Muslim and Musa allowed them to maintain their religious diversity. But Mansa Musa himself remained distinctly Muslim. While returning from Mecca, Mansa Musa brought back many Arab scholars and architects. Abu-Ishaq Ibrahim-es-Saheli, one of these architects, introduced new ideas into Mali architecture. With his help Mansa Musa constructed a royal palace, libraries, and mosques, and brought his trade city into international acclaim. This architect introduced to Mali a new mud construction technique that would establish a building tradition for centuries. With this technique he built the great Djingareyber Mosque at Timbuktu that stands to this day. He also built the great mosque at Jenne and a mosque in Gao that remained important for four centuries.
When Mansa Musa went on his hajj, he paraded his great wealth before the world. His generosity was quickly noted by European and Islamic nations alike. One contemporary, Spanish mapmaker depicted Mansa Musa seated on his thrown, gazing at a gold nugget in his right hand, holding a golden scepter in his left, and wearing a golden crown on his head. The Islamic world took notice because of his encouragement of Islam and his construction of Islamic centers of learning. These centers attracted Muslims from all over the world, including some of the greatest poets, scholars, and artists of Africa and the Middle east. This greatly increased the fame of Mali.
In the long run, partly due to Musa's conspicuous flaunting of wealth, when the ships of Portugal's Prince Henry captured Cuenta in 1415, Moorish prisoners told more details of the gold trade. Henry set his explorers down the African coast to find a route across subSaharen Africa in order to contain Islam. Containment failed as Constantinople fell in 1453 and after the successful reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula to push out Islam, Europeans turned toward the Americas. However, it had been Mali gold that provided the initial material for exploration and conquest.
The Mali Empire flourished because of trade above all else. It contained three immense gold mines within its borders unlike the Ghana Empire, which was only a transit point for gold. The empire taxed every ounce of gold or salt that entered its borders. By the beginning of the 14th century, Mali was the source of almost half the Old World's gold exported from mines in Bambuk, Boure and Galam. There was no standard currency throughout the realm, but several forms were prominent by region. The Sahelian and Saharan towns of the Mali Empire were organized as both staging posts in the long-distance caravan trade and trading centers for the various West African products. At Taghaza, for example, salt was exchanged; at Takedda, copper. Ibn Battuta observed the employment of slave labor in both towns. During most of his journey, Ibn Battuta traveled with a retinue that included slaves, most of whom carried goods for trade but would also be traded as slaves. On the return from Takedda to Morocco, his caravan transported 600 female slaves, suggesting that slavery was a substantial part of the commercial activity of the empire.
The great unit of exchange in the Mali Empire was salt. Salt was as valuable if not more valuable than gold in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was cut into pieces and spent on goods with close to equal buying power throughout the empire. While it was as good as gold in the north, it was even better in the south. The people of the south needed salt for their diet, but it was extremely rare. The northern region on the other hand had no shortage of salt. Every year merchants entered Mali via Oualata with camel loads of salt to sell in Niani. According to the Arabic scribe Ibn Battuta, who visited Mali in the mid 14th century, one camel load of salt sold at Walata for 8-10 mithkals of gold, but in Mali proper it earned 20-30 ducats and sometimes even 40.
Timbuktu
Its geographical setting made it a natural meeting point for nearby west African populations and nomadic Berber and Arab peoples from the north. Its long history as a trading outpost that linked west Africa with Berber, Arab, and Jewish traders throughout north Africa, and thereby indirectly with traders from Europe, has given it a fabled status, and in the West it was for long a metaphor for exotic, distant lands: "from here to Timbuktu."
Timbuktu's long-lasting contribution to Islamic and world civilization is scholarship. Timbuktu had one of the first universities in the world. Local scholars and collectors still boast an impressive collection of ancient Greek texts from that era. In fact, when modern scholars visit Timbuktu, they are shocked by families who have preserved these ancient works as heirloom. By the 14th century, important books were written and copied in Timbuktu, establishing the city as the center of a significant written tradition in Africa.
Timbuktu was established by the nomadic Tuareg as early as the 10th century. Although Tuaregs founded Timbuktu, it was only as a seasonal settlement. Roaming the desert during the wet months, in summer they stayed near the flood plains of the Inner Niger Delta. Since the terrain directly at the water wasn’t suitable due to mosquitoes, a well was dug a few miles from the river.
Sunni Ali Bar
The first Songhai emperor was Sunni Ali (also known as Sunni Ali Bar), who reigned from about 1464 to 1493. Like the Mali kings before him, Ali was a Muslim. In the late 1460s, he conquered many of the Songhai's neighboring states, including what remained of the then declining Mali Empire. Sunni Ali quickly established himself as the empire's most formidable historical military strategist and conqueror.
At its height Ali’s empire encompassed more landmass than all of western Europe and was the largest indigenous empire that Africa has ever seen. With his control of critical trade routes and cities such as Timbuktu, Sonni Ali brought great wealth to the Songhai Empire, which at its height would surpass the wealth of it’s historical predecessor the Malian empire.
During his campaigns for expansion, Ali conquered many lands, repelling attacks from the Mossi to the south and overcoming the Dogon people to the north. He annexed Timbuktu in 1468, after Islamic leaders of the town requested his assistance in overthrowing marauding Tuares who had taken the city after the decline of the Malian empire. However, Ali met stark resistance after setting his eyes on the wealthy and renowned trading town of Djenne. After a persistent seven-year siege, he was able to forcefully incorporate it into his vast empire in 1473, but only after having ruthlessly starved them into surrender.
Ali imposed Islam on non-Muslims and forced them to abide by Islamic law. Due to his violent sack of Timbuktu, he was described as an intolerant tyrant in many Islamic accounts. Islamic historian Al-Sa'df expresses this sentiment in describing his incursion on Timbuktu:
After Ali’s death in around 1494 the Songhai empire fell into a period of civil war and discord between warring factions of generals and sons of Ali. This period of instability continued until the the rise of a general who had served under Sonni Ali named Muhammad. After uniting the warring factions through shrewd use of both political and military means Muhammad claimed the Songhai empire’s crown. After taking the throne Muhammad I would be known as Askia the Great.
Askia the Great
Askai’s policies resulted in a rapid expansion of trade with Europe and Asia, the creation of many schools, and made Islam an integral part of the empire.
He is reputed to be buried in the Tomb of Askia in Gao, a World Heritage Site. Rumor has it that he gained the name Askia (which means forceful one) after Sunni Ali Ber's daughter heard the news of one of his wars
The successor of Sunni Ali Ber, Askia Muhammad was much more astute and farsighted than his predecessor had ever been. He orchestrated a program of expansion and consolidation which extended the empire from Taghaza in the North to the borders of Yatenga in the South; and from Air in the Northeast to Futa Tooro in Guinea. Instead of organizing the empire along Islamic lines, he tempered and improved on the traditional model by instituting a system of bureaucratic government unparalleled in the Western Africa.
In addition, Askia established standardized trade measures and regulations, and initiated the policing of trade routes. He also encouraged learning and literacy, ensuring that Mali's universities produced the most distinguished scholars, many of whom published significant books. To secure the legitimacy of his usurpation of the Sonni dynasty, Askia Muhammad allied himself with the scholars of Timbuktu, ushering in a golden age in the city for Muslimscholarship.
The eminent scholar Ahmed Baba, for example, produced books on Islamic law which are still in use today. Muhammad Kati published Tarik al-Fattah and Abdul-Rahman as-Sadi published Tarik ul-Sudan (translation the Chronicle of the Sudan). Sudan in this case is an ancient reference to Africa South of the Sahara not today’s nation of the Sudan. These two history books are indispensable to modern day scholars attempting to reconstruct African history in the Middle Ages.
Like Mansa Musa before him Askia also completed one of the five Pillars of Islam by taking a hajj to Mecca, and, also like the former, went with an overwhelming amount of gold. He donated some to charity and used the rest for lavish gifts to impress the people of Mecca with the wealth of the Songhay. Islam was so important to him that upon his return he recruited Muslim Arabic scholars from Egypt and Morocco to teach at the Sankore Mosque in Timbuktu as well as setting up many other learning centers throughout his empire. This cemented toes between Africa and the Arabic world.
Not only was Askia a patron of Islam, he also was a gifted administrator and encouraging the flow of trade with the Arab world. Askia centralized the administration of the empire and established an efficient bureaucracy which was responsible for among other things tax collection and the administration of justice. He also demanded canals be built in order to enhance agriculture, which would eventually increase trade. More importantly than anything he did for trade was the introduction of weights and measures and appointing an inspector for each of its important trading centers. During his reign Islam became more widely entrenched, trans-Saharan trade flourished, and the Saharan salt mines of Taghaza were brought within the boundaries of the empire.
Unfortunately as Askia the Great grew older his power declined. Askia Muhammad eventually went blind in his old age, and was deposed (removed from the throne) in 1528 by his son Askia Musa at the age of 80. He died at the age of 96.
Following Musa’s overthrow in 1531, Songhay’s empire went into decline. Following multiple attempts at governing the Empire by Askia’s various sons and grandsons there was little hope for a return to the power and greatness it once held. Between the political chaos and multiple civil wars within the empire it was a surprise in 1588 that actually ended the great empire.
Moroccan Arabs from the city of Marrakesh launched a surprise invasion of Songhay in 1588 to seize control of and revive the trans-Saharan trade in gold that the stopped during the ensuing chaos. The Empire fell to the Moroccans and their firearms in 1591.
The use of firearms by the Arab invaders was an important factor, although Askia was an innovator, he never modernized his army by replacing their weapons with new European firearms, which in retrospect may have given them a fighting chance against the Moroccans. It’s speculated that Askia’s impending blindness may have prevented him from viewing their effectiveness before he was deposed. Without the importation of firearms though trade and their incorporation into Africa’s largest empire, the Songhay never had a chance to prevent the eventual conquest and colonization of West Africa. Askai’s blindness and the Arabic invasion changed the course of African history.
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Kingdom of Kush
Over on the Eastern side of Africa South of Eqypt, the Kingdom of Kush was an ancient Nubian state centered on the confluences of the Blue and White Nile rivers, the Atbarah River, and the mighty Nile itself. Nubia was established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt, centered at Napata.
After King Kashta ("the Kushite") invaded Egypt in the eighth century BC, the Kushite kings ruled as pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt for a century before being defeated and driven out by the Assyrians. At the height of their glory, the Kushites conquered an empire that stretched from what is now known as South Kordofan all the way to the Sinai. Pharaoh Piye attempted to expand the empire into the Near East, but was thwarted by the Assyrian king Sargon II. The Kingdom of Kush is mentioned in the Bible as having saved the Israelites from the wrath of the Assyrians.
The war that took place between Pharaoh Taharqa and the Assyrian king Sennacherib was a decisive event in western history, with the Nubians being defeated in their attempts to gain a foothold in the Middle East by Assyria. Sennacherib's successor Esarhaddon went further, and invaded Egypt itself, deposing Taharqa and driving the Nubians from Egypt entirely. Taharqa fled back to his homeland where he died two years later. Egypt became an Assyrian colony; however, king Tantamani, after succeeding Taharqa, made a final determined attempt to regain Egypt. Esarhaddon died while preparing to leave the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in order to eject him. However, his successor Ashurbanipal (668 – c. 627 BC) sent a large army into southern Egypt and routed Tantamani, ending all hopes of a revival of the Nubian Empire.
During Classical age, the Nubian capital was at Meroë. In ancient Greek geography, the Meroitic kingdom was known as Ethiopia (a term also used earlier by the Assyrians when encountering the Nubians). The civilization of Kush was among the first in the world to use iron smelting technology. The Nubian kingdom at Meroë persisted until the fourth century AD. After the collapse of the Kushite empire several states emerged in its former territories, among them Nubia.
By the 6th century, three states had emerged as the political and cultural heirs of the Meroitic Kingdom. Nobatia with its capital at Faras; the central kingdom, Muqurra (Makuria) centered at Tungul (Old Dongola), and Alawa (Alodia), in the heartland of old Meroë, which had its capital at Soba (now a suburb of modern-day Khartoum). In all three kingdoms, warrior aristocracies ruled Meroitic populations from royal courts where functionaries bore Greek titles in emulation of the Byzantine court. A missionary sent by Byzantine empress Theodora arrived in Nobatia and started preaching Christianity about 540 AD. The Nubian kings became Christians.
After the Muslim conquest and arabization of Egypt, many attempts of military conquest of Nubia were launched and failed. The Arab commander in Egypt concluded then began the first in a series of regularly renewed treaties known as al-baqṭ (pactum) with the Nubians that governed relations between the two peoples for more than 678 years.
The Islamic religion progressed in the area over a long period of time through intermarriage and contacts with Arab merchants, Sufi ascetics and settlers. Additionally, exemption from taxation in regions under Muslim rule were also a powerful incentive for conversion. In 1093, a Muslim prince of Nubian royal blood ascended the throne of Dunqulah as king. The two most important Arab tribes to emerge in Nubia were the Ja'alin and the Juhaynah. Today's northern Sudanese culture often combines Nubian and Arabic elements.
During the 16th century, the Funj people under Amara Dunqus, appeared in southern Nubia and supplanted the remnants of the old Christian kingdom of Alodia, establishing as-Saltana az-Zarqa (the Blue Sultanate), also called Sennar. The Blue Sultanate eventually became the keystone of the Funj Empire. By the mid-16th century, Sennar controlled Al Jazirah and commanded the allegiance of vassal states and tribal districts north to the Third Cataract and south to the rainforests. The government was substantially weakened by a series of succession arguments and coups within the royal family. In 1820, Muhammad Ali of Egypt sent 4000 troops to invade Sudan. His forces accepted Sennar's surrender from the last Funj sultan, Badi VII.
In 1821, the Ottoman ruler of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, had invaded and conquered northern Sudan. Although technically the Vali (Arch duke) of Egypt under the Ottomans, Muhammad Ali styled himself as Khedive of a virtually independent Egypt. Seeking to add Sudan to his domains, he sent his third son Ismail to conquer the country, and subsequently incorporate it into Egypt. This policy was expanded and intensified by Ibrahim Pasha's son, Isma'il, under whose reign most of the remainder of modern-day Sudan was conquered.
The Egyptian authorities made significant improvements to the Sudanese infrastructure (mainly in the north), especially with regard to irrigation and cotton production. In 1879, the Great Powers forced the removal of Ismail and established his son Tewfik Pasha in his place. Tewfik's corruption and mismanagement resulted in the ‘Urabi Revolt, which threatened the Khedive's survival. Tewfik appealed for help to the British, who subsequently occupied Egypt in 1882. Sudan was left in the hands of the Khedivial government, and the mismanagement and corruption of its officials.
During the Khedivial period, wide spread dissent had spread due to harsh taxation's imposed on most activities. Taxation on irrigation wells and farming lands were so high most farmers abandoned their farms and livestock. During the 1870s, European initiatives against the slave trade had an adverse impact on the economy of northern Sudan, precipitating the rise of Mahdist forces. The Mahdiyah (Mahdist regime) imposed traditional Sharia.
From his announcement of the Mahdiyya in June 1881 until the fall of Khartoum in January 1885, Muhammad Ahmad led a successful military campaign against the Turco-Egyptian government of the Sudan, known as the Turkiyah. Muhammad Ahmad died on 22 June 1885, a mere six months after the conquest of Khartoum. After a power struggle amongst his deputies, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, with the help primarily of the Baggara of western Sudan, overcame the opposition of the others and emerged as unchallenged leader of the Mahdiyah.
Regional relations remained tense throughout much of the Mahdiyah period, largely because of the Khalifa's brutal methods to extend his rule throughout the country. In 1887, a 60,000-man Ansar army invaded Ethiopia, penetrating as far as Gondar. In March 1889, king Yohannes IV of Ethiopia marched on Metemma; however, after Yohannes fell in battle, the Ethiopian forces withdrew. Abd ar Rahman an Nujumi, the Khalifa's general, attempted an invasion of Egypt in 1889, but British-led Egyptian troops defeated the Ansar at Tushkah. The failure of the Egyptian invasion broke the spell of the Ansar's invincibility. The Belgians from Congo prevented the Mahdi's men from conquering Equatoria (Southern most Sudan), and in 1893, the Italians repelled an Ansar attack at Agordat (in Eritrea) and forced the Ansar to withdraw from Ethiopia.
East Africa
To meet the demand for menial labor, Bantus from South-Eastern Africa captured by Somali slave traders were sold in cumulatively large numbers over the centuries to customers in Somalia and the Arab world. From 1800 to 1890, between 25,000–50,000 Bantu slaves are thought to have been sold from the slave market of Zanzibar to the Somali coast. Ethiopia also had slaves shipped from there, due to a high demand for non-Muslim slaves in the markets of the Arabian peninsula and elsewhere in the Middle East.
The Portuguese and the Rise of Zanzibar
By around the 10th century, Arabs had established commercial settlements on the Swahili Coast, and continued to trade there for several centuries. Then In 1497 the Portuguese exploded onto the scene in the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese conquered these trading centers after the discovery of the Cape Road (around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa).
The Portuguese arrived in East Africa found a series of independent towns on the coast, with Muslim Arabic-speaking elites. While the Portuguese travelers describe them as 'black' they made a clear distinction between the Muslim and non-Muslim populations. Regardless of their appearant race, their relations with these leaders were mostly hostile.
As the British Empire began to restrict the trans-Atlantic slave trade from West Africa, the Portuguese who still supported the slave trade began to purchase slaves from East Africa’s Swahili coast. The Portuguese presence was relatively limited, leaving administration in the hands of preexisting local leaders and power structures.
This system lasted until 1631, when the Sultan of Mombasa massacred the European inhabitants. Muslim forces from Oman (Sultanate of Muscat) reseized these market towns, especially on the islands of Pemba and Zanzibar. In these territories, the Oman Arabs mingled with the local "negro" populations, thereby establishing Afro-Arab communities. The Swahili language and culture largely evolved through these intermarriages between Arab men and native Bantu women. Zanzibar became
The strangling of trade and diminished local power had led the Swahili patrician elites in Mombasa and Zanzibar to invite Omani aristocrats to assist them in driving the Europeans out. By 1698, Zanzibar came under the influence of the Sultanate of Oman, although there was a brief revolt against Omani rule in 1784.
Rather than a form of colonization in the modern sense, this was an invited sphere of influence. Wealthy patricians Zanzibarese invited Omani merchant princes to settle on Zanzibar, rather than the former conquering the latter. In the first half of the nineteenth-century, locals saw the Busaidi sultans as powerful merchant princes whose patronage would benefit their island. Many locals today continue to emphasize that indigenous Zanzibaris had invited Seyyid Said, the first Busaidi sultan, to their island. Cultivating a patron-client relationship with powerful families was a strategy used by many Swahili coast towns since at least the fifteenth century.
Between 1832 and 1840 (the date varies among sources), one the Arabs world’s major royal families Said bin Sultan, Sultan of Muscat and Oman moved his capital from Muscat, Oman to Stone Town Zanzibar. This meant one of the Arab’s world’s major royalties was ruling from East Africa. After Said's death in June 1856, two of his sons, Thuwaini bin Said and Majid bin Said, struggled over the succession.
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Modern Times
Today wealthy Gulf Arab companies are boosting their investment in Africa’s vast lands and untapped resources, marking a shift for investors who have traditionally directed their money towards assets in the United States and Europe.
There are a string of positive motivations for doing this, including Africa’s fast economic growth, the rise of a free-spending African middle class, and a sense that much of the continent is becoming better governed and more stable politically.
Also, Africa has two special attractions for the arid desert countries of the Gulf: it is a source of food and arable land, and it is launching an infrastructure building boom that recalls the Gulf’s own construction spree in the past decade. The Gulf’s expertise in developing airports, ports and communications networks at breakneck speed can be used in Africa.
The result, corporate executives say, is a flow of Gulf money into Africa that has accelerated over the past year, and which could become an important contributor to African growth. Africa is becoming more interesting because of the natural resources it has, its demographics and better governance.
The Gulf Is Set To Compete In Africa
In the scramble for Africa, key players like the U.S. and China now compete to reap the spoils of the region’s economic resurgence, each with its own strategic focus.
The U.K. and France dominate trade in their former colonies, while Brazil targets Lusophone nations, and India grows in influence in the eastern and southern regions.
The Middle East is often left out of this battle for African markets, but growing attendance at the U.A.E.-hosted Global Business Forum on Africa suggests that Gulf states are eyeing opportunities on the continent.
As Africa’s oldest trading partner, the Gulf has culture and capital on its side—and it is leveraging both to expand investment.
Although Middle East investments have traditionally concentrated on North Africa, today’s investors are moving further south, with countries like the U.A.E. leading the charge.
Today, total non-oil trade between Africa and the U.A.E. amounts to $24 billion, an increase of over 700% over the last 10 years.
The Dubai Chamber of Commerce now has new offices in Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya, and Abraaj, the mammoth Dubai-based private equity company, has invested over $3 billion in over 60 African companies.
In 2014, Gulf companies committed $19 billion to infrastructure projects at the West African Investment Forum. State-owned DP World, the third-largest global port operator, has over 30 investment projects spanning Africa, including marine terminals in Dakar and Maputo, and wildlife reserves in Rwanda and South Africa.
From the 7th century early explorers to modern day captains of industry, the Arab presence in Africa has lead to both great cultural and religious exchanges to exploitation. Today as Africa continues to develop the hope is that both regions use their long historical trade ties to develop modern nation able to serve their respective regions well.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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With the 2018 and 2020 elections on the horizon, race and racism are becoming ever-larger issues among the most marginalized communities in America, making the Democratic coalition harder and harder to hold. Atlantic: What Black Voters Want
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In 2018, black voters are finding out just what the hell they had to lose.
Nazis and Klansmen march openly and proudly, and hate crimes appear to be on the rise. Police killings of people—especially black people—remain largely the same year to year, and this iteration of the Justice Department has largely abdicated any federal responsibility in reducing brutality. An infant-mortality crisis is tightening its grip on the most marginalized communities, and across many economic metrics—from evictions, to generational wealth, to segregation—disparities are either stagnating or trending in the wrong direction. Fifty years after the Kerner Commission’s report said the country was “moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal,” the prophecy has been all but fully realized.
As Americans head to the polls in primaries this year and prepare to do their civic duties this fall and in the fall of 2020, the 50 years of backlash against civil rightsthat helped fulfill that prediction might either be ratified or repudiated. Yet, in the middle of a nationwide conversation of diner visits and coal-miner profiles in service of understanding people who voted for President Trump and this regime, there’s been remarkably little analysis of the demographic that voted against him almost entirely. What drives and motivates black citizens to vote, and is simply being anti-Trump enough to get them out this fall?
A new poll due to be released by the independent political organization BlackPAC sheds light on the motivations of black voters. Conducted by former Obama and DNC pollster and strategist Cornell Belcher and his firm, Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies, the poll of 1,000 black voters in the battleground states of Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan, North Carolina, Illinois, and Florida aims to “examine the factors essential to a Democratic wave in the 2018 elections,” according to a memo from BlackPAC. But it accomplishes much more than that, providing valuable insights on the role of race and racism of Trump’s presidency, and the partisan destiny of the country even beyond 2018.
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Much has been said of the government responses to the opioid epidemic—specifically that it is leniently and sympathetically called an epidemic (I agree with that assessment), with sights set on healing and treatment. While necessary to combat the issue, the sympathy with which our nation views the current drug scourge is, frankly, frustrating. Why frustrating?
Because 30 years ago, when crack was the order of the day, there was no talk about treating addicts. The country didn’t seem to give one fuck. No, the only way of addressing the problem was to throw folks away and impose mandatory minimums. Get the drug dealers and users off the street and perhaps you get rid of the drugs.
Mmmhmm.
This is America. From the Wall Street Journal:
In the 1980s, Congress passed a series of laws that aimed to counter the widespread use of crack cocaine with tougher sentencing guidelines.
Three decades later, lawmakers are once again considering legislation aimed at curbing a drug crisis: opioid abuse. This time, the emphasis is on funding research into a public-health crisis and enabling states to deal with its consequences.
I wonder why that is. More from the Wall Street Journal:
In 2016, white victims made up almost 80% of the deaths from opioid overdoses, with black victims comprising 10% of deaths and Hispanic victims 8%, according to the nonprofit Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. In contrast, in 2000, 84% of crack cocaine offenders were black, compared with 6% white, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, a bipartisan, independent agency created by Congress to reduce sentencing disparities.
Recent studies have suggested that cocaine remains a proportionate problem among black users, as opioids is among white users. Cocaine-related overdose deaths among black men and women were on par with heroin and prescription opioid-related deaths among white men and women between 2000 and 2015, according to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Research has shown that minorities are now more likely to be in prison and to serve longer sentences than white offenders for comparable crimes. Many lawmakers say it is time for the sentencing guidelines established during the crack epidemic to be further revised.
So let me get this right: Opioid abuse is largely a white problem, so we treat it, and crack is largely a black problem, so we jail it. Obviously, I’m saying nothing new to any black person in America. The fight over mandatory minimums, especially for nonviolent offenses, has raged for many years. There are several papers (pdf) and studies done on racial disparities in sentencing. Nothing new to see here.
Lawmakers often talk about how it’s time to take a new look at sentencing guidelines, though the rules rarely change. Black communities (and Hispanic communities) have been decimated by what constitutes a slap on the wrist for white criminals.
But you already know that.
And it’s frustrating as fuck. It’s especially frustrating because nobody in a position of authority wants to plainly state what is so obvious to anybody with half a brain: White America cares about ending the opioid crisis because it affects white people. It’s plain as day.
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“LIKE Sarajevo, 1914,” said the late Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi, of the first gunshots fired on May 6th 1998. “An accident waiting to happen.” Neither he nor his counterpart in neighbouring Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki, imagined that a light skirmish at Badme, a border village of which few had heard, could spiral into full-scale war. But two years later about 80,000 lives had been lost and more than half a million people forced from their homes.
No land changed hands. Two decades on, Ethiopia still occupies the disputed territories, including Badme, having refused to accept the findings of a UN boundary commission. But the conflict’s miserable legacy persists. Thousands of troops still patrol the frontier. Centuries of trade and intermarriage abruptly ceased. Ethiopia lost access to Eritrea’s ports. Eritrea lost its biggest trading partner and retreated into isolationism. It has been on a war footing ever since.
But it is not so lonely these days. On April 22nd Donald Yamamoto, America’s most senior diplomat in Africa, visited Asmara, the capital—the first such visit in over a decade. Eritrea has been sanctioned by the UN since 2009, in part for allegedly arming jihadists in neighbouring Somalia. But a panel of experts appointed by the UN Security Council found no evidence of arms transfers and advocates lifting the embargo. America sounds open to the idea. Some reckon sanctions could be removed this year.
Many in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, are also mulling a change of course. With the appointment last month of a new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, there is an opportunity for fresh thinking. Abiy, who was an intelligence officer during the war, promised in his inaugural speech to make peace with Eritrea.
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White people should call the police less. Minorities should be able to call them more. Slate: The Privilege of 911
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On Tuesday, a white graduate student at Yale called the police to report that one of her black classmates was napping in a dorm common area. The ensuing encounter between the police and the student, Lolade Siyonbola, who is getting a master’s degree in African studies, was captured in a video that has drawn national attention to the case.
It’s the latest in a string of recent incidents in which white Americans have called the police on their black neighbors for nothing at all: In Philadelphia, it was Starbucks while black. In Rialto, California, Airbnb while black. And in New Haven, Connecticut, trying to pull an all-nighter while black.
At the core of each incident is white Americans’ deep suspicion and mistrust of their black neighbors. The most infamous example of this dynamic occurred in Sanford, Florida, in February 2012, when neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman called the police on 17-year-old Trayvon Martin before stalking him, confronting him, and killing him. (The Sanford Police Department told Zimmerman not to follow Martin; Zimmerman was ultimately acquitted on charges of second-degree murder.) But more mundane displays of this regularly play out on forums like NextDoor, a website for neighborhood news and activism where interest gravitates, tabloid-style, towards perceived disorder and its perpetrators.
What warrants a call to the police? In 2014, writing in the aftermath to the death of Eric Garner, who died in an illegal police chokehold while being detained for selling cigarettes in Staten Island, New York, Emily Bazelon made the case that white people ought to avoid calling the police on black people in non-emergency situations, given the increased risks they face from law enforcement. “It’s become pretty much a given for me that if the criminal justice system gets a hold of a black person, especially if he is poor, there is a terrible, heightened risk that it will try to crush him,” she wrote. It’s fair to assume Bazelon’s strategy has become more prevalent among liberal whites as videos and reports of police brutality become more and more common.
This recent spate of 911 calls gone awry may prompt renewed ethical debates at dinner parties in Center City Philadelphia or New Haven, a reflection of an expanding awareness of a national crisis of confidence in police. But, as ever, liberal whites are a little late to the issue, which is not just that the police are being called too often, but also that many people don’t trust law enforcement enough to call 911 at all. For minorities, immigrants, and lower-income Americans, as well as those living with mental illness, the legitimacy of the police has been in question for years. Whites are abusing a privilege those people don’t even have. In many places, the police are being called less often, not more, than a trusted force should be.
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Jordan Peele is best known for his comedic work alongside Keegan-Michael Key on their Comedy Central show "Key & Peele" and in their movie "Keanu," but his directorial debut "Get Out" (opening February 24) will show the world that he's also really good at scaring us.
And it's a mission he plans to continue for a while.
In "Get Out," a young black man (Daniel Kaluuya) finds himself in a very messed up situation —actually a massive understatement — when he goes out to the country to visit his white girlfriend's (Allison Williams) family. We won't give anything else away, but if you've seen the trailer, you can get a hint of how Peele created a unique chiller that explores real ideas and attitudes about race, some of them quite ugly.
But this is far from a one-and-done for Peele. He recently told Business Insider that "Get Out" is the first in a collection of movies he wants to direct that examine what he calls "social demons."
"I have four other social thrillers that I want to unveil in the next decade," Peele told Business Insider. "The best and scariest monsters in the world are human beings and what we are capable of especially when we get together. I've been working on these premises about these different social demons, these innately human monsters that are woven into the fabric of how we think and how we interact, and each one of my movies is going to be about a different one of these social demons."
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