One of the illusions that Europeans and Arabs alike have successfully perpetrated for over a century, is that the northern part of Africa is not apart of the African continent. I have had discussions and arguments with so-called “highly educated people”… those with more than one grouping of letters behind their names, who are not aware that Egypt for example is in Africa. This includes Black People! This propaganda is so deep-rooted that Egypt is seen to be in the Middle East, while the countries to it’s west, namely Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania and The Western Sahara, are termed The Maghreb.
When one studies the history of the region and the Arab/Muslim conquest and migration into the northern, as well as parts of east Africa, the fact is that Arab aggression, oppression, exploitation and depopulation of black Africans and their resources occurred long before the Christian Europeans arrived. Even today, chattel slavery of black Africans by brown and white Arabs is still practised in countries such as Niger, Sudan and Mauritania.
It’s no wonder then that the so-called “Jasmine Revolutions” sweeping across the Muslim states of north Africa, which in reality are African revolutions to free the people from decades of state oppression and exploitation, does not include those Africans with black skin. It brings to mind the French and American Revolutions for freedom from the state oppression at the time, both of which did not include freeing those with black skin. History once again repeating itself.
The fact is that in Libya, black migrant workers, as well as black Libyans, are victims of thefts, beatings, imprisonment and lynchings by their “light-skinned” African brothers. Read this disturbing article in the New York Times, one of many I’ve read on this subject in the past couple months.
Black people in North America are quick to sympathize (be used) and take to the streets, to protest against the oppression of (brown) Palestinians by the (white)Israelis, or demonstrate against (white) American aggression in (brown) Iraq and Afghanistan. However I hear no condemnations from our “brown” brothers and sisters, nor do I see our “brown” comrades in arms here… nor anywhere in the world for that matter… take to the streets against the oppression and murder of black Africans, by their own kind. I have always stated that I would rather be the victim of American rather than Arab or Persian imperialism. In an Arab/Muslim dominated world, I would most certainly be considered and treated as an “abeed”… a slave… simply because of my black skin, regardless if I was a Muslim.
An Arabic proverb (warning): “Me against my brother; my brother and me against my cousin; Me, my brother, and my cousin against the stranger”.
A large amount of charity comes from the Arab world to fund all sorts of North American black organizations .
Beggars cannot complain or bite the hands that help them.Beggars have no other option but to be deaf, blind and act foolish.
Minister Farrakhan is not going to believe this because Arab Muslims donate large sum of money to the Nation of Islam.
The other black Sunni Muslims are not going to believe this because they want to be accepted(they have an inferiority complex) so baaaadly by the Arab Muslim world.
Cynthia Mckinney is not going to believe this because she was willing to go to jail( a major political error, because that issue should not be priority for her ) in Israel for Palestinains.
President Obama( has too many things on his hands) is too bent out on being a midwife in help birthing revolutions( and I am not against revolutions) in North Africa and the Arab world.
The Arabs in North Africa are invaders, just like the Europeans. Period.
I have one advice for Sub-Saharan Africans:
Wake up, because once North Africans begin to form new governments and become stable, they(Sub saharan Africans) will be in big trouble if they have not made major drastic changes in their societies.
But one great advantage and blessing that black Africa has is that Islam did not spread entirely from coast to coast.
Thank you for this brother.
Asa, Ana, way to speak the real truth!
Asabanga stated = “I have always stated that I would rather be the victim of American rather than Arab or Persian imperialism. In an Arab/Muslim dominated world, I would most certainly be considered and treated as an “abeed”… a slave… simply because of my black skin, regardless if I was a Muslim.”
What an interestingly passive choice, basically conceding you have no interest in Black liberation and that you will never be free. Why not rebel against western imperialism which funds and structures the arab/muslim imperialism(every single one of the arab dictatorships are backed by the West except for Libya), then you don’t have to decide whether you want to be called a ‘nigger’ or an ‘abeed’. In struggling against all forms of oppression the global relevance of Black liberation becomes incredibly clearer.
On a side note, your use of ‘race’ and ‘religion’ throughout the article seemed to be aimed at cementing divisions which benefit western imperialist interests rather than building solidarity amongst the oppressed against the oppressor in the name of our shared humanity.
Get your facts right Asabanga, the Libyan Rebels who overthrew Qadaffi and are now turning on the Black Libyan population are financially and politically backed by the West(including America).
Tyrone cannot see that Gadaffi is a tyrant and he only used dark skinned Lybians and African laborers as a pawn.
Gadaffi was not anyone’s friend. I will advise black folks to stop being used. Free people are those who can make decisions not based on” he did this for me,”.Liberationist movements are also local. The uprising in the Arab world has nothing to do with black folks. I feel good for them but we do not know which route they will take.
Free people are not dependent on anyone. Too many of the black liberationists here in the States are stuck in the 60’s with the old imperialist rhetoric and the white man is the devil crap and cannot see that evil folks are all over, even among them.
We have gone global long time ago and our eyes are opened like that of Adam and Eve. We can smell the stench,see all over now and measure the evil, one person at a time in each nation of this world. It is called thinking freely.
Criticism against muslim racists is divisive?
This fool has to be one of those defensors of Islam. Where is the compassion for the dark skinned Lybians? A black liberanist who does not care about the suffering of black people but is only interested in ending worldwide imperialism.
You are a foot soldier for whom?
Sometimes we have to tackle the small problem first.
The days of the rule by godfathers are over. Caudillismo(the rule by strong men regardless if they feed you or pay your school children school fee) is over in Latin America and it will end in the Middle East and Africa.
GR, attack against black skinned people in the Middle East is not new. Since when Arabs are the friends of black people?Where have you been all this time?
When crimes are committed against Black Africans, anywhere on this planet, we are told to believe in truth and reconciliation, where is justice? Not Europe,not the Arab world, will ever pay for what they did and continue to do to our People.