Slavery, Theology, and Anti-Blackness in the Arab World
Moses Ebe Ochonu
Biko Agozino
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Gloria Emeagwali
biko...@yahoo.com
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Emeagwali, Gloria (History)
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association
Sent: Friday, May 7, 2021 5:54 PM
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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Slavery, Theology, and Anti-Blackness in the Arab World
Please be cautious: **External Email**
Cornelius Hamelberg
Gloria the Great,
Instead of beating about the bush, you could start with “ The Curse of Ham” or the Bible episode where Joseph brothers sell him to some Ishmaelites
You may or may not agree with this so-called psychological truth that is being peddled, that in any given situation you find yourself in, the reaction is going to be one of either love or fear. Listen up or listen in: Having received my second vaccine three weeks ago it was time to say to hell with the very un-African “social distancing”, so last night on the way back home – by tube - someone came and sat right opposite me and started coughing violently, got me a little worried because unlike me he wasn’t wearing a mask, thereby signifying danger and before I knew what was happening I found the taboo question spurting out of my mouth: Are you from Eritrea? I asked him (he looked Eritrean) No, he said, guess. I suggested Brazil, Pakistan, Sudan, gave up asked him again, where? He said Iraq! I thought of the Zanj Black slave rebellion in Iraq back in 869- 883 –
and that’s where the tinge of Black must be coming from. I thought of Joseph and his coat of many colours. Where in Iraq? Baghdad , he smiled – Ah, the Baghdad of history. I told him that I have many friends from Iraq, including Ali Sistani. We chatted for a while He was probably rushing home to break his fast. In his The Destruction of Black Civilistion , Chancellor Williams claims that the Black Man arrived in Saudi Arabia in the same way that he arrived in North America: through slavery. Is that right Professore Gloria Emeagwali? You that “Wali” in Arabic means “ friend of God” and not she-devil? This means that you are not going to the everlasting bonfire...
Why on earth does he want to write about that, just that, right now? Because of the recent slave auction in Libya??
The fact is that the Prophet of Islam salallahu alaihi wa salaam must have been addressing a very topical issue when in his very last sermon, he said
“All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a White has no superiority over a Black nor a Black has any superiority over a White except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly."
"Do not, therefore, do injustice to yourselves. Remember one day you will meet Allah and answer your deeds. So beware, do not astray from the path of righteousness after I am gone."
Don Ochonu doesn’t quote that sermon or Pre-Islamic slavery as an aspect of capitalism in pre-Islamic Mecca //Capitalism and slavery in the pre-islamic period or the frequent references in the Quran, to “those that your right hands posses”
I have just read right through the distressing subject matter, Ochonu’s contribution to “knowledge production” I presume, he says ostensibly, “to understand or explain contemporary anti-Black racism in the Arab world” - a quantum leap and from his point of view, hopefully another feather in his academic hat or cap and to the glory of the on-going vicious Islamophobic propaganda that can be classified under various other vicious names, the means by which many professionals earn their daily bread.
We’re familiar with the term” self-hating Jew” and I suppose that Ochunu would like to produce some self-hating Nigerian Muslims, who become self-hating after reading his piece?
I suppose that it is a contribution that’s supposed to further poison the general atmosphere in Nigeria and hopes to successfully generate some questions, some self-searching and some self-loathing as to why a traditionally born black and proud person would want to embrace Islam after all that Professor Ochonu has proclaimed here, asking the same question that Mr. Eliot asks in Gerontion:
“After such knowledge, what forgiveness? Think now
History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors
And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions,
Guides us by vanities.”
In
effect, Ochonu’s
contribution’s supposed
to be in
tandem with the
all-American prejudice, just around the 911 event - ironically
expressed by this one line
from Amiri Baraka’s
"Somebody blew up America” (about
911):
“They say it's some terrorist, some barbaric A Rab...”
As far as I can remember, up to now in all my relations with Arabs, I have never experienced any so-called racism. Never. On the day that I got married a Lebanese (Arab) friend Ahmed Labi, put his vintage Mercedes Benz at my disposal and was one of the witnesses who signed our marriage certificate...
Some wisdom from Ramana Maharshi
Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Sent: Friday, May 7, 2021 7:23 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Slavery, Theology, and Anti-Blackness in the Arab World
Dr BioDun J Ogundayo
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear Kenneth,
First of all, there are dozens of articles and a few full length books on this theme, not least of all Ayi Kwei Armah’s Two Thousand Seasons . So, I just can’t understand the urgency of the matter and that’s why I’m wondering why Moses Ochonu has chosen this particular time, the last days of the Holy Month of Ramadan during which falls (tonight) lailatul Qadr, has chosen this time to go on the attack, using his pen as his missile with his missive “Slavery, Theology, and Anti-Blackness in the Arab World”. One would have thought that in the name of peace, tranquillity, compassion, there should be a suspension of hostilities during this Month of Mercy.
I understand that he might believe that it’s an urgent matter that can’t wait and I can understand that unlike the old crusaders he might believe that “the pen is mightier than the sword”, and of course, a man is free to choose his weapon/s, depending on the battlefield and the kind of enemy he’s facing, understandably, for instance, hence the fear of Iran going nuclear and ballistic, the seriousness of the premeditated crime, the hot-headed mullahs wanting to send all their enemies to hell in just one great, mighty nuclear holocaust. We agree and so do they, that there would be no point in preferring to wage a war even in self-defence with the mightier pen when facing weapons of mass annihilation.
When it comes to racism and tribalism in Africa, and religious bigotry, he who feels it knows, especially he who feels it at the receiving end of racism, slavery, theology and Anti-Blackness in the White World, the Jesus of Lubeck, Chicken George, the murder of George Floyd, White Injustice, which we are to suppose could be of major interest to Ochonu, the Injustice that Marcus Garvey fought with his pen and of which Malcolm X reminds the Black Man in America: “We didn't land on Plymouth Rock; the rock was landed on us” and of course, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, he who feels it knows.
From that point of view it should be interesting to read Ochonu’s chapter two which could be entitled, “Slavery, Theology, and Anti-Semitism in the Arab World”, I suppose, starting with what happened at Khaybar.
Fast forward, all, each and every point that you’ve made herein is well taken (by me) in the spirit in which they were conceived and intended. And, sure, whether it’s white or blue blood vermin racism, the exception/s cannot be said to be the rule. At some later date, without the autobiographical preamble “As the historian of my own life I am interested in accounting for origins and sources of my race” or “I Am a Cowboy in the Boat of Ra”, I’m expecting a longish essay from you on the same theme, since you have such wide first and second hand experience about these issues
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Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Sent: Saturday, May 8, 2021 6:43 AM
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Cornelius Hamelberg
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Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university