The Arab-Muslim Slave Trade

Anthropologist Tidiane N’Diaye Give us Important points concerning the Arab-Muslim slave trade

Tidiane N’Diaye is a Franco-Senegalese anthropologist, economist and writer. He is the author of a number of publications on the history of Black Africa and the African diaspora, as well as numerous economic studies of the Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques on the French overseas departments (Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique).

N’Diaye’s essays on the Arab slave trade (Le génocide voilé “the veiled genocide”, Étude de la traite négrière arabo-musulmane “study of the Arab-Muslim negro slave trade”) were nominated for the Prix Renaudot in 2008.

Here is our interview with Franco-Senegalese anthropologist TidianeN’Diaye.

Why did you decide to study anthropology?

As everyone knows, I am originally a statistician economist by training. I had a career of a Research Officer at INSEE, while ensuring teaching duties in Economics and as the Director of Research in large schools such as Sup de Co. But one day in 1985, a mutual friend, Dr. Khadi M’Baye of l’ OMS, personally handed to me (from Cheikh Anta Diop) his book, “Civilization or Barbarism” dedicated to me with all encouragement.

He thought he was addressing a brilliant young economist at the time (in his own words), but without knowing it, he had unwittingly plunged my heart into the study of social science (the science of mankind). After reading this book and all the other of his pioneer shows of anthropology of black African civilizations, I had accidentally developed a passion for the subject. I decided to develop a PhD in anthropology on the formation of the Zulu empire in the nineteenth century.

This is despite his advanced age, Professor Claude Lévi-Strauss, with affection and honor lead me to an original approach to modern anthropology. After the publication of this work by L’Harmattan, under the title “The Empire of Shaka Zulu” in the “African Studies” collection, I decided to continue. You know it is when we live abroad that we are increasingly faced with the ignorance of people about the invaluable contributions of black African civilizations in universal heritage; and it is in this reality that I draw my main motivation from my work.

Following your research and numerous studies, can you give us some important points to remember concerning the Arab-Muslim slave trade?

An important point at the outset: I often use the term of “Arab-Muslim” in my research. This approach doesn’t in any case only represent the Muslim countries as a single entity or a specific homogeneous historically category. It is not an “essentialist” view of history, reducing people to their religion or their culture. The fact is simply that the slavers who were involved in this tragedy were not exclusively Arab. They were also the Maghreb, Turkey (the Ottoman Empire), Iranians (Persians) and even Asian, since the king of Bengal had 8000 African slaves in the mid-fifteenth century. The only common point between all these slave peoples was the Muslim religion without thereof it being the main cause, although it has never formally renounce, the recommendation to enslave all non-Muslim. That being said, as everyone knows, the transatlantic slave trade is well known to us and has widely been discussed for decades. Studies and summaries on the subject are legion. But at the same time, many authors -mainly African- want to ignore the other side of the slave trade – Arab-Muslim lasting more than 13 centuries – by restricting the scope of their research on the misfortunes of the African continent, only to crimes of Western Nations. And even today, many laymen associate by reflex, the only slave transatlantic organized from Europe, the Americas which led to the death or deportation of millions of Africans in the New World. Because in the name of a certain religious solidarity (Africa having become a Muslim majority), or ideological view, Africans and Arab-Muslims would like to see their responsibilities forever covered with a veil of forgetfulness.

This virtual pact sealed, and can be arranged on the back of the West, as a cement to achieve the fusion of Arab and black African populations, long “solidarity victims” of Western colonialism. And even when a few researchers dare to tackle the crime of Arab Muslims, it is to undervalue the importance while “over sizing” the “evil white slavers and colonialists” etc. That is why through “genocide veiled” my job was to lift the veil on this painful chapter in the history of African peoples after the arrival of the Arabs. This is to remember that misery, poverty, demographic stagnation, and long delays of the current development of the black continent, is not only because of the consequences of the Triangular Trade, as many people may believe. It is true that there are no degrees of horror or cruelty monopoly. However, it can be argued without risk of error that the slave trade and warlike expeditions caused by Arab-Muslims were to black Africa and throughout the centuries, were far more devastating than the transatlantic slave trade. As the Islamization of many black African peoples and all that it has generated, like the Jihads was no less the source of countless implosions. As history shows, the Arab-Muslims are at the origin of this calamity and have practiced in full. If the transatlantic puncture lasted from 1660 to about 1790, Arab-Muslims raided black people from the seventh to the twentieth century. The seventh to the sixteenth century, for nearly a thousand years, they have even been the only ones to practice this miserable trade, deporting nearly 10 million Africans before the Europeans came on the scene. In this tragedy of black people, if the transatlantic slave deported between 9.6 and 11 million Africans, their 70 million descendants today inhabit the Americas from the USA to Brazil through the islands of the Caribbean. While that practiced by the Muslim Arabs concerned 17 million individuals who have hardly left any offspring because of the massive castration to avoid them from making strains, because according to this great Arab scholar Ibn Khaldun listened to and respected: “Blacks belong to the people to bestial character. They are cannibals in men and their place is closer to the animal stage. Blacks are the only people suited to slavery due to a lower degree of humanity. “My view of history is therefore to treat proven facts without complacency or militant approach “solidarity” or religious.

Why has no American publisher yet acquired the translation rights to your book “The Veiled Genocide”?

You know, despite the translation of many of my books in several languages, it seems that American publishers have little interest in what happens in the Francophone world. While “The Veiled Genocide” on the Arab-Muslim slave, published by Gallimard as most of my works, although widely commented upon by newspapers, magazines and even on American English sites, no publisher of USA has acquired the rights for its translation and distribution in this country. And with the rise of Islamization in the world, movements of African Americans convert more of their followers, choosing this religion as a refuge. Many believe that the oppressors of blacks, Christians, have always been white. Not only is it wrong to know the history of black people, but especially the role played by the Muslim Arabs in their martyrdom during the Islamization of Africa. Without wishing to oppose or exclude, I sincerely wish that one day, an American publisher to translate this book, so that our brother African American diaspora are actually aware of the reality.

As an anthropologist, what message do you send to all Africans to encourage us to perpetuate our culture?

In my fight for the development of black African civilizations, I think this paradigm tends to highlight the invaluable contributions of our African Negro cultures’ universal heritage provided that the inner nerve of a civilization is the preservation of its cultural heritage in maintaining a number of fundamental features of morals and social organization. But since the end of the Roman Empire, as aptly noted Paul Valery, civilizations are mortal and those of Africa have not escaped the rule.

For what concerns us black people, the reality of our present condition often directs us on thoughts turned to the past to get us some comfort. Accordingly, one can easily understand the approach of our senior Cheikh Anta Diop, Theophile Obenga, and others. This is because they lived and worked in an era when our civilizations were besieged and virtually excluded the contributions of progress for the benefit of mankind. With hindsight, we can figure out that these great pioneers were able to use all weapons, or the same as their opponents to raise the profile of African heritage.

The difference today is that we have the comfort of working in a postcolonial world and economic and cultural interdependence, where the movement of people, ideas, and discoveries in real time, prevents falsification of the history of other. Thus, we no longer need to conduct as fighting against someone for recognition or against any oppressor, who seek to marginalize Africans. It is nowadays widely accepted that Africa, the cradle of humanity, is a paleontological and anthropological reality. Also in the early millennia of history – especially during the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods- the role played by Africa was first class. Many people of the continent – although qu’usant of ancient oral media – have established more political, economic, and cultural elaborate sets. Africa was born and flourished civilizations as prestigious as the Great Zimbabwe for example. It was the second major African civilization after the Egyptians, particularly in terms of architecture. Many European scientists refused to believe that a civilization as advanced could be the work of black African populations. All the speculation about its origins will eventually be swept away by the first archaeologists – guided only by a scientific approach – which searched the site.

It has been known and recognized by all, that this civilization Pharaonic buildings, was built by an African people. It is Shona therein implanted around 400 BCE. These remains show clearly that there was within the black people, the equivalent of astronomers warned – the building has a precise astronomical orientation – gifted architects, construction engineers and stone civil engineering, mathematicians, builders and planners. Other wonders are also civilizations of the 25th dynasty of Egypt black pharaohs of Nubia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali. Those of Nok of Ikbo Ukwo, Ife – north of present-day Nigeria – also delivered for more than a millennium, masterpieces of the most unusual and stunning known to date, furnishing the greatest museums and still looking for the most discerning collectors worldwide. This is an invaluable contribution to Africa’s historic heritage. With this recognition even late, we are now far from the outrageous extravagance of Hegel who wanted the peoples of black Africa. Spectators have attended the march of history. Through my work, the goal is to bring current and future generations of Africa and its diaspora to reclaim their prestigious history in order to better evolve without any resentment within the human family.

“In the most basic of economics approach, the survival of a company can be provided by three main sources, namely: industry and agriculture, and commerce to distribute the products of the first two.” To comment on this quote, do you think that Africa takes the path of improvement? How do you think we can improve our society?

It should first form a premise that many seem to forget to include: The abolition of slavery in the Americas and other places is owed to the economy and not the morality. In the U.S., it still goes without saying. For the islands of the Caribbean, the extension of the cultivation of sugar beet in Europe, the shortage of slave labor and the introduction of competition from Brazil and the Netherlands Indies planters club had finished ruining the Caribbean economy. This same competition led to the overproduction of sugar with negative effects on the market when prices were beginning a steep decline. The slave system was increasingly inefficient and unproductive as noted by the economist Adam Smith. France and England had been able to anticipate these changes. In the early nineteenth century, in the Industrial Revolution, there resulted in the recycling of the productive economy. This makes a new area emerge at the expense of agriculture in total loss of speed. It was increasingly challenged by Russia and the USA. English businessmen had therefore taken the lead by reinvesting a significant portion of the huge profits made ​​through trafficking and slavery of blacks in the financing circuit processing industries, support for a new capitalism.

However, the “new economy” born of the Industrial Revolution, after the abolition of slavery, needed another type of labor, raw materials and markets. All these elements essential to European economies, unfortunately were still, would we be tempted to say, in Africa. Because of the enormous human toll of the deals, it would pass this time phase of colonial conquest, to organize the exploitation of the wealth of the black continent. Thus, the richness of its soil and subsoil have always been the bane of Africa in the past; a victim of predators of all kinds.

However, if such a reality still exists today (see the DRC, CAR etc.), some leaders begin to know how to manage, especially since the Chinese offensive in the global economic game, placing Africa as the centerpiece because of its raw materials. Since the Chinese presence in Africa through diplomacy checkbook, concrete results are visible. Across the continent, businessmen and Chinese engineers have rebuilt and refurbished infrastructure long neglected, as they are vital for sustainable economic development. The active presence of the Chinese on the continent has also revived the competition and subsequently improved the terms of trade by offering better pay export products.

Today alongside “traditionals” such as France, Britain, the United States and Japan partners, this rivalry has attracted new actors, and is termed as emerging, although some have already achieved conventional growth threshold. India, South Korea, and Brazil are distinguished by the size of their investment on the continent. Turkey is also becoming more prevalent, as well as Iran, Qatar, and Dubai. With the commitment of the Chinese, many African countries have received aid and massive investment. They were granted debt relief or preferential trade tariffs. In poor in natural resources, such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, and Ghana, Chinese investments have helped revive some very large deficits and local businesses. Sino-African trade are allowed to boost significantly the prices of several agricultural products (cotton, cocoa, etc.), which are often their only source of income. The austere IMF admits that the Chinese presence in Africa is beneficial. Not only has she contributed to the growth of national GDP, but also allowed some states to cope with the last major financial crisis. European partners would benefit too. If the China-Africa Cooperation caused an economic and commercial growth, it may stabilize African populations. It would stop the downward spiral migration to Europe in general. However, the continent must consider China as an equal partner to the other. It must harmonize with its various cooperating parties, both with European countries and other emerging countries and the United States, in order to maximize the results of these synergies. This is the only way for economic takeoff. And as you know, the economic takeoff of a country or area, leads all other sectors, cultural, political, environmental, etc. The time for Africa may have come…

Thank you,

By Stream Africa/ Maimouna Oumarou

Africa Global News publication