Social and Cultural Anthropologist and contributor Scherin Barlow-Massay
Community news. Here we can see two things, firstly, that the term Arab was no longer confined to the “pure” Arab. In time, it also came to incorporate some Indo–Europeans because of conquest and trade and other Aryans living north of Arabia in Iran and Iraq. And secondly, that the ideology of racial inferiority of the Afrikan was promoted before the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Initially slavery was not based on colour; wherever they went, the Arabs enslaved people; however, unlike Trans-Atlantic Slavery which was used predominantly for free labour, Arabs mostly enslaved women who were used as sexual slaves.
Enslaved Afrikan men entering Islamic lands were usually castrated and put to work guarding harems, or as soldiers and palace guards. This practice went on for 14 centuries, with more than 150 million Afrikans and 50 million people from other ethnicities being enslaved. The enslavement of Europeans, mostly from Georgia and Circassia only ended during the time of the Ottoman Empire in 1854. The Ottoman Empire, lead the Muslim world from 1300 to 1923 and extended dominion over Syria, Iraq, the Arabian Peninsula, as well as the Arabic speaking countries of North Afrika.
In Arabic semantics, the word Abd (abid) is the generic word for a black person; its literal meaning is slave. Therefore, the concept of slavery, hatred and inferiority are imbedded in the language itself. And when such concepts are inculcated into the hearts and minds of a people and passed down for generations, it becomes the cultural norm and part of their ethnic identity. For Arabs today, this belief in Arab supremacy causes them to commit atrocities towards Afrikan people.
Although most people in North Afrika are mixed, nationalism and shade-ism is practiced with the now perceived “pure” lighter skinned Arabs receiving more favourable treatment than those who are more visibly Afrikan in appearance. Today, those darker skinned people have been pushed to the fringes of society and are confined to the lowest rungs of society. This is the case in Mauritania. Mauritania has two main ethnic groups; the Arab–Berber people and the Haratins, who are black Afrikans, once enslaved by white Moors, who claim a Berber or Arab origin. They reside in the northern parts of the country. Those residing in the southern part of the country include, the Soninke, Bambara and Fulani people who are Afrikan.
Photo courtesy www.wisegeek.com
Thirty-three years ago, Mauritania became the last country to abolish slavery with the practice only being recognised as a criminal act in 2007. However, although there are over 600,000 (a conservative estimate) people still enslaved in that country, only one slave master has been prosecuted since the practice was outlawed. For generations Afrikan families have been enslaved by Arab Berbers. People are forced into chattel slavery or used as sexual slaves and for breeding. Any children born to a woman through rape is also the property and slave of the master. These children are often subjected to the same rapes and beatings that their mothers experienced. Many of the women are put to work herding animals or are used as domestic slaves. They are often malnourished and risk severe punishments such as female genital mutilation and castration if they try to escape. Other punishments include being tied and left out in the sun for days or being buried in the sand and having insects placed in the ears and mouth or other orifices. They are often traded to other slave owners for guns, animals or to pay debts.
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