Couple of a questions:
1. Why were people in Western Africa speaking Arabic?
2. Why were they Muslim?
3. Why were they sold to "Christian" slave traders?
Surprisingly, Arabic and Islam aren't indigenous to Senegambia. Could it be that these people were slaves because they were enslaved by the Fulani jihad states-which I'm pretty sure weren't run by Presbyterians?
That is, they were sold into slavery for the same reason that they were Muslim in the first place-and spoke Arabic-i.e. that is the language and the religion-and the status-imposed upon them by the Muslim jihadists that conquered that particular part of Africa.
It's funny that the don't contrast the actions of Christians, i.e. abolishing chattel slavery in the West, with those of Muslims, i.e. belonging to the only major religion that still endorses-and practices on a broad scale-chattel slavery in the 21st century.
The case of Said is well-known and so rare that he was considered a celebrity.
Don’t be fooled into thinking this was anything but unique.
And then the infidels sent him home , back to the spitting camels he was born from.
Allah be praised!
Ihlan Omar ain't gonna like this, Precious.
Yep.
From the shores of Tripoli.
Remember when Clinton went to Uganda and apologized for slavery, the Pres of Uganda basically replied “we sold them to you”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/626149/posts
(Wait a minute, a PDF on line since 2002? Not yesterday?)
These are important historical records. Omar was 37 when he was enslaved in Africa. So it does give insight into how Africans viewed their own lives.
Regarding the narrative that Africans were uncultured and uneducated, Academia had a major hand in creating that perception, and it has been outdated for years. Bringing it up as if it is current is misleading.
Skeletons on the Zahara
By Dean King
Read these years ago. Shipwrecked crew captured and sold as slaves.