The United Nations passed a resolution declaring 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2024 the International Decade for People of African Descent (IDPAD). One objective is to “Promote a greater knowledge of and respect for the diverse heritage, culture and contribution of people of African descent to the development of societies.” ACKI looks to plan and support activities that educate the public about those Africans brought to the West during the transatlantic slave trade who were Muslims. … [Read more...]
NOTEWORTHY EVENT: European Powers, Islamic Movements, and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
The Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery, housed at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York City, collaborated with the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center of Scholars and Writers, The New York Public Library (NYPL) to present this program.Visit www.lapiduscenter.org and click on “Past Programs” to view this enlightening conversation about aspects of Islam in West Africa that impacted the lives of enslaved Africans in the … [Read more...]
Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas, 15th Anniversary Edition
Despite the explosion in work on African American and religious history, little is known about Black Muslims who came to America as slaves. Most assume that what Muslim faith any Africans did bring with them was quickly absorbed into the new Christian milieu. But, surprisingly, as Sylviane Diouf shows in this new, meticulously researched volume, Islam flourished during slavery on a large scale. Servants of Allah presents a history of African Muslim slaves, following them from Africa to the … [Read more...]
Prince Among Slaves: The True Story of an African Prince Sold into Slavery in the American South
In this remarkable work, Terry Alford tells the story of Abd al Rahman Ibrahima, a Muslim slave who, in 1807, was recognized by an Irish ship's surgeon as the son of an African king who had saved his life many years earlier. "The Prince," as he had become known to local Natchez, Mississippi residents, had been captured in war when he was 26 years old, sold to slave traders, and shipped to America. Slave though he was, Ibrahima was an educated, aristocratic man, and he was made overseer of the … [Read more...]