Poppo
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Here below an interesting inteview about the african slavery practiced by the arab-muslims in Africa , by Tidiane N' Diaye:
In "The Veiled Genocide," you explain that the Arab-Muslim trade is out of touch with the transatlantic.
Yes. And I speak of genocide only to qualify the trans-Saharan and eastern slave trade. Transatlantic trafficking practiced by Westerners can not be compared to genocide. The will to exterminate a people has not been proven. Because a slave, even under extremely appalling conditions, had a venal value for his owner who wanted it productive and probably in longevity. For 9 to 11 million deportees during this trade, there are today 70 million descendants. The Arab-Muslim trade has deported 17 million people who have had only 1 million descendants because of the mass castration practiced for nearly fourteen centuries.
Was castration systematic?
The total castration, that of the eunuchs, was an extremely dangerous operation. Accomplished on adults, it killed between 75% and 80% of the patients. The mortality rate was lower among children than was systematically castrated. Between 30% and 40% of the children did not survive total castration. There is another castration, in which only the testicles are removed. In this case, the individual retained a certain strength and resistance. This is why they have been used as combatants in the armies of the sultans. Today, the vast majority of the descendants of African captives are in fact half-breeds, born of women deported to the harems. Barely 20% are black.
Read the podium: Western and Arab Slave Trade: Selective Indignation of Africa
You explain that almost all civilizations have practiced slavery. When did this practice take place on the African continent?
It was the Roman Empire that most practiced slavery. It is estimated that at one time, almost 30% of the population of the empire was enslaved. As for Africa, it should be pointed out that as long as private property did not exist, people functioned as cooperatives: they pooled their property, their land to exploit it. As private property expanded, it took more and more hands to work. It was at this point that the conflicts began and intensified. The vanquished were then enslaved. It is estimated that in the nineteenth century, 14 million Africans were enslaved. Internal slavery existed before and during the Arab-Muslim and transatlantic treaties.
How can we explain that the Arab-Muslim trade will last another hundred years after the end of the transatlantic slave trade?
Because the English did not play the game and let it be done to avoid cutting the road to the Indies. There has always been a political strategy and economic issues behind it. Clove cultivation, for example, was very profitable and benefited some English companies. It was based on the exploitation of African slaves, especially for the Zanzibar counter. France abolished slavery in Tunisia, Morocco, where the last slave market was closed in 1820. But this continued through the Sahara because we can not monitor borders. The French soldiers had something else to do and it could also continue, as in Mauritania, because there were African complicities.
Given this past, has Pan-Africanism ever had the slightest chance of realizing itself?
It's a utopia! In the unconscious of the Maghreb, this story has left so many traces that for them, a "Negro" remains a slave. They can not conceive black people at home. Let us look at what is happening in Mauritania or Mali, where the Tuareg of the North will never accept a black power. The descendants of the executioners as well as those of the victims have become solidary for religious reasons.
You relate this past to the events in Darfur, Mauritania or Libya. You see that the trans-Saharan route of slavery is today that of clandestine emigration ...
Absolutely. There are slave markets in Libya! Only debate would overcome this situation. In France, during the slave trade, there were Enlightenment philosophers, such as Abbé Grégoire and even Montesquieu, who took up the defense of the blacks, whereas in the Arab-Muslim world the intellectuals Respected as Ibn Khaldun, were also most obscurantists and asserted that Negroes were animals. No Maghreb intellectual has raised his voice to defend the cause of the Negroes. It is for this reason that this genocide was able to take on such a large scale and that it continues. In Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia, African servants live in conditions of slavery. The racial divide is real in Africa.
In "The Veiled Genocide," you explain that the Arab-Muslim trade is out of touch with the transatlantic.
Yes. And I speak of genocide only to qualify the trans-Saharan and eastern slave trade. Transatlantic trafficking practiced by Westerners can not be compared to genocide. The will to exterminate a people has not been proven. Because a slave, even under extremely appalling conditions, had a venal value for his owner who wanted it productive and probably in longevity. For 9 to 11 million deportees during this trade, there are today 70 million descendants. The Arab-Muslim trade has deported 17 million people who have had only 1 million descendants because of the mass castration practiced for nearly fourteen centuries.
Was castration systematic?
The total castration, that of the eunuchs, was an extremely dangerous operation. Accomplished on adults, it killed between 75% and 80% of the patients. The mortality rate was lower among children than was systematically castrated. Between 30% and 40% of the children did not survive total castration. There is another castration, in which only the testicles are removed. In this case, the individual retained a certain strength and resistance. This is why they have been used as combatants in the armies of the sultans. Today, the vast majority of the descendants of African captives are in fact half-breeds, born of women deported to the harems. Barely 20% are black.
Read the podium: Western and Arab Slave Trade: Selective Indignation of Africa
You explain that almost all civilizations have practiced slavery. When did this practice take place on the African continent?
It was the Roman Empire that most practiced slavery. It is estimated that at one time, almost 30% of the population of the empire was enslaved. As for Africa, it should be pointed out that as long as private property did not exist, people functioned as cooperatives: they pooled their property, their land to exploit it. As private property expanded, it took more and more hands to work. It was at this point that the conflicts began and intensified. The vanquished were then enslaved. It is estimated that in the nineteenth century, 14 million Africans were enslaved. Internal slavery existed before and during the Arab-Muslim and transatlantic treaties.
How can we explain that the Arab-Muslim trade will last another hundred years after the end of the transatlantic slave trade?
Because the English did not play the game and let it be done to avoid cutting the road to the Indies. There has always been a political strategy and economic issues behind it. Clove cultivation, for example, was very profitable and benefited some English companies. It was based on the exploitation of African slaves, especially for the Zanzibar counter. France abolished slavery in Tunisia, Morocco, where the last slave market was closed in 1820. But this continued through the Sahara because we can not monitor borders. The French soldiers had something else to do and it could also continue, as in Mauritania, because there were African complicities.
Given this past, has Pan-Africanism ever had the slightest chance of realizing itself?
It's a utopia! In the unconscious of the Maghreb, this story has left so many traces that for them, a "Negro" remains a slave. They can not conceive black people at home. Let us look at what is happening in Mauritania or Mali, where the Tuareg of the North will never accept a black power. The descendants of the executioners as well as those of the victims have become solidary for religious reasons.
You relate this past to the events in Darfur, Mauritania or Libya. You see that the trans-Saharan route of slavery is today that of clandestine emigration ...
Absolutely. There are slave markets in Libya! Only debate would overcome this situation. In France, during the slave trade, there were Enlightenment philosophers, such as Abbé Grégoire and even Montesquieu, who took up the defense of the blacks, whereas in the Arab-Muslim world the intellectuals Respected as Ibn Khaldun, were also most obscurantists and asserted that Negroes were animals. No Maghreb intellectual has raised his voice to defend the cause of the Negroes. It is for this reason that this genocide was able to take on such a large scale and that it continues. In Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia, African servants live in conditions of slavery. The racial divide is real in Africa.