Africa Speaks Reasoning Forum

It is well documented that Arabs enslaved indigenous Africans across the continent well before the transatlantic slave trade. However, addressing the former does not get anywhere as much attention as the latter. What factors cause this?

I think the habit we have of not identifying people as they identified is the cause. Most Arabized Afrikans (Muslim Blacks) in history saw themselves as Muslims and had greater solidarity for their Muslim brotherhood than their Afrikan kin folk. And history is littered with their complicity in assisting in both the Arab and European enslavement of our people based on religious enmity and of course the Quran encourages enslavement of non Muslims. But we have a tendency of due to a low self-esteem and a lack of knowledge of most other Kingdoms outside of Kemet (North Afrika) of defending our humanity, intelligence, right to existence with Black bodies rather than Afrikan minds and hearts. When we do this we tend to gloss over atrocities such as Arab enslavement because we want to claim such things that an Arabized black did often times in service of his faith and religious brotherhood. We need to know and reseach West and East Afrikan Kingdoms and replace those figures with others that were Afrikan not only in look but in actions.

Another reason for it not being as highlighted is the lack of visual representation of their atrocities with descendants...they castrated the men and one does not see on television the enslaved blacks descendants that survived as we see in the Western Diaspora on television and we assume that the ones we do see are immigrants rather than citizens. I also believe Arab history has a tendency of recording the enslavement as some sought of 'evangelism' and heroics and there are few audiable dissenting voices because to deny religious victories is tantamount to blasphemy.

Arab enslavement of Afrikans is still going on to this day both formally and informally and the silence is even more deafening.