Many of you may be unaware that there are Arabs in Africa. Yes Arabs! Unfortunately some of these Arabs have taken to genocide against Native Black Africans, as exist in the Sudan, backed by the President of Sudan,(although he denies it) and funded by China through its delivery of weapons that are being used to kill in Darfur( the Sudan). The Chinese are also after oil and a way to move millions of their citizens to the African Continent( say "overpopulation"); however, that's another topic.
Briefly, so that we can understand the present state of the Sudan, its Arab Africans and their uprising against Native Africans, we need to know why there are Arabs in Africa in the first place.
Geographic Connections
The Arabs of the Middle East have very old connections to the African continent, and indeed more than half the Arab world exists in Africa. As a result of this (in terms of area, and possibly population ) from Egypt, Sudan, and Eritrea in the east to Mauritania in the west, much of the North African population are Berbers (a separate, native ethnic group speaking an Afro-Asiatic language) or Arabized Berbers.
The Islamic world covers even more area,( Nigeria in the west and many other West African nations). So this intermingling of peoples on the African continent, along with the spread of Islam, has resulted in large populations of African Arabs covering a vast area of Africa.
Present-day Sudan is home to millions of Arabs, with 40% of the population identifying themselves under the ethnic group of 'Arabs' even though the option of 'Afro-Arabs' is also available. Note that Afro-Arabs within the Middle East itself are for the most part descendants of African slaves who were brought there during the Arab slave-trade.
East Africa is home to a significant Afro-Arab population, especially along the Swahili coast, such as in Zanzibar, Mombasa, Lamu, Malindi, the Comoros, Bagamoyo, and Ujiji.[5][6]
The Darfur region of Sudan
The Darfur conflict is among Arab and non-Arab speaking black Africans of many ethnicities in Sudan.
Northern Arabs, including Northern Sudan, identify with Islam, the Arabic and Bedouin philosophy. Southern Sudanese align with other non Arab nations in both ideology and religion. As told by Makau Mutua in the July 14, 2004 edition of The Christian Science Monitor: ”The blacks in the south either hew to their ancestral traditional African religions or have converted to Christianity.” Durfar is the exact opposite of the genocide of Bosnian Muslims by Serbian Christians. Sudanese Muslims, the Janjaweed, are perpetrating genocide on African traditionalists and Christians.
Please watch this video:
Black Arabs in Sudan have more in common with their Asian Brothers in Indonesia than their neighbors to the south. Black Africans in Sudan have more in common with their white brothers in Europe and North America than with their neighbors to the north. What the West needs to understand is that the color of the skin has absolutely nothing to do with the conflict in Darfur.
In order to understand Darfur, we need to put the conflict in terms of its historic context, something the media has neglected in it's coverage. Darfur is but one example of Arab racism toward non-Arabs within the broader "Arab world." The Darfur genocide, might be viewed not only as a case of an Islamic jihad, but also as a case of Arab racism and should be seen as parallel to Saddam Hussein's genocide against Kurds and the Algerian government's repression of the Kaybles.
The acts being committed against Black Darfurians are primarily based upon classical "jihad" and anti-African racism.
However, there is also a political/economic element that has added further fuel to the fire. Khartoum has used this element to further encourage the Jangjaweed militias to murder and pillage. The ilk of the Janjaweed and other nomadic Arab tribes have always been given preferential treatment by Khartoum over settled Black African Darfurian farmers. This is why government positions were attacked by Darfurians in the West. The Janjaweed militia are therefore not only motivated by Islam, and racial hatred, but are in a prime position for a power grab over some of the sparse arable sections of the West.
Nonetheless, the concept of "Jihad" (Holy War) should be viewed as a strong undercurrent behind the governments support for the Janjaweed in Darfur.
"Jihad" is likely a more strong policy consideration of the Bashir( President of Sudan-An Arab) regime. The Islamic government of Sudan was never prepared to recognize the self-determination of any other people in Sudan. This is the common thread that Islamic states have shared throughout history in terms of ethnic and religious minorities: the non-recognition of their self-determination. Self-determination does not have to mean secession or statehood, but does necessitate some level of autonomy.
The self-determination of religious and ethnic minorities is an anathema to the Islamic state. This is an essential concept of Islam. Non-Muslims are "dhimmi". Thus it is of no surprise to see Muslim violence against non-Muslim's in Muslim countries, whether it be in Sudan or in Iraq.
The Arab role In the African Slave Trade and Sudan's importance.
Along ancient Saharan trade routes, 1,300 years of shared history that have mingled the faiths, cultures and skin tones of Arabs and Africans have left another, more vicious legacy: Arab-African slavery that has endured as long as the two peoples have been together, leaving black Africans fighting perceptions of themselves as lesser beings and of Arabs as the civilizing, conquering force.
A "Genocide" Confined to Sudan.
Today, the old roles are playing out at their most extreme in Sudan's Darfur region, with murderous results: Arab horseman clutching AK-47s raze non-Arab African villages and drive off and kill the villagers, in what rights groups call an ethnic-cleansing campaign backed by Sudan's Arab-led government.
In Sudan, this racism is the spark setting fire to Darfur. Up to 80,000 black African villagers are believed to have died, many slain by Arab Janjaweed nomads competing with them for a fertile zone shrinking under desertification and by a minority Arab government accustomed to keeping power by killing opponents.
With power and land at issue, Sudan's central government "is stoking racial and ethnic animus more than it ever has in Darfur's history," said Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College in Massachusetts and one of the leading academic experts on Sudan. "It's the animating feature of the war ... on African tribal groups," Reeves said.
In southern Sudan, the common word for non-Arab Africans today among the Arab elite remains "abid," or slave. In Darfur, in Western Sudan, non-Arab Africans often are referred to as "zurga," which translates as "black," but is thought of more as a slur, Reeves said.
It's important to note that only in Sudan are the African-Arab differences spilling out in blood. Across the Sahara and its edges, the Sahel, most of the coexistence is peaceful, linked by shared cultures and by Islam.
Sudan has long been one of the anchors of the Arab-African slave trade. Its appetite for slaves remains such that a rebel group in neighboring Uganda that calls itself the Lord's Resistance Army is alleged to trade African children to the Sudanese for an automatic weapon each.
A Difference: Traditional American Concepts of "Racism" versus "Racism" against Black Africans as practiced in Sudan(Darfur).
Most Americans are used to the term "racism" as directed against people with darker skin tones, mainly "Blacks', although certainly not limited. Asians and Hispanic cultures occasionally suffer this injustice. This is "racism" mainly in terms of skin color, where the predominating aspect is skin tone, followed by a host of stereotypes and disparaging attributes that follow.
Now this point could be argued, but that's not the issue here. American forms of racism are directly and implicitly founded and derive from differences in skin color. Color is the dominant villain and a darker color, as with most cultures, almost always guarantees victimization, where racism is practiced.
Most of us don't undertstand the full parimeters of race, by definition. This link will clarify it.
In Darfur and elsewhere, intermarriage between Arab and non-Arab Africans over the centuries has become so common that physical differences have ebbed or disappeared. The skin of the Arab Janjaweed militiamen is as dark as the African villagers they hunt.
"Many generations of intermarriage have ensured there's not really a physiological difference, Often, however, the Janjaweed "clings to the notion of Arab racial identity. It's racism where there is no racial difference."
Slavery-An Ancient Institution
When Americans hear the term "slavery," often images of southern plantations come to mind. People tend to forget that the African slave trade was widespread. The African slave trade depleted the home continent's population and blended African cultures with others worldwide, after which, much of the original culture was lost.
Experts estimate that over four and a half centuries, about 25 million Africans were systematically enslaved. About half of those people were kidnapped from their West African homes, hauled across the Atlantic Ocean, and sold to European settlers throughout the Americas. In addition to the southern United States, slave destinations included ports and plantations in the Caribbean and Brazil. A similar slave trade, conducted by Arab and African traders over roughly the same period, captured about 12 million from the continent's east coast and shipped them to the Arab world.
Slavery is nothing new to humankind. Enslaving others in servitude has been part of human culture—at one place or another—for milennia. But, unlike others, this era of slavery was the most widespread and culturally devastating. Some experts argue that by removing what may have been half of the continent's population, the depletion resulted in the slower social and economic growth still affecting many African countries today.
So how did such large-scale trade using people as a commodity come about?
Between 800 and 1500 A.D., advances in ship design and navigation techniques fueled European exploration in and around Africa. Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Dutch mariners established regular trade routes. Africa's metals (especially gold), feathers, and ivory were highly desirable to buyers in Europe and Asia. During that time, some African rulers customarily kept and sold human slaves, who were also African. At some point, those local slaves became accepted as international commodities.
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