THE INVISIBLE MATTER:
How we impoverish a liberal arts
education by marginalizing Africana
Muslims
by Mansa Bilal Mark King, Ph.D.
Highlighting
New African Diasporas – Senegal
A program of Morehouse College and
the School for International Training
What is a Liberal Arts Education?
What is a Liberal Arts education, and what the
heck has it to do with Key and Peele’s East versus
West skit?
Blackamerican Muslims played a starring role in
changing the overall Blackamerican population’s
naming practices.
– NOTE: today’s practices have likely evolved beyond the
impact intended by the Blackamerican Muslim
pioneers
What is a Liberal Arts Education?
• The Association of American Colleges and Universities:
– It should empower individuals
(i.e. liberate the mind from the shackles of “ignorance”)
– prepare people to deal with complexity, diversity, and change.
– provide people with broad knowledge of the wider world (e.g.
science, culture, and society)
– provide people with in-depth study in a specific area of interest.
– help people to develop a sense of social responsibility,
– help people to develop strong intellectual and practical skills
(e.g. communication, analytical and problem-solving skills, and a
demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and skills in real-world
settings)
– provide people with transferable skills
What is a Liberal Arts Education?
What I will address:
• Liberated/Empowered
• Cope with complexity, diversity, and change
• Have broad knowledge of the wider world
• Develop a sense of social responsibility
• Develop intellectual skills (communication,
analytical and problem-solving)
• Have practical skills (apply to real-world settings)
Who are Africana Muslims?
Who are Africana Muslims?
Muslims
• Identity: people who self-identify as Muslims
• Discourse: people who recommend or debate over
Islamic norms for themselves and others.
• Many groups’ “Islamic bona fides” are regularly
challenged by non-Muslims or by other Muslims
– Examples: ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Nation of Islam, Ahmadiyya,
Sufis.
Who are Africana Muslims?
Muslims
• Ethno-religious identity: Collections of people who
are significantly Muslim, and often whose ancestry,
nationality or ethnic identity is key to Islamic
history or studies.
– Moors
– Swahili People
– Mandinka, Pulaar-speakers, Songhai, Wolof, Hausa,
Somalis, Arabs,
Who are Africana Muslims?
Africana people
• of Africa
– including Northern Africa, South Africa, and the
Swahili Coast
• of the Diaspora/African heritage
– Communities formed by enslavement or trade
beyond Africa over time.
– Example: Blackamericans, most Jamaicans, most
Dominicans, Afro-Columbians, Afro-Mexicans, Siddis,
Habshis, etc.
Who are Africana Muslims?
Africana people
• pre-historic meaningful connection to Africa or
Blackness
– in parts of Southern Asia, Micronesia, and
Melanesia…when indigenous people are
meaningfully associated with African-ness or
Blackness.
– Example: Ghawarna of Jordan
Who are Africana Muslims?
These women are celebrating the Sufi saint Mangho Haji Syed Sakhi Sultan at Manghopir,
a suburb of Karachi. Sheedis, like the Siddis of India, revere the African saint Bava Ghor.
http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africansindianocean/essay-south-asia.php
Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Tamil-speaking Sri Lankan who moved to
Philadelphia in the 1970s, and became the center of a multiracial community of seekers of
many faiths.
http://www.bmf.org/shop/songs-of-bawa-muhaiyaddeen-sufi-mystic/
Who are Africana Muslims?
Filipino Muslims (Moros)
Some Moros have phenotypical features that Americans (and
many of the first Westerners to encounter them) associate
with Africa.
Stock Photo - Manila, Philippines -October 15, 2012: Filipino
Muslims from different part of the nation at a peace rally near
the presidential palace as a peace pact is signed between the
Philippine government and the secessionist Moro Islamic
Liberation Front
• http://www.123rf.com/stockphoto/peace_philippine.html?mediapopup=15927778
Who are Africana Muslims?
Many Arabs, even among the royalty and elite: Moroccan, Libyan and
Kuwaiti
Sultan Youcef ben hassan of Morocco 1912-1927
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rulers_of_Morocco#/media/File
:Youcef_ben_hassan.jpg
Prince Idris Al-Senussi (or Mahdi Al-Senussi) Crown Prince
http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-theegyptian-hercules/the-royals-house-of-al-senussi-ofbenghazi/comment-page-1/
SHEIKH SAAD AL ABDULLAH AL SALEM AL SABAH Crown Prince of
Kuwait from 1978 until 2006
http://arabroyalfamily.com/kuwait/sheikh-saad-al-abdullah-al-salemal-sabah/
Who are Africana Muslims?
• Abdul Rahman (from the biography about him, Prince Among
Slaves). Originally from today’s Guinea, he lived as a slave in
Mississippi for 40 years.
http://princeamongslaves.org/module/identity_intro.html
• Seyyid Bargash Omani/Zanzibari Sultan in the late 1800s.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/ruete/arabian/104.jpeg
• British colonial official with Arab rulers in Zanzibar; on the far right
is Tippu Tip, the most infamous Arab slave and ivory trader, who
died in 1905
• https://www.pinterest.com/pin/549791066984620153/
Who are Africana Muslims?
South African Muslims
http://aboutislam.net/muslim-issues/opinion-analysis/muslims-inpost-apartheid-south-africa/
Who are Africana Muslims?
• Sheikh Ali Mustafa Seinpaal of Suriname
http://www.caribbeanmuslims.com/categories/
Our-Region/Suriname/
Why do Africana Muslims matter?
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Peace studies
Human Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle
The History of Music
Race, Class, and Gender studies
Islamic Studies
Area Studies
Peace Studies
The Jakhanke, Dyula, inviolable towns, and Suwari
Peace Studies
The Muridiyya tariqa founded as nonviolent.
Peace Studies
Sufi communities often embody peaceful coexistence, but it
is not inherent to Sufis. Some have taken up arms.
Human Rights & the Black Freedom Struggle
• Islamic community-building in Black America has
been tied to Black Liberation for over 100 years.
• The Nation of Islam framed the Black Freedom
Struggle in terms of Human Rights (not Civil Rights).
– Civil rights: asking abusive and negligent American elites
to “do right”
– Human Rights: persuading the world to pressure
American elites to “do right”
History of Music
• The Blues was likely influenced by Sudanic African
instruments, Quranic recitation and/or the adhan.
• A sizable cadre of Jazz musicians became Muslim
– Their travels in majority-Muslim societies allowed
them to introduce new sounds into jazz music
• Key figures connected to both Islam and the Black
Freedom Struggle are also connected to Hip-Hop.
– The Last Poets, H. Rap Brown/Imam Jamil Al-Amin,
Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X/El-Hajj Malik Shabazz
History of Music
Harry Allen, a journalist, wrote in The Source Magazine
that Islam was “the unofficial religion of Hip-Hop.”
– The 1970s: AfriKa Bambatta’s Zulu Nation used teachings
from the Nation of Islam, the Ansar, and the Five
Percenters.
– SOME Golden Age Muslim-affiliated acts:
Rakim, Public Enemy, Tribe Called Quest, Paris, Brand
Nubian, X-Clan, Busta Rhymes, Wu-Tang Clan, Big Daddy
Kane, Brand Nubian, Nas, Kool Moe Dee, Gang Starr,
Mobb Deep, Poor Righteous Teachers, Queen Latifah,
Ladybug Mecca, MC Ren, Da Lench Mob, Ice Cube, Jeru
the Damaja, The Roots, Wu Tang, Busta Rhymes…and
more.
History of Music
Method Man (Wu Tang)
applying Five Percenter
teachings:
Minute 1:49 in the song “All
I Need”
Lord Jamar (Brand Nubians)
applying Five Percenter
teachings:
Minute 3:30 in the song ”All
for one “
History of Music
…“the unofficial religion of Hip-Hop.”
– Goodie Mob, Still Standin’ (1998)
• on Inshallah (2:20) recites half of Al-Fatiha in English
– Eve, Common, Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco
– Often fluid affiliations
– The decline of Muslim influence among Hip-Hop’s
stars has accompanied the decline of socially
conscious messaging in mainstream Hip-Hop music.
History of Music
Many American Hip-Hop artists embraced Islam, and
some were born into Muslim families
– In Muslim societies beyond the U.S.A., Hip-Hop continues to
be heavily influenced by America’s Golden Age of Hip-Hop
– Muslim communities are in every big American city with
large, struggling Black neighborhoods
– A large percentage of incarcerated Black Americans become
Muslim
– These links between Muslim identity, Black American street
life, and Hip-Hop may have “institutionalized” Hip-Hop’s
relationship with Islam
Race, Class & Gender
RACE & GENDER: In 1887, Edward Wilmot
Blyden, a preacher, a political figure, and one of
the fathers of Pan-Africanism, wrote Christianity,
Islam, and The Negro Race.
• He concluded that European Christianity had an
emasculating effect upon Africans. He linked it to
assimilation into European culture upon conversion.
• In contrast, he argued that African Muslims remained “real
men” by retaining their ethnic cultures.
• His writings and talks helped to launch over 100 years of
“masculinist” Black nationalism wedded to Islamic
identities and rhetoric in the Black Freedom Struggle.
Race, Class & Gender
• Blyden concluded that conversion to European
Christianity was having an emasculating effect
upon Africans (later applied to Blackamericans).
• In contrast, he argued, African Muslims remained
“real men” and retained their ethnic cultures.
• His writings and talks helped to launch over 100
years of “masculinist” Black nationalism wedded
to Islamic identities and rhetoric in the Black
Freedom Struggle.
Race, Class & Gender
RACE & CLASS: There were also attacks on Black
elite cultural dominance coming from nonMuslim Blacks.
• Harlem Renaissance
• Marcus Garvey
• Carter G. Woodson “Miseducation of the
Negro”
• E. Franklin Frazier “Black Bourgeoisie”
• W.E.B. DuBois recanting “The Talented Tenth”
Race, Class & Gender
In the 1960s, the impact of rhetoric from figures like
Malcolm X, segregated labor markets, insufficient
government protection, COINTELPRO, WWII, Korea,
Vietnam, and Blaxploitation Era films all gave birth
to the Black cultural revolution
– Malcolm is called “our manhood” by Ozzie Davis (2:40)
– Malcolm calls conciliatory Black leaders “house negros.”
– Malcolm’s gender talk (19:55-23:25)
– Malcolm is described as speaking “in a manly fashion” by
Sonia Sanchez (0:30-2:09-2:40)
– Malcolm calls Dr. King an “Uncle Tom negro.”
Race, Class & Gender
Race, Class & Gender
• RACE & CLASS: Most Blackamerican Muslims who
attacked Blackamerican elite cultural dominance sought
to replace it with a blended working-class, rural, civil,
ascetic, and scholarly culture
• Nationalists, Socialists, Communists, Pan-Africanists,
Traditional Religion Seekers, and other activists sought
their own cultural replacements
– Some were Muslim and some were not
– H. Rap Brown, Muslim after 1976
Race, Class & Gender
RACE & CLASS: H. Rap Brown as Imam Jamil Al-Amin
Nat. Day of Action on Fri.
Race, Class & Gender
• Black Cultural Revolution: Black authenticity
becomes tied to resisting white dominance and to
the cultures of the Black masses (street, rural,
working class, impoverished, and criminal cultures)
• Elite Black cultures became generally stigmatized as
weak, soft, and afraid to offend white people
– “weak, soft, and afraid” is a particular problem for those
trying to establish male authenticity
Race, Class, & Gender
Blaxploitation film subtly continues these attacks, &
then Hip-Hop continues them gradually and openly
• Examples: “Sweetback” and “Shaft”
• Hyper-masculinity, criminality, and
objectification of women become Hip-Hop’s
dominant themes with new corporate
investments into only certain sub-genres of
Hip-Hop
• Hip-Hop goes global in this same period
Islamic Studies and Area Studies
• “Islam was in Africa literally before Islamic Time began”
– Rudolph Bilal Ware
• Africana Muslims play key roles in Africana studies and
narratives
– Slaves: Bilal, Kunta Kente, The Bahia Rebels of 1835,
Makandal & Boukman in Haitaian Rebellion, Abdul Rahman
ibn Sori, Ayyub bin Sulaiman, Omar bin Said
– Rulers: Sunjata, Mansa Musa, Ibrahim Sori, Abdul-Qadir
(Senegal) & Abdelkader (Algeria)
– Warriors: Muhammad Ahmed (Sudanese Mahdi)
– Scholars: El-Hajj Salim Suwari, Ahmad Baba, Bagoyogo,
Umar Taal, Uthman dan Fodio
Islamic Studies and Area Studies
Islamic Studies and Area Studies
Africana Muslims figure significantly in European(Moors)
Asian (3:00) and American studies (0-1:40)
– Yemeni scholar, Habib Omar bin Hafiz, in Indonesia
– Siddis, Sheedis, Habshis of India and Pakistan
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Mai Mishra and Bava Gor are revered Siddi saints
The spiritually purifying Manghopir crocodile pond in Pakistan
(Some) ancestors of today’s Siddis/Habshis were political elites
Some became hereditary royalty
– Janjira (implications for race studies)
– Sachin (implications for race studies)
Islamic Studies and Area Studies
• West African elites buying Arab and Turkish women
in Egypt turns the dominant narrative upside down.
• Some of today’s most populous Muslim societies have
a story that is similar to that of West Africa.
– Indonesia
– Malaysia
– Mogadishu down to Dar-es-Salaam
– Rather undermines the false narrative “Muslim Arab
warriors stream out of the desert proclaiming convert or
die”
Islamic Studies and Area Studies
Africana places and people figure prominently in
the Qur’an, Muslim (sacred) history, and today’s
Muslim landscape.
– Yemen, The Horn, & Egypt (then and now)
– Luqmaan, Negus, Bilqis/Makeda of Sheba, Pharoah’s
wife,
– Khalif Ali, Khalif Omar, Soumaya, Bilal
– Qarawiyyin (Morocco): Oldest continuously operating
university in the world, AND founded by a woman.
– Andalusia: Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal & Spain
Islamic Studies and Area Studies
Africana places and people figure prominently in the
Qur’an, Muslim (sacred) history, and today’s Muslim
landscape.
– Zaytuna College founded in California, by
– Zaid Shakir, a Blackamerican Muslim
– Hamzah Yusuf, an Anglo-American Muslim who recognized
the liberal arts core in his Mauritanian Islamic education
experiences
– Abdullah bin Hamid Ali, a Blackamerican Muslim educated
at Al-Qarawiyyin
New African Diasporas: Transnational
Communities, Cultures, and Economies
• Application Deadline is Oct 1 (visa)
• Financial aid is still available if you finish
application now…
• Four courses and 15 credits:
- Africana Muslims
- Migration & Entrepreneurship
- Wolof Language
- Frameworks & Fieldwork
• http://studyabroad.sit.edu/programs/semester/s
pring-2017/adp/
Additional Resources
(a partial list, in no particular order…limitations due to time constraints)
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
Interview of Zaid Shakir – PBS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waBA9vrz9lw
Interview of Hamzah Yusuf – (source not stated)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqQA2C15_l4
An Islamic View of Race Formation & Diversity: Abdullah bin Hamid Ali
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSa4mcy01bU&index=19&list=PLD6C2936B16DBEBDA
About Shaykh Abdullah bin Hamid Ali and Lamp Post Productions - Imam Zaid Shakir
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpMRp-f29S4&list=PLD6C2936B16DBEBDA&index=31
Zaytuna College Inaugural Commencement Address
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQHmVISiooM
White Supremacy as the Beginning of Modern Shirk – Sherman Jackson
https://youtu.be/a5OoJaW-Y2E?list=PLD6C2936B16DBEBDA&t=51
Additional Resources
Islam as Black History – Jamillah Karim and Edward Curtis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3puXJzDsodc
The History of Islam in Africa – Sulayman Nyang
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPPdpXKv_CY
The History of Islam in India and Southeast Asia – Sulayman Nyang
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-HyWUu6US0
The History of Islam in Spain – Sulayman Nyang
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVXZElTJPXM
Foundations of Islam – Hamzah Yusuf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICu3ITHnBoM&list=PL7DDC6E4A27E031CC
Conversations with Talal Asad (coined idea of Islam as discourse) – Multiple sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfAGnxKfwOg&list=PLXJQfAAzIyhQnVY4l5gpgDXVcWnACXD
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