Monday, February 16, 2009

Prince of Slaves Probably was a Slave Owner Himself

Because of comment in an NPR segment about on black history month, Do We Need A Black History Month? someone mentioned an actual West African price who was a slave. Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori was a prince of Kingdom of Fouta Djallon in the highlands of Guinea, which oddly enough had as a capital a town/city called Timbo. As a teenager he had studied in Timbuktu. In his twenties after leading his father's troop to defeat was captured and sold into slavery.This was a personal tragedy for him it must be asked if previously he had sold POWs into slavery. Slavery was practiced by moslem kingdoms in West Africa. The slave trade in West Africa and East Africa was only wiped by force of arms. However slavery is still "popular" in muslin Africa. One of the motives of the Sudanese government forces in Darfur as well as in Sudan's Christian south was enslavement. The final little kicker is that Wiki ascribes the downfall of Timbuktu with competition from European trading ports on the coast:
The city began to decline after explorers and slavers from Portugal and then other European countries landed in West Africa, providing an alternative to the slave market of Timbuktu and the trade route through the world's largest desert.
This Prince of Slaves lived in countries that enslaved, probably owned slaves, probably enslaved those he captured and studied in fabled Timbuktu which had along with its cattle, camel, salt and gold markets also had a noted slave market.

The comment made by Eve Sander (evergreeen), which she triple posted, is taken by as a bad example of "celebrating" history as a means to personal affirmation and self esteem. History shouldn't make you feel better, that is what beer is for, it should inform, enlighten and even disturb the reader.

1 comment:

Timbo said...

Our forces are preparing to invade, even as we speak.