Maafa

Last updated

The Maafa (Swahili for "Great disaster"), the African Holocaust, the Holocaust of Enslavement, or the Black Holocaust [1] [2] [3] are political neologisms popularized since 1988 [4] [5] [6] [7] to describe the history and ongoing effects of atrocities inflicted upon Black people worldwide. Of particular focus are those committed by non-Africans (specifically Europeans and Arabs in the context of the Trans-Saharan slave trade, the Indian Ocean slave trade and the Atlantic slave trade), which continue to the present day through imperialism, colonialism and other forms of oppression. [4] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Contents

Description

Maulana Karenga puts slavery in the broader context of the Maafa, suggesting that its effects exceed mere physical persecution and legal disenfranchisement: the "destruction of human possibility involved redefining African humanity to the world, poisoning past, present and future relations with others who only know us through this stereotyping and thus damaging the truly human relations among peoples". [11]

The Canadian scholar Adam Jones characterized the mass death of millions of Africans in the Atlantic slave trade as a genocide due to it being "one of the worst holocausts in human history" because it resulted in 15 to 20 million deaths according to one estimate, and he claims that arguments to the contrary such as "it was in slave owners' interest to keep slaves alive, not exterminate them" are "mostly sophistry" by stating: "the killing and destruction were intentional, whatever the incentives to preserve survivors of the Atlantic passage for labor exploitation. To revisit the issue of intent already touched on: If an institution is deliberately maintained and expanded by discernible agents, though all are aware of the hecatombs of casualties it is inflicting on a definable human group, then why should this not qualify as genocide?" [12]

History and terminology

The usage of the Swahili term: Maafa, lit.  'Great Disaster' in English was introduced by Marimba Ani's 1988 book Let the Circle Be Unbroken: The Implications of African Spirituality in the Diaspora . [13] [14] It is derived from a Swahili term for "disaster, terrible occurrence or great tragedy". [15] [16] The term was popularized in the 1990s. [17] The Maafa represents a way to discuss the historic atrocities and impact of the African Slave Trade. [18]

The term African Holocaust is preferred by some academics, such as Maulana Karenga, because it implies intention. [19] One problem noted by Karenga is that the word Maafa can also translate to "accident" and in the view of some scholars the holocaust of enslavement was not accidental. Ali Mazrui notes that the word "holocaust" is a "dual plagiarism" since the term is derived from Ancient Greek and thus despite being associated with the genocide of the Jews, no one can have a monopoly over the term. Mazrui states: "This borrowing from borrowers without attribution is what I call 'the dual plagiarism.' But this plagiarism is defensible because the vocabulary of horrors like genocide and enslavement should not be subject to copyright-restrictions". [20]

Some Afrocentric scholars prefer the term Maafa instead of African Holocaust [21] because they believe that indigenous African terminology more truly conveys the events. [14] The term Maafa may serve "much the same cultural psychological purpose for Africans as the idea of the Holocaust serves to name the culturally distinct Jewish experience of genocide under German Nazism". [22] Other arguments in favor of Maafa rather than African Holocaust emphasize that the denial of the validity of the African people's humanity is an unparalleled centuries-long phenomenon: "The Maafa is a continual, constant, complete, and total system of human negation and nullification"- [7]

The historian Sylviane Diouf posits that terms like "Atlantic slave trade" are deeply problematic because they serve as euphemisms for intense violence and mass murder. Referred to as a "trade", this prolonged period of persecution and suffering is rendered as a commercial dilemma, rather than a moral atrocity. [23] With trade as the primary focus, the broader tragedy becomes consigned to a secondary point as mere "collateral damage" of a commercial venture. However, others feel that avoidance of the term "trade" is an apologetic act on behalf of capitalism, absolving capitalist structures of involvement in human catastrophe. [24] Roger Garaudy accused America of genocide up to an estimated two hundred million Africans. [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic slave trade</span>

The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage. Europeans established a coastal slave trade in the 15th century and trade to the Americas began in the 16th century, lasting through the 19th century. The vast majority of those who were transported in the transatlantic slave trade were from Central Africa and West Africa and had been sold by West African slave traders to European slave traders, while others had been captured directly by the slave traders in coastal raids. European slave traders gathered and imprisoned the enslaved at forts on the African coast and then brought them to the Americas. Some Portuguese and Europeans participated in slave raids. As the National Museums Liverpool explains: "European traders captured some Africans in raids along the coast, but bought most of them from local African or African-European dealers." Many European slave traders generally did not participate in slave raids because life expectancy for Europeans in sub-Saharan Africa was less than one year during the period of the slave trade because of malaria that was endemic in the African continent. An article from PBS explains: "Malaria, dysentery, yellow fever, and other diseases reduced the few Europeans living and trading along the West African coast to a chronic state of ill health and earned Africa the name 'white man's grave.' In this environment, European merchants were rarely in a position to call the shots." The earliest known use of the phrase began in the 1830s, and the earliest written evidence was found in an 1836 published book by F. H. Rankin. Portuguese coastal raiders found that slave raiding was too costly and often ineffective and opted for established commercial relations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European colonization of the Americas</span>

During the Age of Discovery, a large scale colonization of the Americas, involving a number of European countries, took place primarily between the late 15th century and the early 19th century. The Norse explored and colonized areas of Europe and the North Atlantic, colonizing Greenland and creating a short-term settlement near the northern tip of Newfoundland circa 1000 AD. However, due to its long duration and importance, the later colonization by the European powers involving the continents of North America and South America is more well-known.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle Passage</span> Transoceanic segment of the Atlantic slave trade

The Middle Passage was the stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas as part of the triangular slave trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with manufactured goods, which were then traded for slaves with rulers of African states and other African slave traders. Slave ships transported the slaves across the Atlantic. The proceeds from selling slaves were then used to buy products such as furs and hides, tobacco, sugar, rum, and raw materials, which would be transported back to Europe to complete the triangle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maulana Karenga</span> American professor and founder of Kwanzaa (born 1941)

Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga, previously known as Ron Karenga, is an American activist, author and professor of Africana studies, best known as the creator of the pan-African and African-American holiday of Kwanzaa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banda people</span> Ethnic group native to Africa

The Banda people are an ethnic group of the Central African Republic. They are likewise found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, and South Sudan. They were severely affected by slave raids of the 19th century and slave trading out of Africa. Under French colonial rule, most converted to Christianity but retained elements of their traditional religious systems and values.

Sylviane Anna Diouf is a historian and curator of the African diaspora. She is a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University and a member of the Scientific Committee of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. Her contribution as a social historian, she stressed, "May be the uncovering of essential stories and topics that were overlooked or negated, but which actually offer new insights into the experience of the African Diaspora. A scholar said my work re-shapes and re-directs our understanding of this history; it shifts our attention, corrects the historical record, and reveals hidden and forgotten voices."

<i>500 Years Later</i> 2005 US/UK documentary film by Owen Alik Shahadah

500 Years Later is a 2005 independent documentary film directed by Owen 'Alik Shahadah and written by M. K. Asante, Jr. It has won five international film festival awards in the category of Best Documentary, including the UNESCO "Breaking the Chains" award. It has won other awards including Best Documentary at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, Best Documentary at the Bridgetown Film Festival in Barbados, Best Film at the International Black Cinema Film Festival in Berlin, and Best International Documentary at the Harlem International Film Festival in New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of slavery</span>

The history of slavery spans many cultures, nationalities, and religions from ancient times to the present day. Likewise, its victims have come from many different ethnicities and religious groups. The social, economic, and legal positions of slaves have differed vastly in different systems of slavery in different times and places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black orientalism</span> "Othering" or critiquing of the East and Arab World due to colonialism in Black academia

Black orientalism is an intellectual and cultural movement found primarily within African-American circles. While similar to the general movement of Orientalism in its negative outlook upon Western Asian – especially Arab – culture and religion, it differs in both its emphasis upon the role of the Arab slave trade and the Coolie slave trade in the historic relationship between Africa and the Arab – and greater Muslim – world, as well as a lack of colonial promotion over the Middle East region as was promoted by European orientalism in the same region. The term "black orientalism" was first used by Kenyan academic Ali Mazrui in his critique of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s documentary Wonders of the African World. Supporters of this movement include writers such as Chinweizu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Africa</span> Historical slavery in Africa

Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa. Systems of servitude and slavery were once commonplace in parts of Africa, as they were in much of the rest of the ancient and medieval world. When the trans-Saharan slave trade, Red Sea slave trade, Indian Ocean slave trade and Atlantic slave trade began, many of the pre-existing local African slave systems began supplying captives for slave markets outside Africa. Slavery in contemporary Africa is still practised despite it being illegal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cudjoe Lewis</span> One of the last known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade (d. 1935)

Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis, born Oluale Kossola, and also known as Cudjo Lewis, was the third-to-last adult survivor of the Atlantic slave trade between Africa and the United States. Together with 115 other African captives, he was brought to the United States on board the ship Clotilda in 1860. The captives were landed in backwaters of the Mobile River near Mobile, Alabama, and hidden from authorities. The ship was scuttled to evade discovery, and remained undiscovered until May 2019.

<i>Motherland</i> (2010 film) 2010 American film

Motherland is a 2010 independent documentary film directed and written by Owen 'Alik Shahadah. Motherland is the sequel to the 2005 documentary 500 Years Later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barracoon</span> Historic barracks used for enslaved or criminals

A barracoon is a type of barracks used historically for the internment of enslaved or criminal human beings.

Marimba Ani is an anthropologist and African Studies scholar best known for her work Yurugu, a comprehensive critique of European thought and culture, and her coining of the term "Maafa" for the African holocaust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reparations for slavery</span> Political justice concept

Reparations for slavery refers to providing benefits to victims of slavery and/or their descendants. There are concepts for reparations in legal philosophy and reparations in transitional justice. Reparations can take many forms, including practical and financial assistance to the descendants of enslaved people, acknowledgements or apologies to peoples or nations negatively affected by slavery, or honouring the memories of people who were enslaved by naming things after them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Latin America</span>

Slavery in Latin America was an economic and social institution that existed in Latin America before the colonial era until its legal abolition in the newly independent states during the 19th century. However, it continued illegally in some regions into the 20th century. Slavery in Latin America began in the pre-colonial period when indigenous civilizations, including the Maya and Aztec, enslaved captives taken in war. After the conquest of Latin America by the Spanish and Portuguese, of the nearly 12 million slaves that were shipped across the Atlantic, over 4 million enslaved Africans were brought to Latin America. Roughly 3.5 million of those slaves were brought to Brazil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ana Lucia Araujo</span> American, author and history professor

Ana Lucia Araujo is an American historian, art historian, author, and professor of history at Howard University. She is a member of the International Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Slave Route Project. Her scholarship focuses on the transnational history, public memory, visual culture, and heritage of slavery and the Atlantic slave trade.

The French revolutionary government granted citizenship and freedom to free people of color in May 1791, but white planters in Saint-Domingue refused to comply with this decision. This was the catalyst for the 1791 slave rebellion, a key event for the Haitian Revolution with which the new citizens demanded their granted rights.

The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA) is an organization that advocates for financial compensation for the descendants of former slaves in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Iraq</span>

Slavery existed in the territory of the modern state of Iraq until the 1920s.

References

  1. ↑ William Wright points to the differences between black history, and African history, and argues that the African Holocaust is a major reason why these two histories are not synonymous: William D. Wright, Black History and Black Identity: A Call for a New Historiography, p. 117
  2. ↑ "What Holocaust". Glenn Reitz. Archived from the original on 2007-10-18.
  3. ↑ Ryan Michael Spitzer, "The African Holocaust: Should Europe pay reparations to Africa for Colonialism and Slavery?", Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, vol. 35, 2002, p. 1319.
  4. 1 2 Barndt, Joseph. Understanding and Dismantling Racism: The Twenty-First Century. 2007, page 269.
  5. ↑ The Global African: A Portrait of Ali A. Mazrui . Omari H. Kokole.
  6. 1 2 "Reparations for the Slave Trade: Rhetoric, Law, History and Political Realities"" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  7. 1 2 3 Jones, Lee and West, Cornel. Making It on Broken Promises: Leading African American Male Scholars Confront the Culture of Higher Education. 2002, p. 178.
  8. ↑ Wright, William D. (2001). Black History and Black Identity: A Call for a New Historiography. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN   9780275974428.
  9. ↑ The Global African: A Portrait of Ali A. Mazrui. Omari H. Kokole.
  10. ↑ Ryan Michael Spitzer, "The African Holocaust: Should Europe pay reparations to Africa for Colonialism and Slavery?", Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law , vol. 35, 2002, p. 1319.
  11. ↑ "Letter by Maulana Karenga, 2001". H-net.msu.edu. 2010-04-29. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  12. ↑ Jones, Adam (2006). Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Publishers. pp. 23-24 ISBN 978-0-415-35385-4.
  13. ↑ Dove, Nah. Afrikan Mothers: Bearers of Culture, Makers of Social Change. 1998, p. 240.
  14. 1 2 Gunn Morris, Vivian and Morris, Curtis L. The Price They Paid: Desegregation in an African American Community. 2002, p. x.
  15. ↑ Harp, O.J. Across Time: Mystery of the Great Sphinx. 2007, p. 247.
  16. ↑ Cheeves, Denise Nicole (2004). Legacy. p. 1.
  17. ↑ Pero Gaglo Dagbovie (2010). African American History Reconsidered. University of Illinois Press. p. 191.
  18. ↑ NAACP PRESIDENT TO COMMEMORATE AFRICAN MAAFA
  19. ↑ "Interview With Dr. Maulana Karenga | The Two Nations Of Black America | FRONTLINE | PBS". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2019-12-15.
  20. ↑ "Ancestry, Descent And Identity" (PDF). Igcs.binghamton.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-13. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  21. ↑ Tarpley, Natasha. Testimony: Young African-Americans on Self-Discovery and Black Identity. 1995, p. 252.
  22. ↑ Aldridge, Delores P. and Young, Carlene. Out of the Revolution: The Development of Africana Studies. 2000, p. 250.
  23. ↑ Diouf, Sylviane Anna. Fighting the Slave Trade: West African Strategies. 2003, p. xi.
  24. ↑ Epps, Henry (4 September 2012). A Concise Chronicle History of the African-American People Experience in America. Lulu.com. p. 57. ISBN   9781300161431 . Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  25. ↑ Weitz, E.; Fenner, A. (2016). Fascism and Neofascism: Critical Writings on the Radical Right in Europe. Studies in European Culture and History. Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 256. ISBN   978-1-137-04122-7 . Retrieved 2023-07-26.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.