Folks here is an interesting article to read.Bless weekend to all.


Niamorkono.


A STRATEGIC GEOPOLIRICAL VIEW OF AFRO-ARAB RELATIONS

  |


Kwesi Kwaa Prah

CASAS (Centre for the Advanced Study of Adrican Society

Cape Town Paper Submitted to the African Union (AU) Experts' Meeting on a

Strategic Geopolitic Vision of Afro-Arab Relations.

AU Headquarters, Addis Ababa, 11-12 May, 2004.

Introduction

I have decided to put down on paper the gist of my thinking on the above 
matter, in order to avoid possible misconstruction of my viewpoint. 
Afro-Arab relations are matters of the most serious order in a rapidly 
globalizing world in which we all must learn to live cheek to jowl. This 
point is particularly underscored by the fact that the two peoples, Arabs 
and Africans, are immediate neighbours on this planet.

They are the main cultural and national groups on the continent, with 
relations, which did not originate today or yesterday, but rather date from 
antiquity. Because our relationship dates from the depths of time, it is 
important to understand that its present status is a historical product, and 
cannot be properly understood or adequately discussed without an 
appreciation of where we are coming from. We need to learn from this history 
in order to construct a better future.

Indeed, we cannot construct a future without reference to the past. 
Furthermore, what we learn from the past is not always complimentary and may 
throw up painful and difficult lessons which some might like or prefer to 
forget. But if progress is to be made, then we should be prepared to face 
the truth however trying and ugly it may be. Africans have tended to be 
rather squeamish about articulating their misgivings, doubts and objections 
about Afro-Arab relations on the continent.

There tends to be even silence about the history of Arab-led slavery on this 
continent. What is the nature of this past in Afro-Arab relations? What are 
the positive and negative aspects of this history? What features of this 
past are clearly discernible in the present? How do we build a future free 
from the limitations of the past? These are some of the issues I want to 
raise here.

The Arab conquest of North Africa and the Arabization of the area started in 
the 7th century AD.(1) Until the mid-7th century, North Africa west of Egypt 
was under Byzantine control. Egypt, was conquered between 640 and 645 AD. 
Arabs soon pushed west in the direction of the area they called the Maghrib 
(West).

This area includes much of present-day Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. 
The Arabs succeeded in temporarily driving the Byzantine overlords out of 
Tripoli in 645 AD, but this was neither immediately consolidate nor quickly 
followed up with permanent presence in the area. In 661 AD, when the new 
Umayyad dynasty inaugurated its rule, a new period of Muslim expansion 
commenced.

A campaign to conquer North Africa began in 663 AD, and the Arabs were soon 
in control of most of the major cities in Libya. Tripoli fell again in 666 
AD, and this time the Muslims ensured their control of their new lands by 
not immediately retreating to Egypt after the conquest. By 670 AD, the Arabs 
had taken Tunisia, and by 675 AD, they had completed construction of 
Kairouan, the city that would become premier the Arab base in North Africa. 
Kairouan was later to become the third holiest city in Islam in the medieval 
period, after Mecca and Medina.

From Kairouan, the Arabs turned to Carthage, north of Kairouan. Carthage was 
first raided in 678 AD. By 695 AD, Carthage had been taken. With the defeat 
of the Byzantine Empire, attention was turned to the Islamic conversion of 
the Berbers. By the early 8th century, the Arab armies included 12,000 
Berbers. Ultimately, Berber coercion and cooperation was crucial for the 
expansion of the empire to the Atlantic.

In 710, Tangier was taken under the command of a Berber, Tariq, at the head 
of the Arab army. Tariq led the army into Spain in 711. It is in the light 
of this early history of conquest and imperialism that the process of 
Islamization and Arabization, and its movement southwards has to be seen.

Till today, cultural freedom, particularly linguistic rights are demanded by 
some Berber groups in the region. In much of West Africa, Islam has blended 
in many ways with African culture and civilization. Islam has been largely 
indigenized. In eastern and south-eastern Africa, again Islam has been 
largely given an African cultural packaging, in much the same way as has 
happened in parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, China, India, Bangladesh, Turkey, 
Uzbekistan and Pakistan etc. Islam does not culturally denationalize people 
and turn them into Arabs.

However there is a step further which leads to denationalization and 
Arabization. This involves linguistic usurpation and the replacement of 
African customary practices with Arab ones. The most contentious 
geographical point of this today lies in the Afro-Arab borderlands in areas 
straddling Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad and the Sudan. Indeed, in many ways 
Sudan and Mauritania are the frontlines of this civilizational clash.

We are well aware of the fact that on the map of the states of the Arab 
League, on the continent itself, the Arab world ends literally on the 
equator at the border between the Sudan and Uganda. On the off-continental 
islands it ends south of the equator at the 11th degree latitude (Comoros). 
It needs to be said without fear or favour that Africans cannot accept a 
slow encroachment of their national areas by the Arab world.

One of the most important adoptions, which the African encounter with Arabs 
has produced has been the introduction and use of the Arabic script for the 
writing of African languages. The Ajami script has produced a wealth of 
materials in very many parts of Africa, particularly in the east and the 
west. In the West languages like Hausa, Fulful, Wolof, Soninke, Bambara and 
Dyula have all historical materials written in Ajami. Much of the early 
Swahili literature is in Ajami. And in South Africa the earliest writings of 
the Afrikaans language were done in Arabic script.

Indeed in a paper I wrote for a meeting (L'Interaction culturelle entre la 
culture arabe et les autres cultures) of the Arab League Educational, 
Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), which was held in Tunis in 
1997, I made the point that this body of work in African languages written 
in the Arabic script needs to be a central area for research collaboration 
between Africans and Arabs.(2) Interest in Afro-Arab relations has history 
with the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS).

In March 1999, CASAS, together with the Arab Research Centre for Afro-Arab 
Studies (ARCAASD) and the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific 
Organization (ALECSO) jointly held a seminar hosted by CASAS in Cape Town, 
South Africa with the Director-General of ALECSO, Mr M. El Meli and the then 
Chairperson of the South African Parliamentary Committee for Culture, Arts, 
Science and Technology, Dr Wally Serote in attendance. The participants of 
the workshop from different parts of Africa and the Arab world shared views 
on Afro-Arab cooperation. Since the beginning of the era of African 
independence much has been made on public platforms for and about Afro-Arab 
relations. In recent history, Afro-Arab relations, as they are currently 
generally perceived, date from the joint experience of anti-colonial 
struggles of the post-2nd World War era.

Of particular note, was the cooperation between, Nasser, Nkrumah, Keita, 
Toure, Ben Bella and Bourgiba. Nkrumah actively supported the Algerian war 
against French colonialism. However, rather quickly, by the late 1970s, 
Afro-Arab relations had peaked. From that point onwards much of the steam 
and activity petered out.

The Zanzibar revolution of 1964 was a reminder of the legacies of the past. 
Clearly, after the first two decades of the independence era, Afro-Arab 
cooperation as an idea and practice has greatly shrunk. The 10th periodical 
(every two years) Afro-Arab Parliamentary Conference which was held in Addis 
Ababa (Ethiopia) from 8 to 10 January 2003 was a conference that was jointly 
organized by both the African Parliamentary Union (APU) and the Arab 
Inter-Parliamentary Union (AIPU).

Delegations representing member parliaments in both the APU and the AIPU 
took part in this conference. The conference amongst other things discussed 
matters of interest to African and Arab peoples and parliaments. In the 
preparatory documentation for this meeting, which was drafted during the 9th 
Afro-Arab Parliamentary Conference, the Agenda read as follows:

Election of the Committee Bureau (Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Rapporteur)
Adoption of the agenda
Report of the Follow-up Committee
General debate on political, economic and social situation in the world
Afro-Arab cooperation for:
a. Putting an end to the war of Israel against Palestinian people and 
securing protection for them, as well as implementing the international 
legitimacy Resolutions, relevant to the Palestinian cause and Arab-Israeli 
conflict.

b. Supporting the .. regional and international efforts aiming at finding a 
solution for the Iraqi issue through the United Nations.

c. Supporting the current changes in Africa towards unity, as well as 
political and economic integration.

d. Drawing up a vision for a comprehensive Afro-Arab partnership;

Brain drain from African and Arab countries and its consequences
Cooperation between the two Unions in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) 
conferences: a. Taking a unified stand on IPU reform issue, b. Practical 
suggestions to improve cooperation and coordination between African and Arab 
delegations.
Forming the new Follow-up Committee.
Venue and date of the forthcoming 11th Afro-Arab parliamentary Conference.
Of the nine items listed, only the fifth has any substance and that is 
linked directly to Arab concerns outside the immediate interpenetrative area 
on the continent. Item 6 is arguably a weak issue. Substantial continental 
issues are excluded. No discussion on the war in the Sudan, in the south of 
the country, Africa's longest war. There was nothing about the oppressive 
situation in Mauritania with particular respect to the fate of the Haratines 
and other African groups.

No discussion about the Nile waters and their distribution. In other words, 
issues, which have serious and profound implications for both the past and 
present have been ignored. Too often in the past, Afro-Arab platforms have 
canvassed wider Arab interests at the expense of Africans. Issues affecting 
Afro-Arab relations in the areas of the continent when the two peoples meet 
are what we need to discuss, not the use of African influence to serve 
extra-African Arab interests. Increasingly, younger African scholars are 
saying they will have none of this.

In a recent edited volume, in a paper by Salam Diakite of the University of 
Mali, he argued that; attitudes of racial superiority of the white 
communities (Moors and Arabs) toward the non-white populations (Soninkes, 
Fulanis, Wolofs, Tukulors) along the Mauritanian borders on the one hand, 
the use of derogative nicknames, and the perception that the different 
ethnic groups in the northern regions of Mali (Touaregs, Moors, Arabs, 
Songhais, Fulanis, Bellas) have of each other on the other, have given rise 
to an atmosphere of mistrust and insecurity not likely to contribute to any 
peaceful and economic development in the areas concerned.(3)

Another contributor to the same volume, Garba Diallo, points out that; for 
the citizens of Mauritania, racism and its ugliest feature, slavery, is not 
the thing of the past. "Our country was the last on earth to declare slavery 
illegal (for the third time since 1960) in 1980 and the only state which 
still refuses to take any measures to end slavery. This is because the very 
foundation of Mauritanian regime is based on a de facto apartheid and 
slavery. Thus the regime has adamantly refused to legalize the anti-slavery 
(SOS-Slaves) and the Mauritanian Association of Human Rights together with 
the Front for the Liberation of Africans in Mauritania (FLAM).

The government regards those who work for democracy, human rights and the 
emancipation of the slave as enemies of the state".(4) Adwok Nyaba with 
usual candidness writes that, "the Sudan features daily in the news media 
because of war. A war waged by a minority of Arabs against the majority 
Black Africans. But it is also a war of resistance - African resistance in 
the Sudan against de-Africanization at the hands of Arabs.

The war indeed is the continuation of the Afro-Arab conflict that commenced 
fourteen centuries ago when the Arabs set foot on the African soil."(5) In a 
paper by one of the most consistent observers of Afro-Arab relations, Helmy 
Sharawi writes that; "many of the African analysts hide the complicity 
between Arabs and Africans in the slave trade and do not situate it in its 
social context; .. Many also are those who neglected the solidarity between 
Arab and African national liberation movements especially within the 
Nkrumahist and Nasserist streams and others, within the first period of 
Independence. If this fraternity had been known, it would have avoided the 
stories of the Arab slave trade and would have replaced a partisan view with 
a more just image, the one of militant support within the ranks of the 
Liberation Committee and the defending of Lumumba.

The Arabs have been preoccupied with rejecting the accusation of slavery, 
trying to deny a social manifestation, which occurred in all societies. 
Objective history has clearly shown the role of this practice in Arab-feudal 
society, which had millions of European, Asian and African slaves. History 
has also shown the role of the African tribes in furnishing to the European 
slave trade companies millions of slaves, which lead to the destruction of 
the ancient African States, which were replaced by a narrow tribal ideology.

Instead of rallying against feudalism and imperialism, the involved parties 
are engaged in a finger-pointing exercise of justification and a struggle 
without respite, which moderated in the 1960's only to intensify again 
during the era of petro-dollars, despite claims of Afro-Arab co-operation 
and solidarity in the Arabo-African era!"(6) Much has, in the past, been 
made of ostensible petro-dollars, which were to come to Africa as a benefit 
for Afro-Arab cooperation. Neither much petrol nor dollars have actually 
changed hands.

In any case, cooperation that is literally bought cannot endure. Fruitful 
cooperation can only be based on mutual respect, trust and respect for each 
other's vital interests. To imply that because of anti-colonialist 
nationalist solidarity of the late 1950s and 1960s, particularly the 
Nkrumahist and Nasserist cooperation, we should be blind to over 1000 years 
of troubled relations is indeed woefully disingenuous.

In the mid-eighties, in a conversation with the late Sudanese African 
nationalist Joseph Oduho, he informed me that as both a student and later 
teacher, during his lifetime in the Sudan, the history of slavery was left 
out of the curriculum. There was total silence about this in the educational 
system. Obviously the policy of the regime in Khartoum was that the story of 
slavery should not be told.

Thus the truth is rather that, generally, while a great deal of attention 
has been paid to Western-led slavery, i.e. the Atlantic slave trade, there 
is extraordinary silence about Arab-led slavery. Nasser's attitude to Africa 
and Africans was not above reproach. In his The Philosophy of the Revolution 
he identified three circles, which form the framework for the articulation 
of Egyptian policy.

The first of this is the Arab world; the second Africa; and the third the 
Islamic world. He wrote that, "there can be no doubt that the Arab circle is 
the most important, and the one with which we are most closely linked. . (7) 
The second circle, Africa, the "Dark Continent" was in his view such that 
"we will never in any circumstances be able to relinquish our responsibility 
to support, with all our might, the spread of enlightenment and civilization 
to the remotest depths of the jungle."(8).

Sharawi is right when he points to the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist 
solidarity, which flourished in the late 1950s and 1960s. But this 
solidarity was a much more extensive affair than simply Afro-Arab. Indeed, 
it had been in place as a semi-institutionalized expression from the time of 
the Bandung Conference and was in the first place an expression of a wider 
Afro-Asian solidarity, which included Afro-Arab solidarity. From an African 
viewpoint, Afro-Asian solidarity at that time included, Afro-Arab, 
Afro-Chinese, Afro-Indian, Afro-Indonesia and other areas of the emergent 
Third World. It also included solidarity with Tito's Yugoslavia.

At Bandung in 1955 the principles of the solidarity of the peoples and 
states of the Third World were systematically formulated. The conference 
declared its support of the principle of self-determination of peoples and 
nations. It rejected the bogey of communism, which was used as rhetoric 
during the early cold war period to condemn radical and progressive 
anti-colonial movements in various parts of the world.

The countries, which supported the goals of the Bandung conference also 
refused to subject their independence to the conditionality of arrangements 
of collective defence to serve the particular interests of any of the big 
powers. The Bandung conference favoured the principle of 'positive 
neutrality' that eschewed either a leaning to the Western powers or the 
Soviet Union. On these foundations various organizations for Afro-Asian 
co-operation were established, including the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity 
Organization in Cairo.

Be that as it may, the historical fact of that solidarity cannot deny or 
efface the centuries of Arab-led slavery in Africa. Taunting Blacks with 
catcalls of abeed (slave) are not uncommon in the Arab world. What is 
perhaps more grievous and criminal is that these slave capturing and trading 
practices continue to the present day in the Sudan, in particular.

In any case, the legacy and reality of Arab-led slavery in Africa still 
lives with us in political, economic and social terms. The tragedy of ethnic 
cleansing in Darfur has been a rude awakening for those who have for long 
played the proverbial ostrich. In a report put out as the Press Release of 
the 4th May, 2004, by the Sudan Organization Against Torture (SOAT) we are 
informed that, Darfur has been the scene of one of the worst humanitarian 
crises.

According to the United Nations, by April 2004, 750,000 of its six million 
inhabitants have been internally displaced by the conflict, while a further 
110,000 have sought refuge in Chad. 10,000 have reportedly been killed since 
the eruption of the conflict, many of whom are civilians.

The situation was compounded by the restrictions by the government of Sudan 
and the escalation of violence and attacks in the region making it a no go 
area for relief agencies or allowing for monitoring of the situation. 
Following much international pressure and demands for humanitarian access a 
ceasefire truce was signed on 8 April 2004 in N'Djamena between the 
government of Sudan and the two main rebel groups, Sudan Liberation 
Army/Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, which came into effect 
on 12 April 2004.

Under the terms of the deal signed in the Chadian capital, N'Djamena, the 
parties have agreed to cease hostilities within 72 hours, for a renewable 
period of 45 days. They also agreed to guarantee safe passage for 
humanitarian aid to the region and to free prisoners of war and to disarm 
militias, 'Janjaweed', who have been blamed for much of the "ethnic 
cleansing" and "atrocities" against civilians.

These concerns were demonstrated in the Report of the Office of the High 
Commission for Human Rights mission to Chad, April 5-15, 2004, which reports 
on a "reign of terror" which includes the following elements:

Repeated attacks on civilians by Government of Sudan military and its proxy 
militia forces with a view to their displacement;
The use of disproportional force by the Government of Sudan and the 
Janjaweed forces;
That the Janjaweed have operated with total impunity and in close 
coordination with the forces of the Government of Sudan;
The use of systematic and indiscriminate aerial bombardments and ground 
attacks on unarmed civilians; the attacks appear to have been ethnically 
based with the groups targeted being essentially the following tribes 
reportedly of African origin: Zaghawas, Masaalit, and Furs. Men and young 
boys appear to have been particularly targeted in ground attacks.
The pattern of attacks on civilians includes killing, rape, pillage, 
including of livestock, and destruction of property, including water 
sources.(9) Darfur has become the latest flashpoint for Afro-Arab conflict 
in the Afro-Arab borderlands. What we all need to understand is that ethnic 
cleansing and genocide is unacceptable to Africans and the rest of the human 
community.

They constitute crimes against humanity. Afro-Arab relations will remain 
conflictual for as long as Arab slavery of Africans persists, and ethnic 
cleansing and claims of lebensraum either for water or land continue. If we 
do not want Israeli land-grabbing in Palestine we also do not want Arab 
land-grabbing in Africa of African lands. Just like Palestinians resist this 
Africans will also fight this.

Many Africans take great exception to the sentiments and views expressed by 
Col. Khadafi at the March 2001, Amman, Jordan meeting of the Arab League 
where he said that, 'the third of the Arab community living outside Africa 
should move in with the two-thirds on the continent and join the African 
Union "which is the only space we have". '(10) One of the most progressive 
developments of Arab politics in the post-Second World War has been the 
emergence of the Arab League.

The Egyptian government first proposed the Arab League in 1943. The original 
charter of the Arab League created a regional organization of sovereign Arab 
states. The Arab League was founded in Cairo in 1945 by Egypt, Iraq, 
Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Transjordan (Jordan, from 1950), and Yemen. It 
represents the ideal of Arab unity, el watani el arabi, the quest for the 
united Arab nation.

As a democratic process, which seeks the emancipation of Arabs it should 
enjoy the support of all freedom-loving peoples round the world. It is not 
in the first instance a geographical organization but rather a national, 
cultural, linguistic and historical entity. Africans also aspire to, and 
need their equivalent of this, so that the African Union (AU) can be more 
meaningfully what it is; a continental or geographical body concerned with 
issues of the continent, and where Africans and Arabs meet to consider 
matters of mutual national concern.

Pan-Arabism and Pan-Africanism are historically parallel but separate 
processes and represent the aspirations of Arabs and Africans respectively. 
Africans and Arabs need to create platforms and bases for a civilizational 
dialogue, which will help to advance mutual understanding and foster 
coexistence in peace and prosperity.

For as long as one party regards the other as a "civilization vacuum" which 
needs to be occupied civilizationally, there is little hope for long term 
peace on this continent. Afro-Arab cooperation will not be achievable in any 
serious sense if efforts are accompanied, willy nilly, by obfuscation, 
half-truths and the philandering of time.

What we need is openness and critical discussion. No issues should be 
embargoed; the search should be for amicable, neighbourly and brotherly or 
sisterly solutions, which bring democracy in all areas of social life.

If this cannot be achieved, then we should be able to go our separate ways 
in peace in the Afro-Arab borderlands. Africans will be custodians of their 
own destiny and will fight to achieve this.

Notes 1 M. Brett. The Arab Conquest and the Rise of Islam in North Africa. 
In, J.D. Fage (ed.), The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 2 (Cambridge, 
1978), pp. 490-555. J.D. Fage, A History of Africa, 2nd edition (London, 
1988), pp. 143-157. 2. K.K. Prah. L'Etude generale de la literature ajami: 
un exemple de cooperation culturelle afro-arabe. In, Le Dialogue entre la 
Culture Arabe et les Autres Cultures. ALECSO. Tunis. 1999. 3. Salam Diakite. 
Racial Prejudices and Inter-ethnic Conflicts: The Case of the Afro-Arab 
Borderlands in Western Sahel. Appearing in, K.K. Prah & N. Sudarkasa (eds). 
Racism in the Global African Experience. CASAS Book Series No. 23. Cape 
Town. 2004. 4. Garba Diallo. The Triple Crisis of Slavery, Racism and 
Dictatorship in Mauritania and the Afro-Arab Borderlands. Ibid. 5. Peter 
Adwok Nyaba. Arab Racism in the Sudan: Its Historical Source and Modern 
Manifestation. Ibid. 6. Helmy Sharawi. Arab culture and African culture: 
Ambiguous Relations. (Mimeo). Arab Research Centre. Cairo. 2001. 7. General 
Abdul Nasser. Egypt's Liberation. The Philosophy of the Revolution. Public 
Affairs Press. Washington D.C. 1955. P.88. 8. Ibid. Pp. 109-110. 9. See, Two 
Zaghawa tribe members arrested and tortured.Press Release of the 4th May, 
2004, by the Sudan Organization Against Torture (SOAT) 10. Khadafi Invites 
Arabs to Join the African Union. Panafrican News Agency. Dakar. March 28, 
2001.



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