IN THE SAME WAY THAT ISLAM WAS AT THE HEART OF THE ARAB SLAVE TRADE, THE ‘CHURCH’ WAS THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THE TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE.
In the year 1455 CE, Pope Nicholas V. signed a Roman bull (romanus pontifex) ordering that all Moors, Saracens, and all non-christian blacks were to be sentenced to eternal slavery and Charged as heretics during the early phases of the ‘Inquisitions.’ This occurred during the period when the Inquisitions were in their infancy.
By the year 1492, CE, the African Maghrebs and some Arabs, known as the Moors, had abandoned their castles on the Iberian peninsula. As a result, Spain claimed the majority of the Moorish holdings, and those with dark skin became considered to be Spain’s “property.” Some were able to make it back to Africa.
A further proclamation, known as the ‘doctrine of discovery,’ was made by Pope Alexander VI (inter caetera) in the year 1493 CE. This declaration is credited with giving origin to the idea of ‘discovery’ as a concept in Europe.
Following this, Karl Marx made the following observation regarding the subsequent events: “what was good for the Europeans was obtained on the expense of untold suffering by the Africans and American Indians… the discovery of gold in the Americas, the extra patient enslavement, and the entombment of the minds of the aboriginal population… The turning of Africa into a commercial warrant for the hunting of black skins, signaled the rosy dawn of capitalist production.”
It should come as no surprise that Reverend Richard Furman, who served as President of the South Carolina Baptist Convention in the year 1823 CE, asserted that “the right of holding slaves is clearly established in the holy scriptures, both by precepts and by example.” He owned a number of slaves.
“I draw my warrant to hold slaves in bondage from the Scripture of the old and new testaments,” Rev. Thomas Witherspoon of the Presbyterian Church of Alabama wrote in a letter to “the emancipator” in 1839 CE. Witherspoon was a proponent of the slave trade at the time. These ‘justifications’ were presented by a number of churchgoers, both men and women, and they drew inspiration from the Judeo-Christian scriptures.
The venerated scripture of the Mohammedans, the Qur’an, which was written in the eighth or ninth century CE by those who gained control from the Nabataeans, also emphasized in numerous verses that slavery was ‘fair’.
Those who seized power from the Nabataeans wrote the Qur’an. However, in this particular instance, it was frequently stated that adherents of the Islamic ideology were to be loving and gentle with one another, but that they were to “fight them” (non-believers) and “Allah will punish him by your hands” (Quran 9:14, 15).
It was also stated that “Allah will strike terror unto the unbelievers” (Q. 8:60) and until they pay gizya (Q. 9:29). “Gizya” was believed to be an Islamic tax that was aimed at non-followers of the ideology, even if they were not enslaved but if their lands were taken over by followers of the Islamic philosophy. This was the case regardless of whether or not the non-followers were forced to pay the tax.
In accordance with a number of injunctions included in the Arabian Quran, the Mohammedans who lived in Iberia attempted to gain control of the situation. According to one of these injunctions, “anyone who is known to be from those lands that are known to be lands of Islam should be let go and should be adjudged free.”
Al Umari, an Arab historian from the 14th century, stated that this was the conclusion of the Andalusia jurist. Slavery, on the other hand, was sanctioned for all other purposes.
Between the 7th and 15th centuries CE, Africa was entangled in this dreadful web, which ultimately led to its downfall. And so it came to pass that many people from Africa converted to Islam for practical reasons. This was notably true of the ancient inhabitants of north Africa known as the Garamantes, who allied themselves with the Arabs who were converting to Islam, and together they invaded and conquered Iberia in 711 CE.
In the words of Dr. Josef Ben Jochannan, “Africa took both the hook, the line, and the sinker,” and this phenomenon has continued right up until the present day. Africans who are born into this just “follow the followers,” and at times they do so while essentially blinded.
Also Read: African History: Think Africa Never Knew Its Own Past?
