"The sad chapter of the deportation of Africans from Islamic lands is comparable to genocide. This deportation is not only limited to the deprivation of freedom and forced labour, it was also, to a large extent, a true program of what we can classify as'ethnic extinction by castration' " Tidiane Ndiaye, The Veiled Genocide, Gallimard 2008.
Inevitably associated with its western aspects, the African slave trade also involved the Maghreb and the Arab World. The largest slave trader business in history allowed for the deportation of 40% of the 42 millions victims of slavery traded with Morocco, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt etc.
Through the Sahara and by other maritime routes, 14 million slaves were sold along with ebony, gold and ivory by sub-Saharan chiefs for horses, salt, arms and manufactured products. Maids, servants, eunuchs, workers, farm labourers, pearl divers, wet-nurses, singers, minors for salt, gold and precious stones, young men, women, children were employed for over 14 centuries in terrible, dehumanising conditions. According to Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, "the rate of mortality was very high, representing 15 to 20% of slaves in Zanzibar (between 9,000 and 12,000 individuals) that had to be replaced every year."
The descendants of black slaves are quasi inexistent, and have today been replaced by a significant immigrant population who suffer from racism, and an entrenched discrimination due to a total amnesia of the history of slave traders in these countries.
This heavy heritage hidden by Arab States remains a reality in the 21st century. Under different forms, the slavery of hundreds of thousands of black men, women and children is a source of shame not only for the gulf countries, but for a majority of arab countries.
After important work on the memory of the slave trade undertaken by western nations (laws, museums, and initiatives by civil society) and more and more sub-Saharan African countries (the first African law in Senegal and numerous places of memorial) it is time that the Arab world opens this chapter of their history to create a more human daily life for their populations.
The long penitence of the black man in Africa and in Arabia has started to be questioned by courageous researchers despite the indifference of sub-Saharan African states and the contempt of countries in the Maghreb and the Arab world.
The Memorial Foundation for the Slave Trade wants to revive the memory of the forgotten slaves and also give them justice and dignity in their contribution to the progress of humanity.
The foundation will address all ambassadors represented in Paris to inform them about the necessity of declaring the slave trade and slavery to be crimes against humanity.
JOIN THE RALLY IN FRONT OF THE MORROCAN EMBASSY IN PARIS ON THE 2ND OF DECEMBER AT 12PM.
ON THE FOUNDATION: 15 years after having contributed to the recognition of the involvement in the Slave Trade by the city of Bordeaux, the Foundation was the instigator of the vote in Senegal for the first African law declaring the slave trade of Africans a crime against humanity.
[Sign the petition]
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