Arab-African Rift? - AP Asks Tough Questions

Exploring the racial divide between Arabs and Africans is a complicated task, as it inherently involves generalizations. Millions of people straddle the geographic and racial fault-line, and many of these millions could be categorized as either Arab or African - or both. But the semantic complexities aside, there is a problem that cannot be ignored. Even the Associated Press cannot pass on the story any longer:

The crises in Somalia and Sudan are pitting Arabs and African governments against each other, sharpening a centuries-old continental divide. That's clear from the way two regional groups — the Arab League and the African Union — have treated Sudan, a member of both.

Sudan currently chairs the Arab League, and was supposed to hold the rotating chairmanship of the African Union as well when it hosted the summit of the group's 53 states and territories in February. The Africans withheld the privilege, however, because of Sudan's alleged complicity in atrocities in its Darfur region.

U.N. peacekeeping has further highlighted the division. The African Union wants the U.N. in Darfur, Sudan doesn't, and the Arab states support Sudan's stance. Africa experts say tensions between Arab and ethnic African states over Darfur have been growing for months...

Helmoed Romer Heitman, a South African defense analyst for Jane's Defense Weekly... said Arab states harbor a deep-seated racism toward black Africa, and Gamal Eid, executive director of the Cairo-based Arab Network for Human Rights Information, accused them of having a "generally condescending view" toward their southern neighbors. He believes the rift is widening.

..Somalia and Sudan are at the eastern end of a continentwide line where Islam and Christianity first collided 150 years ago, as Arabs moved south bringing Islam and bumped up against European colonizers with their Christian missionaries. Both Arabs and Europeans were involved in the slave trade, leaving a legacy of resentment among Africans.

The difference, of course, is that the Europeans have had to confront their slave-trading past, while the Arab world has never apologized and never even been held accountable for its central role in the enslavement of millions of black Africans. Until that happens, the Arab-African rift will remain.

Comments

[Laith]

This is a difficult issue, but I think the AP article misses an important point.

Trying to use western concepts of race and ethnicity in other countries does not work. Racial/ethnic identites in Sudan and Somalia (and the Gulf) are much more complex and nuanced than just Arab/African. In Sudan there are dozens of categories and as you point out many people identify as both Arab and African (or other configurations).

I have met people in Gulf that we would call "black" or "African" in America, who were saying racist things against africans. The situation is just much more complex than this AP article would have us belive. That said, the authors point about the African Union being less hypocritcal than the Arab Leauge is a good one.

In my experience most E. Africans do not hold continued animosity to Arabs for slavery.

Although you are right that Arabs have not really apologized for their enslavement of others, I don't really feel the West has really totally come clean either. (to say nothing of how different slavery was in the two paradigms).

[Zaki]

I think it is wrong to say that Arab distinguishes between black or white,since the majority of arab aren't white and their skin is kinda brown or same as teh color of sand.

if the african feel or felt there is aproblem then why did they choose islam as their faith since the prophet was an arab?

[Jay McGinley]

DARFUR, URGENT: WHAT WOULD RACHEL CORRIE START THIS WEEK?

Darfur Vigil DAY 118 (now in NYC); 56 Days Hunger Strike since July 4, 2006 www.standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com

Young Rachel Corrie saw a bulldozer intentionally bearing down on the house of a family, a family she probably never knew. She got in front of that bulldozer, between the bulldozer and the house, between the threat, and the innocents. (http://www.criticalconcern.com/rachelcorrie.html.)

We need to get between what is killing Darfur (Bashir's performance and lack thereof by we-the-people) - and our children, sisters and brothers in Darfur. Now. And as of now we are not (http://standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com/2006/09/sept-17th-activism-awesome-but-not.html) How do we do that? How do we make it happen? What would a sufficient "wake up" look like? IF SOMEONE HAS THIS ALREADY STARTED, LET ME KNOW. I'll join you, or even back out if that is best.

I am deciding what I will do next, what I expect to be my final attempt to spark the Rescue of Darfur by waking up sufficient numbers of we humans in time, converting us from spectators, critics and activists-of-convenience into antiviolent warriors (think Civil Rights struggle) of profound courage, wisdom, tenacity and effectiveness; utilizing to the max the few weeks, days and seconds that our Darfur family has left.

What would Rachel Corrie start THIS WEEK? This question strikes me as the way to approach the task of deciding. The way to focus the mind to come up with the appropriate, proportional response of greatest chance - THE BEST AIMED "HAIL MARY" PASS.

Rachel Corrie stood in front of a bulldozer about to destroy a house in Palestine (http://www.criticalconcern.com/rachelcorrie.html). Would a different role model help you more? How about Steve Beko (South Africa, movie, Denzel), a young Gandhi, a young Nelson Mandella, an antivioloent Rambo, Deitrich Bonhoeffer, John Q (from the Denzel Washington movie)...? You get the idea. Think of your own role model APPROPRIATE to this situation.

LET’S JOIN TOGETHER IN THIS QUANDARY, before it is too late, please: Send me, or post, your ideas (http://standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com/). Now. I expect to embark on whatever best plan by early next week at the latest, with anyone that wants to join together.

A CONSTRAINT: Suggestions must centrally embrace this notion of the problem from Samantha Power's inspired, Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Problem from Hell" (and I paraphrase AND take license): THE BATTLE TO STOP GENOCIDE HAS ALWAYS BEEN LOST ON THE FIELD OF PUBLIC OPINION. THE PEOPLE [WE THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD]... HAVE NEVER STOOD UP SUFFICIENTLY TO STOP IT.

HUNCH: The plan should involve leveraging STAND's Oct 5th Fast to make it into the END OF THE GONOICIDE, the START of a WORLDWIDE FAST UNTIL DARFUR GENOCIDE IS ENDING. One-day only by all participants is too-little-too-late. A one day fast is NOT what the world's response to the Holocaust, the extermination of 6,000,000 Jews lacked. Not by many orders of magnitude. Death rates are climbing toward 25,000 per week in Darfur, NOW. We must be REALISTIC. Code Pink's "Troops Home Fast" could be a model (www.troopshomefast.org). Make STAND's October 5th the START? THAT COULD DO IT.

But, WE NEED EVEN BETTER, MUCH BETTER SUGGESTIONS and specific ideas for approach and execution than I am hinting at.

RESPOND. PLEASE. Deadline: FRIDAY, 9/22/06, because THERE IS NO MORE T-I-M-E. (For those of you that just want to watch, and have a good laugh at my frantic gyrations, enjoy.)

What would Rachel Corrie start THIS WEEK?

Jay McGinley (jymcginley@cs.com) 484-356-6243

[Arabiya]

I am an Arab and we loathe Blacks. There will never be an African Union, it is a sham. We will slaughter blacks if they dare to enter our lands.