Prominent African-American Muslim Imam Zaid Shakir spoke on Black Muslim uprisings during the colonization of the New World over a live video feed from the Zaytuna Institute in California on Sunday night.
Muslim African slaves were instrumental in many slave revolts during the first years of colonization, leading to a ban on the importation of Muslim slaves in 1526, Shakir said.
But before the ban took effect, many of these African Muslims rebelled on Christopher Columbus' son's plantation in 1522, starting the first slave uprising. This revolt precipitated many more, including the rebellion which ultimately led to Haitian independence, Shakir said.
The role of African Muslim slaves has largely been overlooked, however. Many of the Africans on the slave ship Amistad, for example, were Muslim, a fact that Shakir said was "unknown."
Shakir said that many novels written about the Haitian revolts also do not fully explore the presence of Muslims within the movements.
The Spanish were already familiar with Muslim rebelliousness before the Crusades. Shakir said that North African Muslims were almost impossible to convert and that many who were forced to practice Christianity still maintained their Muslim beliefs and identity.
During this historical period, about 60 percent of Muslims in West Africa could read, a significantly higher literacy than in Europe at the time.
The history of African American Muslims is "an aspect of history we should not neglect," he said.
The Muslim Student Association and the Bukhari Institute presented the second in a series of lectures about Islam in Africa and America, that will take place every Sunday night from 7 to 9 p.m. in Pearson 104.
The Bukhari Institute is a Boston-based Islamic educational organization started in 2001 that "hopes to bridge the civilizational gaps with knowledge," according to its mission statement.
