“Blá-Maðrs were the Viking Moors

Nashid Al-Amin, a Moorish scholar and educator, is the author of “True Myth: Black Vikings of the Middle Ages,” published in 2013. Al-Amin opened his book with a bang: “Europe, we are told, has always been the domain of white-skinned people, classified variously as Caucasians, Whites, Nordics, Aryans, Indo-Europeans—white people. According to Al-Amin, a wide range of Black groups, such as the Scythic peoples, the Danes, the Celts and the Skjoldungs inhabited and ruled much of Northern and Western Europe and built megalithic structures which are reportedly still standing more than 1,000 years later.  The Vikings, Norsemen or Scandinavians—particularly those of the so-called “Viking Age” (i.e., c. 800-1100 AD)—were a predominantly black- and dark-skinned, non-Caucasian people, and that Blacks, whether of African or Asian descent, were not strangers to any part of Europe in ancient or historical times.

Source: An Interesting Side to Black History: The Black Vikings By Demetrius Dillard

An Icelandic-English Dictionary based on the Ms. Collections of the Late Richard Cleasby
Vigfusson, Gudbrand

“blá-maðr, m. A BLACK MAN, NEGRO, i.e. AN ETHIOPIAN, Al. 51, Orkn. 364 (referring to A.D. 1152), distinguished from the Saracens and Arabians; three ‘blámenn’ were sent as a present to the German emperor Frederic the Second, Fms. x. 3: in romances blámenn are mentioned as A KIND OF ‘BERSERKERS,’” q.v., Finnb. ch. 16, Kjalnes. S. ch. 15; cp. Scott’s Ivanhoe, note B. 

A portrait of Guðbrandur Vigfússon by Sigurður málari.

Source: AN ICELANDIC-ENGLISH DICTIONARY by Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson(1874)

There are Irish records of a Viking raid on Spain and North Africa in 862. During the raid, a number of Blacks were captured and some carried to Dublin. In Ireland, they were known as “blue men” (Irish, fir gorma\ Old Norse, blamenn).”

“The entry is under the title:

Three Fragments Copied from Ancient Sources,” and sheds further light on the ethnicity of the Moors. The entry reads: After that, the Scandinavians went through the country, and ravaged it; and they burned the whole land, and they brought a great host of [the Moors] in captivity with them to Ireland. These are the ‘blue men’ (firgorma ); because the Moors are the same as negroes; Mauretania is the same as negro-land.”

Source: “Golden Age of the Moor” book under the title ” The Moor in Africa and Europe” by Ivan Van Sertima. 

“The Irish annalists were a lesson to all with their division of Norse invaders into White Foreigners, Norwegians(Finn-gaill), and Black Foreigners, Danes(Dubh-gaill), but it was a lesson no one heeded; nor do we know why they distinguished them by colour.”

A History of the Vikings by Gwyn Jones

 “The Welsh chroniclers, for example, made no such clear distinction. The Danes coming in by way of England and the Norwegians by way of Ireland were pretty well all black: Black Gentiles(y Kenedloed Duon), Black Norsemen(y Normanyeit Duon), Black Host, Pagans, Devils and the like.”(CONT.) “According to Egils Saga, of the 2 famous sons of Kveldulf, Thorolf was tall and handsome like his mother’s people, but Grim took after his father was black and ugly. Grim’s sons Thorolf and Egill, born out in Iceland, repeated the pattern- Thorolf was the image of his uncle, tall, handsome and sunny-natured, and many Egill was black, even uglier than his father, totuous and incalculable,…..etc. craggy head, broad nose, heavy jaw and swart visage.” 

Source: A HISTORY OF THE VIKINGS by Gwyn Jones(1968)

Niger Val Dub “King Kenneth of the Picts” 997a.d. to 1004 a.d.

“Prince of Maine Mor (moor) was accompanied by his father Eochaidh, and his two sons Breasal and Amlaff.” Eochaid mac Run, known in English simply as Eochaid, was king of the Picts from 878 to 889. He was a son of Run, King of Strathclyde, and his mother was the daughter of Kenneth MacAlpin (NIGER VAL DUBH) The Moors were dominant in Scotland in the 10th century. One of them, was known as King Kenneth, sometimes as Niger or Dubh, a surname which means ‘the black man.’ It is a historical fact that Niger Val Dubh lived and reigned over certain black divisions in scotland – and that a race known as ‘the sons of the blacks’ succeeded him in history. (JA Rogers, Sex and Race)

Source: Niger Val Dub “King Kenneth of the Picts” 997a.d. to 1004a.d.

Scandinavian Britain, Part 1 Front Cover William Gershom Collingwood

 “There are turning hither to our shore lithe keels, ring-stags [ships] with long sail-yards, many shields, shaven oars, A NOBLE SEA-LEVY, MERRY WARRIORS. Fifteen companies are coming ashore, but out in Sogn there lie seven thousand more. There lie here in the dock off Cliff-holt surf-deer [ships] SWART-BLACK and GOLD ADORNED. There is by far the most of their host.” Helge Lay, i. 197-206.” 

Source: SCANDINAVIAN BRITAIN by William Gershom Collingwood (1908)

Thorfinn Karlsefni

 “There was a man hight Thorvard; he married Freydis, a natural daughter of Erik the Red; he went [219] also with them, and Thorvald the son of Erik (100), and THORHALL who was called the hunter; he had long been with Erik, and served him as huntsman in summer and steward in winter; he was a large man, and strong, BLACK AND LIKE A GIANT, silent and foul-mouthed in his speech, and always egged on Erik to the worst” 

Source: SAGA OF THORFINN KARLSEFNI

A Book of the Beginnings, Vol.1 (Cosimo Classics: Metaphysics)
by Gerald Masse

 “The evidence indicates that Blacks in ancient times came to Britain from Spain, Felix Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, West Africa, India, Persia and what is today named Denmark. These Negroes were builders, scientists, masters of ocean travel and inventors of letters, according to Higgins, they built Stonehende,

Source: Gerald Massey agrees pg 11 Book of The Beginnings

Ancient and Modern Britons- MacRitchie

“The Danes, then were like the ‘MOORs’ -black. Like them, too, they were Picts, as more than one eminent writer has proved. The title of’GROM’ (WOAD-STAINED) is not confined to Highland genealogies, it was the actual name of a grim old pagan Dane who ruled over Denmark,(it meant daub).”

“Any comprehensive account of the African presence in early Europe should include England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Scandinavia. The history and legends of Scotland confirm the existence of “purely Black people.” We see one of them in the person of Kenneth the Niger. During the tenth century Kenneth the Niger ruled over three provinces in the Scottish Highlands.”

“The historical and literary traditions of Wales reflect similar beliefs. According to Gwyn Jones (perhaps the world’s leading authority on the subject), to the Welsh chroniclers, “The Danes coming in by way of England and the Norwegians by way of Ireland were pretty well all black: Black Gentiles, Black Norsemen, Black Host.”

“There is also strong reason to suggest an African presence in ancient Ireland. We have, for example, the legends of the mysterious “African sea-rovers, the Fomorians, who had a stronghold on Torrey Island, off the Northwest Coast.” The Fomorians, shrouded deep in mist, came to be regarded as the sinister forces in Irish mythology.”

The Feok Festival is an important festival celebrated annually by the people of Sandema in northern Ghana for two reasons: to commemorate their victory over slave raiders led by ‘Babatu’ in the 18th century; and to celebrate good harvest for the season.

“A prominent Viking of the eleventh century was Thorhall, who was aboard the ship that carried the early Vikings to the shores of North America. Thorhall was “the huntsman in summer, and in winter the steward of Eric the Red. He was, it is said, a large man, and strong, black, and like a giant, silent, and foul-mouthed in his speech, and always egged on Eric to the worst; he was a bad Christian.”

“Another Viking, more notable than Thorhall, was Earl Thorfinn, “the most distinguished of all the earls in the Islands.” Thorfinn ruled over nine earldoms in Scotland and Ireland, and died at the age of seventy-five. His widow married the king of Scotland. Thorfinn was described as “one of the largest men in point of stature, and ugly, sharp featured, and somewhat tawny, and the most martial looking man… It has been related that he was the foremost of all his men.”

David MacRitchie, JA Rogers, Godfre Higgins, and Giuseppi Sergi give quiet a deal of insight on it. Also W.B., The Doctrine of Celtism, Notes and Queries, (1871) 7: p.8. Quote:

“here is genetic and linguistic evidence that proves that the Celts were Black or African people. An examination of the language spoken by the Basque has a Niger-Congo substratum. C.J.K. Cambell-Dunn has found a Niger-Congo substratum in Basque .(9) Dr. Cambell-Dunn found that the Niger-Congo and Basque languages share personal pronouns, numerals and vocabulary items. There is also genetic evidence linking the Basque and Niger-Congo speakers. Both groups share SRY10831.1, YAP, M2,M173(xR1a,R1b3), E3*-P2, E3b2-M81 . (10)This linguistic and genetic evidence supports the African origin of the Celts. The original Danes or Vikings were Blacks . (11)This is made clear in the Oseberg 8th Century Vikings on the Norway Sledge carving of the Black seafarers that populated the region at this time. It is clear from this carving that the 8th Century Vikings were different from the Blond, big bodied folk of Viking legends. ibid Tacitus in 70 or 90 b.c.e. a Roman historian notes that the “Silures”of Britania have some who are dark skinned with “unusually curly hair”.In J.A.Rogers Sex&Race vol.1and other books

SOURCES: Source: Page 121, -David MacRitchie- Ancient and Modern Britons: Volume One (Ancient & Modern Britons)

One of the excavated fragments made from fine silk and silver thread discovered at the two Swedish sites, Birka and Gamla Uppsala

“Researchers in Sweden have found Arabic characters woven into burial costumes from Viking boat graves. The discovery raises new questions about the influence of Islam in Scandinavia, writes journalist Tharik Hussain. They were kept in storage for more than 100 years, dismissed as typical examples of Viking Age funeral clothes. But a new investigation into the garments – found in 9th and 10th Century graves – has thrown up groundbreaking insights into contact between the Viking and Muslim worlds. Patterns woven with silk and silver thread have been found to spell the words “Allah” and “Ali”. The breakthrough was made by textile archaeologist Annika Larsson of Uppsala University while re-examining the remnants of burial costumes from male and female boat and chamber graves originally excavated in Birka and Gamla Uppsala in Sweden in the late 19th and mid-20th centuries. She became interested in the forgotten fragments after realising the material had come from central Asia, Persia and China. Larsson says the tiny geometric designs – no more than 1.5cm (0.6in) high – resembled nothing she had come across in Scandinavia before. “I couldn’t quite make sense of them and then I remembered where I had seen similar designs – in Spain, on Moorish textiles.”

Enlarging the patterns and looking at the reflection in a mirror revealed the word ‘Allah’ (God) in Arabic

“Larsson has so far found the names on at least 10 of the nearly 100 pieces she is working through, and they always appear together. The new find now raises fascinating questions about the grave’s occupants. The possibility that some of those in the graves were Muslim cannot be completely ruled out,” she says. We know from other Viking tomb excavations that DNA analysis has shown some of the people buried in them originated from places like Persia, where Islam was very dominant.”

 

A Viking ring with a Kufic inscription saying “for Allah” was found inside a 9th Century woman’s grave in Birka two years ago

 

“The name Ali is repeated again and again beside Allah,” she says. “I know Ali is highly revered by the largest Muslim minority group, the Shia, and have wondered if there is a connection.” Ali was the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, having married his daughter Fatima. He also became the fourth leader of the Muslim community after Muhammad died. Although both Sunnis and Shia revere Ali as an important companion of Muhammad, he has elevated status amongst the Shia, who see him as the Prophet’s spiritual heir. “The use of Ali does suggest a Shia connection,” says Amir De Martino, programme leader of Islamic studies at the Islamic College in London.

 

Inscriptions on the ceiling of an Alevi mausoleum in Bulgaria feature – on the right – the names Allah, Muhammad and Ali written in legible, simple Arabic while on the left there is a blue mystic pattern with the three names interlocked

“The names Allah and Ali are often represented in enigmatic patterns inside the tombs and books of mystical Shia sects such as the Alevis and Bektashis to this day, but always they are accompanied by the name Muhammad. These can sometimes include mirrored script.”

Source: Why did Vikings have ‘Allah’ embroidered into funeral clothes?

The Europeans make it clear that the early Welsh were Black Celts. They were a small black race that came to Britain from Iberia. They were forced off the mainland by whites.

T.R. (1890). The Gael at Bala. Bye-Gones, 26 Feb, pp.320-321.

Dr. Masson reported on the Highlanders of Canada. He said they were of the descendants Black Celts. Dr, Masson made it clear these Highlanders spoke Caelic and had African faces. Black Celts 2

Dr. Masson. (1875). “The Gael of the Far West”, The Academy, Oct.30, pg.451.

William Chamers , in Information for the people, said the Celts were descendants of Blacks who mixed with invading white tribes. Chambers said these Celts were Northern Ethiopians.

The earliest Swedes had black skin and blue eyes? Local netizens are not calm

“The first Swedes were dark-skinned hunters and collectors, who moved to Scandinavia from the south at the end of the Ice Age. There, they were quickly joined by another immigration wave, this time from the east, resulting in stone age Europe’s most diverse population, a new documentary by Sweden’s national SVT broadcaster has claimed. Mattias Jakobsson, a professor of genetics at Uppsala University and a researcher of the Atlas project, which aims to map the genome of Sweden’s early population, stressed that unlike present-day Swedes, their ancestors had dark skin, as a legacy of their African origin.”

Source: Swedes Seethe Over Documentary Claiming Their Ancestors Were Dark-Skinned

“The documentary uses an early human genetic map drawn by a professor of genetics at Uppsala University in Sweden. About 11,000 years ago, the first pioneers with black skin and blue eyes entered Sweden from the south. The first pioneers lived in the southern provinces of Skona and Buhus in the west. They learned to use marine resources through constant attempts. These netizensstatements have traces to follow. After the outbreak of the European refugee crisis, 163,000 people, mostly from Africa and the Middle East, flooded into Sweden in 2015 alone, making Sweden the largest per capita recipient of refugees in the EU countries.”

Source: The earliest Swedes had black skin and blue eyes? Local netizens are not calm

 

 

The First American Slave Plantation was a “Crack House”

The modern “C.D.S.” brand “Crack” was first used in reference to “Sugarcane” before “Cocaine”.

“Hard candy is nearly as hard to define as it is to chew. In the United States, the term describes a wide variety of sweets, including drops, fruit lozenges, peppermints, lollipops, sour balls, candy sticks and canes, and rock candy. Familiar American brands like Life Savers, Necco Wafers, Tootsie Pops, Boston Baked Beans, Red Hots, and Lemonheads use hard candy techniques boiling sugar to the “crack or “hard crack” stage to create specialized tastes.”

Source: The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets

“Although almonds, candied fruits, marmalade, capers, and ostrich feathers also appear in the English records, Willan estimates that through the mid-1570s sugar “seems always to have constituted some 85 per cent of such imports by value.”872 Documents on Morocco from this period show that Moroccan sugar went overwhelmingly to England, as opposed to Spain, Portugal, France, or the Low Countries.”

Source: MOROCCO IN THE EARLY ATLANTIC WORLD, 1415-1603 A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History By Earnest W. Porta, Jr., J.D

“But in the midst of all of this, English merchants had been doing some business, finding there a market for their cloth and ready supplies of the sugar that is said to have destroyed Elizabeth’s teeth.But let’s get back to Morocco where, in the 1570s, trade took a new and interesting turn. Sugar had, as we know, long been the overwhelming mainstay of English imports, in chests, loafs, barrels of unrefined, and tons of molasses. It had been supplemented by almonds, goatskins, aniseed, capers, candied citrus peel, raisins, and ostrich feathers,”

Source: Thomas Dallam 2: The Anglo-Moroccan Relationship Thomas Dallam, Script

“Experimentation with sugar syrup was ongoing. A sort of cookie called aqras mukallala was glazed by dipping it into very thick syrup, and a new variety of lauzinaj was virtually the same as modern nougatine (sugar cooked without water to the hard crack stage, then stirred with almond paste. Hard candies (aqra slimun) had been invented and were colored red, yellow, or green, like lemon drops or life savers.”

Source: The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets

“The Moors transmitted the Middle East’s knowledge of sweets to Europe during their occupation of Spain (717-1492) and Sicily (827-1224), starting with the culture of the sugarcane. Lauzinaj spread under a new name, makhshaban, giving European words for this product, such as Spanish mazapan and English marzipan. Along with knowledge of syrup the Moors passed on the technique of candying. A third-century Damascus cookbook titled Kitab al Wusla ila al-habib gives a recipe for for puff pastry under an Arabic name (muwarraqa) and a Spanish one (folyatil), both meaning “leafy,” which suggest that puff pastry might have been a joint invention of the Moors and the Spanish.”

Source: The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets

“The Spanish had small sugar plantations on the Madeira Islands, which were a way station between Spain and the New World. When they brought sugar to the New World, it exploded. Sugarcane was brought into an environment in which it goes gangbusters. Sugar was a scarce commodity. Cane sugar in tea, cookies, and crumpets was unheard of 500 years ago. It was only a plaything of the rich and famous. Its appeal then is analogous to that of cocaine now. An incredibly valuable commodity imported from a faraway tropical location. But the Caribbean changed all that. By providing this commodity en masse, the Caribbean was the single region that changed the dietary consumption through the entire planet for the next 500 years.”

Source: The Plaid Avenger’s World By John Boyer

“But in the midst of all of this, English merchants had been doing some business, finding there a market for their cloth and ready supplies of the sugar that is said to have destroyed Elizabeth’s teeth. It’s hard to say how long exactly they had been doing this, but one important date is 1551, the year of Thomas Wyndham’s first voyage. Unfortunately, little can be said of this trip save that it seems to have been a success, for he was soon back again, the following year. This second journey apparently resulted in the trade of a “good quantity of linen and woolen cloth, coral, amber, jet, and diverse other things well accepted by the Moors,” and in the loading of the ships with “sugar, dates, almonds, and molasses.” But let’s get back to Morocco where, in the 1570s, trade took a new and interesting turn. Sugar had, as we know, long been the overwhelming mainstay of English imports, in chests, loafs, barrels of unrefined, and tons of molasses. It had been supplemented by almonds, goatskins, aniseed, capers, candied citrus peel, raisins, and ostrich feathers, but in 1572 a new product was explored: potassium-nitrate, otherwise known as saltpetre, and a necessary ingredient in the making of gunpowder.”

Source: Thomas Dallam 2: The Anglo-Moroccan Relationship Thomas Dallam, Script

“Sugar was a big business, a big deal. The point I am trying ti make about sugar’s impact on the Caribbean is this: When it became popular, everyone wanted to plant it everywhere, it was the crack cocaine of its day. It’s awesome; it gets great prices. People will pay anything for it. You can make buckets of money on it. However, as I suggested, it is very labor intensive. The plantation owners need lots of labor, and cheap labor is preferable. Cheap labor? How about free labor? Guess what that means? That’s right: slaves. “Hey guys, let’s enslave the local population! It’s the perfect solution! They tried. But most of the natives, as I pointed out in the Mexican section, died of European imported disease. It virtually wiped out everyone in the Caribbean before they even saw white dudes. The few that were left over got worked to death in very short order. Basically, the colonizers virtually wiped out the native populations of the Caribbean islands. So the colonizers were on the lookout. “We need more labor. Where are we going to get them? You already know the story. They found out that they could bring people over from Africa. This set up what is called the Triangle Trade.”

Source: The Plaid Avenger’s World By John Boyer

“1452: Start of the ‘sugar-slave complex’. Sugar is first planted in the Portuguese island of Madeira and, for the first time, African slaves are put to work on the sugar plantations.”

Source: Slavery Timeline 1400-1500 A Chronology of Slavery, Abolition, and Emancipation in the Fifteenth Century

“Mendes’s chapter thus emphasizes the connections between the Portuguese expansion in Morocco, the beginnings of the slave trade in Senegambia and the growing use of slaves in the Atlantic islands with the beginning of the sugar economy around 1525.  The fact that commercial companies shared so much with others which were more clearly military in character underlines the idea that all these associations were to some extent based on the Christian discourse on fidelity (fidelitas).”

Source: From Al-Andalus to the Americas 13th-17th Centuries

“At first sugar was used as a medicine, but gradually came to be regarded as a luxury, and was partaken of only at special feasts. From Arabia through Egypt and finally by the Moors, sugar cane was introduced into Spain and the countries north of the Mediterranean Sea. In the fifteenth century cuttings were sent by the King of Portugal for planting in Madeira and Canary Islands. From the latter country the sugar cane was introduced into Brazil early in the sixteenth century, and then into the West Indies, principally in San Domingo. It was not introduced into the American Colonies until 1750 at which time an unsuccessful attempt was made, to make sugar, in Louisiana. In 1791, however, the sugar boilers were more successful. ” 

Source: The source, chemistry and use of food products By Edgar Henry Summerfield Bailey

“The sugar-cane, though at one time extensively cultivated, is now practically unknown in Morocco–whence it was formerly exported to Europe–the province of Dukalla being in those days known as Blad es-Sukkar, “the sugar country.” Idreesi speaks of the sugar of Sus, for which the district was famous, as the best in the world. Tarudant owed its early importance to this lucrative trade, and Agadir was coveted as the port of its shipment. Mills were built by Europeans, and Christian slaves were employed in its manufacture in the sixteenth century. A more attempt to revive the business I called to mind by the ruined sugar mill erected in the fifties for the Sultan by an English engineer, at the extreme point of the Agudal park at Marrakesh. Another product of bygone day was cotton, of which Idreesi says enough was produced round Tadla to supply all the Maghrib; and indigo was extensively grown in the Dra’a. Rice, too, has been and is still grown in the neighborhood of Fez, but whatever quantity of these three may now be raised, it is insignificant, as foreign importations have altogether superseded the native articles, except possibly in the far interior.”

Source: The Land of the Moors: A Comprehensive Description By Budgett Meakin

“A retrospect of the sugar industry in general, up to this epoch, will throw some light upon what subsequently took place in Cuba. Sugar production which had existed in Europe since some time in the ninth century, and had been extended by the Moors to all the southern part, of the Spanish peninsula in the eleventh, would naturally after the discovery of America, find its way to the more propitious climate of the West Indies. The Dutch, who had become familiar with it through their enterprising trade with the East, seem to have been the first to introduce it on a commercial scale in the Antilles, after their expulsion from Brazil by the Portuguese, about the year 1655.”

 

 

Some Historical Account of Guinea

“The most ancient account we have of the country of the Negroes, particulary that part situate on an between the two great rivers of Senegal and Gambia, is from the writings of two ancient authors, one an Arabian, and the other a Moor. The first wrote in Arabic, about the twelth century. His works, printed in that language at Rome, were afterwards translated into Latin, and printed at Paris, under the patronage of the famous Thuanus, chancellor of France, with the title Geograophica Nubienses, containing containing an account of all the nations lying on the Senegal and Gambia.”

“The other written by John Leo, a Moor, born at Granada, in Spain, before the Moors were totally expelled from that kingdom. He resided in Africa; but being on a voyage from Tripoli to Tunis, was taken by some Italian Corairs, who finding him possess of Several Arabian books, besides his own manuscripts, apprehended him to be a man of learening, and as such presented him to Pope Leo the Tenth.”

“This Pope encouraging him, he embraced the Romish religion, and his description of Africa was published in Italian. From these writings we gather, that after the Mahometan religion had extended to the Kingdom of Morocco, some of the promoters of it crossing the sandy deserts of Numidia, which separate that country from Guinea, found it inhabited by men, who, though under no regular government, and destitute of that knowledge the Arabians were favored with, lived in content and peace.”

“The first author particularly remarks, “That they never made war, or traveled abroad, but employed themselves in tending their herds, or laboring in the ground.” J. Leo says, page 65, “That they lived in common, having no property in land, no tyrant nor superior lord, but supported themselves in anequal state, upon the natural produce of the country, which afforded plenty of roots, game, and honey. That ambition or avarice never drove them into foreign countries to subdue or cheat their neighbours. Thus, they lived without toil or superfluities.”

 

 

“The ancient inhabitants of Morocco, who wore coats of mail, and used swords and spears headed with iron, coming among those harmless and nake people, soon brought them under subjection, and divided that part of Guinea which lies on the rivers Senegal and Gambia into fifteen parts; those were the fifteen kingdoms of the Negroes, over which the Moors presided, and the common people were Negroes.”

“These Moors taught the Negroes the Mahometan religion, and arts of life, particularly the use of iron, before unknown to them. About the 14th century, a native Negroe, called Heli Ischia, expelled the Moorish conquerors; but though the Negroes threw off the yoke of a foreign nation, they only changed a Libyan for a Negroe master. Heli-Ischia himself becoming King led the Negroes on to foreign wars and established himself in power over a very large extent of country.”

 

 

“Since Leo’s time, the Europeans have had very little knowledge of those parts of Africa, nor do they know what became of this great empire. It is highly probable that it broke into pieces, and that the natives again resumed many of their ancient customs; for in the account published by Francis Moor, in his travels on the river Gambia, we find a mixture of the Moorish and Mahaometann customs, joined with the original simplicity of the Negroes.”

“It appears by accounts of ancient voyages, collected by Hackluit, Purchas, and others, that it was about fifty years before the discovery of America, that the Portuguese attempted to sail around Cape Bajador, which lies between their country and Guinea; this, after divers repulses occasioned by the violent currents, they effected; when landing on the western coast of Africa, they soon began to make incursions into the country, and to seize and carry off the native inhabitants.”

“As early as the year 1434, Alonzo Gonzales, the first who is recorded to have met with the natives, on that coast, pursued and attacked a number of them, when some were wounded, as was also one of the Portuguese; which the author records as the first blood spilled by Christians in those parts.”

“Six years after, and took Gonzales, the same Gonzales again attacked the natives, and took twelve prisoners, with whom he returned to his vessels; he afterward put a woman on shore, in order to induce the natives to redeem the prisoners; but the next day 150 of the inhabitants appeared on horses and camels provoking the Portuguese to land; which they not daring to venture, the natives discharged a volley of stones at them, and went off, after this, the Portuguese still continued to send vessels on the coast of Africa; particularly we read of their falling on a village, whence the inhabitants fled, and being pursued, twenty-five were taken: “He that ran best,” says the author, “taking the most.”“In their way home, they killed some of the natives and took fifty-five more prisoners.”

“Afterwards, Dinisanes Dagrama, with two other vessels, landed on the island of Arguin, where they took fifty-four Moors; then running along with the coast eighty leagues father, they at several times took fifty slaves, but here seven of the Portuguese were killed.”

“Then being joined by several other vessels, Dinisanes proposed to destroy the island to revenge the lost of the seven Portuguese; of which the Moors being apprised, fled, so that no more than twelve were found, whereof only four could be taken, the rest being killed, as also one of the Portuguese. Many more captures of this kind of the coast of Barbary and Guinea, are recorded to have been made in the year 1481, the Portuguese erected their first fort D’Elmina on that coast from whence they soon opened a trade for slaves with the inland parts of Guinea.”

“From the foregoing accounts, it is undoubted, that the practice of making slaves of the Negroes, owes its origin to the early incursions of the Portuguese on the coast of Africa, solely from an inordinate desire of gain. This is clearly evidenced from their own historians, particularly Cada Mofto, about the year 1455, who writes, “That before the trade was settled for purchasing slaves from the Moors at Arguin sometimes four, and sometimes more Portuguese vessels were used to come to that gulf, well armed; and landing by night, would surprise some fither men’s villages; that they even entered into the country, and carried away Arabs of both sexes, whom they sold in Portugal.”

“And also, “That the Portuguese and Spaniards, settled on four of the Canary Islands, would go to the other island by night, and seize some of the natives of both sexes, whom they sent to be sold in Spain.” After the settlement of America, those devastations, and the captivating the miserable Africans, greatly increased.”

“Anderson, in his history of trade and commerce, at page 336, speaking of what passed in the year 1508, writes, “That the Spaniards had by this time found that the miserable Indian natives, whom they have made to work in their mines and fields, were not for robust and proper for those purposes as Negroes brought from Africa; wherefore they, about that time began to import Negroes for that end in Hispaniola, from the Portuguese settlements on the Guinea coast: and also afterward for their sugar works.”

“This oppression of the Indians had, even before this time, rouzed the zeal, as well as it did the comparison, of some of the truly pious of that day; particularly that of Bartholomew De las Casas, bishop of Chapia; whom a desire of being instrumental towards the conversion of the Indians, had invited into America.”

“In the History of the Piratical States of Barbary, printed in 1750, said to be written by a person who resided at Algiers, in a public character, at page 265 the author says, ” The word exclaims against the Algerines for their cruel treatment of their slaves, and their employing even tortures to convert them to Mahometism; but this is a vulgar error, artfully propagated for selfish views. So far are their slaves from being ill-used, that they must have committed some very great fault to suffer any punishment?”

“Neither are they forced to work beyond their strength, but rather spared, lest they should fall sick. Some are so pleased with their situation, that they will not purchase their ransom, though they are able. It is the same generally through Mahometan countries, except in some particular instances, like that of Muley Ishmael, late Emperor of Morocco, who is naturally barbarous, frequently used both his subjects and slaves with cruelty.”

“Yet even under him, the usage the slaves met with was, in general, much more tolerable than that of the Negroe slaves in the West Indies. Captain Braithwaite, an author of credit, who accompanied consul general Ruffiel in a congratulatory embassy to Muley Ishamel’s successor, upon his accession to the throne, says, “The situation of the Christian slaves in Morocco was not near so bad as represented.”

“That it was true they were kept at labor by the late Emperor, but not harder than our daily laborers go through. Masters of ships were never obliged to work, nor such as had but a small matter of money to give the Alcaide. When sick, they had a religious house appointed for them to go to, where they were well attended: and whatever money in charity was sent them by their friends in Europe, was their own.” Braithwaite’s revolutions of Morocco.”

“Lady Montague, wife of the English ambassador at Constantinople, in her letters, vol. 3. page 20, writes, “I know you expect I should say something particular of the slaves, and you will imagine me half a Turk, when I do not speak of it with the same horror other Christians have done before me; but I cannot forebear applauding the humanity of the Turks to these creatures; they are not ill-used; and their slavery, in my opinion, is no worse than servitude all over the world. It is true they have no wages, but they give them yearly cloaths to a higher value than our salaries to our ordinary servants.” 

Source: Some Historical Account of Guinea: With an Inquiry Into the Rise and …By Anthony Benezet

American Colonization Society: The Bornu People were of Berber Origin

“At this period his territory did not extend to the northern bend of the Niger, which was occupied by Berbers. Jenne, the town which M. Dubois describes in his interesting book on “Timbuctoo the Mysterious” as still at the present day constituting a bit of Egypt in the heart of the desert, is said by the Arabs to have been founded by pagans in the year 800 (the year in which Egbert ascended the English throne), and was specially famed as the resort of the learned. Timbuctoo was founded by Berbers in the year 1087, about twenty-five years later than the town Morocco, and was never sullied by pagan worship. As the march of ancient Egyptian civilization can be traced through Negroland, moving gradually from east to west, so the march of this relatively modern Arab civilization can be traced steadily from west to east.”

“Thus we have come gradually eastward to our own territory of Nigeria, where the Hausa States, probably of mixed Berber and Coptic origin, were founded at a period of which the narrative takes us back to mythical history.  The Berber state of Audaghost, lying northwest in the desert, paid tribute to Ghana up to the middle of the eleventh century. The Bornu people were also of Berber origin, illustrating, like the Hausas and the mixed people of Ghana and the Berbers of Timbuctoo, that pressure of the northern races upon the fertile belt of which I have spoken.”

“Dugu appears to have been the name of the first sultan of any modern dynasty of which we have continuous records. He resigned about 850, and toward the end of the eleventh century, Bornu would seem to have been in some way the suzerain of the Hausa States. The earliest of Arab writers speak of the kingdom as spreading between the Niger and Lake Chad. It also included Kanem, on Lake Chad, at that time pagan, though at a later period it accepted Islam and produced distinguished men.”

“A black poet from Kanem is spoken of as enjoying considerable success at the Spanish court of one of the Almoravide sultans. Bornu appears as early as 1489 on Portuguese maps. In the early part of the sixteenth century, their kings maintained regular diplomatic relations with Tripoli and the outer world.”

“I have kept you already too long in speaking of these five divisions of Negroland-Ghana, Melle, Songhay, Hausa, and Bornu–in the northern portion of the Negro belt. There were many others of secondary importance, but these were the kingdoms which in turn were most directly exposed to Berber influence and rose to the most decided preeminence during what may be called our own historic times.”

“The mystery of the decadence of peoples is among the great operations of nature for which we have no explanation. The civilization of Negroland was inspired in the first instance by Egypt. It disappeared as the power of Egypt declined. It rose again with the rise of the western Arabs; it fell with their fall. The power of the Moors was destroyed in Spain, and the onward pressure of the at that time very partially civilized Christian nations had nothing to substitute for the highly cultivated standard of Arabian life. Gradually the African Arabs were driven out of Europe, and there began a reflex action of Europe upon Africa. The end of the fifteenth century saw the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope. The navigation of the Atlantic became general, and a wholly new chapter of foreign influence in West Africa was initiated.”

“The European coast colonies came into existence, but they were founded for the most part in the midst of the very lowest class of pagan natives. It is impossible for me to speak of them tonight. At the same time, the higher civilizations of the northern edge of Negroland was destroyed by the decadent Moors, who feeling the pressure of Europe upon their shores, overran the center of North Africa about the year 1592, and established by force of arms a purely brutal military domination.”

Source: Liberia, Issues 19-27

 

They Strove To Convert Moors But Were Prevented

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In this edition Malta is conflated with the Inquisition as a place of “Great Tryals,” “Cruel Sufferings,” and “Confinement.” The reference to St. Pal is noticeable absent from this title, which not only confirms Malta as a malign locale in the English imagination, but further effaces the agency of the two Quaker women, who identify primarily with masculine prophets. The penultimate “Brie Account of their further Tryals, and how God at last b his Almighty Power effected their Deliverance, and brought them against into the Lad of their Nativity” (228-77), written alternatively by Evans and Chevers, provides an outward itinerary from Malta, to Tangiers (where the two women again sought to proselytize the “natives”), and lastly to England. At Tangiers, they strove to convert “the Moors their Enemies” (250), but were prevented from doing so by the Governor of the besieged fort.

 

See Women and Islam in Early Modern English Literature By Bernadette An…