A History of African Societies to 1870 By Elizabeth Isichei

 

“Ethnic’ identities were determined by occupation and religion as well as by language. The Dyula were a long-distance merchants, called Marka on the Niger bend; the Fulbe, ideally, pastoralist, the Bozo and Somono fisherman. The Dyula were Muslim, and the Bambara ‘pagans’. The social reality was fluid and changing, there was a Muslim presence in the Bambara states, and some Dyula were not Muslims. ‘It was not uncommon for FulBe to become Bozo, Bozo to become Somono, and…animist farmers to become Maraka Muslim traditionalist. Most Marka identified themselves as ‘white’ (the black were the recently converted).”

Source: A History of African Societies to 1870 By Elizabeth Isichei

Dana Reynolds-Marniche cited the above reference along with the following commentary:

“In other words after converting to Islam many of the Beriberi and people like the nomad Fulani and Tuareg came to refer to themselves as “whites”. The Marka Soninke (Wa’nGara/Wakar and Wa’Kore) were also called Dyula. “The Dyula were a long distance merchants, called Marka on the Niger bend…” They called themselves the whites due to their faith – Islam.  I told you Wa Kore and WaKara were Korah and Kore from Teras (Jeter/Jethro) but i know – many of us are in denial – too brainwashed. Believe it!

The newly remade film involving Kunta Kinte a man of Soninke/Mande stock. 

“Paradoxically the Wakoré are designated in the Tarikhs as blacks from the south, but in other sources e.g. al-Bakrî, al-Idrı¯sı – as whites from the North.”  See what I mean? Awkar, Wakara, or Wa’ngara and Wakore Malinke peoples were Beriberi from the North. The word “white” refers to their Muslim heritage.

Source: (The Wa’nGara: An Old Soninke Diaspora in West Africa. ” Andreas W. Massing 2000

“…most Marka. identified. themselves. as. ‘white’. (the. blacks were the recently converted.”)

Source: A History of African Societies to 1870 p. 223 Elisabeth Isichei 1997, Cambridge University press.

” Those who have read the peer-reviewed ‘Fear of Blackness” in West Africa would know this already. This is what was in the peer reviewed Fear of Blackness…..”

Furthermore another division of the Wakar or Wa’nGara merchants were the Songhai in some places called Zarma, Germa, Songhai i.e. Garama who founded the empire of the Garamantes.

“Like modern linguists, even colonialists knew the early Arabs used the term white for a type of blackness. Example hamam = “Being black. Becoming white. Being charred (a burning coal or billet)…”

Source: A Dictionary, Persian Arabic and English. By Frances Johnson. p. 493

Source: Dana Reynolds-Marniche

Black and Slave: The Origins and History of the Curse of Ham By David M. Goldenberg

“The claim of origins of the East goes beyond the Yoruba and Hausa. Law mentions the kings of Ghana, who claimed descent from the Caliph ‘Ali, the son in law and fourth successor of Muhammad; the founder of the first royal dynasty in Songhay believed to be of Yemeni origin; the royal dynasty in Mali, which claimed descent from two companions of Muhammad; and the royal dynasty of Borno, which claimed descent from Sayf ibn dhi Yhazan, who “although living before the time of Muhammad, can be thought of as proto-Islamic hero, as a defender of Mecca against Christian imperialism.” See Black and Slave: The Origins and History of the Curse of Ham By David M. Goldenberg

“The Saharan Kunta people trace their descent to Uqba ibn Nafi’, the commander of the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in North Africa. So too the Berbers, who claim a Canaanite or Yemenite ancestry. The genealogical claims made by virtually every significant Arabic and Berber speaking ‘noble’ group in the Sahel invoke an Arab Muslim origin. And more. Murry Last writes to me “In the 1960s my professor and I did a survey and a count of all the peoples in West Africa (for whom there were traditions)-of all the peoples that claimed Middle Eastern origin-and when we reached 43 we called it a day…More such stories coming up almost every year.” See Black and Slave: The Origins and History of the Curse of Ham By David M. Goldenberg

“The explanation was given for these genealogies, that they reflect the inhabitants “desire to relate themselves to what was seen as a prestigious world civilization,” makes sense for the genealogies that are traced to Muslim or proto Muslim heroes. But how can they explain the traditions that consider the ancient ancestor to have been Canaan, who is not considered to be the forefather of the Muslim/Arabs? The Arabs trace their genealogy to Shem, not to Canaan. The answer seems to lie in the common Muslim tradition, examined above, which goes back to the 7th century, that Canaan was the ancestor of the Kushites and other dark-skinned African peoples.” See Black and Slave: The Origins and History of the Curse of Ham By David M. Goldenberg

Wilson Moses identified several from the 19th and first half of the 20th century. We can add Joseph Theophile Foisset as early as 1831, and William Van Amringe (1848). As part of his division of mankind into four distinct species (Shemitic, Japhethic, Canaanitic, Ishmaelitic), Van Amringe considered “the Negroes of Central Africa, Hottentots, Cafirs, Australasian Negroes etc., and probably the Malays etc.” to be descended from the Canaanite branch.  See Black and Slave: The Origins and History of the Curse of Ham By David M. Goldenberg

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