colonizing islam: the black-white divide

From the blog In Search of Jannah:
Colonizing Islam: the Black-White Divide which suggests (with a number of caveats) that at least in the UK Muslim community the Salafi/Sufi split seems to have racial and class components.

desi nationalism, hanafi purists and the ouster of an american-muslim pioneer

From Umar Lee's blog: Desi Nationalism, Hanafi Purists and the Ouster of an American-Muslim Pioneer
for a sad account of cultural/madhabi chauvanism in the Muslim community.

N.Y. State Jail To Hire Muslim Chaplain

Decision follows furor over pastor who distributed anti-Islamic cartoons
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:10 p.m. ET May 9, 2007

NEW CITY, N.Y. - The county jail where a Christian minister handed out anti-Islamic cartoons announced it will hire an imam for its Muslim inmates.

The Rockland County Jail also said it will provide religiously appropriate food.

Rockland Undersheriff Thomas Guthrie said Tuesday that the imam will work one day a week, joining the jail’s priest and rabbi.

The Christian chaplain, the Rev. Teresa Darden Clapp, was suspended with pay last month after inmates complained she was passing out anti-Islam booklets.

In the cartoon panel stories, a tract titled “Men of Peace?” said Islamic fundamentalists who commit terrorist acts are not “bad Muslims” but “very good Muslims” who act in accordance with their religion. Another tract, titled “Allah Has No Son,” said Allah is not God, Muhammad was no prophet, and the Quran is not the word of God. Both stories end with people being convinced Islam is false. In one, a Muslim converts to Christianity.

Local Muslims have called for Clapp’s dismissal, and the county requested an independent investigation.

Clapp has not commented public about the controversy and has not responded to messages seeking comment.

© 2007 The Associated Press. URL: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18572667/

Relate article here and here.

More Thoughts On the Exclucivity of Whiteness

While researching a paper for class I came across some interesting notes about "whiteness" from one of the founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin. From the gist of Franklin's rhetoric, I found myself easily able to substitute and of the other European races for "Muslim", "Arab", "Paki", or even, "Mexican".

Immigrant Islam - Door To "Whiteness" Closed?

I have written a short article on my blog concerning the similar issues that many immigrant Muslims are facing now compared to what Blackamericans have faced in times past. The short essay is a reflection on a town hall meeting I attended here in Philadelphia, hosted by WHYY. Initially, the talk was supposed to revolve around divides within the religious world but of course quickly boiled down to, "Why can't Muslims 'just get along' ". Here's the article.

africa's muslim democracies

Here is a pop quiz for all the fans of international relations: On which continent are the most majority-Muslim population electoral democracies located? The first answer to everyone’s mind is often Asia. This is natural since Islam and Asia are intimately linked in most minds. It would seem that everyone knows about Turkey. Insightful observers also know about Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia as well. Europe has one: Albania. Iraq and Afghanistan are too tentative to be called real democracies. The answer is Africa with six electoral democracies in Senegal, Mali, Niger, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Djibouti.

For the rest of the article see Black Electorate: Africa's Muslim Democracies by Benjamin Bouchet

Black Vote vs Islamic Justice

In light of the recent New York Times article, the 2008 election will present some interesting questions for Blackamerican Muslims. Clearly, there are candidates who support the domestic interests of the black community more than others.

Nevertheless, as Muslims, they will also be faced with candidates, both Republican and Democrat who are unflinching in their biased support for the Israeli Zionist (Apartheid-like) regime and hell-bent on sending more troops (many of them black and/or Muslim) into Afghanistan, and perhaps most disturbingly of all, attacking Iran (actions that morally conscious Muslims do not support).

There are alternative candidates who support more "just" positions, yet they have little chance of winning in a two-party system. Should Muslims, particularly Blackamerican Muslims, choose the "lesser of two evils?"

upon the ashes of babylon

Here is an entire talk entitled Upon the Ashes of Babylon from a powerful Muslim spoken word artist, Amir Sulaiman. The event was part of Islam Awareness Week 2006 at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, AB, Canada. Amir's words manifest a quiet confidence which I find compelling. He has a way of framing issues which is really cathartic and healthy... it reminds me of how I felt when I read Malcolm's speeches for the first time.

Upon the Ashes of Babylon
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Past Grenada posts on Amir

how kareem abdul-jabbar embraced islam

I've been meaning to post something about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's path to Islam for a while and was especially interested in trying to better understand Hamas Abdul Khaalis and the so- called Hanafi Madhab group which in 1977 used shotguns and machetes to take control of several DC buildings. (Apparently in 1973, members of the Nation of Islam killed some of Abdul Khaalis' family and somehow this was a way to get revenge.) I still don't have a good sense of what that group was like, but I did find the following which does give a decent sense of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's path to Islam.

From Noorullah Online: How Kareem Abdul-Jabbar embraced Islam
December 22nd, 2006

Acknowledged by many players as the greatest basketball player of all time, voted six times the National Basketball Association’s most valuable player, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is also one of the most visible Muslims in the American public arena. The 7’ 2” native upper Harlem, born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr., starred for UCLA before entering the National Basketball Association with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1969. Alcindor later went to the Los Angeles Lakers. He was so dominant in college basketball that "dunking,”at which he excelled, was formally banned from the intercollegiate sport.

As a result, Lew Alcindor developed the shot for which he is personally the most famous — the "skyhook" — which has been called the shot that changed basketball, and with the help of which he was to score more than thirty eight thousand points in regular-season NBA play. When Milwaukee won the NBA title in 1970-71, Alcindor, who was by then Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, was the acclaimed king of basketball.

Lew Alcindor first learned his Islam from Hammas Abdul Khaalis, a former jazz drummer …. According to his own testimony, he had been raised to take authority seriously, whether that of nuns, teachers, or coaches, and in that spirit he followed the teachings of Abdul Khaalis closely. It was by him that Alcindor was given the name Abdul Kareem, then changed to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, literally "the noble one, servant of the Almighty.” Soon, however, he determined to augment Abdul Khaalis’s teachings with his own study of the Quran, for which he undertook to learn basic Arabic. In 1973 he travelled to Libya and Saudi Arabia to get a better grasp of the language and to learn about Islam in some of its "home" contexts.

Abdul-Jabbar was not interested in making the kind of public statement about his Islam that he felt Muhammad Ali had in his opposition to the Vietnam War, wishing simply to identify himself quietly as an African American who was also a Muslim. He stated clearly that his name Alcindor was a slave name, literally that of the slave-dealer who had taken his family away from West Africa to Dominica to Trinidad, from where they were brought to America.

[…] Kareem Abdul-Jabbar affirms his identity as a Sunni Muslim. He professes a strong belief in what he calls the Supreme Being and is clear in his understanding that Muhammad is his prophet and the Quran is the final revelation…

….For his part, Kareem accepts his responsibility to live as good an Islamic life as possible, recognising that Islam is able to meet the requirements of being a professional athlete in America.

Excerpts from His Book, Kareem

The following are excerpts from the second book he wrote about his basketball career, Kareem, published in 19901, telling his reasons for being drawn toward Islam:

[Growing up in America,] I eventually found that…emotionally, spiritually, I could not afford to be a racist. As I got older, I gradually got past believing that black was either the best or the worst. It just was. The black man who had the most profound influence on me was Malcolm X. I had read "Muhammad Speaks", the Black Muslim newspaper, but even in the early sixties, their brand of racism was unacceptable to me. It held the identical hostility as white racism, and for all my anger and resent meant, I understood that rage can do very little to change anything. It’s just a continual negative spiral that feeds on itself, and who needs that?

…Malcolm X was different. He’d made a trip to Mecca, and realized that Islam embraced people of all color. He was assassinated in 1965, and though I didn’t know much about him then, his death hit hard because I knew he was talking about black pride, about self-help and lifting ourselves up. And I liked his attitude of non-subservience.

…Malcolm X’s autobiography came out in 1966, when I was a freshman at UCLA, and I read it right before my nineteenth birthday. It made a bigger impression on me than any book I had ever read, turning me around totally. I started to look at things differently, instead of accepting the mainstream viewpoint.

…[Malcolm] opened the door for real cooperation between the races, not just the superficial, paternalistic thing. He was talking about real people doing real things, black pride and Islam. I just grabbed on to it. And I have never looked back.

Interview with TalkAsia2

SG: Before Kareem Abdul-Jabbar there was Lew Alcindor. Now Lew Alcindor was what Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was born as, he has since converted to Islam. Something that he says was a very deeply spiritual decision. Tell me a little bit about your own personal journey, from Lew Alcindor to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Is there still some of Lew Alcindor in you today?

KA: Well you know that was who I started my life out as, I’m still my parent’s child, I’m still…my cousins are still the same, I’m still me though. But I made a choice. (SG: Do you feel different? Is it a different feeling when you take on a different name, a different persona?) I really don’t think…I think it has more to do with evolution — I evolved into Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, I don’t have any regrets about who I was but this is who I am now.

SG: And a spiritual journey, how important was that?

KA: Well as a spiritual journey, I don’t think I would have been able to be as successful as I was as an athlete if it were not for Islam. It gave me a moral anchor, it enabled me to not be materialistic, it enabled me to see more what was important in the world. And all of that was reinforced by people, very important people to me: Coach John Wooden, my parents, all reinforced those values. And it enabled me to live my life a certain way and not get distracted.

SG: When you embraced Islam, was it difficult for other people to come to terms with that? Did that create a distance between you and others?

KA: For the most part it was. I didn’t try to make it hard on people; I did not have a chip on my shoulder. I just wanted people understand I was Muslim, and that’s what I felt was the best thing for me. If they could accept that I could accept them. I didn’t…it wasn’t like if you’re going to become my friend you have to become Muslim also. No, that was not it. I respect people’s choices just as I hope they respect my choices.

SG: What happens to a person when they take on another name, another persona if you like? How much did you change?

KA: For me it made me more tolerant because I had to learn to understand differences. You know I was different, people didn’t oftentimes understand exactly where I was coming from; certainly after 9/11 I’ve had to like explain myself and…

SG: Was there a backlash against people like yourself? Did you feel that at all?

KA: I didn’t feel like necessarily a backlash, but I certainly felt that a number of people might have questioned my loyalty, or questioned where I was at, but I continue to be a patriotic American…

SG: For a lot of black Americans, converting to Islam was an intensely political decision as well. Was it the same for you?

KA: That was not part of my journey. My choosing Islam was not a political statement; it was a spiritual statement. What I learned about the Bible and the Qur’an made me see that the Qur’an was the next revelation from the Supreme Being - and I chose to interpret that and follow that. I don’t think it had anything to do with trying to pigeon hole anyone, and deny them the ability to practice as they saw fit. The Quran tells us that Jews, Christians, and Muslims: Muslims are supposed to treat all of them the same way because we all believe in the same prophets and heaven and hell would be the same for all of us. And that’s what it’s supposed to be about.

SG: And it’s been very influential in your writing as well.

KA: Yes it has. Racial equality and just what I experienced growing up in America as a kid really affected me to experience the Civil Rights Movement, and see people risking their lives, being beaten, being attacked by dogs, being fire hosed down streets, and they still took a non-violent and very brave approach to confronting bigotry. It was remarkable and it certainly affected me in a very profound way.

the ghettoest terror plot in history

Alt.Muslim: The Ghettoest Terror Plot in History is the story of a case similar to the Seas of David plot from a while back in Miami.

post 9/11, islam flourishes among u.s. blacks

Post 9/11, Islam flourishes among U.S. blacks

By Matthew Bigg

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Islam is growing fast among African Americans, who are undeterred by increased scrutiny of Muslims in the United States since the September 11 attacks, according to imams and experts.

Converts within the black community say they are attracted to the disciplines of prayer, the emphasis within Islam on submission to God and the religion's affinity with people who are oppressed.

Some blacks are also suspicious of U.S. government warnings about the emergence of new enemies since the 2001 attacks because of memories of how the establishment demonised civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

As a result, they are willing to view Islam as a legitimate alternative to Christianity, the majority religion among U.S. blacks.

"It is one of the fastest-growing religions in America," said Lawrence Mamiya, professor of religion at Vassar College, speaking of Islam among black Americans.

He said there were up to 2 million black U.S. Muslims but acknowledged there are no precise figures.

"It's not viewed (by authorities) as a threat because the numbers are small and once we get past the war on terror and all the negative images then it will continue to spread."

Black Americans typically attend mosques separate from Muslims from immigrant backgrounds despite sharing common beliefs, according to Aminah McCloud, religious studies professor at DePaul University in Chicago.

But imams in Atlanta, a U.S. centre for black Muslims, said they were subjected to less scrutiny than Muslims from the Middle East and Indian sub-continent.

RAP BROWN'S MOSQUE

Many blacks converted during the civil rights era, when Malcolm X helped popularise the Nation of Islam, attracting boxer Muhammad Ali among others. Islam still attracts prominent blacks such as rapper Scarface, a recent convert.

But the Nation of Islam has declined as a force at the expense of an association of mosques led by Warith Deen Muhammad, the son of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, who died in 1975.

At a street-corner mosque in one of Atlanta's oldest and poorest neighbourhoods, a recent Friday sermon illustrated the power of the history of Islam in the United States for blacks.

Men and women sat separately on the mosque floor, heads covered, as cleric Nadim Ali recounted stories from history of Muslim slaves brought from Africa who struggled to uphold their faith in the face of slaveholders' opposition.

If Muslims could remain true to Islam under slavery, the audience should follow their example, Ali said at the Community Masjid of Atlanta in the city's West End district.

"You are talking about a people who were cut off from their roots .... Islam reconnects you with Africa and with other parts of the world so your peoplehood transcends race," Ali said later in an interview.

The mosque has a direct link to a slice of black history. It was founded by H. Rap Brown, a one-time member of the 1960s Black Panthers group. Brown became a Muslim in prison in the 1970s and changed his name to Jamil al-Amin.

He was convicted for killing a sheriff's deputy in Georgia in March 2000 and is serving a sentence of life without parole, but in his absence the mosque has continued what Ali said was the low-profile work of building a local Muslim community.

CONVERSION

The mosque teaches there was no distinction between Sunni and Shi'ite within Islam, according to people who attend regularly. Sermons urged Muslims to find work, stay free from crime and drugs and maintain stable family lives.

Ali said he assumed the mosque was bugged and infiltrated by informers, in part because its leaders remained sceptical about U.S. policies since September 11.

"They (the government) unplug black people and plug in Arabs or Muslims. They unplug Arabs and plug in communists. America needs war to maintain its economic status," he said.

The larger Masjid of al-Islam mosque in another mainly black neighbourhood of Atlanta is part of Warith Deen Muhammad's group. Its imam, Plemon el-Amin, said he was involved with local interfaith work as well as with a local Islamic school.

One recent Friday, Mark King, a new convert, and hundreds of others at the mosque listened to a preacher urge Muslims to seek God through the Koran. Followers of other faiths should seek God through their own holy books, the preacher said.

King, who wears his hair in dreadlocks, converted after visiting Africa for the first time and in Gambia read the Koran and realised its teaching chimed with his own beliefs, not least in fighting injustice.

"For young African Americans, there is some attraction to learning about traditions that have been associated with resistance to European imperialism," said King, who has adopted the name Bilal Mansa since his conversion.

on the moroccan sufi black saint sidi abu yi'zza

I recently came by the following article On the twelfth-century Moroccan Sufi black saint, Sidi Abu Yi'zza so I thought I should share. There are also links to other articles on loosely-related spiritual topics over at A Voice in the Wilderness: poetry, philosophy, photography

macon, ga mayor converts to Islam

Ellis converts to Islam, will change his name
By Matt Barnwell
TELEGRAPH STAFF WRITER


Macon Mayor Jack Ellis has converted to Islam and is working to legally change his name to Hakim Mansour Ellis.

The mayor, raised as a Christian, said Thursday that he has been studying the Quran for years. He became a Sunni Muslim during a December ceremony in the country of Senegal, on the western coast of Africa. He said the religion originally was practiced by his West African ancestors before they were brought to America by slave traders.

Ellis said his decision was a personal one, though he understands his elected position breeds public interest in his choice. It was not something he decided overnight to do, he said. He will keep his last name the same at the request of two of his daughters.

"Why does one become a Christian?" the mayor said. "You do it because it feels right. It's the right thing for you to do. ... To me it's no big deal. But people like to know what you believe in. And this is what I believe in."

Ellis said he initially began reading the Quran in the 1980s before taking it up more seriously in the early '90s. He said he is attending the Macon Islamic Center, just down the road from the first Christian church he had joined in Macon.

The mayor, who has not ruled out future tries for elected office after his term expires this year, said he had not made any calculations for how his conversion would affect him politically one way or the other. He is an American first, he said, and was proud to live in a country founded on religious freedom.

Muslims as a whole should not be painted with a broad brush, he said, simply because a few radicals exist in their midst.

"If anybody wants to know about Islam, I can hold an intelligent conversation," the mayor added. "What I've found is how little we know about the religion."

what makes american muslims unique?

alt.muslim: What Makes American Muslims Unique? by M. Aurangzeb Ahmad considers the issue of how and why Muslims here are different from Muslim minorities in Europe.

the pen and the sword & prince among slaves

Unity Productions Foundation: The Pen and the Sword is one of many projects trying to put more positive historical images of Muslims and Islamic civilization out in the media. The Pen and the Sword deals with inter-religious relations in Medieval Spain. And Prince Among Slaves deals with the story of Abdul Rahman Ibrahima Sori, an African prince who was enslaved in Mississippi from 1788 to 1828 when he finally won his freedom and returned to Africa. Check them out.

an interview on malcolm x

Z-Net: Manning Marable interviewed by Amy Goodman on the life and death of Malcolm X

sleeper cell: the second season

So... I recently found a website where I could see the first few episodes of Sleeper Cell's second season. In some ways, the second season seems to suffert from the same limitations as the first season which I've mentioned before (see sleeper cell (part 2)) but fewer of the positives. Little or no emphasis is put on the faith of the main character, Darwyn the African-American Muslim FBI agent (which is unfortunate since it provided some interesting contrast and tension in the first season). In a similar vein, the government characters are generally portrayed as less compassionate, competent and ethical than they were in the first season. Instead of being about a sincere Muslim who has to carefully negotiate and come to terms with various loyalties and identities (keeping his own faith and integrity, not blowing his cover, and fighting against those who would betray his nation and his ummah) in this season, both the government characters and the Muslim villans seem painted in broader strokes and so the story seems more cartoonish than before.

I'm not sure of whether this is a good thing or not but the cell members are being portrayed in a more diverse way (e.g. a female member, a Latino ex-gangbanger) I've read that there is also a gay Muslim member of the terror cell but that is not totally obvious from the episodes I've seen. (Although if the claim is true, it is definitely forshadowed). On the one hand this is good in the sense that it shows some of the diversity which exists in the Muslim community. On the other hand, it gives the impression that all Muslims could be terrorists.

Perhaps I'll be able to say more as I see more of the season.

marvin x speaks

Marvin X Speaks is a new blog by a brother who has been a frequent subject over at Planet Grenada but is still not totally unknown here at Third Resurrection. Check out: even more marvin x

open letter to dr. hussein shahristani

ChickenBones: A Journal: Open Letter to Dr. Hussein Shahristani, Minister of Oil, Republic of Iraq by Marvin X (from early last year)

Dear Dr. Hussein Shahristani:

Bismillah-r-Rahman-r-Rahim.

As-Salaam-Alaikum, my brother. It has been forty years since we last met at your apartment in Toronto, Canada, 1967. You may recall that I was resisting the Vietnam War and you were a student at the University of Toronto. I saw that you went on to become a nuclear scientist but was persecuted under Saddam Hussein because you refused to work on his "Islamic" bomb. Al Hamdulilah, you survived. I saw your name on the list of persons for the first prime minister of American occupied Iraq. I noticed you refused this most dangerous job. I prayed for your safety. It was good to know you are a servant of the Grand Ayatollah Sistani. I have watched you advance from leader of the assembly to minister of oil.

Oil is the reason I am writing you, other than to let you know my prayers are with you and I recall fondly how you taught me my prayers in Arabic and our conversations on Islam.

I recall how you related that you wanted a Nation of Islam, thus you agreed with the vision of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Clearly, your nation shall become a nation of Islam. It appears to me southern Iraq is a de facto Islamic nation. Correct me if I am wrong.

But back to oil. As minister of oil, I would like you to consider assisting North American Africans in the United States of America who recently experienced hurricane Katrina, only to discover they were left at the mercy of themselves, with little assistance from the local, state and federal government. Some were too poor to buy gasoline to leave town for safer ground. Some were shot trying to reach higher ground by KKK policemen.

As you know, President Chavez of Venezuela has assisted many poor and minority communities in America and throughout the Americas. He has given them discounted gasoline and oil. Perhaps, you can assist us as well. First, we need to establish a community strategic reserve through the North American African community, just in case of emergency since we know we cannot depend on FEMA, Homeland Security or any government agency. Thus, we see the need to establish our own reserve in each community with storage tanks and tanker trucks equipped with nozzles for roadside emergency service.

Brother, see if you can help us so we are not dependent on this sham government.

Finally, I would like you to consider a speaking tour of Black America to explain to us your perspective on the situation in your nation. It is truly painful for me to hear about the daily violence in Iraq. But it is equally as painful to know about the daily violence in our neighborhoods, the grieving mothers, fathers, siblings, relatives and friends.

We grieve for the Iraqi people and the innocent American soldiers. Please consider a brief tour of the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia and New York, also Detroit and Chicago. We want to hear from you. I know you are in the midst of war, but perhaps you can slip away for a few days. Let me hear from you soon.

As-Salaam-Alaikum,

Marvin X (El Muhajir)

P.O. Box 1317

Paradise CA 95965

mrvnx@yahoo.com

african unity still a dream

BBC News
Gamal Nkrumah

African Unity Still a Dream

My father, Ghana's first President Kwame Nkrumah, was a trendsetter in more ways than one.

One of his most outstanding legacies was a political commitment to African continental unity. The Arabic-speaking states of North Africa were, in his vision, no less African than those predominantly non-Arab states south of the Sahara.

With his initial encouragement, Arabs have since become active participants in the politics of Africa.

Nkrumah's was no easy mission. There were many in Africa and in the West who wished to extricate Arab countries from costly African commitments and interventions south of the Sahara.

But Nkrumah's special friendship with the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser - after whom I was named - was instrumental in cementing Arab-African ties.

Tempestuous relations

Nasser was a strong advocate of the African component of the Egyptian national composition, the first Egyptian leader to take such a view.

According to him, Egypt's national make-up is composed of the intersection of three circles - the Arab, the Islamic and the African.

The destinies of "Arabs" and "Africans" have historically and geographically been inextricably intertwined
Be that as it may, relations between Arabs and sub-Saharan Africans have often been uneasy - and at times even tempestuous.

The precise nature of the role expected to be played by Arabs in pan-African politics was at first only dimly understood.

Self-styled "Arab" Somalia fought non-Arab Ethiopia. "Arab" Mauritania went to battle against non-Arab Senegal.

The so-called borderlands of the Sahara and the Sahel have become a veritable frontline where "Arabs" and "Africans" bitterly engage in war.

The focus of much of the fighting has traditionally been Sudan, a member of the Arab League, a body that groups 22 states - including not only the Mediterranean North African countries of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, but also Mauritania, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti and the Comoros.

Geographically the largest African country, Sudan has been embroiled intermittently in civil war since its independence in 1956.

The international media persists in propagating confusing myths and half-truths about the war between the "Arab Muslim north" and the "black African south". But the north is not composed entirely of ethnic Arabs, and most of those classified as "Arabs" are far darker in complexion than many of the Congressional Black Caucus members.

Similarly conflict in Sudan's province of Darfur is depicted as between "Arabs" and "black Africans".

There has been a perceptible change in attitudes and perceptions over the years of tensions between "African" and "Arab", but these incremental changes have on the whole been rather negative.

Expectations

In the wake of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and the sudden price hikes of crude oil, African countries began sizing up the readiness of oil-rich Arab countries to offer economic aid and financial assistance.

African countries had high expectations of Arab largesse, but were sorely disappointed.

Migrants heading to Europe from Senegal
Sub-Saharan migrants head to Morocco on their way to Europe
Not only was money not forthcoming, but it became apparent that Arab countries were developing countries, after all, and incapable of lending a helping hand in the area of technical expertise.

Arabs, in turn, quietly brooded over the consequences of not being able to measure up to African expectations.

Summits have reconciled enemies before: Chad and Libya; Sudan and its numerous neighbours.

But there is no escaping the fact that what are often mistakenly dubbed "Arab" versus "African" conflicts have disturbed the placid surface of Nkrumah's vision of African continental unity.

African governments north and south of the Sahara cannot be absolved of responsibility.

And recently, friction has arisen due to the influx of African youth into Arab states.

Their main goal of immigrating to the West - and in particular Europe - necessitates a long and uncomfortable sojourn in North African transit points.

The stories that filtered back are harrowing: death at sea, slave labour, prostitution and narcotic trafficking and an alarming wave of racism in North Africa.

Nevertheless, the destinies of "Arabs" and "Africans" have historically and geographically been inextricably intertwined.

The only way forward for Africa is continental African Union as envisaged by Kwame Nkrumah.