My name is Kunta

To continue with the theme, blackness appears from the very beginning of Islamic history. Not just with a token appearance from Bilal (ra) but in more significant ways. I mean just look on a map and consider how close the Arabian Peninsula is to Africa. Bilal wasn't the only "Black" companion. There were many people from Ethiopia. The Arabian Peninsula and Ethiopia were part of the same cultural world. From the incident of the elephent which occured the year the prophet (saaws) was born and which was mentioned in the Quran. To the time the companions were refugees in Ethiopia before the community of Medina was established. According to some accounts, Umar was part Abyssinian. In fact according to one Black "Iraqi" classical writer, Al-Jahiz, Abd al-Muttalib, the guardian of the sacred Kaaba, "fathered ten Lords, Black as the night and magnificent." One of these men was Abdallah, the father of the Prophet Muhammad (saaws).

Conversely, Islam plays an important role in Black spaces. From the convergences mentioned above we can look at the Black Muslim civilizations of Africa, the development of Swahili, to the diaspora where aspects of Muslim experience survived the middle passage experience (even if in some cases, it was difficult for certain practices to last more than a few generations.) But then we see a resurgance in more recent African-American experience as Blacks rediscover and reclaim Islam, through the Nation of Islam, the Five Percenters, Dar-ul-Islam, etc. We see Black Muslim political organizing with organizations like Project H.O.P.E (Helping Oppressed People Everyday) in LA or in cultural groups and movements (e.g. in the recent past there were the many African-American Muslim jazz musicians or the Last Poets, and more currently in groups or individuals like Mos Def, the Roots, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest or even Dave Chapelle)

The original Afrocentrist, Molefi Kete Asante, seems to think that Black Muslims are off-center (i.e. not centered on Africa as he thinks we should be) but he fails to see that there are real long-standing organic connections between the Muslim world and the Black world. It is interesting to note that in fact, a fair number of the individuals claimed by the "Afrocentric" movement themselves also identify with Islam; Malcolm X, Naim Akbar, Cheikh Anta Diop, and others.

Well, that should be it for now. More later