Azad Essa’s recent article for Al Jazeera, “In Search of an African Revolution” addresses the role of international media in prioritizing the so-called ‘Arab’ revolutions that are taking place in North Africa and Southwest Asia over protests throughout the rest of the African continent. Essa’s take is admirably nuanced. (We assume he was joking with his use of terms like “darkest Africa.”) Perhaps one of the most important observations in the article is Pambazuka Online editor Firoze Manji’s:
…people in Africa recognise the experiences of citizens in the Middle East. There is enormous potential for solidarity to grow out from that. In any case, where does Africa end and the Middle East begin?
Heeding these words together with Essa’s arguments on why ‘the Middle East’ has experienced relative success thus far–including the fact that North Africa is “fairly homogeneous compared to sub-Saharan Africa;” or that Barack Obama is more willing to condemn violence in the “Arab world”–I feel it is opportune to ask this question: What the hell is the Middle East?
The arbitrary national borders drawn during the Berlin Conference are not the only relics of colonialism still alive and well in Africa. The mythologies of certain racial, linguistic, and ethnic superiorities and inferiorities are carefully cultivated by the neoliberal order, maintained by oppressive regimes dependent on existing divide and conquer strategies, and perpetuated by Orientalists all over the globe – Arab and non-Arab, African and non-African, black and white. You get the idea.
Yes – this so-called ‘Arab world’ has its own sets of racial hierarchies. Absolutely. Many in North Africa would bristle at being called African, much less black. And certainly–the treatment of migrant laborers in North Africa and Southwest Asia (from all parts of Asia and Africa) is just as dire as in Europe and North America. However, and this cannot be said enough, Arabs-in-Africa/African-Arabs are not homogenous peoples. This may be facetious, but it is a point that must be made (and has been, by Arabs and non-Arabs in Africa): treating Arabic-speaking peoples in Africa and Asia as “white” or “not African” or non-white but “not black” was conceived to uphold Western colonization of these continents and remains useful for the same cause as well as for African despots antsy about what their own people can do to them.
Those of us–and we are many–who identify as Afro-Arab, acknowledging our diverse racial identities while respecting our multiple (and sometimes conflicting) geographic positionalities and particular cultural traditions, have even more of a reason to continue working against this imperialist narrative. What international media as well as commentary by scholars, politicians and everyday Westerners of all backgrounds makes evident is that we must take to task those on the outside looking in who continue to contribute to the stratification of Africans based on these mythologies. Where/what is the “Middle East”? And why are we Africans shut out of this discussion?
Once again, a friend hits the nail on the head: “I figured it out! Palestine is the Middle East – that’s why I can’t find it on any maps.”
* Photo Benedicte Kurzen in The New Yorker.
Funy, just yesterday I re-read a great essay by Salah M. Hassan about this topic. Thank you for this very interesting post.
I’d also like to recommend KonWomyn’s excellent open letter to Al Jazeera regarding “African mercenaries” in Libya:
http://konwomyn.blogspot.com/2011/02/about-those-african-mercenaries-al.html
Thanks!
Great post and thanks for the link. I think questions you can add to your inquiry is where does Sub-Saharan Africa end and where does North Africa begin? What are the people along that imagined but sometimes real border? And if a sub-Saharan country neighbors a north African one and both are Arab – do we just say Arab states? North African Arab and Sub-Saharan African states? As in the case of soon to be separated (Northern) Sudan-Egypt. Or Chad-Libya.
I don’t know why we continue to let ourselves be contained and labelled by borders (imposed by others). When borders shape identity and vice-versa it is never a stable, fixed concept.
Perhaps its time for lengthy, stimulating conversations to be had on what we as Arabs, Africans etc mean by terms like Arab World, Africa, Middle East, North and Sub-Saharan Africa as well as how and where we locate ourselves and when.
Yes, yes, yes! My work is deeply involved with this, and I have been lately extremely frustrated by the domination of orientalist and paternalistic discussions about, “What is Africa/what is the Arab World/this is what they should do/this is what they call them…”
Your own letter to Al Jazeera addresses some of this very well- often, we have very intelligent and devoted people – including black and brown folks – who are attempting to navigate these same questions without bothering to refer to those of us living these realities or investigate how their own understandings of Africa came to be. I think much of that is fear – fear of appearing ignorant, fear of not knowing, and fear of becoming irrelevant to the discussion of race (and nation, and power, etc.) in some way. And then, on the other hand, we have those who are very comfortable in writing off these complexities (which vary by region, language, religious community, and the like) by sticking with the “African mercenaries” and “Arab revolutions” absolutes.
I gratefully welcome your call for a discussion amongst ourselves about how we use these popular terms of identification. A good deal of consciousness-raising, self-criticism and self-awareness is necessary, especially now. How amazing it would be to witness that energy and solidarity from Meydan Tahrir become incorporated into our everyday lives as a result of these movements!
Wow, i love to get a nice laugh out of stupid people! Bare with me for a moment…..HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Alright, now back on topic. First of all Africa does not equal “black”! It is home to the “black race” though. All countries south of the North African countries of the “Maghreb” & Egypt are “black”. Contrary to popular belief, thanks to shallow American media culture & influence, African is NOT synonymous with “black”! In fact, the majority of Arabs are African, and the rest are Asian Arabs. The term “Middle East” is very flawed and was invented by a bunch of retarded self-centered Europeans! It’s definition keeps changing (because the “West” says so), but the traditional borders of the so-called “Middle East” stretch from Iran on the east, Yemen to the south and Egypt to the west. In fact, i don’t even know why the term is still used. Just because the Arab revolutions are happening, people all of a sudden decide they want to look at a map. The Arab world stretches from the Gulf to the Atlantic (Yemen to Morocco).
“You name it …you own it”
This a a must read :
Professor Iliya Harik’s piece is a commendable and bold attempt by an Arab scholar to openly discuss the sensitive issue of Africa-Arab relations. There is need for an open, unfettered dialogue between Africans and Arabs on the fractured state of relations between the two peoples.
http://bit.ly/9vhnkN
So much about “imperialism”
Excellent!
Africa is a Continent comprised of many diverse people and ethnic groups. The discussion of race started with Europeans in their attempts to Colonize and divide the Continent. Europe is not the center of the Universe and all things should not begin and end with European terminology. I am described as African American, yet I am Native American and European as well. The racial terms in America were set up by slaves masters, for economic reasons. I do not understand America’s rush to get involved in a war in Libya when so many of the people here are suffering. The Native Americans here are almost extinct and yet no one is rushing to save them.
I believe ethnic and tribal identity is stronger than racial identity. However, when North Africans and others come to America they are immediately identified as white. There is more benefit to being white in America then being an oppressed Minority. In America Racial Identity is about Politics and economics. The sooner you can assimilate or accept the dominate culture, the sooner you can benefit economically.
Im sorry but i have been reading this article over and over and trying to understand it more fully. What is the claim being made? Is there any other literature out there discussing the separation of black africa from arab africa particularly to the so called “arab spring protests”?