Racial group
Ethnic group
Afro-Palestinians
are
Palestinians
of
black African
heritage. A minority of Afro-Palestinians, estimated population between 200-450, reside in an African enclave around the
Bab al-Majlis
,
[1]
[2]
in the
Muslim Quarter
of
Jerusalem
.
[3]
[4]
Some of the community dwell in other areas of Jerusalem such as
Beit Hanina
and
A-Tur
.
[4]
There are also
Bedouin
populations outside Jerusalem who have descent lines linking them to people of
African
origin
[5]
such as in the
West Bank
city of
Jericho
or in
Gaza
.
History
[
edit
]
Background
[
edit
]
- See also:
Slavery in Palestine
,
Trans-Saharan slave trade
,
Red Sea slave trade
and
Indian Ocean slave trade
Historically Palestine was a province under foreign powers. From the
Rashidun Caliphate
of the 7th-century onward, African slaves were transported to the area of the Caliphate from Egypt via the
Baqt
treaty slave tribute.
[6]
During the middle ages, African slaves were transported to
Abbasid Caliphate
via the
Red Sea slave trade
from Africa across the Red Sea
[7]
[8]
.
By the 9th century, it is estimated that some three million Africans had been resettled as enslaved people in the Middle East, working as soldiers and labourers in the riverine plantation economies.
[1]
As is illustrated by the life of
Mansa Musa
, King of the
medieval kingdom of Mali
, pilgrimage by African converts to Islam became an established practice, though regular pilgrimage only became commonplace in the 15th century, as the Islamic faith spread beyond the narrow confines of sultanate courts to the people at large.
[1]
There are some Palestinian communities that trace their origins to pilgrims from Sudan and Central Africa (mainly
Chad
) who are said to have reached Palestine as early as the 12th century. Their initial aim was to take part in the
Hajj
and reach
Mecca
, after which they visited Jerusalem to visit the
al-Aqsa Mosque
.
[3]
Many Afro-Palestinians also hail from forefathers who came to Palestine enslaved in service to the
Ottomans
.
[9]
People whose ancestors came from Nigeria, Sudan, Senegal and Chad make up most of the community, and most of these came to Palestine during the
British Mandate
.
[10]
Many, according to Abraham Milligram, came as conscripted labourers during General
Edmund Allenby
's campaign against the Turks in the latter stages of
WW1
.
[11]
[4]
Another group trace their lineage to the
Arab Salvation Army
who fought on the Arab side of the
1948 Arab?Israeli War
.
[12]
The Jerusalem community of Afro-Palestinians, 50 families
[13]
now numbering some 350 (or 450)
[3]
members, reside in two compounds outside the
?aram ash-Shar?f
(west of the
Inspector's Gate
):
Ribat al-Mansuri
and
Ribat of Aladdin
(
Ribat al-Baseri/Ribat Aladdin al-Bassir/Ribat Al'a ad-Deen Busari
).
[4]
[14]
[3]
They were built between 1267 and 1382
[3]
and served as
ribats
(hostels for visiting Muslim pilgrims) under the
Mamluks
. This distinctive enclave has been called Jerusalem's
Little Harlem
.
[15]
During the
Arab Revolt
of WW1, the Ottomans converted the compounds into jails ? one known as 'the Blood Prison' and the other as 'the hanging prison' ? where prisoners were detained and executed.
[16]
The community has restructured part of this former prison to create a mosque.
[17]
Until the
Israeli occupation that began in 1967
, they were employed as guards at the
?aram ash-Shar?f
, a function now taken over by Israeli soldiers.
[14]
These have close links with similar communities in
Acre
and
Jericho
, established during the era of
slavery in the Umayyad Caliphate
, when African slaves came to work in the
Umayyad
sugar industry.
[18]
The community in northern Jericho have often been called "the slaves of
Duyuk
" even in modern times.
[19]
The last official slave ship of enslaved Africans arrived to Haifa in Palestine from Egypt in 1876, after which the official slave trade to Ottoman Palestine appeared to have stopped.
[8]
Slavery
itself gradually diminished in the late 19th and early 20th-century.
Modern times
[
edit
]
Following Ottoman rule,
the ribats
became a part of the religious trust (
waqf
).
[16]
The Palestinian leader and
mufti of Jerusalem
Sheikh
Amin al-Husseini
rented out these compounds to Palestinians of African background,
[3]
in gratitude for their loyalty as protectors of the al-Aqsa Mosque after one of the African guards, Jibril Tahruri, took a bullet aimed at the mufti.
[20]
The rent remains largely nominal.
[4]
[21]
Afro-Palestinians whose connection to Jerusalem predates 1947 found themselves in one of the most troubled areas in the region.
[3]
Falling in love with the city of Jerusalem
[22]
and with deep ties to Islam,
[23]
they married Palestinians and continue to identify as Palestinians.
[13]
The African Palestinians who now live in the two compounds near al-Aqsa mosque have called the area home since 1930.
[16]
They have experienced prejudice, with some Palestinian Arabs
[24]
referring to them as "slaves" (
abeed
) and to their neighbourhood as the "slaves' prison" (
habs al-abeed
).
[13]
[4]
In colloquial Palestinian Arabic, standard usage prefers the word
sumr
(dark colour) over
sawd
, which has an uncouth connotation.
[25]
In a 1997 interview, community members described their origins as "Sudan" as a reference to the Arabic phrase for "place of the Black people." In recent decades, "African community" (
al-jaliyya al-Afriqiyya
) has become more standard.
[2]
After 1948, in particular, black Palestinian men married women coming from the peasant
fellahin
society, but never Bedouin women.
[26]
According to Mousa Qous, director of the African Community Society and a former member of the
PFLP
, "Sometimes when a black Palestinian wants to marry a white Palestinian woman, some members of her family might object."
Interracial marriage
with Afro-Palestinians has become more common in recent years.
[12]
Ali Jiddah, a tour guide and also a former member of the PFLP, has stated that he personally never experienced prejudice over his skin colour from Palestinian Arabs, claiming Afro-Palestinians enjoy a special status for their contributions to the Palestinian struggle.
[4]
[24]
Fatima Barnawi
, of mixed Nigerian-Palestinian descent, was the first Palestinian woman to be arrested on terrorism charges for attempting to bomb a movie theater in downtown Jerusalem in 1967. Although the bomb failed to explode, she was sentenced to 30 years in prison, ultimately serving only ten.
[24]
Jiddah placed four grenades on Strauss Street in a 1968 attack in downtown Jerusalem, wounding nine Israeli civilians. His cousin Mahmoud likewise committed a similar attack. Both men served 17 years in prison before being released in a prisoner swap in 1985.
[4]
According to Jiddah, any racism by Palestinian Arabs could be blamed on ignorance,
[13]
claiming that he had experienced similar prejudice from Israelis. "We Afro-Palestinians are dually oppressed, as Palestinians and because of our color the Israelis call us '
kushis
.'"
[24]
According to Mahmoud, Israeli police are the main perpetrators of racism against the community.
[24]
In 2022, Mohammed Firawi was released from prison after five years for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli police. The community celebrated his return to the African Quarter, which was cited as cause for his subsequent re-arrest and week-long expulsion from Jerusalem.
[8]
Afro-Palestinians also experience bureaucratic obstacles in travel and identification cards. Qous (also spelled Qaws) is not an Israeli citizen, cannot apply for a Chadian passport without surrendering Jerusalem residency, and is also ineligible for French or Jordanian papers. In addition, checkpoints have increased around Bab al-Majlis and effectively seal off the neighborhood. As a result, the community experiences greater harassment from security and has also experienced significant economic loss without tourist traffic.
[2]
The African Community Society (ACS) was established in 1983 as an off-shoot of the former Sudanese Welfare Club, which disbanded following
Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem
. ACS organizes social activities, sports, mutual aid, and other means to empower Afro-Palestinians in Jerusalem.
[8]
As more of the community moves to suburbs, connections are strengthening with
Ethiopian Christians
and
Black Hebrews
. There are no relations with
Ethiopian Jews
due to their service in the
Israel Defense Forces
.
[2]
Notable Afro-Palestinians
[
edit
]
- Fatima Bernawi
, first Palestinian woman to organise an act of terrorism against Israel.
- Saeed Al-Err, founder of
Sulala Animal Rescue
- Said Fadel, musician and founding member of Sol Band
[27]
- Lama Jamous, child journalist
[28]
- Nasir Qaws, Jerusalem section head of Palestinian Prisoners Society
[2]
- Hatem Hany Rawagh, journalist
[29]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
Citations
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Charmaine Seitz,
Pilgrimage to a New Self: The African Quarter and its peoples
Archived
10 November 2019 at the
Wayback Machine
,
Jerusalem Quarterly
2002 Issue 16 pp. 43-51.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Teller, Matthew (Spring 2022).
"The Dom and the African Palestinians: Platforming Two Marginalized Jerusalem Communities"
.
Jerusalem Quarterly
.
Archived
from the original on 8 April 2024
. Retrieved
29 April
2024
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Jonarah Baker,
'The African-Palestinians: Muslim Pilgrims Who Never Went Home'
Archived
17 November 2016 at the
Wayback Machine
,
The New Arab
, 26 Dec. 2014.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Ilan Ben Zion,
The Old City's African secret
Archived
6 October 2019 at the
Wayback Machine
,
The Times of Israel
6 April 2014.
- ^
"The Black Diaspora in Israel, 1965 to 2011 ?"
. 14 December 2011.
Archived
from the original on 15 May 2022
. Retrieved
15 May
2022
.
- ^
Manning, P. (1990). Slavery and African life: occidental, oriental, and African slave trades. Storbritannien: Cambridge University Press. p. 28-29
- ^
Black, J. (2015). The Atlantic Slave Trade in World History. USA: Taylor & Francis. p. 14
[1]
- ^
a
b
c
d
[2]
Hazell, A. (2011). The Last Slave Market: Dr John Kirk and the Struggle to End the East African Slave Trade. Storbritannien: Little, Brown Book Group.
Cite error: The named reference ":1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the
help page
).
- ^
Arthur Neslen
,
In Your Eyes a Sandstorm: Ways of Being Palestinian,
Archived
30 May 2024 at the
Wayback Machine
University of California Press
ISBN
978-0-520-26427-4
2011 pp.50-51
- ^
K. K. Prah
,
Reflections on Arab-led Slavery of Africans,
Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society 2005 p. 198
- ^
Abraham Ezra Milligram,
Jerusalem Curiosities,
Archived
30 May 2024 at the
Wayback Machine
Jewish Publication Society
, 1990
ISBN
978-0-827-60358-5
p.255.
- ^
a
b
Kushkush, Isma'il (12 January 2017).
"
'Afro-Palestinians' forge a unique identity in Israel"
.
AP NEWS
.
Archived
from the original on 23 November 2020
. Retrieved
16 June
2021
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Isma'il Kushkush,
"'Afro-Palestinians' forge a unique identity in Israel"
Archived
28 September 2019 at the
Wayback Machine
,
Associated Press
12 January 2017
- ^
a
b
Sarah Irving,
Palestine,
Bradt Guides, 2012
ISBN
978-1-841-62367-2
p.94
- ^
Abraham Ezra Milligram,
Jerusalem Curiosities,
Archived
30 May 2024 at the
Wayback Machine
Jewish Publication Society
, 1990
ISBN
978-0-827-60358-5
p.254.
- ^
a
b
c
Sara Hassan,
The hidden resistance of African-Palestinians
Archived
10 November 2019 at the
Wayback Machine
TRT World 15 May 2019
- ^
Abraham Ezra Milligram,
Jerusalem Curiosities,
Jewish Publication Society
, 1990
ISBN
978-0-827-60358-5
p.256.
- ^
"Enslaved People's work on sugar plantations ? The Saint Lauretia Project"
.
Archived
from the original on 4 January 2023
. Retrieved
15 May
2022
.
- ^
Qous, Yasser.
"The Africans of Jerusalem: alienation and counter-alienation"
.
Goethe-Institut Cairo/Perpectives
. Chris Somes-Charlton.
Archived
from the original on 19 October 2020
. Retrieved
16 June
2021
.
- ^
"Nominal leases | Tax Guidance | Tolley"
.
www.lexisnexis.co.uk
.
Archived
from the original on 25 June 2022
. Retrieved
15 May
2022
.
- ^
Miller, Daniel.
"The history of 'Israel' and 'Palestine': Alternative names, competing claims"
.
The Conversation
.
Archived
from the original on 15 May 2022
. Retrieved
15 May
2022
.
- ^
"Falling in love with Jerusalem"
.
The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com
.
Archived
from the original on 15 May 2022
. Retrieved
15 May
2022
.
- ^
"Islamic world - Islamic history from 1683 to the present: reform, dependency, and recovery | Britannica"
.
www.britannica.com
.
Archived
from the original on 23 January 2019
. Retrieved
15 May
2022
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
David Love,
'In Jerusalem, Afro-Palestinians Are the Hardest Hit in the Israeli Occupation'
Archived
17 November 2016 at the
Wayback Machine
, Atlanta Black Star 29 March 2016,
- ^
K. K. Prah
,
Reflections on Arab-led Slavery of Africans,
Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society 2005 p. 195
- ^
K. K. Prah
,
Reflections on Arab-led Slavery of Africans,
Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society 2005 p. 204
- ^
Sema, Zulal.
"Drums of defiance: Palestinian percussionist Anbar's rhythms for liberation"
.
TRT World
.
Archived
from the original on 29 March 2024
. Retrieved
29 March
2024
.
- ^
Fatimah S (26 March 2024).
"Lama Jamous is the youngest Muslim woman to watch in history. Here's why"
.
Muslim Girl
.
Archived
from the original on 5 May 2024
. Retrieved
5 May
2024
.
- ^
"Israeli Forces Drop Leaflets on People in Khan Yunis"
.
Storyful
. 5 January 2024.
Archived
from the original on 29 March 2024
. Retrieved
29 March
2024
.
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Geography
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Secondary
Afro-American
diaspora
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