Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe
WITHIN 70 years
of the Arab/islamist conquest and seizure of Kemet, or “ancient” Egypt, the
great African civilisation on the continent’s northeast and on the
Mediterranean, in 642 CE, these conqueror forces from west Asia extended their
territorial march across Africa westward, stretching onto the northwest
Atlantic coast (the so-called Maghreb). Indeed by 705 CE, these invaders
had taken over one-third of Africa – from the northwest Atlantic coast to the
Red Sea (Indian Ocean). Soon after, an expeditionary force from the occupation’s base in the “Maghreb”
attacked the westcentral Atlantic coast kingdom of Ghana (situated around contemporary Sénégal/Gambia/Guinea-Bissau/Mali/Mauritania)
ravaging, pillaging and occupying.
De-Africanisation
The trend and consequences of these invasions on the continent were seismically devastating: overruns and takeovers of states, enslavements and exportations of peoples, serial pillage of phenomenal treasures, simultaneous islamisation/Arabisation and targeted and insistent de-Africanisation of the expansive, variegated cultural heritage of these regions of Africa. The Arab/islamist invasion inaugurated 1200 (0ne thousand two hundred) years of the enslavement of African peoples which extended to the east, central and southern Africa.
IN EFFECT, the Arab/islamist occupation of Africa constitutes the catastrophic relay race of invasion whose baton the Arab/islamists would hand over to Europe, beginning 15th century CE.
The trend and consequences of these invasions on the continent were seismically devastating: overruns and takeovers of states, enslavements and exportations of peoples, serial pillage of phenomenal treasures, simultaneous islamisation/Arabisation and targeted and insistent de-Africanisation of the expansive, variegated cultural heritage of these regions of Africa. The Arab/islamist invasion inaugurated 1200 (0ne thousand two hundred) years of the enslavement of African peoples which extended to the east, central and southern Africa.
IN EFFECT, the Arab/islamist occupation of Africa constitutes the catastrophic relay race of invasion whose baton the Arab/islamists would hand over to Europe, beginning 15th century CE.
Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe(Alice Coltrane Quintet “Blue Nile” [personnel: Coltrane, harp; Joe Henderson, alto flute, Pharoah Sanders, alto flute; Ron Carter, bass; Ben Riley, drums; recorded: Coltrane home studios, Dix Hills, New York, US, 26 January 1970])
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