Zanj Revolt
The largest African slave rebellions
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The subject of African bondage anywhere is one of the most sensitive
historical issues, and all to often it is asserted that most, if not all,
of the great international movements of African people occurred only under
the guise of slavery and servitude. Obviously, as we are seeing, this has
not at all been the case. The period of bondage is in fact dwarfed by the
ages of magnificent African civilizations, glory and splendor, not just in
Africa itself but throughout the Global African Community.
It was in early Iraq where the largest African slave rebellions occurred.
Here were gathered tens of thousands of East African slave laborers called
Zanj. These Blacks worked in the humid salt marshes in conditions of
extreme misery. Conscious of their large numbers and oppressive working
conditions the Zanj rebelled on at least three occasions between the
seventh and ninth centuries. The largest of these rebellions lasted for
fifteen years, from 868 to 883, during which time our people inflicted
defeat after defeat upon the Arab armies sent to suppress the revolt.
This rebellion is known historically as the "Revolt of the Zanj" or the
"Revolt of the Blacks." It is significant to point out that the Zanj forces
were rapidly augmented by large-scale defections of Black soldiers under
the employ of the Abbassid Caliphate at Baghdad. The rebels themselves,
hardened by years of brutal treatment, repaid their former masters in kind,
and are said to have been responsible for great slaughters in the areas
that came under their sway.
At its height the Zanj rebellion spread to Iran and advanced to within
seventy miles of Baghdad itself. The Zanj even built their own capital,
called Moktara (the Elect City), which covered a large area and flourished
for several years. The Zanj rebellion was ultimately only suppressed with
the intervention of large Arab armies and the lucrative offer of amnesty
and rewards to any rebels who might choose to surrender.
African people have always defied subjugation, and the Revolt of the Blacks
is in and of itself a glorious page in African history and Black resistance
movements. Through the Revolt of the Blacks, a now relatively little known
episode in a part of the world that many of us regard as foreign and
strange, we see African people doing what we have always done asserting our
essential dignity and standing up and demanding our inalienable human rights.
SOURCE:
African Presence In Early Asia, by Runoko Rashidi & Van Sertima By RUNOKO
RASHIDI [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/slaverebel.htm
I just found out about this great revolt,comparable to the Spartacus revolt
in page 18 on in Richard Halls,'Empire of the Monsoon,' A hirstory of the
Indian Ocean and it's invaders.The first is a really fabulous piece of work
called Empires of the Monsoon, by Richard Hall. A former mariner himself,
Hall traces the evolution of maritime trade in the Indian Ocean from its
earliest beginnings, at least 900 years before the Europeans finally began
to muscle in. The brutal trade which developed in slaves, gold and spices
is etched deep into the history of coastal ports such as Mombasa, Zanzibar,
Calicut and Cochin.