The push for Asiatics in America to have a nationality is most necessary. However, just what nationality would be appropriate is a perplexing philosophical conversation. In all respect, I admired Drew Ali's attempt to give Asiatics a nationality. However, it proved futile and this is nothing less than a fact. Only the smallest percentage of Asiatics refer to themselves as "Moorish-Americans" and I believe the cause of that is because the term simply does not fit the match.
The African scholar, Wayne B. Chandler, states that the term Moor can be traced to 46 B.C. Herein, we have a Roman army that entered West Africa referring to black Africans they encountered as Maures from the Greek adjective "mauros," which simply meant dark or black. Meanwhile, the Greeks who approached east Africa called the black Africans they encountered Ethiops. Ethiop is inherently Greek and stems from the words aithein {to burn} and ops {face}, i.e. burnt face. However, these are simply terms that ancient Europeans labeled Africans, and they simply were NOT nationalities. It should be mentioned that there were all kinds of different ethnic groups of Africans stemming from different places. They merely were adjectives that described the physical nature of the humans they saw {black or dark skinned}.
"The broad use of the term Moor begs the question: Who were the real Moors? Or as Chancellor Williams queried with a recognizable tinge of frustration, "Now, again, just who were the Moors?" He continues, " the original Moors, like the original Egyptians, were black Africans [emphasis added]. As amalgamation became more and more widespread, only the Berbers, Arabs and coloureds in the Moroccan territories were called Moors." -Source- African Presence in Early Europe
If one reads between the aforesaid lines, he would learn that the term Moor was NEVER a nationality. It was given to us by a foreign race for lack of a better classification. Herein lies the problem in Moor being used as the modern day nationality for displaced Africans in America.
Now to place it even more clear cut, lets use an example. An Irish-American can trace himself back to Ireland. An Italian can trace his bloodline directly to Italy. In contrast, can African-Americans trace their lineage to Morocco? By in large, the answer is no. A nationality connects a citizen of a nation and the nation itself, customarily involving allegiance by the citizen and protection by the state. With this comes things such as a common language, traditions, religion, etc. Bluntly put, the term Moorish-American does not embody those principles.
From the M.S.T of A's Koran Questionaire: "Why are we Moorish Americans?" "Because we are descendants of Moroccans and born in America." However, today's Asiatics don't necessarily come from descendants of Moroccans, especially when history notes that there were many tribes originating from many different parts of Africa when the term Moor was coined. In other words, there were Africans that lived in Western Africa who weren't necessarily Moroccans then.
Now if you want to be a Moorish-American, be that. But it strikes me odd that the top African scholars of our time never confirmed Drew Ali's notion or idea. This is not to say the term is a bad thing, but it indeed divides Asiatics even more than we already are. To that degree, it's no different than a West Indian Asiatic shunning blacks in America. It is no different than an African from Africa looking down on a African American. This is real talk, and as my previous blog mentioned, Garvey would have despised this notion. He mission was to inform us that AFRICA is our birthplace and ALL of us should be united.
Again, this is not to offend Moors, but man knows not by being told, and at some point, you have to ask yourself why the M.S.T.of A often is associated with more drama and conflict than anything else. National membership is low in all branches and branches bicker with each other so much, you often wonder will they simply fall off the tree. This is factual, coming from yours truly because like Dr. Dre said, I've been there, done that.
Learn the history of the Moors, see the potential in what we are capable of and apply that to the now. But, in my opinion, the term Moorish-American holds know weight at all. Based on the number of Moorish-Americans in America, it looks like I'm not the only one who feels that way.
*Picture Courtesy of www.killingthebuddha.com
No comments:
Post a Comment