Bismillah, Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim (With the name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful)

“Those who believe and guarded (against evil): They shall have good news in this life and in the hereafter; there is no changing the words of Allah; that is a mighty achievement.  Yunus(10):63-64

New African Islamic Movement

To my knowledge, there is no organization by the name, “New African Islamic Movement.”   New Africa Islamic Movement represents a level of consciousness of Muslims of African Descent.  Consciousness is the natural state of being after one has been unconscious or in other words asleep.  When you get up from a night’s sleep you become aware or reacquainted with your surroundings.  You know exactly who you are and what is your purpose.  You begin to take responsible measures to carry out your agenda for the day.  Therefore you are involved with certain activities to fulfill that agenda that would enhance the well-being of you and your family, etc.  It is therefore, a movement of people of African Descent toward a day where we can be responsible for our own well-being without dependency on others who do not have our best interest in mind.

In the previous articles (part 1&2), I have expressed the concept of New Africa, as presented by Imam W.D. Mohammed and mention other movements, such as the Republic of New Afrika and the New Afrikan Panther Party.  Noting that the concept is not limited to Imam W.D. Mohammed.  However, Imam W.D. Mohammed brought the concept into the fold of Al-Islam.  Interestingly, it was his father, the Hon. Elijah Muhammad’s, call for land of our own in or outside the United States that influenced the Black Nationalist who were also disciples of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X), after he left the NOI, formed the Repulic of New Afrika.  (The 19th century call by Edward Mc Cabe for Oklahoma to be set aside as a state for Blacks also was an influence)

The concept of New Africa can actually be traced to our Mother (Ummi) Continent itself.  The struggle for civil rights, Black Liberation, and Black Power in this country, coincided with the liberation struggles in Africa from colonial rule.  There in the Motherland was a desire to establish a New Africa free and independent from European rule, erasing the artificial borders set up by the Whites.  The Hon. Marcus Garvey was the major person Allah sent to wake up the Africans in Africa and in the Diaspora to establish independence.  He established a mindset that set the course for liberation of all African people.  All of those who led their particular country to independence were Garveyites (including Ho Chi Min of Vietnam).  Both El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) and Dr, Martin Luther King acknowledged, that the struggle here in the US against the white power structure and the struggle in Africa against European colonial rule were connected.  As we began to be conscious again of our African heritage, we also yearn for a New Africa here in what is now known as the US.

Al-Islam and African Liberation

As pointed out in her excellent book: Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas, Dr. Syliane Diouf pointed out that Al-Islam was a unifying force both in Africa and in the Americas.  She points out that Islam broke down tribal barriers of members of different peoples who interacted and intermarried because of the practice of al-Islam:

“The study of the Islamic vocabulary of the Gullah language reveals that the      Muslims who introduced it were Wolof, Pulaar, Mandingo, Vai, and Hausa speakers.  Though they came from different countries, these Muslims all shared a religion, a language, a writing system, a set of values, and habits that transcended the traditional categories of identification and belonging, such as the ethnic group, the caste, or the region.”  (pg. 72)

In addition, the Islamic African-Arabian Historian and Scholar, Dr. Khalid A.T. Al- Mansour has said, “no Christians got off the slave ships.”  The Africans were either Muslims or adherents to traditional African religions.  Islamic Empires had covered practically all of West Africa, so even the non-Muslims knew of or was influenced by the Muslims.  We did not come here as Christians, Atheist, Communist or Socialist.  We for the most part came here as Muslims!  None of these other concepts, which are concepts given to us from our European slavemasters, can offer anything toward the true unity and liberation for us as a people.  It was Al-Islam that unified the African and caused the development of powerful empires through out the continent.  Some of which had advanced sciences and stood at the time of the European invasion.   The University of Sankore in Timbuktu, Mali was a chief learning center that not only attracted African Muslims but students all over the civilized world.  Timbuktu today, have several dozen family libraries which houses Islamic manuscripts centuries old.   Kanem-Bornu’s Sayfawa Dynasty ruled for a little over 1,000 years, until 1846.  Today though considered a ceremonial position, the Kanembu people (called Kanuri in Nigeria) continue to recognize the Sultan (in the Nigeria State of Bornu) as the head of state.  By the 1980’s, there was an armed conflict to reunite the Kanembu people, which in a sense, continues today.  Many Christian missionaries are frustrated because they can’t get the Kanembu to turn their back on Al-Islam and accept the Christian religion.  According to Dr. Ali Mazrui in his video documentary series called The Africans, he stated that where al-Islam was the strongest there were no European settlements.  Europeans settled in areas inhabited by non-Muslims.  Muslims were a thorn in the side of the European slavemaster on both sides of the Atlantic.  In his book: Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race, Dr. Edward W. Blyden (also known to the Muslim Africans as “Abdul Karim”) observed:

“Mohammedanism [Al-Islam], in Africa, has left the native master of himself and         of his home; but wherever Christianity has been able to establish itself, with the exception of Liberia, foreigners have taken possession of the country, and in some places, rule the natives with oppressive rigour.” (pg. 354)

Therefore Al-Islam is the only concept, methodology and way of life that can truly make the New African free from White rule and subjugation.  As a matter of fact, Al-Islam can free all of humanity from subjugation to the works of Shaytan ar-rajim (Satan the rejected).  It is the collective desire of the New African to have Freedom, Justice and Equality, not revenge, to live at peace with all members of the human family.  Only applying the principles of Al-Islam can the human soul have peace and harmony.

“Say: My Lord has commanded justice, and set upright your faces at every masjid and call on Him, being sincere in religion; as He brought you forth in the beginning, so shall you be returned.  Al-Araf(7):29