[Paleopsych] Re: on islam
HowlBloom at aol.com
HowlBloom at aol.com
Wed Aug 3 05:27:11 UTC 2005
In a message dated 7/31/2005 12:58:23 AM Eastern Standard Time,
shovland at mindspring.com writes:
Don't forget that there were vast reserves of gold
in Africa that fueled their growth for a long time.
They traded a lot of it to India via Madagascar.
good point, Steve. Gold and ivory were treasures the empire of Islam sucked
from Africa in abundance. These export items were carried the hundreds of
miles from central africa to the ports of Zanzibar or Mombasa on the shoulders
of newly-enslaved women, children, and, in much smaller numbers, men. Those
men and women were tied in long chain gangs by ropes around their necks.
They were underfed.
If one fell because of weakness, she or he was hacked to death on the spot.
She who fell failed as a transport mechanism and failed as a potential
export.
Here’s a North African eyewitness account quoted in a South African
Christian Magazine. In North Africa, the freight was not ivory and gold. It was mere
firewood. “In 1818, Captain Lyon of the Royal Navy reported that the
Al-Mukani in Tripoli ‘waged war on all its defenceless neighbours and annually
carried off 4000 to 5000 slaves.a piteous spectacle! These poor oppressed
beings were, many of them, so exhausted as to be scarcely able to walk, their legs
and feet were much swelled, and by their enormous size formed a striking
contrast with their emaciated bodies. They were all borne down with loads of
firewood, and even poor little children, worn to skeletons by fatigue and
hardships, were obliged to bear their burden, while many of their inhuman masters
with dreadful whip suspended from their waist.all the traders speak of slaves
as farmers do of cattle.the defenceless state of the Negro kingdoms to the
southward are temptations too strong to be resisted, a force is therefore
annually sent.to pillage these defenceless people, to carry them off as slaves,
burn their towns, kill the aged and infants, destroy their crops and inflict on
them every possible misery.all slavery is for an unlimited time.none of
their owners ever moved without their whips - which were in constant use.drinking
too much water, bringing too little wood or falling asleep before the
cooking was finished, were considered nearly capital crimes, and it was in vain for
these poor creatures to plead the excuse of being tired. Nothing could
withhold the application of the whip. No slaves dared to be ill or unable to
walk, but when the poor sufferer dies, the master suspects that there must have
been something 'wrong inside' and regrets not having liberally applied their
usual remedy of burning the belly with a red-hot iron.’” (Retrieved July
14, 2005, from the World Wide Web
http://www.christianaction.org.za/articles_ca/2004-4-TheScourgeofSlavery.htm Christian Action Magazine)
----------
Howard Bloom
Author of The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of
History and Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From The Big Bang to the
21st Century
Recent Visiting Scholar-Graduate Psychology Department, New York University;
Core Faculty Member, The Graduate Institute
www.howardbloom.net
www.bigbangtango.net
Founder: International Paleopsychology Project; founding board member: Epic
of Evolution Society; founding board member, The Darwin Project; founder: The
Big Bang Tango Media Lab; member: New York Academy of Sciences, American
Association for the Advancement of Science, American Psychological Society,
Academy of Political Science, Human Behavior and Evolution Society, International
Society for Human Ethology; advisory board member: Institute for
Accelerating Change ; executive editor -- New Paradigm book series.
For information on The International Paleopsychology Project, see:
www.paleopsych.org
for two chapters from
The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History,
see www.howardbloom.net/lucifer
For information on Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big
Bang to the 21st Century, see www.howardbloom.net
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/paleopsych/attachments/20050803/58152dcf/attachment.html>
More information about the paleopsych
mailing list