Suchergebnisse

It was a routine winter night. Men sat gathered at the Café Fuentes, one of the fabled coffee houses in the medina of Tangier. A chilly gust blew up from the port, dispersing the aroma of tea and cannabis in the air. During the colonial days Hotel Fuentes, owned by the famed Spanish painter Antonio Fuentes, was a favored brasserie for high society. As European and American expats departed, Café Fuentes became a gathering spot for local elders, fishermen working in the port, random hawkers, and jobless youth. By the early 2000s, it was drawing West African migrants who had settled in the medina, hoping to try their luck and cross the Straits of Gibraltar to Spain.

There is much to say about Chouki El Hamel's Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race and Islam (2015), but I will focus the discussion below on six points: 1) the "ancient hatreds" argument he constructs to explain racism and slavery in Morocco, in particular the culturalist thrust running through the book, whereby complex economic and political processes are reduced to racist or theological beliefs; 2) El Hamel's claim that much writing about slavery in North Africa claims the institution was benign; 3) how he categorizes Moroccans into three bounded categories—Black, Arab, and Berber; 4) his claim that the Gnawa Sufi order is a "diaspora" and a "distinct ethnic group" that longs for an imaginary homeland; 5) his questionable use of national archives, and selective rendering of classic writing on slavery and jinn belief in Morocco; and 6) his reluctance to address how colonial (and postcolonial) state policy affected ethno-racial politics in Morocco.

An exploration of the influence of Islam & Arab culture on hip-hop in the US & Europe calls attention to the many Islamic themes & Arabic terms in hip-hop songs. The rise of Islam in American & European inner cities in the past three decades is traced to shed light on the emergence of "Islamic hip-hop" as both a musical subgenre & a cultural movement. Islam's ability to offer emancipatory identities to disempowered minorities is discussed, along with the flexible & diverse nature of Islam in urban America; the blending of Latino art forms with Arabic music by Latino Muslims; & the growing number of French Muslim rappers. It is contended that Islamic hip-hop, which combines Black Nationalism & Islam, has become both an extremely powerful cultural movement within the hip-hop nation & a powerful internationalist subculture for disaffected youth around the world. The political impact of Islamic hip-hop, the increasing incorporation of Islamic culture into America's cultural mainstream, & efforts that are being made to mobilize Islamic hip-hop are addressed. J. Lindroth