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Momodou
Denmark
11663 Posts |
 Posted - 01 Feb 2011 : 18:38:44
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I don't know how many of you know about Ayuba Suleyman Diallo but in her boook "Servants of Allah - African Muslims enslaved in the Americas", Sylviane A.Diouf wrote that Ayuba was a Senegalese from Bundu who was sold to a British slaver in the Gambia in 1731.
Ayuba Suleyman Diallo was given the slave name Job ben Solomon.
-------quote from the book-----
The first widely documented -if not the first actual - case of an African going back home is that of Job ben Solomon. After eighteen months of captivity, he left Maryland for London, where he was used as an Arabic transator by sir Hans Sloane, the president of the Royal Geographic Society. Touted as a curiosity for his writing ability, nobel birth, and regal behavior, Job met the royal family and was the toast of the salons. He finally set sail to his native land, with letters from the Royal African Company that recommended to its factors in the Gambia to use him "with the greatest respect and all the Civility you possibily can".
Having landed on August 8, 1734, at Fort James, Gambia, Job ben Solomon started his journey back to bundu in Senegal in the company of British factor Francis Moore. In an extraordinary coincidence, on the first evening of their trip Job came across the very man who had kidnapped him three years before. "Job, tho' a very even-tempere'd man at other times," wrote Moore, "could not contain himself when he saw them, but fell into a most terrible passion, and was for killing them with his broad Sword and Pistols, which he always took care to have about him." Instead, the former victim engaged his abductors in conversation. He enquired about their king and learned that "amongst the Goods for which he was sold Job to Captain Pyke there was a Pistol, which the king used commonly to wear slung about his Neck with a String......, one day this accidantially went off, and the balls lodging in his throat, he died presently." Job fell to his knees and returned thanks to Mahomet for making this man die by the very goods for which he sold him into slavery." There was much to be thankful for, as Job ben Solomon was only the second man, as a Pulo remarked to Moore, "ever known to come back to his country , after having been once carried a slave out of it by White Men."...............He died in 1773 at the age of seventy two.
.....Job ben Solomon's portrait, realized in london in 1733, shows a quintessential pulo with long hair and wearing a white turban, a white boubou, and an Islamic gris-gris pouch. What he was really wearing when he sat down for the painter is not known, but he had insisted on being reperesented "in his own country dress." He had to describe it minutely, as the artist stated that he could not draw something he had not seen. Job displayed som Islamic houmor by retorting, "If you can't draw a dress you never saw, why do some of you painters presume to draw God, whom you never saw?" His insistance at being imortalized in the dress of his country and religion indicated the utmost importance he gave to the retention of his cultural integrity.
-------end quote----------
The following is an article from the BBC website.
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Freed slave portrait saved from export
The first British portrait of a freed slave, which faced being lost to the nation, will remain in the UK for the next five years.
William Hoare's painting of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, also known as Job ben Solomon, was purchased by the Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) in 2009.....Read more at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12238237
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Dalton1
3485 Posts |
Posted - 02 Feb 2011 : 06:03:24
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Alj Momodou,
http://jameshjohnston.com/documents/Everypicture.pdf
Mboge shared this with months ago. I found the article very interesting. I enjoyed reading your forward as well.
Yero
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"There is no god but Allah (SWT); and Muhammad (SAW)is His last messenger." shahadah. Fear & Worship Allah (SWT) Alone! (:
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Dalton1
3485 Posts |
Posted - 02 Feb 2011 : 06:28:01
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You will appreciate this poem from Birago Diop.
Have a great night.
"Since then I go
I follow the pathways
the pathways and roads
beyond the sea and even farther,
beyond the sea and beyond the beyond;
And whenever I approach the wicked,
the Men with black hearts,
whenever I approach the envious,
the Men with black hearts
before me moves the Breath of the Ancestors."
(from 'Viaticum')
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"There is no god but Allah (SWT); and Muhammad (SAW)is His last messenger." shahadah. Fear & Worship Allah (SWT) Alone! (:
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Momodou
Denmark
11663 Posts |
Posted - 02 Feb 2011 : 09:04:26
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| Thanks for sharing that Yero. Sylviane A.Diouf has done a very good research. Try and get a copy either from a library or bookstore and you won't regret. |
A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Dalton1
3485 Posts |
Posted - 02 Feb 2011 : 18:01:14
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Alj Momodou,
How so nice that will be to get a copy once time permits me. I was previously so relaxed in African history (just poor mentality of science students), but ended up taking an African class last year. The poem I shared was part of my submission. Birago (a Senegalese educated in France) never kept quiet over the injustices of slavery. He depicted enslavers as clear evil, and his poetry is nicely written. Another renowned scholar, of course known by all, C. Anta shared, (see an excerpt from my paper), [...][The Senegalese renowned scholar, anthropologist, and historian Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop made some important historical contribution in the fifties. While working on his doctorate degree at the University of Paris, he submitted a controversial thesis which stated that ancient Egypt and Egyptians were of black culture. Loaded with courage and urge to prove his claims, Diop engaged in more evidence which finally landed his footprints on the world’s map as one of the most dependable historians of Africa that dealt with the origin of the ethnicity. From Diop’s own doctoral thesis, “The African Origin of Civilization: Myth of Reality,” which Collins and Burns resembled to the thesis of W. E. DuBois, thus:
3.
“The ancient Egyptians were Negroes. The moral fruit of their civilization is to be counted among the assets of the black world. Instead of presenting itself to history as an insolvent debtor, that black world is the very initiator of the ‘Western’ civilization flaunted before our eyes today.” (Collins and Burns, Pg. 28). ]
It is very important that we know our own history. To me, it was to resolve my guilt of not knowing my African history (heritage), after being trapped in a different continent (US) for the last decade, missing the opportunity of enjoying the much known African culture. While I appreciate and proud to be of the Fulbe, and I speak the language in a power of even traditional riddles, I have enjoyed the same in other languages too. How nice at a younger age, instead of migrating to the US where I am permanently based, to have stayed home, to be schooled traditionally, etc...With all this, I have learnt to inculcate in my young ones that home is Africa, though the new founded home of convenience (US) is our first home, a great nation that welcomes all people.
On a last note, I believe the Fulbe just like the other tribes of the African continent (Bantu)from east to west, north to south, suffered enormous torture and displacement in the hands of the enslavers. To what a slave taken to America, Carribean or Europe would have been, is the same when we ask: what an a aborted child would have been? Truly, in no small terms, Africa was aborted of its great people and resources.
Once again, thanks for sharing.
I will see all soon again.
Yero. |
"There is no god but Allah (SWT); and Muhammad (SAW)is His last messenger." shahadah. Fear & Worship Allah (SWT) Alone! (:
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Edited by - Dalton1 on 02 Feb 2011 18:22:50 |
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