Thoughts & Recommendations

Concerning the European Roots

of Black Nationalism
By Mansa Bilal Mark King, Ph.D.

2nd Annual Black Muslim American Conference

Atlanta, GA
April 20, 2019
What is Nationalism?
p.3-10 of E. J. Hobsbawm’s “Nations and Nationalism since 1790”
• [after WWI,] “the map of Europe was, for the first – and as it turn out
only – time redrawn according to the principle of nationality, and…
[soon] the vocabulary of European nationalism came to be adopted
by new movements of colonial liberation or Third World assertion.”
• “nations…are not ‘as old as history.’ The modern sense of the word is
no older than the 18th century, give or take the odd predecessor.”
• “Attempts to establish objective criteria for nationhood…have often
been made…based on a single criteria such as language or ethnicity,
or a combination of criteria such as language, common territory,
common history, cultural traits, or whatever else.”
What is Nationalism?
p.3-10 of E. J. Hobsbawm “Nations and Nationalism since 1790”
• Attempts have also been made to use purely subjective criteria, but
taken to extremes, these are as problematic as the objective criteria
attempts.
• “the concept of the nation…as conceived by nationalism, can be
recognized…” [best by looking backwards].
• Nationalism is “primarily a principle which holds that the political and
national unit should be congruent…[and that] the political duty of the
[nationals] overrides all other public obligations, and in extreme cases
[such as wars] all other obligations of whatever kind.”
• It is important to stress the key roles played by “artifact, invention,
and social engineering” in the making of nations.
What is Nationalism?
p.3-10 of E. J. Hobsbawm “Nations and Nationalism since 1790”
• Quoting Gellner, he writes “Nations, as a natural God-given way of
classifying men, as an inherent…political destiny, are a myth;
nationalism, which sometimes takes pre-existing cultures and turns
them into nations, sometimes invents them, and often obliterates
pre-existing cultures: that is a reality.”
• “…nationalism comes before nations. Nations do not make states and
nationalisms but the other way around”
• The role of modern technologies that permit standardization through
mass schooling and mass media has been essential to the building of
modern nations.
What is Nationalism?
p.10-15 of E. J. Hobsbawm “Nations and Nationalism since 1790”
• For the everyday masses
• national identity rarely obliterates more primary kinds of identities.
• The particulars of national identity usually vary with time and place.
• Historically (in Europe) nationalism developed…
• First culturally, in the literary sphere and in folkloric expressions.
• Then, there developed pioneers and militants who campaigned for the idea to
manifest politically.
• Then, there developed sufficient mass support for the process needed to establish a
state that governed a territory and its people.
• In much of the formerly colonized world, the state that was produced has
not become a “nation-state.”
• Ethnic, linguistic, and religious realities overwhelm any aspiring national identity.
 Why does it matter?
We (Africana people) have been economically and politically conquered.

• For 500 years in the Americas

• For 150 years in Africa & Asia

Adopting practices/ideas from your conquerors is routine human behavior.

• Goal#1: learn their secret and use it to counter their dominance.

• Goal#2: keep your cultural, spiritual, and economic autonomy.

 Why Does It Matter?
3 Weeks ago

• I attended a Mawlid for Cheikh Ibrahim Niass that:

• was in East Point, GA
• was led by his great-grandson, but also a Desi or Turkish Shaykh
• included half a dozen “not-Black” talibes
• included a Gambian-American Qadiri who finished at Morehouse 5 years ago.

• In my experience, such possibilities seem to be anathema to broad swathes of

Black Muslim America. They are certainly unusual.
 Why Does It Matter?
3 Weeks ago (cont.)

• Two days later, as we discussed visits to Africa and me being Muslim, a Pan-
African Nationalist told me that “we gotta get rid of them Arabs.”

• I have heard similar refrains countless times.

• My unarticulated response was “you have too much Toubab in your brain…neither
genocide, mass population displacement, nor conflation of ethnicity with religion is in
accord with my ancestors’ ways…to say nothing of my deen.”

• But, it is quite in accord with Toubab/Wazungu nationalism, though.

Why does it matter?
The perpetual challenge: only throwing out “the dirty
bath water.”
• You can become so much like your oppressors that if you
ever experience “victory,” it will be loss at higher levels of
reality.
• i.e. You can lose so much of your good self that YOU become lost

• Examples abound.
Why does it matter?
Examples of keeping dirty bath water:

• Japanese nationalism (absorbed social Darwinism…taught it to Asia’s “modernizers”)

• oppression of ethnic “others” via imperialism before 1945
• ongoing domestic assimilation, discrimination, and stigmas since 1945
• fertility has dropped “below replacement levels” b/c they gave up too much
of their tawheed-based social order when they modernized.

• Turkish nationalism (modeled on French nationalism)

• oppression of ethnic “others” (Kurds via assimilation, but Arabs via stigma)
• oppressed advocates of cultural, political, and economic elements of Islam
Why does it matter?
Examples of keeping dirty bath water:

• Liberian nationalism (Anglo-American ideals of civilization and hierarchy)

• oppression of indigenous Africans and Muslims via assimilation,
discrimination & stigma
• Flows from the “Back to Africa” movement (i.e. Pan-African Nationalism)

• The idea of Nationalism has become seen as such a positive thing in large part
because it was fundamental to decolonization efforts.
• But there are many examples of “nationalism gone wrong” after a nationalist victory.
Why does it matter?
Examples of “nationalism gone wrong” (i.e. keeping dirty bath water):
• Israel (Palestinians),
• Iran (Kurds, Turks, Arabs),
• India (Muslims),
• Myanmar (Muslims),
• China (Uighur and Cantonese),
• Sudan (Southerners, and Fur),
• Mauritania (non-Muslims),
• Egypt (Nubians),
• Latin America (Africans and Indigenous)
• Russia (Muslims and indigenous Asians)
• Some cases aren’t ethnic/national: China (capitalists & traditionalists)
Why does it matter?
Contemporary nationalisms around the world have their roots in the
nationalisms of 19th Century Europe.
• Europe’s nationalisms were projected outward as a few new nations
tried to rule the world
• Turned most of the world into colonies and quasi colonies (protectorates,
etc.)

• Colonized Africans and Asians subsequently built most of their

independence movements around an adoption of some colonizer’s
nationalist ideas.
Why does it matter?
Black American nationalism has its roots in the Anglo-White Nationalism
of the English-ruled colonies.
• Anglo White (WASP) Nationalism is often confused and quite confusing

• Legally began in the 1640s – 1690s

• In 1640, VA legally excludes Blacks from requirement to bear arms
• In 1664, Maryland law punished “English or freeborn” women. If they married a
slave, they and children would become slaves.
• In 1681, Maryland law punished “Freeborn English or other White” women.

• In 1691, VA law punished “English or other White” people of any gender.

• Driven by the economic labor needs of the planter class.
• Facilitated by English aesthetics and European Christian ideas.
Why does it matter?
Black American nationalism’s roots (cont).

• This White nationalism drove the suppression and stigmatization of…

• Indigenous Americans

• Africans and their descendants

• French culture after Louisiana purchase.

• Spanish & Mexican culture after Mexican-American & Spanish-American Wars.

• Various European and Asian cultures in the pre-WWI immigration waves.

Why does it matter?
WE may have “dirty bath water”
• Imperialistic and misogynistic tendencies
• Rooted in insecurity (fear of worldly enemies instead of Allah) & arrogance.
• Where 1 element of superiority legitimates domination & excuses abuse.

• Assimilationist/homogenizing tendencies
• Rooted in imbalanced essentialism.
• Where identity becomes monolithic.

• Rationalistic/Reductionist tendencies
• Rooted in triumphalist visions of the scientific knowledge of Enlightenment.
• Where things become unidimensional or fragmented.
Why does it matter?
Islam was indigenized in Blackamerica through a “merger” with
nationalism.
• Assimilationist (hence, culturally imperialistic)
• Homogenizing (hence unable to cope with intra-black diversity)
• Reductionist (hence affinity with harmful kinds of Salafi thought)

I hear these themes far too often when I listen to Black Muslims’
organizing rhetoric, and even from the mimbar.
Why does it matter?
• The African Diaspora in America is diverse in terms of ethnicity,
intellectual orientation, ideological commitments, political strategies, and
class/socio-economic status.

• The Muslim part of America’s African Diaspora is EVEN MORE diverse.

• Thus, our nationalist thinking pushes us towards a lot of tension, if not

outright in-fighting.
• But none of us can gain dominance over the rest of us
• Much like “White War I” (plus Turkey) & “White War II” (plus Japan)
My Recommendations
Identify the kinds of books, experiences and/or trainings that
have unveiled more interconnected, multidimensional realities to
people.
• I have seen dhikr circles open people who formerly held rigid nationalistic
mindset

• I have hope for tracts that help us see beyond “The West vs the Rest”
divides:
• Jackson’s “Islam and the Blackamerican”
• Dabashi’s “Islamic Liberation Theology”
My Recommendations
Draw upon “less-contaminated” sources and models for
community-building.

• Medina constitution?

• Certain types of Traditional West African communities?

My Recommendations
• Find ways of accepting diversity that go beyond Western
Liberalism.
• Istikhara
• Asma-al-Husna
• Al-Qadr
• Ayat-ul-Lah
• Khalifah fil Ard
References & Useful texts
• Race and Racism: Europe. Downloaded on: 4/19/2019
https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-
and-press-releases/race-and-racism-europe
• Virginia Slave Laws (Digital History 71). Downloaded on: 4/19/2019
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=71
• Dabashi, Hamid. 2008. Islamic Liberation Theology: Resisting the Empire.
Routledge: New York.
• Hobsbawm, E.J. 1990. Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme,
Myth Reality. Cambridge University Press: London.
• Jackson, Sherman. 2005. Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Toward the
Third Resurrection. Oxford University press: London.
• Pankaj Mishra. 2012. From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who
Rebuilt Asia. Double Day Canada: Toronto.
• Peter Frankopan. 2015. The Silk Roads: A New History of the World.
Bloomsbury: London.
Some Video Links on Tools for a Solution
• Bilal Ware - Key Lessons From the History of Islam in West Africa
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qEZS41SLK0

• Bilal Ware – Principled Pacifism in Islamic West Africa (Rudolph Ware)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MuogdcksAg

• Hub Talks: Dr. Rudolph Bilal Ware & Shaykh Muhammad Adeyinka
Mendes
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v9vXTN9PAY&t=13s
Some Video Links on European Nationalisms
• World History II: Nationalism in Europe (Part 1)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwtl7UCWiGk
• The Rise of Nationalism in Europe...
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH2v2eJjqik
• History Comes Alive: European Nationalism in the 19th Century
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJvFh49-NMw
• History: The Rise of Nationalism in Europe (Part 1)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN_qrvMo-fU
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r08IiZhW8wg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeuGVgD8abg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZh_b-KJA8I
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDYHLvkXpqQ
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4TSbvSynPI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tp4P_VXh8M
• Nationalism and Imperialism: AP European History
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G3LHjKnFmI
Some Video Links on White Nationalism
• Dr Jacqueline Battalora- Birth of a White Nation
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM6ehzu3p4c
• What You're Not Supposed to Know About America's Founding
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=364cxeR5EAg