Friday, February 26, 2010

"The ways in which the American and Caribbean Muslims

obtained their Korans reveal not only an extremely strong attachment to their religion and willingness to preserve their intellectual skills but also an extraordinary spirit of abnegation, enterprise, and organization, in the worst possible circumstances. Their tenacity and ultimate success in their endeavor also demonstrate a large degree of autonomy, a fact that has not received enough attention from scholars of slavery. Evidence shows that despite the limits that slaveholders imposed, slaves were able, through their own resourcefulness and strong will, to develop autonomous communities. The Muslims were particularly apt at doing so. They made decisions, planned, gathered information, tried different avenues, built networks, and tested alternatives, all unbeknownst to white society; and they met with success.
-Sylviane A. Diouf, Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas, p. 118

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