Muslims missing from history

The story of African Muslims who found themselves in the midst of the transatlantic slave trade is an underreported piece of the region’s history that should be given more prominence.

That was the view expressed by Sabir Nakhuda as he presented a copy of his newest book, Muslims of CARICOM, to Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary-General Carla Barnett, on Friday.

He said it was his hope that his book would help bring more attention to the historical involvement of the Muslim people.

“I had realised that going through the history of the Caribbean in slavery, there seems to be no one who had really told the story about the Muslims who were slaves that were brought to the Caribbean. I thought that I would go and delve into that venture.

“It took me seven years to research. I travelled to all of the CARICOM countries [and] there were fascinating stories. I learned that among the slaves there were nobles and scholars, and others, and it seemed unfortunate to me for many years the African Muslim stories were never told,” Nakhuda said.

Barbados’ Ambassador to CARICOM David Comissiong thanked the author for his donation and agreed that closer attention should be paid by scholars to the role of the Muslim community during the period of the slave trade and after the abolition of slavery, because of the significance of that to modern-day Barbados.

“I really welcome the book as a very valuable addition to our scholarship of the Caribbean region, of our documentation of the history of our community, because, truly, the presence and role of the Muslim community has been inexcusably left out of much of our historiography.

“I think Sabir Nakhuda is doing us a great service by bringing this knowledge to our attention, and I can tell you that we in Barbados really prize the Muslim community.

“We know that community came really way back during the slavery period, but even the recent migrants that came from India and areas that now include Pakistan and Bangladesh, came and performed a service for the masses of impoverished black Barbadians,” Comissiong said. (SB)