Thursday, December 20, 2007

Maafa, the African Holocaust

The Maafa has to be the single most catastrophic event in human history relating to the forcible migration of any one type of human population.

Maafa, Kiswahili for 'disaster' or 'terrible occurance', refers to the Atlantic and Trans-Saharan slave trade. Specifically, this term encompasses the inhuman treatment of African people, depopulation of African ethnic groups, wholesale murder and oppression of African people through the slave trade. This term and concept was brought to the academic lexicon by Dr. Marimba Ani. This term refers to the African slave trades from an African perspective, rather than a traditionally non-African, enslavers perspective.

The Maafa cost in human lives ranges from an estimated 18 million to up to 100 million African lives through the Atlantic slave trade. It is unknown exactly how many Africans were enslaved and sold to the East through the much earlier Trans-Saharan slave trade. Africans were taken from all over the continent. Some areas were depopulated completely.

Below are additional links to read about Maafa

http://www.africanholocaust.net

http://www.themaafa.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maafa

http://africawithin.com/maafa/slavery.htm

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