Echoes of the Call

BRIAN: But first, let’s return to the story of the Muslims who were enslaved and sent to America. These Muslims were especially vulnerable to capture in West Africa, and that’s because they were often on the move. They journeyed to Mecca on the hajj. They trafficked goods between cities as traders. Scholars, like Omar ibn Said, travelled to study and teach at institutions far from their home.

And as we heard in Said’s story, many of these people were highly literate. Being able to read the Quran was, and is, a central part of Muslim religious practice.

ED: And this helps explain why Islam was snuffed out so quickly in the Americas. Omar was the exception. For most slaves, reading and writing were prohibited. Literacy was a double-edged sword.

SYLVIANE DIOUF: Absolutely. It was a strength– and a weakness, as well.

ED: This is Sylviane Diouf, a historian who has written extensively about this first influx of Muslims to America.

SYLVIANE DIOUF: You know, the fact that a religion that is very dependent on the written word, on having the Quran and being able to read it, on going to school and having teachers– all of that, of course, you know, was not conducive to the passing on of the religion to children and grandchildren.

ED: So the children and grandchildren of Muslim slaves didn’t seem able to carry on their forefathers’ religion, even if they were aware of it. But you say there’s evidence of that tradition that remains. What were those traces, and where do you find them?

SYLVIANE DIOUF: You know, I read in the WPA interviews, recorded interviews by former slaves, they were talking about their parents and grandparents, who had been Muslims in the Sea Islands. I mean, the women were actually making little rice cakes and they were giving them to the children. And I found a song, which was sung at least until the 1940s, talking about those rice cakes, and you know, how sweet they were, and the children were happy with those.

And what was fascinating is that the women were saying “saraka” when they were giving those cakes, and people kind of understood that’s “saraka” was kind of an African word for rice cakes. And it was not. It was very clearly the Arabic word “sadaqah,” which means free-will offering. And so we will hear, in the American South, this continuation of an Islamic practice. And that continued on the plantations here.

Another thing that also can be attributed to the Muslim influence is in music. The blues, which is a very, very particular kind of music that really is, you know, quintessential American music. And there is one particular piece which is recorded by Alan Lomax in a penitentiary in Mississippi in the 1930s, really sounds exactly like the call to prayer.

EXCERPT OF BLUES SONG

You know, when you listen to a call to prayer recorded in West Africa, you know, the similarity is absolutely extraordinary.

EXCERPT OF CALL TO PRAYER

In the United States, contrary to the rest of the Americas, Muslims had a better chance of preserving their singing styles. Because starting it 1740, drumming was forbidden in the United States. There had been a revolt in South Carolina in 1739, and people had been called to the revolt by drums. And after that, you know, the decision was passed against drumming.

So while people from Central Africa rely essentially on drums, West African Muslims did not. So they could keep on, you know, maintain their kind of singing, which is actually mostly recitations of the Quran and other things, while the others could not. And that really kind of gave rise to that particular type of music that is found only in the United States.

BLUES MUSIC PLAYING

ED: Sylviane Diouf directs the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Trans-Atlantic Slavery in New York. She’s the author of Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas. Earlier in the segment, we heard from Ala Alryyes, a professor at Hofstra University. He contributed to the book, A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar Ibn Said.

BLUES MUSIC PLAYING