Arap ve Afrika İslam Kaynaklarında Sömürgeci Yazarların Körlüğü ve Afrika Tarihinin İnkârı: Doğu Afrika Kaynaklarına Göre Bir Değerlendirme

Year 2021, Issue: 12, 26 - 37, 23.12.2021

Mhando Mikidady

Abstract

Bu çalışma sömürge dönemi öncesi batı Afrikadaki yazma geleneğini ve sömürgeci yazarların bu gelenek çerçevesinde ortaya konmuş kaynaklara karşı tutumlarını tasvir eder. Romalı ziyaretçilerin kıyı halklarını dokumanlaştırdıkları klasik dönemden beri Doğu Afrika yazmalarda yer almaya başladı. Arapların bölgeyi ticaret ve macera amacıyla ziyatretlere başlamasından sonra klasik hegemonyanın sonu gelmeye başladı. Doğu Afrika kıyı halkları ve Arap ilişkileri Swahili medeniyeti altında edebi okuryazarlığa gelişti. Swahili medeniyeti altında yazma gelenegi kıyı bölgelerinde Arap ve Afrikalı Müslüman yazarlar tarafından başlatıldı, sonrasında iç kısımlardaki müslümanlar tarafından benimsendi. 19. yüzyıldan itibaren Avrupalılar Doğu Afrika hakkında yazmaya ilgi duydular. Bu ilgi 20. yüzyılda sömürge döneminde devam etti ve sömürgeci tarih yazarlığı olarak tanındı. Sömürgecitarih yazıcılığı tarihi çalışmalar için geçmişin öneminin varlığını inkâr etti. Kıyı ve iç kesimlerdeki Müslüman yazarların üretmiş oldukları metinlerin yorumlanmasında, çelişkili bir biçimde, bu yazarlardan bazıları Afrikalı Müslümanlarla ortak çalıştılar. Bu yazının sonuç tespitlerinde Doğu Afrikada İslamın nasıl Swahilileştirildiği anlatılır. Böylece, Afrikalı Müslüman yazma geleneği yabancılar yerine Afrikalıları onaylar.

Keywords

Classical sources, Arab sources, African Muslim sources

The Denial of African History and the Blindness of Colonial Writers on Arab and African Moslem Sources: An Appraisal from East African Sources

Abstract

This study describes traditions of writing in East Africa early to colonialism and the attitude of colonial writers toward sources produced from these early traditions. East Africa started to appear in writings from the classical era when Roman visitors Documented the people of the coast of the region. The demise of classical hegemony was followed by an epoch when Arabs visited the region for trade and adventurous motives. The Arabs and east African coast people relations culminated into writing literacy shrouded under Swahili civilization. The tradition of writing under Swahili civilization started by Arabs and African Muslim writers around the coast then adopted by interior Muslims in later years. From 19th CE, Europeans started to have interest in writing about East Africa. This interest continued to the colonial era in 20th CE and became famously known as colonial historiography. Colonial historiography denied the existence of the past significant for historical studies. Paradoxically, some of these writers worked in collaboration with African Muslim in interpreting manuscripts produced by Muslim writers along the coast and interior. The conclusive remarks on this study tell about how Islam was swahilized in East Africa. Thus, African Muslim writing tradition subscribes to Africans rather than foreign.

Keywords

Classical sources, History, Arab Sources, African Muslims Sources, Colonial art of writing, East Africa

References

• Abdulaziz, M. H. (1979). Myaka: 19th Century Swahili Popular Poetry. Nairobi: Kenya Literature Bureau.
• Adeoti, E. O. (2014). African History and the Tradition of Historical Writing; Journal of Social Sciences (COES&RJ-JSS), Vol. 3, No. 2, pp: 317-322.
• Aidarus, M. (2014). At A Glance: The Muslim Scholars of Riyadha Mosque in Lamu, , Mombasa. Unpublished.
• Allen,J.W.T.( 1949).Rhapta.Tanganyika Notes and Records,27:52-60.
• Arens,W.(1975).The Waswahili The Social History of An Ethnic Group..Africa 45 (4) : 426- 438.
• Alpers, A..E. (1969). “The Coast and The Development of Carvan Trade” In Kimambo. I & Temu. A eds. A History of Tanzania. Nairobi: East Africa Publishing House.
• Bang, A. K. (2000). Islamic Reform in East Africa, ca. 1870-1925 The Alawi Case. Paper Presented to the Workshop "Reasserting Connections, Commonalities, and Cosmopolitanism: The Western Indian Ocean Since 1800" .Yale University, (unpublished).
• Gimode, E.A. (1993). "Culture and History: A Religious Experience of the Avalogoli, AD 1850 - 1945." M.A. Thesis, Kenyatta University.
• Hegel, G. W. F. (1975). Lectures on the Philosophy of World History. Cambridge: CUP.
• Horton, M. 1984. The Early Settlement on the Northern Swahili Coast. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge.
• Hrbek, I. ( 1988). "Africa in the Context of world History" in M. EI Fasi and I. Hrbek eds. General History of Africa Vol.3 London: Heinemann.
• Ilife, J. (1979).Tanganyika Under Germany Administration, 1906-1912. London: Cambridge University Press.
• Ilife, J. (2007).The History of Continent.. London: Cambridge University Press.
• Ismail, O.S.A. (1968). "The Historiographic Tradition of African Islam" in T. 0. Ranger ed. Emerging Themes of African History. Nairobi: EAPH.
• Juma, A. M. (1987). Oman House Affinities on the East African Coast. Unpublished M.Phil. Dissertation, University of Cambridge.
• Juma, A. M. (1996a). Muslim Burial Customs on the East African Coast. Tor 28, 349–55.
• Juma, A. M. (1996b). The Swahili and the Mediterranean Worlds: Pottery of the Late Roman period from Zanzibar.Antiquity 70, 148–54.
• Juma, A. M (2004). Unguja Ukuu on Zanzibar: an archaeological study of early urbanism. Studies in Global Archaeology 3.Uppsala, African and Comparative Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History,Uppsala University.
• Kaniki, M. ed. (1980). Tanzania under Colonial Rule. London: Longman.
• Khamis, S. A. M. (1983).From Oral to Written Literature: A Tentative Study for The Development of Swahili poetry. Bulletin of The National Museum of Ethnology. Vol 18No 4:697-347.
• Kimambo, I. (1969). “Interior Before 1800” In Kimambo.I & Temu. A eds. A History of Tanzania. Nairobi: East Africa Publishing House.
• Lodhi, A.Y. (1994).Muslims in Est Africa. Nordic Journal of African Studies.3 (1).88-99.
• Macgaffey, W. (1970)."Concepts of Race in the Historiography of Nearest Africa'' in J. D. Fage and R.A Oliver eds., Papers in African Prehistory. London: CUP.
• Mdoshi, F. F. (1971).The Meaning of the Word ‘Mswahili’. Kiswahili: Jarida la Chuo Cha Uchunguzi Wa Kiswahili 41/1: 89 -93.
• Mazrui, .A. (1978). Political Values and the Educated Class in Africa. Nairobi: Heinemann.
• Munjee, A. (2001).The Crusades: Then and Now. New York: New Dialogue Press.
• Neugebauer, C. M. (1991). "The Racism of Hegel and Kant" in H. Odera-Oruka ed., Sage Philosophy: Indigenous Thinkers and Modern Debate on African Philosophy. Nairobi: Acts Press.
• Njozi . H.M. (2010).Muslims and the State in Tanzania. Dar es salaam: DUMT.
• Ochwada,H.(1993). An Apprisal of the Development of African Historiography. Unpublished M.A Thesis. Kenyatta University.
• Ogot, B. A.(1968). Zamani: A Survey of East African History. Nairobi: Longman.
• Ogot, B. A. ( 1993). "Muslim World Should also Pay Black Man's Enslavement'' in Sunday Nation. May 2,1993.
• Oliver, R.. (1968). "Western Historiography and Its Relevance to Africa" in T. 0. Ranger ed. Emerging Themes of African History. Nairobi: EAPH.
• Omulokoli,W.A.(2003).The Introduction and Beginnings of Christianity in East Africa.Africa Journal of Theology 22 (2).29-44. Westerlund, D. (1980).Ujamaa na Dini:A Study of Some Aspects of Society and Religion in Tanzania,1961- 1977. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wikseli Interntional.
• Raia, A (2018). Swahili palimpsests: the Muslim Stories Beneath Swahili Compositions. Swahili Forum 25: 16-41 special issue: Swahili Literature in Global Exchange: Translations, Translators and Trends, ed. by Uta Reuster-Jahn & Serena Talento
• Said, M. (2020).Rajabu Ibrahim Kirama Jemedari wa Vita Kuwa Jemedari Wa Uislamu.Dar es salaam :Readit Books Ltd.
• Ziegler. H. (2003).Traditions& Encounters. New York: McGraw hill.