“Prince Among Slaves” or just another “Exceptional Negro”

PRINCE AMONG SLAVES
Monday, February 4, 2008, 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET
This special tells the forgotten true story of an African prince who was enslaved in Mississippi for 40 years before finally achieving freedom and becoming one of the most famous men in America. Mos Defnarrates. In HD where available.

[I saw a preview of this documentary last year at the Fellowship Chapel Church 7707 W. Outer Dr., Detroit, Mi 48235on Thursday, October 18, 2007 – 7:00 – 9:00 PM and I wrote my response on November 1, 2007.  I plan to revisit this review once the PBS has it airing on February 4, InshaAllah]

“Prince Among Slaves” or just another “Exceptional Negro” A Movie or implications for 21st Century Blackamerican Muslim Leadership 

Two weeks ago I attended a  the movie “Prince Among Slaves” (the story of Abdul Rahman ibn Ibrahim) at a special preview, at a local church here in Detroit. As I had already obtained the book of the same title by Terry Alford years prior I was very interested to see how the story would be handled. 
 
Right at the onset I was disappointed, as true to form for “antebellum/slaving era movies” rather than expanding on scenes depicting the education process in West Africa(thus foreshadowing why Abdul Rahman carried himself in a dignified manner) we are once again treated to images of our protagonist half naked and being drag off and scenes from the vantage point of the from the bottom of slave ships.  As if this hasn’t been elaborated enough on by movies from “Roots” to “Armistead” and all in between. 
 
I think it’s safe to say everyone knows that many ancestors of Blackamericans were kidnapped and brought here by slavers and their collaborators.   What is often missing from the discourse is that there were sophisticated levels of native Muslim pedagogy ( i.e. focusing on memorization) in West Africain which both religious and secular sciences were imbued with Islamic values and driven by an Islamic impetus.  So rather than wasting screen time trying to provoke sympathy by detailing and explaining Abdul Rahman’s acts of submission such as placing the slavers wife’s foot on his neck, the audience would have been better served by being provided with more information on the activities of Islamic institutions in Pre-African Holocaust Africa.
 
Another issue I had with the movie was the benevolent portrayal of the slavers and US officials.  Their actions were nothing more than altruistic facades masking actions based purely upon self interest.  Why is that whenever Blacks are depicted in movies as doing anything remotely heroic someone European-American must have provided indispensable assistance? 
 
An example of their naked self-interest is that in Alford’s book he states that the slaver Foster stipulated that Abdul-Rahman should enjoy liberty only in Africaand NOT in the US …. as possession of it here … would have “an improper influence” over his children remaining as slaves (pg 102).  Thus necessitating the creation an image of Abdul-Rahman as being “exceptional” “unique” and “intelligent”. Does this mean that his children and grandchildren were less so, since they were kept in slavery?
 
Abdul-Rahman’s “helpers” took great pains to depict him as “exceptional” and “Moorish” rather than simply a Black Muslim, however when Abdul-Rahman’s letter reaches the Sultan of MoroccoAbdul-Rahman, the Sultan acted to have him freed (for which he was willing to pay) and the only thing he considered was that Abdul-Rahman was a Muslim (pg. 100)  So pretending to be “Moorish” served no benefit for Abdul-Rahman but for the US it was a way to curry favor with the Sultan in order to free European Christians who had been captured and brought to Morocco.
 
Why does the slaver and the government go through great pains to depict him as being exceptional? 
 
This brings me to the subject of my email which is still as relevant to day as it was nearly two hundred years ago, and that is the dilemma of balancing and utilizing one’s talents (including celebrity) to the best interest of your people thus becoming a “Prince among them” vs using utilizing one’s talents (including celebrity) to focus on one’s self thereby being just another “Exceptional Negro” 
  
Oh yeah before I continue allow me to say that I do think the movie is worth seeing if only for the contextualizing comments of the contributors, as a whole were informative.

For centuries slavers, imperialist and tyrants have understood that one sure way to keep a people in perpetual bondage is to either eliminate, or otherwise suppress effective leadership and group cohesion. 
 
So when potential leaders begin to appear they are subjected to various tactics geared to cause them to acquiesce.  As soon as their talent intelligence or charisma becomes apparent they are made to feel “exceptional”,”special” or “different”, then they are either drawn away or forcibly removed in order to isolate them from the community.  It doesn’t matter if he a doctor or an athlete, he will be afforded some semblance of acceptability as long he doesn’t attempt use his talent or celebrity to address the root cause of the social ills of his people.  If however he chooses to uncompromisingly address the systemic ills he will marginalized and if that doesn’t work he will be eliminated. 
 
Look at Craig Hodges (Craig who? is right, he’s only the best spot shooter in the history of the NBA) who at the height of his career was blacklisted made a pariah because he dared speak out for his people and what support did he receive from his then teammate the great MJ or others in the league for that matter (NaDah!) not one of them made a public statement. 
 
Had Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (a true “Prince among the slaves of Allah”) used his sharp mental acuity, charisma and competence with the spoken word to further his career, rather than speak out against the oppression of his people and to seek self-determination for his people I scarcely doubt he would held captive in ADX Florence Supermax (Allahu Alim).
 
Then when in addition to the repression from the “powers that be”, you have those from amongst our own people who are envious and who try to stymy the the youth for fear of loss of position, this only compounds the reluctance to pursue preparations that lead to leadership. 
 
This is why many of our best and brightest are opting to become an “Exceptional Negro” who obtains freedom for himself rather than enduring the hardships of being a “Prince Among Slaves”.  Now some may think I’m a militant, but I’m a Muslim attempting to speak the truth (inshaAllah) at least how I view it from my vantage point.
 
So those who are planning to attend the MANA (of which Imam Jamil was the founding Amir) conference in Phillythis weekend [this referes to the weekend on Nov. 4 2007] keep in mind this is to be a “working conference” were we are tasked to seek real solutions for real issues. 
 
 
(…. to be continued)