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BLACK IRAQIS???!!!

(This is based upon a report by Corey Flintoff of National Public Radio.)

Who knew that one of the positive aspects of Dubya’s incursion into Iraq’s “White-man’s business” was to launch a liberation movement for Iraq’s depressed Black minority? The telling of this seems to echo the experience of Africans on the American continent, but apart from the fact that the number of Africans in America is considerably much larger, they are novices when it comes to long-time suffering under the lash of slavery and subsequent societal marginalization.

Five hundred years before the advent of Columbus, natives from the eastern part of the African continent began showing up in the southern part of Iraq. Either they were sailors or were brought in as slaves. They were (and still are) concentrated in Basra. (For the purposes of current reference, the southern sector assigned to the British during the Iraq war.) The Africans mainly were utilized in the plantations surrounding Basra. Around the middle of the 9th century, they rose up in rebellion, and afterwards ruled Basra for about fifteen years. In the counter-rebellion, many of them were slaughtered or sold off to other tribes.

Today, Iraq’s Blacks number around 2,000,000. Because of a social proscription against miscegenation, their population has been self-sustaining. Although slavery in Iraq supposedly was abolished in the 19th century, as late as the 1950s Blacks still were being traded off as chattel. They complain that still they are considered as slaves—and even are referred to by the word that means “slave.” Blacks are quite valued as wedding musicians and entertainers, but are not welcome in the political, commercial and educational facets of Iraqi life. The Africans say they are considered incapable of making decisions or governing their own lives. Their ranks are riddled with poverty and they suffer a 95% illiteracy rate.

In a surprising development, currently there are three Blacks running for political office. They want recognition as a minority, such as the Christians enjoy. In this, they are supported by elements of the Sunni religion and a group called, “The Free Iraqi Movement.”

Iraqi law requires that a fourth of elected officials should be women. Tenuously, women now are running for office. Since there is great danger to them and their families in so doing, they are careful about using images in campaign literature. Before and during the Saddam Hussein regime, Iraqi women were more integrated into public life than other Arab or Muslim countries. As a result, their current bid for elective office is not that much of a stretch. However, for Iraqi Blacks to see political office is truly an amazing development. They are especially buoyed by the election of Barack Obama.

Sometimes, the results of the devil’s efforts exceed that of his intent.