How Did Islam Influence Hip Hop

Dr. Amer Ahmed’s discussion educated me about the history of Islam and how it has influenced hip-hop throughout the years. Islam was prevalent in Africa through trade prior to the start of the transatlantic slave trade in the 15th century. Arabs migrated to North Africa, specifically Somalia and Ethiopia, seeking refuge, and along the way, began trading and sharing ideas with the natives. Over the next century, 44.7 percent of Muslims ruled Africa, and Islam began to spread into western parts of Africa. When slaves were brought to America from West Africa, the practice of Islam was carried on through oral tradition. Nevertheless, slaves were forced by their owners to practice Christianity as a means to exemplify civilization. Churches

In the early 18th century, a group of Muslim slaves killed their owners and ran a short-lived Muslim nation. By the end of the 18th century, pan-Africanism - the belief that all African descendants who have been colonized should be united and part of a collective resistance to oppression and a collective identity - arose throughout slave quarters across the South. Edward Wilmot Blyden, the creator of pan-Africanism, travelled to Liberia where he challenged the disagreements about black inferiority that were increasingly popular in Europe and North America during this period. Between 1856 and 1887, Blyden wrote four books surrounding the ideas of pan-Africanism including, A Voice From Bleeding Africa, A Vindication of the African Race, Africa for the Africans, and Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican political leader and journalist, became a strong proponent in the pan-Africanism movement. In 1938, Garvey composed a book that combined his ideas and the ideas of Blyden and eventually created an organization based on his book called the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). In the early 1900s, a group of free black men sailed to Liberia to educate “uncivilized muslims” on the importance