First published in The New Arab, 07 September, 2022 Archiving the past helps ensure the knowledge and practices of generations gone by are not forgotten. A Minnesotan museum has contributed to the preservation of East African history by tracking down rare Islamic and Christian manuscripts. Hundreds of rare manuscripts from…

On Sunday 7 August, 40-year-old Francia Elena Márquez made history in Latin America when she was sworn in as Colombia’s first Black woman vice president, which has always been dominated by white male elites. She was elected for the position in June 2022, alongside former guerrilla Gustavo Petro, Márquez who…

Omar ibn Said wrote an Arabic autobiography during his enslavement in the US that is the inspiration for a new production Omar Ibn Said was one of many well-educated West Africans who were taken to the Americas as slaves (Spoleto Festival USA) By Adama J Munu The year is 1807…

Adama Munu 22 February 2022 Contrary to how the Arab world is often perceived, the region is awash with racial, ethnic, religious diversity. One especially prominent group are Black Arabs, who have been a cultural and political force throughout the Arab world’s history. The African diaspora is often depicted as…

Image via Sasha Kim / Pexels From snoods to scarves, head coverings might be in vogue, but what does that mean for the Muslim women continuously targeted for doing the exact same thing? Adama Juldeh Munu 11 FEB 2022 I cannot imagine that I am the only Muslim woman who is exhausted by the barrage of anti-Muslim hatred that we have seen in the past few days, particularly on the issue of the hijab. From the protests following a hijab…

FEBRUARY 24, 2022 By Adama Juldeh Munu “Can Muslim women be down with hip-hop?” is a question Anaya Murray asks in her 2008 paper of the same title. If you have ever heard of Muslim hip-hop artists Poetic Pilgrimage, Miss Undastood, Aint Afraid and Boshia Rae-Jean you might ask the…

In the wake of their latest exhibition, “Hasteem: We Are Here”, AMAKA speaks to the Collective for Black Iranians on how their work unearths and celebrates their marginalised histories and cultures. Photo courtesy of Collective for Black Iranians.The exact number of Black Iranians is unknown. Their ancestry is linked to either the Trans-Saharan slave trade, the 19th century Pearl Diving trade, or more recent economic migration from African countries. However, race and ethnicity are not always discussed within the Iranian community…

Synopsis: Journalist Adama Juldeh Munu reflects on how Sierra Leone’s national football team brought the country together during its comeback tournament, and what it will take to bolster the sport in the country. The African Cup of Nation’s tournament 2021 ended with Senegal winning its first title in the competition…

From here to Timbuktu An old Sudanese proverb states that “Salt comes from the north, gold from the south and silver from the land of the Whites, but the Word of God, the famous things, histories and fairy tales, we only find them in Timbuktu.”* Timbuktu has been shrouded in…