Black Pearls Resources

This resource list is only the beginning. It is part of an expansive and ongoing dialogue with our readers, partners, and internet friends. If you have any questions or additions we invite your input so please email desk@levantx.com. 

Series of Black Descended people in the Middle East/ SWANA 

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t2Vl0yoOTRrXWbJpaW-KYeRAwtMtap4b/view

• https://www.mela.us/2020/09/01/mela-social-justice-lecture-series-stories-and-silences-research-on-race-in-the-middle-east/

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YItbkQ_l5IM

• https://mizna.org/mizna-news/webinar-series-anti-black-racism-in-swana-diaspora/

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U-YqLF_slM&list=PLCU27D1VyU-ibnr32AqnF78Hrye1urr2R

• Anti-Blackness in the WANA region and its diaspora

• Racialization & Racism in the Middle East: Historical Perspectives

• Arabs for Black Power: A Reading List for Non-Black Arab Allies (Dardishi)

• An essential reading list on Black Muslim history (The New Arab)

United Arab Emirates

• The multiple roots of Emiratiness: the cosmopolitan history of Emirati society

Egypt

• Report on racial discrmintation in Egypt, 2018 (in Arabic)

• When they call you 'Negro': Egypt’s Sudanese are prisoners of racism

Sudan

• Dr. Eve M. Troutt Powell- “Posing Slaves for the Camera: Race and Memory in Khartoum, 1882

• Do Black lives matter in Sudan?

Tunisia

• M'nemty 

• Emergence of the Black Youth Movement against racism in Tunisia after the Revolution of 14 January 2011

• Ending the legacy of slavery in Tunisia

• Discrimination against Black Tunisians (In Arabic)

Iraq 

• https://minorityrights.org/minorities/black-iraqis/

• https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/in-black-lives-matter-black-iraqis-see-reflection-of-their-own-struggle-38255

• Book of the Glory of the Black Race by Al-Jahiz, a famous Afro-Iraqi scholar.

Lebanon 

• Coffee With Lola (Levantx)

• In black and white? A look at race thinking, racialisation and racism in contemporary Lebanon

• On Mixed Identities, Racism, and Activism in Lebanon; A Discussion with Nisreen Kaj

Syria 

• https://www.meforum.org/6500/black-syrians-the-case-of-the-yarmouk-basin

The Balkans 

• Mapping Blackness in the Former Yugoslavia 

• African Families in Montenegro 

Iran 

• Collective for Black Iranians

• Panel Discussion: Black and Afro-Iranians in Iranian Cultural Imaginary

• "Pondering Anti-Blackness in the Iranian Context: From Enslavement to Present" Amy Tahani-Bidmeshki

• Dingomaro 

• The Myths of Haji Firuz: The Racist Contours of the Iranian Minstrel

• Dr Beeta Baghoolizadeh’s Thesis 

Turkey

• Scholar & Professor George Junne [afikra Conversations] George Junne is a scholar and an associate professor in the Africana studies department at the University of Northern Colorado and the author of "The Black Eunuchs of the Ottoman Empire: Networks of Power in the Courts of the Sultan", 2016.

• Ottoman History Podcast - The Sultan's Eunuch | Jane Hathaway

• Ottoman History Podcast - African Diaspora in Ottoman Izmir

• The Afro-Turk Facebook Page

South Asia

• The Black Indian Ocean reading list

• The Black Indian Ocean Series hosted by Hiba Ali. This ongoing series can be found on substack

• Crocodile Festival/Mangal Pir

•  Malik Ambar

Armenia 

• Writing Race: An Armenian-American and African-American History

The Soviet Union And Russia 

• Black Lives in the Soviet Union and Post-Soviet Russia

Abkhazia 

• https://abkhazworld.com/aw/blogs/1754-afro-abkhazians

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HTpMAvGafU

• https://twitter.com/CaucasusWorld/status/1268810972074041347

Activists Social Media Accounts 

• Collective for Black Iranians 

• The Black Arabs Collective

• The Black Saudi

• Curl Heritage 

• B7ali B7alek

• Mashi 3azziya

• The Mazeej Project

• MuslimARC

• Black Morocans 

• Carene Rose 

Twitter threads

• Zavier Wingham  https://twitter.com/zwingham/status/1303346717715247109

• Michael Talbot  https://twitter.com/michaeltalbotuk/status/1269904603866415105

• Borzou Daragahi https://twitter.com/borzou/status/1272151449812832256?lang=en

• Abz Captures: Videos of racism towards Black people in Arabic films/tv shows https://twitter.com/AbzCaptures/status/1123037966019039232?s=20

Beyond Bilal 

Mustafa Briggs is a scholar, speaker and all around legend who is expanding the history of Black descended people in Early Islam, west Africa and beyond. You can follow him on social media but the below link is a great introduction to important figures. 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=351216468969140

Academia

A full bibliography can be provided by the Black Pearls team for themes of Blackness, diaspora, slavery and race in the Middle East and North Africa (especially for Ottoman and Qajar histories). However here is a brief list of scholars working in the region, their work is accessible through academia.org. 

• Chouki El Hamel- author of Black Morocco

• Razan Idriss - Black Figures in Arabic literature

• Ezgi Cakmak - Africans In Ottoman Empire

• Anthony Lee- African slavery in southern Iran

• Rachael Schine - Africa figure is Sita 

• Zavier Wingham - PhD student of Aficans in Ottoman Empire

• Taylor M Moore- objects and people of the occult in Sudan and Egypt. 

• Tiffany Bradley - Visual Culture of the Middle East. 

• Eve Troutt Powell - Histories of slavery and Africans in Egypt and the wider Middle East

• Ehud Toledano -Corpus of work of African in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. 

• Hakan Erdem- General studies on slavery in the Ottoman empire. 

Music 

• Black Pearls Spotify playlist

• Black Indian Ocean playlist

• AfroArabs playlist