Why a focus on biography can be misleading
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Why is an exclusive focus on biography misleading, and what other forms of history-writing need to supplement it?
As GhaneaBassiri explains, focusing exclusively on biographies can only provide a small part of a very complex picture. For one, these biographies cannot be generalized. Scholars estimate that tens of thousands of African Muslims lived in colonial and Antebellum America. The few biographies that exist can only allow us to get a glimpse into what life was like for some people, not the average person. It is also important to consider whose stories survive as much as whose stories do not. These biographies are of Muslims who, “as a result of a combination of serendipity and their own extraordinary backgrounds, were sufficiently prominent to be memorialized in white America” (GhaneaBassiri 16). For example, Omar Ibn Said remains an exceptional case because of his ability to read and write, even if–to his own description–he is not proficient (Said 9). He describes himself as being taken in by the Owens, who were a “good” family that provided for him and did not make him do hard labour (Said 12). One could imagine that not all enslaved people were "owned" by white people as forgiving or shared the educational background he had from Futa Toro. His experiences, as well as his feelings, writing style, and perspectives, cannot be applied to other enslaved African Muslims without a significant number of other biographies to compare it to.
GhaneaBassiri suggests that it is beneficial to supplement these biographies with other sources. Sources that identify enslaved people by name or nationality, like runaway advertisements and ledgers from the United States, combined with sources from the places in Africa where enslaved people were taken, can help build larger contexts. For instance, Michael Gomez’s historical work shows that the wars in West Africa between Muslim reformers and the non-Muslims who fought back explain some patterns of who was sold into slavery from these regions. Between the 1760s and the 1780s, Kundi Burama of Wassaulu invaded the community of the Muslim faithful. According to Gomez, most African Muslims taken to the United States around this time and the early nineteenth century ended up there because of these wars (GhaneaBassiri 18).
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Clear @saarah_jabar has read GhaneaBassiri well!