Thread by @michaelharriot

Remember when we were the Taliban?

A thread

Remember when we wanted to spread Christianity to ppl who "live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God, and may in time bring the Infidels and Savages, living in those parts, to human Civility, and to a settled and quiet Government"?

Oh, wait... That was the First Charter of the Virginia Company of London who built...*checks notes*...Jamestown
About 75-80% of the Black people who fought in the US jihad we called the American Revolution fought AGAINST the USA

At least England had the decency to evacuate them.

Some moved to an English Caribbean island, which is why the Bahamas is so Black. They moved some to Nova Scotia along with some Jamaican enslaved people, but it was too damn cold. So they moved BACK to Africa, which Sierra Leoneans speak a mix of patois & English

They were refugees from the American Taliban

Or one time, religious zealots wanted to start their own country called the Confederate States of America, based on what their God told them to do.

Or this one time, this general named Bobby Lee thought slavery was legal. But instead of trying to stop it, he went to war to continue it because it was apparently what God wanted.

During the Not-So-Civil War, so many enslaved people escaped that they had to set up refugee camps. But the places weren't called "refugee camps" because self-emancipated Black people were technically the property of the Union's enemy of war.

They were called "Contraband camps"

Or when the US government signed treaties with the First Nations but Andrew Jackson was like: "Fuck that, I want their land!"

But the Supreme Court was like: "But you can't, they have treaties!"

And Andrew Jackson was like: "But I can. I have an army & Jesus on my side"

And white people were like: "Wait... did you say free land? God sent us over here to take their homeland!"

Who helped them evacuate?

But of course, the Trail of Tears & Indian Removal Act had nothing to do with religion! It had a whole different name! What was it called, again?

Or this one time, when the Governor of Alabama explained that he was fighting to save his people? OK, it wasn't actually a war. They just bombed churches, murdered children and sponsored terrorism.

But it wasn't about religion, right?

But this goes back to way before now. Moors and Christians had been fighting over the Iberian peninsula since before "Before." When Muslims ruled, they had Christian slaves. When Christians ruled, they had Muslim slaves. Greeks had slaves. Romans had them too.

Africans went to war with neighboring empires and kept prisoners of war. It happened throughout history.

But in 1441, Nuno Tristão and Antão Gonçalves were out hunting seals for Henry the Navigator and captured 10 Africans. Nuno went home but Antão stayed out exploring

When Antao came back, he asked his homey about his loot for the seal skins and Nuno gave him his split. "You got all this for some seal skins?" Antao asked. But Nuno told him that most of the money came from the people they stole. There was only one left unsold.

It turned out, the one dude left was named Adahu, who was an African noble. In 1442 they took Adahu BACK to Africa and traded him for some gold dust, some ostrich eggs and 10 more enslaved people. Now they were entrepreneurs.

There was just one problem:

They hadn't gotten permission from the church. But Henry had an idea. He knew the Church was against slavery But he also knew that the church needed money. SO he proposed a compromise:

If he BAPTIZED the slaves, he could say that he was converting them, and not enslaving them.

It worked

The pope essentially GAVE Africa to Portugal. By 1446, more than 50 Portuguese ships had filed applications for people-stealing licenses. In 1455, Pope Nicholas V granted Henry a monopoly on the African human market—as long as they baptized their cargo.

They set up the Casa de Guine' what was basically a money laundering scheme. They got 20% of everything coming out of Africa. The church got a cut of that. For the next 50 years, the Casa da Guiné would import around 1,000 Africans per year to sell to willing slavemakers

That doesn't seem like a lot because the Portuguese initially had to raid villages to capture slaves. The Africans were willing to trade their Arabic and Jewish prisoners of war, but the Portuguese didn't want them.

So the Portuguese set up trading posts.

And, despite your Republican friends telling you that "Africans sold other Africans," that's not really how it the slave trade started.

The Portuguese would find warring tribes or groups and supply one side with weapons in exchange the victors' POWs.

The Africans who allied with the Portuguese, and later the Europeans, didn't even have a concept of chattel slavery. Before the white people showed up, the POWs would often serve a period of servitude & be absorbed into society

But once the Africans allied with the Portuguese, how would they maintain control of the new territory without the guns and military protection of the colonizers?

So they had to keep fighting to supply the Portuguese with humans. And most of the time, it wasn't for money.

Basically, the Africans were stuck. If they didn't produce POWs, the white men with the guns would arm their enemies. That's how colonialism works.

When the Portuguese left, ALL the white countries moved in to capitalize of the vacuum of power.

That's why Brazil has the largest Black population outside of Africa. That's why they speak Portuguese.

But what does this have to do with the Taliban? What does this have to do with religion? What does this even have to do with why we invaded Afghanistan?

Remember Adahu?

When Antao Gonsalves made that first trade, the Africans allowed him to pick 10 slaves out of about 100 captives, including Arabs, Jews, & white POWs.
But those people had a God, so they couldn't be baptized. The Africans were considered "heathens" or "pagans."

Antao chose those "slaves" based on a policy that had never really existed in human history. There was no religious rivalry, inherited status or territorial conflict.

To make sure he was doing what God wanted, Antao erred on the side of caution.

It's how colonialism works. It's why we convince ourselves that our God is superior. It's why we think we could invade Afghanistan and "save" them from their God.
And it's why Antao Gonsalves made the choice that reverberated through history.

He chose the Black ones.