In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

>> 99 3 The Muslim Community Muslims strove hard to keep their religion alive, in both the enslaved community and the larger Christian society. But to be a Muslim was more than just respecting the Five Pillars of Islam. It implied a distinctive lifestyle. Especially for West Africans, with their community-based traditions, Islam is a highly communal, public, and visible religion. It dictates and regulates the daily life, material culture, and demeanor of the faithful. To be a Muslim entails following strict dietary rules, behaving in a certain way, dressing in a particular fashion, and interacting with coreligionists and non-Muslims in the manner deemed appropriate . The Africans enslaved in the Americas were no exception; they formed close-knit communities and distinguished themselves in numerous ways, as they had in their homeland. As a minority, and with an ethnically mixed population on any given plantation, the possibility of the Muslims forming coherent communities 100 > 101 that the Muslims were “more united among themselves than the other nations.”5 The Muslims certainly sought out one another, though they still regrouped along ethnic lines—there were Hausa and Mandingo subcommunities, for example. But whatever their origin, they all shared a number of characteristics that made them stand out. The Muslim Dress Code in the Midst of Slavery The most visible distinction was the way in which they dressed. Slaves were poorly outfitted with British-made “Negro cloth”; “osnaburg,” another coarse fabric, manufactured in Germany; or, in the nineteenthcentury United States, homespun fabric. Whatever their country of servitude , they usually received, at the most, two changes of clothes a year or enough fabric that they could make their own garments. Provision of clothes or fabric was not an obligation, however, and numerous planters did not do so. People were thus compelled to work overtime, rent themselves out in their free time, or sell the products of their hunting or gardening to get money to clothe themselves and their children. Native-born Charles Ball has left a vivid description of how his companions looked: He [an old man] had no clothes on him except the remains of an old shirt, which hung in tatters from his neck and arms; the two young girls had nothing on them but petticoats made of coarse tow clothes, and the woman who was the mother of the children, wore the remains of a tow linen shirt, the front part of which was entirely gone, but a piece of old cotton bagging tied round her loins served the purposes of an apron. The younger of the 2 boys was entirely naked.6 A number of runaway notices mention that the fugitive had no clothes on but a rag around the waist. Such runaways were generally Africans who had just arrived and still wore the piece of cloth handed down to them when they disembarked. The lack of clothing could be even worse, as attested—among other such notices—by a plantation owner who 102 > 103 long and large pants for men are worn with a long-sleeved shirt and are completed by a boubou, a large robe that falls to the ankles. A headcover , which can be a turban, skullcap, or fez, is de rigueur for older men and religious leaders. Women wear a wraparound skirt down to the ankles and the same boubou as the men wear—with a different collar —and wrap their heads in a piece of cloth and, when praying, wear a veil covering part of their hair but leaving their face completely visible. Whether the clothing is for men or for women, therefore, large quantities of cotton fabric have always been used among Muslims in Africa, as emphasized by historian Charles Monteil: “Islam and cotton are always side by side because Islamic morals contain an exterior decency.”9 The particular garments also serve the function of distinguishing the Muslims from the non-Muslims. Very aware of the visual impact that the modestly draped Muslims had on the rest of the population, the Hausa ruler Nafata, who felt threatened by their influence, forbade the Muslims to wear turbans and veils in 1794. As scholar Mervyn Hiskett stated, “It is by these articles of dress that Muslim men and women can be identified —a kind of uniform in fact. The Muslims gained many of their converts through example . . . and by depriving them of this distinctive dress Nafata sought to diminish the visual impact they made upon his subjects.”10 Since their physical appearance was part of...

Share