EPISODE · Mar 19, 2026 · 12 MIN
Imani ya Afrika - Episode 21 - The African Roots of Islam in America
from Radio Islam · host Radio Islam
Long before the rise of modern movements such as the so-called Nation of Islam or figures like Malcolm X, the story of Islam in the Americas had already begun centuries earlier. In this episode we explore the deeper African roots of that history—from the intriguing account of Mansa Musa’s brother, Abu Bakr II, who is said to have launched a fleet across the Atlantic in the early 1300s, to the undeniable reality that countless West African Muslims were later carried to the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade. Among those torn from their homes were scholars, nobles and ordinary believers who carried their faith across the ocean even in chains. Although the brutal system of slavery tried to erase their identities, traces of this legacy endured and would eventually re-emerge generations later in the revival of Islam among African-Americans. It is a powerful reminder that the history of Islam in Africa did not only shape the continent itself—it also, through the complex currents of history, became one of the pathways through which Islam took root in the Americas.
What this episode covers
Long before the rise of modern movements such as the so-called Nation of Islam or figures like Malcolm X, the story of Islam in the Americas had already begun centuries earlier. In this episode we explore the deeper African roots of that history—from the intriguing account of Mansa Musa’s brother, Abu Bakr II, who is said to have launched a fleet across the Atlantic in the early 1300s, to the undeniable reality that countless West African Muslims were later carried to the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade. Among those torn from their homes were scholars, nobles and ordinary believers who carried their faith across the ocean even in chains. Although the brutal system of slavery tried to erase their identities, traces of this legacy endured and would eventually re-emerge generations later in the revival of Islam among African-Americans. It is a powerful reminder that the history of Islam in Africa did not only shape the continent itself—it also, through the complex currents of history, became one of the pathways through which Islam took root in the Americas.
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Imani ya Afrika - Episode 21 - The African Roots of Islam in America
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