Blog December 3, 2011
Scholar: Chouki El Hamel
Dr. Chouki El Hamel's interest has focused on the spread and the growth of Islamic culture and the evolution of Islamic institutions in Africa. His research is evidenced in his published articles and a book concerning intellectual life in pre-colonial Islamic West Africa. He is currently finishing his book entitled The Internal African Diaspora: "Race/Color" and Gender in Moroccan Slavery. The culture of silence – a refusal to engage in discussions about slavery and racial attitudes – is what interests him here. His objective is to challenge the conventional reading on the integration of the Black West Africans in North African societies. It is an attempt to deconstruct the familiar concepts by focusing on the agency of the enslaved people and investigating the subaltern relationship to the ruling institutions, power, race and gender politics.
