Faculty And Staff, In The News - Friday, April 13, 2012 2:18 pm

Ali essay on Islam and the African diaspora featured in Conversations magazine

UNCG historian Omar H. Ali published an article “The Mu’azzin’s Song: Islam and the African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean” appearing in the North Carolina Humanities Council magazine Conversations (Winter/Spring 2012). In the article, Dr. Ali, who serves as a Road Scholar for the North Carolina Humanities Council, explores the intersection of Islam and the African Diaspora, looking at the lesser known migratory trajectory of Africans and their descendents: the Indian Ocean world. He offers a personal and scholarly account, drawing on the varied renditions of the azzan (the Muslim call to prayer) as a metaphor for what he calls “the Africanizing” of the Indian Ocean world.

The call to prayer, which is heard across the Muslim world, like Islam itself, is interpreted and experienced in a range of ways. Ali, who gives public lectures on “The Many Faces of Islam,” and teaches a course at UNCG entitled “Islam, Africa, and the Diaspora,” concludes: “For me, the azzan, like the rising sun, remains an immeasurable source of comfort — an invitation into the seamlessness of history, where the past and present are inseperable, an audible reminder of my connection to all of life, and all of what we create together.”