Revolutionizing Literacy: The Life of Omar ibn Said, Written by Himself

Abstract

The Library of Congress has acquired the Omar ibn Said Collection, including an exceptional artifact, the autobiography of Omar ibn Said, written in ancient Arabic by an African enslaved man. In this article, I analytically examine the role of literacy in Omar ibn Said's life as informed by African cultures, ethnicities, histories, languages, and literacies in the Senegambia region, and the history of Black literacy access in the United States. In Arabic, Omar ibn Said stealthily applied sophisticated literacy skills to contest living under anti-Black racism and chattel enslavement through his rhetorical and strategic use of Qur’anic surahs and verses. Early translations and interpretations of his autobiography, filtered through Eurocentrism and White supremacy, failed to discern Omar ibn Said's proclamation of his humanity and bold condemnation of chattel enslavement. Africanist, Islamist, and Muslim scholars valorize his resilience as an African Muslim man who remained faithful to Islam under anti-Black racism, the horrors of chattel enslavement, and attempts at Christian conversion. They also provide knowledge about centuries of literacy among people of African descent; expose the pervasiveness of White supremacy; and unveil the roots of deliberate anti-Black literacy laws, policies, and practices, historically and contemporaneously. Omar ibn Said's autobiography dismantles prevailing assumptions about people of African descent as sub-human, without culture, history, intellect, language, or literacy. To create an equitable and ethical approach to literacy: We must transcend the past and present, respect humanity, acknowledge literacy as a global construct, understand literacy as a human right, cultivate a critical consciousness, and require authenticated knowledge.

Review and Scholarly Syntheses as Anti-Racist Action

“…This post-White oriented (defined below) integrative review of racial literacies scholarship occurred amid ongoing human race practices and included race-critical insights, such asNeither identities nor forms of labor exempt us from the work of developing racial literacies (defined below).Resisting the Black–White binary.Addressing racially White folks without preoccupation with White folks.Youth are past, present, and future participants in ongoing race practices (adult to youth is often assumed; there is also youth to adult & youth to youth).Anyone can be anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, anti-Brown, and so on.Anyone can be post-White (which is never anti-White) and anyone can practice a transcendent approach to literacy (Croom, 2016, 2020a; Willis, 2022). Racial literacies for all.By accounting for these contextualizing elements—ongoing race practices and race-critical insights such as those above—the author and the audiences of this review are better equipped to understand and use racial literacies scholarship in the 21st century.…”

“…Anyone can be post-White (which is never anti-White) and anyone can practice a transcendent approach to literacy (Croom, 2016, 2020a; Willis, 2022).…”

“…The excluding criteria were: presuming or perpetuating race according to the phenotype fallacy; using racial literacy in ways that presume or perpetuate deficiency philosophy (Hoover, 1990), or autonomous views of literacy. The including criteria were: demystifying race as consequential, sociopractical occurrence; using racial literacy in ways that presume or perpetuate vindicationist philosophy (Hoover, 1990) and using a transcendent approach to meaning with unwritten and written tools (Croom, 2020b; Croom et al, 2020; Harris, 1988; Stepto, 1979; Willis, 2022).…”

“…Thereby, the term post-White orientation was focused on use within the field of literacy. In other words, the post-White orientation as applied in the field of literacy is a transcendent approach to meaning with unwritten and written tools (Willis, 2022). Therefore, the post-White orientation can be used either within or beyond the field of literacy as defined:By post-White orientation, I mean a racial understanding and practice characterized by (a) unequivocal regard for “non-White” humanity, particularly “Black” humanity; (b) demotion of “White” standing (i.e., position, status); (c) rejection of post-racial notions; (d) non-hierarchical racialization; and (e) anticipation of a post-White sociopolitical norm.…”

Reimagining LRA in the Spirit of a Transcendent Approach to Literacy

“…I ask that we remember that children-so often inadvertently positioned as collections of test scores or other data points-are full, powerful, and brilliant people in this moment and not only in the future. Indeed, we must demand that transcendent (Willis, 2023) and humanizing approaches (Paris, 2011) to research and teaching extend to work with our youngest learners, creating classrooms in which, from their earliest experiences with literacy, they are seen and positioned as full people whose identities, families, ancestries, histories, dreams, and desires are reflected. Thank you to Dr. Willis for your powerful talk and encouraging this conversation.…”