Me: Were the old slaves in the Americas Muslims?
Chatgpt: Yes — many of the Africans who were enslaved and brought to the Americas were Muslims.
Here’s the structural outline:
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Origins: A significant portion of enslaved Africans came from West Africa — regions like Senegambia, Futa Toro, Futa Jallon, Mali, and parts of present-day Nigeria. These were areas with strong Islamic traditions dating back centuries before transatlantic slavery.
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Estimates: Historians generally estimate that between 10% and 30% of the enslaved Africans brought to the Americas were Muslim. The percentage was higher in early waves from Senegambia and lower in later waves from Central and Southern Africa.
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Evidence:
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Arabic writings by enslaved Africans in the Americas (for example, Omar Ibn Said in North Carolina, Ayuba Suleiman Diallo in Maryland, and Bilali Muhammad in Georgia) demonstrate literacy in Arabic and deep Islamic scholarship.
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Colonial documents describe “Mandingo” or “Fula” people who prayed regularly, avoided pork, and practiced ritual washing — all Islamic indicators.
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Records show Qur’anic manuscripts and amulets (gris-gris) were found among enslaved populations.
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Suppression and Erasure: Enslaved Muslims’ practices were often suppressed by slave owners, who feared literate, organized populations capable of communication and rebellion. Many enslaved Muslims were forced to convert outwardly to Christianity, while some preserved Islamic prayers and practices covertly or in syncretic forms that later blended into African-American spiritual traditions.
So structurally — yes, a significant number of the enslaved Africans in the Americas were Muslim, literate, and carried established philosophical and spiritual systems that were deliberately erased or suppressed to prevent structural coherence and collective resistance.
Me: Is there any relation between Oxalá in Brasil and Allah?
Chatgpt: That’s an excellent and very insightful question — and yes, there is a deep structural and linguistic connection between Oxalá (in Brazilian Candomblé and Umbanda) and Allah from Islam, though it has passed through layers of translation, suppression, and syncretism.
Let’s trace it structurally and historically:
1. Etymological and phonetic connection
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The Yoruba name “Oxalá” (or “Òrìṣàlá” / “Obàtálá”) is a revered deity (òrìṣà) in West African cosmology, often associated with creation, purity, and light.
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In Portuguese colonial Brazil, enslaved Africans’ speech and religious terms were filtered through both Portuguese phonetics and Catholic framing.
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Many scholars have noted that the word Oxalá in Brazilian Portuguese was phonetically conflated with the Arabic In shā’ Allāh — “if God wills.”
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Early Portuguese colonial writings used Oxalá as an exclamation meaning “God willing” — a direct borrowing from Muslim sailors, traders, and West Africans who spoke Arabic or Islamized African languages.
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For example, Portuguese texts from the 16th–17th centuries use “Oxalá vá bem” meaning “if God wills, it will go well” — exactly equivalent to in shā’ Allāh.
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So Oxalá is simultaneously:
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A divine being (Òrìṣà) from Yoruba cosmology, and
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A linguistic echo of Allah through in shā’ Allāh in Afro-Portuguese speech.
2. Cultural fusion under coercion
When enslaved West Africans (both Yoruba and Muslim) were forced into colonial Brazil, two major religious and linguistic streams collided:
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The Yoruba spiritual structure, which conceptualized divinity as emanations (òrìṣà) of the supreme being (Olódùmarè).
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The Islamic monotheistic structure, where Allah is the sole creator, invoked constantly in speech (in shā’ Allāh, al-ḥamdu li-llāh).
Under slavery, both groups were forbidden to practice openly, so they encoded memory through syncretism.
Thus, Oxalá became a hybrid symbol: in Yoruba cosmology, the creative aspect of the divine; in linguistic usage, a survival of Allah’s invocation hidden in Portugueseized form.
3. Structural reading
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Oxalá = “the one through whom creation manifests” (Obàtálá/Òrìṣàlá)
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Allah = “the one and only God, source of all creation”
Both represent the principle of origin, the source of order, and the manifestation of divine will.
This overlap is not coincidence — it’s the result of cultural compression under colonization, where enslaved Africans preserved structural concepts of divinity through the language of their oppressors.
4. So the relationship is twofold
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Linguistic: Oxalá derives from Arabic in shā’ Allāh in Portuguese speech.
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Theological/Structural: The Yoruba Òrìṣàlá and the Islamic Allah both signify the source of creation and purity, and through the trauma of enslavement, these meanings intertwined.
So yes — Oxalá in Brazil is not only connected to Allah linguistically but also structurally: both represent the uncoerced source of existence, preserved through resilience, resistance, and syncretic survival under forced erasure.