Blackness, slavery and anti-racism activism in contemporary North Africa

This essay provides an analysis of North African contemporary movements and organizations addressing racism and the legacies of African slavery. The author shows how anti-racism mobilization is manifested and enacted in a region that has been historically connected to Sub-Saharan Africa by the trans-Saharan slave trade. Selected country-specific cases of anti-racism activism are provided. The author highlights the main patterns of these anti-racism social movements and their relation to slavery and race formation. It points out the conflation of anti-slavery and anti-racism in North Africa (from Morocco to Egypt) where the concept of race is mobilized in identity formation, identity politics and citizenship claims. The author argues that by claiming racial equity, anti-racist organizations contribute to race formation and its transformation.