| |
|
|
Archive
|
| Muslim Wellness Foundation Founder: "Our story does not start with oppression." |
| March 14, 2024 |
Dr. Kameelah Mu’Min Oseguera joins us to explain why she sees interrogating the Western narrative of the enslaved as interconnected to Black Muslim mental health today. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| "Our story does not start with oppression…" |
March 14, 2024 |
|
In 2023, Omar, by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, was honored with a Pulitzer Prize. The opera based on the life of Omar Ibn Said was inspired by his handwritten autobiography, written in stylized Arabic in his own hand in 1837. Acquired in 2019 by the Library of Congress, curiosity about Omar has grown along with a growing interest in researching his life before he was kidnapped and enslaved. One initiative launched in 2021 by the Muslim Wellness Foundation is engaging scholars and linguists in present-day Senegal. Founder of the Muslim Wellness Foundation and seminary professor Dr. Oseguera joins to explain why she sees Omar’s story as one that needs to be interrogated and widely shared to reclaim the narrative. She insists our story does not start with oppression.
![Unknown photographer Half length formal portrait of "Uncle Moreau" [Omar ibn Said]; elderly man seated wearing headwrap, suit; left elbow rests on newel, cane in right hand. Ambrotype Randolph Linsly Simpson African-American Collection. James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/2002060](/ckfinder/userfiles/images/Portrait of Omar Ibnn Said-300x300px(1).jpg)
Omar ibn Said
Randolph Linsly Simpson African-American Collection, Yale
Shortly after becoming an enslaved member of the Owen plantation, Omar ibn Said was encouraged to convert to Christianity. General Owens searched and secured an Arabic translation of the Bible to facilitate the transition, which would be lauded in local accounts as a remarkable sign. However, as linguists and scholars from Senegal now review the original manuscript written in Omar’s handwriting, many contest his conversion. Dr. Oseguera discusses why scholars challenge the conversion recording and provides context.
Dr. Kameelah Mu’Min Oseguera discusses her role as the first Muslim faculty member at the Chicago Theological Seminary. She reflects on the womanist scholars who shaped her own journey and shares her views on the growing number of women entering Muslim chaplaincy in the United States and what that means for a traditionally male-led community.
![Said, Omar Ibn, 1770?-1863, Theodore Dwight, Henry Cotheal, Lamine Kebe, and Omar Ibn Said Collection. The life of Omar ben Saeed, called Morro, a Fullah Slave in Fayetteville, N.C. Owned by Governor Owen. [?, 1831] Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018371864/. The life of Omar ben Saeed, called Morro, a Fullah Slave in Fayetteville, N.C. Owned by Governor Owen, cover.](/ckfinder/userfiles/images/The life of Omar ben Saeed_called Morro_a Fullah Slave in Fayetteville NC-Owned by Governor Owen-cover-CC0 by USLoC-300x300px(1).jpg) ![Said, Omar Ibn, 1770?-1863, Theodore Dwight, Henry Cotheal, Lamine Kebe, and Omar Ibn Said Collection. The life of Omar ben Saeed, called Morro, a Fullah Slave in Fayetteville, N.C. Owned by Governor Owen. [?, 1831] Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018371864/. The life of Omar ben Saeed, called Morro, a Fullah Slave in Fayetteville, N.C. Owned by Governor Owen, pg. 3.](/ckfinder/userfiles/images/The life of Omar ben Saeed_called Morro_a Fullah Slave in Fayetteville NC-Owned by Governor Owen-pg_3-CC0 by USLoC-300x300px(1).jpg)
The Life of Omar ibn Said (cover and pg. three)
United States Library of Congress
![Translation of the life of Omar ibn Said First line of text: Manuscript no. 1. In the name of God, the merciful, the gracious At head of title: Omar ben Saeed Isaac Bird's undated translation of the Life of Omar Ibn Said. Said, Omar Ibn, 1770?-1863, Author, Adam Rothman, and Omar Ibn Said Collection. Translation of the life of Omar ibn Said. translateds by Bird, Isaac, Lator [Connecticut?: isaac bird, between 1860 and 1864?, 1860] Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018662613/.](/ckfinder/userfiles/images/Translation of the life of Omar ibn Said-pg 1-CC0 by USLoC-300x300px(1).jpg)
Translation of the life of Omar ibn Said
United States Library of Congress
Dr. Kameelah Mu’Min Oseguera, Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology and Muslim Studies at Chicago Theological Seminary, Founder and President of the Muslim Wellness Foundation (MWF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting healing and emotional well-being in the American Muslim community through dialogue, education, and training. Dr. Rashad has established the annual Black Muslim Psychology Conference and the Deeply Rooted Emerging Leaders (DREL) Fellowship for Black Muslim young adults through the Muslim Wellness Foundation.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
