abeed

Abeed or abīd ({{lang|ar|عبيد}}, plural of ʿabd, {{lang|ar|عبد}}) is an Arabic word meaning "servant" or "slave". The term is usually used in the Arab world and is used as a slur for slaves, which dates back to the Arab slave trade. In recent decades, usage of the word has become controversial due to its racist connotations and origins, particularly among the Arab diaspora.{{Cite web|url=https://www.albawaba.com/amp/loop/arabic-speakers-twitter-campaign-make-abeed-new-n-word-1221896|title=Arabic Speakers on Twitter Campaign to Make 'Abeed' the New 'N-Word'}}

Usage

=Usage in Palestine=

The practice of owning slaves by Arabs in Mandatory Palestine and Jordan was observed at least until the 1930s,[https://books.google.com/books?id=vGXXDwAAQBAJ&dq=slavery+in+jordan+1929&pg=PT112]Clarence-Smith, W. (2020). Islam and the Abolition of Slavery. USA: Hurst. many of these slaves were from African descent and as a result many of today's Afro-Palestinians are themselves of African descent.Buessow, Johann. "Domestic Workers and Slaves in Late Ottoman Palestine at the Moment of the Abolition of Slavery: Considerations on Semantics and Agency." Slaves and Slave Agency in the Ottoman Empire (2020): 373–433. Web. Today, many Palestinians emphasize on the equality and unity of the Palestinians (including Afro-Palestinians),{{Cite web |date=2017-05-05 |title=Black Palestinians face subtle racism in Gaza |url=https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/black-palestinians-face-subtle-racism-in-gaza-1.2018514 |access-date=2024-10-29 |website=gulfnews.com |language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Qous|first=Yasser|others=Chris Somes-Charlton|title=The Africans of Jerusalem: alienation and counter-alienation|url=https://www.goethe.de/prj/ruy/en/mig/21447452.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-06-16|website=Goethe-Institut Cairo/Perpectives|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019110111/https://www.goethe.de/prj/ruy/en/mig/21447452.html |archive-date=19 October 2020 }} but the legacy of the slave-trade practice is still evident in today's Palestinian territories: The term "Abeed" (slave) is sometimes used to describe dark-skinned Palestinians. Moreover, Afro-Palestinian are limited in who they can marry and have fewer employment options. The Afro-Palestinian neighborhoods are sometimes referred to using the "Abeed" word. For example, in the Gaza city district of Al-Jalla, the Afro-Palestinians live in a neighborhood that is sometimes referred to as "Harat Al-Abeed", which means "neighborhood of the slaves". Also in Jericho, where an Afro-Palestinian's neighborhood is still referred to as the "slaves of Duyuk".

=Usage in Sudan=

In North Sudan, the terms "Abeed" and "Junubi" are commonly used to refer to South Sudanese people (mostly Dinka and Nuer {{citation needed|date=March 2025}}), who are considered by many North Sudanese as a "slave tribe" due to their enslavement during the trans-Saharan slave trade.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} Usage of the term "Abeed" in North Sudan is considered derogatory in nature and has fallen into relative disuse in recent decades.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} In South Sudan, people from North Sudan are in turn referred to derogatorily as "Jalaba" and "Mundukuru" (meaning untrustworthy).{{cite book|pages=52|title=The Lost Boys of Sudan: An American Story of the Refugee Experience|author=Bixler, Mark|date=2005|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=0-8203-2499-X}}{{cite book|title=The Southern Sudan: The Problem of National Integration|editor=Dunstan M. Wai|author=Peter Russell and Storrrs McCall|chapter=Can Secession Be Justified?|date=1973|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-7146-2985-5|pages=105}} However, Ugandan historian Mahmood Mamdani has noted that the north–south ethnic conflict in Sudan does not reflect Western preconceptions of "race" and the Western view of the conflict as a conflict between "Arabs" and "Black Africans" is simplistic and inaccurate.{{Cite web |url=http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1234631424592&pagename=Zone-English-Muslim_Affairs%2FMAELayout |title=Analyzing Darfur's Conflict of Definitions: Interview With Professor Mahmood Mamdani |access-date=2018-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110217125617/http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1234631424592&pagename=Zone-English-Muslim_Affairs%2FMAELayout#**1 |archive-date=2011-02-17 |url-status=dead }}

South Sudanese politician Francis Deng framed an allegorical microcosm of British colonial rule in Sudan as Britain stating to the North Sudanese that "You Northerners are slave traders and you treat the Southerners like Abeed. Don't call them Abeed! They are slaves no longer."{{cite book|title=Sudan: State and Society in Crisis|author=John Obert Voll|pages=78|date=1991|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0-253-20683-9}}

South Sudanese scholar Jok Madut Jok has argued that slavery in Sudan remains widespread in the 21st century despite being ostensibly outlawed on paper, claiming that South Sudanese people who work in North Sudan in low-paying working class jobs are regarded as "Abeed" due to the social standing which is gained from being in such occupations. Jok noted that South Sudanese labourers who only make enough money to feed themselves are commonly treated as the property of North Sudanese landowners and merchants. According to him, "Displaced Southerners are at the bottom of the racial hierarchy in Northern Sudan", as they depend upon patronage and exploitative relationships with power brokers, with relations ranging from servitude through bonded work to serving as attractants for resources from foreign aid agencies. "The lines dividing slavery and cheap labor", as he writes, "are blurred."{{cite book|title=War and Slavery in Sudan|url=https://archive.org/details/warslaveryinsuda0000jokj|url-access=registration|author=Jok Madut Jok|pages=[https://archive.org/details/warslaveryinsuda0000jokj/page/129 129]|date=2001|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=0-8122-1762-4|chapter=The South-North Population Displacement}}