What are the cause of tensions between Arabs and Africans?

Answer 1

There are quite a number of issues that cause antagonism between Arabs and Africans:

1) Religion: Arabs in Africa are almost exclusively Muslim. (The Copts in Egypt do not usually identify as Arab.) While many Non-Arab Africans also consider themselves Muslims, they are usually much more syncretic in practice, mixing in traditional African spirits and demons with Islamic tenets. There is therefore a religious argument in Africa between the Arab purists who resist any attempt at syncretism and Non-Arab Africans who wish to retain elements of their original culture and religion along with the what virtue they see in Islam. Additionally, half of Africa is not Muslim and is fundamentally opposed to Islam becoming the primary religion of Africa. Since the Arabs were the founders of Islam, this generates antagonism towards them.

2) Land Occupancy: All of the North African countries that are Arab today were not always so. Arabs conquered North Africa from the Native Egyptians and Amazigh 1400 years ago and have instituted themselves as rulers over these territories.

3) Slavery: The Trans-Saharan Slave Trade was the importation of African Slaves into the Islamic World, generating 5 million Black Slaves in Arab countries. All African males were castrated to prevent the growth of an "indigenous" African minority in Arab countries (as would eventually develop in the New World because slaves were bred and allowed to have marital relationships). Contrary to the Western World, where slavery was abolished mainly due to internal forces and abolition movements, slavery was ended in the Arab World primarily due to external pressures and colonization. Saudi Arabia only made slavery de jure illegal in 1966 and Mauritania was the last country to outlaw slavery in 2007. However, the African slave culture in the Arab World is so thoroughly ingrained that many Arabs in Africa (such as the Sudanese, Egyptians, Libyans, and Mauritanians, among others) still call Blacks by the term 3abd (عبد) meaning slave.

4) Cultural Imperialism: In African countries controlled by Arabs, Arabs have asserted that their language, culture, and religion are superior to the indigenous Amazigh, Carthaginian, and Coptic cultures that previously reigned supreme. To that end, their languages were outlawed (with Tamazight only becoming an official language in Morocco in 2011), their festivals were seen as barbaric, their form of dress was derided, and pagans among them were either forcibly converted or given such a heavy tax burden and living restrictions that they converted to avoid the hardship. Arabs not only do not apologize for this mistreatment of Africans under their care, but consider it to have been a "civilizing mission", using much of the same type of language that they decry when it came to European colonials doing the same to them.

5) Mercenaries: Since Africa is plagued by numerous wars, there are a large number of African mercenarial bands. Arab dictators, such as Muammar Ghadhafi of Libya, worry about creating a national army since it would be unclear who would actually follow the dictator's command. However, since Libya has oil money, they can afford to hire Black African mercenarial bands since these groups of people have no loyalty to the Libyan people and only loyalty to their bank account. This means that a large number of individuals who are part of repressive Arab dictatorial regimes are Black Africans, leading many Arabs to associate Blacks with violence and repression.