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		Ummi Hammid, Descendant of Slave Trader (length: 45 sec) On the island of Zanzibar, journalist Ummi Mahsouda Alley Hammid, a direct descendant of notorious black slave trader Tippu Tip, rationalizes that the Arab system of slavery was purely business and that it was different from American slavery. Read Transcript This site includes RealVideo. Download RealPlayer now.

Video Transcript

GATES: How do you feel about your great great grandfather?

HOUSE - M. SHOT GATES L, OUMI R.

OUMI: I feel that it was the trend of the time, that was business, purely. You either be a slave or a slaver. You choose the lesser of the two evils. And if you are in a position to be a slaver why should you be a slave. The slavery was different from the slavery of American. The Arabs took their slaves and married them and they intermingled with them. It was quite different with the slaves in the West, America where they were mostly used for plantation and they never, there was racism.

GATES: Yes.

OUMI: With Arabs they, they married their slaves. So this is the difference.

GATES: Arab men married African women.

OUMI: Married, women, yes.

GATES: But not the other way round.

OUMI: Oh, not vice versa, but at least they married them and they had children with them, here are the products.

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