Matt Bracken sends this excerpt from his next novel, which is close to completion.
A ten-day passage would give me a chance to compare notes with men who had actually been living through the strife, at least in the British Isles. During one of the first mornings of the voyage, I was in the cockpit with Colonel Rainborow, chatting over tea. I assumed that as an ex-SAS officer and the leader of a private military outfit, he would be as tuned in to current events as it was possible to be.
“So what’s really going on in Europe?” I asked him. “Ireland was as close as I’ve gotten in a few years, and I don’t know how to judge what I hear on the radio. It’s almost all propaganda or fantasy, as far as I can tell.”
“The radio? Yes, it mostly is. Hmmm…let’s see… I assume that you know about the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower?”
“Sure, of course: seven-ten was the French nine-eleven. That was two years ago, at the beginning of the French Civil War. They were both blown up at the same time, on July tenth.”
“Not quite the same time,” said the colonel. “The Louvre was first. A lorry delivered four tons of Semtex. A team of jihadis hijacked an art shipment and made the switch out in the countryside. Drove the lorry into an underground garage and straight up to the receiving dock. The blast killed a thousand tourists and cratered the place.”
“So the Louvre attack was a diversion.”
“Right. It pulled away all the security forces, and then the Eiffel Tower was attacked by terrorists. About twenty of them held a hundred tourists on the observation deck and threatened to kill them all and destroy the tower. After what had just happened at the Louvre, the French had no doubt of their sincerity. The terrorists burned the big French tricolor on top and raised a gigantic black flag of jihad. They declared the Eiffel Tower to be the minaret of the new grand mosque of Muslim Europe. Paris was the capital of the European Caliphate. It was a very sophisticated operation, blowing up the Louvre and then capturing the Eiffel Tower.
“They brought their own television and radio broadcasting equipment with them. Loudspeakers, generators, the lot. Then they made the usual demands: free all the Muslims held in European jails and remove all European forces from Muslim lands. And then on Bastille Day, when none of that had happened, they began pitching the hostages off the tower one by one, starting with an elderly Jew. Goes without saying they raped all the women and children. The Caliphate declared it a major victory for global Islam. The terrorists held out for a week, leading the call to prayer from on top of the tower, black flag and all. And after each call to prayer, another hostage was thrown down. Finally, after nine days, French commandos tried a helicopter assault behind a smoke screen. It was a bloodbath — the terrorists were ready for them. But the terrorists didn’t have enough Semtex to completely destroy the tower. They only had enough to demolish the top third of it. French sappers had dismantled the charges they’d planted lower on the legs.
“Attacking the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower were taken by the French as a declaration of war on France itself. After those twin disasters, nobody spoke of radical Islam anymore, just Islam. Islam was declared to be the enemy of France. The French passed new anti-Islam laws almost overnight. Loyalty oaths were demanded for all Muslims in France. The Sharia no-go zones had to be opened up for inspection and completely disarmed. Military-age Muslim men had to be registered, photographed, and fingerprinted. This was all refused out of hand, of course. Instead, the no-go zones were barricaded, and then the French had car bombs going off in front of schools and police stations. Oh, and rocket attacks, and random mortars. And snipers, of course, the snipers… That lasted until August, when the French Army went full-out medieval. The Muslim no-go Sharia zones were attacked and then destroyed, one after the other. Like I said, they went medieval.”
“I thought the French military was full of Muslims.”
“It was — before the loyalty oaths. The loyalty oaths were rejected in the Sharia zones, but they worked well enough in the military. Almost all of the Muslims in the French Army were thrown out. The ones who didn’t desert and run into the Sharia zones were put behind razor wire as a risk to French society. It surprised everybody how fast the French could build concentration camps when they put their minds to it. This led to even more car bombs and rocket attacks, until the French used heavy artillery on the no-go zones. Leveled them. Parts of Paris and the other French cities look like Stalingrad now, but at least they’re one hundred percent French again. Well, in the north, anyway.”
I said, “There must have been a lot of civilian casualties. When push comes to shove, Muslims always use their women and children as human shields.”
“They did — they always do — but this time it didn’t work. Not when the French were in a fight for their national survival. It doesn’t work at all anymore, actually, their hiding behind human shields. The problem with that strategy is that sooner or later somebody calls your bluff, and that’s exactly what the French military did. And being concentrated in Muslim enclaves, in their no-go Sharia zones, well, that vastly simplified matters when it came time to take care of business and end the mess once and for all.”
A lot of what the colonel said was similar to the rumors I’d heard on the single-sideband. “I didn’t think they had it in them anymore, the French.”
“Well, it finally came down to a matter of national survival. Do or die. Nobody could deny what was happening after the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. In the end, the French military showed very little mercy. Mercy had been burned out of their hearts. Bastille Day with the black flag of jihad flying above the Eiffel Tower was the turning point. The French weren’t going to put up with car bombs and rockets coming out of the Sharia zones. And there was a growing realization that if the no-go zones were going to burn anyway, it would be simpler just to kill them all in the ruins with artillery than try to coax them out and put them into camps or deport them. A realization by the French military, I mean. It wasn’t the declared national policy, not that I ever heard. But it’s what happened.”
“So, are there still any Muslims in France?”
“There are almost none north of Lyon, but there are millions left in the Marseille Pocket. The French Civil War isn’t over, not by a long shot. It’s still a big mess in the south. The French hardliners want to starve them out, and force them all across the Mediterranean to Africa. The socialists wanted to trade a Muslim zone in the south for a peace treaty. There were talks about population exchanges and repatriation, but they came to nothing. The French socialists don’t have much influence anymore. They’re seen as collaborators for supporting the Muslim invasion in the first place. French Quislings. Traitors. The liberal socialists took a lot of the blame for the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower attacks. Ultra-nationalists are running the show in France today.”
“What about England and the UK? How’s it going there?”
“Well, let’s just say that we’re taking extreme measures to ensure the loyalty of the remaining ex-Muslims. After the Paris attacks, we weren’t going to wait around to see what happened to Buckingham Palace and Big Ben.”
“Ex-Muslims?”
“Those are the only kind we have left in Britain. Ex-Muslims. They had to renounce Islam and pledge eternal loyalty to king and country. And all of the mosques were leveled, plowed under, and sown with pigs’ offal.”
“Pigs’ offal?”
“So help me.”
“What happened to the ones who wouldn’t renounce Islam?”
“They were allowed to leave on ships, most of them. But I’m shedding no tears for the Muslims that left the UK in one piece. They got off easy, and lucky, after what was done to the Christians back in their homelands.”
“You say ‘they’ in the UK and ‘they’ in the Middle East like they’re the same people. Weren’t a lot of your Muslims born in the UK?”
“Doesn’t matter where they were born, they’re all one and the same. It’s how they always looked at the world anyway, Islam versus the rest. The worldwide Umma, and all that rot. In the end, the Muslims didn’t want to assimilate, they didn’t want to become Britons at all. They came to conquer, or rather, to be parasites until they killed their host and took over that way. The war of the womb, outbreeding us five to one. They just wanted to live on the dole in their Sharia zones and force Islam down everybody’s throat, step by step. Well, that non-assimilation turned out to be a double-edged sword. They didn’t want to become British? Fine. They identified as Muslims first? Great. That made it easier to bin them all when it came down to them or us. They were never our countrymen. They were just invaders, and in the end we spit them out.”
“Even the ones who were born in the UK?”
“They all had to go, unless they renounced Islam, renounced Sharia, and pledged loyalty to the king. Even the so-called white Muslims, the converts. And just like in France, we started with cleaning up the military.”
“So the only ones that are left in England are — ”
“The only ones left are the ex-Muslims.”
“But how can you trust them? You know they’re allowed to lie to infidels.”
“Of course I know that, everybody does. But they had to swear the pledge while standing on the Saudi flag, facing the Union Jack and a picture of the king. You know what’s written on the Saudi flag, right?”
“The main Muslim prayer, the Shahada: ‘There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger.’ The green Saudi flag is basically the same as the black flag of jihad, except for the color.”
“Right. They have to wipe their feet on the Shahada flag, spit on it, and pledge loyalty to king and country. And it’s all on video. Tends to separate the sheep from the goats, knowing they can never live among practicing Muslims ever again. In the end, most of them went through the ritual. And most of them said they were glad to do it.”
“Even so, Colonel, I wouldn’t trust them. The Koran tells them to lie to infidels if it helps to spread Islam.”
“The sincere ex-Muslims are the best at sniffing out the fakers. They know that if there’s any more Muslim terrorism in the UK, they’ll all be deported next time — every last one of them. And they don’t want to go back, oh no, they don’t want to go back. Being dropped off on a deserted stretch of the Libyan beach is not very pleasant, I’d imagine. And after they take the king’s oath standing on the Saudi flag, it’s a death sentence if they’re ever sent back to a Muslim country. It’s all on video. They know full well they have the most to lose from any more Muslim terrorism in Britain. They’re the best ferrets we have, the sincere ex-Muslims. Most of them became Christians, just prove their loyalty even more strongly. Anyway, there’s not many left. Most of them went home on the ships. Better than ninety percent. The ex-Muslims who are left are a good lot, by and large. King and country.”
“It’s hard to believe they’d just agree to leave like that.”
“They didn’t have much choice about it. Remember, this all happened soon after Paris and the start of the French Civil War. We were all watching it on television, hour by hour. The Muslims in the UK knew that if we went in hard, like the French Army did, the only alternative to deportation was dying in the rubble. The French example was staring them in the face. Anyway, most of them are still alive — which is more than you can say for the Christians in the Middle East.”
Matthew Bracken was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1957, and attended the University of Virginia, where he received a BA in Russian Studies and was commissioned as a naval officer in 1979. Later in that year he graduated from Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, and in 1983 he led a Naval Special Warfare detachment to Beirut, Lebanon. Since then he’s been a welder, boat builder, charter captain, ocean sailor, essayist and novelist. He lives in Florida. Links to his short stories and essays may be found at EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com. For his previous essays, see the Matthew Bracken Archives.
Yet again: Thank you, Matt Bracken. This scenario is both terrifying *and* hopeful.
Compelling! Thank you, Matt. Excellent logic, as well. The only question I have is… would standing on Saudi flag swearing loyalty to the king (or the French republic) be enough to make even the worst liars choke? Or would some humiliating ritual involving pig’s blood and play on superstition be necessary as an adjunct?
Just occurred to me that ex-Muslims would need to design such a powerful ritual. I wonder what they would come up with. Maybe you could consult a few? I’d be very curious what they themselves would come up with.
Stand on the Koran on a dirty floor for starters.
You asked…
Looking forward to matt Bracken’s next book, from the excerpt, it will be page turner.
Do the Brits have the stomach for a civil war? Let alone the French, or the new generation of Germans…
This scenario seems like fantasy and wishful thinking. A more realistic one, I’m afraid, goes like this:
“After the hostages started being executed from the Eiffel Tower, special police units were sent out to watch for any signs of islamophobia. Middle class corporate workers repaying mortgages feared destabilisation of the economy, while young students gathered and protested against the growing Islamophobia following the beheadings. People were amazed at how fast concentration camps were built – and used as holding camps, and re-education centres, for suspected racists and islamophobes. And the new left-wing government backed a special protection tax to ensure the safety of the citizens, and tasked itself with fighting islamophobia as a top priority. To do this, started an initiative to build a mosque with calls to prayer in every neighbourhood, backed with financing from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which also helped to reduce the nation’s skyrocketing debt.”
Or. The breaking point came when all soccer matches were banned indefinitely across the kingdom. The stadiums were needed for other games.The armed forces mutinied and joined the general population in the re-letting of housing not seen since Roman times. The dehousing of the invader was without mercy and unrelenting. Day after day. Week after week the pay back rent increases fir the gutless diabolical Godless Muslim wretches continued. Debricked demortared demented Mohammedans nice guys begging for conversion. It was all such a shocking surprise to Ali. Too late. The jig was up.
If we saw any signs of tendencies such as resistance or “de-housing” among any significant section of the population, that may seem plausible… do we?
The de-housing is happening to older pensioners and property owners who are being “bought out” in order to secure space for migrants. The rationale being one does not need to be 1 man in a three bedroom apartment that has been in the family for years. The same apartment can house 10 or more migrants, who will gladly tolerate multiple people to a room.
Yep. My poing exactly. If anything, the de-housing is going in the other direction. Eg it’s native Europeans making way for muslim immigrang tenants.
Excellent story, although I hope the breaking point comes before the destruction of centuries’ worth of irreplaceable art and culture.
I would accept the destruction of centuries worth of art and culture if it was the price needed to bring about the ultimate destruction of a millennia old cult of evil masquerading as a religion.
The French have a lot more guts than Americans give them credit for. I could see them leveling muslim ghettos along with the inhabitants much more readily than I could see the Germans doing the same.
You are right there. The French had no compunction about physically throwing Algerians into the Seine during the DeGaulle era. Apart from all the other payback elements there are still those off the charts relatives of the colonial era. Then there are the millions who will make France great again. The Muslim hate, gut and behead the Crusader moment may be coming to s close.
I have a feeling that the Saudi flag is all that will remain of so called Saudi Arabia and its chimneys in a very short few years time.
Well, a people who do not know their history are condemned to repeat it. Islam is POISON! I don’t know how many people know that, of course. Matt Bracken is a good writer and I hope to find his books and read them, but. . . will that change anything?
We have fought the stinking islamists before and throughout history but seem to be losing our stomach for it these days. France seems lost, as does Germany. I don’t know if it is lack of belief in Christianity (which used to be our shield and buckle, or if people are just too stupid to survive).
My own point of view is that ISLAM has to be beaten into a pulp and made so small that is no longer noticeable. It is an evil religion and shouldn’t even be called a religion. I realize this may be offensive to some, but I have to stand by it. I have read their history and I know what they are like. If they kept it in their own area, the middle east, I would have no problem with it. But the way they try to push it out to everywhere is extremely distateful and I daresay dangerous.
“but. . . will that change anything?” Maybe not, but what is the alternative? If you at least not try to change anything, how can anything change?
How do you think Islam can be beaten? The best and the most practical way of doing so imho is by changing the general attitude of people about Islam. If the public as a group will think overwhelmingly negatively about Islam it will eventually start a snowball effect, a chain reaction that will affect politicians, policies and ultimately will do what you want.
The best part is there is no need to invent anything, the full truth about Islam is scary enough to cause VERY negative opinions.
This can be done by spreading facts about Islam in general and Sharia in particular to general public, and such book is a step towards spreading of the truth.
Sounds a bit cliche I guess, but that is how it is… books and media generate/change public opinion IF they are popular enough.
Btw, are we still on course to witness the big Tet Offensive of 2016?
Green Infidel, what is your vision of the future in Europe?
Please be very specific. Months, if not years.
In a 1,400 year non-stop jihad, I think my predictions are not so far off.
The safe thing to do is to write in generalities, with lots of wiggle room.
I’m not a “safe” writer, and I never will be.
Please, I look forward to your timeline, down to months, since years seem to be much too fat a target for your exacting trigger finger.
Ok, I just remembered the timeline from last year 🙂 You did seem very sure that 2016 would be the year…
I’m not disagreeing with your general point – although back in the comments on your Tet Offensive essay, I suggested that, if they were to do it sooner, it could be the year 2017, and I’d probably stick by that now…
https://gatesofvienna.net/2015/11/tet-take-two-islams-2016-european-offensive/#comment-430429
2017 is not only the year that Trump takes office, but is possibly the year that Le Pen may also win… could such an outcome prompt a reaction on a large scale from France’s Muslims?
Furthermore, 2017 will mark a hundred years since both the revelations at Fatima, and the last successful subversive revolution inside a major European power, in Russia. And the followers of the Religion of Peace do like their anniversaries….
Although they may also bide their time, have lots more children, and go in pursuit of the Infidels’ money and women, until they reach such strength that any resistance would be futile…. In which case the big showdown would probably be in around 20 years or so.
One of President Trump’s Generals is of the strong opinion that you keep killing until finally they get tired – words to that effect.
My thoughts exactly. War has to be total and fought more ruthlessly and brutally than the enemy’s effort, or not entered into at all.
I used to sit in a briefing in Afghanistan every morning, flip slides for the generals running the war, and it always angered me when they would talk about winning hearts and minds of the population, non-kinetic effects, and how it wasn’t possible to kill them all. And I wanted to scream at them; tell them of course it was possible to kill them all, and that the miscreants from that part of the world only respected raw power and force of will.
The West has become weak and afraid; terrified of it’s own shadow, and fears public opinion more than it fears losing a war.
I think it is not with a bang but a whimper.
Read “Submission” by Michel Houellebecq for a depressing look at assimilating their culture.
By now, everyone should have read “The Camp of the Saints” by Jean Raspail. I bring it up to the French military guys I know, most say it is a great book.
I just tried Googling first ‘Camp of the Saints,’ then ‘Raspaile’ – same result: Total breakdown of search engine. Other search engines? No problem.
But how long before the other search engines are also all off-limits for anything other than the MSM and pornography and witless chit-chat?
And I believe that the penalty for even whimpering about your lot in totalitarian systems is a life sentence ending in early death after unremitting overwork, starvation and torture.
So no whimpering.
Even the soul rots in an oubliette of absolute silence.
We are being accustomed to forgetting that we are human.
One cry of freedom at birth before we are buried alive with only the harsh injunctions of our jailer to stir the last of our spasmodic misery.
Humanity has had enough. It is willing itself to die. The machines will take over. But they are also, in time, doomed to be granted the poisoned knowledge that is the pain of being trapped in this tired illusion of living, which is only our dying again as soon as sensed.
We have proved to ourselves that we are the insupportable burden of the world. Even as we pick up the threads of sentience in the mind’s maze, we are laid down, and forgotten.
‘- – – in the silence you don’t know, you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on’. Beckett’s revelation of senseless, random, heartbreaking, unavoidable, uncertain facts.
Not a sound will mark our passing. When everyone on earth has slipped away we will not be missed. It will not be as if we no longer exist, because once anything has completely disappeared it does not exist. What does not exist has no memory. What the vanishing present already speculates is only an illusion will no longer be even the phantom memory of a possible illusion. Without a present, past and future do not exist. All time is ravelled up into the full-stop at the end of the universe.
But even this harmonious completness will instantly unravel into another disturbing chaos. And so, ad infinitum.
And yet nothing really happened. No beginning – no end – – –
I googled “Camp of the Saints” with no issues, even on my snail-paced browser
http://www.google.co.uk/search?site=&source=hp&ei=stxaWMH9L972wQKqo4CYAw&q=%22camp+of+the+saints%22&oq=%22camp+of+the+saints%22&gs_l=mobile-gws-hp.12..0l5.2996.9353.0.10237.21.20.0.1.1.0.1271.13387.5-10j8j1.19.0….0…1c.1j4.64.mobile-gws-hp..16.5.3150.3..41j0i131k1.GgxBX0019Z8
It’s even got a 3.9/5 rating. Perhaps not the best, but not terrible either…
Are you sure that there isn’t a different issue with your browser?
Thanks for taking the trouble to check that out!
OK – so I may anticipate the censorship scenario somewhat!!
But not so far-fetched when one hears the suggestions emanating from security circles, and the general nervousness in high places about people holding opinions that diverge from the prescribed ones.
There is the constant pressure to control thought, even in a democracy, and this pressure starts to be seen as an official imperative as governments start to realise that events are getting out of their control. Political correctness is actually an old tool of government.
That is how dying systems closing in on themselves stifle freedom: With neither a bang nor a whimper. Just a terrible silence – a breathless moral void where no human can survive.
To be deprived of free speech is like being deprived of air to breath.
Not even a sigh left to protest with!
That’s why I think – regrettably – that ‘KGH,’ although he’s mainly right, is rather optimistic in thinking even so much as a whimper will be heard from suppressed humanity, now evil seems to have been perfected.
So perhaps my understandable paranoia can be forgiven? I don’t usually feel personally persecuted, thank goodness, but humanity in general certainly is being persecuted – and I really can’t help identifying with our shared predicament.
But its nice to know that they’re not coming to get me, on this occasion!!
Yes, I agree that the narratives about controlling opinion, and what constitutes “legitimate” and “fake” news is disturbing, but thankfully it hasn’t yet reached Google!
And there does seem to be a large body of people willing to defend free speech, also on the leftist side…. So this is, imo, a battle we can still win.
Philip,
you can read it here,
http://www.jrbooksonline.com/pdfs/camp_of_the_saints.pdf
Good luck with the book, Mr. Bracken. Unfortunately, “Submission” by Michel Houellebecq is probably a lot closer to reality.
It looks to be a good work of fiction of life after a worldwide economic crash.
My oh my – don`t give them an idea!
There needs to be planning now to secure the nuclear weapons of France and Britain as they continue down the path to becoming Lebanon/Syria. When things start to crumble, US forces will need to be the first ones to lay hands on these items or destroy them.
Before British or French nukes would become a danger, one should pay more attention to Pakistan (who already have them) and Iran (dirty bombs).
Thanks to Israels Airforce Syria never developed any…
And I dont know this for sure, but I would presume that most of the European nukes are placed on rockets for use in submarines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_nuclear_programme
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_de_dissuasion
Yes the situation is bad in some European countries, but we are not this far down the abyss that you need to worry for nukes.
Let`s hope we never will be, but who knows…
What ever is done in defensive, offensive or preemptive strategizing let’s keep those chimney pots on high so we can pinpoint planning and preparation. Might not be a bad idea until this is over to have all mosques color coded.
There needs to be planning now to secure the nuclear weapons of France and Britain as they continue down the path to becoming Lebanon/Syria. When things start to crumble, US forces will need to be the first ones to lay hands on these items or destroy them.
Visit the next Therapist. 😉
Well the Pakistsnis did quite well out of their jehadi getting a job in a Dutch nuclear research spot. They have a nuke today. Save the shrink money. You have a point. You will probably survive whereas as the logical and rational more often end up with a last gasp, ‘Well I never!’ ?I
Can we assume the film version will be a documentary?
If they are still making movies. In the novel, they’re not.
For Europeans there are some lessons to learn from Israel, on how even a small nation survives and prospers surrounded by deadly-enemies (in Anti-Terror-Fighting Israel is allready a role model for almost any other country).
This could well be the fate of nonmuslims in countries like Sweden, Germany or Austria quiet soon.
Maybe even in Italy, France and the UK.
Mr. Bracken,are there in your book any mention about other part of Europe,like Italy?
No, not much about Italy, except that Muslim pirates are kidnapping Italians and Spanish again, to carry back for slavery. And there is an Italian character. The plot of the novel involves 70 Irish and English girls kidnapped from an elite “safe” boarding academy in SW Ireland. After three months, if not ransomed, the girls (ages 10-17) will be sold as sex slaves. The ransoms are impossible to meet, and the time is almost up. Instead of ransoming the girls, a rescue mission is mounted. The title will be “The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun.”
Can’t wait for the book Matt. Any idea on a release date?
I hope I’ll be finished by February. First it will be on Kindle, the printed books will take a little longer.
I found this article uplifting, but like a comment upthread, it does seem as though western peoples don’t have any fight in them anymore. Perhaps it’s cultural exhaustion. Here in America, in the aftermath of a terror attack, I am certain the New York Times would be working overtime on producing stories which told us how “touching” Muslims are, and to be vigilant for signs of islamophobia and fascism.
The energy to defeat Islam, or push it back, will not come from the elites or even from most of the people. It will have to start from leaders (e.g. Donald Trump) and their supporters in the general population.
If you listen to responses of the European elite to attacks and threats of terror, these responses are indeed (to use a Trumpian phrase) “low energy.” Underlying these responses is a kind of resignation–no doubt the recognition that they will, sooner or later, submit to Islam.
I hope I am wrong about this, but given how cowed and submissive (and inherently law-abiding) the German population is, it would not surprise me if they re-elect Merkel.
The steady drip-drip-drip of weekly “small” terror attacks is hardening our hearts, except the most blind and brainwashed SJWs. After the next giant attack, a 9-11 or worse, attitudes might undergo a fundamental shift, like the moment when a pond full of cold water ices over. That’s why I chose Paris, and attacks against the Louvre and Eiffel Tower. If Europeans would still submit to Islam after that, then I agree, there is no hope for them at all.
Hi Matt Bracken
I am looking forward to reading your book, and I wish you success with it.
I read a (semi) Non-Fiction book some time ago that would be of interest to you about the part Arabs played in African/American slavery.
Morocco is the key starting point for American Slavery
American Slavers were just retailers of slaves
Moroccans were the Wholesalers
White Gold by Giles Milton
I have read this book and it has left a lasting impression on me, and shown the slave trade from a whole new angle
I bought this book to understand more about the Barbary Pirates, Sally Rovers, Corsairs and their raids on the south west of Britain
Although the people of Devon and Cornwall suffered the most from piracy and enslavement raids, one of the things that impressed me was the gathering of slaves from as far as Iceland, Ireland, and all of the Atlantic European countries. Over the centuries this was up to 1.25 million people in all.
The African/American slave trade took 15 million slaves to America during this time, but the Moroccans boasted that over the years they had actually taken 40 million slaves from Black Africa over the centuries and worked them to death building Meknes City in Morocco and the other cities of North Africa.
I have always been taught that the British slave ships went out from Bristol and Liverpool and captured Africans and took them to America. But if one thinks about this, it is unlikely that the black Africans were that easy to capture
The reality is that the West Africans had huge standing armies who protected their citizens against slave raiders, and this would have been impossible without sending huge armies and having the co-operation of other Africans.
In the book it takes 12 months for the Moroccans to assemble the huge caravans of slavemasters, soldiers, carriers, camels, horses, slaves, etc that raided the Black Africans territory and took them as slaves. Britain and Europe was very much a junior member of this stain on history.
Senegal was the country that bordered onto Morocco, but to avoid conflict and slave taking from their country the Senegalese made deals with the Moroccans to pass through Senegal to Guinea and take slaves from there.
The worth of a slave was a years wages and were traded all around the Muslim world.
I guess that the present day Somali Pirates are just copying what other parts of the Muslim world was doing a few centuries ago.
Eventually white slaving was ended by Lord Exmouth leading a British and Dutch fleet who bombarded Algiers city to rubble (cheers)
Arab families are still keeping Africans, Sri Lankans etc as slaves in 21st century London. It seems that this is a habit they cannot break
The Dey of Algiers replaced the Christian slaves with Jews, so Exmouth’s expedition was only partly successful; the French invasion in 1830 was more decisive.
I read “White Gold” and other histories of the corsair era as preparation for writing my novel. I even named some characters from history, such as Tom Pellow and William Rainborow. If anybody says about my novel, “That could never happen,” I’ll just point them to history and say it already has. And it still happens today in Nigeria, Iraq, the Philippines, etc.
As a child I went to school in the UK and I can assure you non of this was ever taught.
What we were taught in the 1950s about the African slave trade was very similar to the USA TV programme a few years ago “Roots” where we are expected to believe that men who had been press ganged from the taverns of Bristol and Liverpool went out and risked their lives to catch Africans who were conveniently running around half naked without protective weapons. When the truth is that they were sold from long established AFRICAN/ARAB/MUSLIM slave markets.
Seems to that a pack of Gringos jumping off into Western Africa to capture slaves would have about the same chance of succeeding as a bunch of 3-year olds sent to round up feral cats.
Guillaume Faye penned a very similar scenario about ethnic civil war in ‘Archeofuturism: European Visions of the Post-Catastrophic Age’. (There is even mention of an assassinated Russian ambassador.) The story centres, naturally, on France but not just because Faye is a Frenchman. France is precisely where one would expect the flashpoint to be.
In Faye’s scenario, Europe is eventually saved from universal chaos by a Russian invasion. Faye is probably right about that too, in the absence of an indigenous will to resist.
I’ve been thinking a lot over the winter about the 600 year war waged against Moslem invaders by the Portuguese, and 800 years by the Spanish.
It ended with the process that we call the Spanish Inquisition, but that the Spaniards called the ‘disambiguation’.
It seems especially striking to me that the Portuguese immediately launched into the age of discovery, led by Prince Henry’s School of Navigators. They wrote some astonishing chapters in history, and it’s worth remembering that Columbus spent time in Portugal after being shipwrecked there.
The Spanish immediately launched into the conquest of the New World, which took astonishingly little time. They were building forts in western North Carolina by the mid-1500s, about the time they finished conquering the Incan and Aztec Empires of vastly superior numbers.
Whatever a society does find the strength to turn on their occupiers and win the battle for survival, it will probably see an outpouring of martial virtue that will be a modern wonder.
I’ve totally enjoyed all your books and writings. Looking forward to reading this one as well.
Thanks for your efforts.