Mali’s Arma still claim white identity despite their skin color

Evidence

There is still in Mali a small remnant of the descendants of the largely Morisco army that had marched south with Jaudar. Nowadays they have fallen on hard times. In Arabic one name for an harquebusier was rami, of which the plural is arma. The word in the first place in Arabic signified “archer,” but as frequently happens with military terminology, an old name was reused for a later technological innovation. In modern times in statistical lists, “Arma” is however a label attached to a particular ethnic group, the descendants of the families founded by the men who marched with Jaudar. Once a dominant military aristocracy on the whole bend of the Niger, they are now a small, marginalized remnant who keep themselves to themselves. A sad human monument to a curious Morisco adventure. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1604 (#expands, via linked claim)

Max Du Preez writes that: … Just as I cannot change the colour of my skin, I cannot become an American, European or Australian. I would be an alien forever, like a polar bear in the Pretoria zoo. My soul is African. My skin colour is the only European thing about me … African/Afrikaner. I am both. I call myself after the continent twice … I am a native of this land, but unlike most other natives, I am pale. — Cornel Verwey and Michael Quayle, Whiteness, racism, and Afrikaner…, 30 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A Morisco army’s descendants survive as Mali’s marginalized Arma people — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1604; Afrikaner identity claims African belonging through soul, not skin colour — Cornel Verwey and Michael Quayle, Whiteness, racism, and Afrikaner…, 30

Broader Connections

• A Morisco army’s descendants survive as Mali’s marginalized Arma people #expands (0.95) — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1604
• Afrikaner identity claims African belonging through soul, not skin colour #complicates (0.75) — Cornel Verwey and Michael Quayle, Whiteness, racism, and Afrikaner…, 30