This chapter examines first, the specific history of the African community of Mecca, and second, more generally that of Hijaz, the south-westerly region of the Arabian Peninsula where the two holy cities Mecca and Medina are located. Consequently, the two parts of the chapter are titled ‘MeccAfrica from below’ (the microview) and ‘MeccAfrica from above’ (the macroview).

MeccAfrica from below concerns the history of Africans in Mecca from the nineteenth century till the creation of Saudi Arabia in the twentieth century, and specifically until the period of the economic boom brought about by the unprecedented rise in the price of oil in the 1970s. Paradoxically, while the majority of Saudis became increasingly wealthy, the material situation of Saudis of African ancestry stagnated. In addition to not being able to land well-paying jobs, banks denied them the kind of credit they gave others to set up businesses, and they faced increasing discrimination from both the political authorities and non-Africans. Of course, we observe this same pattern of anti-black racism in Western societies. Wherever it occurs, such anti-black racism not only undermines the humanity of black people, it also reproduces poverty in their midst and consolidates racial prejudice that assumes that black populations are poor because they are less intelligent than others. Such vicious cycles unfortunately and unjustly legitimize structural and systemic anti-black racism everywhere.

The chapter examines how such racial discrimination operates in the daily life of one district of Mecca where the majority of the inhabitants are African. Besides uncovering the history of a forgotten African diaspora, this chapter shows how despite the centuries-old presence of Africans in Mecca and the great contributions they have made to all aspects of society, and despite the precepts of Islam that reject racial discrimination, nonetheless the political authorities and non-Africans in Mecca have continued to discriminate against Africans there.