By Amala Sakinah Noor*

Did you know that Atlantic hurricanes originate off the coast of West Africa? It's true. During its relatively short lifetime, a hurricane departs from West Africa and makes a voyage across the deep ocean, gaining strength until it collides with a landmass. Most often, it roars onto the shores of Caribbean islands and Southern American states that border the Atlantic Ocean and/or the Gulf of Mexico.

But what does that have to do with anything? Well, this particular journey has historical significance. Hurricanes actually travel the same routes that European slave dealers did during the infamous Middle Passage, when millions of black Africans were kidnapped, exported and sold to slaveholders in the New World.

West Africa was the central operating base for many European companies that exported slave labor to the Americas. Africans from all over the continent were brought to places like Goree Island and were herded onto ships, sent off to the Americas to live under life-long servitude. The destination for many of these ships were the same places that hurricanes often make landfall today: Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Florida, Charleston, New Orleans and Brownsville.

Many hurricanes tell us a story. Katrina showed us that although slavery has ended, many black people, especially in the South, continue to live in conditions that are tantamount to de facto apartheid. The formality of Jim Crow may be gone but white supremacy is still normative, inextricably linked to wealth and power and places little value on black bodies, which are still considered dispensable. The haunting images of hundreds of thousands of poor black women, men and children left behind in the aftermath of the storm are eerie reminders of the Middle Passage itself: black people trapped like sardines in mass chaos, starving, parched, living among human waste and decomposing bodies, separated from loved ones, while being demonized as looters, thieves and thugs because they had the audacity to try to find food for themselves and their families!

As politicians play the blame game at the local, state and national level, will they use this opportunity to recall the horrors of slavery and its enduring legacy, which still affects the lives of all Americans? Probably not.

Until they do, karma will continue to slam onto American shores, wreaking havoc, and reaping every evil seed that slavery has sown.