Introduction to the History of Africa PDF

Introduction to the history of Africa Prof. Dr. Gillian Mathys  All communication goes through Ufora, Practicalities unless you have specific questions You can e-mail me (and not Pieter de Coene) with questions. If I have not answered you...

Introduction to the history of Africa Prof. Dr. Gillian Mathys  All communication goes through Ufora, Practicalities unless you have specific questions You can e-mail me (and not Pieter de Coene) with questions. If I have not answered you within 2 working days, please send me a reminder. Some e-mails fall through the cracks Install the Pulse on your phone for notifications from your course units, including this one You can also receive notifications via email, but you have to do this yourself through your profile (see student manual for Ufora: https://www.ugent.be/student/nl/ict/ufora/ufor astudenten/uforahandleidingstudenten-nl.pdf) Today’s class 1° (Non)sense 2° What is of ‘African ‘African history’ history’? Eurocentric Africa bingo ***Yes, my program suggested this design. The irony is intended*** The country of Primitive Africa Wild and Exotic Africa Africa dangerous Africa Unspoiled Africa Utopian Africa* Broken Africa Joker (‘heart of darkness’) *Exception Utopian Africa Binyavanga Wainaina, “How not to write about Africa” “Among your characters you must always include The Starving African, who wanders the refugee camp nearly naked, and waits for the benevolence of the West. Her children have flies on their eyelids and pot bellies, and her breasts are flat and empty. She must look utterly helpless. She can have no past, no history; such diversions ruin the dramatic moment. Moans are good. She must never say anything about herself in the dialogue except to speak of her (unspeakable) suffering. Also be sure to include a warm and motherly woman who has a rolling laugh and who is concerned for your well- being. Just call her Mama. Her children are all delinquent. These characters should buzz around your main hero, making him look good. Your hero can teach them, bathe them, feed them; he carries lots of babies and has seen Death. Your hero is you (if reportage), or a beautiful, tragic international celebrity/aristocrat who now cares for animals (if fiction).” https://granta.com/how-to-write-about-africa/ Survival of colonial tropes These tropes are not innocent, and they have deeper historical roots Legitimations of slavery and colonialism E.g. ‘backwardness’ of Africans legitimizing colonialism Even critics of colonialism back then were not immune for racism (e.g. Joseph Conrad) Continued impact (see also bingo) today Chinua Achebe versus Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad, “Heart of Darkness” (1899) “We were wanderers on a prehistoric earth, on an earth that wore the aspect of an unknown planet. We could have fancied ourselves the first of men taking possession of an accursed inheritance, to be subdued at the cost of profound anguish and of excessive toil. But suddenly as we struggled round a bend there would be a glimpse of rush walls, of peaked grass-roofs, a burst of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of hands clapping, of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling under the droop of heavy and motionless foliage. The steamer toiled along slowly on the edge of a black and incomprehensible frenzy. The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us -- who could tell? We were cut off from the comprehension of our surroundings; we glided past like phantoms, wondering and secretly appalled, as sane men would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a madhouse. We could not understand because we were too far and could not remember, because we were traveling in the night of first ages, of those ages that are gone, leaving hardly a sign -- and no memories. The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there -- there you could look at a thing monstrous and free. It was unearthly and the men were.... No they were not inhuman. Well, you know that was the worst of it -- this suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped and spun and made horrid faces, but what thrilled you, was just the thought of their humanity -- like yours -- the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough, but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you -- you so remote from the night of first ages -- could comprehend.” Chinua Achebe, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness’”, 1977 For a long time hailed as “one of the greatest novels” In Achebe’s words: Conrad might be criticizing colonialism, but…at what price? Conrad saw and condemned the evil of imperial Dehumanization of Africans exploitation but was strangely unaware of the racism on which it sharpened its iron tooth. But the victims of Reproduction of prejudice and insults against Black racist slander who for centuries have had to live with people the inhumanity it makes them heir to have always Africa as seen by ‘outsiders’ known better than any casual visitor even when he comes loaded with the gifts of a Conrad. -37aaef9a0e67/C2116_Chinua%20Achebe.pdf WHO WAS ACHEBE? Nigerian writer One of the most famous African writers 1930-2013 Most known for: “Things fall apart”  “The invention of Africa”, Valentin Mudimbe Congolese philosopher PhD from Belgian university Career in the US KEY CONCEPT: “The colonial library” The collection of texts, documents, and knowledge systems that were created and imposed by European colonial powers during the colonial period in Africa. This library encompasses not only physical books and written records but also the broader intellectual and cultural framework that shaped the way Africans were understood and represented during this era  Challenging western perceptions of Africa ”The invention Construction of Africa as a concept through of Africa” Western discourses and representations These representations: often essentialist and eurocentric This has profound implications for continent and people Flattening of idea of Africa into monolitic and exoticized images Emphasizes need for African voices  Johannes Fabian, “denial of coevalness” From book “Time and the Other. How Anthropology males its object” (1983) Critique on anthropology and western scholars framing non-Western cultures and societies as if they exist outside of contemporary time or history. In other words, it's the tendency to see these cultures as static, timeless, or frozen in the past, rather than acknowledging them as dynamic and evolving like any other culture. Fabian argued that Western scholars often portrayed non-Western societies as "primitive" or "savage," using language and descriptions that implied they were living in a different, archaic era. This portrayal, in turn, allowed Western scholars to position themselves as the only ones inhabiting the modern, progressive present (hence, processes of ‘othering’)  16th century Mercator map Mapping Africa Central Africa? Implications? Nonsense maps Defining ‘Africa’ Continent with What makes it How do we talk enormous cultural, important to think about the different linguistic, ecological about Africa as one parts of Africa? etc. diversity entity? Some debates The racism of “Black Afrocentrism Were Egyptians Black Athena Africa”/Sub- (Cheikh Anta Diop) black? Sahara Africa Sub-Sahara Africa?  Historical and geographic implications of the The problem term, perptuation of colonial systems of thought Racist? with Sub- ‘Black Africa’ in new clothes? Why Sahara as a marker? Sahara Africa?  Racist projections in the colonial period: ‘Arab’ vs. ‘Black’  Geo-political relations: MENARG (‘Arabs’ vs. ‘Black Africans’)  Notions about ‘development’ as well ***Alternatives & topic of ongoing debate*** Afrocentrism  Cheikh Anta Diop, “Nations n*gr*s et Culture (1954)” MAIN POINTS CRITIQUE LASTING IMPACT Ancient Egyptian and  Methodological flaws Re-evaluation of connections across the Nubian civilizations bringers (linguistics, overstated Sahara of cultural and intellectual conclusions,…) Recognition of bias in knowledge development  Essentialism: focus on single production, reconsideration of Africa in Egypt was a Black society African identity ereases world history Fundamental unity among cultural and historical Afrocentrism: critical stance on African people complexities Eurocentric bias in world history (but Points out bias in scientific critics say: overstated) production of the time  Recognition of Africa in world history  Importance of Africans WHO WAS DIOP? writing African history to Senegalese intellectual counteract this bias 1923-1986 Considered as important figure in Afrocentrism, but did not call himself that Were Egyptians black?  Controversy Black Athena Published in 1980, but what about previous iterations of this idea?  “Black Athena” (1980) THE THESIS THE CRITIQUE Intellectual and cultural achievements Sloppy linguïstics and selective of Ancient Greece influenced by evidence civilizations of Egypt and Near East Political motivation (pushing an Rejects “Aryan model” Afrocentric agenda) Linguïstic model to support his thesis Cultural appropriation? (e.g. W.E.B. Du Bois) IMPACT For some rejection of linguistic claim, while exploring non-European influences on Greek culture Important debate on the foundations of ‘Western civilization’ Changing paradigms in Ancient History Pan-Africanism  Cases from all over the continent, but The emphasis on west, central and east and south Africa (non)sense Coupled to certain themes of an Myself: Central Africa (Great Lakes region), social history introductory Different temporalities course on When do we start to tell a story?  This can never be a class about Africa ‘everything Africa’: To choose is to lose Structure of this course Part I (Classes 1-3): Africa before 1500 Part II (Classes 4-7): ca. 1500-1850 Part III (Classes 8-12): ca. 1850-1990s Only Part II starts from geographical overviews, the other parts have a more thematic focus, with cases taking from different geographical areas For many cases: my knowledge and teaching will be litterature based. No-one can be or claim to be an ‘expert’ on all things ‘Africa’ 2° What is African history? For a long-time, visions on the past tied into racist ideas underpinning and legitimizing colonialism (thus tied to some of the tropes on Africa)  Even in the 1960s: Trevor Roper (1962), historian in Oxford “Perhaps in the future there will be some African history to teach. But at the present there is none – there is only the history of the Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness… and darkness is not a subject of history.” History’s relation to colonialism For a long-time, visions on the past tied into racist ideas underpinning and legitimizing colonialism Anthropology vs. history  Anthropology as a colonial science  Underpinning colonial governance (e.g. ‘invention’ of tribes’) Decolonization/independence (1950s-1960s)  Independence struggles  Writing national histories (”useable pasts”, also in counter-reaction) Kenneth Onwuka Dike, “father of African history” Nigeria History not only about what colonizers did, putting Africans center stage Relying on African history Bringing scholarship in African history to Africa (not only production outside of Africa) Unesco’s General History of Africa (1964-today) Sources for African history: common myth No written sources on African history? Not exactly true But: heavily dependent on regional context  Catalan Atlas Ge’ez Ge’ez: current day Ethiopia Arabic north Examples Elites in coastal kingdoms (east and west)  Often written by outsiders  Orality important, even for more recent periods where we have written sources Jan Vansina, ”Oral  Bias of these sources, on different levels tradition” (1961) Linguistic, archeological, material history Some key messages and questions These questions do not only pertain to this class, but they are good to keep in mind during this semester How and where has been/is knowledge on Africa produced? And who can produce that knowledge? Is there an even playing field? And if not, why is access to knowledge itself, and to producing knowledge so uneven? How do different sources shape the way we understand certain processes? Can you explain this using examples? In what way does it make sense to take about ‘Africa’ as one entity, and in what way does it not? Next week Bantu expansion and ‘deep’ African history Koen Bostoen's brief chapter on the Bantu expansion (in pdf) as well as Chapter 2 from Gilbert and Reynolds (p. 15-35).