AFST 302 Anti-Black Racism in North America Lecture Notes PDF

AFST 302 Anti-Black Racism in North America Dr. Motilola Akinfemisoye-Adejare Department of Anthropology and Archaeology Faculty of Arts Review of last week’s lesson Last week, We discussed various theoretical perspectives for discussing race and ethnicity We examined race theories such as...

AFST 302 Anti-Black Racism in North America Dr. Motilola Akinfemisoye-Adejare Department of Anthropology and Archaeology Faculty of Arts Review of last week’s lesson Last week, We discussed various theoretical perspectives for discussing race and ethnicity We examined race theories such as Primordialism Culture, Assimilation and Socioeconomic success Conflict & Political Economy Intersectional Analyses Critical Race Theory Postcolonialism “Whiteness” Lesson Focus This week, our focus is on Pre-Colonial African History What can knowledge of African civilizations tell us about Africa and Africans prior to colonialism? And How can we challenge pessimistic media images of Africa and Africans with knowledge about African civilizations? This lesson intends to provide a brief history of Africa in the pre-colonial era and end with Chimamanda Adichie’s Danger of a Single Story “Why we are long overdue to know the brilliance of Africa’s civilizations” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhqaQ6mR82s Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard University  Africa’s history did not begin with the slave trade. To guide our conversation, we would examine Africa in world perspective, especially how the media defines the continent and its people. We will also consider the early linguistic families and societies When faced with stories from Africa, what slants are taken in the Western media? 1994: Two events What is considered as “African news”? In South Africa, after decades of white minority rule, Nelson Mandela became President, spelling the end of apartheid In Rwanda, clash between the Hutus and The Tutsis led to the death of hundreds of thousands and displacement of many. One of these had more airtime in the media than the other Which of these do you think that was? 6  Reports around poverty, famine, drought, civil war became very popular How do Africans see themselves? Why is the media interested in the negative issues about Africa, and not the positive? What did Africa mean to the European imagination? The answer is History 7  For many years, Europe only knew about North Africa because it was the only part they traded with. It was viewed as part of the Mediterranean, South Asia or the Middle East and not part of Africa They therefore referred to sub-Saharan Africa as the ‘dark continent’, not necessarily because of the skin colour but because they had not encountered these people, and therefore thought that they were ‘out of touch’ with the rest of the world 8  These Europeans were confused when they encountered several hundreds of languages across various regions They then thought of these people as ‘tribal’ rather than as simply rich in culture and diversity Europeans also thought that these Africans were ‘cut off’ from processes of human progress Is this true? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUAheV852Qk 9  So, how do Africans see themselves? https://www.ted.com/talks/saki_mafundikwa_ingenu ity_and_elegance_in_ancient_african_alphabets?sub title=en https://youtu.be/GKfZOhGM5LE?si=xwDBLfx-ewr6aJ 6y 10  Africa is very diverse with several ethnic groups, believed to be in their thousands. The geographical and environmental diversity impacted how the societies migrated, lived, traded and prospered. The first four ethnic groups that emerged were Afro-Asiatic societies which can be found across the whole North and North-Eastern part of Africa Nilo-Saharan societies found in East and Central Africa 11 12  The Niger-Congo societies found in West- Central Africa and even in East Africa Khoe-San societies found in East and Southern Africa 13  Over 3,000 sub- ethnic groups have since emerged from the over 800 ethnolinguistic groups These came from the four major linguistic groups 14  These four ethnic groups migrated and expanded to cover the entire continent This migration contributed to the development of new population with richer more complex cultural expressions, languages, food, social, political systems, etc Africa has never been static 15  Today’s Africa now with 54/55 countries appeared after colonialization 16  Those early four linguistic groups gave way to the over 800 subgroups with thousands of dialects, who have their own food, music, dance, etc. How Africans see themselves is different from how others see them They have several layers of identity They also have shared systems and beliefs that go beyond their ethnicity and can be found elsewhere on the continent 17  It is therefore important to note that the media’s representation of Africa is not the entire truth. Although what’s reported occurred, there’s so much more Be skeptical, instead of just taking what you hear on the news as the ‘whole truth’ When you think of Africa, think of a continent diverse in geography, culture, people, ethnicity, etc Reflect and think when you see news on Africa, and ask if this is truly Africa 18 ‘The danger of a single story’ Chimamanda Adichie https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adic hie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?utm_campaign=t edspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedc omshare 19