p.c. africa intro paragraph (meh)

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    Lauren Wilson

    September 24th

    , 2014

    Mr. Boadi

    Debunking the Negro Myth

    Since the 15th

    century, many Eurocentric scholars and historians have claimed

    that Africa is a static, primitive continent with little or no progress. They believe that

    Africans have not developed at nearly the rate as Europeans, and are therefore inferior.

    This led to the justification of the Atlantic slave trade and later colonization. However, in

    the last 50 years or so, some scholars have looked at history from the African point of

    view and have tried to deflate these notions of an a-historic Africa. These Afrocentric

    historians have looked to Ancient Egypt and to relations between Europeans and Africans

    during antiquity, in order to prove that Africa is not a continent without history, but rather

    a continent whose history was disrupted by imperialism and greed. What has yet to be

    answered is whether or not Africas seemingly dull existence is the truth or a Negro

    Myth. Although many historians have evidenceto prove Africa is a land with no

    growth or progress, there is much more suggestion that Africa has just as much history as

    anywhere else in the world.

    To understand the debate regarding the Negro Myth, the topic itself must first be

    explored. The Negro Myth is a belief that Africa is an undeveloped, unsophisticated

    continent by means of its cultures and peoples. When many think of Africa, they see

    dangerous animals, dancing tribes, and poverty and sickness.1This misconception came

    about when the Portuguese first landed on the west coast seeking trade, but were

    disappointed that the Africans were not as technologically advanced. They then began to

    1Erik Gilbert and Jonathan Reynolds, Notions of Africa,Africa in World History,

    (Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education Inc., 2012) pp. xxi-xxiv

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    question how organized, intellectual, and social the Africans were.2Now, after years of

    these questions being answered with limited knowledge of what is the truth, Africa is

    viewed poorly in relation to every other continent on the planet.

    In response to the Negro Myth, a new group of historians called Afrocentrists

    have emerged to falsify Eurocentric claims of an a-historic Africa. They aim to give

    Africans the credit they deserve in shaping world history, and to acknowledge black

    successes in general. According to historian Russell Adams, The purest form of

    Afrocentrism places Africa at its center as the source of the worlds peoples and its most

    fundamental ideas and inventions.

    3

    Some Afrocentric beliefs are that Ancient Egypts

    inhabitants were black, and that many of Egypts achievements directly influenced the

    Greek and Roman empires. Provocative Afrocentric thinkers, such as George James, have

    gone as far to say that there is no such thing as Greek philosophy, only stolen Egyptian

    philosophy.4They make these claims because of the staggering evidence they have

    collected over the years. For one, the Pythagoren Theorem, a revolutionary mathematical

    concept accredited to Pythagoras, was actually created by the Egyptians.5Pythagoras

    even received his education in Egypt.6Along with that, interaction between Greeks and

    Egyptians flourished, meaning ideas must have been exchanged between them all the

    time. Overall, Afrocentrism is a point of view that aims to highlight the role Africans

    have had in this world, and to take back their achievements as their own.

    2Cheikh Anta Diop, Birth of the Negro Myth, The African Origin of Civilization

    Myth or Reality, (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1974) pp. 9-103Russell Adams, Afrocentricity,Africana Studies, (Durham: Carolina Academic Press,

    1993) pp. 33-364George James, Stolen Legacy, Greek Philosophy is stolen Egyptian Philosophy,

    (African American Images, 2001; First Published in 1954)5Diop, op.cit.

    6James, loc.cit.

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    Although Afrocentrism has sparked lots of conversation, some of it has taken the

    form of debate. Eurocentric and Afrocentric scholars have clashed on some of the ideas

    regarding Afrocentrism, especially George James view on stolen Egyptian history. One

    notable response to his provocative book was Mary LefkowitzsNot Out of Africa, which

    refutes that Greeks couldnt have gotten all of their ideas from Egypt because there was

    no trustworthy communication between them. She uses Herodotus, a Greek historian

    known to be unreliable, to show that many Greeks attempted to write about the

    Egyptians, but cant be taken for word. She also states that it was difficult for Greeks to

    even travel to Egypt during Persian rule, so if they learned about Egypt from any natives,

    they were received faulty information.7Lefkowitz is not the first to write against

    Afrocentric historians; many scholars have written in ill favor of certain Afrocentric

    concepts, and continue to do so today.

    There are many reasons why one might be against Afrocentric claims, since it

    threatens the authenticity of Western Culture as a whole. However, there is so much

    proof of African achievement andEuropean racism that makes it apparent that the notion

    of an a-historic is a complete myth. Religion, for one, between the Ancient Egyptians and

    Christianity has been found to be strikingly similar. Some themes that can be found of

    Egyptian religion are the creation of the universe, the creation of man and his role in the

    universal scheme.8The people of the Nile Valley were also the first to express a

    profound belief of eternal life. Their Declarations of Innocence are also very

    7Mary Lefkowitz. Ancient Myths of Cultural Dependency,Not Out of Africa, (New

    York: Basic Books, 1996) p. 238Anthony Browder, Nile Valley Religion, Nile Valley Contributions to Civilization,

    (Washington DC: the Institute of Karmic Guidance, 1992) p. 27

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    comparable to the morals stated in the Ten Commandments.9With all of these similarities

    between the Egyptian and Christian religions, its almost impossible to not question what

    other ideas were traded between Egyptians and the Europeans during antiquity.

    Another issue that makes it clear that a-historic Africa is a myth is the amount

    of racism projected on Africans during the time that this notion came to exist. When the

    first modern contacts between Africa and Europe were established, Europe had already

    become fascinated with rapidly developing technology. When Africans didnt have the

    new guns or cannons that they had, they became fixated on converting them to be more

    modern and civilizedpeople. They used the White Mans burden to suggest that they

    wanted to help the Africans, when all they really wanted to conquer their rich resources

    when the Industrial Revolution came around.10

    For these reasons the Negro Myth cannot

    be true, since Africans were projected as inferior in the name of power and greed.

    Since the 15th

    century, the outlook on Africa has been poor, and it continues to

    suffer to this day. Because of Africas isolation, lack of communication, and racism,

    Africa is now seen as a wasteland, and a place that is plagued by poverty and unrest. It is

    the truth, however, that Africa has much more to offer the world, and that its people

    have accomplished more than what is portrayed in the media. Ancient Egypt has proved

    that, but there even more to be said about Africa and its dynamic culture. In the end,

    what everyone should do is be conscious of what information they are being fed, and to

    be more curious about the world they live in. If they all did that, many myths, including

    the Negro Myth, would be debunked.

    9ibid

    10Curtis Keim, The Origins of Darkest Africa,Mistaking AfricaCuriosities and

    Inventions of the American Mind, (Boulder: Westview Press, 2014) pp. 41-45

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