Having listened to the discussion over the past few days about
Curtin's "Ghettoization" and alternating between rage and incredulity
I now see that locating Egypt in Africa is somehow a fabrication of
"Afrocentric" scholars. I believe Dubois said in his *The World And
Africa*, something to the effect that Eurocentrism has led to the
amputation of Egypt- a geographical miracle - from the continent and
its grafting on to Europe.
As one who has taught "Ancient Africa" and having started a bit
skeptical of some "Afrocentric" claims I must say that the Nile
Valley is an integral part of Africa and was a "highway" connecting
"tropical" (already an error. Zimbabwe, South Africa tropical!?!)
Africa with the North. The further back you go the more integrated the
continent was. Dessication of the Sahara was not complete when
Upper and Lower Egypt united. Pretty Recent?
I think one point of Bernal is that we are still laboring under a
particular construction of Egypt's history that negates its role in
what I like to characterize as a "Meditteranian Culture". Greece,
Carthage, Egypt, etc. were so linked that one can't argue for the
sanitized characterizations of "Western", "African" etc. that comes
in vogue with late 18th and 19th centry pseudo scientific racism.
It's only in this period when Race became an important social
category that it became so important to claim that Greece emerged,
flowered and gave birth to European civilization without influence of
Egypt. We're still laboring under this racist construction.
And as an African American scholar I really don't understand how anyone
can insist that Black scholars "control" our field. Where are they?
On the board of J.A.H.? Editing major African book series?!? Holding
forth in the major departments producing African historians? UCLA?!
Wisconsin!? Boston!?!
Secondly - as a Black scholar of Africa and being American born I
can't think of a single situation in which race is irrelevant. If
you're on the job market it either works for you or against you.
But it is never neutral. And that goes for being white as well.
Part of being human - since we all have skin and we live in a world
in which race (the most unscientific of categories) means something
(because it is socially and politically constructed) - is being
located somewhere in this classification.
Anyone who claims to be color blind is dishonest. If they're white,
let them get in an elevator alone w/ a Black man and see if they feel
the same as they would w/ a white one. If they're black, ask how it
feels to walk into a store and have the clerks follow you around.
This current period is so racialy polarized that this country is, I
believe, on the brink of another racial explosion. How on earth can
anyone transcend this so much as to claim that our field - the field
that is rooted in colonialist constructions - has no "racial"
problems of its own? Should the study of black people on the
continent be exempt from Affirmative Action goals since the field
"helps" Black people by studying them!?! No.
African historians are just like any other group in America. And the
historic injustices that lead to overlooking a qualified - and
sometimes over qualified - Black scholar for a job in deference to a
white male scholar - the ghettoization that Curtin et al lived w/ for
decades with no problems about "standards" of the field existed in
our field as well. You should read the accounts of how people like
Herskovits interacted with African American scholars like DuBois, St.
Claire Drake, etc. If you speak with some of the older Black scholars
of Africa you hear some incredible horror stories. If you talk with
some of the younger ones you would too. I think people should do that
before they tell us that there is no racism in the field.
I'm sure we'll have many, many more discussions about this. The main point
is , whenever this country runs through an economic crisis and jobs are
in short supply we Black Americans take the brunt of the critique.
Has anyone noticed that? We sure have!!