Image: Building More Stately Mansions. By Jacob Lawrence. 1944. Oil on Canvas, Fisk University Libraries, Nashville TN.
First, a few housekeeping details:
- Remember that this class doesn’t use Blackboard. Check the course website every week for updates and detailed reading instructions which will appear on this page
- Get a copy of the two required course book if you haven’t done so already. You will need it to do the reading assignments for the rest of the semester. The bookstore claims to now have rental copies in stock: check with them.
- There’s a class WhatsApp group that is helpful–or so I’m told since I’m not on it. Anyhow, check it out if you haven’t yet.
- I’ll be post a PDF file of chapter 4 on the Readings page for those still waiting for the book: look for it Saturday
On the weekly Zoom sessions:
- The sessions are being recorded. Audio on the Zoom lectures page.
Still figuring out the best way to post them. Stay tuned. - Sign-up info for weekly Zoom sessions is on the Zoom meet info page. I recommend saving the meeting ID and password in your calendar or elsewhere to easily join
Quick highlights from fourth class on 2/24
- Website review
- Zoom wait room music: Gary Bartz and Ntu Troop’s “I’ve Known Rivers“
- Musical selection: Randy Weston’s “African Cookbook.”
- Reviewed Chapter 3 from Introduction to Black Studies
- See the Lecture Notes page for a PDF of the slide deck presented in class
- UPDATE: Zoom audio now posted on the Zoom lectures page. (Same password as everything else on the site.)
What to do for Week 5–March 3:
- Read: the first half of Chapter 4 (Africans in America) in Maulana Karenga’s Introduction to Black Studies (Sections 4.1-4.9 only; pages 105-147: PDF on the Readings page
on Saturdayposeted!).- Pay special attention to the subsections on The Holocaust of Enslavement, System of Enslavement, Reconstruction, Booker T. Washington, WEB DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Ida B. Wells
- Pay special attention to Critical Thinking questions 1 and 3 on p. 185, especially the comparisons between the people named above
- More focused questions TBA
- Read “African American Historians and the Reclaiming of African History” by Dr. John Henrik Clarke (PDF on the Readings page)
RESPOND to one idea in the chapter and DISCUSS it with classmates and myself with the comment board at the bottom of this post
ATTEND the weekly Zoom session @ 6 PM EST on Wednesday March 3
General reading strategies:
- Underline/highlight key points in the text
- Use the reading questions at the back of chapters to focus you: read those first
- Try to understand the definitions of the key concepts listed at the back of the chapter
- Make a note to ask the instructor to clarify anything you don’t understand
- Note key issues, approaches, and dilemmas/challenges Dr. Karenga outlines
Discussion questions
- How do Drs. Clarke and Karenga think we should approach history?
- How does the defeat of Reconstruction shape the lives of Black people in the US?
- What forms of resistance do Black people in the US enngage in?
- What organizations do Black people form for advancement and resistance?
- What differences and similarities do you see between DuBois, Washington, Garvey, and Wells-Barnett?
What’s Next?
Chapter 4, second half in Introduction to Black Studies: “Black History: Africans in America”
Comments on posts:
Scroll all the way to the bottom of the post for the “Leave a Comment” button below. Here’s how it works: you can use this to discuss points raised here. A few points:
- Your first comment will have to be approved by me: after that, you can comment without approval
- Comments section will only be open to enrolled students
- You have to leave your name (enter as first name and last initial only) so a) I can make sure only people in the class are commenting and b) you get credit for the comment
- Remember to be respectful, especially when responding to classmates
- The comments section closes 14 days after a post goes live
To ‘participate’ in the class, I’d like to see everyone 1) post a substantive comment of their own based on either the reading or my lecture using some of the questions raised or conversation prompts, and 2) to respond thoughtfully to someone else’s comment—not just agree/disagree, but add on evidence or ask a follow-up question. You can also ask a question–for me or others–but that doesn’t count toward your comment and reply needed for the grade. It’s fine with me if conversation continues in a thread as long as it does, but two responses showing a clear engagement with the reading will count for being ‘present.’ Does that make sense? You have two weeks to write those two comments for credit.
Introduction to Africana Studies 
Chapter 4 has been on of the most interesting chapters so far, the first half of this chapter managed to giving me a new much needed new perspective of the Ensalvement Holocaust and its impacts to Africa and it’s people. The Ensalvement Holocaust is often refer in our Text books and history as simply the slave trade which could suggest a normal financial transactions of slaves or human capital ignoring the Physical, Cultural, Economic genocide that took place. The Ensalvement holocaust as a whole gives some understanding on why most African nations are underdeveloped dispite abundance of natural resources in comparison to Eauropean, Asian or American countries. The physical genocide that took place obviously had drastic consequesces to the development of African nations, not only these nations lost humans but also their current and future contribution of these people were forcibly transferred to other nations.
Another interesting topic of this chapter were the peaces on Booker T Washington, W.E.B Dubois, Marcus Garvey and Ida B. Wells-Barnett and how some of these individuals even when they wanted the best for their people did not agree with each other’s philosophies. Booker T Washington believed in economic integration and becoming essential to the economy, he believe having economic power was the better path to freedom then fighting for political power. W.E.B Dubois did not agree with Booker T Washington on giving up political power but he did agree on the economic argument but not on the economic sectors mentioned by Washington (Agriculture, mechanics, commerce, domestic service). Dubois also proposed a plan of his own. An intellectual and political vanguard, multidimensional education, cultural nationalism and pluralism, political rights, pan-Africanism and unity over common interst and struggles. Marcus Garvey was also in favor of economic self-help however he was critical of Dubois over participation with the NAACP. Marcus Garvey believe that economic independence was a must and that a race could not survive depending on another. Ida B. wells-Barnett was another important leader in American history who managed to fight for her people as a whole collaboring with Booker T Washington, W.E.B Dubois, Marcus Garvey and other but also fighting for the liberation of women
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Angel, I also found the discussion of the “underdevelopment” of Africa, as Prof. Williams explained in class last Wednesday, to be very thought provoking. Walter Rodney’s arguments are really compelling–that the colonial projects of resource extraction as well as the depletion of African humanity caused by the Holocaust of Enslavement not only slowed African progress, but robbed the continent of a great deal of human potential for all types of innovation, invention, prosperity, and growth.
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Some of the evidence that Van Sertima used to prove African presence in Olmec civilization were, Olmec heads (Tres Zapotes) showing Ethopian type braids, sculptures of African type that reflects the coloration and texture of African hair, and reaffirmation of skeletal evidence. A major evidence was the Olmec civilization in which Van Sertima found African Presence. Eleven colossal heads in South West Mexico carved out of basalt, are men portrayed with characteristic Olmec features such as thick heavy lips, full cheeks, broad nostrils, and almost swollen eyelids that only Africans would have. The basis for enslavement had three major factors, its profitability, its practicality, and its justifiability. It shocked me to learn that Africans did not come to America first on enslavement ship, but that they came to America as voyagers and that they came before Columbus. The school system has taught us that the first steps Africans took on the American soil were through slave ships, and that Columbus “discovered” America. Even with them leaving their mark in places like the Olmec civilization, this information is still unknown to so many people.
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To be honest I also thought the same way how African were introduced to America threw the slave trade first. So maybe that is a sign that the education system really should review and update their facts.
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I read a couple of interesting things pertaining to Africans and their worldview etc. John Clarke for example
talked about European influence in Africa etc. It talked about slavery in Africa and how Africans were
basically not getting enough credit for things etc.
The article by Karanja, African Studies and research methodology i learned what Africana means.
Africana basically means global population of the African people. I also learned that Worldview is
how the africans saw life and their surroundings. the purpose of Africana studies is to provide
knowledge to the world pertaining to African history, basically study their culture, etc.
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It is sad how Africans did not the credit they deserve for a lot of the things they did. From creating statues, to exploring these countries before their life was turn upside down. I’m happy that Van Sertima proved the existence of African presences in the Olmec civilization.
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Facts you are right African’s were instrumental in many ways in our history, and it was European influence
in Africa that made Europeans seem as they were superior, making profits of African’s etc. but regardless
of what Africa is the motherland, it is were people got their identity and development etc.
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I agree with you 100% Joyce. If it wasn’t for Van Sertima, people til this day would still believe that the Europeans were the ones who came up with those ideas and tools.
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Hello Ismail,
as you mention in your post I was also interested in the information I read in the article. I was also shocked to know that African history was being diminished and distorted. Yes I have read some of the information and learn about in other classes but never to this detailed and till the expect the article portrays it. The article not only helped me understand the struggle of African America to find their identity but also how hard their work not only to change the term that describe them but to have a legit space in academic history.
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The withdrawal of Federal troops from the South in 1877-78—an event that marked the end of Reconstruction—set off new waves of violence toward Black Americans and accelerated strategies of economic disenfranchisement. Federal marshals withdrew from the South in 1894, and in 1896, the Supreme Court instituted a policy of “separate but equal” through its ruling in Plessy vs. Ferguson. Throughout those years, white terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and White Camelias, added members and engaged in unpunished, extralegal race-based attacks, systemic expulsions of African Americans from communities throughout the South, as well as an epidemic of lynching. The courageous journalist Ida B. Wells wrote frequently about murder by mob violence and other barbaric acts toward African Americans. White terrorism served several functions, not the least of which was intimidation at the polls, after the grant of voting rights for African-American men in the Fifteenth Amendment. Rampant violence toward African-Americans also served as a “push” to encourage migration out of the South, especially into Midwest and Northern urban industrial cities where labor shortages during the First World War held the promise of employment.
The early years of Reconstruction had offered the promise of reforms and greater rights for African Americans. However, Dr. Karenga points out three major structural issues that remained unresolved and contributed to the failure of Reconstruction. First, the South had been built on the assumption of free labor, and was overly reliant on an agricultural economy, whereas other parts of the country were building economies based on industrialization. Then, the racist political order of the South remained intact, in spite of the massive changes implied by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, ending slavery, conferring citizenship and voting rights. Finally, without a way to reshape societal thinking toward a more egalitarian social and legal order, African American remained at risk of violence and economic subjugation. Although the U.S. Constitution had changed, regional authorities enacted Black Codes, which perpetuated the persecution of Black Americans and continued the impunity for acts of violence perpetrated under the previous Slave Codes (an impunity we continue to see today, all too often, when police commit lethal acts of violence against African Americans).
In spite of the failure of Reconstruction to reshape American, and particularly southern American, attitudes, Black Americans forged a number of remarkable accomplishments in the decades after the Civil War. On the political front, twenty-two African Americans were elected to the U.S. Congress, including two senators. Then, in spite of the failure of the U.S. government to follow through on the promise of land grants codified by General William T. Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15 in 1865 as well as the Freedman’s Bureau Acts, in the years between Emancipation and the beginning of the First World War, African Americans privately acquired some fifteen million acres of land (see property law scholar Thomas W. Mitchell’s comprehensive article on this subject: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1783&context=facscholar). Also, in the Oklahoma Territories between 1865 and 1915, African Americans founded more than fifty all-Black towns and settlements. However, at every step of the way, entrenched racist attitudes sought to preserve the social order as it had existed before the Civil War.
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Emancipation and the beginning of the First World War, African Americans privately acquired some fifteen million acres of land (see property law scholar Thomas W. Mitchell’s comprehensive article on this subject: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1783&context=facscholar). Also, in the Oklahoma Territories between 1865 and 1915, African Americans founded more than fifty all-Black towns and settlements. However, at every step of the way, entrenched racist attitudes sought to preserve the social order as it had existed before the Civil War.
The withdrawal of Federal troops from the South in 1877-78—an event that marked the end of Reconstruction—set off new waves of violence toward Black Americans and accelerated strategies of economic disenfranchisement. Federal marshals withdrew from the South in 1894, and in 1896, the Supreme Court instituted a policy of “separate but equal” through its ruling in Plessy vs. Ferguson. Throughout those years, white terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and White Camelias, added members and engaged in unpunished, extralegal race-based attacks, systemic expulsions of African Americans from communities throughout the South, as well as an epidemic of lynching. The courageous journalist Ida B. Wells wrote frequently about murder by mob violence and other barbaric acts toward African Americans. White terrorism served several functions, not the least of which was intimidation at the polls, after the grant of voting rights for African-American men in the Fifteenth Amendment. Rampant violence toward African-Americans also served as a “push” to encourage migration out of the South, especially into Midwest and Northern urban industrial cities where labor shortages during the First World War held the promise of employment.
The early years of Reconstruction had offered the promise of reforms and greater rights for African Americans. However, Dr. Karenga points out three major structural issues that remained unresolved and contributed to the failure of Reconstruction. First, the South had been built on the assumption of free labor, and was overly reliant on an agricultural economy, whereas other parts of the country were building economies based on industrialization. Then, the racist political order of the South remained intact, in spite of the massive changes implied by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, ending slavery, conferring citizenship and voting rights. Finally, without a way to reshape societal thinking toward a more egalitarian social and legal order, African American remained at risk of violence and economic subjugation. Although the U.S. Constitution had changed, regional authorities enacted Black Codes, which perpetuated the persecution of Black Americans and continued the impunity for acts of violence perpetrated under the previous Slave Codes (an impunity we continue to see today, all too often, when police commit lethal acts of violence against African Americans).
In spite of the failure of Reconstruction to reshape American, and particularly southern American, attitudes, Black Americans forged a number of remarkable accomplishments in the decades after the Civil War. On the political front, twenty-two African Americans were elected to the U.S. Congress, including two senators. Then, in spite of the failure of the U.S. government to follow through on the promise of land grants codified by General William T. Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15 in 1865 as well as the Freedman’s Bureau Acts, in the years between Emancipation and the beginning of the First World War, African Americans privately acquired some fifteen million acres of land (see property law scholar Thomas W. Mitchell’s comprehensive article on this subject: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1783&context=facscholar). Also, in the Oklahoma Territories between 1865 and 1915, African Americans founded more than fifty all-Black towns and settlements. However, at every step of the way, entrenched racist attitudes sought to preserve the social order as it had existed before the Civil War.
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Please delete this comment, Prof. My first attempt to post my weekly comment failed, and unfortunately, when I tried again, I cut and pasted this from my working Word Document, which accidentally added a paragraph in the beginning. Thank you.
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This chapter taught me how something as simple as using the word enslavement, even (and, perhaps, especially today since we can only contribute to the present moment in any meaningful way), as opposed to the more commonly seen term “slavery” can profoundly impact our discussions when citing history as a way to educate, heal, improve, grow. To call it slavery is to make it a passive thing, something that simply happened, rather than what it was: an intentionally and consistently brutal, inhumane subjugation of Black people by Europe and America over a period of hundreds of years. Using instead the much more apt “Enslavement” is a tiny tweak that makes a gigantic difference in conveying the truth of the thing. The Holocaust of Enslavement gets us that much closer, as far as words (and especially so few words) can to expressing the truth of what must be faced by all who speak of historical past. Further, to reduce the many horrors of what Black people suffered once enslaved to “slave trade” as if it’s in any way something that can naturally be categorized as a business or commerce, as only things can be, is insult to injury (to put it extremely lightly).
We are also introduced to some of the foremost leaders of advocacy for the advancement of Black people, such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, and Ida B. Wells- Barnett. When first reading the brief overview of each of these icons, I found myself agreeing most with W.E.B. DuBois, but all had such merit to their particular tack that, after reading and then re-reading each’s approach, I found myself wishing that they could have formed some kind of coalition to work as one. As is so often the case with world-changing movements of staggering importance, different leaders emerge and internecine disagreements arise. Booker T. Washington seemed to take more of a “baby steps” or “Rome wasn’t built in a day” approach. I respect that in some ways, because one does have to consider the times and where things start. He was shrewd and playing off of the Southern Whites’ ignorance and fear, knew when and where to begin making inroads, something to build on. On the other hand, W.E.B. DuBois and Marcus Garvey demanded much more, and with speed. I can relate so much to that and, especially as someone living in modern times, it feels easy and righteous to align with DuBois’ refusal to kowtow to the racist White’s insistence on superiority to Black people, even after the war, after government had finally freed them and made them citizens endowed with Constitutional rights. DuBois vehemently and full-throatedly disagreed with Washington’s “take what we can get for now” approach, and his reluctance to insist on political power, but Washington seemed to feel that this was easy to say from his ivory tower, where as a Black man born free in Massachusetts and had 3 degrees from Harvard (and was the first Black person to earn a PhD!), DuBois perhaps had experienced so much more personal advancement than most Black people in America (and certainly in the South) and could not see the advantages of compromise for those that had such a long way to go in the midst of still-prevalent White ignorance and oppression. That being said, I see no reason that Washington couldn’t have worked with DuBois to find a slow-and-steady pursuit of political power for the Black population, since surely he could see DuBois’s clear-eyed and scholarly reasoning for the necessity in doing so. Marcus Garvey was aligned with Washington eschewing the pursuit of political power in America, but mainly because his foremost goal was to make Africa home again to the Diaspora, rebuild there and restore it to its original glory, advance it to liberate and protect Black people worldwide. Garvey’s was a mighty and impressive purpose, and I can see why Garvey and DuBois most especially clashed, and less so why Garvey did not equally abhor Washington’s willingness to accept some of the White man’s version of Black people as “lower”. In some ways, it reminds me of the modern-day conflict between Liberals and Leftists, who on the surface would appear to have the same endgame, but a different approach in how to go about achieving it – Leftists are uncompromising and feel we have already spent far too long standing idly by (or close enough) and the time for change is not only now, but yesterday, and liberals continue to compromise with centrists over and over in a more measured way, understanding that it is largely through collaboration and compromise that things move forward, however slowly. – Julie W.
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Hello,
I also learned the importance a simple word can have on a significant event like the Africa slavery Holocaust. The words that we have been accustomed to, Slave trade or slavery have done a great job at hiding the atrocities that African people suffered by making it seem like a simple financial transaction.
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Yes, I really hope the textbooks used in history classes are updated to reflect the correct terminology, because it feels like using the antiquated descriptors of “slave” vs. “enslaved person” or “slave trade” vs. “Holocaust of Enslavement” is still majorly problematic even if the rest of the text condemns the behavior and rightfully paints it as a shameful stain on our history. Doesn’t sit right with me to see it still referred to that way in modern texts!
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When reading the chapter it expresses The Holocause of Enslavement in three ways the first is a morally monstrous destruction of human life- millions of persons killed, the second a morally monstrous destruction of human culture- cities, towns, villages, great works of art and literatures destroyed, and lastly the morally monstrous destruction of human possibility.
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Well, first of all this article exploded my mind . I don’t want to sound ignorant but i was very impressed when reading the article i found out by Van Sertima (1976,1992,1998) clarify that the first African came first to america not as enslaved persons, but as explorers, traders and visitors . this article change the history from Beginning to and because for long time the school system are teaching us the wrong history. in other hands, Christopher Columbus was never the first to arrive in america as we have always been taught in American History. proving one more time that african people they were foreign travelers who want to know new horizons like each one of us .
Also one of the chapter that really impresses me was The Holocaust of Enslavement that expressed itself in three basic ways 1: Morally monstrous destruction of human life 2: morally monstrous destruction of human culture and 3: the morally monstrous destruction of human possibility. taking absolute freedom away to african people for over 500 sometimes it is even referred to as the ‘African Holocaust’ because the estimated lives lost because of the slave trade is thought to be up to 100 million. And in 1691 this hideous practise was introduced to America and continued for another 250 years and it was only in the 18th century that America began to question the morality of slavery…
chapter 4 was very intense but I the same time very educated
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@ Ismail Shokeye i agree with you and feels so bad when the school system doesn’t teach us the true about black history . honestly, this book is very intense but i the same time is telling the true… I also learn i lot with you. guys.. Thank you for sharing your thoughts …
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Brigida
I too agree with Ismail growing up in the islands we were only taught European History because we were colonized by the British and what I am learning about black history is by reading myself and now this class has enlighten me some more. I knew of Marcus Garvey probably because he was West Indian.
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How does the defeat of Reconstruction shape the lives of Black people in the US?
The defeat of Reconstruction shape the lives of Black people in the US lead to failure of the federal government to give Blacks land and equipment that forced them into semi-enslaved status, the returned of Southerners to status of respect represented by the repeal of the loyalty oath requirement for re entering national political life, the rise of the White terrorist societies like the KKK, the Supreme Court’s eroding constitutional and legislative gains for Blacks through rulings favorable to the South, and the disintegration of the old coalition of abolitionist, radical republicans, & northern industrialists through fatigue, retirement, disenchantment, and the push for social peace in the South which would allow economic growth.
What forms of resistance do Black people in the US engage in?
Emigrationism – The push to emigrate back to Africa or go elsewhere where Africans could be free and self-determined
Cultural Resistance – is the retention, creation, and use of culture to inspire and sustain the struggle for freedom and maintain one’s humanity
Day-To-Day Resistance – The daily refusal and challenge with which Africans confronted the enslavement system such as sabotage, breaking tools, taking property, destroying crops, etc.
Abolitionism – The effort to ending enslavement
Armed Resistance – such as ship mutinies, guerrilla warfare, Afro-Mexican alliance & struggle, and Afro-Native American alliance & struggle.
What organizations do Black people form for advancement and resistance?
Black women’s national club movement – formed as Black women became more urbanized, developed more organizations, and had greater access to education
NACW (the National Association of Colored Women) – their concerns were education, lynching of Black men, women, and children, White sexual abuse and attacks on the moral character of the Black women, health care, child care service and housing for orphans, care for the elderly, job training and the broad struggle for social justice and equal rights
The Niagara Movement – was formed by W.E.B DuBois and others to fight against injustice. It demanded the right to justice, the vote, education, the abolition of Jim Crow, equal treatment in the armed forces and enforcement of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments
NAACP – went on to launch and win effective campaigns against lynching and Jim Crowism and to secure the vote
Urban League – devoted to social welfare programs
What differences and similarities do you see between DuBois, Washington, Garvey, and Wells-Barnett?
W.E.B DuBois – DuBois disagrees with Washington’s leadership calling Washington’s Atlanta Exposition speech the “Atlanta Compromise” criticizing him for silencing his critics in unprincipled ways and trying to maintain a monopoly on Black leadership.
Booker T. Washington – Washington’s thought and practice were molded by his experience in enslavement, his education at Hampton Institute, the tasks before him at Tuskegee, and his reading of the sociohistorical setting in which he operated.
Marcus Garvey – a Pan-Africanist dedicated to the liberation of Africa and building a nation-state Africa that would demand the rights and respect of Africans everywhere.
– Garvey admired Washington’s stress on social separateness, racial solidarity, economic self-help and self-sufficiently and institution building.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett – helped shape African and US history and left a legacy of ideas and practices which inform current conceptions and social action.
– Her ideas foreshadowed and prefigured womanist, Black Power, armed self-defense, civil and human rights.
– Did not accept Washington’s accommodation to segregation nor Garvey’s larger goal of national self-determination, but she agreed with them on building strong community institutions, the essentiality of education, and economic strength
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The defeat of reconstruction was bad for African Americans. They had just been freed and were not treated fairly in the south. What reconstruction did was basically provide them protection from discrimination and racisms. When it fell military troops were forced to retreat and African American’s were no longer under their protection leaving them susceptible to racism and other parties that hated them like the KKK. Black people in the U.S engaged in all type of resistance. There were even groups of people who formed to make an organization to resist enslavement. Some of these forms of resistance were Emigration to a place were slavery was not accepted. Ship mutinies were slaves being transported and would fight and take over those ships. Another form was the alliance with Mexico where Africans who escaped would go to Mexico in search of protection and it was close to the south. This was mostly due to Mexicans and Americans not agreeing very much also they had lost Texas and California plus other states to America. Plus other forms of resistance. Some organizations that helped the advancement of slavery and formed the resistance was the Abolitionist. They were one of the keys that helped abolish slavery. However before they did that they helped establish the underground railroad which did help many slaves escape to the north. By using their homes to house runaway slaves and some like Fredrick Douglas who fought for reform through articles they wrote. The differences between DuBois, Washington, Garvey, and Well- Barnett were their different views on how freed African Americans can rebuild themselves to make a face for themselves. You see Booker T. Washington wanted African Americans to pull themselves up on their own and not let grievances stand in their way. Garvey was an admirer of Washington so he himself agreed with this. But DuBois and Wells- Barnett both disagreed with them because they believed that this program was flawed and voted on strengthening the education of African Americans.
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John Henrik Clarke’s reading begins by explaining the well known fact that African american find it beyond difficult to find their own identity. The reason being is because since African people were brought to the United States by force as slaves their heritage was lost after their arrival. Yet the world struggles to bring to light that Africa and their people had a history older than the history their oppressors wanted to portray in their books and movies. The reading mentions the essay “The African Roots of the War” which was an essay that prove that at first the European compared African cities and cultures to their own at an equal level. And soon every early black writers in the United States learned that Africa was an important factor to the world’s history and that it’s history should not be told by their oppressors and their history should not be erased. Therefore the words like negros, black, and colored should be stopped and the proper term will be Africans. In 1787 the free African society was organized and lead by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. And helped with services like social agencies, publishers, community centers and sometimes as hiding places for escaped slaves. In the end of the 19th century Africans in the Caribbean Islands, South America and in the United states continued to object towards the distorted history of Africa. In which Dr. Edward Wilmot Blyden sounded the note which came to be a new approach to the teaching of African history and culture. His main mission was the liberation of all Africa. One of his first works and major works was “The Suppression of Africa Slave-Trade”. Books like “The Negro” portrayed the imparialist orgins of the first world war and Africa in general. As time the acceptance of the facts of Black History and the black historian to be legitimate part of the academic community did not come easy. And even though slavery ended it left behind a false history, faded images that the oppressors were taking over and telling history that was not true. Therefore Clarke portrays the raw facts of all the African history and that how we should approach history. Even though it might not be what we want we have to see it rawly. Not change it or diminish it with time.
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