There Are No Black People In Africa
They don't become black until they go to America or come to the U.K.
Isabel Wilkerson, a Pulitzer-winning scholar, recently wrote an intriguing book called 'Caste - The Origins Of Our Discontent.'
I just started reading it, and it's changed my view on so many things. In the book, the author expounds on how the concept of race was entirely invented. The author discusses how, in the making of the 'New World,' Europeans suddenly became white, Africans were now black, and everyone else yellow, red, or brown. Human beings were segregated, set apart, and identified solely in contrast to one another and ranked arbitrarily by the people in power. In the process, members of the society were all cast into assigned roles and, subsequently, a particular caste.
Hasty generalizations always proceed from the particular to the general. People often take a small sample, extrapolate an idea, and then apply it to a larger population. More often than not, they are incorrect. This applies to the faulty notion of 'race.'
The absurdity of 'race' was exposed when the author gave a speech years ago at the British Library in London. A Nigerian-born author was intrigued by the topic she was speaking of - the idea that 6 million African Americans had to seek political asylum within the borders of their own country during the Great Migration, a history that she had not known of. The Nigerian woman decided to chat with the author and said something that startled Isabel in its simplicity.
"You know that there are no black people in Africa," she said.
Americans weaned on the myth of drawable lines between human beings are generally taken aback. That statement sounds nonsensical to our ears. Americans would wonder why anyone would be so silly to suggest there are no black people in Africa. There's an entire continent full of black people. How could anyone not see that?
The Nigerian woman told Isabel, "Africans are not black." She went on to say, "They are Igbo and Yoruba, Ewe, Akan, Ndebele. They are not black. They are just themselves. They are humans on the land. That is how they see themselves, and that is who they are."
The concept of black people is alien to Africans, even though Americans take this as gospel. "They don't become black until they go to America or come to the U.K.," she said. "It is then that they become black."
Unfortunately, it has become far too familiar for people to sympathize with people solely based on their skin color. Why must we have a worldview that treats certain groups of people who have similar physical features as a monolith? What is the basis for mischaracterizing billions of people with dark brown skin into some singular identity?
One example of this is when many assume that the inhabitants of the area called ‘sub-Saharan Africa’ are ubiquitous. There is a narrative that swathes of this part of the continent of Africa are supposedly infested with famine and disease, and there is little land ready for new development. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are about 50 nations in that region representing various people, economies, and landscapes. Two countries who might be grouped under the arbitrary collective phrase of 'sub-Saharan Africa' — Somalia and Ivory Coast, are as distant as London is from Tehran. Ivory Coast's gross domestic product is seven times that of Somalia, roughly equal to the gradation between the U.K. and Iran on a per-capita basis. Proclaiming Iran and U.K. are similar countries is just absurd as suggesting Somalia and Ivory Coast are. But when it comes to the continent of Africa, institutions such as the World Bank and United Nations use terms like 'sub-Saharan' daily.
This false collective is harmful because it inadvertently subdues the preferred identity of the citizens of a tribe, neighborhood, city, state or country, and forces them into a frame chosen by the onlooker.
Gross generalizations like these are the basis of so many of the problems we face in American culture. Everything seems to stem from what sets us apart than what makes us similar. I have more in common with people in a particular geographic area than people who look like me in a different state.
I consider myself an American with brown skin who just so happens to live in New York City. I have several other identities: father, drummer, writer, music history fanatic, lover of nature, boyfriend, liberal, conservative, and many others. My tribe on one day may be the supposed enemy of another on a different day. Who knows, I may be part of two warring tribes, and the members may not even know it.
What I do know is that my view on 'race' has evolved. When people used to say race is a social construct, I didn't understand what they meant. I do now.
I am looking forward to the rest of this eye-opening book.
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Clayton Craddock is a father, independent thinker, and the founder and publisher of the social and political commentary newsletter Think Things Through and host of the Think Things Through Podcast.
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