Why Afrocentricism exists

[Minstrel]

I've noticed alot of folks here have used "afrocentrism" much as PC types would call you out as "rascist", it is a means of discrediting or delegitimizing arguments that do not fall within the conventional (or eurocentric) way of thinking and looking at history. Afrocentrists yes, are quite embarrassing, as are many are their claims, however they are the monster in our closet that exists because they are fillling an intellectual vacuum of scholarship as far as black africa is concerned.

Look in any book on conventional world history. What will you see? Sections on "the dawn of civilization" the "fertile crescent" "the glory of greece" "chinese civilization" "mesoamerica" etc, where is sub-saharan africa? Where is zimbabwe, mali, songhai, aksum? They rarely even make so much of a mention of nubia. If africa is even so much as mentioned, it is solely upon egypt.

Sub-saharan africa is perhaps the most archeologically neglected part of the world. Partly maybe because of the socio-political situation in much of that region, but mostly because of deeply ingrained attitudes ("it has nothing of note to offer") dating back to the colonial era. Untill serious scholars start to take on a more of genuine interest in africa south of the sahara, "Afrocentricism" and all the psuedo-scholarship it entails will continue to fill the void of interest.

Africa is still the "dark continent" in much of the wests eyes. Somebody should shine a light upon it.

[vojta]

I deeply respect Philosophical-Thinking in any race !

[santana]

i agree with you minstrel.. it is a shame that great african civilizations other than egypt are never heard of.. and personally i would love to read more about them!

[SensoUnico]

I call a spade a spade, you are racist Ministrel and someone who feels no shame about thieving the achievements of people who were not negroids and claiming their works as those of negroid people. Liars, thieves and racists. You can justify yourself or explain till you are blue in the face how bad European caucasoids are or how they have stolen the achievements of negroids but it just means one thing to me: it is symptomatic of your American Black inferiority, and your inability to achieve anything on your own merits without lots of help from caucasoids, dogooders and light skinned blacks who have made some efforts to bring the general Black American up to some sort of acceptable level. The people who stopped slavery were caucasoid, the people who got rid of segregation were caucasoids and the people who passed Affirmative Action were caucasoids. What have American Blacks done for themselves without help from others? Whinge and whine like spoiled children. I do not respect you at all. Respect has to be earned, it cannot be given away. Start earning some Creds.

Leave the civilisations in Africa that are not negroid alone and find those civilisations that owe nothing to any other race except the negroid one. And I do not mean anything in NE Africa. Leave those Africans alone. I do not need some American to tell me about Africa. Africa is closer to Europe and Asia than to where you live. So I will know instantly when you start claiming Egypt or Nubia or North Africa or Aksum or anything outside the wholly negroid African sphere of influence and control. You are not P.T Barnum.

[alexandrian]

Minstrel said:

I've noticed alot of folks here have used "afrocentrism" much as PC types would call you out as "rascist", it is a means of discrediting or delegitimizing arguments that do not fall within the conventional (or eurocentric) way of thinking and looking at history. Afrocentrists yes, are quite embarrassing, as are many are their claims, however they are the monster in our closet that exists because they are fillling an intellectual vacuum of scholarship as far as black africa is concerned.

Look in any book on conventional world history. What will you see? Sections on "the dawn of civilization" the "fertile crescent" "the glory of greece" "chinese civilization" "mesoamerica" etc, where is sub-saharan africa? Where is zimbabwe, mali, songhai, aksum? They rarely even make so much of a mention of nubia. If africa is even so much as mentioned, it is solely upon egypt.

Sub-saharan africa is perhaps the most archeologically neglected part of the world. Partly maybe because of the socio-political situation in much of that region, but mostly because of deeply ingrained attitudes ("it has nothing of note to offer") dating back to the colonial era. Untill serious scholars start to take on a more of genuine interest in africa south of the sahara, "Afrocentricism" and all the psuedo-scholarship it entails will continue to fill the void of interest.

Africa is still the "dark continent" in much of the wests eyes. Somebody should shine a light upon it.

You make a valid argument. However, why don't they try to spend time shedding light on more sub-Saharan African accomplishments instead of devoting almost all of their energy on trying to prove that the Ancient Egyptians were black! Or that Hannibal was black! Some even say the Hebrews were black! All of which are blatant lies. Egypt is probably the second most popular ancient civilization after Greece, think of the massive turnout the King Tut tour in America brought out or the Egyptian exhibits at the Louvre, etc. etc. It's no secret that Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and Ancient Mesopotamia accomplished more than any other civilization of the world and helped influence our modern lives more. WHy shouldn't they get more attention.

Why don't African-Americans raised money to study these civilizations instead of making up stuff about Caucasoid North Africans.

[mike2]

You're right, Minstrel, it's a shame that sub-Saharan Africa is overlooked. But the reason it is overlooked is because there is a long-standing attitude, a product of Eurocentrism that you note, that basically says that none of the black civilizations measure up to those of the classic civilizations that were born on the shores of the Mediterranean.

I mean, what do you think people are more likely to think is important to talk about when discussing world history? The empires of Mesopotamia and Egypt and Greece and Rome which led to classical civilization which led to the Dark Ages which led to the Middle Ages which led to the Renaissance which led to the colonization of the New World and a new globalistic identity? Or are people going to think it's more important to learn about a bunch of guys wearing zebra skins beating on drums?

Black Africa is not alone in this. We learn virtually nothing about the civilizations of southeast Asia, Oceania, the Australian aborigines, or the American Indians in school. Oh, sure, we'll hear a few things about the Aztecs and whatnot, but the histories of these people are inevitably only studied when white people or some other powerful civilization like China are involved.

Granted, there are notable black African civilizations besides Nubia and Aksum like Mali, Songhai, Loango, and whatnot, but they are overlooked because they are for the most part shortlived and had little impact on the rest of the world outside the continent of Africa. Or so we have been taught.

I've been studying the Mande peoples of West Africa, and the kingdom of Mali in particular. When people think of Mali, they think of Mansa Musa, Timbuktu, and of course the Mosque of Djenne. I would like to know just how much of that unique culture was invented by the Mande and how much was brought on by Muslim conquerers from the north. Can the architecture be said to represent the skill of the Malinke? Or is it just an imported version of Arab and Berber knowledge?

[topdog]

SensoUnico said:

I call a spade a spade, you are racist Ministrel and someone who feels no shame about thieving the achievements of people who were not negroids and claiming their works as those of negroid people. Liars, thieves and racists. You can justify yourself or explain till you are blue in the face how bad European caucasoids are or how they have stolen the achievements of negroids but it just means one thing to me: it is symptomatic of your American Black inferiority, and your inability to achieve anything on your own merits without lots of help from caucasoids, dogooders and light skinned blacks who have made some efforts to bring the general Black American up to some sort of acceptable level. The people who stopped slavery were caucasoid, the people who got rid of segregation were caucasoids and the people who passed Affirmative Action were caucasoids. What have American Blacks done for themselves without help from others? Whinge and whine like spoiled children. I do not respect you at all. Respect has to be earned, it cannot be given away. Start earning some Creds.

Leave the civilisations in Africa that are not negroid alone and find those civilisations that owe nothing to any other race except the negroid one. And I do not mean anything in NE Africa. Leave those Africans alone. I do not need some American to tell me about Africa. Africa is closer to Europe and Asia than to where you live. So I will know instantly when you start claiming Egypt or Nubia or North Africa or Aksum or anything outside the wholly negroid African sphere of influence and control. You are not P.T Barnum.

Why can't you make a post without attacking people personally? Have you actually read what he wrote? He never made any claims. And quit speaking about us African-Americans as if you're some expert on my people, we've accomplished some much by ourselves, nothing was ever just done for us. Nubia and Aksum are black African civilisations, focus on your sphere, who are you to advise someone about where they should only focus? You tried speaking about the Berber's history only to get rebuked for your blatant misunderstanding, you just don't learn. American Black Inferiority? You're out of your deranged mind!

[topdog]

Mike said:

I've been studying the Mande peoples of West Africa, and the kingdom of Mali in particular. When people think of Mali, they think of Mansa Musa, Timbuktu, and of course the Mosque of Djenne. I would like to know just how much of that unique culture was invented by the Mande and how much was brought on by Muslim conquerers from the north. Can the architecture be said to represent the skill of the Malinke? Or is it just an imported version of Arab and Berber knowledge?

It depends which Mande people you're speaking of. The early kingdom of Ghana arose before Islam reached West Africa. There were no Muslim conquerers from the north who conquered Mali; on the other hand, it was the Mali people who conquered people from the north like the Tuaregs, eventually taking over Timbuktu and turning it into a city of high culture and learning. Moroccans did later on conquer Songhai but they left nothing significant as far as influence. Islamic influence doesn't necessarily entail Arab or Berber influence. You raised some very good points.

[Minstrel]

SensoUnico said:

I call a spade a spade, you are racist Ministrel and someone who feels no shame about thieving the achievements of people who were not negroids and claiming their works as those of negroid people. Liars, thieves and racists. You can justify yourself or explain till you are blue in the face how bad European caucasoids are or how they have stolen the achievements of negroids but it just means one thing to me: it is symptomatic of your American Black inferiority, and your inability to achieve anything on your own merits without lots of help from caucasoids, dogooders and light skinned blacks who have made some efforts to bring the general Black American up to some sort of acceptable level. The people who stopped slavery were caucasoid, the people who got rid of segregation were caucasoids and the people who passed Affirmative Action were caucasoids. What have American Blacks done for themselves without help from others? Whinge and whine like spoiled children. I do not respect you at all. Respect has to be earned, it cannot be given away. Start earning some Creds.

Leave the civilisations in Africa that are not negroid alone and find those civilisations that owe nothing to any other race except the negroid one. And I do not mean anything in NE Africa. Leave those Africans alone. I do not need some American to tell me about Africa. Africa is closer to Europe and Asia than to where you live. So I will know instantly when you start claiming Egypt or Nubia or North Africa or Aksum or anything outside the wholly negroid African sphere of influence and control. You are not P.T Barnum.

WTF is Poohbear talking about? I make a post explaining the causes of afrocentricism, and my favorite childhood bear goes ranting and raving about how I'm a "racist" and what I owe to "european caucosoids". Right now you ar just talking out of your ass, did you even bother to read any of my posts? No, you are jumping to conclusions, make accurate, relevant statements to the topic at hand or STFU.



And on northeast africa. The nubians were without a doubt black africans, the worlds blackest people are found in sudan. Sudanese are mega black, (they look like my avatar lol), to say for me to "stay away from northeast african civilizations because they are not really black" is ignorance. And the aksumites were black africans, not west african black, but if ethiopians/somalians/eritreans are'nt black then neither are most african-americans like me.

[CooCooCachoo]

It is a little weird that from a very early age, kids substitute "nap time" to study the accomplishments of White people.

For kids, history very much is something to feel proud about. And it would behove schools, especially of younger children, to include material that has black accomplishments. (Why not Music history for younger children?)

[Igu]

Minstrel said:

I've noticed alot of folks here have used "afrocentrism" much as PC types would call you out as "rascist", it is a means of discrediting or delegitimizing arguments that do not fall within the conventional (or eurocentric) way of thinking and looking at history. Afrocentrists yes, are quite embarrassing, as are many are their claims, however they are the monster in our closet that exists because they are fillling an intellectual vacuum of scholarship as far as black africa is concerned.

Look in any book on conventional world history. What will you see? Sections on "the dawn of civilization" the "fertile crescent" "the glory of greece" "chinese civilization" "mesoamerica" etc, where is sub-saharan africa? Where is zimbabwe, mali, songhai, aksum? They rarely even make so much of a mention of nubia. If africa is even so much as mentioned, it is solely upon egypt.

Sub-saharan africa is perhaps the most archeologically neglected part of the world. Partly maybe because of the socio-political situation in much of that region, but mostly because of deeply ingrained attitudes ("it has nothing of note to offer") dating back to the colonial era. Untill serious scholars start to take on a more of genuine interest in africa south of the sahara, "Afrocentricism" and all the psuedo-scholarship it entails will continue to fill the void of interest.

Africa is still the "dark continent" in much of the wests eyes. Somebody should shine a light upon it.

.

If you want to speak about zimbabwe as a bright civilization, then you must include Berbers in your fictional version of History. and As a Berber, I think it's ridiculous.

Berber castle:



Zimbabwe:




There is no conspiration against the black race, you are just frustrating other Black people, By discovering that All afrocentrist propaganda is Bullshit they will think they are inferior.

[Minstrel]

If you want to speak about zimbabwe as a bright civilization, then you must include Berbers in your fictional version of History. and As a Berber, I think it's ridiculous.

What is with all these moronic posters posting phantom responses to statements that I never made? WTF does berbers have to do with anything? I never called zimbabwe a "bright civilization" what are you talking about? Why do you always type in riddles and proverbs , you sound like yoda.

BTW Are you trying to tell me that that mud castle you posted is somehow a better acheivement that dry-stone brick architecture of zimbabwe? GTF outta with here with that shit.

[Igu]

Minstrel said:

What is with all these moronic posters posting phantom responses to statements that I never made? WTF does berbers have to do with anything? I never called zimbabwe a "bright civilization" what are you talking about? Why do you always type in riddles and proverbs , you sound like yoda.

BTW Are you trying to tell me that that mud castle you posted is somehow a better acheivement that dry-stone brick architecture of zimbabwe? GTF outta with here with that shit.

Just because you're not arab/muslim, I'm gonna answer you nicely and I will forgot that I'm a moron and that I have to "GTF outta here" ;D

-You said that zimbabwe had to be present in History, then I gave you the example of Berbers' achivements during the same era. then I said that both were not that bright and should not be included in History along with egypt and greece.

-Because "afro-americans" always whine and see racism everywhere, I used an example that concerns my own people. that's why there are Berbers in my post, capicce?