Anti-African sentiment

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Anti-African sentiment, Afroscepticism, or Afrophobia is prejudice, hostility, discrimination, or racism towards people and cultures of Africa and of the African diaspora. [1]

Contents

Prejudice against Africans and people of African descent has a long history, dating back to ancient history, although it was especially prominent during the Atlantic slave trade, the trans-Saharan slave trade, and the colonial period. Under the pretence of white supremacism, Africans were often portrayed by Europeans as uncivilised and primitive, with colonial conquest branded civilising missions. Due to the use of oral tradition, and subsequent lack of written histories in most African cultures, African people were portrayed as having no history at all, despite having a long, complex, and varied history. [2] In the United States, Afrophobia influenced Jim Crow laws and segregated housing, schools, and public facilities. [3] In South Africa, it took the form of apartheid. [4]

In recent years, there has been a rise in Afrophobic hate speech and violence in Europe and the United States. This has been attributed to a number of factors, including the growth of the African diaspora in these regions, the increase in refugees and migrants from Africa, and the rise of far-right and populist political parties. [5] [6]

In October 2017, the United Nations' Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent (WGEPAD) told the Human Rights Council that the human rights situation of Africans and people of African descent remained an urgent concern, citing racist violence, police brutality and killings, and systemic racism. [7] Earlier that year, WGEPAD had recommended the term Afrophobia be used to describe "the unique and specific form of racial discrimination affecting people of African descent and African Diaspora". [8]

Terminology

Anti-African sentiment is prejudice or discrimination towards any of the various traditions and peoples of Africa for their perceived Africanness. [9] [1] It is distinct from, but may overlap with, Anti-Black racism or Negrophobia, which is contempt specifically for Black people of sub-Saharan African descent, excluding other Africans such as white Africans or North Africans. [10] The term Afrophobia may be used to describe both anti-Black racism and anti-African sentiment more broadly. [11] [12] [9]

Afrophobia

This section is an excerpt from Anti-Black racism § Afrophobia.[ edit ]
Afrophobia, or Afriphobia, is often used to describe racism (particularly systemic racism) against Black people of African descent, such as by the European Network Against Racism (ENAR). [13] [14] Others use Afrophobia to describe racism and xenophobia against people of African descent, and against especially indigenous Africans, for their perceived Africanness. This may also include prejudice against African traditions and culture. For example, Afrophobia is used to describe xenophobia in South Africa against people of other African nationalities for being too racially Black, too culturally African, or both. [15]

The opposite of Afrophobia is Afrophilia, which is a love for all things pertaining to Africa. [1]

Afroscepticism

Anti-African sentiment and Afroscepticism are comparable terms to anti-Europeanism and Euroscepticism. Afroscepticism is positioned as an opposition to Africanity (the idea of a shared African culture), Africanization , or Afrocentrism , often seen as facets of Pan-Africanism. [16] [17] [18] Afroscepticism may include embracing Afropessimism, and rejecting traditional African practices or "African Indigenous Knowledge Systems". [19] [20] [21] The Afropessimist view sees Africa in terms of "the negative traits described by AIDS, war, poverty and disease", and thus as unable to be helped. [22]

Anti-Black racism

This section is an excerpt from Anti-Black racism § Anti-Black racism.[ edit ]

Anti-Black racism was a term first used by Canadian scholar Dr. Akua Benjamin in a 1992 report on Ontario race relations. It is defined as follows:

Anti-Black racism is a specific manifestation of racism rooted in European colonialism, slavery and oppression of Black people since the sixteenth century. It is a structure of iniquities in power, resources and opportunities that systematically disadvantages people of African descent. [23]

The term quickly came to be used to refer to racism against other groups also considered Black, [24] [25] such as Indigenous Australians (who sometimes prefer the term Blak ) and Melanesians. [26] [27]

The term racism is not attested before the 20th century, [28] but negrophobia (first recorded between 1810–1820; often capitalised), and later colourphobia (first recorded in 1834), [29] [30] likely originated within the abolitionist movement, where it was used as an analogy to rabies (then called hydrophobia) to describe the "mad dog" mindset behind the pro-slavery cause and its apparently contagious nature. [31] [32] [33] [34] J. L. A. Garcia refers to negrophobia as "the granddaddy" of terms such as xenophobia, Islamophobia and homophobia. [33] Melanophobia has been used to refer to both anti-Black racism [35] and colourism (prejudice against people with darker skin), especially in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. [36] [37] [38]

By location

It has been observed that writing and terminology about racism, including about Afrophobia, has been somewhat centered on the US.[ citation needed ] In 2016, "Afrophobia" has been used as a term for racism against darker-skinned persons in China. In such usage, that is an inexact term because the racism is directed against darker-skinned persons from anywhere, without regard to any connection to Africa. Conversely, Chinese views for lighter-than-average skin are more positive, as is reflected in advertising. [39]

Scientific racism

Colonial historiography

Most African societies used oral tradition to record their history, meaning there was little written history. Colonial histories focussed on the exploits of soldiers, colonial administrators, and "colonial figures", using limited sources and written from an entirely European perspective, ignoring the viewpoint of the colonised under the pretence of white supremacism. [40] Africans were considered racially inferior, supporting their "civilising mission". [41] Oral sources were deprecated and dismissed by most historians, giving them the impression Africa had no history and little desire to create it. [42] Some colonisers took interest in the other viewpoint and attempted to produce a more detailed history of Africa using oral sources and archaeology, however they received little recognition at the time. [43]

Stereotypes of Africa

This section is an excerpt from Stereotypes of Africa.[ edit ]
Stereotypes about Africa, Africans, and African culture are common, especially in the Western World. [44] [45] European imperialism was often justified on paternalistic grounds, portraying Africa as less civilized, and Africans as less capable of civilizing themselves. [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] As of the 2010s, these stereotypes persisted in European media. [51] [52]

Activism

To overcome any perceived "Afrophobia", writer Langston Hughes suggested that European Americans must achieve peace of mind and accommodate the uninhibited emotionality of African Americans.[ citation needed ] Author James Baldwin similarly recommended that White Americans could quash any "Afrophobia" on their part by getting in touch with their repressed feelings, empathizing to overcome their "emotionally stunted" lives, and thereby overcome any dislike or fear of African Americans. [53]

Originally established in 1998 by "approximately 150" organisations from across the European Union, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) aimed to combat "racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism — the accepted categories of the anti-racist struggle at that time". However, Afrophobia wasn't specifically named as a focus of the network until 2011, at the behest of Black civil rights activists. [11]

In 2016, Tess Asplund made a viral protest against Neo-Nazism as part of her activism against Afrophobia. [54]

In academia

Some Afrophobic sentiments are based on the belief that Africans are unsophisticated. Such perceptions include the belief that Africans lack a history of civilization, and visual imagery of such stereotypes perpetuate the notion that Africans still live in mud huts and carry spears, along with other notions that indicate their primitiveness. [55] [56]

Afrophobia in academia may also occur through by oversight with regards to lacking deconstruction in mediums such as African art forms, omitting historical African polities in world cartography, or promoting a eurocentric viewpoint by ignoring historic African contributions to world civilization. [57]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Kivuto Ndeti; Kenneth R. Gray; Gerard Bennaars (1992). The second scramble for Africa: a response & a critical analysis of the challenges facing contempory [sic] sub-Saharan Africa. Professors World Peace Academy. p. 127. ISBN   9966835733 . Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  2. ↑ Cooper, Frederick (2000). "Africa's Pasts and Africa's Historians". Canadian Journal of African Studies. 34 (2): 298–336. doi:10.2307/486417. JSTOR   486417.
  3. ↑ Greene, Frederick Dennis. "Immigrants in Chains: Afrophobia in American Legal History-The Harlem Debates Part 3." Or. L. Rev. 76 (1997): 537.
  4. ↑ Ochonu, Moses E. (2020-12-31). "South African Afrophobia in local and continental contexts". The Journal of Modern African Studies. 58 (4): 499–519. doi:10.1017/S0022278X20000543. ISSN   0022-278X.
  5. ↑ Michael, Lucy (2017), Haynes, Amanda; Schweppe, Jennifer; Taylor, Seamus (eds.), "Anti-Black Racism: Afrophobia, Exclusion and Global Racisms", Critical Perspectives on Hate Crime, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 275–299, doi:10.1057/978-1-137-52667-0_15, ISBN   978-1-137-52666-3 , retrieved 2024-10-15
  6. ↑ "US racism on the rise, UN experts warn in wake of Charlottesville violence". UN Human Rights Commission. 2017-08-16. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
  7. ↑ "Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent to the Human Rights Council: the Human Rights Situation of Persons of African Descent Remains an Urgent Concern". United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. 2022-10-02. Retrieved 2024-08-14.
  8. ↑ "Statement to the media by the United Nations' Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, on the conclusion of its official visit to Germany, 20-27 February 2017". Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. 2017-02-27. Retrieved 2024-08-14.
  9. 1 2 Koenane, M.L.J. and Maphunye, K.J., 2015. Afrophobia, moral and political disguises: Sepa leholo ke la moeti. Td: The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 11(4), pp.83-98.
  10. ↑ The Congregational Review, Volume 2. J.M. Whittemore. 1862. p. 629. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  11. 1 2 Privot, M., 2014. Afrophobia and the ‘Fragmentation of Anti-racism.’. Visible Invisible Minority: Confronting Afrophobia and Advancing Equality for People of African Descent and Black Europeans in Europe, pp.31-38.
  12. ↑ Momodou, J. and Pascoët, J., 2014. Towards a European strategy to combat Afrophobia. European Network Against Racism, Invisible visible minority: Confronting Afrophobia and advancing equality for people of African descent and Black Europeans in Europe, pp.262-272.
  13. ↑ Privot, M., 2014. Afrophobia and the ‘Fragmentation of Anti-racism.’. Visible Invisible Minority: Confronting Afrophobia and Advancing Equality for People of African Descent and Black Europeans in Europe, pp.31-38.
  14. ↑ Momodou, J. and Pascoët, J., 2014. Towards a European strategy to combat Afrophobia. European Network Against Racism, Invisible visible minority: Confronting Afrophobia and advancing equality for people of African descent and Black Europeans in Europe, pp.262-272.
  15. ↑ Koenane, M.L.J. and Maphunye, K.J., 2015. Afrophobia, moral and political disguises: Sepa leholo ke la moeti. Td: The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 11(4), pp.83-98.
  16. ↑ Oloruntoba-Oju, T., 2014. Location of African culture: Beyond Afroscepticism and the new cosmopolitan exotic. Culture and the Contemporary African, pp.120-53.
  17. ↑ Horsthemke, K., 2006. The idea of the African university in the twenty-first century: Some reflections on Afrocentrism and Afroscepticism. South African Journal of Higher Education, 20(4), pp.449-465.
  18. ↑ Nikolaidis, A.C. and Thompson, W.C., 2023. Epistemic injustice: complicity and promise in education. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 57(4-5), pp.781-790.
  19. ↑ Gbogi, T., 2022. Against Afropolitanism: Race and the Black migrant body in contemporary African poetry. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, p.00219894221113767.
  20. ↑ Nokuzola, G.G. and Gqeba, L.M., 2023. Is Afrosceptism at the Core of the Deaths of South African Boys at Initiation Schools? The Contributory Effects of Undermining African Indigenous Knowledge Systems. African Renaissance, 20(4), p.367.
  21. ↑ Endong, F.P.C., 2021. Images as Afro-positivist narratives and counter hegemonic strategy: A study of# TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou. International Journal of Modern Anthropology, 2(16), pp.601-628.
  22. ↑ Bodziany, M. and Nowakowska, M., 2020. “Heart of Darkness” and “Dark Continent”: Africa and its Nations in Polish Media and Social Perception. Social Psychology & Society, 11(2).
  23. ↑ Husbands, Winston; Lawson, Daeria O.; Etowa, Egbe B.; Mbuagbaw, Lawrence; Baidoobonso, Shamara; Tharao, Wangari; Yaya, Sanni; Nelson, LaRon E.; Aden, Muna; Etowa, Josephine (2022-10-01). "Black Canadians' Exposure to Everyday Racism: Implications for Health System Access and Health Promotion among Urban Black Communities". Journal of Urban Health. 99 (5): 829–841. doi:10.1007/s11524-022-00676-w. ISSN   1468-2869. PMC   9447939 . PMID   36066788.
  24. ↑ MacMaster, Neil (2001), MacMaster, Neil (ed.), "Anti-Black Racism in an Age of Total War", Racism in Europe 1870–2000, London: Macmillan Education UK, pp. 117–139, doi:10.1007/978-1-4039-4033-9_5, ISBN   978-1-4039-4033-9 , retrieved 2024-07-21
  25. ↑ Shilliam, Robbie (2015). The Black Pacific: Anti-Colonial Struggles and Oceanic Connections (1 ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. doi:10.5040/9781474218788.ch-003. ISBN   978-1-4742-1878-8.
  26. ↑ Barwick, Daniel; Nayak, Anoop (2024-07-08). "The Transnationalism of the Black Lives Matter Movement: Decolonization and Mapping Black Geographies in Sydney, Australia". Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 114 (7): 1587–1603. doi: 10.1080/24694452.2024.2363782 . ISSN   2469-4452.
  27. ↑ Fredericks, Bronwyn; Bradfield, Abraham (2021-04-27). "'I'm Not Afraid of the Dark': White Colonial Fears, Anxieties, and Racism in Australia and Beyond". M/C Journal. 24 (2). doi: 10.5204/mcj.2761 . ISSN   1441-2616.
  28. ↑ "Definition of RACISM". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  29. ↑ "Definition of COLORPHOBIA". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  30. ↑ "Colourphobia | Colorphobia, N., Etymology." Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/9131678901.
  31. ↑ "Negrophobia, N., Etymology." Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/5704106894.
  32. ↑ "Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  33. 1 2 Garcia, J. L .A. "Racism and the Discourse of Phobias: Negrophobia, Xenophobia and More---Dialogue with Kim and Sundstrom". SUNY Open Access Repository. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
  34. ↑ "The Anti-Slavery Roots of Today's "-Phobia" Obsession". The New Republic. ISSN   0028-6583 . Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  35. ↑ Biale, D., Galchinsky, M. and Heschel, S. eds., 1998. Insider/outsider: American Jews and multiculturalism. Univ of California Press.
  36. ↑ Madden, R., 2006. Tez de mulato. Colonialism and Race in Luso-Hispanic Literature, p.114.
  37. ↑ Torres-Saillant, S., 2003. Inventing the race: Latinos and the ethnoracial pentagon. Latino Studies, 1, pp.123-151.
  38. ↑ Mirmotahari, E., 2015. A Cloud of Semitic Mohammedanism: The African Novel and the Muslim Question in the National Age. Interventions, 17(1), pp.45-63.
  39. ↑ Roberto Castillo (August 12, 2016). "Claims of "China's Afrophobia" show we need new ways to think about race and racism". (posted originally at The Conversation, with the title Of washing powder, Afrophobia and racism in China, August 11, 2016)
  40. ↑ Roberts, A.D. (1978). "The Earlier Historiography of Colonial Africa". History in Africa. 5: 153–167. doi:10.2307/3171484. ISSN   0361-5413. JSTOR   3171484. S2CID   162869454.
  41. ↑ Fanon, Frantz (December 2007). The wretched of the earth. Philcox, Richard; Sartre, Jean-Paul; Bhabha, Homi K. New York. ISBN   9780802198853. OCLC   1085905753.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  42. ↑ Cooper, Frederick (2000). "Africa's Pasts and Africa's Historians". Canadian Journal of African Studies. 34 (2): 298–336. doi:10.2307/486417. JSTOR   486417.
  43. ↑ Suremain, Marie-Albane de SuremainMarie-Albane de (2019-04-18), "Colonial History and Historiography", The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Historiography: Methods and Sources, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780190698706.001.0001, ISBN   978-0-19-069870-6 , retrieved 2024-12-28
  44. ↑ Grinker, Roy Richard; Lubkemann, Stephen C.; Steiner, Christopher (17 May 2010). Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation. John Wiley & Sons. p. 98. ISBN   9781444335224 . Retrieved 16 May 2017– via Google Books.
  45. ↑ Tamale, Sylvia (23 June 2011). African Sexualities: A Reader. Fahamu/Pambazuka. ISBN   9780857490162 . Retrieved 16 May 2017– via Google Books.
  46. ↑ "Afrophobia: Europe should confront this legacy of colonialism and the slave trade". Commissioner for Human Rights. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  47. ↑ Amy Clarke (June 2012). "People of African Descent in Europe : A UKREN Briefing Paper" (PDF). Ukren.org. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  48. ↑ Gates, Henry Louis Jr. (4 February 2017). "Opinion - The History the Slaveholders Wanted Us to Forget". The New York Times . Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  49. ↑ "Invisible Visible Minority" (PDF). Kisa.org. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  50. ↑ Abbattista, Guido. "European Encounters in the Age of Expansion European Encounters". Ieg-ego.eu. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  51. ↑ Olusoga, David (8 September 2015). "The roots of European racism lie in the slave trade, colonialism – and Edward Long - David Olusoga". Theguardian.com. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  52. ↑ "Africa Stereotypes in the European media". En.ejo.ch. 26 July 2013. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  53. ↑ Washington, Robert E. (2001). The Ideologies of African American Literature. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 272. ISBN   9780742509504.
  54. ↑ Crouch, David (2016-05-04). "Woman who defied 300 neo-Nazis at Swedish rally speaks of anger". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2016-12-08.
  55. ↑ Mays, Vickie M. (1985). "The Black American and psychotherapy: The dilemma". Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training. 22 (2S): 379–388. doi:10.1037/h0085518.
  56. ↑ Marongwe, Ngonidzashe; Mawere, Munyaradzi (2016). "Violence, Identity and Politics of Belonging: The April 2015 Afrophobic Attacks in South Africa and the Emergence of Some Discourses". In Munyaradzi, Mawere; Ngonidzashe, Marongwe (eds.). Violence, Politics and Conflict Management in Africa: Envisioning Transformation, Peace and Unity in the Twenty-First Century. Langaa RPCIG. pp. 89–116. ISBN   978-9956-763-54-2.
  57. ↑ Skinner, Ryan Thomas (24 April 2018). "Walking, talking, remembering: an Afro-Swedish critique of being-in-the-world". African and Black Diaspora. 12 (1): 1–19. doi:10.1080/17528631.2018.1467747. S2CID   149746823.
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