Chapter one of, Africana Studies: A Survey of Africa and the African Diaspora gives a brief account
of the history and evolution of the discipline to which the title refers. It describes the earliest foundations of
Africana Studies in Anthropology and how, recently, neo-historians and radical scholars have been exploiting the overt
scientific racism and colonial agenda of early studies involving Africa and its
people. This younger breed of scholars
even criticizes early Africanist historians for, in part, creating a
discipline that is too conservative and Eurocentric, and also, for manifesting
micro-histories of the African past.
Other critiques include that of historians A. Temu and B. Swai, who
criticize the methodology of early Africanist Historians who tried maintaining
objectivity in their studies. Temu and
Swai argue that objectivity in historical research leads to nothing more than a
dry, impotent list of facts (Azevedo, 10).
The progressive idea brought to the table by these two neo-historians is
the notion of the inseparability, and possibly codependence, of methodology and
ideology. An imperative of research is
systematic and ethical collection and analysis of data; however, a reality of
research is that it is impossible to completely remove biases and the best a
researcher can do is acknowledge them.
Temu and Swai are proposing that, in order to address the needs of
Africa and members of the African Diaspora, African history, which has
stubbornly maintained a Eurocentric vision, must be delivered ethically and in a way that provides a holistic
context that is relevant and useful to its audience.
Another critique of the traditional way disciplines have
studied, and in many cases still are studying Africa is O. Onoge’s criticism
of sociology. As aforementioned, scientific
racism has historically pervaded studies in virtually every science, from Biology,
Anthropology, to Sociology. Phrenology, (the long-abandoned study
correlating the size of the human skull to brain capacity and intelligence), is
a strong example of how science was oppressively used to justify and perpetuate
the subjugation of people of African descent.
In his critique of sociology, Onoge argues that sociology ignores the
colonial period and exercises overt biasness.
Onoge, in his criticism of sociology, is progressive for Africana
Studies because he, like several other African scholars, calls for the
abandonment of sociological thought, which has historically fortified cultural
and social evolutionary theories, again, serving to oppress Africans and
members of the Diaspora, in African discourse.
The arguments proposed by these three historians and
scholars delineates the evolution of Africana studies by illustrating the
transition from, and abandonment of, Eurocentric paradigms for studying African
history for the adoption of a History that is relativistic to the context of
Africa and its people. This paradigm
shift is important for us today because it has created a history that provides
a model and a reality for members of the African Diaspora that has long been
diluted by Eurocentrism.
Directly relating to a Hamilton’s discussion on Class, was a
video on WorldFocus about an effort, led by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter,
to eradicate Malaria in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Class, as Hamilton defines it, is the way in
which humans, along with the conditions of their lives, are organized, or set
in place, to interact with their environments.
Class is what divides humans into separate economic and political
factions of society, which is something this video accurately illustrates. In the Dominican Republic, eradication of
Malaria has been accomplished with nearly complete success, where in Haiti, the
poorest nation in this hemisphere, efforts have proven to be disparately more
complicated. Conditions such as poor
roads make transportation of vaccines and other medications to the more remote
regions of Haiti practically impossible.
This is a strong example of how class, in the form of economic
inferiority, affects a country with one of the densest populations of diasporic
Africans. On a different note, an article found on WorldFocus
that truly reflects Hamilton’s words on endurance, struggle, and resistance was
about languages around the world at risk of extinction. The article highlights one particular language—it’s
actually a creole—called Berbice Dutch
which is a blend of the Zeeland
dialect of Dutch, the local Arawak Indian language, and Ijo, which was spoken
by Nigerian slaves. Hamilton comments on
the importance of a collective identity in diasporic communities for gaining
and maintaining societal strength, something that is ascertained through a
common form of communication, i.e. language. Language not only facilitates, but
is the foundation of a “community’s cognitive landscape.” (Hamilton, 23) This article is important for the
understanding of the dissemination of African peoples because it illustrates
the destructive effect that losing language has on culture. An important example of this phenomenon can
be seen by the separation of Africans from common tribes during the middle
passage to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade.
