“Different but Equal” is a video in which Basil Davidson, the narrator, attempts to expand and heighten the understanding that Western civilization has about Africa. Often thought of as underdeveloped or uncivilized, Basil focuses mainly on the accomplishments of Africans throughout the years and uses them to contrast the surprisingly popular belief of African inferiority. Just a few of the main issues being brought up are how Europeans routinely discredited African accomplishments, the often disputed race of the Egyptians and their society, and why the thought that Africans are ‘uncivilized’ isn’t accurate. The video uses science, archaeology and history combined with the input of well-known researchers to give a more accurate depiction of …show more content…
Egypt had the earliest large scale political economy in Africa. The Egyptians were led by Pharaohs, whose roles were appointed based off of their believed holy lineage. Pharaohs were thought to be descendants of the Egyptian goddess Isis, making them the only people fit to lead Ancient Egypt. The citizen’s strong religious views meant they eagerly followed everything their leaders commanded and this strong devotion is what made it possible to build the pyramids. Devoted Egyptians citizens built the tombs for their rulers over decade long periods as the ultimate tribute. Built from thousands of pounds of limestone many of the pyramids are still standing today. But, much like its preceding civilizations, Egypt’s greatest accomplishments were belittled because Eurocentric explorers refused to believe that black Africans could be responsible for something as grand as the pyramids. This can even be seen in modern culture, where Egyptians are portrayed as white or European, despite being rooted in Africa. The video turns to Afrocentric researcher Cheikh Anta Diop, who attempts to prove Egyptians were dark skinned by pointing to ancient pictures from the tomb of Ramses III, where Egyptians were portrayed as having dark skin like many Africans do today. Even Greeks, who knew Egypt well, believed Egyptians were black (Different but Equal). But Khapoya argues in his book that classifying Egyptians as either ‘black’ or ‘white’ is extremely inaccurate, “Ancient Egyptians had many different shades of skin color, from very light brown Mediterranean-type skins to very dark Nubian-type skins” (Khapoya, 66). Egyptians were very diverse with many different people of many different races living together. Nonetheless Egyptians, whether dark or light skinned, are Africans, and their accomplishments are ultimately African
Concerning the nature of myths, one can often find that they are built on broad generalization lacking the premises necessary to make a solid conclusion. Such was the same myths, Pier Larson sought to disprove in his essay “The Student’s ‘Ten Commandments’.” Larson discuss damaging and caustic stereotypes that have worked their way throughout history to create a narrative that often subordinates Blacks when promulgated by a more affluent European society . One myth in particular appears to be quite troubling for its contradictory nature-that being the myth: all Africans are Black. Additionally, to be African is to be Black, Africans are not culturally diverse, and that Africans share one, essentially unified culture. Not only do I find these troubling for their outright abasement of African culture, which is plain to see, but rather for the duplicitous logic that lead to the creation of such myths, and why they remain so harmful when they are continued to be spread in contemporary.
In the first segment of his film series, Different but Equal, Basil Davidson sets out to disprove the fictitious and degrading assumptions about African civilization made by various Western scholars and explorers. Whether it is the notion that Africans are “savage and crude in nature” or the presumed inability of Africans to advance technologically, these stereotypes are damaging to the image and history of Africa. Although European Renaissance art depicts the races of white and black in equal dignity, there was a drastic shift of European attitudes toward Africa that placed Africans in a much lower standing than people of any other culture. The continent of Africa quickly became ravished by the inhuman slave trade and any traditional civilization
So many Americans today are in the dark about the true origin of the African descent. From my past experiences in history classes, the teacher of coarse job is to teach from the textbook. The problem with that is the whole truth does not lie between those pages of how African culture became about. I will discuss the first king of Egypt and how his story applies today.
In the modern day, Africa is seen by the world around it as a relatively underprivileged continent. Since its independence from colonial rule, Africa 's economic performance has been less than stellar and its advancement has been slow, which could be argued through a myriad of different ideologies. Nathan Nunn, the author of “Historical Legacies: A model linking Africa’s past to its current underdevelopment” believes that the slave trade and colonial rule, brought on by the Europeans in the past, is the reason for Africa’s economic hardships, that are still lingering to this day. What he sets out to answer in this academic paper is an interesting question, “Why do these events, which ended years ago, continue to matter today?” Through the
(Edwards, S. 1961) At rock bottom a pyramid is a huge amount of stone but for the Egyptians it was much more. It is a place where a Pharaoh and his people became immortal. Egyptians were mummifying the remains of the Pharaoh so that his body could be reunited with his spirit after death. Rituals were performed over the mummy to ensure its safe passage to the afterlife. That afterlife will be reached from the heart of the Pharaoh’s tomb deep within the pyramid. To the ancient Egyptians the pyramid was the engine for rebirth, it was a gateway to the next world, from which the Pharaoh’s spirit will fly up to the heavens. There it will look down forever to guard his people. If a pyramid was not completed before the Pharaoh’s death his spirit won’t ascend the heavens and the chaos would engulf the land. The people believed that by helping the king to create his monument, they were ensuring their own survival and the survival of their country. In Egyptian religion the king was not just a head of state, he was seeing as a semi-divine being and of critical importance for the continuation of Egyptian
However, the most contentious question concerning ancient Egypt, the one that has inspired the most emotionally charged arguments, concerns their ethnic identity. Egypt lies on the African continent, specifically in its northeastern region, yet traditionally historians have classified it as part of the “Near Eastern” (alongside Sumer, Babylon, and Israel) or “Mediterranean” (alongside Greece and Rome) cultural blocs. Whenever anyone makes a movie or television show set in Egypt, white rather than black actors are chosen to play the Egyptians, for instance, Yul Brynner as the pharaoh Rameses in C.B. Demille’s The Ten Commandments, or Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep in The Mummy. The implication here is that despite being in Africa, ancient Egypt was really a white civilization of European or Asian origin rather than being truly African.
Africa’s struggle to maintain their sovereignty amidst the encroaching Europeans is as much a psychological battle as it is an economic and political one. The spillover effects the system of racial superiority had on the African continent fractured ...
Going back a few thousand years in history, the exotic and flourishing empire of the New Kingdom in Ancient Egypt existed. Ancient Egypt, one of the world’s oldest and technologically advanced empires dominated Northern Africa. The New Kingdom, which was from 1550-1069 B.C, “was an explosion of creativity, wealth and power in Egypt that would make it the envy of the world” (PBS). During this time period, Ancient Egypt exhibited a golden age, where Egypt experienced political stability, expansion of territory and the promotion of Egyptian culture. Leading up the New Kingdom, Ancient Egypt experienced the cultures and practices of other races, such as the different ethnic groups during the transition of the Archaic period to the Old Kingdom in terms of different factions of ethnicity between Upper and Lower Egypt. In addition, the Hyksos, who were of Asian descent, during the Second Intermediate period took over parts of Egypt and brought an Asian flare to the Egyptian Culture. The concept of race, however, during
One of the most baffling aspects of European interest in African people is the civilizations collective distaste of and fascination with people of African descent. The initial journey into Africa, and the planning that preceded it, spawned many of the most enlightening theories about African people. These theories, usually in support of African savagery and inferiority and in favor of European superiority and civility were based in the colonial mentalities of that time. Of the most notable theories is the idea that African religious system was pagan and that African people were inferior because of their darker skin pigmentation and “beast-like” nature. These theories dispersed rapidly across the globe, and even today people of African-descent collectively, however subconsciously, grow into them. Moving forward, how are these theories presented in post-modern works of literature? Equally so, how do authors weave the colonial and post-colonial mentalities into the framework of certain texts. Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage advances both colonial mentalities as well as post-colonial perspectives. The novel sheds light on traditional European colonial notions African savagery, the inferiority of African people as sub-human and commodities, and—at the same instant—presents the post-colonial perspective of the archetypical American Negro serving as a “middle man” between Europeans and Africans.
Gilbert, Erik, and Jonathan T. Reynolds. Africa in World History: From Prehistory to the Present. Boston: Pearson, 2012.
Adas, Michael. 1989. “Africa: Primitive Tools and the Savage Mind” In Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology and Ideologies of Western Dominance, from Historical Problems of Imperial Africa. Edited by Robert O. Collins and James M. Burns, 30-39. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers.
Bohannan, Paul, and Philip Curtin. Africa & Africans . Long Grove: Waveland Press, Inc. , 1995.
...n 1163 B.C., Egypt entered a period of slow decline (Scarre 1997:116). Pharaohs became less powerful, and their prestige dwindled. Hungry soldiers were terrorizing the community, while tomb robbers were raiding the pyramids for resources that were very much needed. They had buried their pharaohs with food, goods and jewelry, all of which were needed to keep the civilization in tact. They had built too many pyramids, and there were setbacks in Asia which corrupted trade. People did not understand why the pharaohs could not fix the problems that were going on. They viewed them as gods and lost trust and faith. Egypt fell apart as these things culminated with loss of belief in the pharaohs.
Africa has been the embodiment of european perspectives before and after the Colonialism; these perspectives have attempted to provide insights on the facts behind it. In those terms, Africa has been reduced an atmosphere of concepts such as deep darkness, mystery, and madness, a place in which attrocities arise at any time of the day, and people are savages and chaotic. From that colonialist viewpoint, Africa was a place that needed help and control urgently in order to save it form itself and civilize it; therefore, white European men felt the need of accomplishing this mission and bring civilization to black men, which only meant to do thing as Europeans did. In Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1993), these European visions are portraited to such an extent that makes us understand that to unveil the heart of Africa we first need to be expose to their attrocities, and realise that we will always fail to do it because the chaos would consume us as well. Achiebe says it himself “Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as "the other world," the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man's vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant beastiality.” (Achebe, 1977) This is one of the many issues that postcolonialism argues and confronts as a lie, since African history has only been told from the colonizer's viewpoint overshadowing the perspectives and voices of the colonized. Chinua Achebe, on the other hand, was the first writer to actually tell the story from the eyes of the African communities through his novel Things Fall Apart, more especifically, nigerian tribes. In this essay, I will attempt to analyze from a postcolonial approach themes present in the novel such as identity, ...
To late nineteenth-century observers Africa seemed the most "barbarous" and "uncivilized" of the continents. "Barbarous" and "uncivilized" were imprecise and emotive epithets, which contemporary modern Europeans applied to many alien cultures whose mores they did not attempt to understand (Hallet 40).