HC 1
Guiding principles:
1. tell the story of africa as the actor
2. History and power.
3. Entire continent, no subjectives between the north and south (sahara)
4. Contextualise the story of africa echt event/proces in its own
time/geographical/cultural and political situation
5. Avoiding anachronism
Why and what is african history
Changing views of african history
- eternal unchanging africa (stereotype)
- everything that happened to africa came from outside of the continent.
- (Hegel) Big gap between North and South sahara africa
- Trevor-Roper: African history only exists when/since Europa was involved.
- Emancipatory movements
- 1950s: new african historiography
- Nationalist history of individual countries
- >’64: general history of africa (UNESCO funded project)
- Break with tendency to divide north from sub-saharan africa
- Mainly rely on african sources and africans researchers take the lead.
- Postcolonial Nationalism
- Decline of the liberal and nationalist version of african history in the late
60/70s
- Impact of postcolonial theory on african history: Mainly source critique
- Deconstructing the ‘master-narrative’
- Counter-narratives:
- Oral History/oral traditions
- Highlights the great importance of primary sources!
- Lack of primary sources because writing was nor easy nor obvious,
papyrus couldnt last, no real option of clay tablets.
- Even though the scarcity of african primary sources that
doenst mean they have no language. Had the first
language/form of writing
- Postcolonial critique
- (new) primary sources!
Africa as the Cradle of Human kinds
- “africa is almost certainly the part of the world where most or even all the critical
stages of human evolution took place”
- Historiography of the study of human evolution.
Evolutionary perspectives on human origin
- the publication of darwin’s on the origion of species in 1859 and the the descent of
man and slection in relation to sex (71)
- Mankind produce of evolution not creation by devine.
- Was misused by people to make a hierarchy (scientific racism)
- Represented the changing perspective toward the history of life on earth
, - The advent of a more scientific perspective on human origins failed to lessen the
degree of racism
Evolutionary perspectives on human origins
- ‘linear model of human development’ and teleological view on the development of
human history
- Increasingly complex picture of human evolution began to take shape - giving birth to
the field of paleoanthropology in the process.
Evolutionary perspectives since the 1980’s
over the course of the late 20th and 21st century:
- realization that humans have` lived in africa longer than anywhere else in the world
- Earliest human ancestors were specimens called Australopithecus afarensis
- Not a linear mode, but a family tree with several branches and ‘random’ evolution
through mixing of branches of hominins
the human evolution
Australopithecus - homo habilis - homo erectus - homo neaderthalenis - homo sapiens
‘cradle of human kind’
Discoveries since 90s (particularly in ‘cradle of humand kind’ caves in South africa) has led
to the rejection of the ‘linear model of human development’
“african eve’ Thesis
- 1987: mitochondrial dna research ‘all human populations share an incredible close
genetic relationship, the greatest variation in mtDNA is found among African
populations
- “The oldest surviving lineages of mitochondrial DNA exist among the San of southern
Africa
- 2003 Human Genome project: confirmed earlier findings and ‘out of AFrica’ model
- 2010: Neanderthal genome project showed that modern human population in Asia,
Americas and Europe have 1-4% neanderthal DNA.
the incredible human journey
“inventiveness. and no small amount of courage, let a small group of pioneers take their
simple boats across the straits at the southern end of the red sea to the arabian peninsula.
That voyage, thought i was only 20 miles or so, was the most pivotal voyage in human
history…
Questioning race
- outcomes of the new info about human evo since 80s: rejection of ‘multiregional
model’ and acceptance of ‘out of africa’ model
- Radical reconsideration of what is meant by “race” (bio- or sociological)
- Svante Paabo: ‘Genetic variations exists, but absolute difference (100%) Between
africans and non-africans in genetic variations positions is not found’
- “All modern humans are really africans even if we are noa l ‘black’”
,African antiquity
Ancient egypt and nubia
Ancient Egypt
Great longevity, started 5000 y ago and lasted till 641 a.c.
- Great continuity but also great changes
Early man kind moved from hunting to sedentary.
Nile was perfect for this because of characteristics of it.
- annual flooding making agriculture very easy
- Hydraulic civilization
- Complex, highly specialized and hierarchical society
- Political ideology: divine kingship
the debate of the african origins of egypt
- Hege;: egypt is part of eurasian history
- Seligman: the races of AFrica
- Cheick anta diop 60s - egypt is african (afrocentric)
- “egyptian antiquity is to african culture what graeco roman antiquity is to western
culture - Cheikh anta diop
- 74 Unesco “symposium of the peopling of ancient egypt and the deciphering of the
meroitic script” in cairo - black hypothesis rejected
- 2017: genetic study on egyptian mummies showed 6-15% african ancestry
- Today consensus on the fact that the nubian kingdom was african. Still debate
however on which civilization was most dominant. Was nubia a copy of egypt, or did
nubia contribute to egyptian civilization in its own right?
Where does Egypt belong?
- Why is it important, almost 200 y later, to ask the question ‘who were the ancient
Egyptians’?
- People blame each other of white-washing and cultural appropriations
Black athena thesis
- george james ’stolen legacy’ greek philosophy is stolen egyptian philosophy
- Black athena: the afroasiatic roots of classical civilization
- bernal prof. of government and near easter studies at cornell university
- Thesis: “Africans or peoples of african descent have made many significant
contributions to world progress and for the past two centuries, these have been
systematically played down by european north american (art)historians)
- “revised ancient model” and egyptian civ “fundamentaly african”
- “Whitewashing’ of ancient european history happened during the 18th century
(enlightenment, (and to some extent earlier during the Renaissance)), but particularly
in the 19th century (orientalism).
Herodotus on egypt
- Herodotus: father of history. Father of orientalism?
- The histories (c440 BC)
, - The naming of almost all the gods have come to hellas from egypt
- Differentiated between ethiopians, libyans and egyptians
Orientalism
- black athena is response to Said’s book Orientalism
- Said: herodotus inventor of orientalism
- Ancient greek thinking: binary opposites (greek v barbarian)
- But, “othering’ by ancient writers not per se with negative connotation
- Erich Gruen, rethinking the other in antiquity
- Gruen: binary thing to ‘put up a mirror for the greek's themselves’
- Frank Snowden Before colour prejudice
- Snowden: anachronism. “nothing comparable to the virulent colour prejudice of
modern times existed in the ancient world”
Whitewashing of antiquity
Where did this idea of an alleged purity of greek culture as well as is supposed superiority
over Egypt come from>
- teleology - idea of progress
“linear model of human development '’ stated that egyptian civilization, be it
impressive, was only a stepping stone to Greek civ. Because it was older it was thus
less civilized then the Greeks who came after.
- Racism
Gilbert and reynold: “some racist scholars sought to prove that only ‘whites’ were capable of
creating civilized societies. Thus,by implication, groups such as ancient egyptians had to
have been ‘white’
- “Revised Ancient model” and egyptian civilization “fundamentally african”
CUlture in ancient africa
Similarities:
- system of succession was matrilineal
- Divine kingship
- Traditional african religious system (ie sun worship)
Critics of afrocentrist or ‘nilocentrist’ views state it “denies the creativity and agency of other
african regions and societies”.
Changes views on nubian history
- culturally sub saharan african
- Was egypt a copy of nubia or other way round
the kingdom of kush
- 5000 bce settlements of semi nomadic herders (cattle culture)
- 2700 bce Rise of early culture
- 2500-1550 bce golden age of kerma civ
- 1550-1070 bce egypt conquered nubia (ruled under the egyptian new kingdom)
nubian pharaohs
- 8th century bce kush controlled entire nile valley
- Statue of king Senkamanisken, king of kush, 643-623 bce
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