Myths about Africans and their History
Introduction
In any given society, myths exist concerning people and places which for reasons become popular in that society. One such evolvement of myths is from North Americans and Europeans who for the longest time possible developed and maintained myths about Africa as a continent, Africans as its residents an the history associated to the African continent. Most of these myths are base on the context of Africans enslavement, colonization and the evolvement of racism.
Racism is the main element behind these myths and intended to dehumanize and provide proof that Africans are not worth being called or associated with human beings. In addition, the myths aim at proving that Africa and Africans are not worthy history. As a result, Africa and Africans have suffered and still suffer from subordination till date in the politically, socially and economically from both the North Americans and the Europeans. Racism has one major negative element in of creating bad descriptions and stereotypes about Africa, Africans and the history associated with them.
In the recent past, so many negative myths have widely spread in North America all of which distort the history of Africa. Apart from the sources of African myths in North America and Europe, Africans have recently developed their own myths about the origin of African continent, and the Africans in it. These myths are more positive about Africa and have received empowerment from the racist myths, some scholars and activists. On the contrary, these latter myths are viewed as wrong.
There are ten well known myths concerning Africans, Africa and the history of Africa which are now addressed as common knowledge and which are widely accepted in American society both by the white Americans and the black Americans. Among the myths are: Tarzan and the black void, original slavery, myth of immaculate white creation, absence myth, myth of sambo, and the myth of the broken circuit among others. The intention of this paper is to discuss one of the myths: the myth of the immaculate white creation.
The myth of Africans possessing a primitive livelihood, technology and art, because few or no innovations occurred or occurs in Africa till date
The evolvement of this myth was in order to counter the fact that the evolution of America was because of Europeans and Africans as well as Indians who contributed to most of what it is today. One myth to counter this myth is the myth of the Immaculate white creation.
The myth of the immaculate white creation
In this myth, it is believed that America was an exclusive creation by the Europeans and their sons and daughters (Ebony 1984). This complex propaganda is more overwhelming than convincing as it focuses on the creation of America not just by Europeans but also by Africans and the Indians who worked collaboratively and in opposition through a complex and counterpoint of wellbeing. The relevance of the African in the immaculate creation of America varies from time to time and from one place to the other and there is not a time that it was considered as negligible but it spread throughout time.
In this myth, Africans or Black explorers, that is, servants, freemen and slaves, settled in America among the first non Indian settlers. Some evidence even discloses the exploration of the new world by African sailors even long before Columbus. In Peru, the Blacks were in the company of Pizzaro, in Mexico, they were in the company of Cortes and in Florida, and they were in the company of Menendez. In Alabama, the Blacks accompanied DeSoto and stated by WEB DuBois “and stayed among the Indians in Alabama before becoming the first settlers from the Old World.”
One of the best known Black settlers was called Estevanico, who was responsible for the opening of the New Mexico and the Arizona for the Spaniards. In later years, the Black pilgrims preceded the official Pilgrims in the settlement of the English America. This first group of Black immigrants were farmers, and trained artisans, who from some books in records, were responsible for the several innovations much later but which were accredited to English immigrant later on (Ebony 1984).
Virginia was the first in the provision of such evidence where in 1648; the then governor commanded that rice be sown although this was under the advice of “our negroes” who had identified the fertility of the land and decided that crops would do well in Virginia as the conditions had proved favorable and similar to those in their country.
The introduction of slavery came into place and brought about new things as the Blacks gained major roles in the financial fundamentals of the country. This was in accompaniment with much strain that left tens of thousands of the Blacks dead with either new or old diseases and the distress of extrasensory disfigurement. Some millions of them survived who bore witness to physical and spiritual strength in the heroic transcendent. In their survival, they also ensured the survival of America as well as its prosperity which to their surprise generated the capital required for the financing of the American growth in the 18th and the 19th centuries.
The contribution of the Blacks in all corners of America is it north or south or east or west, was all aimed at the common cause of establishment of schools, roads construction, and as for the interiors, the blazing of new paths. One good example of the African pioneers was William Alexander Leidesdorff who had a key role in the foundation of San Francisco and, in the foundation of Los Angeles, 24 of the founding 44 pioneers had an African origin (ebony 1984).
The foundation of Chicago is credited to the Black pioneer by the name of Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable. This was even witnessed among the Indians who said that the first white man to settle in Chicago was a Blackman. This proves wrong the American myth that sees Africans as primitive in their livelihood, technology and art, and that no innovations have ever taken place in Africa. In this myth, the whites are said to have come to America as for freedom while the blacks are seen as having gone to America for slavery (Ebony 1984).
The reason for the emergent of this myth is the fact that Africans have a skin color that is considered as black among the Americans. For this reasons the Americans are always not contented with the idea of the African diversity and always try to separate North Africa from the rest of Africa because most of the settlers of North Africa are Arabs and Arabs are from the current Middle East which was part of North America, which by any means is impossible.
To the Africans, this is like separating south or west America from the rest of the American continent which is wrong just because the two bear similarities in the existence of cultures with average dark skin color than those in the north and North West. Such splitting of continents is in itself racist, just for the reasons of not fitting in predetermined notions.
References
Ebony (1984).Myths about Africans and their History. Retrieved from http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=ttgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA25&dq=myths+about+africans+and+their+history&hl=en&ei=dZHETcudNYPHswaB2cj6Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-preview-link&resnum=2&ved=0CDYQuwUwAQ#v=onepage&q=myths%20about%20africans%20and%2
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