How did Africans begin to conceptualize unity in thought and action beyond “National” boundaries in the face of European and American imperialism?
This question goes over the move from slavery in the western hemisphere, the artificial lines that were drawn across Africa by European colonialists and how they came to be, as well as how the African diaspora came to be and how the people used their similarities to understand each other and create international relationships in opposition to their colonizers and slave owners.
All over the world, in the Caribbean and the United States, Africans kept their culture alive. When their drums were taken away they used their washboards and their hands to make music and keep their dances alive. They dance in the same circles despite their differences. Their improved international communications helped the African Diaspora to unite themselves as oppositions to European and American imperialism.
Walter Hill, who was the chief historian of the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington D.C. stated that there were over 200,000 black men who served in the Union Army and Navy. He recalled in his panel discussions that what he emphasized was the “spirit and uplift of the slave population” because this war was about them. All those African American men who fought in the Civil War understood that, yes, they were fighting to save the Union, but they were, more importantly, fighting for the freedom of their families and themselves.” The people knew what they were fighting for and refused to go down easily. The Haitian Revolution gave hope to the slaves in America and encouraged them to fight for their freedom.
“If the slaves did not rush to the army, the army marched to the slaves” (Du Bois, 1952). Du Bois also says that the Africans escaping collapsed the Confederate economy.
Dr. Carr mentions in one of his lectures that “the miracle is not that the union won the civil war, but that the confederacy is characterized as having lost the war on the battlefield when in fact they lost the war when the economic floor of their would-be country fell out when the Africans holding up that floor left” (Carr, Mar 29th Lecture). I believe one reason the South at the time did not want to grant African Americans emancipation was the consciousness of how much their economy relied on them. The Africans were the ones who tended crops and built houses and furniture. After all, the main reason Africans were enslaved was to do the heavy labor that the Europeans didn't want to engage in but needed to develop their society. If they had granted the slaves freedom their economy would have collapsed on itself. Unfortunately for them, the Africans saw the war as their chance to earn back their freedom and crushed the economy of the South anyway.
During the civil war, insurrections began to intensify. For example, Carter G Woodson’s father, James Henry Woodson, stood up to the enslaver who tried to take advantage of him and his master at the time. African Americans made their presence known on the front lines as they fought for their freedom. Robert Smalls, who was the pilot of the Planter, a ship that was ambushed by the Confederates, refused to surrender the ship and ignored his cowardly captain. He was rewarded for his bravery and was appointed as the captain of the ship (Robinson, 1977).
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However, most people have never even heard of Robert Smalls, or of the tragedy at Fort Pillow which Robinson mentions in his book, Black Movements in America. Frank Smith says in his interview that he knew building the African American civil war memorial was going to be controversial because “there must be two thousand history books out there that are written about the Civil War that have no mention of African American Civil War soldiers”, despite the journey they had from “slave to soldier to citizen”. Time and time again the effort black people have put into the development of this country has been hidden away and brushed aside, but the fight the African Americans fought during the civil war for their liberation and that of their children will continue to be remembered.
How did Africans make sense of and participate in international developments?
Africans had been working towards international developments since the American civil war and trying to make a name for themselves in the United States. Preserving a culture when they had been constantly forced to adapt to a new country after being taken from their motherland and taught to forget everything that they had learned was difficult. However, despite all the hardships faced, they acquired self-determination in the United States and throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Anti-imperialism emerged and African Americans began the fight for their human rights. This framing question covers those developments, such as the African Renaissance, and how the Africans in America through their fight took part in pan-Africanism and connected with the African diaspora.
In Something Torn and New, Ng? g? says that the contemporary African renaissance began “at the historical moment when the idea of Africa became an organizing force in opposition to the European colonial empires”(wa Thiong'o, 2009). A recent example of this was Jamaica's and Barbados’ request for reparations from Britain for colonialism. He also mentioned that whenever most people hear the word “renaissance”, we immediately think of the European Renaissance, which is ironic seeing as the European Renaissance marked the end of the European Dark Ages but the beginning of the African dark ages(wa Thiong'o, 2009). Jeff Donaldson says something similar in his discussion of modern Nigeria, how the high renaissance for Europe was the low renaissance for Africa, and that “Writers who traveled in Africa in the 14th-15th centuries said that there were no European cities to rival the great city of Benin in Nigeria. It was an empire, extended all the way over to present-day Mali.” The colonization and slavery that the Europeans inflicted on Africa put in motion what Walter Rodney called 'the development of underdevelopment'; that is, in my opinion, why most African countries are underdeveloped now. The time that could have been spent building and advancing in technology was stolen from them like their people and artifacts.
Dr. Carr mentioned that Africans never had any conflicts that couldn't be resolved through deliberation until slavery when people started to divide so they could protect themselves from being taken. When eventually people were taken and arrived in the western hemisphere they began to see themselves as the same and started to mix and blend cultures to keep them alive. Through that integration, the taken Africans also saw that they had a common enemy. That realization gave birth to Haitians and Jamaicans and Brazilians and African Americans because they acknowledged that while their parents and grandparents may be different, they are all in the same situation and no one except themselves was going to get them out (Carr, Apr 7th Lecture). Ng? g? also says that the African idea was created by the diaspora and the greatest example of it was the Haitian Revolution.
Margaret Burroughs in her interview states that certain forces work to keep Africa disunited, which is true. Tribalism and colorism never existed before slavery and colonialism, and now Africans are spread out all over the globe but do not recognize that we are all the same. The colonizers intended to divide us and pit us against each other, and it worked for a while. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, he writes “The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won over our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart”(Achebe, 1994). Speaking from experience as a Nigerian, people have always called me prettier than my sisters because I have lighter skin than them. I’ve been labeled with stereotypes because I am Yoruba. People blame the state of the country completely on the government but fail to see that we keep fighting each other and that prevents us from finding a common enemy.
The African Renaissance and the African Diaspora integrated colonized and enslaved Africans and reminded them of their roots. It didn’t matter which part of the world they now lived in, they were all African, and by recognizing that fact and discovering the common enemy, they were able to fight back and develop themselves.
Works Cited
- Frank Smith (The HistoryMakers A2004.257), interviewed by Racine Tucker Hamilton, December 13, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. In session 1, tape 4, story 5, Frank Smith discusses the role of African Americans in the U.S. Civil War.
- B., D. B. (1952). Black reconstruction: An essay towards a history of the part which black folk played in the attempt to reconstruct democracy in America, 1860-1880. A. Saifer.
- Carr. G (2022). Mar 29th Lecture.
- Robinson, C. J. (1997). Black movements in America. Routledge.
- Walter Hill, Jr. (The HistoryMakers A2003.254), interviewed by Larry Crowe, September 11, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 4, Walter Hill details African American military involvement during the Civil War.
- wa Thiong'o, N. (2009). Something Torn and New: An African Renaissance. Basic Civitas Books.
- Jeff Donaldson (The HistoryMakers A2001.023), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, April 23, 2001, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 6, story 2, Jeff Donaldson discusses modern Nigeria and its rich history.
- Carr. G (2022). Apr 7th Lecture.
- Margaret Burroughs (The HistoryMakers A2000.012), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, June 12, 2000, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 1, Margaret Burroughs discusses her views on the African Diaspora
- Achebe, C. (1994). Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Anchor Books.
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