A REVIEW; LINUS A. HOSKINS, “EUROCENTRISM VS AFROCENTRISM: A GEOPOLITICAL LINKAGE ANALYSIS”

JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES, VOL., 23, NO., 2, SPECIAL ISSUE: THE IMAGE OF AFRICA IN GERMAN SOCIETY (DEC., 1992), PP. 247-257

MATRIC NO: 150401

In this paper, the history of Euro-centrism is first looked at and it was traced back to the 15^th century, hence, according to the author, Eurocentric mentality or mind-set have characterized, fashioned and conditioned the European attitude or mind-set towards African peoples. However, the task of Euro-centrism or its scholars can be argued to be based in justifying the advent of Europeans in Africa or better put, Eurocentric arguments can basically be said to justify colonialism and imperialism. It is the case that the mind-set of these European people is championed or displayed through Euro-centrism and have attempted to alienate and cast into flames the history and humanity of Africans, thus, this is evident in the derogatory remarks some European scholars send to Africans and her race. One index why there are attacks and derogatory remarks to the people of Africa might be because of
the colour of their skin, as the writer puts it. And also, the fact that Africans are irrational and uncivilised to them might majorly be the reason why euro-centrism erupt or come to be. The issue of racism comes in the first part of this paper, and Euro-centrism is seen as a racist culture and ideology, thus, European scholars have attempted to drag afro-centrism down along with it, by claiming that Afro-centrism is also racist because it sometimes distorts facts and turn history into ‘ethnic cheerleading’. According to the author, it is a fact that there is no absolute need for Afro-centrism to falsify, distort or misrepresent world history as the Europeans have wanted the whole world to belief. More so, it is the case that Euro-centrism had and still continues to falsify, misrepresent and distort human or world history, in other to maintain global dominance or hegemony.

However, in response to this Eurocentric arguments and remarks about Africans being a dark continent replete with cannibals, savages and inferior, uncivilized, backward, primitive peoples, devoid of knowledge and culture, pre-logical and all sorts by the so called European or white scholars, Africanist and African scholars cum philosophers emerged to debunk these claims and inhuman remarks, which is totally euro-centric. Africanist or better put, African scholars further explain that the white man destroyed the self-confidence of the black man. He destroyed the black man’s knowledge about his culture and the black man ended up not knowing any achievement because he had been convinced psychologically that he never did anything and can never. Further on the exposition on the enslavery of Africans began by the Europeans making the world realize that the people enslaved were less than human, the next was to make fellow white men believe that Africans were indeed inferior. Then the last process which is worst was to make the African man see himself as inferior. As earlier stated above, this was their strategy to survive; through colonialism and also imperialism. They have not been totally successful because of the flexibility of the African personality. Indeed, this psychological drain of the Africans by the Europeans resulted in a wounded culture because Africans had to strive to remember who they were before the Europeans came, but it did not result to a dead culture.  For instance, one major Africanist that this paper alludes to is the erudite Afrocentric historian, John Henrik Clarke, who in his words opines that;

“Civilization did not start in European countries and the rest of the world did not wait in darkness for the Europeans to bring the light… when the light of culture came for the first time to the people who would later call themselves Europeans, it came from Africa and middle eastern Asia.”

This statement or remark by this quintessential figure in the discipline of history is so important and serves a great need for Africans, as it helps African people understand that they have history to protect and look back at. Africa was never a dark continent as the Europeans will want us and the rest of the world to believe, as Africans have contributed enormously to the history of humanity, a good example is the Egyptian civilization before Greek and roman enlightenment. The particularistic geopolitical mind-set tagged Euro-centrism precipitated the European proselytizing mission to save those infidels who they call Africans. Consequently, what seems to be the case portrayed to us in this article is that mere survival forced Europeans to adopt these offensive remarks.

However, the bedrock of this essay is to make African liberate themselves from this Eurocentric mind-set and embrace their humanity through Afrocentric mind-set or mentality. It is the case that Africans have been uninformed and uneducated about their history and existence by Euro-centrism, Africans have been made to think themselves as inferior, mindless, pre-logical, ancestor-less and what have you, by the so-called European scholars. In this essay however, Afro-centrism which is the differing for Euro-centrism, is seen and taken to be a tool for liberating Africa and as such enlightening them about their existence and humanity. Afro-centrism, according to this paper is clearly denied the following attribute; anti-white, opposite of Euro-centrism, new form of racism, systematic propagation of fantasy history and bizarre theories, among many other misconceptions of Afro-centrism. However, Afro-centrism is defined alluding to Molefi Kete Asante, “is a frame of reference wherein phenomena are viewed from the perspective of the African person.” Also, in the words of the author, Afro-centrism or Afro-centricity is a state of mind, a particular subconscious mind-set that is rooted in the African ancestral heritage and communal value system. It represent the African-ness of a people, positing the human being as the centrality/total-ness of all existence as opposed to Euro-centrism, which posits political power and cross materialism as the centrality or total-ness of all existence.

As a quick reaction, Afro-centrism requests for the African culture to be treated as unique. It stressed the fact that there is no need for a European connection to make the culture legitimate. The end product or the main thing is that this has brought fear into the minds of the Europeans. This can be said to be true because Europeans still want to control the minds of Africans so that they can maintain their dominance over them. Their fear is based on the fact that if Africans want to adopt the Afrocentric way of life, which means to control their actions and act self-reliantly, this way of life would bring to an abrupt end of the dominance of the Europeans over the Africans. This is the primary cause of the fear of the Europeans. Europeans can be regarded as selfish because, they do not want Africans to be able to judge themselves through their original African- centred perspective. There is hereby a charge to go back to the origin of human history in order to be able to decontaminate their mentality from the contamination of the Europeans called Eurocentric “miseducation”, so that it can result into Africans looking at the Europeans as equals.

Also, the results of Euro-centrism have turned Africans into disunited, narrow-minded and powerless people, to mention but only a few. This is why the charge that Africans detach themselves from the long stronghold by the Europeans is important because it is after this detachment that they (Africans), through Afro-centrism will begin to see themselves through an African centralized perspective and thereby begin to love, respect and in the process, save themselves. Afro-centrism sets to relocate our mind-set back to the original point which is Africa. Afro-centrism is not like Euro-centrism that is a racist point of reference.  Instead, it is an orientation where experiences are seen from the view point of an African person. Afro-centrism does not speak of cultural diversity, but of cultural specificity. It is deeply embedded in the African ancestral legacy or tradition and mutual value system. Afro-centrism postulates the human being as the totality of all existence. This is far unlike the European view that places political power and materialism as the totality of all existence.

Most importantly, Afro-centrism is the cure of Africans from the malady that the Europeans have passed on to them. Afro-centrism also arms the people of Africa with necessary equipment in order to take part in critical thinking and scrutiny of themselves from their own view point. Unlike the process of Euro-centrism, that instilled Africans with the mind-set that they were minorities, the process of Afro-centrism, instils them with a sense of self-confidence and self-empowerment in order to fully eliminate the mental paralysis that had been placed on them by the Europeans. Afro-centrism tends to prove to Euro-centrism that Africa is the ancestor of Europe. So far, Afro-centrism has been said to be the most persuasive challenge to Euro-centrism so far. As at now, one can say that the Europeans are scared because they are aware that their time of domination over Africa is coming to an end. The end of the Eurocentric mind-set and practice is at hand. This is why another struggle which is called the Europeans struggle has been invented (imperialism).

Conclusively, in a nutshell, Afro-centrism can be said to be guilty of the same racist mentality Euro-centrism is judged to possess, though it cannot be compared to the injustice on humanity which Euro-centrism is guilty of, as we can see in practice. Afro-centrism in this paper is seen as anti-Euro-centrism, as it debunks all the claims and remarks about Africa by the white. The struggle among the western or Europeans is basically for survival. This struggle occurs at the local level, the national level and even internationally. This struggle can be said to be as a result of the arrogant lifestyle of the Europeans, who do not want to accept, respect Africans as normal human beings. As it is pointed out in this paper, the major problem facing the Europeans is that they do not know how they will continually move around freely when they are no longer in power. They do not believe they can move around in peace unless they are masters of this earth. In all, what can be inferred for the actions of Europeans is that they are not willing to take a bow. On the part of Africans, they have made of their mind to have their sanity back. This is why Afro-centrism is really needed for Africans to have enough strength to fight back at the Europeans. The Africans have been made to realize that it is not only the option of Euro-centrism that they’ve got but another alternative which is the African centred curriculum which is also known as Afro-centrism. 

Copyright: Richard Oluseye Anthony

Intellectual Property belonging to Matriculation number 150401 from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.