In
the years following the French Revolution, drastic shifts in the social and
political paradigms of old world Europe would mark the end of centuries of
monarchial rule and begin an age in which scientific discovery and industrial
developments would give rise to modern Europe as it exists today. Throughout
the period between 1800 and 2000, European attitudes toward Africans changed
significantly in terms of perceptions of race and culture. The concept of
scientific racism established the modern discipline of anthropology, increased
the consciousness of racial superiority and conflict, and led to the creation
of West African nationalism.
As
the number of people of African descent decreased and the intermixing of
African blood with European blood increased, the Negro-one of mixed racial
backgrounds-replaced the perception of the African that had been prominent in
the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries. Driven by European imperialism during the nineteenth century, the
exploration of the African continent and classification of the African culture
produced a multitude of theories that aimed to identify the biological and
social dynamics of race. “ From
the sixteenth century on, the printed narratives of travelers…made Europeans
increasingly aware of the extraordinary variety of humanity, of the existence
of peoples differing greatly in their physical characteristics from the
European norm, and of societies sharply distinguished one from another by their
culture”.[1]
Using these narratives, European scientists developed a larger vision of
humanity, and sought not only to identify the differences between Africans and
Europeans in physical appearances and in culture, but also to scientifically
explain how these variations came about, “The European theorist found himself
free to select ‘facts’ [from travel literature] that accorded best with his own
preconceptions…to allow Europeans with an interest in the problems of race and
culture to put forward a number of different theories…that helped to shape
European actions in their contact with peoples of alien culture…and stimulate a
mood of inquiry that contributed to the evolution of the modern discipline of
anthropology”.[2]
In 1871, the Anthropological
Institute was founded. The debate over human origins began and would facilitate
the development of scientific racism.
The
theories put forth by members of the Anthropological Institute suggested a
system of racial superiority. “This concern with origins means that much of the
study of Victorian racist theory has concentrated on the 1850s and ‘60s, when a
fierce debate occurred between defenders of the orthodox theory of monogenesis
and advocates of polygenesis. Both schools of thought followed he establishment
practice of classifying varieties of man by racial type, and both assumed that
a hierarchy of races existed with Europeans at the top of the scale”.[3]
The polygenists, led by Robert Knox, further instituted the idea of
European supremacy by claiming that Negros were of an entirely different
species; this could be observed through the differences of physical
characteristics, such as the slope of the forehead, which suggested a lower
mental capacity. Additionally, it was due to the lack of intellectual ability
that the Negro culture appeared to be savage, barbaric, and far less advanced
when compared to European customs and traditions. “ The polygenists found, then, an easy solution to the
problem of physical and cultural variations: Negros represented a different
species of humanity and could not reasonably be regarded as capable of the same
achievements as Europeans”[4]
Seeking
to expand their empires, European imperialist forces, such as Britain and
France, began establishing settler colonies across the African continent. “ From 1850 onwards, ‘race’, a term
comparatively rarely used in the late eighteenth century, occurred ever more
frequently in discussion on African and indeed global themes, and developed
into a concept that provided an easy explanation of the two most remarkable
phenomena of the age, the unprecedented rate of European technological
development, and the equally unprecedented rate at which white people were
expanding into every corner of the globe”.[5]
European colonists used the theories put forth by members of the
Anthropological institute to establish a code of conduct within their
communities. The purpose of this was to not only implant and spread European
culture within Africa, but also to protect the bloodline from being
‘contaminated’. Intermarriages, or the mixing of racial bloodlines, were a threat
to European nationalism, which prided itself on the purity of its race. In
addition, racial conflict would induce the instability of the empire. “In the
Empire the realities of international rivalry and indigenous resistance to
western imperialism forced the pace of formal colonization, and from the
British perspective the problem was how to administer an established and
expanding multiracial empire inhabited by peoples of exotic appearances and
strange habits who were apparently unsuited to the advanced practices of
Victorian civilization”.[6]
To solve this problem, the British
began promoting the migration of West Africans, mostly male, to be formally
educated in European culture. Many of these students had personally experienced
European colonialism and continued to struggle against the confines of Negro
second-class citizenship. “African students were often as much educated by the
prevailing social conditions they found in Britain as they were by the formal
education they received. Racism and prejudice…exacerbated by the rise of
imperialism and the partition and conquest of Africa at the close of the
nineteenth century…led Africans to form their own organizations and to combine
with others in Britain to find ways to tackle common problems”.[7]
The development of Pan-African organizations was a response not only to the
injustices of imperialism but also to the ignorance of scientific racism.
Members of these organizations laid the foundations or West African nationalism
and independence.
The
period between 1800 and 2000 coined the term “race” and gave birth to perhaps
the most blatantly ignorant forms of prejudice and discrimination. Nineteenth century
imperialism largely dictated the perception and attitudes of Europeans toward
Africans and is the stimulus behind the development and institution of
scientific racism.
[1] Halett, “Changing European
Attitudes To Africa,” Cambridge Histories
Online, (Cambridge University Press, 2008), 472-473.
[3] Lormier, Douglas,
“Theoretical Racism in Late-Victorian Anthropology, 1870-1900,” Victorian Studies, Vol. 31 (Indiana
University Press, Spring 1988), 405.
[4] Halett, “Changing European
Attitudes To Africa,” Cambridge Histories
Online, (Cambridge University Press, 2008), 475.
[6] Lormier, Douglas,
“Theoretical Racism in Late-Victorian Anthropology, 1870-1900,” Victorian Studies, Vol. 31 (Indiana
University Press, Spring 1988),430.
[7] Adi, Hakim, “Pan-Africansim
and West African Nationalism in Britain,” African
Studies Review, Vol. 43 (African Studies Association, April 2000), 72.
Bibliography
Halett, “Changing European Attitudes To Africa,” Cambridge Histories Online, (Cambridge
University Press, 2008), 472-477.
Adi, Hakim, “Pan-Africansim and West African Nationalism in
Britain,” African Studies Review,
Vol. 43 (African Studies Association, April 2000), 72.
Lormier, Douglas, “Theoretical Racism in Late-Victorian
Anthropology, 1870-1900,” Victorian
Studies, Vol. 31 (Indiana University Press, Spring 1988), 405-430
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