A misconception is: ‘A
mistaken thought, idea, or notion; a misunderstanding ("misconception")’ and it is quite likely that
every person on the planet is guilty of believing at least one. I grew up in a
small town where in order to fit in you needed to be Catholic and/or Italian.
Being neither, I never felt like I did fit in; I was a crowd unto myself. There
was a boy two or three years ahead of me in school who, I believed, was just
your ordinary, stuck-up Italian jock and who, like most everyone else, never
spoke to me (which I actually encouraged by speaking as little as possible). As
it turns out, he was not your ordinary, stuck-up Italian jock. Indeed, he has a
very Italian name, but he was adopted when he was five by a very Italian
family. He actually is a member of the Karuk Indian tribe and was not stuck-up;
he was struggling with the drugs and alcohol that it took him years to finally
overcome. Now, he is able to visit middle and high schools where he talks to
youth who may have similar struggles. It shames me that I ever thought what I
did about him. Even though it is widely held even today that the slavery
'problem' is one perpetrated by whites and there are those who even now argue
repatriation, there are many misconceptions about slavery, racism and Africa
that should be corrected because slavery has been in existence for millennia
and slave traders through the years have come in all shapes and sizes (and
colors). I would like to discuss three specific misconceptions held not only by
those who lived during and participated in the Harlem Renaissance, but those
alive today. First, the idea that Africa is a ‘Garden of Eden,’ second the idea
of repatriation, and third, the whole idea of slavery and racism.
To begin, we must visit the
account of the Creation and subsequent fall of man in Genesis. The story tells
us that the world and everything in it was created in a period of six days and
on the seventh, God rested. Adam and Eve were the first humans and they were
created on the sixth day. They were commanded not to partake of the fruit of
the tree of knowledge of good and evil but temptation entered in and Eve not
only partook, she convinced Adam to do likewise. Because of this act, they were
forced to leave the Garden of Eden. In chapter 2, we learn that there was a
river that went out of Eden and that it was divided into the four rivers,
Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Euphrates. Important to note is the fact that Gihon
encompassed the land of Ethiopia (The
Holy Bible 1-6).
There has long been a belief that
the biblical Garden of Eden was somewhere in the Middle East or Africa. This is
partly due to the fact that on the African continent is a country called
Ethiopia and that there is a Euphrates River in the Middle East. Some have argued
that this must be the case because there are several groups in Africa who have
similar Creation and fall stories. The Chagga people of Tanzania, the Bambuti
of Congo, the Meru of Kenya, and the Shilluk of Sudan all have stories in which
people are created by God and either eat forbidden food or food of God which
makes them sick. Because the Hebrews could have, and probably did, know of
these stories, it is surmised that they adopted them for their own use (Adamo).
However, other peoples the world
over have creation stories. There are numerous Native American stories of the
creation including the Lakota people that the Great Spirit created our
ancestors and they were tricked into going out onto the surface as they had
been living in the Underworld (Parkinson). The Mein Tribe of Laos believe that the sky
and earth were made by a brother and sister who embroidered cloth (Carger and
Locke). From Australia comes a story of a Sun Mother who creates the Morning
Star and Moon (son and daughter) who give birth to twins who are the first man
and woman on the earth (Manczuk). There are those who believe the Garden was in
South America (Adamo) and those who believe it was in North America (The Holy Bible 659).
A more compelling argument that
the first men originated in Africa than mere stories is that the DNA of all
peoples of the world point back to a single maternal ancestor in Africa 200,000
years ago (Adamo) but this does not account for the rivers. It is interesting
to note that with our increased technology and ability to traverse the space
around the earth, telescopes have been able to picture under the surface of the
planet in southern Egypt a river system of size and complexity comparable to
the Nile (Adamo). Does this prove anything? Only that we have technology with
which to make more and better discoveries about more and more aspects of life
on earth.
Therefore, although the evidence
does seem to point to a single maternal ancestor originating in Africa, this
would be an evolutionary belief and not necessarily one held by those who
believe in creationism. For those who believe in the Creation, there really is
no substantial ‘proof’ of where the Garden of Eden may have been located.
Changing gears just a bit, we
will define repatriate and, in conjunction with it, discuss the origins of
people on the American continents. The purpose will become clear later when we
tie it into the Harlem Renaissance. Repatriate: ‘To restore
or return to the country of birth, citizenship, or origin; one who has been
repatriated ("repatriate").’
In order to be repatriated, there must be a country of origin. It is very
interesting that the Seneca tribe of Native Americans recognize that there were
people here before the people they identify as their ancestors (Hansen). It
appears that the best documented residents of the Americas are what are known
as the Clovis people between 12,900 and 12,550 years ago. Points of their make
have been found across the North American continent and it is thought that
Clovis artifacts are too common, too universal, and too tailored for them to be
the first people here (Toner).
Now,
however, it appears that the Clovis were not the first. There have been stone
tools, without Clovis points, discovered in Monte Verde in Chile dating from
14,400 to 16,000 years ago. Along the Savannah River in South Carolina,
artifacts have been found at several levels. One level has artifacts between
17,000 and 21,000 years old. Even farther down is a “hearthlike feature” with
charcoal dated at about 50,000 years (Toner). Similar finds have been made in
Oregon and Texas (Pringle).
How did
these people get there? It was originally thought that Native American
ancestors travelled via a bridge between present day Siberia and Alaska. Although
no evidence of boats has been found, it is known that at least 45,000 years ago
humans made the journey from Asia to Australia via the islands between them and
the water surrounding them all. Close to 12,000 years ago 10 kilometers of
water was crossed by boatmen to Santa Rosa Island off the coast of California.
It certainly would have been quicker and easier to travel via water down the
west coast than by foot through the center of the continent (Pringle).
Now, we will discuss slavery and
racism. In the United States, we have this idea of political correctness which
is defined as ‘1. Of, relating to, or supporting broad social,
political, and educational change, especially to redress historical injustices
in matters such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. 2. Being or perceived as being overconcerned with such
change, often to the exclusion of other matters ("politically
correct.").’ In some respects, this idea is a good one but
in many, it is certainly ‘overconcerned’ and it seems that this is what keeps
us from being taught the true nature of slavery and the slave trade and helps
keep racism alive and well.
In most
public schools throughout the nation, the Triangle Trade is still the
curriculum of the day (Aronson). The Triangle Trade should bring to mind the
trade of sugar and of humans connecting Great Britain with Africa and the
Caribbean (Spence) and the Americas. While it is true that these are all
connected in the trade of slaves, the ‘triangle’ is actually spherical and
spans the globe (Aronson). While it is an awful truth that the United States
allowed slavery to exist within its borders and that because of it, for almost
two and a half centuries, most of black people within those borders were
considered ‘chattel property’ (Stern), and that we still today have issues
regarding racism and prejudice, it is also true that slavery has existed in
world history long before slaves began being imported to the Americas and
Caribbean. This history of slavery, dating back to the earliest civilizations,
proves that no one was exempt from either participation or profit: ‘whites and
blacks; Christians, Muslims, and Jews; Europeans, Africans, Americans, and
Latin Americans’ (Stern).
The Bible
tells us that Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. He ended up
in Egypt and because he was there, his family was able to escape the famine
that ravished the land where they were. After approximately 450 years, when we
read about Moses, the Israelites were no longer honored members of Joseph’s
family but had been enslaved. A whole people (The Holy Bible 58,70, 80).The Islamic slave trade has existed since
at least the 8th century and ‘millions of Africans’ were seized for
sale to ‘Egypt, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and the Ottoman Empire’ (Stern). It might
be pointed out that this occurred before any European (think white person) set
foot south of the Sahara (White).
It may be
true that a few Africans were actually captured by white slave traders; after
all, English sailors gave little thought to kidnapping a Dutch boy from a beach
in 1740. He was sold in Maryland and ended up in Ontario (White). Just as white
English sailors had no problem kidnapping a white Dutch boy, neither did black
Africans have a problem capturing other black Africans to sell to the slave
traders who met them on the coast to do their business. In fact, many of the
Africans who were forcibly taken to the Western Hemisphere had been enslaved
long before they left Africa; of the approximately 20 million slaves captured
during the height of European involvement between 1600 and 1850, estimations
are that approximately 10 million, that is half,
did not make it to the coastal ‘factories’ where they were held until sale to
the white slavers. They died, still chained, yoked, and shackled to their
fellow captives, before they ever saw a white slave trader (Stern).
It is a
little known fact that freed slaves actually saw nothing wrong with owning
slaves, as many as 63 in one noteworthy case (White). It is possible that
Captain Paul Cuffe, a black New England sea captain and son of a former slave,
was a slave trader. Even if he wasn’t he had many friends, black and white, who
were. Mrs. Betsy Walker, a freed slave, returned to Africa where she became one
of the most successful traders of slaves in the early 1800s. Women actually
controlled a substantial part of the slave market along the West African coast.
In many ways, this is not surprising because in traditional West African
societies, the men were the farmers and the women were the traders (Brooks).
Many blacks
struggled with their heritage; especially those considered mulatto, having both
black and white ancestry. In Nella Larsen’s novel ‘Quicksand,’ the main
character, Helga Crane, wrestled with the fact that her mother was white while
her father was black (Larsen). Why was this such a stigma for her? Perhaps
because racism exists. It seems to be popularly believed that racism is
something that blacks experience at the hands of whites. In fact, racism is ‘1.
The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and
that a particular race is superior to others. 2. Discrimination or prejudice
based on race (“racism”).’ This may be true at times but certainly not always.
Helga, for example, was counseled not to tell Anne of her white mother (Larsen).
Why? Because Anne hated whites? Perhaps Anne was not alone in her hatred.
Perhaps because racism rears its ugly head and manifests itself in many
different forms.
Historically,
racism is not a phenomena belonging exclusively to blacks and whites or even to
groups of different skin color. Hitler’s extermination of the Jews is a blatant
example. When my family lived in New Mexico, two of my little girls were the
only white children in an elementary school of Navajo, Apache, and one little
black boy (what a bunch of cute kids!). My little girls experienced what we
would call ‘reverse’ prejudice and it was not pretty. Consider the following:
‘Two decades ago, a Fulani college student said Zaire’s whites deserved the
massacres inflicted upon them because they were white and hence racist. A
listening British anthropologist asked him if he would marry a Dowayo,
referring to a pagan people that Fulani had long deemed fit only to be slaves.
The student looked at him as if he were insane. As a Fulani himself, he could
not marry a Dowayo, he pointed out. They were dongs, mere animals. But what had
that to do with racism (White)?’Racism would appear to be a problem for many
people and certainly seemed to be one for those who lived and participated in
the Harlem Renaissance.
One way to
deal with racism was to run away from it. The widely accepted idea that the
Garden of Eden was located in Africa has much to do with Marcus Garvey’s Back
to Africa movement as well as the fact that his ancestors came from that
continent. Marcus Garvey is looked upon as a prophet by the Rastafari religion
of Pan-America. They believe that he prophesied that they should look to
Africa, specifically Ethiopia, for the crowning of their King, or savior. While
nothing in his writings has been discovered to this effect, he did write a play
which was entitled The king and queen of
Africa in which the closing scene is that of a coronation (Chevannes). Be
this as it may, it is well known that Garvey promoted the Back to Africa
movement and may have had some success had his business partners been less than
ethical. His efforts were not unprecedented.
In 1820, the
first group of free blacks was aboard an American Colonization Society (ACS)
sponsored voyage to Liberia. This new nation was ceded for the repatriation of
free blacks. It was administered by the ACS until it gained independence in
1847 ("AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY."). After this, it wasn’t until
1914 that another such attempt was made. Chief Alfred Charles Sam began the
African Movement in that year. He was a successful businessman and raised money
with which to buy a ship which was to take blacks to West Africa. Progress was
hindered by criminal charges which did not stick and the British government
discouraged black Americans from joining this movement. Nevertheless, in August
of 1914, the ship left Galveston, Texas, and arrived in Bathurst in December.
The voyage was not entirely successful due to British colonial authorities
making it as difficult as
possible for the people to even leave the ship. Eventually, in June of the following
year, most of the immigrants returned to the United States; a few of them had
died and a few remained in Africa (Ray).
Marcus Garvey, Jr., in a 1998
interview, hoped that African Americans would gain a renewed interest in his
father’s work (Mason). Garvey’s dream was to create a Utopian African nation to
which all blacks the world over could be repatriated and take their place as a
major world influence. Repatriation also included Europeans returning to Europe
(Chevannes). In light of the fact that all the people of the world originated
in Africa, the idea of repatriation is rather interesting. Whom should be
repatriated where, exactly?
The literature of the Harlem
Renaissance is . . . interesting, enlightening, worth reading and exploring. It
gives us an idea of the image these writers, and most likely others, had of
Africa at the time. For better or worse, these writers placed Africa at the
heart of their cultural landscape and thus at the heart of the cultural
landscape of all African Americans. There it has remained. Although some of the
Harlem Renaissance writers, Langston Hughes, for example, traveled to Africa,
many did not (Harris). Even Marcus Garvey, who wanted to move all black people
to Africa, never set foot on the continent (Bair). Because most of those who
were writing during the Harlem Renaissance never experienced Africa, their writing
is based on romanticized ideas of it or what they heard or read. Even Hughes,
who did not have the best experiences there, continued to write of Africa as an
abstract ideal rather than a reality (Harris). Take, for example, Hughes poem
‘Dream Variation’(Lewis 226) which talks about dancing in the sun until the day
is gone and resting under a tree in the evening. He uses words and phrases that
indicate a somewhat idyllic place such as ‘night comes gently,’ ‘pale evening,’
and ‘dark like me.’
Countee Cullen’s poem ‘Heritage’
(Lewis 224), talks of a dream like place where there is ‘Copper sun or scarlet
sea,/Jungle star or jungle track.’ There is a conflict here between the
‘bronzed men’ and ‘regal black women’ and general wildness of Africa and the
Christian West.
Gwendolyn Bennett’s poem ‘To a
Dark Girl’ (Miller) speaks of love for ‘brownness’ and ‘rounded darkness.’ It
evokes thoughts of ‘old forgotten queens’ and keeping qualities of
‘queenliness’. The girl who has these qualities was once a slave but perhaps
her African ancestors were queens. Her poem ‘Heritage’(Bennett) has dream-like
qualities. This narrator speaks of wanting to see and hear and breathe and feel
different things from her African homeland. The whole poem has a lulling ebb
and flow feel to it that contributes to the longing of the dream.
Most blacks, who wrote of Africa,
wrote similarly. Africa was their homeland. Africa is where the Garden of Eden
had been and where civilization had its beginning. Surely a life in Africa,
among people they imagined were like themselves, would be better than the hard
life experienced in the United States where prejudice and racism abounded.
That these people, who dreamed of
an idyllic Africa, did not know everything there was to know about Africa, is
reasonable. Knowledge was available but not as readily accessible as it is in
today’s digital climate. Furthermore, people often write of a place or time
that may be based in reality but is surrounded by myth or fantasy. The purpose
of doing this may be to escape the harsh realities of life or to create a place
removed from everyday life. Certainly life for these writers of the Harlem
Renaissance, and indeed most of the residents of Harlem, was not easy.
Today it is easy to find
information. If it cannot be found online, the books or locations where it
might be obtained can be found online. That there were misconceptions in the
past is understandable. With our increased understanding of the physical world
in which we live and the relative ease of learning more about our collective
history, past misconceptions should be a thing of the past.
That there continue to be
misconceptions in spite of all we now know stands to reason given our love of
political correctness but when there are Africans from Ghana, Benin, Senegal,
and the Ivory Coast acknowledging that Africans were abducted, captured, and
kidnapped by fellow Africans for the specific purpose of being sold into
slavery, urging Europeans, Americans, and Africans to acknowledge the part they
played and to publicly teach about it, and making statements such as ‘We too
are blameworthy in what was essentially one of the most heinous crimes in human
history (Stern)’ it is almost shameful that we have Americans of African
descent who say, apparently without truly knowing history, ‘It is not we who
kidnapped, raped, and ravished a people’ (Hill 3).
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