Why Africans Were Historically Viewed As A Threat

it seems as though everywhere africans or afro-descended people are no matter the geographical location they've experienced some form of oppression discrimination or prejudice this has been going on for quite some time some scholars have attempted to figure out why this is the case and some have come up with some interesting explanations from my studies it seems as though africans and their descendants across the globe historically have been viewed as some sort of threat and so today i wanted to talk about some of the potential reasons as to why this may be the case [Music] what up bathroom world is home team here and welcome back to another video of african history culture and world view by supporting this channel on patreon you're helping in the creation of these videos and supporting this content if you'd like access to full courses and sources or you simply want to show your support you may do so by clicking the patreon link in the description box below to begin this video should be taken lightly because this will just be my personal opinion on the topic based on my own analysis of world history ultimately there is no conclusive answer to this question as we can't get into the minds of non-africans all i can do is highlight some patterns and draw some conjectural conclusions also this video is not intended to be some sort of plea for empathy or acceptance from outside of the african diaspora it's simply intended to be considered as a working model showing how history evolved into what it is today as it concerns our current social political and economic condition as afro-descended people i really appreciated the perspectives you all gave in my last video and so i'm hoping that we can do the same so let's begin despite questions concerning the reliability of greek scholars and historians like deodorant sycholis and herodotus their work highlights a very important narrative that did exist in ancient times whether their words about africa were true or not they exposed what the common discourse was in ancient times amongst elites an ancient commentary that influenced later periods some of the ancient narratives suggest the belief or at least the consideration that africans were the first people and also that they were among the first civilized now the ethiopians as historians relate were the first of all men and the proofs of this statement they say or manifest for that they did not come into their land as immigrants from abroad but were natives of it and so justly bear the name of atoxtens is they maintain conceited by practically all men furthermore that those who dwell beneath the noonday sun were in all likelihood the first to be generated by the earth is clear to all since inasmuch as it was the warmth of the sun which at the generation of the universe dried up the earth when it was still wet and impregnated it with life it is reasonable to suppose that the region which was nearest the sun was the first to bring forth living creatures i find it fascinating that a greek scholar came to a similar conclusion as we did concerning the origin of humans placing them on the african continent echoes of this narrative survived into more modern times one of the most popular orientalists known today as the general title middle eastern studies was a man named constantine devolney of the 18th century here's what he has to say we have the strongest reasons to believe that the country neighboring to the tropic sudan and southern egypt was the cradle of the sciences and of consequence that the first learned nation was a nation of blacks for it is incontrovertible that by the term ethiopians the ancients meant to represent a people of black complexion thick lips and woolly hair despite what our perspective is today people in ancient times and even some of the earliest observers concluded that humanity's oldest civilizations and people were africans it's important to note that this perspective was only recently challenged i think if we use this ancient perspective and the perspective proposed by devolney we can certainly see the beginning stages of how african people came to be viewed as a threat because the implications of being the oldest human people possessing the oldest civilizations is obvious the second reason why african people may have been viewed as a threat plays on the previous ancient model because of the narrative events by ancient writers and their modern contemporaries a primordial fear of genetic annihilation inevitably developed so the thought process could possibly be the following if these africans are the oldest humans who possibly spread throughout the planet then humanity can easily go back to its original african mold even though it may sound odd this was a threat of thought in the psychology of the one drop rule which pretty much stated that if anyone had one drop of african blood then they have corrupted the non-african blood and therefore should be considered black or negro it seems clear that this idea was developed to identify african ancestry in whatever color or phenotype it came in this identification would then lead to oppressing that individual keeping them in the same denigrated state as other black people so that they would not have to compete economically socially politically and especially genetically however this idea of genetic annihilation was not present amongst all european ethnic groups in latin america for example the spanish and the portuguese seemed to have children with their enslaved african women and even claimed them creating a new class and ethnicity these individuals for the most part had privilege and access to the goods and services the society could offer this also seems to be true amongst the arabs to a degree the arab slave trade was just as brutal and dehumanizing as the atlantic slave trade and they certainly had children with enslaved african women some of these children navigated the world as an arab because they adopted the identity and the culture of their arab father in full some of the moors reflected this reality of arab and african parentage but again identifying in full with a non-african father but at the same time many arabs perpetuated the culture of eunuchs among their enslaved africans seemingly to rid themselves of that genetic threat so there does seem to be some duality there all in all the idea of africans posing a genetic threat did not apply to all but was unique to some non-african groups with imperial power our final threat seems to come from the fact that the african continent holds so many resources and these resources ultimately translate into wealth it's no secret that many modern day nations want to control the resources coming out of africa and they do a good job at it this was certainly true in ancient and medieval times i think the arabs were well aware of this when they first encountered the ghana and mali empires muslim writers spoke about what they heard from the merchants who traveled to ghana and its adjacent civilizations it is no exaggeration to say that the arabs were very impressed with the wealth of the ghana empire the first writer to mention the ghana empire was an astronomer named al fazari shortly after the year 800 a.d he referred to the ghana empire literally as the land of gold a century later ibn haqel described the king of ghana as the richest sovereign on earth for he possesses great wealth and reserves of gold that have been extracted since early times to the advantage of former kings and his own iben hakkel also writes in his description of siju masa concerning its trade across the sahara and with ghana i saw a bill in arugas certifying adapt all to one of them of the people of sidramasa by one of the traitors of adugas who was himself of the people of sijumasa and the sum of 42 000 diners i have never seen or heard anything comparable to this story in the east i told it in al iraq in fars and in kurusan and everywhere it was regarded as a novelty as sheikh antejop says africa was so distinguished in the world for its legendary wealth that it led the arabs to say against the camel's mons used tar and against poverty make a trip to the sudan this speaks volumes as to how africa was perceived everyone who knew about its wealth wanted a piece of it as we can see the arabs encouraged it making a proverb out of it and manzamusa's visit to cairo displaying his vast wealth and power certainly ood and odd but it simply gave more reason to heighten fears of a black planet if you will because everyone knew that access to wealth and resources consolidates and increases power period and whoever owns it controls it and it's clear that africans were deemed as the owners first from the arab perspective and later the european this was indeed a fatal combination for africans who were seemingly more interested in other forms of capital rather than world domination and so this history paints an interesting picture of why africans and their descendants may be viewed as a threat the early narrative of africans being the first humans the limited yet ever-present idea of genetic annihilation and finally the perceived advantage of immediate access to wealth and resources made africans a threat to their neighbors the arabs and the europeans both of which took action as soon as they could i believe this is why there was so much pushback against pan-african movements and economic powerhouses like black wall street and others because if people of african descent all across the globe can consolidate a unified identity they can then become owners again anyway guys like i mentioned before this is just my own personal analysis of world history i really hope some will be willing to share their thoughts and add or take away from the ideas presented as mentioned before i'm hoping this can be used as a sort of model for us in the diaspora so that we can understand our world a little better bring about less confusion and be able to process why we see the things that we do well i'm all out guys if you like these videos and want to help in this continued production consider supporting the home team on patreon.com the link is in the description box below know thyself remember your ancestors peace

Channel: HomeTeam History

Views: 754,321

Rating: 4.9349375 out of 5

Keywords: African History, Black History, African nations, African Kings

Id: kaTETvTwMEw

Length: 11min 44sec (704 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 14 2021