Monday, March 30, 2009
Short Essay Eight
Africans living in early and mid-twentieth century Europe had many conflicting opinions about the European culture. Though Africans were accepting of the occasional aspect of European society there were many elements they sought to change. One feature that African intellectuals approved of and participated in was the republican society in Europe. Africans were given many political rights in the many countries of Europe; however, most did not receive the same benefits as a white citizen. Yet this did not stop Africans from taking advantage of the political rights they did have. Several African intellectuals joined organizations to voice their opinions and raise awareness about issues pertinent to them in an attempt to sway public attitudes (Wilder159). Africans were able to manipulate this aspect of European society to push their own agenda. Accepting the political privileges that the European culture offered, the Africans were able to modify the aspects of their culture that they did not find satisfactory. Living in Europe allowed Africans to experience first hand all the racism that existed towards them. Naturally, the African scholars wanted to reform this part of European society. The goal for Africans was to stop racism and create a society that strove for “color-blind social and political equality” (Wilder 165). Blatant bigotry and prejudice was something that Africans desired to alter in European culture. Africans living in Europe were forced to experience racism in their everyday lives and desperately wanted to be free of it. In addition to racism existing in Europe, Africans also wanted to correct the treatment of the African colonies by Europeans. African intellectuals felt that the natives living the colonies in Africa should receive all the same rights as white Europeans. Transforming the way Europeans dealt with their colonies was a crucial aspect of the intellectual African agenda. African scholars preached about colonial reformation and “the demand for a more civilized colonialism” (Wilder 166). The mistreatment of the colonial subject was something that did not sit well with Africans and they aspired to end it. To the Africans, there were many aspects about European society that they found appealing, yet there were many elements that they wanted to alter. African intellectuals were able to use one feature they embraced, the freedom to voice opinions and take actions to change political policies, to modify the elements they did not accept. Racism and the exploitation of African colonies were two facets of European society that were found intolerable by the Africans. It seems that the freedom offered in European society was desirable, but the Africans wanted to extend that freedom to all of Europe’s citizens including the colonists.
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I thought that your examples were well selected and supported your argument nicely. I used many of the same examples myself. I thought that they accepted many different ideas of Europe, however, they did want to change that continents perception of colonialism and racism. This is understandable because they learned in Europe ideas of freedom that were theoretically guaranteed to everyone. Africans used the political freedoms guaranteed to them to agitate for change. This was best seen at the local level and not at state government.
ReplyDeleteI liked your essay, but I think that if you used more paragraphs it would be better organized. This way you could have expanded your argument more, which would have made it stronger. Other than that your paper was thorough because it used pretty much all the readings.
The question posed by the professor for this essay was a complicated one, and one that allowed for a great variety of responses. I think you did an adequate job of presenting one aspect of the way that Africans embraced, rejected, or modified facets of European society. You certainly focused on those African intellectuals who wanted to ameliorate the worst elements of colonial rule and the worst elements of European society- i.e. racism. The one area that I had not considered when drafting my own response was the way that African intellectuals, especially the student unions and other organizations used the printed word in an attempt to shape European public opinion. This was a very good point to raise You did a fine job in demonstrating how some Africans wanted their colonizers to extend the full rights of citizenship upon the peoples of their colonies. This is undoubtedly true, and reflects the influence of Western political thought upon African intellectuals. The Union of Students of African Descent and the West African Students’ Union are but two examples of this. They relied on Western forms of organizing and politicking to promote change in colonial administration.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it is equally important to acknowledge those Africans who came to reject the West. Lamine Senghor, a veteran of World War I for France, realized that he and his fellow Africans could and would never be treated the same as white Frenchmen. Lamine Senghor rejected European civilization, arguing that Europeans sought to keep Africans enslaved. Senghor became one of the founders of the Negritude movement which promoted the need by Africans to reclaim their heritage, respect, pride, and equality from their colonial oppressors. Negritude rejected assimilation with European society. Those African intellectuals who rejected European norms and forms did so because they experienced the racism and oppression by Europeans, both in their native lands and in Europe itself. I should observe that these attitudes developed really only after the end of WWI. WWI shattered any claims Europeans may have held as to their moral superiority and the superiority of their civilization. Europe bankrupted itself morally at Verdun and in the trenches along the Somme and the Marne. It was this very breakdown in civilized, rational life that led many African intellectuals to reject European conventions, ideologies, and politics.