Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

hi ogugua
first, the santayana quote has been used so much, so pompously over time, that it has become impossible to hear any more except as a cliched notion. to say there are only accounts of history, not history itself, is not to deny there are events, there is a materiality in which they occur, that they are usually perceptible (except i suppose for most dark matter); but that the only way we can make sense of them is to put them into discourses. i learned long ago that we americans will never agree over what really happened in vietnam. i would say, absolutely, that there will always be disagreements over how the events in the colonial archive fit into a meaningful discourse. having read derrida on the archive, i can now say that the discourses are already always prejudiced by what is considered to be in the archive or out of it, and that there are various powers that come into play, always, in constructing an archive.
you want a case in point? slavery: all the thread on slavery presupposes so much on one side or another than there is , really, no way to discuss it without agreeing to set aside the presuppositions that are in contradiction. reading about the algerian revolution this week, seeing how the fln and its allies were divided, murderously, even in 1958-9, astonished me, and i thought that it was enough to have read fanon to understand the conflict.
there is no history: there are differing accounts, and, i would say, some more credible to an educated reader than others. and importantly for me, there are presuppositions that color all readings, and our job is to determine the presuppositions if we are to even imagine we can come to terms with the events.
what is credible or not is where we can debate our views.
ken

On 3/20/13 11:52 AM, Anunoby, Ogugua wrote:

Ken and I must respectfully agree to disagree. That a quote seems increasingly meaningless to one is not to say that it is to all. He says that “there is no such thing as history”. I say that there is. He says that what there is , is “just accounts of history”. I suspect that it will be a while before I figure out how there can be “accounts of history” if there is no history. I know for example that there cannot be accounts of a transaction if there was no transaction. I would never hate a quote. I may disagree with it.

 

oa

 

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth harrow
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 1:35 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

 

hi oa
i hate that santayana quote. it seems increasingly meaningless to me.
let's say it is a temptation, like a large coke. drink more and more, and you get unhealthy and obese, not smarter.
so, to cut to the chase: there is no such thing as history; there are, rather, historical accounts. no history, just accounts of history. can we learn from accounts? of course. but they are as useful or useless as the intelligence of the author of the accounts, not as the "history" teaches us.
my little response, then, was to molefi asante's account, which seemed to me of little historical use or even accuracy, but rather, was there to preach to the unwashed.
ken

On 3/19/13 1:04 PM, Anunoby, Ogugua wrote:

“whenever anyone says, "history shows that...," dodge quickly”.

 

Not all the time. Not if history is the study of past events. History shows… It does just as experience teaches… Which is why we study and seek to learn from history. As George Santayana famously reminds us “those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it” Is history sometimes abused or misused? Can history be “tendentious”? Yes of course.

 

oa

 

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth harrow
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 8:16 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

 

this is "tendentious" commentary, not serious history. why do we have this?
in a way, we use history as a kind of football for kicking around our views and opinions, leaving us with hot air. so here is a guide: whenever anyone says, "history shows that...," dodge quickly.
ken

On 3/18/13 7:53 PM, Ikhide wrote:

"There are some fundamental facts. First, no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production. Africa has produced no economies based on slavery. It was left to Europe to create a system of slavery where humans were chattel to be used as tools in the development of wealth. Secondly, in all massive enterprises where there are oppressors and the oppressed there will be collaborators. It is no secret that some of Afriica’s best minds, Fanon, Memni, Karenga, have isolated incidents of collaboration among victims of oppression. Blacks were police officers in the white minority regime of South Africa but one cannot blame apartheid on black people. So when Gates claims that Africans were involved in the slave trade one can accept this, but what one cannot accept is that Africans were equally culpable for the slave trade. Nor should one blame the Judenrats (Jewish Councils) of Germany for Nazi atrocities although they often collaborated with the Germans. Indians collaborated with the British colonialists in India and some Chinese collaborated with the Japanese in occupied China, and while there is no excuse there is certainly explanation for collaboration."

- Molefi Kete Asante

http://www.asante.net/articles/44/where-is-the-white-professor-located/

Hmmm/ It is incorrect that "no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production." That is silly hagiography. There are many ways to counter Bill Gates without minimizing the role of Africans in the transatlantic slave trade. Africans are just as culpable as those that came to take away our siblings. *cycles away slowly*

 

- Ikhide

 

Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com

Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide

Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide

 

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michigan state university

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kenneth w. harrow 

faculty excellence advocate

distinguished professor of english

michigan state university

department of english

619 red cedar road

room C-614 wells hall

east lansing, mi 48824

ph. 517 803 8839

harrow@msu.edu

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--   kenneth w. harrow   faculty excellence advocate  distinguished professor of english  michigan state university  department of english  619 red cedar road  room C-614 wells hall  east lansing, mi 48824  ph. 517 803 8839  harrow@msu.edu