kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
517 803-8839
harrow@msu.edu
Sent: Thursday, June 3, 2021 4:17 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - 1619 project
Ken:
Unfortunately:
i. "originary" is tied to identity—difficult to do without it, not impossible but difficult.
ii. "originary" is tied to a notion of indigeneity. Alas! indigeneity ultimately links with the politics of power and identity.
iii. "originary" forms the basis of all sorts of mythologies, including the construction of patriarchy.
Adam sinned in the Bible—an "originary story"—but I. Toyin Falola, born millions of years later, will now burn in hell for its consequences. And when God asked Adam, in that brilliant faith-based mythology, "where are you?" he answered:
I am naked.
Instead of saying he was on a tree or in the bush.
He confessed, creating an originary sinhood!!!
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>
Date: Thursday, June 3, 2021 at 3:07 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - 1619 project
i would resist answering the question "when did the current usa begin." the answer constructs a beginning, and serves the kind of thinking glissant called "originary." if africans arrived before 1619, nothing denies them the right to claim descendancy dating back to the spanish arrival.
to fix an origin is to construct a history, with all its priorities. i want to resist an anglo priority, as if all the others didn't count. dutch presence in new york preceded the anglo presence in virginia, and even if it were a century later, it still involved an impact. the usa began as a human entity millenia before the arrival of europeans. it makes no sense to me to seek an originary point for their arrival, as if it were the defining mark for the entire populations and cultures that followed.
it makes no sense, also, to imagine a virginia entry point as having a priority over, say, the french and spanish in new orleans, even if that came later. and most of all, no sense to omit the southwest and its history apart from the east coast entirely.
this is an african listserv. nothing grates more than the presentation of african histories that attempt to present them as beginning with the arrival of europeans. even the south africans attempt that ploy. but once you deny that originary approach you then have the difficult task of dealing with all the peoples who had been there "before." can there be nothing but befores for us humans, i.e., histories that can only date back and back?
i am trying to say that once we establish a fixed point of origin, it begins its exclusionary and priority thinking that always excludes and denies Others. perhaps some here might remember the nefarious politics of the "Daughters of the American Revolution."
or the french "joke," their history teaching in africa, back to the gauls. nous les gaullois.
why? for them, africans had no history; for sarkhozy, africans are still waiting to enter history. Glissant spelled that history History; and, i believe at heart, that is where my hesitation before any project that has a fixed date for its point of origin is that it points in the direction of History.
i don't want my remarks to be misunderstood. The politics of the 1619 project are important and valuable. it ignited a storm that we have to navigate along its positive wake. but it is still animated by History, not what we might call histories.
ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
517 803-8839
harrow@msu.edu
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Akwasi Osei <aosei121212@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 3, 2021 10:59 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - 1619 project
So, when did the current USA begin?
1587?
1607?
1619?
1620?
1776?
1787?
All these dates can put in a claim in answer to the question.
The 1619 Projects makes an excellent case for the institution of this new, African ethnic group we have come to call African American. It does not try to erase nor negate any other earlier African presence in these parts.
And Biko is correct.
On Wed, Jun 2, 2021 at 12:16 PM bikozino via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Everyone knows that history is never written once and for all because history continues to be made and we continue to be made by history. Keep researching and keep writing. The 1619 project is well researched for a newspaper project and critics who expect it to read like a doctoral dissertation miss the point that all written history is instructive to some.
Biko
On Jun 2, 2021 5:17 AM, Yahaya Danjuma <yahaya.danjuma@gmail.com> wrote:
I hope you are not implying that the many historians who have criticized the 1619 project have not written proper history themselves.
The project may have helped popularize African American history, but it has also provided a convenient target for those who would ignore more well researched history to focus on the mistakes of the project as an excuse to return to propagandistic history. The ultimate effect of the project remains to be seen. I do hope for the best.
On Jun 1, 2021, at 03:49, 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Historians who are knocking the 1619 project should commend the project for popularizing the under-represented history. If you do not like the historiography of the 1619 project, go ahead and write your own proper history.
John Edward Philips
International Society, College of Humanities, Hirosaki University
"Homo sum; humani nihil a me alienum puto." -Terentius Afer
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