The World and Africa: Inquiry Into the Part Which Africa Has Played in World History

by W.E.B. Du Bois

The American educator and writer reviews the tragic impact of Europe on Africans and the rise of Pan-African socialism

Genres: Africa, History, Nonfiction, Politics, Theory, African American, Anti Racist

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

In 1868, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (pronounced 'doo-boyz') was born in Massachusetts. He attended Fisk College in Nashville, then earned his BA in 1890 and his MS in 1891 from Harvard. Du Bois studied at the University of Berlin, then earned his doctorate in history from Harvard in 1894. He taught economics and history at Atlanta University from 1897-1910. The Souls of Black Folk (1903) made his name, in which he urged black Americans to stand up for their educational and economic rights. Du Bois was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and edited the NAACP's official journal, "Crisis," from 1910 to 1934. Du Bois turned "Crisis" into the foremost black literary journal. The black nationalist expanded his interests to global concerns, and is called the "father of Pan-Africanism" for organizing international black congresses.

Although he used some religious metaphor and expressions in some of his books and writings, Du Bois called himself a freethinker. In "On Christianity," a posthumously published essay, Du Bois critiqued the black church: "The theology of the average colored church is basing itself far too much upon 'Hell and Damnation'—upon an attempt to scare people into being decent and threatening them with the terrors of death and punishment. We are still trained to believe a good deal that is simply childish in theology. The outward and visible punishment of every wrong deed that men do, the repeated declaration that anything can be gotten by anyone at any time by prayer." Du Bois became a member of the Communist Party and officially repudiated his U.S. citizenship at the end of his life, dying in his adopted country of Ghana. D. 1963.

More: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stori...

http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0his...

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/dub...

Reviews

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book blew my mind. Just imagine if you had never learned anything about Europe in school. You know the name of the continent, but you're not sure where England is, or Italy. Someone says "Napoleon" or "Queen Elizabeth" and you say, "Who?" That's the state of US education when it comes to Africa. Thanks to mass media, when most folks hear "Africa" they think "poor," or "tribal wars." So, when you read a history of Africa that cuts like a knife and frees your mind of all the racial stereotypes and CIA-driven disinformation you have been fed about this great and powerful continent it is like reading an "alternate history," a fiction or fantasy. But it is the truth.

W.E.B. Du Bois was a brilliant scholar (the first African American to earn a PhD at Harvard in 1895) and an internationally renowned communist. This panoramic history gives you the background to understand what is going on in Africa today. The poverty and war in Africa is not the result of ignorance and lack of technology but rather, calculated exploitation and US and European political and military maneuvering. We are so trained to expect "objectivity" in scholarly works that it is a breathtaking shock to hear Dr. Du Bois's scathing comments. Du Bois is doing the work of a true teacher: to light the road to justice.

Note: if you have a visual or reading disability and have access to BARD, you are in for a real treat! the BARD audio version of this book is narrated by the great African American actor, Earle Hyman! A truly amazing and uplifting reading.

[JRT · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The World and Africa” is simply phenomenal. It is Du Bois at his best. He covers so much ground and packs-in so much information as he tells a highly detailed history of the continent of Africa going back thousands of years, while simultaneously weaving in a modern analysis of the dire consequences Euro-American colonial plunder on the continent. As he notes toward the beginning of the book, “Manifestly, the present plight of the world is a direct outgrowth of the past.” In other words, the white world’s treatment of African and African people directly led to the disasters of the 20th Century. Du Bois set out to tell the history of Africa, seeking to dispel the “Africa has no history" trope, which he identifies as a poisonous and racist justification for oppression and subordination.

Du Bois traces the roots of both World Wars and the Great Depression back to the colonial plundering of Africa by the nations of Europe (and Europe's satellite nation / empire, the United States). Du Bois also traces details the valiant history of the Pan Africanist movement. Du Bois spends the meat of this book centering African history, detailing the role of ancient African civilizations all over the continent, the rise and devastating consequences of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the ultimate conquering of Africa by the Euro-American colonial powers. There are so many amazing nuggets of information in this book, for instance, Du Bois lists out the African slave revolts that took place in the the Americas from 1522-1895, briefly detailing how these revolutionary offensive acts were the first “workers” revolts in the modern era. Du Bois also takes a page out of Eric Williams’ Capitalism and Slavery, explaining how slavery and the slave trade was the lifeblood of Euro-American industrial capitalism, and eventually gave way to an even more profitable form of enslavement—colonial imperialism. Du Bois explains how white supremacist ideology, rooted in scientific racism and anti-Blackness, ultimately developed as a justification and means of facilitating these systems of domination and genocide.

In explaining the devastating effects of colonialism and enslavement, Du Bois turns back the hands of time in order to depict just what was lost on the continent of Africa. In doing so, Du Bois details the history of the vibrant societies of old, from Egypt, Ethiopia, and Nubia, to the Sudanese empires of Ghana, Ashanti, Dahomey, Mali, and Mossi, to the Central African states of Great Zimbabwe and Kingdom of Kongo, Du Bois notes that all these civilizations were African in kind and nature, firmly dispelling the racist mythology of the so-called “Dark Continent.” Du Bois also spends much time upending the practice of imposing modern constructions of “race” on African societies, noting that while ancient Africans (notably the Egyptians) acknowledged differences in skin color, they did not organize society around those differences, nor did they subscribe to or understand “race” as we do.

This book is an ode to African history and culture. It is a defense of African civilization, and ultimately, a window into what the future might hold. Must read for anyone who wants to understand how the world came to be what it is today, and what must be done to change it.

[Ifanyi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of the most important documents of the twentieth century, this book clearly and meticulously traces the colonial roots of the modern world and associates their economic underpinnings to their major roles in the slave trade. This book lives as one of the last pieces literary evidence of major government and private organization's slave trading roots.

Not surprisingly, it is rare, even in its re-published form.

This book unrelentingly withholds no names, clearly cites dates, places and the sometimes the very transaction of slave-traders representing governments, banks, and other businesses.

A must read.

[Johanne]

I was surprised that I'd never even heard of this book - lucid and ahead of its time, Du Bois sets out to decolonize global history by flipping the terms of interdependence: the core was dependent on labor and commodities from the periphery. We see a lot of Du Bois' international thinking shine through this book - the color line as a global ordering, scientific racism as a justifying narrative for labor degradation; lots to learn from reading Du Bois as a voice on global history.

[Justin Hauter]

The World & Africa


OVERALL THOUGHTS
Part thesis on present (at time of writing) racial relations w/r/t Pan-Africanism, part deep historical dive on cultural, migratory, racial w/r/t to different regions of Africa
Review - https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytim...
^^^ “Manchester, according to Dr. Du Bois, could not justify its ivory trade, or New Orleans its commerce, in sugar and live-flesh, if the dark slaves from Africa's West Coast were acknowledged human beings and more than beasts of the field. Yet the ancestors of these Negroes practiced domestic agriculture at a time when nomadic tribesmen in northern and central European forests had not yet learned the secret of plowing the earth and raising steady crops. The captives chained to cotton empire could not be given recognition as descendents of the same races that had produced the beautiful bronzes of Benin, over which connoisseurs of ancient sculpture could become so enthusiastic in the British Museum.”
It did not suit a society sanctioning the use of Negro slaves for breeding purposes to admit that these same Negroes came from tribes with strict moral codes. Nor could architects of colonial anarchy grant that the benighted peoples had traced clear patterns of social and political organization, had developed religions of their own, or had hit unaided upon the art of weaving.
That these patterns are clear is shown by Dr. Du Bois -- often through exact historical reference, at times through the employment of permissible deductive license, which he considers not only his prerogative but also his duty. Dramatically, he traces the influences of one stream of dark peoples after another who pushed up the valleys of the African rivers, each successive movement enriching the cultures already developed by its predecessors.
He shows the influence of southern and central Africa upon Ethiopia, and of Ethiopia in turn upon the only African culture recognized as worthy of the European's attention -- the Egyptian civilization. He cites sources wherever he can find them -- and he finds them in many places. He draws upon the prophet Isaiah's appeal to the "land of the buzzing wings, which lies beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, that sends ambassadors by sea in papyrus vessels," as well as upon Jeremiah, the Book of Daniel, the Psalms of David and the Song of Solomon."
He drains Greek mythology and he lines up Arabic legend. He brings the testimony of a rare student like Leo Frobenius, a well-known anthropologist like Franz Boas and a witness like Oxford's Egyptologist David Randall-MacIver who is known only to "the trade." He overlooks no fragment that might bolster his thesis. But the witnesses are reputable, their affidavits relevant and valid.
INTRODUCTION (26)
Hegel a philosopher writing on the history of Africa (pg. 27)? Is that an area he would be informed on?
Pre-modern vs. modern slavery (pg. 29)
Africa’s contribution to three time periods explored in book, Ancient Greece, The Renaissance, The Industrial Revolution
FOREWORD (32)
Outline of different chapters - good guide for discussion (33)
Maps of Africa highlighting different lenses through which to analyze the continent - DISCUSSION? (38-41)
CHAPTER 1 - THE COLLAPSE OF EUROPE (42)
Downfall of European (read British) exceptionalism
Idea of “Pan-Africanism” emerges at turn of 20th century (46)
First Pan-African Congress meets in Paris at Peace Conference following end of WWI - drafts a list of resolutions (48)
CHAPTER 2 - The White Master’s of the World (52)
“All these centers of civilization envied England the wealth and power built upon her imperial colonial system” (52)
For DuBois - capitalism is the root of all interests for all Anglo powers - with democracy serving only as an ends to facilitate uncapped wealth generation for the few (53)
For DuBois - the proliferation of armaments was a means to protect imperialist interests
For DuBois - African history is pushed aside and actively suppressed in order to justify systemic oppression of non-white peoples
England “turning the screws” on the princes of India (60)
“Singular thing about European movements… was the rationalization for it…” (62)… Rationalization through “free enterprise”, “science” (62)
Exploitative system was further reinforced by populace’s adaption of traded goods as part of daily life (63)
European response to attempts at establishing native’s rights (65)
CHAPTER 3 - The Rape of Africa (69)
The relay race of slave trade by imperialist nations (72)
“The slave revolts were at the beginning of the revolutionary struggle for the uplift of the laboring masses in the modern world” + timeline (78)
Ivory - slave trade complex (87)
CHAPTER 4 - The Peopling of Africa (92)
“Of the physical aspects of Africa, its relatively unbroken coastline has had the greatest effect on history” (93)
Africa - cradle of the human race? (95)
The term “Negro” as a misnomer/catch-all for native inhabitants of Africa (97)
Bantu peoples (100)
CHAPTER 5 - Egypt (103)
Egypt as separate from Africa - why? DISCUSSION (103)
Egyptian rule hierarchy sets the precedence for present times (106)
Ancient Egyptian Race Theory - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient... —-> (108)
^^^Present-day controversies
Today the issues regarding the race of the ancient Egyptians are "troubled waters which most people who write about ancient Egypt from within the mainstream of scholarship avoid."[77] The debate, therefore, takes place mainly in the public sphere and tends to focus on a small number of specific issues.
CHAPTER 6 - The Land of the Burnt Faces (113)… Ethiopia
DuBois’ thesis for the book… if the three buckets of humanity were ascribed to Caucasian, Mongol, and Negro - it was the retroactive refining of the Negro peoples to attach scientific justification for enslavement? The idea being that there are human beings and then there are Negros (114). DuBois advances the argument that this is seen in the treatment of Ethiopia
Per DuBois, any advancement in African culture or science is based on contribution or mixing of whiteness with black Africa (115)
Ethiopian leaders being “drawn off” to Egypt (119, 127)
Nefertiti. Also part of race controversy… (120)
CHAPTER 7 - Atlantis (133)
Lack of written history not indicative of lack of worthy achievements (134)
West African civilization achievements - see bracketed text
West Africa done in by England, colonial imperialism (140-141)
Legacy of West Africa civilizations (141)
CHAPTER 8 - Central Africa and the March of the Bantu (143)
Migration of peoples to present day SA (145)
Lineage of the Bantu peoples (146)
History of Congo wasn’t retained due to disagreeable climate and migration patterns headed towards south - slave territory (147)
Zimbabwe (147)
CHAPTER 9 - Asia in Africa (151)
Black lineage in Asia (152, 153)
Artistic contributions between Egypt and Asia (158)
CHAPTER 10 - The Black Sudan (166)
“Character of the African style” (167)
List of Black African rulers in Sudanese region over historical time (171)
Sudanese influence on Renaissance culture (177, 178)
“Civilization in the Sudan died of strangulation by slavery and the European determination to master the world, no mater what cost in degradation and pain” (180)
CHAPTER 11 - Andromeda (181)
“What is going to be the future of black folk?” (181)
Economic exports of Africa to world - material resources and human capital (182 - 183)
Pan-Africanism w/r/t recent events (187). Marcus Garvey - ties to KKK in common desire for racial separatism
Exploitation of cocoa farming (193, 194)
Lack of ethical guidance; poverty present day US (197)
Vision of socialist/“intelligent democracy” USA (199, 200)
“The sin of capitalism is secrecy…” (200)
“No culture whose greatest effort must go to suppress some of the strongest contributions of mankind can have left in itself strength for survival (202)
“Europe can never survive without Asia and Africa as free and interrelated civilizations in one world” (202)

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although published in 1947, this book has a freshness of vision for me that many contemporary books lack. This is a serious look at Africa’s contribution to and place in the world. I was particularly interested in the way Du Bois saw the “scramble for Africa” and the resulting colonial conflicts as a key cause in the First World War.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

DuBois presents a very thorough political, economic and cultural treatise of the African continent from pre-history through to the modern era (at its time of publication, 1957, when he was 90 years old). He lays out the historical interactions of the peoples of Africa with the surroundings of Europe and Asia, as well as that of Africans in the diaspora during and post enslavement. Of particular interest to modern readers is the depth to which the work delves into the consistent Western governmental and corporate actions on the continent that have ramifications to this day. A must-read for anyone needing to understand the context of political happenings on the continent from the Cape to Cairo in contemporary times.

[Javier · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an important corrective to the racist Euro-American erasure of Africa's contributions to world history. Du Bois's passionate prose is deeply insightful in historical terms. Some of the language may be outdated in terms of anthropological views of race (many of the sources appearing to be British), and the author's uncritical account of ancient Egypt in chapters V-VI is questionable. That being said, the overall argument highlighting African history and aiming at overcoming racism and freeing "black Africa" and "her consort Asia" (260) is excellent, so perhaps these lapses can be forgiven.

[mantareads · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important, moving book. DuBois persuades by the sheer volume of evidence he musters against the studied myopia and ignorance of European historiography. So much of what he did prefigured what would come decades later in post-structuralist thought, oral history methods or 'global history'. It's sad that so much of what DuBois writes about remains poorly known. I also felt angry that I live in a world where such historical amnesia continues to be reproduced. Maybe one of the most important things about history is also to bear witness to the past.

[Essence McDowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grateful for my PanAfrican workstudy for reading this with me. I especially lived chapter three and the essays in the end. I gained more respect for DuBois throughout the process of learning through guys research and his evolving perspectives on African liberation.

[JC Sevart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty interesting read with a pretty succinct history of African cultures and the part they play in larger world history. His chapter Andromeda and the essays he has at the end of my copy were fascinating to me.

[Rediet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I absolutely respect this writing as pioneering work for Pan Africanism. However, it is completely western diaspora centric and we hear very little of the continental Africans experience. +++ not maliciously but naively endorses pseudo race science that is associated with Eugenics.

[Rafael Suleiman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great historical analysis of Africa and the process of colonization.

[Anzu Krom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dubois embarks on a journey through History, placing Africa and Africans at the center of it.

[Zoya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This needs to be the history book that the Children of Africa, and their allies read.

[mUdd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every African(Black) person should read this book.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that this book was a bit difficult for me because of the style in which it was written, and because of it's intent as a primer for American (probably white) progressives in the 1920s and 30s. DuBois, like many other Black progressives of his time, tried out many different ideologies - socialism, Pan-Africanism, liberalism, and so forth - and while this book in particular doesn't ascribe to any particular ideology - it's more of a laundry list of African nations, territories, exports, GDPs, and a short history of colonialism from its inception to its current state, it was geared towards a progressive/socialist audience and I found it a bit difficult to digest not because it was too 'political' but because it read more like a ledger than a social history. Certainly that was helpful in some ways, especially in terms of understanding the expropriation of African natural resources and labor that comprised colonialism up through the early 20th century, but I don't know that I got a sense of the major players, or a real sense of what DuBois was working to convey, which was the vast crime that was colonialism and slavery, not only on the level of it's crimes against human dignity, but it's effect upon the physical landscape of the continent, and the riches that were expropriated by Europeans over the centuries. DuBois lists which European nations were in possession of what territories beginning at what time, and what the GDP of each region was in 1920s currency. As I said, very useful information even in the current time period, but a bit difficult to digest. I found myself reading pages two or three times and still not processing the information. I am looking forward to reading more of DuBois's work, perhaps some of the more ideological in character. I don't usually like to privilege one over the other, but it is difficult to gain knowledge when you're not really processing the information presented.

[Imani ♥ ☮ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good and thorough text. Much to gain from it although Du Bois as always has a ways to go in terms of integrating his Black women peers into the history and configuration of African history. I enjoyed this text a whole lot and I believe it is an invaluable and unromantic (which is something important, sometimes not) overview of pre-colonial Africa as well as part of a Marxist adjacent analysis of the ravage on Africa's resources and peoples.

[Msbongi · Rating 5 out of 5]

In order to understand who we are as a people we must understand where we came from. W.E.B Dubois gives a painstakingly concise history of Africa and her place in the world.

[Sananaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me rethink a LOT of things I thought I understood about the world, Africa, religion, Dubois... it was a great eye opener for me.