How The Idea Of Africa - 1822 Words

Examine how the idea of Africa was invented . What is meant by ‘Africa’? A number of questions come up when trying to define it; is it geographic? Or can Africa be considered a racial definition? Is Africa even one single entity capable of being defined? There is a predominant idea that there is something different or strange about the continent, that it is violent, alien and savage . This false idea has been invented . At what point did African otherness become the norm? I will argue that the modern interpretation of Africa was invented during the European colonial period as a method of separation, splitting the Earth into distinct and arbitrary racial blocks which conformed to the racial science of 19th century†¦show more content†¦Mudimbe is also keen to note that classical notions of barbarism should be detached from any kind of modern context. Greek thought on Africa can be seen to have formed a basis on which more medieval and modern societies based their views of Africa, but in many of these cases classical thought has been twisted in favour of a contemporary ideological goal, as noted by Michael McCarthy. McCarthy notes how many classical writers, such as Pliny and Herodotus, â€Å"needed to create a [cultural] chasm† but there was nothing distinctly African about this chasm. Whilst it can be argued that there are early examples of specific African otherness, particularly in the use Sudan (a racial designation meaning burnt skin ) , there is no true creation of an Africa that still remains in the collective imagination of both Africans and westerners. The classical world built up ideas of otherness, some of which were applied to African peoples. Whilst not inventing the idea of Africa as we know it the classical view may have impacted later medieval perspectives. McCarthy argues that the basis of the European idea of Africa was to some extent the classical ideas, but transplanted into a separate context. Classical ideas of unknown magical lands so uth of the Sahara and deformed peoples appealed to the idea that Europe was the centre of Christian civilisation. What is important to note about Medieval Europe is that the 19th century obsession with race had