Honestly, most of what I read in this book makes no sense to me whatsoever. There was one portion, however, that I was able to identify with and so have made a decision about Hegel, and for that matter the validity of what Hegel claims.
"At this point we leave Africa, not to mention it again. For it is no historical part of the World; it has no movement or development to exhibit. Historical movements in it- that is in the northern part- belong to the Asiatic or European World." (99)
I noticed someone else wrote on this topic too, and had some questions about why it is that Africa "has no history." The answer is simple. It DOES. But I have taken two African History courses in the past year, and have learned that Africa has quite the substantial history. To begin, Africa was home to several great empires that realized a way to govern peacefully with minimal conflicts and specific plans.
And I just made a realization; that because Africa has been a peaceful continent, it is perceived to have no history, when in actuality it has an extensive history. Hegel tells about slavery and says "...we may conclude slavery to have been the occasion of the increase of human feeling among the negroes" (98) While it's true, the African people used two different systems of slave trade, before the 19th century it was, for the most part, also a peaceful situation. The slaves had rights and were able to gain their freedom back. And for that matter, a good portion of the slaves were prisoners of war, which was the agreement for war in Africa (that rather than aiming to kill, they would aim to capture prisoners).
Overall, I think this helped me come to the conclusion that although Hegel claims Africa to have no history (which is simply not true), he does it because he is asserting that history is equivalent to conflict and negativity. I'll back this up with one more quote:
"The history of the world is not the theatre of happiness. Periods of happiness are blank pages in it, for they are periods of harmony-periods when the antithesis is in abeyance." (27)
I really enjoyed the last quote. I have never really thought that our history is only the bad stuff being told. I guess when nothing bad is happening it is considered uneventful. However, I would have to agree that the reason Africa is seen to "have no history" is because it was peaceful. Although I have not taken a history class on Africa, however I feel the reason why Africa is not in history books is because of the men who wrote and reported that history rather than the history that took place in Africa.
ReplyDeleteI think that these quotes from Hegel were very interesting ones to note and to pick up on. The fact that he says Africa no longer plays a role in history after a certain point is somewhat true, at least from the history that most people know of, not perhaps in actual fact or how things actually were. It is also true that if Africa was such a peaceful continent and held that mentality that there is less of a chance of it being noted world wide in the course of history but I also think that it also may have something to do with the opinions, views and priorities of the people writing and focusing on history. There was a decision made to not report history going on in each part of the world at a certain time in every piece of history. This may have something to do with Ranke's idea to report history as it actually was but to focus on the "most important people" at the time. This method causes people over time to forget, be unaware of or to never even think about what may have been going on in Africa at that time and in history, like Hegel also states , is equivalent to conflict and negativity. Which also may raise the question if nations or groups of people subconsciously strive to be that way just so they can make history and be remembered and the "most important".
ReplyDeleteThe history of Africa is also lost partly because they relied on oral tradition to pass history through generations. While technology has advanced, they haven't needed the oral traditions for survival, and so haven't made a point to listen.
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