Omowale Jabali : Eurocentricity and the Rape of Black Native Cultures

[Omowale Jabali]

Eurocentrism is the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective and with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of European culture. The term Eurocentrism was coined during the period of decolonisation in the late 20th century.
The Eurocentrism prevalent in international affairs in the 19th century had its historical roots in European colonialism and imperialism from the Early Modern period (16th to 18th centuries). Many international standards (such as the Prime Meridian, or the worldwide spread of the Common Era and Latin alphabet) have their roots in this period. Eurocentrism is sometimes manifested as inability to respect other cultures and unprovoked aggression towards distant peoples. It also downplays the humanity and experience of others, viewing even European atrocities from the eyes of whites only, and not giving credence to the unalienable rights of others to self-determine and defend themselves.
Eurocentrism can be seen as European culture's desperation to affirm themselves, often as a unique entity separate from the rest of the world. It denies European technological ties to the rest of the Old World, and claims universal concepts (like capitalist competition) as being European "inventions". Veiled eurocentrism is often more noticeable to non-Europeans when exhibited in academic literature. In general, eurocentrism is usually manifest in judgement of other cultures through a European lens. When Europeans find their feelings of supremacy challenged by other accounts of history, eurocentrism can manifest itself in feelings of victimization, bitterness, or spite.
Eurocentrism often seeks to define Europe as a distinct entity, regardless of theological roots. Even though Christian philosophy, Etruscan art, Writing, and other fundamentals of European culture come directly from Asia Minor and the Near East, a eurocentric worldview often seeks to show the superiority of Western customs to analoguous developments in other, often earlier (or more original) cultures.

Origin in colonialism
Further information: The European miracle, Age of Exploration, Colonialism, and Western World
Further information: Dutch Golden Age, Spanish Golden Age, Britain's Imperial Century, and Portuguese Empire
Early Eurocentrism can be traced to the European Renaissance, during which the revival of learning based on classical sources were focused on the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, due to their being a significant source of contemporary European civilization.
The effects of these assumptions of European superiority increased during the period of European imperialism, which started slowly in the 15th century, accelerated by the Scientific Revolution, the Commercial Revolution and the rise of colonial empires in the "Great Divergence" of the Early Modern period, and reached its zenith in the 18th to 19th century with the Industrial Revolution and a Second European colonization wave.
The progressively mechanised character of European culture was contrasted with traditional hunting, farming and herding societies in many of the areas of the world being newly conquered and colonised by Europeans, such as the Americas, most of Africa, and later the Pacific and Australasia. Many European writers of this time construed the history of Europe as paradigmatic for the rest of the world. Other cultures were identified as having reached a stage through which Europe itself had already passed—primitive hunter-gatherer; farming; early civilisation; feudalism; and modern liberal-capitalism. Only Europe was considered to have achieved the last stage.
For some writers, such as Karl Marx, the centrality of Europe to an understanding of world history did not imply any innate European superiority, but he nevertheless assumed that Europe provided a model for the world as a whole. Others looked forward to the expansion of modernity throughout the world through trade, imperialism or both.
The colonising period involved the widespread settlement of parts of the Americas and Australasia with European people, and the establishment of outposts and colonial administrations in parts of Asia and Africa. As a result, the majority populations of the Americas, Australia and New Zealand typically trace their ancestry to Europe. A Eurocentric history is taught in such countries, despite geographic isolation from Europe, with many European cultural traditions.
The longitude meridians of world maps based on the prime meridian, placing Greenwich, London in the centre, has been in use since 1851. Various other prime meridians were in use during the Age of Exploration. The current prime meridian has the advantage that it places the International Date Line in the Pacific, inconveniencing the smallest number of people.

Europe as a separate continent
The division of the landmass of Eurasia into the continents of Asia and Europe is an anomaly, as no sea separates them. An alternative view, that Eurasia is a single continent, results in a six-continent view of the world.
The separation of Eurasia into Europe and Asia is viewed by some as a residue of Eurocentrism: "In physical, cultural and historical diversity, China and India are comparable to the entire European landmass, not to a single European country. A better (if still imperfect) analogy would compare France, not to India as a whole, but to a single Indian state, such as Uttar Pradesh."[4]
However, for historical and cultural reasons, the view of Europe as a separate continent continues in several categorizations.
South Asia has often been referred to as a subcontinent even though, apart from the fact that it has a comparable level of physical, cultural and historical diversity as Europe (see above), it has more reasons to be called a continent from a geographical and geological point of view.

African scholars such as Molefi Asante have categorically highlighted the prevalence of Eurocentric thought in the processing of much of academia on African affairs. On the other hand, in an article titled 'Eurocentrism and Academic Imperialism' professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi from the University of Tehran states that Eurocentric thought exists in almost all aspects of academia, in many parts of the world, and especially in the humanities.[7] Edgar Alfred Bowring states that: In no other major civilization do self-regard, self-congratulation and denigration of the ‘Other’ run as deep, nor have these tendencies infected as many aspects of their thinking, laws, and policy, as they have in Western Europe and its overseas extensions.[8] Alik Shahadah notes that: The Eurocentric discourse on Africa is in error because those foundational paradigms which inspired the study in the first place were rooted in the denial of African agency; political intellectualism bent on its own self-affirmation rather than objective study.[9][10]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocentrism

 

[Omowale Jabali]

Argentina kept its doors open to Jewish immigration until 1938. After that, new regulations were imposed by the government and the flow was severely curtailed at the very moment when the Jews sought a safe haven from the Nazis.[14]
Juan Perón's rise to power in 1946 worried many Jews. Though it was Juan Perón who, as Minister of War, eventually signed Argentina's declaration of war against the Axis Powers, as a nationalist he had initially expressed sympathy for the Axis powers. He had also specifically expressed admiration for Benito Mussolini. Peron introduced Catholic religious instruction in public schools and allowed Argentina to become a haven for fleeing Nazis. One notable fugitive was Adolf Eichmann who lived in Argentina after World War II until 1960, when Israeli agents abducted him from a Buenos Aires suburb. Eichmann faced trial in Jerusalem, on April 1961. Since then, more than 45,000 Jews have migrated to Israel from Argentina. On the other hand, Perón also expressed sympathy for Jewish rights and established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1949.[4] Perón's government was also the first, in Argentina, to allow Jewish citizens to hold office.[1]
Peron was overthrown in 1955, which was followed by another wave of antisemitism. In the 1950s and 60s, the Tacuara Nationalist Movement, a fascist organization with political ties, began a series of antisemitic campaigns with street fights and vandalism of synagogues and Jewish cemeteries.[15]
Argentina was under military rule between 1976 and 1983. During this period, Jews were increasingly targeted for kidnapping and torture by the ruling junta; about 2,000 known victims of state terrorism were Jews.[16][17] According to the Jerusalem Post, the Israeli government had a special agreement with the Argentine government to allow Jews arrested for political crimes to immigrate to Israel.[citation needed]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histor...na#World_War_II.2C_Holocaust_and_antisemitism

 

[Omowale Jabali]

The black population resulting from the slave trade during the centuries of Spanish domination of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata had a major role in Argentine history. Throughout the eighteenth and 19th centuries, it comprised up to fifty per cent of the population in some provinces and had a deep impact on national culture.
In the 19th century, it declined sharply in number as a result of the wars of Independence (most of the soldiers were black Argentine men), high infant mortality rates, low number of married blacks, the War of the Triple Alliance (most Argentine soldiers in this battle were black as well), cholera epidemics in 1861 and 1864, as well as a yellow fever epidemic in 1871.[citation needed]
By the late 19th century, the Afro-Argentine population was consisted mainly of women,and mixed with the European immigrants that arrived. With thousands of immigrants of Europe arriving to Argentine soil, and most black women intermarrying with them, noting that their populations were already low, the Afro-Argentine population faded into oblivion.[citation needed]
In 2006 there was a pilot census on this issue in the neighborhoods of Montserrat, in Buenos Aires, and in Santa Rosa de Lima, in Santa Fe, revealing that 5% of the Argentine population confirms their having ancestors of African descent and that an additional 20% believes it could share this ancestry but is not sure.
This research supports the claim by the Center for Genetic Studies of the School of Arts and Sciences of the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) that an estimated 4.3% of the people living in suburban Buenos Aires have genetic markers of African descent.[1][2] Today there is still a notable Afro-Argentine community in the Buenos Aires district of San Telmo. There are also quite a few black afro-Argentines in Merlo and Ciudad Evita cities, in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area.

As part of the process of Conquest, the economic regimes of the European colonies in America developed various forms of forced labor exploitation of the American aboriginals. However, the relatively low population density of some of the South American territories, resistance from some Aboriginal groups to the acculturation and especially the high rate of mortality of the submission, the type of work and diseases introduced by Europeans resulted in the decline of the native population, led them to supplement the manpower that they provided with slaves from sub-Saharan Africa. Mexico and Peru alone lost nearly 90% of their indigenous population in the first 50 years after the Conquest.[citation needed]
Well into the 19th century, mining and agriculture accounted for the bulk of economic activity in America. Africans offered to the conquerors the advantage of having already been exposed by their geographical proximity to European diseases, and at the same time adjusted to the tropical climate of the colonies. In the case of Argentina, the influx of African slaves began in the colonies of the Rio de la Plata in 1588, although these early arrivals were largely the work of smuggling. Trafficking flourished through the port of Buenos Aires when the city granted the British the privilege of importing a share of slaves through it. To provide slaves to the East Indies, the Spanish crown granted contracts known as Asientos to various companies from other countries, mainly Portuguese, British, Dutch and French.[3] In 1713 England, victorious in the War of Spanish Succession, had the monopoly on this trade. The last Asiento was drawn up with the Royal Society of the Philippines in 1787. Until the 1784 ban, blacks were measured and then branded.[citation needed]
Before the 16th century slaves had arrived in relatively small numbers from the Cape Verde islands. Thereafter the majority of Africans introduced to Argentina were from ethnic groups speaking Bantu languages, from the territories now comprising Angola, The Gambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Guinea and the Republic of the Congo. The immigration of Yoruba and Ewe was more limited in Argentina; larger numbers of these groups were taken to Brazil[citation needed]
It is estimated that 30 million Africans were shipped to the Americas, and the 6 million who survived the journey entered mainly through the ports of Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Valparaiso and Rio de Janeiro.[4]
The slaves were forced to work in agriculture, livestock, domestic work and to a lesser extent crafts. In urban areas, many slaves made handicrafts for sale, whose revenues went to their masters. The Buenos Aires neighborhood of San Telmo and Montserrat housed a large quantity of slaves, although most were to sent to the interior provinces. The 1778 census conducted by Juan José Salcedo of Vértiz showed very high concentration of Africans in provinces where agricultural production was greatest: 54% in Santiago del Estero Province, 52% in Catamarca Province, 46% in Salta province, 44% in Córdoba Province, 64% in the Tucuman Province, 24% in Mendoza Province, 20% in La Rioja Province, 16% in San Juan Province, 13% in Jujuy Province, 9% in San Luis Province. An important part of the African population also inhabited other provinces; today one of the slums of the city of Corrientes is still known as Camba Cuá, from the Guarani kamba kua, meaning "cave of the Blacks".[citation needed]
In 1806/1807 the city of Buenos Aires had 15,708 Europeans, 347 indigenous and mestizos, and 6650 Africans and mulattos, while in 1810 there were 22,793 whites, 9615 Africans and mulattos, and only 150 indigenous. The area most densely populated by Africans was located in the neighborhood of Montserrat, also known as Barrio del Tambor (Drumtown), just a few blocks from the current Congress.[citation needed]

Slaves would group themselves in societies they called nations, some of which were Conga, Cabunda, African Argentine, Mozambique, etc.[citation needed]
The meeting places of the nations had in common their locations in artificially flattened and sanded opened spaces for dancing; others were closed in with interior free space. In some cases the rooms were carpeted and curtained thanks to the generosity of a master. The nation had its king and queen (who in reality were democratically elected and had no court) and centered around a throne that was erected in the best place of the flag along with its flag, which every nation had. There was also a platform or at least a dais, which among other things was used to receive great dignitaries such as Juan Manuel de Rosas, his wife, and his daughter, as portrayed in a painting by Martín Boneo. The headquarters was the site of social gatherings and dances.[citation needed]
Often the black societies centered around the barrios, such as the del Mondongo nation or the del Tambor society. The Mondongo nation was one of the most important in Buenos Aires and was composed of 16 blocks in the barrio of Monserrat. Its name derived from the large quantity of tripe (mondongo) consumed its members. The name Tambor was quite common in many towns, as the drum was the favored African instrument for dances and songs.[citation needed]
Sometimes slaves were purchased individually from abroad through an agent. For example, a letter sent from Rio de Janeiro says:[citation needed]

“​

My dear sir: on behalf of the schooner Ávila I send you the negro girl that you charged me with purchasing here. She is thirteen or fourteen years old, was born in the Congo, and is called María. I will put on record that I have received the five hundred peso price. Greetings to you.

”​

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro_Argentine

 

[Omowale Jabali]

What happened to the black population?




To the bloody War of Paraguay (1865-1870) and the Yellow Fever Epidemic the drastic diminution of the Afro Argentine population has been attributed.
Traditionally it has been argued that the black population in Argentina declined since the early 19th century to insignificance. However, the pilot census conducted in two neighborhoods of Argentina in 2006 on knowledge of ancestors from Subsaharan Africa verified that 5% of the population knew of African ancestry, and another 20% thought that was possible but not sure. Given that European immigration accounted for more than half the growth of the Argentine population in 1960, some researchers argue that rather than decrease what they had was a process of "invisibility" of the population Afro Argentine and their cultural roots.
Other researchers have argued that there was a deliberate policy of genocide against the Afro Argentinian, which was openly expressed by many Euro-Argentines as Domingo F. Sarmiento and was probably implemented by using repressive policies during epidemics and wars as a tool of mass destruction.[6] The theories argue that genocide may have been used to explain the decline in the population. Experts were pursuing similar arguments, but differ on the attribution of intent that was first attributed to the ruling classes.
Causes of reduction

Among the reasons expressed are:

• Heavy casualties caused by the constant civil wars and foreign wars: Blacks formed a disproportionate part of the Argentine army in the long and bloody War of Paraguay (1865–1870), in which the loss of lives on both sides were high. The official historiography maintains that this resulted in the disappearance of the black population, while the genocide claims contend that the disproportionate recruitment was intentional.[7]
• Epidemics, especially of yellow fever in 1871: the traditional history holds that the epidemics had greater impact in areas where the poorest people lived, whereas the vision that sustains the existence of a genocide underlines the repressive mechanisms that enabled upper-class groups to leave the affected areas at the same time, forcing African Argentines to stay locked up and thus aggravate health conditions.
• Emigration, particularly to Uruguay and Brazil, where black populations had historically been larger and had a more favorable political climate;
• The massive immigration from Europe between 1880 and 1950,[8] boosted by the Constitution of 1853, that quickly multiplied the country's population. Like Australia in the 1950s to 1980s, European immigrants were encouraged while non-Europeans were virtually excluded.
• There are a growing number of historians in academia which look to the possible act of racial genocide on the part of the Argentine government.[9] Former Argentine President Domingo Sarmiento advocated forced population reductions of the black population in Argentina. While direct evidence of any such action is very limited, research into the unseemingly swift population reduction for blacks over a very short amount of time, lack of actualized census evidence of intermarriage between blacks and whites in Argentina, and investigations finding evidence of later commissions of genocide toward native populations, as well as executions by the Argentine government toward the nations small Native American population gives slight credence to the possibility of the subject.[10][11]

Domingo F. Sarmiento defended racist ideas and was president when the events occurred that were attributed to the mass mortality of Afro Argentines
Domingo F. Sarmiento

Domingo F. Sarmiento , who was president during the great yellow fever epidemic and the War of Paraguay, events to which is assigned the extermination of the Afro Argentine, had a strong racist position and argued the need to eliminate the black population. In 1848 he wrote all this in his diary during his trip to the United States.

“​

Slavery in the United States today is without question a possible solution; 4 million are black, and within 20 years will be 8. Rescue, who pays 1,000 million pesos worth? Libertos - or Freedmen, what is done with such blacks hated by the white race? Slavery is a parasite that the vegetation of English colonization has left attached to leafy tree of freedom. Did it not dare to uproot the tree when it could, while leaving the dead, and the parasite has grown and threatens the whole tree gleaned?

”​

Years later the same Sarmiento wrote:

“​

I come to this happy Chamber of Deputies in Buenos Aires, where there are no gauchos, or black, or poor.

”​

—Cited by Ruchansky​

Expressions of Sarmiento is an example of the attitude taken by the Argentine State after slavery was abolished by amending the census classifications so there is no record of their presence, eliminating the categories of people "black" or "brown", to merge it with other groups under the banner of "Trigueña."
Some of the few researchers in the situation of Afro Argentinians the end of the 19th century, have argued that his alleged posting by the European immigrants is not compatible with the fact the high rate of masculinity of the latter.
We must also bear in mind that non-European immigrants settled in large numbers in the northern provinces, where the population was predominantly black.
In 1887 the percentage of black population was officially calculated at 1.8% of the total. From that moment will not be registered in the census. The State's position was again made explicit at the time of the National Census of 1895 when its leaders said:

“​

Will soon be completely unified population forming a new and beautiful whites.

”​

Since then, and for nearly a century, in Argentina virtually no studies were conducted on the nature Afro Argentinians.
Beginning in the 1930s began to place large internal migrations to Buenos Aires and other urban centers to be integrated as factory workers in the industrialization process open then. Beginning in the 1940s, his presence was crowded and was disparagingly called for large sections of middle and upper class, "black heads."
Only in recent decades have there begun to appear research both historical and sociological aimed at the black population, with results that have been received with surprise and in some cases rejected by large segments.
In recent years, have multiplied the studies, activities and organizations related to population Afro Argentine. The overall result indicates a presence both physically and culturally far greater than that posed formally.

The arguably biggest reason for the small Afro presence in Argentina, despite there once being a fairly sizeable population at one time, is warfare. Afro Argentine men were heavily involved in the country’s wars against Great Britain, Spain, Brazil, and even the indigenous peoples of Argentina. Another reason in addition to warfare is that they were systematically being mixed out by mingling with European immigrants and the white Argentines as well. Also, Afro-Argentines that were free, were set loose into very poor living conditions.
Slavery was officially abolished in Argentina in 1813, however, many blacks were still held as slaves, and were only granted their freedom by fighting in Argentina’s wars. For this reason, black men served very disportionately in the war against Spain for Argentina’s independence. When you look at the huge number of black men killed in the war compared to the white Argentines, you can come to the conclusion that these black men were being used as a “cannon fodder”, and were deliberately being placed on the frontlines. In fact, when you observe Argentina’s history, their government has purposely sent as many blacks as possible to battle in dangerous military service. Not to mention their mission of “killing two birds with one stone” by sending the Afro Argentines to war against the Amerindians (Indians), who the white Argentines despised as well.
While the black Argentine men were getting killed in warfare, black Argentine women were without mates. So these black women began to produce mix children with the European immigrants. This mixing created another problem for the Afro Argentines though, since having an African heritage wasn’t considered proper, and was even seen as a burden to many mulattos. It is for this reason that many light mulattos passed for white or trigueño (a dark skin white person), and were even careful not to associate themselves with the Afro Argentine community. With the obsession of the Argentines to become a white nation, “passing” became popular for the mulattos in Argentina. In fact, it was very rare to find a mulatto who had the chance to pass, not utilize this advantage.
Ironically for the Afro Argentines, a free black in Argentina had less chance for survival than an enslaved black Argentine did. An enslaved black was seen as an investment so he or she was taken good care for; on the other hand free blacks were left with menial jobs for low pay, or became beggars in the streets. For this reason the poverty in the Afro Argentine community was terrible. In fact, a large portion of blacks died from disease, because they couldn’t afford proper medical care. Many Afro Argentines were decimated by frequent plagues like yellow fever.[12]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro_Argentine

 

[MS234]

I feel sorry for you, I really do.

Really? aww you so cute