Victor Mai
HST498
Synopsis: The First Writings of European Travelers to Africa Causes the Racial Degradation of Africans
The evolution of racial equality between Europeans and Africans was a slow process, lasting hundreds of years. The only statement that can be truthfully made concerning the evolution of racial ideas is that it was not, in fact, easy to do. A broad base of history shows how many of the characterizations of the past show attempts of individuals and societies to ascend racial barriers and the value system of power and class. Base characterizations stereotyping the beliefs of various demographics demonstrate the fact that racial understandings have not yet ascended to the point to which their myth has been dispelled, as it properly should be after understanding. During this time of exploration, much of the culture between Africa and Europe was very diverse, complicated, and varied between different travelers that went to Africa. By looking at many of the writings that were written by 19th century Europeans that traveled to Africa, each show the broad perspective of beliefs and opinions that involve race. These writings were read and carried over to other individuals back in Europe forming their own personal views. Showing many of the different excerpts in the writings of these travelers which were published and were seen across Europe added to the opinions of the people back in Europe that created the idea of Africans being incompetent and unable to achieve greatness.
The primary sources will focus on four travelers. Each with different backgrounds and reasons for traveling to Europe. While their reasons and backgrounds are vital and important, the views that they write and publish are even more important. The writings will come from Henry Stanley, James Richardson, David Livingstone, and Mary Kingsley. Another source that was written during this time period that is vital is from a Frenchmen, Henri Grégoire. His writings promote the potential of negros and go against all others who have low opinions of the accomplishments Africans could achieve.
Supporting my argument of the view these travelers made back to the European people are writings from John Roberts and his thoughts on Livingstone, Edward Said, Edith Sanders, and Olaudah Equiano. The writings combine the overall racial view, as well some viewpoints interconnected with the differences of Islam and Christianity. These travelers all held very strong preconceived notions regarding Africans. H.M. Stanley writes that there opinions were immediately challenged from the moment they set foot upon the African continent, and never stopped evolving from that moment on.
Richardson, who travels to North Africa does not come across as a religious man in his writings. He gives as much as a scientific view and disengaged from a religious perspective. Thus promoting a interest in rational pursuit and discussion than in religious ideals and justification.[1] His travels brought him into contact with people of every color and creed. He views a glimpse of racism and the extent to which the basis for racism against blacks was shared throughout the Mediterranean world, not just among Europeans. Islamic slavery was another type other than the export of Africans to Europe. His writings show Europe the view that give support to religious standpoints. Previous understandings of race supported that blacks were not only inferior to whites, but also that blacks were cursed by the “Hamitic myth.”
Livingstone arrived in South Africa in 1840, at age 28, as an explorer and missionary in Africa.[2] During his time writing, Livingstone was much more explicit and in depth on his feelings towards the institution of slavery, and to some degree against the ideals of racism itself. His ideas about the African society showed a comparison of what was a civilized and advanced society. Even though he did not advocate Racism, his writings supported a less advanced society, which Europeans were superior. His main reason for being on the continent was also as a missionary. Which led to some unsupported views even though he was also there to attempt to convert as many Africans as possible to Christianity. This counters his attempts to get Africans choose their free will but he entails let them behold their personal option instead of being forced upon. His writings show he did not hesitate to criticize slave owners or fellow missionaries who were willing to subjugate their fellow men for the sake or profit.
Stanley travels into the heart of Africa to find Livingstone on one of his adventures to discover the Nile.[3] His writings highlights some of the servants in on his journey. His servants were disobedient, and he later on beat them in order to show his authority. Much of this writings note very little about his own views of race, however, he has long held a background as a cruel imperialist and racist based upon his writings of him beating his servants. In one instance he puts together a common jury for a deserter. Khamisi must be punished for his desertion and attempted robbery, could not be pardoned. Lest I should overstep prudence, however, in punishing him, I convened a court of eight pagazis and four soldiers to sit in judgment, and asked them to give me their decision as to what should be done. Stanley takes the action of forming a jury out of the man’s peers, rather than rendering his own verdict without taking into account the other individuals traveling with him. Though hash, in a way Stanley shows respect for his African servants rather than treating them as lesser-beings by letting his peers choose. In terms of his writings it shows there is at least an explanation for his actions which does not logically mandate a race-based conclusion.
The other perspective, that Stanley only behaved as such out of “prudence” as he says, and not out of any feelings of respect for his African compatriots. Perhaps, from this perspective, can be made that many attitudes European travelers felt toward Africans were not necessarily a matter of race at all, but instead a matter of cultural ethnocentrism. Europeans felt confused between concepts of culture and race and were unable to distinguish between the two adequately.
Kingsley in her views were seen a imperialistic as she travels to Africa.[4] Her views are very broad in the perspective that without the help of Europe, Africa would not be better off. Mary Kingsley maintains the claim that, it was European rule that brought the trans-Atlantic slave trade and European colonial rule was still preferable and ultimately better for the African people than to be left on their own to choose wither to accept or reject trade as they saw fit.[5] Kingsley, with her professed love for Africans, seems acceptable in the name of proper governance of European involvement.[6] She writes, I have a sneaking sympathy with these good people, because I like the African in his bush state best; and one can understand any truly human being being horrified at the extinction of native races in the Polynesian, Melanesian, and American regions.[7] Her embrace for the African people is shown emotionally though her writings, but through the politics and economic dominance approves of control from Europe over Africa.
Mary Kingsley however, can easily be argued to have one of the strangest and most eclectic travelers and commentators on matters of race for her time.[8] A woman who was not born into the aristocratic lifestyle of many of her fellow travelers. It is through her gender-conscious perspective that she derives her views of race, that she formulates her opinions of the African people. Kingsley in view of her writings must have considered herself extremely progressive concerning matters of race. Describing black Africans as “different,” rather than “lesser” compared to Europeans.[9] However, she also unabashedly clings to the belief that European culture is superior to that of African culture.[10]
Gregoire published his most famous piece of literature, On the Cultural Achievements of Negroes, blatantly challenging race theories on their broad basis, lack of empirical evidence, and major contradictions.[11] He does not waste time attacking the antiquated notions of philosophers such as Hume who argued that “only the white race possesses culture and no black has ever distinguished himself by his actions or by his knowledge.” Gregoire certainly didn’t hesitate in accusing participants or associates of the slave trade for propagating notions of racism.[12] Gregoire’s life, which saw the completion of many great works of literature concerning human rights aside from On the Cultural Achievements of Negroes, is a testament to the truth that racial superiority was not a universally shared belief in Europe, nor was the concept of racial superiority the sole possession of Europeans.[13] His views highlight black Africans were victims of European slavers who were willing to trade their moral character for financial gain, even if it meant the degradation of fellow human beings.[14] His writings were seen as very extreme from other European perspectives. Gregoire and other supporters of human rights were still branded as extremists in the eyes of many Europeans.[15] Travelers later on in the century still had to contend with the forces of centuries old racism, and seek a position of political correctness in their writings in order to maintain credibility.
Edith Sanders argues, “the image of the negro deteriorated in direct proportion to his value as a commodity, and the proudly rational and scientific white man was impatient to find some definitive proof for the exclusion of the Negro from the family of man and the ultimate denial of common ancestry.[16]” Scientific racism had already been on the rise in the 18th century, and during that time period. Modern science had been developed a century earlier and had attempted to establish order in the universe; the nature of man, however, was not part of scientific investigation, but remained in the province of theology.[17] This state of affairs became unsatisfactory to the later scholars, namely the philosophies of the Enlightenment, who tried to apply scientific methods to the study of man and whose theories as to the origin of the race often came into direct conflict with the Scriptures.[18]
This explanation for science’s interference in what had previously been a religious discussion accurately details the transition from religious to scientific argument, and the time line of philosophers beginning to discuss race issues in the 18th century is consistent with David Hume’s thoughts regarding race. However, this explanation fails to question the comparative nature of scientific vs. religious arguments, or for that matter, fails to question whether or not the “scientific racism” of the 18th and 19th centuries was truly scientific.[19] The perspectives of her views in todays modern-era history looking back shows the lack in different perspectives in Europe towards reasoning and bring equality. Thus, much of what is written by the travelers is the only major medium to gain perspective on African culture and way of life.
Dr. Livingstone possesses much the same imperialist tone in his writings, he nonetheless strikes a chord resoundingly familiar to the same Henri Gregoire; that great progressive voice of the French Revolution and Napoleonic France who was liberated by the chaos of France at the turn of the century to speak his mind without tempering his thoughts to appeal to the mainstream of his country. At the end of Gregoire’s dedication On the Accomplishments of the Negro, he rails against slavers, demanding that abolitionists “erect a wall of iron against their evil endeavors” and calling for future generations to continue to “speak for Providence.” He ends his dedication not by thanking the living, by perhaps foreshadowing men like Livingstone, saying that future missionaries and abolitionists “shall be blest by the common Father of all, who acknowledges his work in all human beings, whatever their color, and loves them as his children.” The claim that Europeans acted out of ignorance, rather than malice or greed, concerning slavery cannot possibly stand in light of Gregoire’s work that was not even the first of its kind, and possessed such an obvious echo in the minds of travelers such as David Livingstone.
Famous travelers such as Kingsley, Richardson, and even the infamous H.M. Stanley can perhaps be argued to have seem some of the truth behind Gregoire’s prophetic words, though the failed to embrace them as Livingstone did in his quests for abolition. Even as Mary Kingsley refused to abdicate the political correctness of her time in proclaiming the everlasting-supremacy of European culture, she did as well acknowledge that, “There will be then as there is now, and as there was in the past, individual Africans who will rise to a high level of culture.”
Although slavery had already been outlawed in the British Empire by the beginning of the century, and was also banned by most other European countries at around the same tunes, slavery still existed in the Americas until well into the century, and continued on within Africa for decades still. Individuals who did seek to dissipate racial beliefs were not only challenging a reigning social stereotype, there were also challenging an active interest group with a continued interest in racism, if only for the continuation of colonial rule since the end of legal slavery.
Nonetheless, the writings of all of these travelers do reveal the complexities of the evolution of racial theory. In the 19th century, theories of racial superiority, and the body of evidence that existed to support them, were finally beginning to ebb after millennia of dominion in the minds of men. Europeans and Arabs alike, who for so long had put their faith in “Hamitic” myths, had long since begun to doubt such myths in favor of scientific evidence as the Age of Reason had taken hold in European culture and challenged the supremacy of religious thought.
By the time that such prominent travelers as David Livingstone and Mary Kingsley begin to write, the Hamitic myths had been greatly diminished in the minds of Europeans. Challenges to its validity had been raised constantly over the last century, and every day new anthropological discoveries were being made that continued to promote the knowledge of black achievements. Instead, scientific racism was beginning to take hold, and 19th century travelers approached race through this lens, grasping for logical explanations to explain cultural differences other than the age old religious arguments.
It is therefore more likely European travelers in the 19th century grappled considerably with preconceived delusions and outright lies of race, and their understandings of race were complex, evolving concepts that were constantly challenged with the endless barrage of contradictions in racial thought and the proximity to black Africans themselves. While poor European peasants were held captive by their own ignorance, Livingstone was forced to see firsthand the effects of European raiding parties and their impact on the lives of Africans.[20] To travelers who taught, befriended, relied on, and lived with black Africans on a daily basis, not just for months or even years, but decades rather, Gregoire’s idealistic notions of racial equality could not exist merely in the abstract, but instead were evidenced everyday by the daily accomplishments and struggles of tortured peoples.[21]
David Livingstone and Henri Gregoire were exceptional in any time, and other famous travelers such as Mary Kingsley and H.M. Stanley, who so famously sought and found Livingstone, viewed race in less progressive lights. However, each of these individuals shows slight lapses in their beliefs, or else represents a contradiction between progressive beliefs and their own conservative natures. None of these individuals viewed race in either purely religious or scientific terms. Many demonstrating that racial understandings were as much an internal muddling of ideas as a society-wide trend in one direction or another. In order for the history of race relations to be understood, this constant meshing and changing of ideas, with individuals as well as societies, must be understood, because it is fundamental to the way that Europeans saw race. These travelers all held very strong preconceived notions regarding Africans and the African continent, but, as H.M. Stanley consciously noted, these preconceived notions were immediately challenged from the moment they set foot upon the African continent, and never stopped evolving from that moment on.
Bibliography
Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings. (London: Penguin Books,
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Grégoire, Henri. An enquiry concerning the intellectual and moral faculties, and literature of Negroes. (Armonk, N. Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1997).
Kingsley, Mary Henrietta. Travels in West Africa. (Washington, D.C.: Adventure Classics/National Geographic, 2002).
Livingstone, David. Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa Including a Sketch of Sixteen Years' Residence in the Interior of Africa. (Cambridge Univ Press, 2010.)
Richardson, James, 1806-1851. Travels in Morocco. 2010.
Roberts, John S., and E. A. Manning. The life and explorations of David Livingstone, LL. D., including extracts from Dr. Livingstone's last journal. (Boston: A. W. Lovering 1880).
Said, Edward W. Orientalism. (New York: Vintage Books, 1979).
Sanders, Edith. "The Hamitic Hypothesis; Its Origin and Functions in Time Perspective." (The
Journal of African History, no. 10, 1969).
Stanley, Henry M. How I found Livingstone: travels, adventures and discoveries in Central Africa: including an account of four months' residence with Dr. Livingstone. (New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co. 1872).
[1] James Richardson, 1806-1851. (Travels in Morocco. 2010) 14.
[2] David Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa Including a Sketch of Sixteen Years' Residence in the Interior of Africa. (Cambridge Univ Press, 2010) 53.
[3] Henry M. Stanley, How I found Livingstone: travels, adventures and discoveries in Central ` Africa: including an account of four months' residence with Dr. Livingstone. (New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co. 1872) 67.
[4] Mary Henrietta, Kingsley, Travels in West Africa. (Washington, D.C.: Adventure Classics/National Geographic, 2002.) 13
[5] Ibid, 22-24.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid, 34-39.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid, 45.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Henri Grégoire. An enquiry concerning the intellectual and moral faculties, and literature of Negroes. (Armonk, N. Y.: M. E. Sharpe. 1997.) 30-32.
[12] Ibid, 28.
[13] Ibid, 35-38.
[14] Ibid, 39.
[15] Ibid, 43-45.
[16] Edith Sanders, "The Hamitic Hypothesis; Its Origin and Functions in Time Perspective." (The Journal of African History, no. 10, 1969): 521-532.
[17] Ibid, 521-532.
[18] Ibid, 521-532.
[19] Ibid, 521-532.
[20] David Livingstone. Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa Including a Sketch of Sixteen Years' Residence in the Interior of Africa. Cambridge Univ Press, 2010). 104-110.
[21] Henri Grégoire. An enquiry concerning the intellectual and moral faculties, and literature of Negroes. (Armonk, N. Y.: M. E. Sharpe. 1997.): 65-77.
