Black Folk Here and There: An Essay in History and Anthropology, Volume 1

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An Essay in History and Anthropo logy Afro-American Culture and ~ociety A CAAS Monograph Senes Volume 7

ST.CLAIR DRAKE

VOLUME 1

The Academic Editor for this Monograph was Claudia Mitchell-Kernan.

!CAN STUDIES CENTER FOR AFRO-AMER LOSANGELES UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,

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" Library0

In Memory of ALLISON DAVIS (1902 - 1983)

. in Publication Data f congress Catalogtng

Drake, St. fc:;~ere and there . Black o d ·ety ISSN 0882-5297; v. 7- ) . culture an soci , /Afro-American . d index. Includesbiblio~aphies ~ Blacks-History. 3. Blacks~Nile River Valley_ 1. Racism-:-Hist?ry. Valley-History. 5. ':'fro-Americans-Race ldentit . tory. 4. Nile River . an culture and society; v. 7, etc. Y. H1s . Afro-Arnenc I. Title. JI. Senes: _8 ,96 86-16045 305 CB195.D72 1987 ISBN0-934934-28-2 /set) ISBN0-934934-29-0 /pbk. : set) ISBN0-934934-20-7 (v. 1) ISBN0-934934-21-5 /pbk. : v. 1)

. guished social anthropologist and ed distln . . ucator wh f' . nd essays of his youth mspired the stud ose iction etl'Y a f • . ents of th tw . ' po h ~ ties to search or meanmg m the Black E . e enties and t ~egro Deserts His People' ' [Plain Talk ~(~~~;te, especially 1 49-54] and ''1:heh rs" [Opportunity, June 1928]. • -

''fig te

Fighters

t

These of the coal-black faces Confide low-voiced, Fisherman, washerwoman, Quietly shutting themselves off From the pool-room loafers. Unbroken By the salt spume of the sea, Tight-lipped against the whispering fears of age, He holds her laughing. In his keen eyes The gleam of one who knows he must endure All shifting winds, And hate Of deep-embittered sons of slaving race, Must outreach The hunger of insatiate women, And broken nets at sea. Her brave face Softens in a smile And light of youth's long hopes and passion Sunk away. But she has seasoned in her proper time And grown to mellow laughter. Strong. Like some far runner turning with new vigor Home.

Designedby SerenaSharp Mapsby KathrynNirschl Producedby UCLA p b . . Typography: Freedmu ,l1coat1on _ServicesDept. en s rgaruzation

Now she is firm Against the tearings of untimely births, And sweating steam of clothes; Firm now, at last, Against the pleading smiles Of brutal, melancholy, Rich voiced men.

CenterforAfro-AmericanStudies Universityof California,Los Angeles Copyright© 1987 by The Regentsof the University of California and St. Clair Drake Third Printing1991

All rightsreserved Libraryof CongressCatalog Card Number: ISBN: 0-934934-20-7 0-934934-21-5 /pbk) ISSN: 0882-5297

Printedin the United States of America ~e ~allowingpublishers are among those which have generously given perf1~s10~to use quotations from copyrighted works: Reprinted from Race Re~ti~ns.Elementsof SocialDyna.mi.cs/1976) by Oliver C Cox by permission ~ e ~ayne St ate University Press. Copyright © 1976 b~ Wayne State mvers1tyPress Detroit M' h' d T'h · Cul tureRisto co' . ' ic igan. From Africa: Its Peoples an e1! . 19 from thepu ryb.l'~ hpynght © 59 by McGraw-Hill · Reproduced by permission e~

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CONTENTS

111ustrations xi

preface .Acknowledgments

xv XXV

Introduction White Racism and the Black Experience 1. Color Prejudice Then and Now Varieties of Racism White Racism and Pseudoscience The Unique Onus of "Negroidness " The Flourishing of Pseudoscientific Racism Propagation of the Negro Stereotype The Changing Functions of Racism and Color Prejudice Ideology and Institutional Change Twentieth-Century Forms of Racism and Color Prejudice Black Perspectives on Racism Defining Racism Classifying Types of Racism Racism and Capitalism Bibliographic Essay 2. Theories of Color Prejudice: A Critical Review American ''Sociologistic Optimism " Faith in Social Engineering 11 The Somatic Norm Image' ' Critique The Bases of "Sociologistic Optimism " ''High Visibility' 1 and Assimilation Freudian and Marxian Approaches The Rediscovery of Ethnicity The Copenhagen Conference on Race The Modern Manichaeans : New Wine in Old Bottles The Black/White Symbolic Metaphor Western Metaphysical Dualism The Degler -Gergen Propositions vii

1 13 14 20

23 23 25 28 30 30 31

32 32 34 36 38 43 44 44 46 47 50

55 57 60 62 62 66 67

s-racial Evaluations Tran Criticalpotll~ Ditllension Estheuc . The . Ditllens1on . TheErotic e of 1rnrnoral1t~. TheStereotYP itive Deficit "'yth of a cogn •n Black/White Relations The 1n onents l s·ruational cornP d Social Structure 1 . d JdeologY,an AtutU es, ative Research TheNeedfor CotllPar Bibliographic Essay . . Blacksin Antiquity 3 NileValley . bivalentExiles . Arn . . s and African Preh1sto~y . NegroOngl.11 f Egyptand Ethiopia m Black History TheRoleso . . . s for ViewingEgyptian History Perspective Egyptbeforethe Pharaohs . Raceand Color in Predynast1c Egypt Osirisin Religionand Folklore TheBlackPresencein the Early Dynasties ... contents vu•

. i.JlSin

OldKingdomDynasties TheMiddleKingdom'sBlack Dynasty Egypt's "Great Humiliation" TheEighteenthDynasty: Leaders of a National Renaissance Liberationand Empire Building TheAkhenatenInterlude TheEgyptianPenetration of Nubia TheSocialImpact of the Eighteenth Dynasty TheRamessideAgeand the Decline of the Empire TheRiseand Fall of the Ethiopian (Twenty-fifth) Dynasty Piankhythe Pious Shabaka'sForeignPolicy TaharkaConfrontsAss ia The Endof "Bl k p yr TheHellen· . ac ower" in Middle East Politics The p izmg_Process in Egypt sammetichiWh0 0 The Greek, 'P . pened the Door Ptolemies enetratwn'' under the Persians and the ColorCod· . sociocultural mg 10 Egyptb f Co e ore Hellenization ntext and Color Evaluations

75

76 80

82 84 85 90

92 94 115 117

121 130 143 147 151 165 172 178 189

195 200 200 206 217

222 222 239

240 242 243

247 250 251 256 259

270

The changing Images of Ethiopia and Eh' . Contents ix Frorn ~ytho!ogical Ethiopia to the Ki~ i?1ans 272 Ethiopia dunng the Ptolemaic Period g om of Meroe 272 The Kingdom of Meroe and Its Cultur 273 The Somatic Norm in Meroe e 277 nansf?rmati?ns in Meroitic Society 283 The D1ssolut10n of the Meroitic Kin d 287 · o f Ch·nst1anity · g om The A d opt10n 289 J-Iellenization, Christianization, and the Bl k 291 ac Self-Image 300 Bibliographic Essay 309 Notes 333 Index 377

~ cbattS n : Attitudes Expressedin 1 Types of Institutio nda~i~datio · Contact between 1n 1v1 ua 1s of Different Ra . G c1a1 roups _ The Names of Colors as Verbal Symbols with Multiple 2 Referents 3 Ethnic Interaction during Predynastic Period and · Dynasties One through Twelve

88 104 146

Maps 1. Vegetation Zones of Africa

116

2. Diffusion of Food Complexes in Africa 3. Ancient Settlements Nile Valley

12 4

and Political Divisions in the 126

4. The State System in the Middle East and Africa:Ninth Century B.c.

226

5. Extent of Urbanization and Political States in Africaand the Americas: Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries A.D. 292 Figures

1. Alveolar Prognathism

in Two Skulls a. Greek Specimen b. West African Specimen

154

2 - Amenhotep I and his Wife, Queen-Mother Nefertari, Being Venerated 3· Nubian Slaves and Their Families Being Counted by

202

an Official: Eighteenth Dynasty 4

· Drummers and Dancers from Wawat and Kush: Eighteenth Dynasty

S. The God Min in Ithyphallic Form 6 · 1-Iieroglyphic Symbol for Black xi

220 220 262 265

· ns

.. JJJustrauo

()fl.

xu (following page pJates 1soos . .,. EarlY 1 Spbin.... . . . Early1970S

z.SphiOJC·

;nu Horus 3 Isissueklµ.,o · f the Dead 4 Osirisas Judgeo . · K • D1oser A ThirdDynasty mg. 5. Ki g of Third Dynasty 6. Unknown n . sty King:Mycennus 7. FourthDyna , asty Princess:A Wife of Cheops s Son s. Fourth Dyn a. Profile b. FrontalView _ FifthDynastyArchitect: Nekhebu 9 IO. PrincessKemsitand Male Servant

11.PrincessKemsitand Female Servant 12. Sesostris I Depictedas Osiris

13. An EighteenthDynasty Pharaoh: Thutmose II or

Amenhotep III 14. Headof a BlackMan

15. Akhenaten:EarlyAmarna Sculpture 16. Akhenaten:LateAmarna Sculpture

17· Akhenaten · Fragment from a Late Amarna Sculpture 18. QueenTiye:The Berlin Head

19. ~hrQee Gene~ationsof the Eighteenth Dynasty · ueenT1ye b. Akhenaten c. Nefertiti d. PrincessMeryt-At

Nefertiti

en, Daughter of Akhenaten

20. NefertitiWorsh· . 21 N f ipmg the Aten . e ertiti: Unfinish ed Sculpture

L"dy Tiye: Metropolitan Museu

fllustrations

m Statuette young Nubian Pnnces Bringing T .b 23. Dynasty n ute: Eighteenth /,J/,J

328)

and

p

•

•

_ }-lead of Taharka Found at Napata 24 () Nubian Bringing Tribute to Assynan . Court /,J • 5 _ Taharka: Portrayed as a Sphinx

26

. Meroitic Queen Slaying Enemies 27 ueen Aminitore of Meroe Worsh·ipmgAmon . 28· Q Queen Aminitore of Meroe Being v enerated 29· 30. Kushite King: Napatan Period 31. Nigerian Woman: Nok Period

xiii

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PREFACE

k Folk Here and There is part of a larger . EJ~c 7 with a Fellowship for Independent Studyp:~~~e:~atI beganin 19the National End~wment for the Humanities (Grant arch granted byd r the title "Copmg and Co-optation." The p No. F77-41), un e " . urpose of the pr · to carry out an ana1ys1s of values and s b 1 OJect was . . k .. . Ym o s that ha rged within B1ac commumties in the Diaspo d ve e111e , • , . ra an to relate ....., to the coping process at vanous periods in hi . theJ_µ. h 1 . al story and m ,J;verseplaces w ere eco og1c and economic contexts . UJ. • bl k presentqwte ,J;f:+erent options. Smee ac communities have been and UJ. I' h • l l , are,re1atively powerless, t eu cu tura products are constantly being 'coopted' for ends ot~e~ than those_they set for themselves." Research and wntmg on the Diaspora was the primary focusof activity during the year, but the "various periods in history" and the "diverse places" selected for comparative purposes were not neglected. Near the end of 1977, the Center for Afro-American Studies of the University of California, Los Angeles, expressedinterest in publishing a book that would utilize some of the comparative material. Black Folk Here and There is the result, an examinationof the 11 coping 11 and "co-optation" processes over a wide expanseof time and space. Crucial in the Afro-Americans1 coping processhas been their identification, over a time span of more than two centuries, with ancient Egypt and Ethiopia as symbols of black initiative and success long before their enslavement on the plantations of the New World. Great myths are always part of group-copingstrategies. The book begins with an examination of Nile Valleycivilizations,after a brief discussion of ''The Ambivalent Exiles" from Africawho found themselves evolving as part of North American societi:s. . · 's incorporanonof Th e Bl ac k Expenence after the Roman Emprre Egypt on the eve of the Christian Era is conceptualized in vol~e as a constant struggle by Nile Valley black elites to regain po itlic opPower and cultural independence. Instea d Of aut Onomous deve . ·a1 m d M ·ddl Eastern impen ruent, co-optation by Roman, Greek, an . i e i h degreeof par. l~rs became their fate· however, they enJoyed ah gah African tic1p t · ' · The sub-S aran a ion as equals in some situations. • labor conPopul • ff 1 domestic , ation constituted a large pool o ema e ldi·ers and cub· lued as so Ines, and prostitutes; the males were va

j

xv

. rsuits. Individuals were carried off n1a1pu . I ·etYof roe 'ddle Eastern Diaspora ass aves Wh'l 1e · a vari d M1 . . fr workers 1!l d' rraneanan ltures in 1solat10n om the artist· Me ite ·gue cu .1 1c into the d elopeduni es ev preva1·ii·ng elsewhere unti a process of the~a::uectual currents in the eleventh century A.D.! followed by and ll1 Iaroizationbegan ural European penetrat10n after th gradualIs mic and cu1t e ssiveecono h century. a ~~ of the nineteent through the fifteenth, the Arab-Berber roiF Illethe eighthcentUfYl ks with military skill, political acumen ro h doff B ac f' f M us 1·im cultures , e tradesip one . . talent for the bene it o s1av _A1 and arusuc h if d . d' 'd . rthem India. T ese g te m ivi uals were and intellectuai Spam to no d d'd stretching from_ i not generate 1 and marriage partners an accepted as soc~~e~u\~e Diaspora. The incorporation of their culmumuesm .h . 1 . black com. . . to European cultures wit out racia attnbution mbut10nsm · k 1d b tur al co~ the a propriation of Egyptian now e ge y Greek inth beganwi ~ter the Golden Age and continued through the tellectualssoon .h 'b . . s· ·1 . al • d by absorptionof Moons contn ut10ns m ici y and Mediev peno . . d . Meanwhile, the elites withm black kmg oms became supSpam. e . prefac xvi

pliersofslaves. . . Thetransatlanticslave trade extendmg from the sixteenth century throughthe mid-nineteenth century brought thousands of Africans into the new societies which were established in the Wes tern Hemisphere on the basis of racialslavery. Their descendants were forcedto liveunder systems where color-caste and color-class kept themsubordinatedto whites. Volume 2 is especially relevant to the patternsof copingand co-optation that emerged in the Americas, presenting as it does the historical background of European conceptionsofblacknessto which Africans in the New World had to adjust. . A preliminary draftof BlackFolkHere and There was prepared dur~ the yearthat I was an NEH grant recipient. After a critical readmgbythepubl'icatwn · board of the Center for Afro-American Studies · at UCLArevision d f' severalY~ars .an re mement began, a process that extended over 1 awardthat · wish to express my appreciation to the NEH for the gaveme the op t • . • d' tractionsd • h . por umty to thmk and write without isurmgt e first y Of responsible fo . . ear. course, that agency is in no way r any attitude · • T~etitle selectedf h' s or opm10ns expressed here. 1 saymHistoryand~~: s book, _Black_Folk Here and There: An ~s0 o£a bookby thee · pology,is obv10usly a variation on the utle wh B mment A&oAm . . o ose lackFolkThenand - . encan scholar Dr. W.E.B. Du B~is, gyoftheNegro Ra

Now. An Essayin the History andSocial-

Years aft ce Waspubl' h er the endof th c· 18 ed in 1941 Dr Du Bois 1 born three e lVil W . . ar, and among the first few black st u

to receive a doctorate from Harvard Preface xvii dentt .....,erican Negro Academy in 1897 o'was one of the found the ~µ.. • • £ bl . · ne of th ers of ·s organizat10n o ack mtellectual estated ob1·ect· h f t 1 . . s was "Th lVes 0 · e Defenseof th 0 Against Vic10us Assaults." 1 The Nelgrs to be the inheritors of the ' 'vind1·cmt~m ~ers consideredthe e se ve d bl a ion1st', t d' . m. h roost educate ack men and wom h ra ition within' whic . . en ad spok , ·ng the prev10us two centunes against a 1 . en and Written . •fy h , , po og1stsfor 1 duri empted to JUSti t e peculiar institution" . h s averywho tt athat · f • . wu the Negroes were an m enor ammal-like breed of . argument be treated as equals byother p~ople . mankmd unfit to During the 1890s, m the thud decade after E . . aganda was revived and intensified to defend ma~cipation, such proP 1 1 . new mterests In h · .t e South the Ku K ux .K1an and. hly-white state leg·is1atures used it t0 ive sanction to racia terronsm and legislation design d dr' g . . e to 1ve the newly freed s 1aves out o f t h e po 1itical community and fasten caste and debt slavery upon t h em. In . the North trade unions used anti. d Bl 1 k Negro racism to exc u e ac s m favor of job monopolies f h' . h. h E orw 1te immigrants. W 1t m t e uropean powers, varied racist ideologies were elab.orated and propagated to ~efend the conquest and plundering of Africa. Dr. Du Bms, who received his Ph.D. in history in 1895 was in the vanguard of the Afro-American, African, and West Indi~ intellectuals dedicated to ''The Defense of the Negro AgainstVicious Assaults.'' The intellectual tasks of "the defense" involved a continuous searching criticism of the assumptions and facts used by some Darwinian evolutionists in an effort to prove that black people were '' closest to the ape,'' and by those Social Darwinists who insistedthat Negroes were doomed to disappear in the struggle for existence against superior Aryans Nordics and African "Hamites." The newly emergent field of Mendelian gedetics was distorted by propag~dists cl~iming that Negro physical traits-dark-brown skin, ~Y hair,-~d th1ck lips-were an outward sign of an inner cogmtive def1C1t, causally connected with inherited intellectual inferiority. The battle raged from the turn of the century to the outbreak of Wor1d WarhI, With ·N stereotypes t en pseudoscientists reinforcing the anti- egro prevalent on the stage and in the popular press. k f B f 11 · to the wor 0 Y 1910 Dr. Du Bois had begun to devote u time d p le and the N · t f Colore eop w a~1?nal Association for the Advancemen ard-trainedblack h'as editing its journal, Crisis. In 1915 ano th er:a;: ociation for the s:storian, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, founded t e ;sgroHistoryeach lll~dy of Negro Life and History, whose Journal. earticles designed 1 n th for the next sixty-five years earned scho y

°

f~

of the Black Experience and t

... preface . ted record . o ~u b oft-distor nscious or unconscious omissio . btt e fr the co . 'd n to set straige resulting orn eople. By comc1 ence Dr. Du Bois fill in lacuna f cts about black} ro during the year of the foundin

. ant a d The 1veg d · g ific ofsi.gll b ok entitle d 0 f Negro Life an History. A quarte publisheda .;ion for th~ Stu Ydupdated it with the new title Blac; oftheAssoc\aterhe revise~ and. tionist task still required attention f centu!Y The vin ica . . . o a ,1. n andNoWD Bois in his seventies, was still deterfoJ.kme ld Warll. u ' eveofwor 'but1·on and he d1 so. on. the h' contn ' · h tforward d to make is D Bois chose to present a stra1g mi.Ile . 1915 Dr. u . h , In 1941 , as in . , f African history pnor to t e European overO tightlyknit narrative d by an analysis of the slave trade and of · · seasexpans1·on'. followe . . Africa and of anti 'bl ac k d'1scnmmation 'al illlpenahsm in , . . f 1 H coloni Id after the abolition o s avery. e contrasted the throughout tbe wfor ti·eth-century Africa with the artistic, intellecd stateo twen . f Afr. depresse 'al t'vity that existed in vanous parts o 1ca prior ~ .A1 andsoc1 crea 1 . f 1 . 1.UiU, . 'al dislocations resulting rom s ave raids, the the massivesoc1 to f aterials the introduction of European and American searchorrawm , . uff d . h d and the invasion of ahen values s use wit emeantrade goods, . · h' h ing andmorallydebilitating White Racism. It 1s t 1s contrast t at ivessignificanceto his "then" and "now" frame of reference. g Du Boisstressed-as all vindicationists do-the role of ancient Egyptasan advancedAfricancivilization, refusing to define it as Near Eastern , as manyEuropeanscholars insisted upon doing. He pointed outthat someof the early Egyptologists had stressed the essentially Africancharacterof Egyptian religious, familial, and political concepts, but that their work had been virtually suppressed by racist scholarswhoinsisted that the creators of Egyptian civilization were "white," and that the impulses to their creativity had come from Palestine,Syria,and Mesopotamia. Some white scholars did not deny that · d blood'' sometimes sat on the pharaomc· hr Africans " Of mixe 0 th t ~e, but ey insisted that infusions of Negro blood led to the dec1me of Egy t O h of th • P · t ers even claimed that no Egyptians regardless eir appearance h ld ' DuB · ' s ou ever be called "Negroes." 01stooka comm . . troversypo· t· onsense view of the Egyptian population con, m mg out th t · ~omNegroeswith those a its people represented a mixture of genes c1entEgyptiansspoke from many other peoples. He argued that anpharaohsas they did :: respectfully of their indubitably Ne~ro 0 ~owever,Du Boisd'd hose whose race was more problernauc. m thedevelopmento1fnolt r~st his argument for black participation ear Ycivil· · ·d izations on the existence of a Negroi

·a

was one of the f' Preface xix tl.on in Egypt. He . irst wid 1 Pu 1ars to call attention pobO to beliefs held b e Y read Amer· . , y some . 1can 1a sc d f{oJ.lleric and classical Greeks' that the Ethio :nc1ent Egyptians an. 'lized" Egypt. And he also questioned h Pans had original! 11 c1v1 d · b w Y most Y h lars seeme to ignore oth the Ethiopia k'1 contemporary sc ~ est African kingdoms of Ghana Malin ~gdom of Meroeand th e ·ng the capacities of black pe~ple foand Songhaywhen discuss1 . r eveloping com 1 societies. . P ex The students who maugurated the Black Studies up between 1967 and 1975 raised these q ~ovement that greW ,, f D B . . uestions anew d ...., ,discovery o u ms was mevitable befo h d' , an t b eu . h . re e ied at th inety-five m G ana m 1963. By then he had b e age of n d . ecome an embarsJ.llent to some an an emgma to many. Seeing no h f ras . . d S . ope or an end still emphasizing his bl kn t o racism m the . Umteh . .tates, d h ac ess and his Pan-Africamsm, e Jome t e Communist party 1·ust b f ak . d .1 . Gh e ore t ing up his se lf -impose exi e m ana in 1961. Black Americansunderstood, even when they could not approve of his decisions. The Afro-American youth movement emphasized the value of Du Bois's early work not so much for its vindicationist effort to changewhite attitudes and behavior as for its value in fostering black consciousness and black solidarity. Despite the ideological differences between Black Nationalists and various types of Marxists that existed within the field of BlackStudies during the formative years, Du Bois was accorded a place of honor by all as a pioneer in the struggle to give legitimacy to "blackness." During the sixties Afro-American youth made the slogan "Black is Beautiful" a rallying cry, and thereafter the term "Negro" became an insult. A stream of books appeared with the word Blackin their titles. Some were revised editions of old books with the word Negrochanged to Black. During the late nineteenth century, when Du Bois firSt beg~ to ~ublish, many educated Afro-Americans winced at th~ ap~ellatwn 'black.'' It excited shame. For others ''Negro" was a pe1orauvetelrm ak' " • d COLOREDwas too co or10 to nigger.'' For still others the wor d les8 (an d , moreover · s read WI-IlTEan southern Jim Crow sign · t' n for COL ' h N f al Assoc1a10 t ORED), even though they supported t e a 1?na· layed a comhe Advancement of Colored People. Dr. Du Bo_is isph_ h still has rnon 1 estion w ic . ~ense approach to this nomenc ature q~ 'a subject of con0 11 pt htical significance and is, even now, occas~on~ Y of books and arrover H dN m tit 1es . . ticl sy • e frequently used the wor . eg10 k as illustrated in his es but was also quite comfortable with Blac '

r

k Folk: Essays and Sketc h es. Two d 1 f B1ac . D e. Thesou so b h terms appear m a u Bois book t' 1903cla:~~'urbooks Iate~,Notroesin the Maldng of Ame rica (1924r cadesanG'ftofBlackF~ll