Black History Professor Rejects Afrocentrism

December 20, 2009

Clarence E. Walker. We Can't Go Home Again: an Argument about Afrocentrism


By Fred R. van Hartesveldt
Teaching History: A Journal of Methods
Fall, 2003

The factual flaws in much of the writing about Afrocentrism have been exposed in the past. Clarence Walker does so again in We Can't Go Home Again, and does so effectively. In this regard he focuses particularly on the Afrocentric assertion that Egyptians were black and the wellspring of Western civilization. He makes very clear that the modern concept of race as identity simply does not apply to the variegated population of Egypt and would not have been understood there. The importance of his book, however, does not lie in renewing and expanding the critique of the factual and analytical content of Afrocentric literature.

Walker refers to Afrocentrism as "therapeutic mythology" asserted as a way to promote the self-esteem of African Americans (a term he does not like) "by creating a past that never was." He understands it as black nationalism; in fact he argues that the origins of Afrocentrism lay in black nationalism of the Romantic era, but rejects it as history. Were Afrocentrism a means of creating African American community and thus empowering a minority, it would be comparable to such mythologies used by other minorities. Such mythologies, however, have been grounded in historical thought, while Afrocentrism is factually errant and theoretically flawed.

By urging black Americans to seek empowerment in a misconstructed Egyptian history, Afrocentrists not only mislead, opening their students to ridicule, but they also assert that culture is "transhistoric" — that is, it can be transferred through time and space intact. Culture, Walker asserts, is always changing and will be different as a result of any transfer, willing or unwilling, on the part of those living it. African Americans have created a culture of their own — a culture of which to be proud, but not an Egyptian or African culture. To Walker's way of thinking, Afrocentrism turns African Americans into helpless victims whose ancestors created a glorious culture and then for thousands of years accomplished little. They became the dupes and victims of Europeans, enslaved and exploited, and now their descendants must look to a mythical African past for purpose and meaning. Such a denigration of the African-American struggle, which Walker regards as a triumph, clearly angers him.

Given the popularity of Afrocentrism and its spread through the academic community and popular culture, anyone teaching history or otherwise interested in the nature of historical methodology should read Walker. The manipulation of history to create a particular attitude or support a political point of view is, as Walker acknowledges, sometimes a way of creating unity and gaining power. To deny a people the heritage they and their forefathers built is not acceptable. Walker shows that historians should help African-American students to appreciate their own real history and not pursue distortions of the past in the name of identity, especially since their actual past offers them an identity worthy of enormous pride.

Walker's prose conveys his ideas and passions effectively, despite a painful tendency to fall into the jargon of social science. His arguments are clear, thoughtful, and easy to read. His concern for the discipline and its practitioners comes through forcefully. Even those who disagree with his conclusions will be engaged and will find much to think about if they are sincerely interested in historical scholarship and how it influences those who study it.

The value of this book for courses in historiography and methodology is obvious. It offers useful examples of how historians analyze material, and historical knowledge can shape our understanding of contemporary culture. Its applications go beyond metahistory, however. Students of modern American society and education will find much to explore in its pages, and anyone investigating African-American history should examine Walker's conclusions. Walker will help such students understand not only one way African Americans have come to view themselves but also an element in their contemporary efforts at gaining a sense of identity within American culture. Thus, although the title might not suggest it, this book can be a valuable part of a variety of courses.

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12 comments

Unknown said...

Afrocentrism is a reality my friends, check out my anti racist blog to see why: http://www.occupyracism.com/

Unknown said...

Professor Walker said that
there is no proof that the
ancient Egyptians were black.
This is one of the most
ridiculous statements ever
made. In the age of the
internet one can find tens
of thousands of images of
ancient Egyptians, and
those images are of
black Africans.

Walker's use of subterfuge
is something that an
educator of higher
leaning shouldn't use.
There is one test that
can't be disputed. This
test is the eye test.

Racial Reality said...

Professor Walker is correct. Ancient Egyptians were not black. The anthropological evidence shows they had Caucasoid affinities:

http://s1.zetaboards.com/anthroscape/topic/3973609/1/

As for those "images of black Africans", they're actually foreigners:

http://www.geocities.ws/enbp/foreigners.html

This is what real Ancient Egyptians looked like:

http://www.geocities.ws/enbp/eg_pics.html

Velvet said...

How sad to glom onto Egypt . Who lives there now. Exactly.

MerenPtah said...

Ancient Egyptians = Modern Egyptian = Coptics
Coptics = both Muslim and Christian EGyptians althought the word is mostly used to describe christians nowadays
Copts = modern Egyptians = Ancient Egyptians = a combination of dark skinned Middle eastern Semitics and light skinned Mediterraneans
End of the story
both considered Caucasoids

新一工藤 said...

Ancient Egyptians were Caucasians like modern day Egyptians(correct name is Copts), the north kingdom had lighter skinned color people than the southern kingdom, then they unified 6000 years ago.

what black Americans are doing is pathetic claiming to be Egyptians, they are not even from an area close to Egypt i.e (Nuba),
most black Americans are from the west coast of Africa. so stop this, is some sort of inferiority complex?

dave said...

There is a strange propensity for American black to always view his glass, "half-empty", This is the genetic disposition of black character it seems. Black's survival instinct, it translates into, "he wants more", or, "never satisfied". We call it bitchin and complainin. Mother Nature calls it a niche to exploit. Evolution is a bitch.

Anonymous said...

Afrocentric lies are terrible baseless pseudo history

Albertus said...

King Tutankhamun died from Sickle cell anemia .

Rameses III has the same haplogroup as most people of West African descent and the haplogroup originated in East Africa. Any document of North Africa's humid period or interaction between African people during the ancient times was probably destroyed since Egypt has been conquered by multiple ethnic groups of people and typically during a conquest they assimilate the people into their culture and destroy what they had.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20972847/

Onur Dincer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Onur Dincer said...

@Albertus

Even if Tutankhamun died from sickle cell anemia, that does not indicate connections with Sub-Saharan Africa. Humans with one of the two alleles of sickle cell disease show less severe symptoms when infected with malaria. So naturally sickle cell disease is most prevalent where malaria is also most prevalent. In the past malaria was prevalent in a much larger region in the Old World than today:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sickle_cell_disease#/media/File:Malaria_distribution.jpg

As you see, malaria was prevalent in Egypt too, so sickle cell disease was probably prevalent in Egypt too as a result of that, and not because of any Sub-Saharan African connection.

Ramesses III's and his son's Y-DNA haplogroups are not known well enough, their tests are based on just 16 STR markers, not clear, just predictions. They should be retested with a much higher resolution for clarification.

Moreover, the extant Egyptian ancient autosomes and haplogroups indicate that Egypt had less genetic connections with Sub-Saharan Africa in ancient times than today, not more.

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15694

Velvet said...

Died from ssa?
How was that determined?
Sounds like a stretch of wishful thinking.
Sad that
the level of yearning has been so extensive.