This year marks the beginning of the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). The main objectives of this United Nations sponsored initiative include promoting “respect, protection and fulfilment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms”, as well as “greater knowledge of and respect for the diverse heritage, culture and contribution of people of African descent”. In light of these objectives, it is worth recalling the three kinds of historical denials that Africans and people of African descent have had to overcome:
- The denial of their humanity and dignity through numerous attempts to reduce them to the status of beasts of burden, whose primary function is to serve external interests and agendas.
- The denial of their history and culture through a series of selective ‘histories’ that present Europeans as actors and Africans as peoples whom are acted upon.
- The denial of their rights and citizenship through all types of policies, laws and strategies of racism and discrimination.
Most prejudices against people of African descent are rooted in the persistent belief that they have not made any valuable contribution to the progress of humanity. Their civilisations are also questioned, with every sign of sophistication ritually dismissed as importations from other regions. The ancient Egyptian civilisation is not the only case where Africa and Africans have been denied ownership of history and heritage.
These prejudices are not simply the result of ignorance. They are part of a long history of ideological constructions that have served to justify and legitimate the slave trade, slavery, colonisation, segregation and apartheid since at the fifteenth century. Elaborated upon by the most eminent thinkers that Europe and America have produced, these ideologies of race and difference have done nothing less than codify and corroborate European racial and cultural supremacy. These widespread prejudices have survived the abolition of slavery and the formal end of colonisation. They continue to be disseminated by the media, cinema, television, textbooks and politicians, influencing the ways Africans and peoples of African descent are perceived and provoking racist suspicions regarding their capacity to master their life.
