A fabricated account of Africa shaped European racism more than actual observation did

Evidence

Leo Africanus may have never visited the fifteen African lands he claims to have seen. He could have paraphrased the notes of Portuguese travelers. But veracity did not matter. Once the manuscript was finished in 1526, once it was published in Italian in 1550, and once it was translated into French and Latin in 1556, readers across Western Europe were consuming it and tying African people to hypersexuality, to animals, and to the lack of reason. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 67

Categorization

• XREF: Directly instantiates Kendi’s thesis that racist ideas do the productive work of creating inequality — here a fabricated report, not evidence, generated European beliefs about African inferiority. — connects to: Medieval Europeans did not view dark-skinned Africans as naturally inferior. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1119
• ADDENDUM: Supports the causal-inversion article angle: the racist idea (Africa as savage) came first and thrived despite demonstrable falsehood — policy/self-interest driven fabrication precedes and drives belief.