Blyden argued Islam aided Africans while Christianity retarded them

Evidence

Blyden was one of a few Negroes to make a significant impact on the English-speaking literary and scholastic world in the nineteenth century… . Basically, his writings were designed to vindicate the Negro race. His major themes were: that the Negro race did have past achievements of which it could be proud, that it had special inherent attributes which it should strive to project in a distinctive ‘African Personality,’ that African culture—its customs and institutions—were basically wholesome and should be preserved; and finally, that Christianity had a retarding influence upon the Negro, while that of Islam had been salutary—his most controversial theme, and one on which he wrote at length. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2175

Categorization

• QUESTION: Blyden’s claim that Islam was salutary for Africans anticipates themes in Black nationalism and Afrocentrism — worth chasing how this argument developed after him.