European colonial visions shaped Africa’s conception as much as actual rule

Evidence

Bill Ashcroft considers the ways in which particular conceptions of Africa have been created in the European vision and geopolitical ordering throughout modernity. These constructions of “Africa” are a product as much of cultural creations, for instance in and by literature, as of governmental practices and imposed rule. Ashcroft calls for reimagining Africa outside of these constraining parameters, arguing that this would entail three general and shared sorts of benefits. The first would be a critical disposition towards analyzing imperial power and the effects upon the world of the various modes of colonial occupation. The second would be to enable a theory of the response of the colonized. And the third would be an examination of the nature of postcolonial society. Ashcroft is thus concerned to reposition how Africa is conceived in the European imagination because of the benefits it would generate regarding Africa itself as well as for selfreflexive theoretical understanding. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3112

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes Said’s Orientalism and the constructivist accounts of area studies found elsewhere in this reader on racial formation. — connects to: Hegelian thought framed Africa as outside history to justify colonial supremacy. — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists:…, 37