The Bantu’s deepest desire was recognition, not material improvement, under colonialism.

Evidence

I apologize for this long quotation, but it permits me to bring out some possibilities of black men’s mistakes. Alioune Diop, for example, in his introduction to La philosophic bantoue, remarks that Bantu ontology knows nothing of the metaphysical misery of Europe. The inference that he draws from this is none the less dangerous: … Be careful! It is not a matter of finding Being in Bantu thought, when Bantu existence subsists on the level of nonbeing, of the imponderable. It is quite true that Bantu philosophy is not going to open itself to understanding through a revolutionary will: But it is precisely in that degree in which Bantu society, being a closed society, does not contain that substitution of the exploiter for the ontological relations of Forces. Now we know that Bantu society no longer exists. And there is nothing ontological about segregation. Enough of this rubbish. — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 652 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Let us be clearly understood. I am convinced that it would be of the greatest interest to be able to have contact with a Negro Literature or architecture of the third century before Christ. I should be very happy to know that a correspondence had flourished between some Negro philosopher and Plato. But I can absolutely not see how this fact would change anything in the lives of the eight-year-old children who labor in the cane fields of Martinique or Guadeloupe. — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 870 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Colonial settlers’ attention was selective, not panoptic, and oriented to Europe; Reclaiming an ancient Negro civilization does not change present colonial suffering. — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 870; The colonial master rejects reciprocity and demands work, not recognition (+1 more)

Related

• Recovering a glorious precolonial past cannot change present colonial suffering (similarity 0.83)
• Praising Bantu ontology masks the destruction of Bantu society by segregation. (similarity 0.82)
• Bantu Philosophy challenged the colonial paternalism underpinning mission methods (similarity 0.81)
• Reclaiming an ancient Negro civilization does not change present colonial suffering. (similarity 0.81)
• The colonial master rejects reciprocity and demands work, not recognition (similarity 0.81)
• Fanon rejects reviving a Negro past to ground identity (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The colonial master rejects reciprocity and demands work, not recognition #corroborates (0.80)
• Praising Bantu ontology masks the destruction of Bantu society by segregation. #complicates (0.70) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 652
• Colonial settlers’ attention was selective, not panoptic, and oriented to Europe #contradicts (0.50)
• Reclaiming an ancient Negro civilization does not change present colonial suffering. #complicates (0.50) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 870