The idea of Africa as Europe’s Other precedes and justifies colonialism

Evidence

It is no secret that that idea comes from Europe. For centuries, Africa has represented the Other of Europe. Indeed, the homogenization implicit in the term “Africa” exists precisely to signify the concept of Europe’s other. Surrounding that term is the penumbral space of prejudice and stereotyping by which the various projects of European imperialism can justify and explain several centuries of violent annexation. Whereas Orientalism is the discourse of knowing that controls the “Orient,” it is the “discourse of the unknown” that generates the idea of Africa, for it is the unknown into which knowledge must advance. Thus, the idea of Africa precedes and justifies colonialism; and this idea persists to the present. The importance of this lies in the fact that it is the power of representation rather than the force of arms or even of economics which is the real key to European hegemony. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3387

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels Edward Said’s Orientalism — the author explicitly sets ‘discourse of the unknown’ against Said’s ‘discourse of knowing’ for the Orient. Readers with Said on their shelf will want this connective tissue. — 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; Colonial domination operated by casting Europeans as normative and Africans as other. — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists:…, 35; Hegel’s philosophy constructed Africa as historyless to justify European conquest — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists:…, 39
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that representation, not arms or economics, is the real key to European hegemony is a dense, paradigm-level assertion worth sitting with — it inverts the usual materialist account of colonial power.