Many assume Black Africans don't have a preserved record of an intellectual tradition of abstract philosophical thought. This is a racist lie told by those whose intellect and imagination are too limited to understand others.
Take, for example, 1300s-1800s CE West African art 1/
Take, for example, 1300s-1800s CE West African art 1/
In the white western imagination of African art, it was assumed that supposedly "primitive" sculptures like these were all Africans could do. No thought to what the sculptures could mean or represent, just that they were crude, childish products of less advanced minds 2/
What was "advanced" were, for example, Greco-Roman statues, which were lifelike & "refined."
But excavations found sculptures like the Ife Head (c 1300 CE) in southern Nigeria.
Surprised, white folk tried to claim an ancient Greek civilization lived there and made this art. 3/
But excavations found sculptures like the Ife Head (c 1300 CE) in southern Nigeria.
Surprised, white folk tried to claim an ancient Greek civilization lived there and made this art. 3/
The same supposedly backwards Africans who made the "primitive" art also made figures that looked so lifelike and "advanced" the white people who dug it up swore their own superior European ancestors traveled to Benin, sculpted and buried it, then died off without a trace. 4/
That was a lie, along with the whopper of a lack of African ingenuity and intellectual tradition. Cuz ANYONE can make exact replicas of people or nature. Look and copy art is Karen-level basic. Complex, however, is making abstract representations of spirit and human essence. 5/
Complex, highly intellectual, abstract thought is using intricate symbols to communicate vast & diverse concepts, multiple levels of meaning, tell stories, record history, explain myths, philosophies, illustrate rituals, join notions of divine & mundane ALL IN ONE SCULPTURE. 6/
Imagine! Folks who thought mere mimicry of the visible world was advanced artistic expression had the nerve to call this primitive. This art, which went beyond stenographic regurgitation of only what one sees and visually represent abstract concepts of our human condition. 7/
So why call out the absurd lie that Africans don't have a long history of philosophical thought with RECORDS? Cuz this supposed primitiveness & lack of indigenous intellectual tradition justifies violence & exploitation of Black land & bodies.
And we're not with the BS.
/end
And we're not with the BS.
/end
