Locating Africans on the World Stage: A Problem in World History

Patrick ManningWorld History Center

October 28, 2015

Achievements in World History

• Analysis• Comprehensiveness• Disciplinary specialization• Comprehensiveness

• Rhetoric• “World stage” – and the world beyond the stage

• Institutions• Associations• Journals• Programs of study

Multiple Perspectives in World History

• Standpoint• By time, place, social position and interest

• Knowledge• Many types of knowledge; many levels

• Debate• Facts vs. outlooks• New research, new facts• Identifying and balancing perspectives

• Tension: * search for synthesis; * expression of perspectives

World History in the perspectives of Africa and African diaspora

• “absence” of black people in major interpretations

• The “Eurocentrism” debate 1990s . . .• . . . failed to end include blacks in narratives.

• The problem, I think: predominance of elite and civilizational perspectives

Analysis in World History

• Comprehensiveness• Subfields – empire, economy, environment, health,

migration, social movements

• Disciplinary specialization• Crosby on environment• Benton on law in history• Economic history

• Coherence – logic of change• Cause-and-effect, interactions, correlations

Rhetoric in World History

• The World Stage and the wider world• Contrast of “world stage” & “master narrative”• Successful examples:

• Crosby, Columbian exchange• McNeill, Plagues and peoples• Benton, legal pluralism• Pomeranz, great divergence

• Analysis, Synthesis, Narrative

More on “the world stage”

Others: – Darwin – McKeown – Matsuda– Abu Lughod – Goldstone– Aslanian

Africans in World History

• Is there a lack of information on black history?– Studies of Africa, Americas, Europe, Asia

• Has no one argued for inclusion of blacks?– WEB Du Bois– CLR James– Colin Palmer– R. Kelley & T. Patterson– M. Gomez– V. Mudimbe

A Look at Leading World-Historical Narratives

• Bayly, Birth of the Modern World• Osterhammel, Transformation of the World• Wallerstein, Modern World-System• Textbooks

• Bentley• Fernandez-Armesto• Princeton

Analytical and rhetorical practicereconsidered

• History in vertical and horizontal terms• Civilizations• Elites

• Initiative and response• Systemic logic• Reconsidering The African Diaspora (2009)

Narratives of black initiative and engagement

• Enslavement• Atlantic creoles; Palmares (mid 17th)• Code noir; Moroccan black army (late 17th)• Rise in slave prices (early 18th)• Slave rebellions (late 18th)• Emancipation (19th)• White supremacy (19th-20th)• Black cultural renaissance, post-emancipation (20th)• 1968 in white perspective• 1968 in black and white perspective

Mulay Ismail (Morocco) , 1672-1727Code Noir, 1685

Palmares (Brazil), c. 1605 - 1694

Extending the Logic

• Linking social history to world history• Linking bottom-up to top-down• Linking regions, seeking global interactions• Linking topics and themes

Examples?

Narratives we may see

• Family and community (more than empire)• Work (more than industry)• Unfree labor (as much as free labor)• Diaspora (more than civilization)• Political protest and citizenship (more than nationhood)• Basic education (more than higher education)• Popular culture (more than elite culture)

• Recurring problems in social and economic inequality