TRACING THE ROOTS OF RACISM THROUGH HISTORICAL HERMENEUTICS

Abstract

The reality of racism protrudes from the history of oppression of the African person. This is manifest in the Arab-slave trade, colonialism and even neo-colonialism. Frantz Fanon opines that racism is the core source of Africa’s problems since it serves to heighten the esteem of the whites while inferiorising the Africans. Fanon suggests violence as a means of freeing oneself from this oppression and argues that if this violence is not vented onto the oppressor, the Africans end up venting it upon themselves causing civil wars and such other clashes. Ali Mazrui however opposes this concept of violence by citing some nations like in Algeria where it has actually benefited the oppressor (France) and not the oppressed. In any case, Mazrui agrees with Fanon that Africans need to define themselves and own their means of production to determine their direction as a people. This article offers a historical hermeneutics of racism in Africa in the mission to trace racism in the racial-schema that is a social construct of the oppressor’s biases and prejudices for the economic and psychic ends, as claimed in the Critical Race Theory.