Friday, June 13, 2008

Rascality--The Disease of African Irritation



I received this book as a gift from a dear friend.

This book is one of the most important scholarly offerings in terms of affirming Africa's deserved place in World History.

The book gives ample evidence to support the fact that Africa is the real mother of what we call 'civilization'. The authors contend that the greatest scholars from Greece and Rome all received their knowledge from African learning centers, and even gave credit to their instructors. Over time, Eurocentric historians have sought to discredit and deny the existence and influence of the African continent.

This blog is dedicated to one specific term-- RASCALITY. I will rewrite the passage European medical misdiagnosis, as written by Molefi Kete Asante:

"The assumptions that caused doctors to misdiagnose Africans were based on attitudes about slavery. How could an African want anything other than slavery? Thus, any African who ran away from the plantation had to be suffering from a particularly bad form of drapetomania, the desire to leave forced labor. If the African happened to show a dislike a for slavery and the overseer or master of the plantation, he or she was diagnosed as having rascality, a disease of Africans who are irritated by their environment.

According to this definition, I am most certainly a RASCAL. As I reflect on [White] American Independence day, my rascality jumps into full gear when I see Black people waving US flags and playing the Star Spangled Banner.




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