|
Special to USAfricaonline.com
The research by a well-known Harvard professor of African
Studies into the history and current lives of his ancestors
has seen the equivalent of a torrent of criticism and
sweeping acclaim from different persons and scholars. The
issue of Africa's history has never been one without strong
debate. Hence, it is little surprise that the fierce
intellectual bout which started in October, 1999 is raging
into the new millennium. The television series at issue is
called, "Wonders of the African World" is largely the work
of Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
 Such
heavyweight African scholars like Kenya's Prof. Ali Mazrui
of Africa, himself, a writer/co-producer of the BBC
documentary, The Africans, Nigeria's Nobel Laureate,
Professor Wole Soyinka and a host of others. These
intellectuals are flexing their mental muscles from public
radio studios all the way to the shoulders of the
information superhighway. Prof. Mazrui, who wrote an
introduction for Prof. Gates Jr.'s companion book lamented
that he had not seen the televsision series when he wrote
the blurb. "I believe the (televisison) series is more
divisive than the book."
Mazrui accused Gates Jr.'s series shown on PBS for
dis-Africanizing ancient Egypt, allowing ancient Egyptians
to become racist Whites trampling underfoot Blacks from
Upper Nile. In the second episode, Ali Mazrui faulted Gates
Jr's use of racial-questions abstracted from survey-forms of
North American opinion polls on Swahili community without
talking to scholarly Swahili experts. Mazrui in a paper
titled, "A Preliminary Critique of the T.V. Series by Henry
Louis Gates Jr.", complained that the program was obsessed
with Race in American terms. He asked, "Did the people Gates
was interviewing have the remotest idea what he was really
talking about?" He continued, "What is more, his translators
seem determined to give the worst possible interpretation of
what was being said by interviewees in a place like
Lamu."
Just like Mazrui acknowledged that Gates is a friend with
whom he has profound disagreements, Soyinka underlines the
point that, "Mazrui and I .... are ancient adversaries. With
this level of indecorous conduct, I am reconciled to the
fact that we are likely to remain so for a long time to
come." Soyinka, a Woodruff Professor of the Arts at Emory
University in Atlanta seemed to agree with another critic,
Charles Johnson, that there were other equally competent
minds that could have commented on Gates' work beside
Mazrui.
Amongst the errors pointed out by Mazrui was Gates' idea
of asking Christian missionary priest in Zanzibar about
Muslims atrocities in Zanzibar without making any effort to
balance a testimony from a witness who was prone to be
biased. "Any journalist worth his salt would have done
better than Gates," Mazrui grumbled.
Soyinka does not buy Mazrui's criticism of Gates' work.
He went on to write that, "However Ali Mazrui may present
himself, he is being a coveted plaintiff in his own cause,
and it is my deeply held conviction that the delights of
objective criticism and intellectual enlargement have been
sullied by his energetic, propulsive voice in this exercise.
It crosses the ethical bounds of intellectualism and
deserves the condemnation of all who believe that the
virtues of criticism transcend self-interest."
In the Trans-Atlantic slave trade featured in episode
three, Mazrui condemned Gates for disregarding "the West and
White man as actors in the African tragedy." Gates, he
wrote, managed to make an African say that, without the
participation of Africans, there would have been no slave
trade. Mazrui charged that Gates avoided mentioning the
involvement of European Jews as collaborators in the
Slave-trade just to avoid the kind of price paid by Leonard
Jeffreys. Because of that fear, Gates picked Africans, like
the Asante, as sole collaborators, Mazrui concluded.
According to Mazrui, when Gates was not insulting (as was
the case in episode four on Ethiopia), he was disrespectful.
He questioned Gates' manner of dressing while appearing
before religious leaders in Ethiopia; his sarcasm, snide
remarks, and other behaviors that trivialized the values of
Africans. "Gates seemed incapable of glorifying Africa
without demonizing it in the second breath," Mazrui
maintained. Gates handling of Female circumcision and the
so-called "new slavery" also received the wrath of Mazrui.
"Africans were not, after all, innate barbarians," Mazrui
argued.
Gates, he harshly observed, was simply playing "to the
Western Feminist gallery." Mazrui, a director of the
Institute of Global Cultural Studies at the State University
of New York, generally believes that Gates did not undertake
a serious portrayal of the African people. "It is hard to
believe that such a T.V. series was a product of such a
brilliant mind," Mazrui wrote regrettably. In his reaction
to the raging controversy, Professor Wole Soyinka commented
that Mazrui should have kept quiet about Gates' T.V. series.
"Ali Mazrui," he wrote, "has a fifty per cent stake at least
in the reception that may be accorded to a work that, in
effect, constitutes a challenge to a long-held monopoly." It
would be recalled that Mazrui's "Africa: The Triple
Heritage," until now, remained the only T.V. series by a
Black scholar on the subject of Africa's Past and Present.
W
In her submission, Prof. Omofolabo Ajayi opined that she
was least concerned with what Gates was wearing, and that
she glanced over some of Gates disrespectful or casual
attitude. She however agreed with critic, Garth Myers, that
"Wonders of the African World" is a Travelogue by an
African-American on an emotional soul-searching experience.
Ajayi expressed her disappointment at the apparent lack of
factual presentation, focused research, straightforward
analysis, and a balance of personal quest with a critical
approach. Gates subscription to the common line that "Africa
is in such a mess today because Africans sold their people
off to slavery," Ajayi wrote, was astounding. Ajayi, an
Associate Professor of Women's Studies, Theatre, & Film
at the University of Kansas lamented that "until this bogey
hurdle of slavery and slave-trade is removed," Africans and
African Americans would continue to wallow in ignorance and
miseducation, distortion, and prejudices. She called on
Africans to begin to discuss slavery and to begin to examine
it. "When we get over the disappointment that "Wonders of
the African World" is different from our expectations," she
wrote, "I hope we can use it as a teaching tool balanced
with other relevant tools. After all, that is how we teach."
This debate continues at fever pitch at various Internet
sites. African scholars from Europe and North America have
suddenly found something to exercise their minds on.
Meanwhile, Prof. Gates Jr. is currently making his rounds on
talk shows, promoting his book. As the fuss continues, Gates
and the producers of the work are smiling all the way to the
bank.
Regardless of all the conflicting arguments and
limitations of this new documentary, Prof. Gates should be
commended for opening additional perspectives and analytical
insights into Africa's ancient and recent history.
Readers' reaction and views
on this issue will be published.
|
USAfrica
INSIGHT
Will
the rash of