Slavery, anthropological knowledge, and the racialization of Africans

Abstract

This essay asks, If one of the legacies of slavery in the Americas was the racialization of enslaved Africans, and indeed the racialization of the modern world, did this legacy of race not also impact the communities on the African continent? The essay grapples with this question by insisting what should be a baseline understanding: That modern racial consciousness, and especially global racialization processes that emerge in the wake of the transatlantic slave trade, also impacted continental African communities. I focus specifically on the ways that the legacies of anthropological knowledge production in Africa depend on racializing tropes of Africans while simultaneously impeding this type of racial analysis. And I suggest a reconsideration of the ways we apprehend African community formation post-European contact. I argue for an understanding of the modern development of African societies that shifts from exclusive investments in local configurations to systematic approaches in which the histories and legacies of slavery and race are situated.