Afrocentricity & Multiculturalism

While there are some popular and unthreatening images of Africa, smiling natives dancing and playing great music, safaris and exotic animals in a National Geographic wonderland, it is the negative picture which overwhelmingly dominates. The continent is virtually synonymous with destitution and misery. Ethiopia, Angola, the Sudan, Somalia and Rwanda are part of the roll call of war and destruction. For most Westerners, Africa’s realities are symbolized in photographs of emaciated children. Rarely are African perspectives heard. The whole issue of representation, who speaks for whom, is emblematic of the huge disparities of wealth and power. Africa and its peoples are reflected through Western eyes. The original home of mankind is reduced to a place of catastrophe. Its accomplishments and contributions to civilization are ignored or distorted.

Recorded at the University of Wisconsin.