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The Stigma

The Stigma T A YO 0LAFIOYE You need only mention the name of the continent of Africa for negative images to begin flooding to mind, especially the mind of the average outsider- by which I mean, anybody not African. The Jungle. The Dark Continent. The Tribes. Tarzan and Daktari. Bushman. The Savage. Natives. The reasons for the uncomplimentary ascriptions reside deep in history and in racial perceptions. Traditional Biblical historians, for example, hold that black people are the descendants of Ham, consigned to serve the sons of his white brothers. That all men are created equal does not, in the minds of traditionalists, apply to those with varying degrees of dark pigmentation. These believers never questioned the notion of one race of humans especially "created" to serve the needs of another. Traditional Biblical nostrums create a distinction between the chosen and the unchosen, the superior versus the inferior, Prospero and his Caliban. This viewpoint reveals a disingenuous creation of binary opposites, which defines the Christian God's sense of justice and arithmetic. Yet, geography is more commonly the determinant of the colour of one's ancestral origin. Major events in history, such as slavery and the Middle Passage, have not helped the http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui Brill

The Stigma

OLAFIOYE, TAYO
Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui , Volume 12 (1): 197 – Dec 8, 2002
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Copyright 2002 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0927-3131
eISSN
1875-7405
DOI
10.1163/18757405-90000138
Publisher site
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Abstract

T A YO 0LAFIOYE You need only mention the name of the continent of Africa for negative images to begin flooding to mind, especially the mind of the average outsider- by which I mean, anybody not African. The Jungle. The Dark Continent. The Tribes. Tarzan and Daktari. Bushman. The Savage. Natives. The reasons for the uncomplimentary ascriptions reside deep in history and in racial perceptions. Traditional Biblical historians, for example, hold that black people are the descendants of Ham, consigned to serve the sons of his white brothers. That all men are created equal does not, in the minds of traditionalists, apply to those with varying degrees of dark pigmentation. These believers never questioned the notion of one race of humans especially "created" to serve the needs of another. Traditional Biblical nostrums create a distinction between the chosen and the unchosen, the superior versus the inferior, Prospero and his Caliban. This viewpoint reveals a disingenuous creation of binary opposites, which defines the Christian God's sense of justice and arithmetic. Yet, geography is more commonly the determinant of the colour of one's ancestral origin. Major events in history, such as slavery and the Middle Passage, have not helped the

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Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui – Brill

Published: Dec 8, 2002

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