CBH TALK - Unlocking Africa's Hidden History
The history of Africa has long been relegated to the remote outskirts of our global story. In his book Born in Blackness, Howard French puts Africa and Africans at the center of our thinking about the origins of modernity. In a sweeping that narrative spans more than six centuries he reframes the story of medieval and emerging Africa, demonstrating how the economic ascendancy of Europe, the anchoring of democracy in the West, and the fulfillment of so-called Enlightenment ideals all grew out of Europe’s dehumanizing engagement with the “dark” continent, and revealing the intentional trivialization and erasure of African history throughout the last five hundred years. French talks about this important book with Sean Jacobs, founder and editor of the website Africa is a Country.
This program is offered in connection with the Center for Brooklyn History’s major public history initiative, Brooklyn Resists.
Participants
Howard W. French is a professor of journalism at Columbia University and former New York Times bureau chief in the Caribbean and Central America, West and Central Africa, Tokyo, and Shanghai. The author of five books, French lives in New York City.
Sean Jacobs is associate professor of international affairs at The New School and founder and editor of Africa Is a Country, a website of criticism, analysis and new writing. He was born and grew up in Cape Town, South Africa.
The history of Africa has long been relegated to the remote outskirts of our global story. In his book Born in Blackness, Howard French puts Africa and Africans at the center of our thinking about the origins of modernity. In a sweeping that narrative spans more than six centuries he reframes the story of medieval and emerging Africa, demonstrating how the economic ascendancy of Europe, the anchoring of democracy in the West, and the fulfillment of so-called Enlightenment ideals all grew out of Europe’s dehumanizing engagement with the “dark” continent, and revealing the intentional trivialization and erasure of African history throughout the last five hundred years. French talks about this important book with Sean Jacobs, founder and editor of the website Africa is a Country.
This program is offered in connection with the Center for Brooklyn History’s major public history initiative, Brooklyn Resists.
Participants
Howard W. French is a professor of journalism at Columbia University and former New York Times bureau chief in the Caribbean and Central America, West and Central Africa, Tokyo, and Shanghai. The author of five books, French lives in New York City.
Sean Jacobs is associate professor of international affairs at The New School and founder and editor of Africa Is a Country, a website of criticism, analysis and new writing. He was born and grew up in Cape Town, South Africa.
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