There are two things that have always haunted me: the brutality of the European traders and the stories I've heard about Africans selling other Africans into slavery.
Henry Louis GatesRead
It's important to debunk the myths of Africa being this benighted continent civilized only when white people arrived. In fact, Africans had been creators of culture for thousands of years before. These were very intelligent, subtle and sophisticated people, with organized societies and great art.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the rich history and culture of Africa prior to European colonization.
Henry Louis Gates highlights the importance of recognizing Africa's long-standing civilization, which existed well before the arrival of European settlers. He underlines that Africans were not only capable of creating complex societies and sophisticated art but were also intelligent and culturally rich, countering the prevailing myths that portray Africa as a place of ignorance until colonial influence.
Themes
AfricaCultureCivilizationHistoryMyths
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about African history, one could use this quote to challenge misconceptions.
More from Henry Louis Gates
All quotes →It's not white versus black any more, it's haves versus have-nots. Unless the black middle-classes unite to promote the interests of the black underclass, tension between them is inevitable. What we, the black middle class have to do, is think of a strategy to avert that.
Henry Louis GatesRead
In America there is institutional racism that we all inherit and participate in, like breathing the air in this room - and we have to become sensitive to it.
Henry Louis GatesRead
In fact, the class divide in the black community is now seen by some as a permanent aspect of our existence.
Henry Louis GatesRead
The historical basis for the gap between the black middle class and underclass shows that ending discrimination, by itself, would not eradicate black poverty and dysfunction. We also need intervention to promulgate a middle-class ethic of success among the poor, while expanding opportunities for economic betterment.
Henry Louis GatesRead
The only people who live in a post-black world are four people who live in a little white house on Pennsylvania Avenue. The idea that America is post-racial or post-black because a man I admire, Barack Obama, is president of the United States, is a joke. And I hope no one will even wonder about this crazy fiction again.
Henry Louis GatesRead
Similar quotes
Personally, I'd have welcomed a dementor attack. A deadly struggle for my soul would have broken the monotony nicely.
J. K. RowlingRead
For me the present is merged in eternity. I may not sacrifice the latter for the present.
Mahatma GandhiRead
Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a Republican administration would, directly, or indirectly, interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears.
Abraham LincolnRead
You are living in a dream of your own creation. Let it be the dream of a lifetime, for that is exactly what it is.
Neale Donald WalschRead
Let us not esteem worldly prosperity or adversity as things real or of any moment, but let us live elsewhere, and raise all our attention to Heaven; esteeming sin as the only true evil, and nothing truly good, but virtue which unites us to God.
Gregory Of NazianzusRead
I mean, I think it's a two-way relationship: I think you should not have too much faith in your own rationality. You should not have too much faith in the rationality of, you know, anybody else either. We all learn together about the way the world is, and I think it's a sort of antidote to wishful thinking of all kinds.
Abhijit BanerjeeRead