An Afrocentric Analysis of W. E. B. Du Bois' The World and Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to provide an Afrocentric analysis of the ways in which Du Bois approaches African history in his text The World and Africa. The study contextualizes the experiences that shaped Du Bois’ thinking about Africa. This includes commentary on his college years as well as the experiences that continued to shape his opinions near the end of his life. Highlighted in this study is Du Bois’ Eurocentric approaches to history in regard to African people. The significance of focusing on the ideologies of Du Bois through this text is the fact that Du Bois is considered perhaps the most influential African American intellectual of the twentieth century. Thus, my aim is to provide an analysis of The World and Africa that is useful in illustrating the Eurocentric entrapments in regard to Africa and African people that have plagued even our most brilliant intellectuals. Secondly, Du Bois’ analysis of African history is limited by his concept of race or ethnicity being narrowed to general phenotypes. As such, Du Bois, though perhaps more nuanced in his approach to what defines a race than many in his day, often makes superficial and sometimes erroneous claims about what constitutes African people. African culture, though considerably discussed in the text, becomes however ancillary to the basis of Du Bois’ contentions about the past greatness of African people. My analysis centers the Afrocentric approach to African cultural cosmology and ontology as basis of my critique of Du Bois’ text. Further, as an example of how Du Bois could have strengthened his arguments for Pan-African unity using culture as a basis, I have created and utilized a methodology entitled African World Antecedent Methodology and provided within this study some minor examples of the overlapping cultural patterns of African Americans within the African cultural-historical matrix.