Anti-African sentiment, Afroscepticism, or Afrophobia is prejudice, discrimination, or

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

towards People of Africa, people and Culture of Africa, cultures of Africa and of the African diaspora. Prejudice against Africans and people of African descent has a long history, dating back to ancient history, although it was especially prominent during the Atlantic slave trade, the trans-Saharan slave trade, the Indian Ocean slave trade, the Red Sea slave trade, and the Colonial Africa, colonial period. Under the pretence of white supremacism, Africans were often portrayed by Europeans as uncivilised and primitive, with colonial conquest branded civilising missions. Due to the use of oral tradition, and subsequent lack of recorded history, written histories in most African cultures, African people were portrayed as having no history at all, despite having a History of Africa, long, complex, and varied history. In the United States, Afrophobia influenced Jim Crow laws and segregated housing, schools, and public facilities. In South Africa, it took the form of apartheid. In recent years, there has been a rise in Afrophobic hate speech and violence in Europe and the United States. This has been attributed to a number of factors, including the growth of the African diaspora in these regions, the increase in refugees and migrants from Africa, and the rise of Far-right politics, far-right and Populism, populist political parties. In October 2017, the United Nations' Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent (WGEPAD) told the Human Rights Council that the human rights situation of Africans and people of African descent remained an urgent concern, citing racist violence, police brutality and killings, and systemic racism. Earlier that year, WGEPAD had recommended the term Afrophobia be used to describe "the unique and specific form of racial discrimination affecting people of African descent and African Diaspora".

Terminology

''Anti-African sentiment'' is prejudice or discrimination towards any of the various traditions and peoples of Africa for their perceived Africanness.Koenane, M.L.J. and Maphunye, K.J., 2015. Afrophobia, moral and political disguises: Sepa leholo ke la moeti. ''Td: The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa'', ''11''(4), pp.83-98. It is distinct from, but may overlap with, Anti-Black racism or ''Negrophobia'', which is contempt specifically for Black people#Africa, Black people of African descent, excluding other Africans such as White Africans of European ancestry, white Africans or North Africa, North Africans. The term ''Afrophobia'' may be used to describe both anti-Black racism and anti-African sentiment more broadly.Privot, M., 2014. Afrophobia and the ‘Fragmentation of Anti-racism.’. ''Visible Invisible Minority: Confronting Afrophobia and Advancing Equality for People of African Descent and Black Europeans in Europe'', pp.31-38.

Afrophobia

The opposite of Afrophobia is Afrophilia, which is a love for all things pertaining to Africa.

Afroscepticism

''Anti-African sentiment'' and ''Afroscepticism'' are comparable terms to anti-Europeanism and Euroscepticism. Afroscepticism is positioned as an opposition to ''Africanity'' (the idea of a shared Culture of Africa, African culture), ''Africanization'', or ''Afrocentrism'', often seen as facets of Pan-Africanism. Afroscepticism may include embracing Afro-pessimism (Africa), Afropessimism, and rejecting traditional African practices or "African Indigenous Knowledge Systems". The Afropessimist view sees Africa in terms of "the negative traits described by AIDS, war, poverty and disease", and thus as unable to be helped.

Anti-Black racism

The term ''racism'' is not attested before the 20th century, but ''negrophobia'' (first recorded between 1810–1820; often capitalised), and later ''colourphobia'' (first recorded in 1834),"Colourphobia , Colorphobia, N., Etymology." ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/9131678901. likely originated within the Abolitionism, abolitionist movement, where it was used as an analogy to rabies (then called ''hydrophobia'') to describe the "mad dog" mindset behind the pro-slavery cause and its apparently contagious nature."Negrophobia, N., Etymology." ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/5704106894. J. L. A. Garcia refers to ''negrophobia'' as "the granddaddy" of terms such as xenophobia, Islamophobia and homophobia. ''Melanophobia'' has been used to refer to both anti-Black racismBiale, D., Galchinsky, M. and Heschel, S. eds., 1998. ''Insider/outsider: American Jews and multiculturalism''. Univ of California Press. and Discrimination based on skin tone, colourism (prejudice against people with darker skin), especially in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.Madden, R., 2006. Tez de mulato. ''Colonialism and Race in Luso-Hispanic Literature'', p.114.Torres-Saillant, S., 2003. Inventing the race: Latinos and the ethnoracial pentagon. ''Latino Studies'', ''1'', pp.123-151.Mirmotahari, E., 2015. A Cloud of Semitic Mohammedanism: The African Novel and the Muslim Question in the National Age. ''Interventions'', ''17''(1), pp.45-63.

By location

It has been observed that writing and terminology about racism, including about Afrophobia, has been somewhat centered on the US. In 2016, "Afrophobia" has been used as a term for racism against darker-skinned persons in China. In such usage, that is an inexact term because the racism is directed against darker-skinned persons from anywhere, without regard to any connection to Africa. Conversely, Chinese views for lighter-than-average skin are more positive, as is reflected in advertising.

Scientific racism

Colonial historiography

Most African societies used oral tradition to record their History of Africa, history, meaning there was little Recorded history, written history. Colonial histories focussed on the exploits of soldiers, colonial administrators, and "colonial figures", using limited sources and written from an Eurocentrism, entirely European perspective, ignoring the viewpoint of the colonised under the pretence of white supremacism. Africans were considered Racism, racially inferior, supporting their "civilising mission". Oral sources were deprecated and dismissed by most historians, giving them the impression Africa had no history and little desire to create it. Some colonisers took interest in the other viewpoint and attempted to produce a more detailed history of Africa using oral sources and archaeology, however they received little recognition at the time.

Stereotypes of Africa

Activism

To overcome any perceived "Afrophobia", writer Langston Hughes suggested that European Americans must achieve peace of mind and accommodate the uninhibited emotionality of African Americans. Author James Baldwin similarly recommended that White Americans could quash any "Afrophobia" on their part by getting in touch with their repressed feelings, empathizing to overcome their "emotionally stunted" lives, and thereby overcome any dislike or fear of African Americans. Originally established in 1998 by "approximately 150" organisations from across the European Union, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) aimed to combat "racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism — the accepted categories of the Anti-racism, anti-racist struggle at that time". However, Afrophobia wasn't specifically named as a focus of the network until 2011, at the behest of Black civil rights activists. In 2016, Tess Asplund made a viral protest against Neo-Nazism as part of her activism against Afrophobia.

In academia

Some Afrophobic sentiments are based on the belief that Africans are unsophisticated. Such perceptions include the belief that Africans lack a history of civilization, and visual imagery of such stereotypes of Africans, stereotypes perpetuate the notion that Africans still live in mud huts and carry spears, along with other notions that indicate their primitiveness. Afrophobia in academia may also occur through by oversight with regards to lacking deconstruction in mediums such as African art forms, omitting historical African polities in world cartography, or promoting a Eurocentrism, eurocentric viewpoint by ignoring historic African contributions to world civilization.

References

{{Discrimination African society Anti-black racism Foreign relations of Africa