Born in Blackness by Howard W. French
Fixing history to reflect the key roles Africa and Africans played in the making of Modernity
Our origin stories matter. Every culture has foundational stories which tell people who they are and how they got there. Many people refer to these stories as “myths” or “creation stories.” Although widely considered fiction, these stories are still true because they function to teach members of the culture about fundamental truths held by the group.
Howard W French asks readers to consider that the current accepted historical narrative of the arrival of Modernity to the western world is a sort of creation myth developed by the dominant white culture in an effort to erase the shameful history of genocide and exploitation perpetrated by Europeans. His 2021 book, Born in Blackness, attempts to fix the story to reflect the pivotal roles of Africa and Africans.
There is a theme that runs through the book. French will visit a place that was an important place in the foundation of Modernity and the locals will not even know about it, or if it is commemorated at all, it is all but abandoned. French walks in the footsteps of modern life and finds those footsteps all but erased. The lesson is that the dominant version of history put forward by the dominant white culture is shouting loudly, while the truth is often less than a whisper. French’s goal is to amplify the whisper.
I am listening.
Origin stories matter. Howard W. French talks about the utility of the generally accepted narrative of how the Modern world came to be dominated by Western European nations and white people.
The story goes like this: Europe was home to the growth of Christianity and some magic happened in the so-called Middle Ages which led eventually to Science and Technology and the Renaissance and the Enlightenment and Noblesse Oblige Colonization and triumphant Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution and the whole Modern World. Each of these developments is credited to white people and to Europe and held up as defacto proof of white superiority. Essentially Western Europe gave us the modern world because of spectacular innovations by white men. You should all thank us (tongue firmly in cheek here).
In school, we learned about the “Age of Discovery.” It was all about spices, apparently. European people had bland food and they wanted to get to India to buy some spices. That desire to get to India drove innovation in shipbuilding, which allowed them to get around the pesky continent of Africa. But the trip was too long, so Columbus proposed that he try sailing west, which led to the discovery of the “New World,” which allowed for the American colonies, which led to the American Revolution and to the birth of freedom and democracy and the greatest nation in the history of the world. Our glorious nation came to dominate because we took the British innovations of the Industrial Revolution and Capitalism and Freedom and unleashed them to new and dizzying heights of success, including a man on the moon and the iPhone. You are welcome, Black and Brown people (cue my self-satisfied smirk).
Did I miss anything? This is the American version, which I internalized both through school and through the dominance of white men in the world around me. In the absence of a counter-narrative, the evidence speaks for itself. White people are superior. Look at all we did.
Howard W. French offers a counter-narrative for every step along the way the story of Modernity. Looking at French’s scholarship, it is easy to see why the dominant white culture wanted to craft a fictional story, because, in the story that French tells, rich white people are not always the good guys.
This is a book we all need.
Capitalism is killing the planet and exploiting Billions (with a B) of people. If we can understand Capitalism’s true origins in brutal forced labor camps, then we can put in context the ongoing brutality of corporations against people and the environment perpetrated.
Freedom is still an unattained ideal for much of the world. If we can look to Haiti as our key model of a founding revolution based on equality instead of the American Revolution, then we might be able to imagine new societies not based on ongoing exploitation.
Solidarity between races will always be undermined by white people’s unconscious superiority patterns. If we can undermine and rewrite the foundational stories of white supremacy, then we may find ourselves in a better position to work together to dismantle oppressive systems.
Howard W. French’s book is over 400 pages long and digs into details that at times seemed tedious to me. He is a good storyteller and brings the reader into the book by telling personal stories of his travels to the key locations he describes. But I found myself forcing myself to finish the book. Were it not for the #RaWBC commitment I made to read it, it might have ended up on my shelf unfinished.
I think that says more about me than it does about the book.
Perhaps I do not have attention for French because he challenges my own unconscious notions of superiority. Perhaps I do not want to accept a new origin story that does not place me in the center. Perhaps I would rather not know the details because I rely on my ignorance to justify my position in life.
I am glad I read Howard W French’s Born in Blackness. If you find yourself unable to read it for any reason, he has some very accessible podcasts and youtube interviews.
I can’t summarize it all, but I’d like to. Part of the success of the book in changing the story is the cumulative weight of each succeeding chapter. If it was just one story about just one place, then his thesis could be dismissed as an exception to the rule. But with each successive reevaluation of history, a gestalt emerges of a pattern that has been going on for at least 500 years.
Here are some pieces of the story that stood out to me.
- The idea that European explorers were trying to get around Africa is debunked by French. African gold was the big driver of European trade in the 1400s and 1500s. In turn, the need to have quality goods to trade for African gold drove the development of European textiles, metalwork, weaponry, and more, as well as driving trade with Asia in order to get goods to trade with Africa.
- The idea that the Industrial Revolution happened in the 1800s in England is put to a lie. French details how every facet of the Industrial Revolution was developed and perfected on the forced labor camps (AKA plantations) of the Caribbean, at least a hundred years before the mills of England ramped up.
- The idea that Spain’s retrieval of gold and silver from the New World was the main driver of the wealth of Europe is thoroughly undermined. French talks about the extreme wealth generated through the forced labor camps (especially sugar) as foundational to the development of powerful nation-states in Western Europe and North America.
- The preeminence of the American Revolution as the founding champion of Freedom and Enlightenment is found to be almost laughable. French asks us to consider the Haitian Revolution and its heroes as the true founders of Freedom — when the Africans defeated the French (twice), English (with more losses than the American Revolution), and the Spanish, all in the name of Freedom and Equality. The Haitian Revolution had broad consequences for the United States. Without his defeat, Napoleon would likely not have sold the Louisiana purchase to the USA. Likewise, the successful revolt in Haiti likely panicked the British into outlawing slavery, much more than the white abolitionists, and it also panicked Thomas Jefferson, who saw a need to move enslaved people out of the Old South and into the Deep South. This led to the rise of cotton, as much or more than the cotton gin. Cotton also pushed American and British wealth to incredible levels with the development of ever more extreme forms of exploitation under Capitalism.
- French spends fully half of the book in Africa, and all of this history was news to me. I think I had accepted the notion that Europeans came to Africa and essentially stole people who had been living in aboriginal communities, fighting with bows and arrows. Every bit of this story is a lie. When Europeans encountered West Africans in the 1400s and 1500s, the Africans they met had been trading with people in North Africa (and by extension Europe and Asia) for hundreds of years. Many peoples had converted to Islam during this process. The Portuguese encountered people who were looking to trade with them, and not the other way around. And the Portuguese didn’t have much to offer. Only by monopolizing the trade with West Africa and then trading internally in Europe with other countries, were the Portuguese able to find goods worthy of their African counterparts.
Stories that portray Black heroes are coming into the popular culture more and more. This month, the world is talking about The Woman King as a possible Best Picture and a massive hit. We have been living in the post-Black Panther world for several years now, and studios are cashing in on a new set of heroes.
Howard W French resists the urge to mythologize Africa and Africans. He portrays African nations as players which played against each other as much or more than against Europeans. French speaks of Black solidarity and pan-African sentiment as relatively recent innovations. Instead, for most of this story, everyone was capable of being the “bad guy,” regardless of race.
Perhaps this is the most hopeful takeaway for me from the book. If anyone can be the bad guy, then anyone can be the good guy, even me. French offers us people who are heroes because they fight against tyranny and injustice, not because they are Black or white.
If you enjoyed this review, then you might enjoy the takes of other #RaWBC writers on this book and others. Search the tag and find gems. Then write your own. Anyone can join the Readers and Writers Book Club (#RaWBC). The ticket to entry is to read one of the books (four so far) and write your own take. Then read and respond to the other writers. It is like an in-person book club conversation without the wine and snacks or the need to clean up your house for guests.
Deep gratitude to Laura M. Quainoo for both starting and sticking to this book club with me. November book is Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. Order from your library now! Or buy from a local independent book store.
Here are my previous essays:
