It is difficult to ascertain the "desires" of Europeans participating in African culture. Primarily, they seem to have become involved in their colonialist pursuits in Africa largely for the purpose of stymieing their continental rivals, rather than for some genuine desire for resources or other natural benefits, though this certainly changed when the abundance of oil in certain key areas became known and its uses became more pivotal to the functioning of western society as a whole. It became a land grab, of sorts, as the various powers jockeyed with each other in expanding their overseas holdings. Possessing and maintaining successful colonial ventures in Africa meant prestige for the home nation, a place of pride amid the tumultuous and often tense international developments of nineteenth century European politics.
What European nations of the nineteenth century felt they contributed to African culture may be more readily ascertained, but it is just as subject to modern stereotypes. The image of colonialism that exists today is often one of a pompous European aristocrat lording himself over subject peoples and delivering his superior culture and religion to the unwashed heathens of the world. In reality, this may have been the case to some great extent, but the conditions were invariably more complicated, as well. In India, for example, it can be argued that regional nobility actively cooperated with, or at least benefited from their interactions with British colonialism in terms of how they themselves profited from arrangements made with said officials. In Africa there may not have been a ruling elite that cooperated as fully with colonial overlords, but there was nonetheless a similar sense upon the part of the colonial administrations themselves that their presence was one that bestowed superior values and ideas upon a less developed people. Regardless of the innate racism and arrogance inherent in such assumptions, they seem be widespread in almost all cases where one culture or country imposes its will upon a country or group of people.
Please don't take this in the wrong way, but I have to admit, I'm a little confused by your essay. Unless I completely misunderstood the question, I don't see the answer to it in this essay. It seems to me that the first part of your essay belongs under the subject for essay five and then, you sort of touch on it in the second part, but barely.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding of the question for this essay was what Europeans wanted from the Africans that were in Europe. And from the readinds I would say it was part of their culture. They were obsessed with the African culture. They set up dance houses where they played authentic African music (not jazz) and had African's dance or they danced too. Often, they even set up fairs or other such settings, where they put Africans on display for all to come and look at. Africans were considered "savages" and I think the Europeans saw this as something exotic and they wanted part of it.
I guess it's part of my destiny to follow Claudia around and write about how I agree completely with her.:) You may have missed the target on this one.
ReplyDeleteThis essay referred to the phenomenon known as Negrophilia which hit Paris in the 1920s. Some historians prefer to focus on the celebration of black culture in terms of music and dance that Europeans actively participated in (Gates and Dalton) but others see Negrophilia as a less obvious form of Negrophobia, where colonialist ideologies of white superiority played out in the nightclubs with Europeans and Africans (as well as West Indians) co-mingled. Negrophilia was a momentary release from bourgeois blandness for the Europeans and overt oppression for the African. African music and dance became all the rage as Europeans launched into escapist fantasies of African exoticism and eroticism.