Reading Du Bois on East Africa: Epistemological Implications of Apartheid Constructions of Knowledge

This paper "reads" the scholarship of W. E. B. Du Bois and references East African history and historiography, including the broader pan-African tradition of which Du Bois was a leading member. Du Bois and his pan-African colleagues were often more accurate in their analyses and perception of biases and colonial myths than their Western counterparts. What is significant is that biases and myths that existed some fifty or more years before acknowledgement in the academy persist today, which raises important questions about the relationship between epistemology and identity, and between racial consciousness and the politics of academic production. The Importance of East Africa in Rewriting World History Scholars are beginning to restore W. E. B. Du Bois to his proper place in the annals of social science across numerous disciplines such as sociology, urban studies, Black studies, and criminology, which Du Bois helped to launch in the U.S. and throughout the world (Rabaka 2010). An area in need of considerable attention is Du Bois' contributions to African history, and most notably absent is his work on East African history and sociology. This paper is an effort in that direction, and also seeks to briefly situate Du Bois' work in the broader context of Pan-African thought, much of which "gets it right" both before and after Du Bois did and goes against the grain of the vast majority of colonial and "post"colonial (or neo-colonial) Western scholarship that has a mixed track record at best. A more detailed critique of world system sociologists and other critical Western scholars in the area of East African history and identity is found in my earlier work (Benjamin, Nabateans and Nubians , East Africa and the World , The World and Africa ), including components of my argument that are extrapolated from my dissertation (Benjamin 2002). East Africa is one of the world's most a cient crossroads of trade and culture exchange. Viewed from a Western vantage point, it is remarkable that Du Bois' critical engagement in an area he admittedly spent little focus has stood the test of time and remains relevant even in current decades. This raises questions about epistemology, identity, and the politics of scholarship, some of which are addressed in the conclusion of this paper. East Africa often is overlooked in discussions of African history. This is, in part, because of its less direct or less known, but not insignificant, role in modernity's trans-Atlantic chattel slave This content downloaded from 130.218.12.236 on Mon, 11 Dec 2017 21:34:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms