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Some of the Biggest Lies Ever Told About Africans
A short essay trying to debunk some myths about Africans.
Throughout history, Africans have suffered a great deal at the hands of prejudice and backward thoughts and practices. For centuries, black people have been constantly subjected to mistreatment, enslavement, and discrimination. Much of this treatment stemmed from certain historical lies about African people told and propagated through the societies of the past to justify their oppression.
We can pretend that we’ve come a long way as a society since the days when people of color were denied basic human rights, but even today, we see the residual effects of these lies and how the messages and values they propagated continue to exist in some shape or form. Today, I want to address some of the biggest historical lies about the black African community.
The Dark Continent Trope
One of the more popular myths about African people was the “dark continent trope,” which I have touched upon in a recent article about the mistreatment of black people in Nazi Germany.
For a long time, the Africans were perceived as backward savages with no civilization or organization. The only exception to this trope was the people of Egypt, who were constantly excluded from the…
