What the modern world owes to the exploitation of Africa and Africans

In recent years, there has been constant anxiety about white cis-heteropatriarchy: not a week goes by without a book, dissertation, manifesto, or opinion piece that challenges and undermines the dominant position that this group has held for centuries. and revealing that the “stories” that justify this domination are nothing more than a hoax, painstakingly woven and willingly spread by the authorities and their servants. Much of what was considered the true or at least reasonable consensus in history and biology has been taken apart by a legion of thinkers and activists. Facts lose consistency, certainties become fluid, landmarks that demarcate territory crumble, mental maps that have guided us in the past are declared obsolete. Today we can say that we live under the sign of one of the slogans that 30 years ago quickly flashed on the giant screens of U2’s Zoo TV Tour: “Everything you know is wrong.”

One of the most recognized contributions to the destruction of old beliefs is that Born in the Dark: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, from 1471 to World War II., which was originally published in 2021 and now has a Portuguese edition by Bertrand with a translation by Pedro Relogio Fernandes. The choice of translating “Born in Blackness” as “Origem: África” ​​instead of the more direct “Nascido na negritude” produced a discouraging alliteration. Origin: Africa: Africa, Africans and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to World War II.not realizing what benefits this will bring (except perhaps to avoid the term “negritude”, which may have already been banned by the fighters for “political correctness”, although a few years ago it was associated with pride in the African personality).

author Origin: Africa is the award-winning journalist and journalism professor Howard W. French (b. 1957, USA), who, according to the biographical note on the badge, “was the editor-in-chief of the New York Times for the Caribbean and Central America, for Central Africa and the East, for Japan, Korea and China at various times between 1990 and 2008” and is fluent in “English, Chinese, French, Spanish and Japanese”, suggesting someone with extensive knowledge of the world and great talent. for languages ​​(fluency in Japanese or Chinese requires many years of painstaking study from foreigners).