W.E.B. DuBois

and the

Pedagogy of

Anti-colonialism

Binaya Subedi

Final project for P&L 863

December 1, 1999

W.E.B. DuBois and the

Pedagogy of Anti-colonialism

Binaya Subedi

My earliest memory of written words are those of Du Bois and the Bible. My ….grandmother …read to me as a child from both the bible and The Crisis.

Langston Hughes, Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP, 1962. p. 24-25, 65).

The iron curtain was not invented by Russia; it hung between Europe and Africa half a thousand years. When the producer is so separated from the consumer in time and space that a mutual knowledge and understanding is impossible, then to regard the industrial process as ‘individual enterprise’ or the result as ‘private enterprise’ is stupid.

Du Bois, The World and Africa, p. 258-259

Introduction

My personal investment in this project comes from the re-examination of my own life, a living of migration and resistance to (neo) colonial education. Growing up in South Asia, I was particularly interested in how underrepresented (or misrepresented) people within the global context resisted colonial and neo-colonial dominance. I remember looking at South Asian texts-books that spoke about the resistance of African Americans, Native Americans and white racism in the United States. The social studies (it was called civic textbooks) textbooks highlighted the solidarity between Third World struggles against British (and the West) and African American resistance against white racism and exploitation. Within the last decade, I have been interested in examining the collective work between U.S. people of color and people of color around the world. My own location as a so-called "Third World" scholar, classified as temporary im/migrant or "alien" in the United States, has made me (re) think vis-à-vis the importance of collective cross-cultural work among the colonized people: in an attempt to de-colonize western knowledge claims. In many ways, the struggles in Third World are similar to the struggles of people of color in the United States. I found it useful to begin my project utilizing W.E.B. Du Bois’s scholarship to investigate historical and contemporary cross-cultural work within the context of race, notions of democracy, and colonialism. Du Bois’s work is critically important in our efforts to re-map western knowledge claims, or what Toni Morrison (1992) would call creating non-imperial geographies and examining the complex relationships between racism and "democracy." Lastly, my work in fueled by the interest to investigate the critical roles played by people of color in transforming the world: a topic that is largely absent in many curriculum and teacher education discourses.

In this context, Randall Robinson’s work, Defending the Spirit: A Black Life in America, was an indispensable inspiration is tracing the historical and contemporary relationship between racism and U.S. foreign policy. For me, Robinson eloquently highlighted how race (and racism) has played a critical role in western mapping of the world and continues to operate in contemporary constructions of the "other," both at home and around the world. For Robinson, western (Euro-American) representations and policies (and interventions) towards African effects the identities and lives of African Americans in the Americas. A century ago, Du Bois argued for the interconnectedness of Black struggles in North America and the resistance of Black communities around the world. For him, a collective memory, and a common identity was necessity for a dual victory, both home and abroad. This project highlights how W.E.B. Du Bois challenged western notions of democracy and citizenship (both linked to racism) and what we can learn from his emphasis on cultural knowledge from Africa and the uprising of the globally oppressed.

Methodology: My investigation of the topic largely relies on examining the scholarship (books, essays, speeches, etc) of Du Bois. I have also examined articles he authored as the editor of The Crisis, particularly the ones that highlighted cross-cultural dialogue among the colonized people of the world. Similarly, I have utilized secondary sources that trace the importance of Du Bois’s work in the global context. Books on collections of Du Bois’s speeches and letters have been very useful.

The Overview

In his work Dusk of Dawn: An Essay toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept, Du Bois describes his various encounters with "race" and racism within the context of education. Du Bois writes:

In the elementary school it came only in the matter of geography when the

races of the world were pictured: Indians, Negroes, and Chinese, by their

most uncivilized and bizarre representatives; the whites by some kindly

and distinguished-looking philanthropist. In the elementary and high

school, the matter was touched only incidentally…….At Fisk, the problem

of race was faced openly and essential equality asserted and natural

inferiority strenuously denied…At Harvard…I began to face scientific race

dogma: first of all, evolution and the "Survival of the Fittest." It was

commonly stressed in the community and in classes that there was a vast

difference in the development of whites and the "lower races……..eventually

in my classes stress was quietly transferred to brain weight and brain

capacity, and at last to the "cephalic index (p. 103-104).

In the above noted paragraph, Du Bois notes this various encounters with the concept of race and racism. The difference between Fisk and other institutions is that at Fisk race and racism in openly discussed and Darwinian (science oriented) notions of race is critiqued. As Du Bois notes, race is constructed within the binary of good and bad. Within the context of representation, the west is portrayed as civil and the rest as uncivil. Similarly, Du Bois describes his experiences at graduate schools:

In the graduate school at Harvard and again in Germany, the emphasis

again was altered, and race became a matter of culture and cultural

history. The history of the world was paraded before the observation of

students. Which was the superior race? Manifestly that which had a

history, the white race; their was some mention of Asiatic culture, but no

course in Chinese or Indian history or culture was offered at Harvard, and

quite unanimously in American and Germany, Africa was left without

culture and without history. Event when the matter of mixed races was

touched upon their evident and conscious inferiority was mentioned (p.

103-104).

Du Bois particularly emphasis the relationship between racism and the production of knowledge or the ways western history has been written at the expense Africa and Asia. Du Bois notes how Africa has been inscribed as having no history or culture and, on the other hand, how west has been painted as the "owner" of truth and history

Historically, as Horne (1986) argues, African Americans have been on the vanguard of anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist struggles. Such anti-colonial sentiments can be traced back to the works of Philip S. Foner and George Walker in their critical work titled Proceedings of the Black State Conventions, 1840-1865, in which the authors outlined their support for revolutions taking place within Europe. Marble (1996) argues that Du Bois viewed racism as a global phenomenon and the struggle against white racism, which he realized early as being inextricably linked to the exploitation of labor and resources, needed to be organized within a collective framework. Du Bois’s version of democracy was based on social justice and racial equality of colored people both at home and abroad.

The notion of double victory has been a recurring theme within African American tradition. For Du Bois, the meaning of double victory was inextricably related to the struggles of Africans and African Americas in global context. Du Bois was interested in forging relations with people of color around the world, particularly with African leaders in anti-colonial and anti-imperialistic struggles. For Du Bois the local/global connection meant continuing to fight for political and economic rights at home and forging relationships with countries seeking emancipation from western hegemony. As historian Gerald Horne (1986) notes, Du Bois periodically reminded his readers that his work at the end of his career was as important as the ones he had initiated earlier in his life. In other words, Du Bois saw his work in relation to Pan-Africanism inextricably related to the freedom and struggles of African Americans at home. He viewed the domestic version of historical and contemporary exploitation of African Americans directly linked to western exploitation of Africa and Asia.

An important site to examine Du Bois’s anti-racist views is the journal The Crisis, which he edited from its inception to 1934. Du Bois called the journal "a record of darker races." In his influential essay titled "The African Roots of War" Du Bois linked the origins of World War I to western colonialism and imperialism which, he eloquently argued, was a result of the "scramble" for resources and labor in the colonized world. Du Bois "felt that the enormous profits to be gained in the colonized world inevitably induced competition amongst Western nations of these people, resulting in war and slaughter of Asians, Africans, North Americans (Horne, 1986, p. 7)." Marble (1996) argues that Du Bois had three strategic interests in writing about issues related to decolonization. First, Du Bois advocated a Pan-African approach to the political and economic emancipation of Blacks in the world. Secondly, his approach to Pan-Africanism was, while fighting against world-wide white racism, not to advocate the return of Blacks to Africa but to "fight out the battle in Oklahoma." Lastly, in his writings, Du Bois advocated political, economic, and cultural freedom of Africa. Du Bois emphasized the importance of cultural knowledge of Africa and the heritage of exploitation, the legacy of slavery and colonialism that connected the two struggles. He writes in his work Dusk of Dawn:

As I face Africa I ask myself: what is it between us that constitutes a tie

that I can feel better than I can explain? Africa of course is my fatherland.

Yet neither my father nor father’s father ever saw …..the real essence of

this kinship is its social heritage of slavery; the discrimination and insult;

and this heritage binds together not simply the children of Africa, but

extends through yellow Asia and into South Seas. It is this unity that

draws me to Africa.

Du Bois was also concerned about the colonized status of people around the world and utilized, what Gbadegesin (1994) calls, the "Pan-Humanist" approach to western resistance. Here, Du Bois notion of humanism is anti-colonial, anti-thesis to Euro-centric thinking of humanism that created master-slave narratives. Du Bois’s views on race needs to understood within the western imposed globalized nature of racism and exploitation. As Du Bois wrote in Souls of Black Folk, "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line,--the relations of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea (p. 13)."

For Du Bois, in the context of India, the plight of Indians (and particularly the "untouchables") in South Asia and the struggles of Africans in the continent of Africa was similar to those of African Americans in North Africa. The Crisis provided extensive coverage over the British policies and Indian resistance against colonialism. As H.P Howard wrote in The Crisis, in the context of untouchables and against British rule, that there were "Negroes" in South Asia. Particular emphasis was Gandhi’s non-violence campaign against British rule.

Similarly, we need to see Du Bois’s novel Dark Princess: A Romance, published in 1928, within the context of western imperialism and Du Bois’s pan-humanism. As Arnold Rampersad (1994) argues, Dark Princess evokes Du Bois’ s views of collective uprising of the globally marginalized against colonialism and imagines a counter-hegemonic political, cultural and economic struggles of the darker races. In the novel, Black America’s location in the world is imagined. The protagonist of the novel, Mathew Towns, leaves for Europe, hoping to escape racism as he is denied admission to study medicine in New York. In Europe, Mathew attends an anti-colonial conference, where he meets an Indian princess named Kautilya. Kautilya eventually abandons her royal lineage and both are united in the U.S. against western imperialism. For Du Bois, Kautilya is a figure from the Third World, culturally violated by the west. On the other hand, Mathew symbolizes an international role of Black Americans in the decolonizing process. In Du Bois’s novel, Black America and Third World unite in a cultural marriage. Rampersad writes:

The novel may be grandly prophetic on one level, but it is also diplomatic in

its negotiations of a relationship between India and Black America. Du

Bois is well aware of the pariah status of black Americans and blacks in

the eyes of the world, including India. He knows, too, that the marriage of

a pariah to a princess is unthinkable. Mathew is no pariah in Du Bois’ s

eyes, nor in the princess’s. The novel interrogates both India and black

America on the questions of class and caste (p. 170-171).

On similar level, as Rampersad argues, Du Bois was cognizant of the cultural commonalties between South Asia and Black America. Many religious and spiritual figures and deities are black. For example, Krishna and Kali are black deities. Kautilya calls Mathew "Krishna", which means "black" in Sanskrit, and Mathew’s mother is referred as "Kali, the Black one." The existence of Black deities in South Asia can be traced to historical migration of Africans (and African influence) in South Asia prior to the invention of western calendars.

Du Bois’s prediction in Dark Princess for the emancipation globally marginalized and oppressed is prophetic. India gained independence in 1948 and as Rampersad notes, "if one takes the epochal Bandung Conference of non-aligned nations in 1955 as marking the emergence of the Third World, then Du Bois’s prediction schedule of liberation was off by only three years (p. 174)." The conference led to African-Asian unity for political struggle against western colonialism, culminating in the independence from formal colonial rule. Dark Princess evokes Du Bois’s thinking on the need to continue anti-colonial work on a global scale. Most of the colored people lived under colonialism and white governments had no respect for the rights of the occupied people. For Du Bois, the notion of cultural nationalism was critical.

Similar to Pan-Africanist movements, collective de-colonizing efforts between African Americans and South Asians developed through cultural exchanges. Many African Americans visited India and met with Gandhi. As Kapur (1992) argues, in 1930s, many exiled India leaders in the United States worked with Africans American leaders, particularly with Du Bois, in their anti-colonial struggles. Indian leaders traveled to Howard University, Tuskegee Institute and African American leaders traveled to Gandhi’s institutes in India (p. 14-15, 75-85). Lala Lajpat Rai, an exiled Indian leader in the United States, became a good friend of Du Bois and communicated with Booker T. Washington, John Hope, President of Moorehouse College and George W. Carver. Hoping to dismantle British colonial political and educational system, Rai was interested in learning more about Tuskegee’s educational philosophy and published his work describing the common struggles between African American leaders in the United States and in India. When Rai died of police beating in India, Du Bois (1929) wrote: "…every member of the 800,000,000 darker peoples of the world should stand with bowed heads in memory of Lajpat Rai, the great leader of India, who died of English violence because he dared persist in his fight for freedom (p. 125)."

The Crisis was a critical site to discuss the coalitions that were being built between African American resistance at home and Indian and African struggles against British colonialism. The Crisis particularly emphasized British exploitation of the economic resources in India and the exploitation of Indian women (see Crisis 22, May 1921, p. 27). In support of Indian anti-colonialism, the same year, The Crisis published a letter from Gandhi that was addressed to whites living in India. Du Bois and Gandhi were united for a common struggle against western colonialism, particularly on issues related to economic and political freedom, and corresponded periodically. With Du Bois’ s request, Gandhi (1929) contributed to the special anniversary issue of journal by noting the importance of collective anti-colonial struggles and the need to rethink western notions of "truth."

Du Bois (1933) conceptualization of Pan Africanism was based on anti-racist, anti-colonial, anti-imperialism and for "the industrial and spiritual emancipation of Negro people (p. 247)." As Gbadegesin notes (1996), Pan Africanist movement took its roots from "the social heritage of insult in slavery and colonial exploitation (p. 233)." Du Bois organized five Pan-African conferences, in 1911, 1921, 1923, 1927 and in 1945 to emphasize the collective work of Africans, African Americans and the colonized people of the world. In order to combat colonialism, Du Bois urged people of African descent to put aside language, cultural, religious differences to unite for a common struggle. Within the context of Pan Africanism, Du Bois collaborated with Ghanaian leader Nkrumah in attempts to organize collective struggles of Africans and African Americans. As noted by Moses (1994), Du Bois’s political views were deeply grounded within Afrocentric thoughts, particular within African music, history, spirituality, etc. Du Bois viewed African communalism and collective nature of family useful within the African American context. For Du Bois, knowledge from the continent of Africa was important for Black resistance in the United States, which he called a "nation within a nation."

Du Bois remained a strong critique of U.S. foreign policy until his death. For Du Bois U.S. was preaching democracy overseas but at the same time segregating minorities in the U.S. Du Bois organized a conference in 1945 at the Schomburg Library in Harlem in relation to western colonialism, which took place a month before the V-E Day. "This conference was a spectacular success and may have been the most significant signpost on the road to anti-colonial independence. Certainly it was the most significant meeting of its type held in North America before or since (Horne, 1986, p. 28-29)." The conference called upon the emancipation of Asian, Africa people from western colonialism and called for native political rule.

In post war years, Du Bois was concerned over the plight of people of color around the world and felt that the voices of the colonized were not being heard in the chambers of the United Nations. Du Bois asked, in relation to U.S. military aid to Turkey and Greece, "can we expect democracy in Greece and not practice it in Mississippi? (cited in Horne, p. 90). Du Bois’s seminal anti-colonial work Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace (1945), a critique of western rhetoric of democracy, became an indispensable guide for the struggle for equality and human rights in the world. Emphasizing dual victory (home and abroad), Du Bois organized a committee to submit a petition to the United Nations vis-a-vis the need to conduct a hearing on minority issues due to historical, legal, economic and political human rights abuses in the United Nations. The petition was titled An Appeal to the World: A Statement on the Denial of Human Rights to Minorities in the Case of Citizens of Negro Descent in the United State of America and on Appeal to the United Nations for Redress 1947). The petition received wide support from political leaders from Asia and Africa. Needless to say, this created a crisis among white foreign policy elite in the United States (the petition failed to win the unanimous support of NAACP and was not heard at the United Nations). Not surprisingly, what Du Bois had been advocating for 50 years in relationship to human rights was finally written on U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Seldom have I heard Du Bois’s name being mentioned in relation to the document within mainstream scholarship. Eleanor Roosevelt gets the credit.

Du Bois passed away in Accra, Ghana, in August, 1963, continuing his work on Encyclopedia Africana. His death occurred on the same day of the historic March on Washington. Praises on Du Bois’s work and sympathies came from all over the world, except from the United States. At the March on Washington, the news of Du Bois’s death was announced. Many wept. John Oliver Killens wrote the following, remembering the anguish of Sidney Poitier, James Baldwin and many others on hearing the news of Du Bois’s death:

The old man died…..and not one of us asked ‘what old man?’ We all knew

[who the old man was] because he was our old man. He belonged to every

one of us. And we belonged to him. To some of us he was our patron

saint, our teacher and our major prophet. There was here a kind of poetic

finale that made sense to us, that he should die on the very eve of this

historic occasion (cited in Horne p. 356).

Activities:

Within the classroom context, students will examine original writings of W.E.B. Bois. I have placed particular emphasis on his work on issues related western exploitation, racism, and colonialism. Students will examine both the speeches of Du Bois and his writings on the journal The Crisis. Furthermore: (a) students will examine Du Bois’s novel, particularly Dark Princess: A Romance (b) read chapters on Education and The Concept of Race from Dusk of Dawn (c) read Randall Robinson’s book Defending the Spirit to make comparisons between racism and exploitation as noted by Du Bois. In what context, racism has changed or not changed? What does the metamorphosis of racism tell us about issues of hegemony and ideology?

Classroom discussions will focus, but not limited to the following (a) students discuss the meaning of dual victory articulated by Du Bois (b) students will examine the role of African American press, particularly the role of The Crisis, the journal edited by W. E. B Du Bois {c) How is Du Bois’s message important today in the context of neo-colonialism? Students will examine notions of economic, cultural and spiritual independence (d) How does Du Bois articulate the meaning of local and global?

In order to emphasize the theme of "reclaiming community" and emphasizing issues such as exploitation and racism in Du Bois’s writings, students (a group project is preferred) will participate in an urban ethnography or an oral history project. Possible ways of conducting the project include: (1) interviewing African Americans in the community within the context of race and economic and political inequities (2) analyzing the social context of education by examining historical and contemporary location of school(s) within broader societal inequities (3) a project that attempts to make connections between African Americans and Africans within the continent of Africa and around the world (for example, students can analyze trade policies that obstruct African products from coming into the United States or examine U.S. foreign policy towards Africa or the Third World. (3) students are encouraged to visit local libraries for primary sources. (4) students will also visit local African American museums and historical sites to better understand Du Bois’s work in the context of exploitation and racism.

Works Cited

Aptheker, Herbert (1974). Introduction. In W.E.B Du Bois, Dark Princess: A romance. New York: Kraus-Thomson.

Du Bois, W.E.B, (1904). The development of people. International Journal of Ethics 14. P. 292-311.

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1990). Address to the nations of the world. In Philip S. Foner (Ed.), Speeches and Addresses of W.E.B Du Bois 1890-1919. New York: Pathfinder.

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1903). The souls of black folk. Chicago: A.C. McClurg.

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1974). Dark Princess: A romance. New York: Kraus-Thomson.

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1940). Dusk of Dawn: An essay toward an autobiography of a race concept. New York: Harcourt, Brace.

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1914). The African roots of war. Atlantic Monthly (May 1915), p. 707-714.

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1917). Of the culture of white folk. Journal of International Relations, 7, p. 434-47.

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1975). Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace. Millwood: Krauss-Thompson

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1922). Opinion. Crisis 24 (May 1922), p. 27.

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1922). Opinion. Crisis 24 (June 1922), p. 55.

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1929). The browsing reader. Crisis 36 (May 1929), p. 175.

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1947). An appeal to the world. New York: NAACP (?)

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1957). The American Negro and the darker world. New York: National Committee to Defend Negro Leadership.

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1985). Against Racism: Unpublished essays, papers, addresses (1887-1961). Edited by Herbert Aptheker. Amherst, MA: The university of Massachusetts.

Du Bois, W.E.B (1965). The world and Africa. New York: International Publishers.

Du Bois, W.E.B. (1933). Pan Africanism and Radical Philosophy. Crisis (November 1933), p. 247.

Editorial. (1921). The woes of India. Crisis 22 (May 1921), p. 27.

Editorial. (1921). India’s saint. Crisis 22 (July 1921), p. 124-25.

Editorial. (1921). An open letter from Gandhi. Crisis 22 (August, 1921), p. 170.

Gandhi, M. (1929). To the America Negro, A message from Mahatma Gandhi. Crisis 36, July, 1929, p. 225.

Gbadegesin, Segun (1996). Kinship of the dispossessed: Du Bois, Nkrumah, and the foundations of Pan Africanism. In Bell, Bernard W, Grosholz, Emily and Stewart, James B (Eds.), W.E.B Du Bois on Race and Culture: Philosophy, politics and poetics. Routledge: New York.

Horne, David. (1986). Black and Red: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Afro-American response to the Cold War, 1944-1963. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press.

Howard, H.P. (1942). The "Negroes" of India. Crisis 49 (December 1942), p. 377-78.

Hughes, Langston. (1962). Fight for freedom: The story of the NAACP. New York: Norton.

Kapur, Sudarshan. (1992). Raising up a prophet. Boston: Beacons Press.

Moses, Wilson J. (1996). Culture, civilization, and the decline of the West: The Afrocentrism of W.E.B. Du Bois. In Bell, Bernard W, Grosholz, Emily and Stewart, James B (Eds.), W.E.B Du Bois on Race and Culture: Philosophy, politics and poetics. Routledge: New York.

Marable, Manning (1996). The Pan-Africanism of W.E.B Du Bois. In Bell, Bernard W, Grosholz, Emily and Stewart, James B (Eds.), W.E.B Du Bois on Race and Culture: Philosophy, politics and poetics. Routledge: New York.