Why Hofstra needs African Studies
There’s been something missing from Hofstra for a long time now, approximately since the ‘80s. African Studies at Hofstra was quite literally synonymous with the civil rights movement of the past, and at a time where civil rights issues are resurfacing, it’s perfect for the department to be revived.
Frankly, we need African Studies because there’s so little that we collectively know about Africa in the first place. Now, I can blame colonialism and the effort of Europe to erase Africa’s history from public knowledge, and I can even say it’s partly because much of African culture and history can be rooted in oral traditions, but the reason here and now at this university is because for a while there’s been an inherent lack of interest. It’s a lack that stems from an unawareness that has to be undone.
There are thousands of years of unknown history that no one is inclined to look into, which is the main historical reason for the “Africa is a shithole” narrative. I’ve actually spoken to multiple people, asking them about using Africa as a setting for fantasy stories and other fictional pieces. The responses I’ve gotten, to name a few, have been, “Nah, Africa is boring,” “No one cares about that place,” and my favorite: “Why would you want to have a story take place in a shitty place like Africa? Nothing happens there.”
This brings me to my next issue: underrepresentation of Africa in media and fiction. It sounds almost petty, but think about it. Think of every cartoon you’ve ever seen, every fantasy book you’ve ever read. It’s going to be Western culture (Roman, Greek and European magic, people speaking Latin, spoofs of the dead guys you probably learned about in 5th grade), Eastern culture (anime, western shows based on eastern cultures, shows and movies from respective Asian countries), even South America and indigenous populations to an extent (Disney literally has a whole movie and show that at least played with the idea of the Inca Empire).
The various fields of study for these cultures at Hofstra are all intact and functional. You can learn at least a certain amount about these cultures, but as for African Studies, you currently can’t even get a minor in the study. Interestingly enough, in pop culture and media, the only time Africa tends to show up is in the form of Egypt, which is a sort of “exception” to Africa.
Mummies, pyramids and King Tut all probably sound familiar, but people like to think of North Africa as a completely separate entity from the rest of the continent (and yes – it’s a continent, not a country). Maybe it’s because Egypt was closest to the Holy Roman Empire, so it got a head start on being in the mix of Western culture. Whenever anyone does mention Sub-Saharan Africa in media, it’s usually some half naked guys with spears, maybe doing some spooky evil green and purple misty voodoo with skull masks.
Knowledge and appreciation for African cultures outside of the continent itself are reserved to small, intensive circles, and with an entire group of people who are borderline unaware of the actual greatness and accomplishments of their predecessors, we need this now just as much as in the past in order to combat the ignorance we are facing today.
This isn’t to say that there’s an identity to reclaim, because there isn’t. Much of that identity is lost to time, but if we continue to let what scraps of knowledge we have of that identity continue to slip out of consciousness, we lose the ability to create an informed, improved identity for ourselves going forward.
Personally, my knowledge of African history is practically superficial, and I was hoping to change that, but since there’s hardly any information about Africa before the 1800s (as most of the history comes from European colonization), you really have to dig deep. With so few places to look for knowledge of Africa’s history, I would hope that my liberal arts university would be somewhere to start. Outside of people of African descent, anyone wishing to be better culturally versed can benefit from pursuing African studies as well. There’s an entire continent worth of culture and history that we risk losing, and Hofstra should help to make sure that doesn’t happen by providing the chance to understand it.
Brandon Allen is a sophomore journalism and geography major.
