SUBJECTIVENESS OF DIFFERENCE Someone asked; Why do East Africans (Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea) look different from the rest of Africa. It is a loaded question: The question could equally be asked Why do South Africans look different from the rest of Africa.[19] Well, why do Norwegians look different from Southern Italians? The differences we are made to see are an outcrop of colonialism and Eurocentric racism. And for the record there are people all over Africa (Mali, Rwanda, etc) that have the Ethiopic look. But the images people see of Africa are those fashioned in a world built to create the illusion of difference. Diversity of ethnic groups in Ethiopia Between brunettes, redheads, and blondes, green eyes and blue eyes or grey eyes, they are all still Europeans (Diop). There are lots of silly explanations for difference, most the product of Western Anthropology that created difference from within there spheres of self-interest. And this is why difference among Africans is given such a high focus in order to divide and conquer. And a good example of this is the focus on skin color. Did ancient people of Rwanda focus in on skin color to differentiate different ethnic groups? Did Ethiopians do it? No they did not. Amhara people come in all different skin colors, with different hair textures from dead straight to tightly curled. They might have had a totally different set of criteria to differentiate them from the Oromo or even other Semitic people such as Tigray and Gurage. In South Africa using skin color would be meaningless during apartheid to separate Zulu from so-called coloreds. Because the skin color range of many native South Africans is from high yellow to dark brown. So apartheid had to focus on something else--hair texture. But while this worked for South Africans it would not have worked in Congo, Nigeria, and especially not for Ethiopia.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 17:26:20 +0000
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