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10 Techniques Used By Archeologists, Historians and Institutions to Generate False Narrative About African and World History

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Cartoon of performers in blackface

Stereotyping Individuals of African Descent

Make no mistake. Hollywood was and will always be an institution. And, historically, this institution has used the technique of stereotyping to create false images of African people. Whether it was derogatory terms or images of inaccurate depictions, these stereotypes created a false narrative. Dashu expounds on this topic in her article, Racism, History and Lies.

Photo of an impoverished community in the Congo

via www.un.org

Focusing Solely on Africa’s Downfalls 

Many Western scholars of the past, including historians and archaeologists, only informed the world of the crises of Africa in order to promote the untrue notion that Africans are inferior to their European counterparts. Professor Thandika Mkandawire, the first person to become the chair in African Development at the London School of Economics and the previous director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, refers to this phenomenon as the “CNN factor” or “Afro-pessimism.”

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