HOW to explain the difference between AFRICAN and EUROPEAN Skin Color - Part 2

ENVIRONMENTAL THEORIES of skin-color were based on the often unexpressed assumption that both races had been white originally, and that the skin color of the African was the result of degeneration caused mainly by the sun. The opposing theory was based on the belief that White was the that color God had chosen for Mankind, and that all others were deviations from this norm, caused by a variety of factors. It was not unusual for philosophers to change their opinions, and some experts even believed that skin color could change in a matter of moments for a variety of reasons including severe shock.

The two basic approaches to the Origins of Mankind eventually united under the philosophies of Monogenism - the same origin; and Polygenism - separate origins.

On account of the convenient biblical explanation of the Creation, Monogenism was based primarily on the scriptures. Its oponents used the environmental theories to deny the theory of the Single Source, but the question remained - If color-difference was due to climatic differences between Europe and Africa, why did Africans retain their skin color, even in the coldest European countries? As a matter of fact, variations in African skin color is wider and more extreme than in Caucasians. They went even further. Differences in color denoted differences in intelligence (Cohen). The arguments that had been used to prove that negroes originally shared the same basic features with whites were recycled to prove that the two races were radically different. A familiar conclusion was that Africans:'.are not capable of great attention, they reason little, and do not seem made for either the advantages or disadvantages of our philosophy' (Cohen, quoting Voltaire). This basic conclusion survived for the next two centuries, and was used to justify Segregation, at the cost of many lives in both the US and South Africa, right through to the late twentieth century.

Discussing a member of the group I describe as In-betweeners, W B Cohen relates..." the case of a French medical doctor - an expert on color - who, on dissecting an African's brain, 'found it darker than that of a white man. The presence of a special liquid which he had called aethiops melanium, responbsible for the colour of African skin, created a hereditary predilection among Africans to become black: but whites, if sufficiently upset, could also turn black. As proof, this doctor cited the case of a Miss Yeury, who...upon being rudely insulted in the street developed a black skin ' " (W B Cohen).

Many Polygenist philosophers altered their point of view when it became necessary to adopt the Brotherhood of Man as an argument against the enslavement of the blacks, and until surprisingly late in the twentieth century, the issue of skin color differences remained virtually unresolved.

But while it became necessary to promote Brotherhood as an argument against slavery, the idea of Separate Origins was used to justify slavery, by supporting the depiction of Africans as animals. Some philosophers were more pragmatic. Although they firmly believed in the theory of Monogenism, they had invested so much of their wealth in the slave trade, that they were compelled to support Polygenism in order to protect their investment. Gradually the issue moved from the discussion of skin color to the denigration of the African, and the philosophers settled down to what amounted to a competition to come up with the most cutting insult to the African race. The usual practice was to compare Africans to primates and other animals. This association with animals is hardly surprising. European views allowed for differences of opinion on some issues, but they were in almost complete agreement that negro hair was identical to sheep's wool.

It was not long before this obsession with pigmentation took a sinister turn. Needless to say, it was all done in the name of science. The Maori are Polynesian rather than Negro, but they are still unique in their use of facial tatoos.The French maintained their scientific interest in this unique feature by mutilating appropriate corpses, decapitating them, hollowing out the skulls, and putting them on display. It was not until January 22nd 2012 that around twenty of these remains were returned to their descendants, in order to be given a descent burial in the Maori homeland.

Even within the African continent, Europeans, especially the French, forced themselves to perceive differences between the lighter-colored Fulani and the darker tribes, and thus lay the foundation of their policy of Divide and Rule, which was widely practised on plantations in the New World. So essential was this theory to French concepts of government that they introduced more than six gradations of skin tone, and skin color became an extremely important issue in Social Control.

When it came to the Mandingo and the Wolof with whom they formed

trading partnerships,

they portrayed these peoples as exceptions to the African norm, and even in America, it became common practice to depict some Africans as exceptions to the general rule, and to portray them as princes or slave-owners in order to suggest equality with Europeans. An extreme example of this occurs in Kyle Onstott's Introduction to his novel Mandingo in which he declares that the Mandingos [in spite 0f their very dark skin color], are in fact not negroes, and that they are nearer to the European archetype than the African.

And finally....

Without supporting the Environmental theories of the past, modern researchers have still been able to discovered a strong correlation between sunlight and skin color. But a new factor has been discovered -Vitamins.

The Australian anthropologists, Jablonski and Chaplin, writing in the scientific journal Discover, after discussing the function of various general factors, concluded that:

People in the tropics have developed dark skin to block out the sun and protect their body's folate reserves. People far from the Equator have fair skin to drink in the sun and produce adequate amounts of Vitamin D during the long Winter months.

Other phentypical issues have yet to be settled, mainly because the issue of

Race

is...'one of these things everybody notices, but nobody wants to talk about.'

Resources Discover,vol.22, no. 2, Feb. 2001

W B Cohen: The French encounter with Africans