[wfn]

> Do you think Africans would learn how to read and write if the Europeans didn't alter things?

That seems like a point the arguments for which would not stand well under scrutiny. Can you decompress your thoughts in this regard, because it seems like the obvious answer is "yes" (for starters)...

[a3voices]

And who would teach them? If a society lives in extreme poverty for all of history, with zero economic and technological growth, what would make them become more developed and educated without external influences?

“That one can survey the length and breadth of sub-Sahara Africa and find not even one work of visual or written art worthy of the name” - David Hume, 18th century historian

[ceejayoz]

> “That one can survey the length and breadth of sub-Sahara Africa and find not even one work of visual or written art worthy of the name” - David Hume, 18th century historian

Somehow, I suspect you'd find a lot of inaccuracies in the writings of 1700s historians.

This particular one is demonstrably false. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_art https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_literature#Precolonial...

> African masks were an influence on European Modernist art, which was inspired by their lack of concern for naturalistic depiction. Since the late 19th century there has been an increasing amount of African art in Western collections, the finest pieces of which are now prominently displayed.

[dang]

That 'quote' sounds bogus to my ear—so much that I'd be shocked if it were real.

Like any 18th century thinker, Hume had views that we would now regard as racist, but let's not pin things on the fellow that he didn't say.

[oblio]

Really? Using 18th century arguments about art? Would Hume have approved dadaism or postmodernism?

[serge2k]

I think the bigger problem is using 18th century opinions of Africa.

[a3voices]

So your position is that 18th century intellectuals didn't have an accurate perspective of 18th century Africa?

[dang]

Please stop.

[TazeTSchnitzel]

> And who would teach them?

The Arab world?

[puredemo]

Through colonization?