The relationship between Westerners and Gold Coast Africans was fundamentally equal through the early-modern period. The former upheld religion as their main criterion of difference and standard of “superiority”. This boundary was however devoid of racial implications, and might however be easily canceled by conversion. The Individual life histories of Gold Coast Africans who spent part of their existence in the West and then went back to live in their country provide help to grasp this historical reality. Louis Aniaba, from Assini, was entrusted to the French as a hostage and lived in France from 1687 to 1701 with a recognized status as a top member of an allied royal family. He was repatriated in 1701 and spent the rest of his life on the Gold Coast as a member of the élite and a commercial entrepreneur. Anton Wilhelm Amo was born in the region around Axim and taken to Germany at the beginning of the eighteenth century. He was a young boy and possibly a slave. He grew up as a protégé of a major aristocratic family to a very distinguished career in philosophical studies. He acquired high academic and social status, before choosing to go back to Axim around mid-century. Sources give account of the two men’s return to the Gold Coast as a normal process with no mention of any sort of “cultural shock”. During the eighteenth century the development of the Slave Trade contributed to consolidate an association between slave and African, however the Westerner’s perspective changed radically only in the course of the nineteenth century with the emergence of racism and colonialism.

Africani ed europei nella Costa d'Oro pre-ottocentesca

VALSECCHI, PIERLUIGI
2015-01-01

Abstract

The relationship between Westerners and Gold Coast Africans was fundamentally equal through the early-modern period. The former upheld religion as their main criterion of difference and standard of “superiority”. This boundary was however devoid of racial implications, and might however be easily canceled by conversion. The Individual life histories of Gold Coast Africans who spent part of their existence in the West and then went back to live in their country provide help to grasp this historical reality. Louis Aniaba, from Assini, was entrusted to the French as a hostage and lived in France from 1687 to 1701 with a recognized status as a top member of an allied royal family. He was repatriated in 1701 and spent the rest of his life on the Gold Coast as a member of the élite and a commercial entrepreneur. Anton Wilhelm Amo was born in the region around Axim and taken to Germany at the beginning of the eighteenth century. He was a young boy and possibly a slave. He grew up as a protégé of a major aristocratic family to a very distinguished career in philosophical studies. He acquired high academic and social status, before choosing to go back to Axim around mid-century. Sources give account of the two men’s return to the Gold Coast as a normal process with no mention of any sort of “cultural shock”. During the eighteenth century the development of the Slave Trade contributed to consolidate an association between slave and African, however the Westerner’s perspective changed radically only in the course of the nineteenth century with the emergence of racism and colonialism.
2015
978-88-6897-013-0
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11571/1124522
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