Answer to Question #205946 in History for Kwanele

Question

Hugh Trevor Roper vigorously argued that Africa, prior to European contact, was ‘without 

the wheel, the plough, or transport animal; without writing and without history’. Drawing on 

the views of American thinkers Carter G Woodson and WEB DuBois, as well as any 

relevant information from learning units 1 and 2, critically discuss Roper’s assertion. (80)

Answer 1

Channing said unequivocally that the Negro had no history and, according to Woodson, viewed the notion of Crispus Attucks and his part in the Boston Massacre as a significant contribution to the country's freedom as ridiculous. Channing pressed Woodson to do a study to establish that the Negro had a history. Recounting these instances from Du Bois's 1949 Black History Month addresses serves as a reminder of the significance of his public intellectual endeavor. He spoke extensively throughout his career, particularly in his senior decades. Additionally, it pays attention to the critical labor of Black librarians, curators, and archivists, whose contributions enabled and continue to enable Black intellectual history. Woodson's life paralleled that of several other renowned African Americans who, until the hip-hop movement and the new millennium, surmounted apparently insurmountable challenges and barriers to accomplishing enormous accomplishments. Though he was born after Reconstruction, his formative years paralleled those of one of his intellectual inspirations, Booker T. Washington, who emerged "from slavery." Woodson achieved a great lot and donned a variety of hats before his untimely death on April 3, 1950.