Cultural Genocide

Cultural genocide is the deliberate and systematic annihilation of a people's culture by another group of people. Cultural genocide's weapons of choice are physical terror and violence, psychological torture, and seduction. Indeed, cultural genocide always entails the negation of the worth of the culture to be suppressed, and it often seeks to enlist the acquiescence and active cooperation of those whose culture is to be destroyed. This is done primarily through intense propaganda and bribery, making cultural genocide at times quite subtle and all the more effective.

As far as Africans are concerned, cultural genocide can only be understood within the context of white supremacy. Most destruction of African culture occurred due to the pervasive myth of European absolute, God-granted cultural superiority and consequent burden to civilize the world (i.e., to mold it in Europe's image). The destruction of inferior cultural forms was to be undertaken with ardor, with a major conversion to European culture as the expected and desired outcome.

Africans first experienced a widespread and systematic attack on their culture during the period of their enslavement on American soil. African culture was described by Europeans as primitive and barbaric. Physically and forcefully uprooted from their original [Page 210]land, millions of Africans were pressured to abandon their African cultural ways and adopt European culture. This was particularly true in the area of religion and spirituality, where the acceptance of a blond, blue-eyed Jesus Christ was literally beaten into “heathen” Africans, while the worship of African deities and ancestral spirits was conveniently equated with satanic practices and severely and harshly punished.

Africans on the continent of Africa had similar experiences during European colonization in the 19th century and later. Indeed, during that period, numerous Christian missionary schools were established to impose the adoption of European culture and abandonment of African culture. In these schools, Africans were forced to at least publicly accept Christianity and reject their own beliefs and rituals. Failure to do so resulted in brutal floggings and traumatic humiliations. At other times, Africans could receive medical care in clinics set up by Christian missionaries only after they had publicly renounced their religion and recognized the Christian god as the only true god.

Along with the imposition of Christianity came the imposition of European, Christian names on Africans. Naming had always been held as of the utmost importance in African culture. Indeed, the name reflects the essence of the person named. Therefore, when Europeans imposed European names on Africans, they dealt a severe blow to African culture by inscribing Africans in a European-dominated historical and cultural space. In a similar vein, African languages were described as inadequate, worthy not even of being called languages but only of being called dialects. Unsurprisingly, Africans were expected to stop using them and embrace European languages. Again, failure to do so automatically translated into physical and psychological abuse. African children caught speaking their mother tongue in school had to wear signs such as “I am a donkey” or “I am stupid,” pay a fine, and/or wear some symbol that identified them as sinners.

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