This is the final oped in a series on Black History Month.

One of the cornerstones of racism, past and present, is the idea of the “backwardness” of non-white societies and civilizations. The “we were exploring the world and building castles while your people were still living in the jungle” mentality has fueled and justified racist endeavors such as slavery, colonization, and modern far-right propaganda.

Whether in the name of political correctness or historical accuracy, the typical response to this assertion of racial superiority has been to cite the existence of African empires, universities such as Timbuktu, and indigenous scientific achievements that parallel those of the West. But this response is fundamentally flawed because its basic premise relies on the notion that Western civilization is the norm against which all others are measured. As the proverb says, “No matter how long a log floats in the water, it can never become a crocodile.” As black people, we can’t out-white white folks, and more importantly, our ancestors weren’t trying to either. The various civilizations of Africa had their own ideals and values by which they judged the quality of art, people, and societies. Some of these ideals resembled those of classic Western civilization, but some did not. So as we celebrate black history, we need to examine what it is we are celebrating and why. We should be celebrating black history for what it is, and not merely for its likeness to western European history.

Since Hegel, western European writers and leaders have been pushing the idea of progress, putting darkness, savagery, the past, and societies outside of Western civilization on one end of the spectrum, and light, consciousness, technology, the future, and the modern Western world at the other end. Of all the civilizations and cultures that once lay beyond the dominion (and ken) of Western civilization, those located in Africa have been portrayed as the furthest back on the dark end of the continuum. Hegel wrote, “Africa proper…is the land of childhood, which lying beyond the day of history, is enveloped in the dark mantle of Night.” Despite the incredible ignorance and falsity of this embarrassing pronouncement, it still echoes in the minds of people of all colors around the world.

Today, we divide the world into “developed” and “developing” regions, with virtually all of Africa (and most other places where the descendents of western Europeans are a minority) falling into the latter category. The implication being that these regions of the world are or should be trying to become like the “developed” world. It seems as though the spectrum of progress hasn’t changed much since the days of Hegel and colonization.

Back in that day there were missionaries and colonial administrators and educators pushing Christianity, the backwardness of non-western societies, and the bright future of European civilization, technology, and culture. One of the stated goals of the French colonial policy in Africa was cultural assimilation—to better the primitive Africans by transforming them into little dark Frenchmen and women. Now there are Western-educated aid workers, politicians, professors, and organizers pushing the materialist religions of free-market capitalism and Marxism (both ideological descendents of Hegel), the backwardness of non-Western societies, and the bright future of modern technology and the American way of life. One of the unstated goals of globalization seems to be the cultural assimilation of poor Africans into the American middle-class culture of consumption. Unfortunately, this “new” spectrum of progress seems to have become almost universally accepted on both sides of the have/have-not divide.

While I enjoy my super-sized fries and wireless internet as much as the next American, I also recognize that the United States is far from being the exemplary society to which all others should aspire. We have the largest per capita prison population of any nation in the world. Many Americans still struggle to make ends meet, and the Americans who do “make it” often find that their material success doesn’t translate into happiness or even contentedness. Most Americans are overweight, which is symbolic of the fact that although we make up five percent of the world’s population, we consume 30 percent of its resources. It’s simply not possible or prudent for the “developing” world to copy the American way of life—the world simply doesn’t have enough gasoline, plastic wrap, or Prozac.

There is no linear trajectory of development, with Africa on one end and the United States on the other. Every society has its own dynamic history of progress or regress that must be considered on its own terms. Living on less than a dollar a day isn’t so bad if your cost of living is much lower. Who is better educated: the illiterate African who can recite epic poetry and oral history for days without pause, or the literate American who never reads anything but comics and the McDonald’s menu? Residents of many so-called “developing” nations such as Nigeria consistently score higher on polls of happiness, contentedness, and optimism than citizens of the U.S., Canada, and even the Scandanavian socialist wonderlands.

It’s no accident that many Americans have turned to Buddhist meditation, African dance classes, and soul-searching service-vacations in Latin America. Perhaps without realizing it, they are turning Hegel’s continuum on its head, suggesting that the “developed” world, in some ways, should be progressing toward the Third World. As this Black History Month comes to a close, we should all pause to reflect and celebrate our heritage for what it is and not merely for its resemblance to classic Western ideals of greatness. Here’s to our illiterate, tropical-forest-dwelling ancestors, more wise and civilized than we may ever know.

Oludamini Ogunnaike ’07 is a psychology and African and African-American studies concentrator in Lowell House.