not 'black'
The Campaign Against the Use of Race Color-Labels...
not 'black'
The Campaign Against the Use of Race Color-Labels...
The 'Black' Star
Long before the ‘black’ star became decidedly a symbol of ‘African emancipation’ in Ghana’s flag, and long before Marcus Garvey created Black Star Line shipping company, the racial label ‘black’ was laden with a sinister meaning as an identifier of humankind.
In Ghana, the adoption of ‘black’ iconography achieved a cult-like devotion immediately after independence; the first president of the new republic constructed a monument with a massive five-pointed star atop painted pitch-black; this is the Black Star Gate, next to the Black Star Square, not far from the Christianborg Castle that used to be a slave trading depot.
Nkrumah also copied the name of Garvey’s shipping line; the national shipping company of Ghana is the Black Star Line. The nickname for the Ghana national men’s soccer team is the Black Stars. In an account of Nkrumah's life, Basil Davidson, the historian, described Nkrumah as Black Star. [1]
We know that over many centuries before and during the common era, some of the names assigned to the peoples of Africa have been associated with, or have suggested the color ‘black;’ many of the geographical names such as Niger and Sudan—contain the etymological roots of the word ‘black.’ The Greek word for ‘Ethiopia’ is suggestive of the origins of the color of the people the Greeks encountered.[2]
Professors Gates and Curran tell us that: "When the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Arabic peoples first described the inhabitants of Africa, it was Africans’ color that struck them most. Over many centuries, African “blackness” grew into an all-encompassing signifier that substituted for the range of reddish, yellowish, and blackish-brown colors that the skins of Africans actually express. The color black also became synonymous with the land itself..." [3]
But, were these names, appellations, meant to imply an attribute of the people other than complexion? Were these names, when adopted at the time, meant to ascribe a characteristic other than phenotype?
Notes
1. Basil Davidson 2021 (reprint). Black Star: A View of the Life and Times of Kwame Nkrumah. Routledge.
2. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Andrew S. Curran 2021. Inventing the Science of Race. The New York Review. December 12.
3. Ibid.
The Ghana flag with black star
More than any other symbol, the 'black star,' became a powerful metaphor for Nkrumah. As Prime Minister and then first President of the republic, he influenced the adoption this cultural artefact...
The Coat of Arms...
The 'black star' features prominently in Ghana's Coat of Arms
The Sinister Character of 'black'
The Black Star
Long
Notes
1. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Andrew S. Curran 2021. Inventing the Science of Race. The New York Review. December 12.
