The definition of "Africa" and the concept of "race" in Pan-African movements

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K22009
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0103:History, archaeology, museology, and related fields
• Research Institution: Chuo University (2023); Kyoto Seika University (2021-2022); The University of Tokyo (2020)
• Principal Investigator: Nakao Sakiko 中央大学, 総合政策学部, 助教 (50883899)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-09-11 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 人種 / パン・アフリカ主義 / ポストスレイバリー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Due to the inability to conduct sufficient field research during the pandemic and political instability, the original plan to trace the trajectory of PAI party members was altered. Instead, the focus shifted to the use of the concept of "race" within the Pan-Africanist movement, which played a major role in linking the concepts of "Africa" and "race".
The analysis traces back to the early stages of the movement in the first half of the 19th century. The results indicate that the concept of "post-slavery", which considers the ongoing impact of racial views in societies after the abolition of slavery, should be applied to the analysis of the Pan-Africanist movement on the African continent. Additionally, in this analysis, the concepts of "indigenous racial thinkings" (r) and the"Race for Resistance" (RR), as proposed by Takezawa, are interconnected.

Free Research Field

歴史学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

これまでほとんど分析の対象となってこなかったアフリカ大陸内部における「人種」概念の作用について、奴隷制・奴隷貿易時代からの継続する影響と、人種主義に対する抵抗運動としてのパン・アフリカ主義運動との双方から接近する多角的な視座を提唱した。アフリカ社会を対象とした分析は人種概念の生物学的根拠が否定された現在においても、当該概念がいかに強いインパクトをもって作用しつづけているかを考える一助となる。