Analysis
Gurnah’s claim aligns with decades of academic work exposing the racialized and Eurocentric biases in colonial discourse, such as Edward Said’s *Orientalism* (1978) and Chinua Achebe’s *An Image of Africa* (1975), which dissect how Africa was portrayed as a foil to Europe’s self-proclaimed 'civilization.' The 'dark continent' trope—popularized in 19th-century European travelogues and literature—was a tool of justification for slavery and imperialism, not an objective description. Contemporary historians like Basil Davidson (*Africa in Modern History*, 1978) and anthropologists like Cheikh Anta Diop (*Civilization or Barbarism*, 1981) have systematically refuted this binary, documenting Africa’s pre-colonial intellectual, scientific, and cultural achievements.
Background
The myth of African 'darkness' vs. European 'enlightenment' emerged during the transatlantic slave trade and was later reinforced by colonial propaganda to legitimize exploitation. Institutions like the British Library, where Gurnah spoke, have since acknowledged their role in perpetuating such narratives through archival biases. Gurnah, a Nobel laureate in Literature (2021), frequently addresses these themes in his work, including novels like *Paradise* (1994), which challenges colonial stereotypes.
Verdict summary
Abdulrazak Gurnah’s statement accurately critiques a historically entrenched colonial-era myth that framed Africa as 'dark' and Europe as 'enlightened,' a narrative widely debunked by scholars in postcolonial studies, history, and anthropology.