Archives: India and Africa

Here we republish an essay 'India and Africa' written by W.E.B. Du Bois in 1931 for the 'Golden Book of Tagore' to celebrate Tagore's 70th birthday.

The great branches of the human family which have their chief dwelling place in Africa and India have much of common history in the past and common interest in the present. 

The thing that India and Africa must learn today is that their interests have more in common than the interests of either have with the ideals of modern Europe. Granted that Europe is powerful and still dominant, yet she is today doomed. She has been weighed in the balance and found wanting. On the other hand, the dark millions of India and Africa and their descendants and kinsmen throughout the world, have upon their shoulders the vast responsibilities of remaking this world nearer to the ideals of true civilization and high culture. 

Two things they forgot in the past and this forgetting gave Europe its chance. These things were: 

The mastery of the technique of earning a living by subjugating the physical forces of the world. And the other thing was the faith in democracy; that is, the fact that out of the masses of people can be developed just as much power and genius, ability and culture as has in the past been shown by the aristocracy, by the favoured few. Africa and Asia did not know or did not realise these facts in the past and their contributions to civilization were marred by poverty and slavery, on the one hand; and tyranny on the other. Europe has given us the technique of industry. At terrible cost, to be sure, but nevertheless, the machine stands and is a marvellous tool but a horrible master. Europe and America have given us the beginnings of democracy, although with strange inconsistency they have tried to hem democracy in with a colour bar. 

Here, then, is our chance for the future---our mighty opportunity. We borrow, as we have a right to borrow, and as Europe in other ages has borrowed from us,---the things that in modern days she has taught us. Be we use these things for greater ends. Both Africans and Indians must seek to be rid of the spiritual and physical death of poverty. They must educate and develop the masses of their people. They must welcome genius and ability wherever it occurs---among the lowest and most unlikely, as well as among those who have regarded themselves as the highest. It will be a revelation to see how wide-spread human ability is when it has a chance. And then, with the help and strength which decent income gives, and with the rise of the intelligent mass, the dark millions of Africa and India can go forward to set new standards of freedom, equality and brotherhood for a world which is in desperate need of these spiritual things. 

It seems to me that no one has had a finer vision of such a future than Rabindranath Tagore. I greet him in his quest for common justice for all ment. 

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