History in Context

The difference between having a passing familiarity with front-page news and truly comprehending world events comes down to a single word: context. “You can’t understand the snippets of national and global news reported by the media unless you have an understanding of the history surrounding those events,” says Tukufu Zuberi, Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations, professor of sociology, and professor of Africana studies. “Unfortunately, most people have an ahistorical view of major events and they want to remain ignorant of what’s going on around them because it’s easier.”

 Zuberi is the director and producer of African Independence, an award-winning feature length documentary that brings context to the most important events to happen on the African continent since the eras of the slave trade and colonialism, with a focus on 

African independence movements. His companion volume to the film—African Independence: How Africa Shapes the World—was published earlier this year. The book argues that the history of the African independence movement has shaped and will continue to influence world events, including the ongoing wars in Nigeria, Libya, and Syria. “Africa is a wealthy continent,” Zuberi explains. “It is wealthy in natural resources that are essential for a modern
economy.”

 How can such a wealthy continent have so much poverty? Zuberi believes that a history of slavery and “brutal colonialism” is to blame. “In World War II, Africans fought for democracy, and they were inspired by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly,” he says. “Africans launched an independence movement—and there were parallel movements in Asia: India, Korea, and Vietnam.”

The dream of these movements was the formation of democratic societies that provided exactly the rights 

Europe’s colonies had been denied: full participation in society—for example, the right to vote. The reality was far different. According to
Zuberi, these former colonies became the turf for proxy wars between the United States and the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War, a conflict that only ended in the 1990s.

During the Cold War, the leaders of liberation movements in Africa were forced to choose between an alliance with the United State and one with Russia, and this choice sabotaged democracy movements there. Zuberi says that Africa’s national civil rights leaders had “the United States whispering in one ear and the Russians whispering in the other.” He lists Egypt, Libya, Senegal, and Zimbabwe as just some of the African countries that have had to “fight off the thugs” put into positions of leadership with the assistance of a superpower.

Zuberi likens the African independence movements to the civil rights movements of black Americans. “In 1957 Martin Luther King went to Ghana on the eve of its independence and got to speak with the [leader of the independence movement there] Kwame Nkrumah. He was an inspiration to King.”

Zuberi believes that today’s Black Lives Matter movement needs to understand former African independence movements in order to be successful. “What we learned from Nkrumah is that we need to press on in an organized manner to make strides. We need a true organization.”

In addition to his work on books and films, Zuberi also served as a host on the popular PBS television series “History Detectives,” which was on the air for 12 seasons. On the program, he used his historical and political acumen to unravel history’s mysteries—the same talents that make him effective in the classroom.

“My job is to educate students to think critically,” he says. “I teach them to pay attention to what a person is saying rather than who is saying it. I love watching my students become open to a new understanding.”