The World and Africa: And, Color and Democracy

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois

Oxford University Press, 2007 - History - 343 pages

W. E. B. Du Bois was a public intellectual, sociologist, and activist on behalf of the African American community. He profoundly shaped black political culture in the United States through his founding role in the NAACP, as well as internationally through the Pan-African movement. Du Bois's sociological and historical research on African-American communities and culture broke ground in many areas, including the history of the post-Civil War Reconstruction period. Du Bois was also a prolific author of novels, autobiographical accounts, innumerable editorials and journalistic pieces, and several works of history.

Collected in one volume for the first time, The World and Africa and Color and Democracy are two of W E. B. Du Bois's most powerful essays on race. He explores how to tell the story of those left out of recorded history, the evils of colonialism worldwide, and Africa's and African's contributions to, and neglect from, world history. More than six decades after W. E. B. Du Bois wrote The World and Africa and Color and Democracy, they remain worthy guides for the twenty-first century. With a series introduction by editor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and two introductions by top African scholars, this edition is essential for anyone interested in world history.

Contents

• CHAPTER I The Collapse of Europe: 1
• CHAPTER II The White Masters of the World: 11
• CHAPTER III The Rape of Africa: 28
• CHAPTER IV The Peopling of Africa: 52
• CHAPTER V Egypt: 63
• CHAPTER VI The Land of the Burnt Faces: 74
• CHAPTER VII Atlantis: 95
• CHAPTER VIII Central Africa and the March of the Bantu: 105
• CHAPTER IX Asia in Africa: 113
• CHAPTER X The Black Sudan: 128
• CHAPTER XI Andromeda: 143
• The Message: 165
• Writings on Africa 19551961: 166
• The Giant Stirs: 168
• Ghana and PanAfricanism: 186
• The Future of Africa: 195
• China and Africa: 199
• The Belgian Congo: 203
• Nigeria: 209
• American Negroes and Africas Rise to Freedom: 215
• Index: 219
• Colonies and Peace COLOR AND DEMOCRACY: 233
• Contents: 235
• Introduction: 237
• Preface: 241
• COLOR AND DEMOCRACY: 243
• CHAPTER I Dumbarton Oaks: 245
• CHAPTER II The Disfranchised Colonies: 253
• CHAPTER III The Unfree Peoples: 278
• CHAPTER IV Democracy and Color: 287
• CHAPTER V Peace and Colonies: 303
• CHAPTER VI The Riddle of Russia: 312
• CHAPTER VII Missions and Mandates: 318
• A Chronology: 331
• Selected Bibliography: 339

About the author

Civil rights leader and author, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts on February 23, 1868. He earned a B.A. from both Harvard and Fisk universities, an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard, and studied at the University of Berlin. He taught briefly at Wilberforce University before he came professor of history and economics at Atlanta University in Ohio (1896-1910). There, he wrote The Souls of Black Folk (1903), in which he pointed out that it was up to whites and blacks jointly to solve the problems created by the denial of civil rights to blacks. In 1905, Du Bois became a major figure in the Niagara Movement, a crusading effort to end discrimination. The organization collapsed, but it prepared the way for the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in which Du Bois played a major role. In 1910, he became editor of the NAACP magazine, a position he held for more than 20 years. Du Bois returned to Atlanta University in 1932 and tried to implement a plan to make the Negro Land Grant Colleges centers of black power. Atlanta approved of his idea, but later retracted its support. When Du Bois tried to return to NAACP, it rejected him too. Active in several Pan-African Congresses, Du Bois came to know Fwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, and Jono Kenyatta the president of Kenya. In 1961, the same year Du Bois joined the Communist party, Nkrumah invited him to Ghana as a director of an Encyclopedia Africana project. He died there on August 27, 1963, after becoming a citizen of that country.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The World and Africa: And, Color and Democracy; The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois; Works, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois
• Author: William Edward Burghardt Du Bois
• Editor: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2007
• ISBN: 0199386749, 9780199386741
• Length: 343 pages
• Subjects: History / Africa / General; History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies); History / United States / 19th Century; Social Science / Black Studies (Global); Social Science / Slavery