W.E.B. Du Bois and the Repatriation to Africa
Throughout history the United States has struggled with its history of slavery and racial oppression of marginalized communities. Within this year the Trump administration has revoked all executive orders revolving around diversity, equity and inclusion. The tension between the current administration and American citizens alludes to the same tension between both parties during the Reconstruction Era in 1865. The U.S. government gave slaveowners large amounts of money while on the other hand giving Black Americans money but only they agreed to leave the country. While understanding the long debate if Black people should return to Africa or stay in America, there’s a gray area about truly belonging dignity which remained unresolved over 150 years after emancipation.
The discussion surrounding the mistreatment of Black Americans in the United States after the abolishment of slavery continues up until this very day. After the ending of the Civil War in 1861 and abolishment of slavery in 1865, Black people still were facing discrimination from white Americans, the government, the press and society as a whole. This is important because Black people were never seen as equal in comparison to white people in white America. The question if Black Americans should return back to Africa and reclaim their identity or stay and reclaim what they’ve built for years underneath enslavement. As the United States was rebranding itself with the integration of Confederate and Union states as well as formerly enslaved Black people there was no clear decision on where Black people would be treated on the societal scale. While the abolishment of slavery was the first step of unity, violence and discrimination against Black people erupted and continued to define the Black experience in America up until today.
Looking back in history, there's been a variety of viewpoints regarding whether Black people should return to Africa, one side believed that Black people should return to Africa and others believed that Black people should stay in the United States. What made the discussion super complex is how there’s communities within the Black community that would be excluded from the repatriation conversation, for example, free Black people in the north weren’t continuously included in the conversation. Some leaders like Marcus Garvey and Martin Delany viewed repatriation as a way to reclaim Black identity, while others such as Fredrick Douglass believed that Black people deserved their citizenship due to being unpaid for their hard labor for decades. The core of the conversation was belonging and whether to be free would mean to struggle for equality in America or returning home to their African continent.
The different opinions about whether if Black people should stay or go showed the disconnect within the Black community internally and externally. For some people Africa was seen as a spiritual symbol with pride and empowerment for Africans and African Americans. W.E.B Du Bois had similar stances regarding his views on Africa. Through his leadership and writings along with his work with The Crisis that had association with the NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Du Bois was able to shape the discussion about Africa, its heritage and its identity and the strained relationship between Black Americans and Africa. Du Bois was able to uplift Africa as a place and foundation of pride, unity and culture with a shared struggle of discrimination. What made Du Bois different is how he didn’t treat repatriation only as a physical return but as being reconnected to their African heritage. With multiple conversations around this one question, his views were able to force the audience, Black Americans, to confront systematic oppression and racial inequality.
The repatriation debate started to become more shocking as time went while reviewing how the U.S. government treated Black people during emancipation. According to a Princeton University article written by Tera Hunter titled, When Slaveowners Got Reparations, it states “On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill emancipating enslaved people in Washington, the end of a long struggle. But to ease slaveowners’ pain, the District of Columbia Emancipation Act paid those loyal to the Union up to $300 for every enslaved person freed.” This is important because this emancipation act gave more profit to the actual slaveowners instead of the slaves that were dehumanized for centuries, only giving free Black people $100 but only if they agreed to leave and go to Liberia or Haiti. It was stated that there were over 1,000 slaveholders that petitioned to get more profit for over 3,000 enslaved people. Du Bois used examples such as the Emancipation Act to showcase to the audience how the government never believed or tried to fight for equality for Black Americans. However, Du Bois believed how Black people were embracing their African heritage and spirituality to Africa while fighting for their rightful place and citizenship in America’s society alongside white people.
This economic injustice that the U.S. government has done to Black Americans countless times by a system that purposely oppresses people through heavy amounts of violence. With the violence and propaganda spreading about Black people nationwide, a crucial question that started to arise, can Black people ever truly be safe in America? In Ida B. Wells publication, Southern Horrors Lynch Law In All Its Phases, exposes how Black people, specifically Black men, were treated down south. In the section “The Malicious and Untruthful White Press,” shows how the press played a role in the lynching of Black men and women. Wells does name white news publications up north that produced stories encouraging the harm of Black people. Wells stated “In its issue of June 4, the Memphis Evening Scimitar gives the following excuse for lynch law: Aside from the violation of white women by Negroes, which is the outcropping of a bestial perversion of instinct, the chief cause of trouble between the races in the South is the Negro's lack of manners. In the state of slavery he learned politeness from association with white people, who took pains to teach him. Since the emancipation came and the tie of mutual interest and regard between master and servant was broken, the Negro has drifted away into a state which is neither freedom nor bondage.”
The relationships between the U.S. government, business men and press have formed racial ideologies against Black Americans to keep the separation and power dynamic between white and Black people. Black people were never going to feel safe in America due to the hatred white people had for Black people, their lives, homes, families and resources were at risk of being killed or destroyed.
Du Bois recognized the Black struggle in obtaining freedom not only in America but it extended back to the original roots in the homeland of Africa. His philosophy surrounding Pan-Africanism connected to the experience of not only Black people in America but also the global struggles people and countries faced with colonialism, racial capitalism and imperialism. With his analysis of World War One, Du Bois was able to realize the exploitation of Black Americans due to their forced labor. According to the Bill V. Mullen essay “W. E. B. Du Bois Was the Father of Pan-African Socialism,” Du Bois wrote how Black workers the “vast sea of human labor in China and India, the South Seas and all Africa . . . the great majority of mankind, on whose bent and broken backs today rest the founding stones of modern industry.” His Pan-African socialist viewpoints added to the repatriation debate by introducing global solidarity and systemic change.
The harsh reality of being Black living in America after World War One intensified the discussion of truly belonging. In his 1919 writing “Returning Soldiers,” he wrote about his disappointment in the treatment that Black veterans were receiving after returning home from the war and were being treated horribly and inhumanely by the same country they were risking their lives for. The America that Du Bois describes is one that lynches, disfranchise its own citizens and encourages ignorance by its “organized a nation-wide and latterly a world-wide propaganda of deliberate and continuous insult and defamation of black blood wherever found.” Du Bois believed that the soldiers returning home shouldn’t accept the mistreatment they’ve been receiving. This editorial revealed no matter what Black people do with or for America, they would always be given thanks by disrespect and violence. They had proven their loyalty to their country through serving in the military, but still the nation views them as less than.
The debate about if Black people should go back to Africa or stay in the United States wasn’t only about geography but about dignity, belonging and freedom in a country that oppresses an entire race of people. While influential leaders like Marcus Garvey viewed returning back to Africa as reclaiming their identities and self determination and others such as Fredrick Douglass believed that Black people earned their citizenship through centuries of unpaid labor and should stay and claim their work. Du Bois presented a different approach, he believed that Black Americans should stay in America but also maintain a cultural relationship to Africa and continue to fight for systematic change in America. Using his Pan-African socialism helped Du Bois recognize how racial capitalism isn’t only an American government issue but a global systematic issue with the only tactic to destroy that system is by the mass collaboration between all oppressed people. His work reminds us that fighting for Black freedom will continue to be a struggle within America and globally, requiring Black people to not only fight against individual disadvantages but the entire system that continues to shape our world today.
Resources:
Hunter, T. (2019, April 17). When Slaveowners Got Reparations. Department of African American Studies. https://aas.princeton.edu/news/when-slaveowners-got-reparations
Wells, I. B. (2005, February 8). The Project Gutenberg eBook of Southern Horrors: Lynch Law In All Its Phases, by Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Www.gutenberg.org. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14975/14975-h/14975-h.htm
W. E. B. Du Bois Was the Father of Pan-African Socialism. (2022). Jacobin.com. https://jacobin.com/2022/05/w-e-b-du-bois-father-pan-african-socialism-black-reconstruction-history?utm
BlackPast, & BlackPast. (2019, April 7). (1919) W.E.B. Du Bois, “Returning Soldiers,” Editorial from The Crisis. BlackPast.org. https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/w-e-b-dubois-returning-soldiers-editorial-from-the-crisis-may-1919/
