Summaries
“Of Our Spiritual Strivings”
“Of Our Spiritual Strivings” by DuBois is about the Negro race and the treatment they get from the Whites who see them as a “problem” to society. Du Bois asks the question, “How does it feel to be a problem?” and had not thought of this until a girl from his school refused to take a visiting card from him. He asserts that Negroes are free men but still locked up in the prisons of other races. The concept of “veil” in the article depicts a color-line, which is a separation between Whites and Blacks. The article tells the essence of freedom whereby people can do what they wish without control and restraint.
“Ibn Battuta’s Travels in Asia and Africa”
The article vividly explains Ibn Battuta’s description of his travels to a pilgrimage to Mecca as all dedicated Muslims do. He explains in details the hospitality that he received from the people of Mali, including the king, Mansa Sulyman. Ibn Battuta attends the court ceremonial of the king of Mali. The traveler also describes the piety, whereby he mentions their zeal for learning the Quran by heart. Upon visiting qadi and finding the children chained up for the purpose of forceful mastery of the Quran, “will you not let them loose?”,and qadi replies that he will when they learn the Quran by heart. The article is like a traveling journal of an Islam fanatic.
“Why Africana History?”
John Henrik’s article is about Africa and its people. He claims that African people are the most written about but least understood over other people. He starts by citing a timeline of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when the slave trade began. The word Africa is derived from “afri”, which was the name given to conquered territories by the Romans. The article enhances the understanding of how Africa came to be. The author asserts that the Africa was made from the conflict between Islam and European Christianity. Before all these, it had its history and civilization specific to its lands and people.