The Journal of Negro History, Volume 8, 1923Various
History
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 8, 1923
Various
African Americans -- Periodicals
It is plain to the impartial critic that judged by our ethical
standards the peoples commended above would fall far short; but this
is no less true with the earliest civilization of historic times.
Standards not only vary from age to age but from people to people.
In arguing to support the thesis that in Africa the lowliest tribes
had some ethical standard, it is not necessary to prove that these
standards compare favorably or unfavorably with those of modern times.
Such is beside the question and with the testimony of the English
and German archaeologists before us we are safe in saying that the
African tribes had an ethical standard and thus the potentials of a
civilization based upon morality. Neither can it be proved that the
ethical standards of the tribes of Baganda, Mashonaland and Yoruba
are without worth because they differ in so many particulars from our
own. Later we shall attempt to show just why there is such disparity
between their ethics and ours. Furthermore, it is not necessary to
prove that ethical contacts with Europeans affords no basis for the
tribesmen but it is reasonable to suppose that the ethics of the
African tribes had possibilities the same as the earliest nations of
Europe and Asia; and if contacts with Europeans be argued against the
proposition that the Africans evolved an ethical standard, the same
argument may be used to bedim the glory of our own civilization.
We, therefore, contend that whatever possibilities lie with the people
who can evolve an ethical standard surely must lie with the African.
It is true that the happy faculty of coordinating ethics with ideals
has made nations great and civilizations splendid, and that such
faculty evidenced itself in the long-dark continent of Africa. The
principle of evolution is just as operative in the world of ethics
as in the world of physical sciences. Ethics must grow and outgrown
ethics is ethics notwithstanding. The most rabid critic does not deny
to Africa ethical origins, but such authorities as Tillinghast and
Beauvais would deny their practical worth. These men criticize the
standard rather than deny that there are ethical manifestations of
culture. Ellwood in his Sociology and Social Problems contends that
the regulation of sex relations has been the greatest achievement of
man. Granting the truth of this statement, we have evidences that the
African made desperate efforts to regulate sex relations both by a
kind of public opinion and by punishment; for Roscoe says: "It was
looked upon as a great disgrace to a family if a girl was with child
prior to marriage."[10] We are certain that there was "marriage" and
this itself is an indication that an attempt had been made to regulate
the all-important matter of sex. Roscoe further held that "the
marriage vow was binding."[11] Both those writers who commended the
ethics of the Africans and those who belittled their standard, then,
are essentially agreed to the fact of their ethics. Although there
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