ABSTRACT
There is a long tradition of historical writing that handles the past within a grand narrative framework. To reconstruct the past is to tell a story. And all stories have a beginning. So in this tradition there has been a constant concern to identify points of origin, to dig down to the roots of the issue or phenomenon under investigation. This concern has been very apparent among scholars striving to explain the history of racism in the European and colonial world. When and where did race prejudice and racist practice begin? Can its origin be traced back to the time of the earliest contacts between black and white? Did racism become evident only in the context of European colonial expansion and exploitation? Were pre-existing racist attitudes transported to the colonies by the colonisers? Or did racism first evolve in colonies among white settlers who came to believe in their own natural superiority following contact with indigenous communities? Should racism be viewed as a premodern phenomenon with deep roots in European culture? Or, in the way that many scholars now interpret nationalism and ethnicity, should it be explained as a product of modernity, as embedded in the history of scientific and economic 'progress' during the last two centuries?
