ABSTRACT
The narrative of Western exceptionalism spurred counter-narratives by groups spurned by it. For Africans—the most disparaged group—the response was two-pronged. First, African intellectuals developed the concept of Negritude as a distinguishing characteristic of Africans. Among other things, it embodies humanism, communalism, and the notion of extra-sensory basis for knowledge. A concurrent counterpoint is Afrocentricity, the contention that Africa is the origin of ancient Greece’s intellectual culture, which is the basis of Western civilization. This counterpoint has generated spirited counter-arguments, which have spurred further scholarship to bolster Afrocentricity. Like all arguments about historical origins, this has yielded much contestation—and ruffled feathers—but without resolution. It might never have arisen had world history not taken a culturally chauvinistic turn by the 19th century.
