Why Was Africa Called the Dark Continent?为何非洲曾被称为黑大陆？

The most common answer to the question， “Why was Africa called the Dark Continent？” is that Europe did not know much about Africa until the 19th century. But that answer is misleading and disingenuous. Europeans had known quite a lot about Africa for at least 2，000 years， but European leaders began purposefully ignoring earlier sources of information to justify colonialism and anti-Blackness.

对于“为何非洲曾被称为黑大陆？”这个问题，最老生常谈的答案就是欧洲直到19世纪才对非洲有所了解。但这样的回答是别有用心、颠倒黑白的。因为欧洲至少在两千年前就对非洲知之甚详，而欧洲的领导人却开始佯装不知，忽略早期信源，目的是为殖民主义和仇视黑人制造正当理由。

At the same time， the campaign against enslavement and for paternalistic missionary work in Africa intensified Europeans’ racial ideas about African people in the 1800s. White people called Africa the Dark Continent because they wanted to legitimize the enslavement of Black people and exploitation of Africa’s resources.

同时在19世纪，反对奴役非洲与支持阿在非洲强行传教的运动并辔而行，加剧了欧洲人对非洲人的种族偏见。白人称非洲为黑大陆，不过是为了合法地奴役黑人、盘剥非洲资源。

Exploration： Creating blank spaces

探险：制造未知区域

It is true that up until the 19th century， Europeans had little direct knowledge of Africa beyond the coast， but their maps were already filled with details about the continent. Initially， Europeans drew on the maps and reports created by earlier traders and explorers like the famed Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta， who traveled across the Sahara and along the North and East coasts of Africa in the 1300s.

19世纪以前，欧洲人对非洲除沿海地区以外的情况的确缺乏直接了解，不过他们的地图却已详尽地勾勒出非洲大陆。欧洲人起初通过早期商人和探险家创作的地图、游记来了解非洲，其中包括大名鼎鼎的摩洛哥旅行家伊本·白图泰，他于14世纪穿越撒哈拉沙漠，沿着非洲的北部和东部海岸旅行。

During the Enlightenment， however， Europeans developed new standards and tools for mapping， and since they weren’t sure precisely where the lakes， mountains， and cities of Africa were， they began erasing them from popular maps. Many scholarly maps still had more details， but due to the new standards， the European explorers—Burton， Livingstone， Speke， and Stanley—who went to Africa were credited with （newly） discovering the mountains， rivers， and kingdoms to which African people guided them.

然而在启蒙运动中，欧洲人发明了新的工具和标准来绘制地图。因为对非洲的城市、山脉与湖泊位置缺乏准确的认识，他们于是着手将相关信息从当时通用的地图上抹去。很多学术地图仍然标注详细，但是因为新绘图标准的施行，伯顿、利文斯通、斯佩克和斯坦利这些以非洲人为向导的欧洲探险家，还是被认为（新）发现了非洲的王国、山脉和河流。

The maps these explorers created did add to what was known， but they also helped create the myth of the Dark Continent. The phrase itself was actually popularized by the British explorer Henry M. Stanley， who with an eye to boosting sales titled one of his accounts “Through the Dark Continent，” and another， “In Darkest Africa.” However， Stanley himself recalled that before he left on his mission， he had read over 130 books on Africa.

诚然，这些探险家制作的地图增进了对非洲的了解，但同时也助生了“黑大陆”的错误说辞。这个说法本身其实就是英国探险家亨利·M. 斯坦利传播开来的，他为了自己的游记能畅销，便以此为作品命名，一本名为《穿过黑大陆》，另一本名为《在最黑的非洲》。然而，据斯坦利自己回忆，他在启程探险前就已经阅读了130多本关于非洲的书籍。

Imperialism and duality

帝国主义与二元对立

Imperialism was global in the hearts of western businessmen in the 19th century， but there were subtle differences between the imperialist demand for African resources compared to other parts of the world. That did not make it any less brutal.

19世纪，西方商人全心认同帝国主义是波及全球的，但是与世界其他地方相比，帝国主义者对非洲资源的需求有着细微差别。但这并未让其残忍性有丝毫逊色。

Most empire-building begins with the recognition of trading and commercial benefits that could be accrued. In Africa’s case， the continent as a whole was being annexed to fulfill three purposes： the spirit of adventure （and the entitlement white Europeans felt towards Africa and its people and resources they could then claim and exploit）， the patronizing desire to “civilize the natives” （resulting in deliberate erasure of African history， achievements， and culture） and the hope of stamping out the trade of enslaved people. Writers such as H. Ryder Haggard， Joseph Conrad， and Rudyard Kipling fed into the romanticized and racist depiction of a place that required saving by strong （and white） men of adventure.

多数帝国的建立以确认可增值的贸易与商业利益为始。对非洲而言，整块大陆的侵占是为了满足3个目标：冒险精神（欧洲白人觉得他们对非洲及其人民和资源享有权利，对此可以主张并予以利用），屈尊“教化原住民”的欲望（其结果是刻意抹去非洲的历史、成就和文化），和希望废除奴隶贸易。H. 赖德·哈格德、约瑟夫·康拉德和拉迪亚德·吉卜林等作家凭空臆想，以种族主义的笔触将非洲描绘为一方需要强壮的（白人）冒险家来拯救的土地。

An explicit duality was set up for these conquests： dark versus light and Africa versus West. Europeans decided the African climate invited mental prostration and physical disability. They imagined forests as implacable and filled with beasts; where crocodiles lay in wait， floating in sinister silence in the great rivers. Europeans believed danger， disease， and death were part of the uncharted reality and the exotic fantasy created in the minds of armchair explorers1. The idea of a hostile Nature and a disease-ridden environment as tinged with evil was perpetrated by fictional accounts by Joseph Conrad and W. Somerset Maugham.

这些征服体现出鲜明的二元对立：黑暗与光明，非洲与西方。欧洲人认定，非洲的气候环境导致了人的精神脆弱和身体缺陷。在他们的臆想中，非洲的丛林深不可测、野兽四伏，非洲的大河寂静凶险、鳄鱼出没。欧洲人认为这片未知的真实世界包藏着危险、疾病和死亡，也相信空谈冒险的作家笔下的异域幻想。约瑟夫·康拉德和W. 萨默塞特·毛姆妄加揣测，虚构出穷山恶水、疾病肆虐、又透着一丝妖邪的非洲印象。

18th-century Black activists and missionaries

18世纪的黑人活动家与传教士

By the late 1700s， British 18th-century Black abolitionists were campaigning hard against the practice of enslavement in England. They published pamphlets describing the horrid brutality and inhumanity of enslavement on plantations.