Edward Wilmot Blyden

Edward Wilmot Blyden in his famous book, Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race, posed the following salient question to Blacks everywhere: “Is what we want to achieve simply and uncritical imitation of what the white man has created?” (1994: 91–92). Coincidentally, in my book titled Toyin Falola and African Epistemologies (2015), I mention that “Although the back to Africa movement gave way to what we now know as Pan-African ideologies, it was Edward Wilmot Blyden who would emerge as the first to actually articulate the ideas and concepts of Pan-Africanism” (Bangura, Toyin Falola and African Epistemlogies. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015a: 208). I note that “with this emphasis on Africanness, Blyden discussed the Muslim faith as a way for Blacks to reconnect with their African roots in his 15 published articles and essays” (Bangura 2015a: 208). I also point out that for working in Africa Blyden is seen as a father of Pan-Africanism. I add that he “wrote about the potential for African nationalism and self-government during the growing European colonialism” and “inspired a new generation of Pan-Africanists at the turn of the 20th Century” (Bangura 2015a: 209). In this chapter, the tenets of Blyden’s conceptualization of Africa are teased out of his works, augmented by the works of other scholars who have examined them, and shown how they can be utilized to help build a new Africa. A careful reading of the works by and on Blyden makes it possible to delineate at least three categories of tenets in terms of his conceptualization of Africa: (1) African Personality, (2) Africa for Africans, and (3) Islam and Africans. Before delving into his teachings on these features, I first provide brief, albeit general, descriptions of them for the reader who may not be familiar with them.