White Aethiopians
White Aethiopians (Λευκαιθίοπες ; Leucæthiopes) is a term found in ancient Greco-Roman literature, which may have referred to various light-complexioned populations inhabiting the
. These authorities do not, however, agree on the geographical location of the White Aethiopians.Medieval geographers, including Ibn Hawqal and Leo Africanus, similarly noted the existence of various "white" or "olive" groups and individuals in territories and kingdoms south of the Sahara. However, the fate of these inhabitants is uncertain.
Classical origins
Pliny the Elder wrote in section 5.8 of his Natural History that:[2]
If we pass through the interior of Africa in a southerly direction, beyond the Gætuli, after having traversed the intervening deserts, we shall find, first of all the Liby-Egyptians, and then the country where the Leucæthiopians dwell.[2]
Oric Bates notes that Ptolemy wrote of the White Aethiopians and the Melanogaetulians, and compares this to the mention by Orosius of the Libyoaethopians. Bates places the White Aethiopians in Morocco and the Melanogaetulians just to the east of them, claiming Ptolemy's authority for this, and arguing that "These descriptives are good evidence of the ancient opposition of whites and blacks in the Sahara, and of their fusion."[3] Bates further compares these claims with what he argues is the "marked xanthochroid element of foreign (Nordic) origin" in Morocco, i.e. a mixing of light-skinned people from Northern Europe.[3]
Pomponius Mela wrote, in Frank E. Romer's translation, that "On those shores washed by the Libyan Sea, however, are found the Libyan Aegyptians, the White Aethiopians, and, a populous and numerous nation, the Gaetuli. Then a region, uninhabitable in its entire length, covers a broad and vacant expanse."[4]
Both Herodotus[5] and Strabo[6] "speak of two Ethiopias, one eastern, the other western". Strabo also said that the ancient Greeks "designated as Ethiopia the whole of the southern countries towards the ocean", not just a region near Egypt. Ephorus asserted that the White Ethiopians came from the Far East. Philostratus claimed that "The Indians are the wisest of mankind. The Ethiopians are a colony of them".[7]
Medieval geography
According to Richard Smith, Ibn Hawqal, a 10th-century traveller from Baghdad, divides the Berber clans into "the pure Sanhaja and the Banu Tanamak", the latter being "originally Sudan (i.e. black) whose skin and complexion became white because they live close to the North". Smith reports Ibn Hawqal as listing 22 named kinds of Banu Tanamak, but without saying whether they were "political, cultural, geographic, social, or linguistic in nature".[9] Smith suggests that the most likely scenario is that these ancient Ethiopian tribes, as represented today by the Haratin, were absorbed into Berber communities. Thus, he posits that Ibn Hawqal's "strange report of the Banu Tanamak", who changed from black to white, may have echoed "a real event, the absorption of tribes".[10] Robert Brown likewise argues that "the "white" Berbers referred to may be only survivals of the original stock now reduced to duskiness by the infusion of Arab and Sudanic blood".[11]
The 16th century explorer
Modern interpretations
Speaking of the difference between modern thought and ancient times, Richard Smith warns that even apparently well-defined categories "like '
Richard Smith, writing in 2003, reports that "historians often assume" that both Leukaethiopes and Melanogaetulians "were of mixed race", or perhaps of some combination of race and culture. On this supposition, he suggests that the Leukaethiopes "were whites who lived in an Ethiopian-style culture", where the "Ethiopians" in question would have been the ancestors of the modern Haratin. Smith concludes that the only safe conclusion is that "the ethnic map was very complex and thus very confusing", even to Ptolemy.[10] According to Smith, the next assumption, is that there was "some kind of awful ancient race war" in which white tribes like the Leukaethiopes "expelled or exterminated" the black tribes, but he argues that there is no evidence for this.[19]
Haegap Jeoung, writing in 2003 of the attitude of Homer and the ancient Greeks, suggests that "the Ethiopians take their place as the other of the [ancient] Greeks, regardless of their skin color. Remarkably, there are white Ethiopians. Not because the Ethiopians are black, but because they are the other, they become a matter of a discourse."[20]
See also
- Aethiopian Sea
- Andromeda (mythology)
- Curse of Ham
- Sigelwara Land
- Skin whitening
- Washing the Ethiopian White
References
- ^ a b c d Morel (1968), p. 141–142
- ^ a b Pliny the Elder 1855, pp. 403–404.
- ^ a b Bates (1914), p. 44
- ^ Romer 1998, p. 40.
- ^ Herodotus. History VIII:70.
- ^ Strabo. Geography XV:21.
- ^ Philostratus Vit. Apol. II:33f.
- ^ a b Africanus (1526), p. 52–53
- ^ Smith (2003), p. 474
- ^ a b Smith (2003), p. 476
- ^ Africanus 1526, p. 203.
- ^ Africanus 1526, p. 20, 184.
- ^ Africanus 1526, p. 53, 68.
- ^ Africanus 1526, p. 88.
- ^ Africanus 1526, p. 55, 57.
- ^ Africanus 1526, p. 91.
- ^ a b Vivien de Saint-Martin (1863), p. 158
- ^ a b Smith (2003), p. 475
- ^ Smith (2003), p. 477
- ^ Jeoung 2003, p. 12.
Sources
- Africanus, Leo (1526). The History and Description of Africa. Hakluyt Society.
- Bates, Oric (1914). The Eastern Libyans. London: Macmillan.
- Taylor and Francis.
- Jeoung, Haegap (2003). An Africanist-Orientalist Discourse: The Other in Shakespeare and Hellenistic Tragedy (PhD). Louisiana State University., etd-0828103-180739.
- ISBN 978-0-7146-1702-2.
- Romer, Frank E. (1998). Pomponius Mela's Description of the World. Ann Arbor: ISBN 0-472-10773-9.
- Smith, Richard (December 2003). "What happened to the ancient Libyans? Chasing Sources across the Sahara from Herodotus to Ibn Khaldun". S2CID 143724552.
- Vivien de Saint-Martin, Louis (1863). Le Nord de l'Afrique dans l'antiquité grecque et romaine: étude historique [North Africa in Greek and Roman antiquity: historical study] (in French). Imprimerie Impériale.
Further reading
- Archibald, R. G. and Newbold, D. "The White Nuba of Jebel Haraza, and White Races of North Africa". Sudan Notes and Records. Vol. 7, No. 2 (December 1924), pp. 29-47.
- Dunton, Chris. Review of The First Ethiopians: The Image of Africa and Africans in the Early Mediterranean World by Malvern van Wyk Smith. Research in African Literatures. Vol 42, No 1, Spring 2011, pages 172–174.
- Smith, Malvern van Wyk. The First Ethiopians: The Image of Africa and Africans in the Early Mediterranean World. Johannesburg: Wits UP, 2009. ISBN 978-1-86814-499-0