Abstract
Ali Mazrui's “The Semitic Impact on Black Africa: Arab and Jewish Cultural Influences” is interesting reading. That is perhaps the only kind thing one can say about it. As sheer academic exercise, it is its own justification. However, its purpose is much more obscure, its pontifical pronouncements shaky, and its historical allusions as accurate as often as not. The theme of Africa as a “cultural bazaar” where “a wide variety of ideas and values, drawn from different civilizations compete for the attention of African buyers” has been labored to a nauseating degree. Its hidden premise is the existence of an African cultural vacuum, or near-vacuum, destined to be filled by “universalistic” civilizations such as Greco-Roman (Christian, European, Western, etc.) or Judaeo-Arabic (Semitic, Hebraic, Arabic, etc.), although Judaism has not historically exhibited a proselytizing strain, and insularity, on the contrary, appeared to characterize it.
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