From Carter G. Woodson to Marcus Garvey, from the 1950s when Paul Robeson and W. E. B. DuBois and the Council on African Affairs fought to end colonialism in Africa, to the present Summit on Africa, Africanists and others interested in a positive image for Africa have strived to correct the Western image of Africa. While most of that negative image was portrayed by Hollywood and the white-controlled media, the most recent attack on Africa�s image is more devastating as it comes from "one of Africa�s own."

In the six-part series "Wonders of the African World," which aired on PBS, Dr. Gates repeatedly accused his African hosts of selling his ancestors into slavery but never once pointed out the role of Europeans and others, particularly in the Atlantic slave trade. In his final remarks, Dr. Gates blamed Africa�s current "mess" on "the curse of slavery." While some African ethnic groups did participate actively in the slave trade, such a blanket statement denies the facts of other African groups who never participated in any shape or form.

Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., in the words of Dr. Gwendolyn Brooks (not the poet) of Georgetown University, has "betrayed" the initiatives that have been built on the images and positions on Africa through the summit on Africa. Dr. Brooks, speaking at the recently concluded 42nd annual meeting of the African Studies Association in Philadelphia, said she thought the Gates series was going to be a re-enforcement of the African positive image. Dr. Brooks said she is "offended" by Dr. Gates� position as a scholar because of his claims that slavery is only blamed on "African greed."

Speaking in the same vein, Dr. Molefi K. Asante of Temple University, said the Gates series has put African and African American activists "fifty years back," adding, "if a white man had done what Gates did, we would have been enraged." Dr. Asante said the series has freed "the initiator of European slavery and the notion of Africans as chattel."

Dr. Jane MacDougal of Howard University condemned Dr. Gates� pretense to speak for Black Americans when he spoke of African sales of Blacks into slavery: "His refusal to mention Europe even once in this trade gets them off the hook." She called for an open letter to be sent to PBS and the BBC by the board of the African Studies Association.

In reviewing Dr. Gates� position on slavery, African historians recognized that failure of African countries, particularly scholars, to speak of Africa�s role gave Mr. Gates the point he raised. One of the elder statemen of African historiography, Professor Ade Ajayi of the University of Ibadan, called on African scholars to accept the challenge and to seriously study the impact of slavery on the continent.

Since 1991, African countries, led by the late Moshood Abiola of Nigeria, have campaigned for reparations for Africa and Africans in the diaspora for centuries of colonialism and slavery. The recent payment of more than $3.1 billion by German-based Volkswagen to Jews who were forced to work for the company during World War II has intensified this campaign. The Gates series, for not mentioning any European or Jewish role throughout the series, is, therefore, considered by many as aimed at taking the wind out of the reparations movement. The interest of the Annenberg Foundation, which sponsored Mr. Gates� series, is believed to be tied to such interest.

For Prof. Ali Mazrui and Sir Dudley Thompson of Jamaica, both members of the Group of Eminent Persons on Reparations for the Organization of African Unity, "Skip Gates� television series virtually tells the world that the West has no case to answer. Africans sold each other." This blanket indictment of an entire continent, in Prof. Mazrui�s view, is the birth of "Black Orientalism."