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Ottoman travelers' perceptions of Africa in the Late Ottoman Empire (1860-1922): A discussion of civilization, colonialism and race

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2015

Mustafa Serdar Palabıyık
Mustafa Serdar Palabıyık*
Affiliation:
TOBB Economy and Technology University, Department of International Relations, Söğütözü Caddesi No: 43,06560, Söğütözü, Ankara, [email protected]
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Abstract

The Ottoman encounter with European colonialism over their African territories during the nineteenth century contributed to a renewed interest in Africa and its inhabitants. This resulted in several official and non-official travels to this continent at the end of which the travelers published their memoirs. This article intends to analyze Ottoman perceptions of Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century by drawing upon Ottoman travelogues. It concludes that the travelers established paradoxical accounts regarding the implications of European colonialism for Africa and the ethnic taxonomy of the African people. They perceived European colonialism as a civilizing mechanism on the one hand, and treated it as the most significant reason of African “backwardness” on the other. Similarly, while they criticized the European colonial discourse based on the superiority of the white race over others, they established similar ethnic taxonomies establishing hierarchies among African tribes.

Keywords

TravelOrientalismOttoman EmpireAfricacolonialism
Type
Articles
Information
New Perspectives on Turkey , Volume 46 , Spring 2012 , pp. 187 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © New Perspectives on Turkey 2012

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