Antenor Firmin: Haitian Scholar and Anthropologist who predicted Barack Obama's Presidency over a century ago
Posted on 13. Jan, 2010 by Leshell Hatley in Anthropology, High School, Scholarly Celebrations
Anténor Firmin (1850-1911) was born and educated in Haiti. He studied law and held several political offices before being posted as a diplomat to Paris, where he was admitted to the Societé d’Anthropologie de Paris and wrote De L’Égalité des Races Humaines. He was a Haitian anthropologist, journalist, and politician. Firmin is best known for his book De l’Égalité des Races Humaines (English: On the Equality of Human Races), which was published as a rebuttal to French writer Count Arthur de Gobineau’s work Essai sur l’inegalite des Races Humaines (English: Essay on the Inequality of Human Races). Gobineau’s book asserted the superiority of the Aryan race and the inferiority of blacks and other people of color.
Firmin’s work argued the opposite, that “all men are endowed with the same qualities and the same faults, without distinction of color or anatomical form. The races are equal” (pp. 450).
It is a substantial work of early anthropology that presaged in the 19th century most of what became accepted anthropological science about race in the 20th century. It is also an early work of Pan-Africanism that highlighted the civilizational achievements of African cultures, from ancient Egypt and the Nile Valley countries of Sudan and Ethiopia, to the first ‘Black’ Republic of Haiti, as evidence of the fundamental equality of African peoples.
One hundred and fourteen years later, this is the first appearance in English of Firmin’s trailblazing work in Anthropology and Pan-Africanist thought.
Born in Cap-Haïtien, Firmin worked in teaching, politics, and diplomacy. He founded Le Messager du Nord, a political and literary publication.
He later returned to Haiti and served as minister of finance, commerce, and foreign relations.
Known as the Haitian Scholar who predicted Obama’s Presidency over a century ago, Antenor Firmin is believed to be the first anthropologist of African descent.
Antenor Firmin wrote about the day when Barack Obama would become president of the United States in a book he published in Paris back in 1885 De l’Égalité des Races Humaines (English: On the Equality of Human Races).
Here is what Antenor Firmin said in the chapter “The Role of the Black Race in the History of Civilization”
Appearances to the contrary, this big country is destined to strike the first blow against the theory of the inequality of the human races.
Indeed, at this very moment, Blacks in the great federal republic have begun to play a prominent role in the politics of the various states of the American union.
It seems quite possible that, in less than a century from now, a Black man might be called to head the government of Washington and manage the affairs of the most progressive country on earth, a country which will inevitably become, thanks to its agricultural and industrial production, the richest and most powerful in the world.
These are not utopian musings. We only have to consider the increasing participation of Blacks in American society to cast aside our skepticism.
Besides, we must remember that slavery in the United States was abolished only twenty years ago.
Although not much is printed in english about Antenor Firmin, we found a bit more information about him thanks to a gentleman by the name of Bob Corbett.
- Firmin, Joseph-Antenor. Journalist, author, lawyer, cabinet minister, rebel and a Haitian exile in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. In 1905, he published a book, M. Roosevelt, president des Etats-Unis, et la Republique d’Haiti. The theme of the book is that Haitian had nothing to fear from the United States unless the Republic fell into anarchy, in which case intervention might be welcome. Haiti could escape that experience through reform, he said.
- Firmin had formerly been Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Hyppolite and successfully fought off U.S. efforts to acquire a naval base at Mole-St. Nocholas.
- Firmin believed that the executive power should be the servant, not the master of the state, that class divisions should be eliminated, and that the rural masses of Haiti should be brought into Haitian society.
Read here for more from Bob Corbett’s notes.
Selected Works:
- De l’Égalité des Races Humaines – published 1885
- Haïti et la France – published 1891
- Une Défense – published 1892
- Diplomate et Diplomatie – published 1898
- M. Roosevelt, Président des Etats-Unis et la République d’Haïti – published 1905
- Lettres de Saint-Thomas – published 1910
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