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I have been following James Watson’s cultic claim that Africans are intellectually inferior. But I have not seen any critical commentary minted by Africanists as a response to Watson. Indeed, I have to ask here: where are the responses of Africanists? Those of us engaged in the production of knowledge regarding Africa-area studies and as a result have better perspectives on vicissitudes that shape the continent need to speak to African causes in the public domain. Unless, we endorse Watson’s benighted standpoint, I believe that various African studies associations and individual scholars with clouts should issue statements, etc. to debunk Watson’s claim. African studies associations should not only deal with conferences, etc. that happily parade research on Africans, but should also publicly address such controversial issues that stigmatize peoples of African descent worldwide. Paradoxically, representatives of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and the Federation of American Scientists, for instance, have discredited Watson’s incendiary idea of African intellectual inferiority. Marginalized and voiceless Africans are still waiting to hear from Africanists and their associations! Kwabena Akurang-Parry. Kwabena Akurang-Parry, Ph. D. (Assoc Prof of African History & World History) Dept of History Shippensburg University Shippensburg, PA, 17257, USA
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