"The annoying question keeps coming up: "Why
do you do African intellectual history? Is there an African Intellectual
history? You Africans are just copycats, Can’t you stand on your own
intellectual tradition?” I looked at her, at first with indignation … but then
on a second thought I asked, "Oh thanks! Could you remind me your area of
specialization?”
I enjoyed your lecture (I didn’t enjoy it)? " She
responded with benign indifference but with a touch of arrogance that she is a
professor of Mayan Literature and Culture! 'Wonderful! I didn’t know any Mayans
until I met you' I responded! She squandered my good 4 minutes, 32 seconds
rambling about Mayan culture and peoples. When she finished I asked her of her
historical experience as a “Mayan” within contemporary North American
intellectual culture!
She retorted that she was not a Mayan but a third
generation Greek-American! My body jerked with revulsion, hatred and anger! 'So
why and when did you become an expert on Mayan civilization?' I asked! Then she
understood where I was going and left without a word! I remembered wondering
why the organizers of the conference let her give the keynote. But now I know.
She is an Ivy League Franchise. She is from Harvard.
