Regain Copyright: My Book On Racism Toward Africa

Sisters and Brothers this campaign is to enable me to raise $3,000 so I can buy back the copyright for my book “Manufacturing Hate—How Africa Was Demonized in Western Media” from my publisher Kendall Hunt Publishing Co.

Here's the text from the company I received on Sept. 26, 2023 informing me about how much I'd have to pay to get back the rights to my book:

Hello,

I wanted to let you know that I spoke with my managers about this to get approval and this was not approved. You can get your rights back by paying for them at a total of $3,000. I know this isn’t exactly what you wanted to hear, but I would love to help you with getting your publication where you want it.

I am sorry you didn’t have the best experience in the past, but I promise I will help you with all the needs to make this publication what it needs to be now. Can we please set up a zoom call to chat about all the things we can do forward?

What days are you available? I hope you are willing to work with me.

Thank you!

Faith Doyle

Author Account Manager

Kendall Hunt Publishing Company

The company for some reason--I think I can guess why-- without even notifying me stopped offering the printed version and is only selling digital. (After I started this campaign the company started selling the physical book again; but they're not promoting the book so I still want to get the rights back so I can get it out there myself).

Prior to that many people had complained that they would wait as long as four to six months after ordering the physical book via Amazon. My own publisher seems reluctant to have the book widely available. Given the subject matter many friends have told me they’re not surprised.

My book details demonization of Africa, Africans, and African descendants over the last three centuries in books and newspaper and magazine articles written by European writers—English and American. The book also uses archival documents—correspondences between reporters and editors—I discovered during my research that shows how some editors at The New York Times even fabricated incidents that never occurred in Africa--"fake news"-- to give stories a “barbaric” African flavor.

The book needs to be widely distributed. Once I regain the copyright I will self-publish it and make it immediately available via Amazon and direct shipments and book readings.

Here’s the link to an interview I did on “I Never Knew TV” about how demonization in Western media have taught Africans and African descendants to hate themselves .

When Kendall Hunt published the book in 2021 here’s what two reviewers said:

KIRKUS Reviews said in part, “A study of how Western reporters and editors have contributed to a distorted and derogatory representation of African people…In this disturbing and compelling account of Western media’s inglorious coverage of Africa, John Jay College adjunct professor and Black Star News publisher Allimadi reveals how ‘Demonization of Africans was the handmaiden of conquest and colonization’ and shows how reporters at distinguished publications manufactured ‘stereotypical racist representations’ of Africans that persist to this day.”

In another review, UNC-Chapel Hill Professor of African and Afro-American Studies Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, wrote in Review of African Political Economy, “Overall, this is an outstanding work of scholarship , and one that should be read by undergraduates and students enrolled in studies of journalism and communications generally, as well as by the general public. It is very timely, given the increasing migrations of peoples of colour to Europe and North America, which is being exploited by right-wing extremism.”

I’ve also written an article about the book called “Ooga-Booga Journalism —How Not To Write About Africa.”

I hope you'll support this campaign.

More Background:

What makes my book unique is that in addition to critiquing writings of European writers —going as far back as Herodotus in the 5th Century BC, then the writings of the so-called European “explorers” who went to “discover” Africa in the 18th century, and books and newspaper and magazine articles in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries—I discovered internal correspondences in the New York Times’ archives that shows how this major international newspaper actively participated in demonization of Africa and Africans.

One of the most notorious racist New York Times correspondent was Homer Bigart, who’d already won the coveted Pulitzer Prize twice by the time the newspaper sent him to write about decolonization in Africa in late 1959.

When he got there here’s what he wrote to his boss, the New York Times foreign news editor Emanuel Freedman from Africa: “I’m afraid I cannot work up any enthusiasm for the emerging republics. The politicians are either crooks or mystics. Dr. Nkrumah is a Henry Wallace in burnt cork. I vastly prefer the primitive bush people. After all, cannibalism may be the logical antidote to this population explosion everyone talks about.”

Bigart’s contempt for Africa was conveyed in his articles. On January 31, 1960, The New York Times published an article by Bigart under the hateful headline “Barbarian Cult Feared in Nigeria.” Bigart wrote in his lead sentence that “A pocket of barbarism still exists in eastern Nigeria, despite some success by the regional government in extending a crust of civilization over the tribe of the pagan Izi.”

He added, “A momentary lapse into cannibalism marked the closing days of 1959, when two men killed in a tribal clash were partly consumed by enemies in the Cross River country below Obubra.” Yet, in the same article Bigart contradicts his own salacious claims of alleged cannibalism, when he continues: “Garroting was the society’s favored method of execution. None of the victims was eaten, at least not by society members. Less lurid but equally effective ways were found to dispose of them.” He added, “No trace has been found of these bodies. A few were buried in ant heaps. But most became human fertilizer for the yam crops.”

Editor Freedman delighted in Bigart’s racist caricaturization of Africans. “This is just a note to say hello and to tell you how much your peerless prose from the badlands is continuing to give us and your public,” Freedman wrote to Bigart, in a letter dated March 4, 1960. “By now you must be American journalism’s leading expert on sorcery, witchcraft, cannibalism and all the other exotic phenomena indigenous to darkest Africa. All this and nationalism too! Where else but in The New York Times can you get all this for a nickel?”

My research showed that some New York Times reporters objected to the racist depiction of Africans and fabrication of incidents that never occurred to give the stories about Africa a more “barbarian” flavor.

“The reference to ‘small pagan tribes dressed in leaves’ is slightly misleading and could, because of its startling quality, give the reader the impression that there are a lot of tribes running around half-naked,” Lloyd Garrison, a Times’ correspondent in Nigeria during the civil war, complained in a letter dated June 5, 1967 to the foreign news editor.

The article Garrison complained about had been published on May 31, 1967. Garrison’s original version had no such reference to Nigerian “small pagan tribes dressed in leaves”; that incident had been entirely fabricated and inserted into the article by editors in New York, perhaps to give the story a more “savage” flavor. Garrison also objected to the insertion of the words “tribes” and “tribesmen” by the editors in many of his past articles.

When Kendall Hunt published the book I got a few decent royalty checks. Then in 2002 people starting contacting me about how they’d have to wait for months to get the book after ordering via Amazon.

A few weeks ago I learned from one of my John Jay students—not from my publisher—that Kendall Hunt was no longer offering the printed version of the book.

That was the last straw.

On September 15, 2023 I asked to have my copyright revert to me. A company official named Faith Doyle wrote back to me via e-mail message on September 21, 2023 stating, “Hello, I wanted to let you know that I spoke with my managers about this to get approval and this was not approved. You can get your rights back by paying for them at a total of $3,000.”

I offered $500. On September 26 the company rejected the counter-offer and insisted on $3,000.

So comrades, I’m reaching out for support so I can regain the copyright and make “Manufacturing Hate—How Africa Was Demonized in Western Media” widely available.

Those of you who’ve read the book please post your reactions or mini-reviews on this platform and on your social media outlets--let people know about this GoFundMe campaign by copying the link and sending it to them.

The Truth Shall Set Us Free!

Asanteni sana.

Milton Allimadi

[email redacted]