West African gold—secured at Elmina—financed da Gama’s voyage to Asia, proving Africa’s wealth, not Asian spices, launched Europe’s age of exploration: gold paid before spices ever did. #BornInBlackness

Hochschild’s line (via #BornInBlackness) spotlights epistemic stubbornness: empire didn’t just sail on courage—it sailed on refusal to admit you’re lost. That denial became doctrine, with centuries of fallout. Miss the world, rename it.

French uses da Gama’s Calicut voyage to expose how Eurocentric origins obscure the Atlantic’s true engine: African labor and slavery. Start in Calabar, not Calicut—and Africa becomes the balance sheet, not a footnote. #BornInBlackness

#BorninBlackness is the next book I get to read.
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youtube.com/watch?v=_hV8...

But this time, the griots are watching. Documenting. Naming the pattern out loud. The system won’t save itself. Only the people who still remember how it was meant to be sacred, will.
🦂 #ScorpyunStyle #AlgorithmicGriot #AmericanRituals #BornInBlackness