Sederi Yearbook 35

Andrew Hadfield, «Al-Hassan Muhammad al-Wazzan and John Pory: Race and the dawn of the British Empire.» SEDERI 35 (2025): 77–100.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34136/sederi.2025.4                                                         Download PDF

Abstract

This article explores the significance of John Pory’s translation of Leo Africanus / Al-Hassan Muhammad al-Wazzan’s Geographical Historie of Africa (1600, rpt. 1896). It has been claimed that Pory was the first known racist to set foot in North America and so should be acknowledged as a founding father of American prejudice. This essay explores this claim, demonstrating that Pory’s translation is indeed racist but wonders whether the search for origins provides an explanation of subsequent ways of thinking and events. Using the work of Marshall Sahlins the article makes the case that structural change is a more important phenomenon than origin and argues that moments of transformation should be key to our understanding of the past.

Keywords: Africa, Leo Africanus, Al-Hassan Muhammad al-Wazzan, Barbados, Bermuda, British Empire, colonies, John Pory, race, slavery, Virginia, whiteness.

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