Augustine’s African heritage matters →
For generations, Africa was continually robbed of its greatest treasures—its people—through the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade while the continent’s natural resources were confiscated or decimated by colonial powers. Yet, throughout all of that time and into the present-day, the church and scholars of theology, philosophy, and literature alike have considered the works of St. Augustine—an African man—as some of the greatest writings ever produced. In order to reconcile the two, St. Augustine’s African identity had to be suppressed by racially coding him as white. We are now in a moment where we can reckon with that long-standing dissonance and pivot away from that coding while affirming St. Augustine’s African identity.
Source: U.S. Catholic