"The African is my brother but he is my younger brother by several centuries"

Albert Schweitzer’s assertion, “The African is my brother but he is my younger brother by several centuries,” reflects an attitude shaped by the colonialist context in which he worked. The statement recognizes a sense of kinship or common humanity between Schweitzer, a European missionary and physician, and the Africans amongst whom he lived. By calling the African “my brother,” Schweitzer seems to acknowledge a moral and existential equality, at least on a fundamental level, suggesting shared human dignity and rights.

However, the remainder of the statement, “my younger brother by several centuries”, reveals a profound paternalism and a belief in a hierarchical ordering of civilizations. Schweitzer implies that Africans exist at an earlier stage in a supposed universal trajectory of progress, one measured by European standards. The underlying assumption is that Western societies represent the pinnacle of advancement, while African societies lag behind, as if following in Europe’s historical footsteps but centuries behind. This presumes that Africa’s trajectory must follow the same developmental path as Europe, an idea rooted in 19th- and early 20th-century theories of social evolution and progress.

Such thinking was common among missionaries, colonial administrators, and others who believed their role was to “help” or “uplift” supposedly less mature societies. The phrase positions Schweitzer and his contemporaries as elder siblings, capable of guidance and leadership, thus justifying colonial intervention on moral grounds. At the same time, it diminishes the complexity and achievements of African societies by framing them in relation to a Western timeline. It ignores the validity of different cultural paths, knowledge systems, and social organizations.

The statement encapsulates the mixture of genuine humanistic feeling and deep-seated ethnocentrism that characterized much of the Western humanitarian engagement with Africa. It is both a gesture of inclusion and an articulation of superiority, reflecting the ambiguities and contradictions of its era.