Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer, OM, (January 14, 1875 - September 4, 1965) was a German theologian, musician, philosopher, and physician. He was born in Kaysersberg, Upper-Alsace, Germany (now Haut-Rhin département, France). He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.

Stance on racial relations

Schweitzer considered his work as a medical missionary in Africa to be his response

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to Jesus' call to become "fishers of men" but also as a small

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recompense for the historic guilt of European colonizers: "Who can describe the injustice and cruelties that in the course of centuries they have suffered at the hands of Europeans? . . . If a record could be compiled of all that has happened between the white and the coloured races, it would make a book containing numbers of pages which the reader would have to turn over unread because their contents would be too horrible." .

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Schweitzer was sometimes accused of being paternalistic or colonialist in his attitude towards Africans. For instance, he thought Gabonese independence came too early, without adequate education or accommodation to local circumstances. Edgar Berman quotes Schweitzer speaking these lines in 1960: "No society can go from the primeval directly to an industrial state without losing the leavening that time and an agricultural period allow." .

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There is a blatantly racist quote sometimes attributed to Schweitzer to the effect that Africans are an "inferior race" and must not be treated as the equal of Whites. This quote is a fabrication; it does not appear in Schweitzer's writings and does not reflect his respect for the African people he spent sixty years working for and with.

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