There’s evidence that these associations with the color black are common across cultures, including in Africa. Frank & Gilovich discuss this at the start of their paper, and here is one cross-cultural article that they cite which found that black is seen as bad, strong, and passive, white is good and weak, and red is strong, active, and affectively salient.
These associations could be learned through widespread experiences like night being more dangerous and objects becoming darker as they get dirty, rather than being innate. Those widespread experiences could also lead many cultures to develop tropes of darkness and light, which could strengthen the associations.
There’s evidence that these associations with the color black are common across cultures, including in Africa. Frank & Gilovich discuss this at the start of their paper, and here is one cross-cultural article that they cite which found that black is seen as bad, strong, and passive, white is good and weak, and red is strong, active, and affectively salient.
These associations could be learned through widespread experiences like night being more dangerous and objects becoming darker as they get dirty, rather than being innate. Those widespread experiences could also lead many cultures to develop tropes of darkness and light, which could strengthen the associations.