An African History of Africa

What was learned about Africa in Canadian and American schools was written from the perspective of colonizers.  Zeinab Badawi decided to add an African perspective with"An African History of Africa" (2024).  This post is necessarily skimpy, but should open your eyes to an important part of the world.

Scientists agree that man originated in Africa. Over time geographical forces pushed early man outside towards Arabia and Europe.   

Egypt is where most westerners were made conscious of an African culture.  Taming the Nile was critical to Egyptian development.  They mastered irrigation and canals.  Calendars progressed with the concept of a month, based on observations of the moon's orbit and calculated a year at 365 days (out by only a fraction).  

Egypt had been invaded by Asians, but also conquered parts of Asia including areas that became Israel, Lebanon and Syria.  The area below Egypt was known as the Kush  (modern day Sudan) and it helped supply Egypt with gold, ebony, ivory and ostrich feathers in return for grain, linen and wood.  It has been thought that Moses married a Kushite woman who may have been black.   

 Ethiopia was close to Arabia and traded with India including rhino horns and ivory.  They developed the idea of metal coins for trading. They accepted Christianity.  

Another group in North Africa were the Phoenicians who had originated in Lebanon.  They were major traders in Africa and Europe.  They built a significant city in Carthage which was eventually destroyed by the Romans.  

Berbers were active before being invaded by the Arabs.  Today 40% of Morocco is Berbers.  The first United States war was against the Barbary state in 1801 and 1805 as the Berbers were acting as pirates in the Mediterranean.

Timbuktu has been thought of as mythical, but did exist as major trading centre connecting western Africa to North Africa.  It also became a host for Islamic scholars. 

The area now known as Zimbabwe was found to have significant amounts of gold and diamonds.  Cecil Rhodes took advantage and was cruel to the Africans.

The Kingdom of the Kongo covering present day Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, and Gabon  was established around 1390.  They had developed several skills and traded using a barter system with cowrie shells, textiles and agricultural products.  They achieved a population thought to be about 3 million at a time when England had about 2.5 million subjects.  The Portuguese and other Europeans came and the Kongo was discovered to have a huge reserve of cobalt.  Belgium gained control of what was then known as the Kongo.  King Leopold was one of the cruelest European leaders as he exploited the rubber resources.  Joseph Conrad in "The Heart of Darkness"  commented that the treatment meted out to the Congo amounted to "the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience and geographical exploration."  

The British Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury was heard to say "We have been engaged in drawing lines upon a map where no white man's feet have ever trod".  The Europeans were very condescending towards the Africans 

Barrack Obama's grandfather had served in the British army in Burma, but was dissatisfied with progress towards independence in Kenya and joined the Mau Mau.  He had been imprisoned and tortured.

Slavery is strongly associated with Africa.  Slavery existed in other parts of the world, but was usually tied to conquerors taking the losing side and making the survivors slaves.  Arabs came to Africa and started exporting slaves back to Arabia, Persia and parts of Asia.  Africans also had slaves, but they were somewhat like Arabs when they ended up with mixed race children, treated the children as free and sometimes even the slave mothers.  Europeans first came to Africa for trade purposes, but soon discovered the availability of slaves.  The Portuguese were the first and developed networks in such places as Zanzibar and Cape Verde.  Soon the other European nations got involved as they felt riches could be had in the New World requiring human labour.  They rationalized that the Africans were not civilized.  Archaeologists were told not to credit Africans with any creations. 

There were slave rebellions with perhaps the most noteworthy in Haiti.  There, the slaves were able to defeat Napoleon.  Many of the slave owners fled to Louisiana and generated hate towards the Haitians.  Americans have ostracized the island nation resulting in extreme poverty and anarchy.  More recently many Haitians have immigrated, legally or illegally and although many struggled to escape poverty others have made contributions.  Still Trump was able to scare voters claiming Haitians ate dogs.  

Around 15% of Americans have an African background.  More than half of the Brazilian population amounting to  over 100 million have an African background.   

Now that the rest of the world has extracted a fortune out of Africa there is a cry for restitution.  European and American museums contain artifacts that African authorities would like back.

Botswana was not covered in the book, but researching for a  previous blog uncovered some information.   It was used as a positive example of a success story.   The author of "Why Nations Fail"  demonstrated how an inclusive society developed in Botswana, in the middle of African colonial powers by getting some relief from British authorities after a visit to England by some chiefs.  At the time they were one of the poorest nations in Africa, but because they developed an inclusive society they became one of the richer ones.  Today they have one of the highest incomes in Africa and also one of the best records of democracy.  Fortunately for them diamonds were not discovered until after independence and now help to benefit the whole society in stead of just a few foreigners.

 In truth Africa is a big topic, but Zeinab Badawi does a good job bringing out many details that we westerners have overlooked.  Africa today has the youngest population in the world.  The average African is 19 years old which contrasts with average age of 49 for the Japanese and 41 in the United Kingdom.  They are demanding education of their own history.  They have access to technology, are innovative and are less concerned about ethnic loyalties .  It may not happen overnight, but Africa will play a more significant role in the global future.  Ignore it at your peril.

The poster at the top was designed by Leah Jacobs-Gordon