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FIRST ESSAY: THE GLORIOUS AFRICAN PAST
“The town seems to be very great. When you enter into it, you go into a great broad street, not paved, which seems to be seven or eight times broader than the Warmoes street in Amsterdam (…) The Kings palace is a collection of buildings which occupy as much space as the town of Harlem, and which is enclosed with walls. There are numerous apartments for the prince’s ministers and fine galleries, most of which are as big as those on the Exchange at Amsterdam. They are supported by wooden pillars encased with copper, kept very clean. The town is composed of thirty main streets, very straight and 120 feet wide, apart from an infinity of small intersecting streets. The houses are close to one another, arranged in good order. These people are in no way inferior to the Dutch as regards cleanliness; they wash and scrub their houses so well that they are polished and shinning like a looking-glass.” (Rf. Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, London: Bogle-L’ouverture, 1972, p.81)
The above statement was a very objective description of Benin, Nigeria given by a sincere Dutch, one of the first Europeans to visit the shores of West Africa. In this column, what you will find mostly would be issues that bother on Africa and how Africa can move forward. Many negative things are often propagated by the Western press against Africa and remotely many Africans are made to believe that there is nothing positive about them. David Hume a European philosopher said, “I am apt to suspect the Negroes, and in general all the other species of men… to be naturally inferior to Whites. There never was a civilized nation of any complexion than white.” His European brother Hegel a great philosopher of the German Idealist tradition excludes the black as people with full consciousness and he concludes that Africans have no history because they lack full development of their consciousness and are ignorant of their freedom and as such have made no contribution to human development.
Africa of antiquity has been a center of attraction for many. The great civilizations of the world began in Africa. This was the reason why ancient philosophers and scholars visited Africa to develop their philosophical doctrines. Izu Onyeocha writes that Africa was an intellectual Mecca to European scholars in antiquity. Thales of Mellitus and Democratus who were Ionian philosophers as well as the first luminaries of Greek Science, made their most important discoveries in Astronomy and Mathematics after their visit to Egypt and Mesopotamia. He also writes that Pythagoras who developed one of the most famous mathematical formulas spent twenty years studying in Egypt. (Cf. Izu Onyeocha, Africa: The Question Of Identity, Washington: The Council of research in values and philosophy, 1997, p.34)
Let us make our claims about the glorious days of Africa concrete with the area of medicine alone. According to Homer the great poet and scholar, in terms of the knowledge of medicine, Africa left the rest of the world behind. (Cf. Homer, The Odyssey, trans. E. V. Rieu, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1946, p.70) This can be further attested to by a historical research carried out by Mary Motley. Her results was that “The first physician of antiquity of any fame was the black Egyptian Imhotep, who lived about 2980BC during the third dynasty (…) He cured physical and mental sicknesses.” (Cf. Africa, its Empires and People, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1969, p.42) Following the same line with Motley, Onyenwuenyi writes that the Egyptians were the first to do surgery, even brain surgery. They treated tuberculosis, arthritis, gallstones and even dental problems. In fact, it was they who carried out the first ever fertility recipe. (Cf. The African Origin of Greek Philosophy, p.52)
Walter Rodney from his researches offers us a lot about the glorious years of Africa, the years before slave trade and colonialism. He discovered that Africans of five centuries ago were producing high quality products that attracted the attention of the whole world. According to him, through North Africa, Europeans became aware of a superior brand of red leather from Africa, which was given the name ‘Moroccan leather.” This leather it is said, was tanned and dyed by the Hausa and Mandinga specialists in northern Nigeria and Mali. This was also the case with cloths. As soon as the Portuguese reached the old kingdom of Kongo, they sent back word on the high quality cloths made there that were comparable to velvet. The Baganda were also specialists in making bark cloths. Before the Europeans arrived Africa, Africans were widely manufacturing the best cotton cloth. Even to the last century, local cottons from the Guinea coast were stronger than those from Manchester. Also in Katanga and Zambia, local copper continued to be preferred to the imported one because of the quality. The same holds true for iron in Sierra Leone. (Cf. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, p.50)
It would be very unfair to end this reflection without mentioning the contributions of Africa to Christianity. Early in the first and second centuries there already existed the great Egyptian Coptic Church and the inculturated Ethiopian church. It is interesting to note that the contemporary idea of inculturation in the Catholic Church could be traced to the Ethiopians who were the first to inculturate the Christian message they received. This was a very valuable contribution to Christianity and that is the reason why from antiquity, the Ethiopian Church has always been very strong. One should not forget that Simon of Cyrenaica the Ethiopian Eunuch who helped Jesus to carry his cross was an African. Catholic history and spirituality cannot forget St. Anthony of Egypt ( popularly known as Anthony the Black) who began the monastic life. Catholic theology would be incomplete without mentioning notable figures like St. Augustine and Origen.
As I conclude this reflection, let us remember that our past was indeed glorious. Africa was the pace setter and Europe was mostly the commercializer and popularizer of Africa’s technology. Africa was not a place of hunger, poverty, disease, etc as we have today. Why are we in these problems today? We shall discuss this next week.
FOR THE FULL DETAILS ON THE GLORIOUS PAST OF AFRICA, I WILL RECOMMEND YOU READ MY BOOK, “REDISCOVERING OUR IDENTITY AS AFRICANS: AWARENESS”
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SECOND ESSAY: WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT AFRICAN NAMES?
Many Africans answer foreign names they do not know their meanings. You might wonder why all my three names are completely African. Does it imply I am not a Christian? At birth I was baptized in the Catholic Church and then a European name was given to me, when I grew up and realized how significant our African names are to us in the assertion of our identity as Africans, I dropped the foreign names I had.
For us Africans, names are a part of our identity. The identity here should not be taken to mean identification marks but as in whom we are. A name tells a lot about the person who bears it. This means that a name carries along side with it a personality, an identity and in fact, a destiny. This is why within the African society much care is taken in naming a child. Africans do not just name their children carelessly but take time to study the situation and prevailing circumstances of the time before they give a name to a child. There is the belief that names carry along with them the tendency of influencing the bearer to good or evil.
It is a generally accepted fact that there is a meeting point between the name a person bears and his or her soul. What this means is that, the name tries to define the bearer, his or her beingness. By the name alone, an intelligent mind can begin to deduce certain facts about the family of the bearer, the family’s intention’s for the future of the bearer, as well as its hopes, aspirations and philosophy of life. An Igbo man who gives the Igbo name “Ogadinma” (meaning, it shall be good) to a child does not just give the child the name because he loves the way it sounds. It has a very deep meaning for the family. For the man, this name might mean that the family is presently undergoing some difficulties but there is the strong hope that things shall soon get better. Remember, you cannot think of having one and same translation for all African names. The intrinsic meaning perhaps is fully understood only by the giver of the name. This is because, meanings can be read into a particular name by the giver depending on the circumstances in which he or she found his or herself at the time the name was given.
Apart from the fact that a name tells a lot about the identity of the bearer, it also immortalizes the bearer. This is because for us Africans, a human person lives on even after death. The belief is that one does not die when the soul ceases to live in the body but true death only occurs when a person is entirely forgotten by his or her people. The easiest way one can forget a person is when the person’s name is erased from the family history. Due to the historical antecedents of our African names, respect is demanded for African names.
Another interesting thing about African names is their explicit expression of the notion of God. The way Africans look at God is deeply reflected in African names. Most of our African names are “Theocentric.” One discovers that even African names that do not have the word “God” found within the name intrinsically point to God. For instance, the Bette people of Nigeria bear the name “Undiukeye” meaning “it is not man that gives.” Though the Bette word for God “Unim” is not found within the name but it points to the fact that it is God that gives. The Igbo people of Nigeria bear the name “Chibuike” meaning “God is power.” Through this name, the Igbo people affirm their notion of God as being very powerful. Some Igbo scholars believe that a better translation of the name is “God is power itself” since the Igbo verb “bu” which has to do with identification carries more weight than the English “is.” When one understands how the notion of God is reflected in African names, he would do everything to see that long cherished African names are rediscovered and restored. Suffice it to state that our African names do not end at reflecting our perception of God. They go deep down to tell how we perceive human life, the universe and all human values. The Ebira people of Nigeria bear the name “Ozovehe” which means “the human person is life.” With this name, you can easily deduce that for the Ebira people, a person is sacred, a person is the sole administrator of the earth. Similar names are found in other African communities. Thus Ehusani posits that, “The African ‘name’ is in fact a concept of or a set of concepts and notions about God, the universe, human life and human values.”
“TO BE CONTINUED. THIS IS AN EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK ‘REDISCOVERING OUR IDENTITY AS AFRICAN: AWARENESS’ LAUNCHED LAST YEAR AT CALABAR, NIGERIA.”
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THIRD ESSAY: AFRICA: THE CENTER OF SUFFERING
It was Heraclitus the great ancient Ionian philosopher who said that "Everything is in a state of constant flux, the only thing that is permanent is change." My computers really lived to this saying when last week they told me, 'Hey guy, you are trying to revolt against Heraclitus. We need to be changed.' If they had only said it, I would have relaxed and tried negotiating with them in the arbitration panel but they immediately went on strike. Then I realised I really need to put in place some new computer systems. You will realise that my column was not published last week. Reason? Just what I have been telling you. I am very sorry for that break in communication as Nigerian television and radio stations always tell us when the almight NEPA take their electricity. I missed all of you last week.
In my last column, I promised presenting the situation of Africa today. Africa today is not discussed in terms of scientific discoveries as the glorious African past but it is discussed in terms of poverty, hunger, disease, wars, corruption, and many other negative things you can think of. You might ask why Africa is in this situation today? Without any fear of contradition, I would clearly state that it is because of the twin evil of slave trade and colonialism? What do I mean?
Slave trade is the highest sin that has ever been committed in the African soil. Even the tyrannical regime of Idi Amin of Uganda and the reign of terror of Sani Abacha of Nigeria cannot be likened to the evil of slavery. It is the most voluntary form of human servitude. No other people than the Europeans created the slave trade in the vicious form that it assumed. According to history, it was the Portuguese by name Alonzo Gonzales that was the first man ever in the history of the world to point out to his fellow Portuguese that Africans could be articles or objects of commerce or trade. This was in 1434. By 1800, eight years before the slave trade was finally abolished, there were about 930,000 slaves residing in the United States. In all, more than 9.5 million slaves were forced to work in Agricultural plantations of the Caribbean, Southern and Central America.
Did I hear you ask, how does slave trade contribute to our predicaments as Africans today? Majority of those who were taken out of Africa in slave trade were able bodied adult men who would have contributed to the growth of the African continent. This was the beginning of African underdevelopment. According to Walter Rodney, the changeover to warlike activities and the kidnapping in Africa due to slave trade affected all aspects of economic activity - agriculture in particular. The consequences of slavery on agricultural activities in Africa were extremely negative. There is no need doubting the fact that for a country to achieve economic growth, she must make good use of its labour force and natural resources. America is great today because of the labour force she gathered from around the world.
Yes, if slave trade is the cause of African predicaments and so what about colonialism? Colonialism simply means the domination of one country by another - most often through aggressive, ofent military means. With the end of slave trade, Europeans devised another means of subjugating Africans. There was a lot of scrambling over which European country controlled which part of Africa. In order to curtail these tensions that were already mounting in Europe, the Seven European power nations then sat down in a conference in Berlin in 1885 and divided Africa among themselves as a mother sharing a slice of bread among her children. From this moment, Africa's natural resources were sytematically channelled towards developing Europe.
The colonies were conditioned in such a way that they would perpetually remain politically dependent and economically tied to the European nations. That is why even after political independence, African countries found developing their economies too difficult. This is because political independence is granted the colony without granting them economical independence. Too late the colonized began to realize that he who controls the economy equally controls politics. That is why many European countries would want to determine the Presidents for African countries. Though the motives under which President Mugabe is operating in Zimbabwe might not be sincere but a war of that nature for the liberation of Africa is highly encouraged.
Many persons have ignorantly argued that if colonialism brought nothing good for Africa, it brought us good roads and education. I want to briefly state that roads were not built for the interests of the colonialized but for the onward transfer of goods to Europe. Let me also state it clearly that education was in existence in Africa before the colonial masters arrived its shores. A few examples are univeristies such as the University of TImbuktu in Mali, the Al-Azhar University in Egypt, the University of Fex in Morocoo. The education brought to us by the colonial masters was not to pull Africa out of the woods but to train a few Africans to man menial positions considered degrading for Europeans and to participate in the domination and exploitation of Africa. Thus, David Lamb an American journalist writes that, "the colonialists left behind some schools and roads, some post offices and bureaucrats. But their cruellest legacy on the African continent was a lingering inferiority complex, a confused sense of identity. After all, when people are told for a century that they're not as clever or capable as their masters, they eventually start to believe it." We have to fight a against this inferiority complex, we have to show Europeans that we Africans are smarter than they are.
What do you expect from an Africa that has gone through all these difficulties?
***SOME OF THE MATERIALS PUBLISHED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE FROM MY BOOK "REDISCOVERING OUR IDENTITY AS AFRICANS: AWARENESS". FOR FULL DETAILS ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF SLAVE TRADE AND COLONIALISM ON AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT, CONSULT THE BOOK.
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