AFRICA UNITE
The other day I watched a TV PR on the covid-19 pandemic. A certain line caught my attention ‘……. the corona virus that is affecting many countries, with cases reported globally, including many countries in Africa…….’ And I thought to myself, was that a mere coincidence or was it deliberately scripted that way, was it ‘necessary’ to add ‘including many countries in Africa’?
Ordinarily, I could have easily leaned toward the former, but that’s just one too many to be a coincidence. The western community has repeatedly condescended toward the African continent for centuries (spanning from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade era, when Africa was first discovered by the Europeans). I hear and read narratives that tend to indicate that the western community did ‘Africa a favor’ with the Atlantic trade by introducing societal organization, development, education, structured human interaction, law & order, luxurious goods, etc. I disagree with that, because to agree means I have to explain to myself how Africans survived without organized societies, shelter, food, law & order, interactions, prior to the introduction of the Europeans in the 15th century when Portugal, and subsequently other European kingdoms were finally able to expand overseas and reach Africa.
The western world has successfully used the media to create a narrative that makes it appear as the hero and ‘Africans’ as beneficiaries. For example, you read a book or watch a documentary on Slave Trade/colonialism in Africa; the plot of such book, documentary, or movie will most likely paint a picture of Africans as cave men, uncivilized, disorganized, cannibalistic, undeveloped, and a confused set, until the ‘white man’ arrived. Ironically, it is interesting to know that African Empires at the time, had structured systems of land ownership (Feudalism) just like Europe, had structured societies with rulers, had inter-trade relations among themselves, practiced agriculture, made medicines, had shelter etc. Trade had to be done with a recognized tender, by the barter system as we well know (trade by barter to me, is an organized manner of trading). In fact, many ‘developed countries’ still practice that till date. Europeans and Africans themselves during the colonial period lacked due regard for the unique features of the African culture. Those features have values of their own that cannot be eclipsed by European culture, either in the comparable period before 1500 or in subsequent centuries, e.g the Egyptian pyramids, the western Sudan and Ethiopian kingdoms were known for their arts and agricultural prowess — the terracotta art, the Ife and Benin bronzes etc.
AGRICULTURE
The prerequisite for mastery of an environment is knowledge of that environment. By the 15th century, Africans everywhere had reached a considerable understanding of the total ecology of their environments — of the soils, climate, animals, plants, and their multiple inter-relationships. A practical demonstration of this can be found in the need to build houses, to find medicines, to lay traps for animals, and above all to create agricultural systems. From the hunting group of pigmies in the Congo forest to the Ethiopian literate feudal Amharic noblemen, as well as simple Kaffa cultivators and Galla pastoralists. The empires of the Western Sudan had educated Mandinka townsmen, small communities of Bozo fishermen and Fulani herdsmen. All these were in existence before the Europeans arrived.
INTER-TRADE RELATIONS
Many African kingdoms traded a lot between themselves before the 16th century, they exchanged commodities and raw materials that they had in excess for what they needed. This meant that, the salt industry in one locality would be stimulated while the textile industry would be enhanced in another, promoting increased production of these respective commodities between the African kingdoms. In a riverine area, fish could become profitable while crops could be grown elsewhere to provide a basis of exchange.
The outstanding nature of trade in virtually every part of the continent between the 10th and 15th century was a key indicator of economic expansion and other forms of development which was followed by an increased knowledge of the environment. As trade expanded, it became evident that barter was giving way to some forms of money exchange. Barter was typically practiced when the volume of trade was small and only a few commodities involved. However, as trade became larger and more complicated, some goods were used as standards to measure the value of other goods. For example, salt, cloth, iron hoes, cowry shells were popular forms of money. In quite a few places, like North Africa, Ethiopia, and the Kongo Kingdom, the monetary systems were a lot more sophisticated, hinting that the economy was detached from just barter and subsistence trade.
SOCIETAL DEVELOPMENT
The African continent had several Kingdoms and tribes, from the Kongo Kingdom, to the Ethiopian Empire, Western Sudan, the Ashanti tribe of modern Ghana, the Benin Kingdom etc. These various settlements had peculiar cultures and protocols that guided their co-existence and way of life as a people. From a political perspective, the period of communalism to feudalism in Africa was one that led to state formation. For many centuries the states remained weak and immature, but they acquired territorial boundaries — and people lived in their different communities within a geographical location. Each of these communities/states practiced corvee labour, enlisted soldiers to protect their territorial integrity, and appointed regular tax collectors and administrators. There were certain parts of Africa in which labor variables enabled them break out of communal constraints, these were related to areas in which refined political states were emerging e.g Egypt, the Ethiopian Kingdom etc. The rise and coordination of states was in itself a result of development, which promoted the scale of African politics and merged small ethnic groups into wider identities suggestive of nations. In Europe, the nation states reached an advanced stage, and Europeans seemed to use the presence or absence of well-organized polities as measure of ‘civilization’. That is not entirely justified, because in Africa there were also small political units which had relatively advanced cultures and organization as well. For example, neither the Ibo people of Nigeria or the Kikuyu of Kenya had large central governments in their traditional setting, but both groups had refined systems of political rule based on clans, religious oracles, and aristocracies. Both groups were efficient in agriculture and iron works, while the Ibos were manufacturing brass and bronze items from the 9thcentury, probably even earlier.
The discussion on Africa’s development and growth before the introduction of the Europeans can’t be overemphasized, but this is hardly covered in European history. Just like cases of barbarism against slaves at the Benin coast, or of those in Europe and North America aren’t reported too. They say African rulers were gruesome toward their subjects, this is a fact. If for nothing, they aided and abetted the activities of the so-called western power. But rulers like King Jaja of Opobo and Queen Amina of the city-state Zazzau were also African leaders, and they had the interest of their people and kingdoms. Moreover, the Europeans don’t have the moral justification to point fingers, they are more culpable.
It is really important to understand the true narrative concerning the African continent before the Atlantic trade and subsequently colonialism, and not feed into the rhetoric we’re being fed with. It’s amazing to discover that a bulk of Africa’s resources (including cheap labour) was constantly shipped to Europe, and finished products made from these resources were sold back to the continent at extremely hiked costs. This practice is still on today in the form of neo-imperialism, aided by capitalism and globalization.
I’m not saying that Africa isn’t complicit in all of these, it will be absurd to think that. African leaders were, and still are susceptible to foreign powers. This is the reason for us to learn from our mistakes and be more united. We need to fix our home by ourselves. The western community’s predilection is for resources and cheap labor from Africa. The western world has caused and is still causing a colossal damage to Africa and it is only Africa that can change that narrative. I implore millennial Africans to wake up.
The baton is with millennial Africans to consolidate gains of the continent to its culmination. It is time for Africa to be galvanized, let’s look inward, self-reliance for the African continent is imperative. Our battles and challenges are best fought together as a continent, independent of foreign influence and intervention, because we have all to lose. We are a continent with abundant resources, from Ghana’s gold to Nigeria’s oil and mineral resources, from Botswana’s diamonds to Kenya’s tourism, a vibrant population of about 1.3 billion people. We can harness all of these potentials to the advantage of the continent. It is encouraging to witness some positives over the past six to seven decades, like pan-Africanism, democratization of African states, the recently initiated AfCTA agreement that is aimed at promoting trade and the African economy, the implementation of the African Union and its initiatives, regional blocs, etc. However, more can be done to integrate the continent and focus on ‘Africa’ first, then we can and will be a key global actor. We cannot allow the western powers continue to rewrite our chapters for us, NO — we are not a stagnant or illiterate continent — sub-Sahara Africa achieved a substantial reduction of 39 percent of maternal mortality between 2000 and 2017 (according to UNICEF), an improvement from what we had in the 20th century. More women have access to education today, also better than what we had in the 20th century. We are not there yet but we can consolidate on these positive indicators and make Africa great. We need to recognize that many things (including people, countries, cultures, development) appear to be constant sometimes because change is happening slowly and seemingly unnoticeable, but even slow/small changes culminate to big changes in future. We are the vanguard for Africa’s tomorrow.
WAKE UP AFRICA, UNITE AFRICA.
