In 1066 A.D. when the Normans invaded a little known island called England, they could muster an army of only 15,000 soldiers. In the same year, the west African state of Ghana could put 200,000 warriors in the field. The Arabs invaded Europe in the eighth century A.D., and they managed to push all the way through Spain into France. But when they invaded west Africa, they were stopped.
Its funny to say that Africans were referred to as idol worshippers when easterners came to Africa, but when the Europeans were still pagans in the fourth century A.D., the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia (then called Askum) was a center of Christianity. In fact, Ethiopia is the oldest Christian empire in the world; its stone churches built centuries ago are among the wonders of the world.
Africans reached the Americas across the Atlantic ocean from the west African coast in at least two Historic periods before Christopher Columbus, who was Pilo-Navigated by an African, the Ghanaian Pedro Alonzo Nino in 1492. Inventions such as Ice Cream, the Corn Planter, the Bullet Proof Shield, the Small Pox Vaccine, the Rattle Snake Cure, the Elevator, the Refrigerator and the Fire Extinguisher were invented by people of African descent. Writing which is the most commonly used form of communication was first invented in Sudan and it is from there that it was first transmitted to ancient Egypt and that there are a number of original writing systems like that used by the Bamum of Cameroon, the Mende, the Fulfude, the Val and the Amharic script in Ethiopia. In west Africa alone, there are over fourteen different alphabets.
The African continent has a long and rich historical tradition. For centuries however, very little was actually known about this vast continent and its peoples. Eventually, Africa’s wealth of natural resources captured the world and the interest of European powers. The result was a period of western domination, brought to an end in many cases only after years of resistance and struggle. Today, Africa is made up of more than 50 independent nations. Each has its own ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural traditions, and each is working to develop and achieve a better standard of living for its peoples. At the same time, as a cooperative unit e.g. ( the Organization of African Unity “OAU”, now known as the African Union “AU” ). African nations are striving to become an increasingly important voice in the world arena, determined to secure Africa’s future without completely forsaking its past.
Unfortunately, even with Africa’s vast natural wealth and resources such as land, water and people; Africa is still labeled as a Third World Continent yet to be developed, with a large percentage of its people living on less than a dollar a day. Slavery indeed brought misery to many of Africa’s people and thus this has placed a hard to be erased scar on our memory as African’s. We still remember so vividly the harsh conditions our ancestors had to endure under the total control of their slave masters, and later, that of our colonial masters who were partly fueled by imperialism and greed. The unity we once embraced as one Big African family came to a brutal end when Africa was partitioned. In the past, we were all Africans and were not called names attached to our respective home countries-we were “Africans”.
Today, Africa is not recognized as having anything tangible to contribute to the well being of the world, but its very shocking when one sees things from another perspective and realization that our natural resources are being taken away everyday by the developed world which they are using to develop themselves without helping Africa as well to develop. Our copper, diamonds, gold, cobalt and oil are taken away and mostly Africa does not receive the due benefits of exchange. Africa has indeed been sidelined and abused for way too long and its high time that we as Africans regained our lost glory through concentrating on what’s more important to us.
As Africans, we don’t really need help from the so-called developed world. The only help we seriously need from them is for them to let us handle our own affairs. We can go back to using the ‘barter system’ as a means of exchange, since the money market i.e. modern world economics seems to have failed for us. We can build our own shelter without the help from the west. We can make our own clothes and so on and so forth. We can surely survive on our own-we once survived for centuries without help from any one besides ourselves. Africa can manage to develop on its own. If we can manage to put our collective thoughts and actions together as Africans, through movements such as the African Union (AU), etcetera, then Africa will rise above once again, if we don’t quit, lose hope or give up.
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