When tourists visit sub-Saharan Africa, they often wonder: Why are there no historic buildings or monuments? ”
The reason is simple. The Europeans destroyed most of them. We only left drawings and descriptions by travelers who visited the place before the destruction. In some places the ruins are still visible. Many cities were left in ruins when Europeans brought exotic diseases (smallpox and influenza) which began to kill people and spread. The ruins of these cities are still hidden. In fact, most of the history in Africa is still underground.
In this post, I will share bits of information about Africa before the arrival of Europeans, the cities destroyed and the lessons we could learn as Africans for the future.
The collection of facts concerning the state of African cities before their destruction is done by Robin Walker, a distinguished panafricanist and historian who wrote the book "When we spoke"And by PD Lawton, another great Pan-Africanist, who has a book to come out called “African Agenda”.
All quotes and excerpts below are from books by Robin Walker and PD Lawton. I highly recommend you buy Walker's Book "When we spoke" to get a full account of the beauty of the continent before its destruction. You can get more information about PD Lawton's work by visiting his blog: AfricanAgenda.net
Robin Walter and PD Lawton Quote Strongly Another Great Panafricanist Walter Rodney Who wrote the book " How Europe underdeveloped Africa '. Additional information from YouTube channel '' dogons2k12: African Historical Ruins » , and Ta Neter Foundation job.
Many drawings are of the book African cities and cities before the European conquest by Richard W. Hull , published in 1976. This book alone dispels the stereotypical view of Africans living in primitive, simple, look-alike, scattered agglomerations without any appreciation for planning and design.
In fact, at the end of the XNIXXth century, when a European traveler met the great city of Beninin West Africa (Nigeria present, Edo State), he writes the following:
“The city seems to be very big. When you walk into it, you go to a large, wide, unopened street, which appears to be seven or eight times the width of Warmoes Street in Amsterdam. The Kings Palace is a group of buildings that occupy as much space as the city of Harlem, and which is walled. There are numerous apartments for the Ministers Princes and beautiful galleries, most of which are as large as those of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. They are supported by wooden pillars wrapped with copper, where their victories are depicted, and which are carefully kept very clean. The city is made up of thirty main streets, very straight and 120 feet wide, apart from an infinity of small intersecting streets. The houses are close to each other, arranged in good order. These people are in no way inferior to the Dutch when it comes to cleanliness; they wash and scrub their homes so well that they are polished and shiny like a mirror ”(Source :. Walter Rodney, "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa ., p 69)
Unfortunately, in 1897, Benin City was destroyed by British forces, under Admiral Harry Rawson . The city was looted, blown and burned to the ground. A collection of famous bronzes Benin are now at the British Museum in London. Part of the 700 bronzes stolen by British troops were resold in Nigeria in 1972 .
Here is another account of the big city of Benin on the city walls “They stretch for some 16 kilometers in all, in a mosaic of over 000 interconnected settlement boundaries. They cover 500 square kilometers and were all excavated by the people of Edo. In all, they are four times as long as the Great Wall of China, and consumed a hundred times as much material as the Great Pyramid of Cheops. They took around 6500 million hours of digging to build, and are perhaps the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet. "Source:. Wikipedia, Architecture of Africa ”Fred Pearce the New Scientist 150/09/11.
Here is a view of Benin city in 1891 before the British conquest. H. Ling Roth, Great Benin, Barnes and Noble reprint. 1968.
Did you know that in the 14th century, the city ofTimbuktu in West Africa was five times the size of the city of London, and was the richest city in the world?
Today, Timbuktu is 236 times smaller than London. This is not a modern city. Its population is half the size of five centuries ago, poor with beggars and dirty street vendors. The city itself is unable to keep its last ruined monuments and archives.
Back to the 14th century, the 3 richest places on earth were China, Iran / Iraq, and the Mali Empire in West Africa. Of all 3 the only one that was still independent and prosperous was the Mali Empire. China and the entire Middle East were conquered by Gengis KanMongolian troops who ravaged, looted and raped the place.
The richest man in the history of mankind, of Mansa Musa , was the emperor of the 14th century Empire of Mali which spanned modern Mali, Senegal, Gambia and Guinea.
At the time of his death in 1331, Mansa Musa was worth the equivalent of $ 400 billion. At that time the Mali Empire produced more than half of the world's production of salt and gold.
Below are some representations of Emperor Mansa Musa, the richest man in human history .
When Mansa Musa went on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, he carried so much gold, and passed them so generously that the price of gold fell for ten years. 60 people accompanied him.
He founded the Timbuktu Library , and the famous Timbuktu manuscripts that cover all areas of world knowledge were written during his reign.
Witnesses to the greatness of the Mali Empire have come from all parts of the world. “Sergio Domian, an Italian art and architecture scholar, wrote the following about this period:“ Thus is laid the foundation of an urban civilization. At the height of its power, Mali had at least 400 cities, and the interior of the Niger Delta was very densely populated.
The Malian city of Timbuktu had a 14th century population of 115 - 000 times the size of medieval London.
National Geographic recently described Timbuktu as the Paris of the medieval world, because of its intellectual culture. According to Professor Henry Louis Gates, 25 000 university students have studied there.
“Many old West African families have private library collections dating back hundreds of years. The Mauritanian towns of Chinguetti and Oudane have a total of 3450 handwritten medieval books. There may be another 6.000 pounds still surviving in the other town of Oualata. Some date back to the 8th century AD. There are 11 books in private collections in Niger.
Finally, in Timbuktu, Mali, there are around 700.000 books surviving. They are written in Mande, Suqi, Peuls, Tombouctou, and Sudani. The contents of the manuscripts include mathematics, medicine, poetry, law and astronomy. This work was the first encyclopedia in the 14th century before Europeans came up with the idea later, in the 18th century, four centuries later.
A collection of 16 books was considered a small library for a 1th century West African scholar. Professor Ahmed Baba from Timbuktu is recorded as saying that he had the smallest library of one of his friends - he only had 600 volumes.
Regarding these old manuscripts, Michael Palin, in his Sahara television series, said the Imam of Timbuktu “has a collection of scientific texts which clearly show the planets orbiting the sun. They date back hundreds of years. . . His convincing proof that scholars in Timbuktu knew much more than their counterparts in Europe. In the 200th century in Timbuktu mathematicians knew the rotation of the planets, knew the details of the eclipse, they knew things that we had to wait almost 150 XNUMX years to know in Europe when Galileo and Copernicus came with these same calculations and have had a very hard time for her.
The former Malian capital of Niani had a 14th century building called the Audience Hall. It was a surmounted by a dome, adorned with arabesques in bright colors. The windows on the upper floor were laid out with wood and framed in silver; those on a lower floor were laid out with wood, framed in gold.
Malian sailors arrived in America in 1311 AD 181 years before Christopher Columbus. An Egyptian scholar, Ibn Fadl Al-Umari, published on this sometime around 1342. In the tenth chapter of his book, there is an account of two great sea voyages ordered by the predecessor of Mansa Musa, a king who inherited the Malian throne in 1312 This sailor king is not named by Al-Umari, but modern writers identify him as Mansa Abubakari II. »Extract from Robin Walker's book, 'When We Ruled'
Those event was happening around the same time that Europe as a continent was plunged into the dark ages, ravaged by pestilence and famine, with one people killing another for religious and ethnic reasons.
Here below are some depictions of the city of Timbuktu in the nineteenth century.
"Kumasi was the capital of Asante Kingdom , 10th century-20th century. Drawings of life in Kumasi show houses, often 2 storeys, square buildings with thatched roofs, with family compounds arranged around a courtyard. The Manhyia Palace Complex established in another sketch was similar to a Norman castle, no longer elegant in its architecture.
These 2-storey thatched roof houses of the Ashanti Kingdom were half-timbered and the walls were of lath and plaster construction. A tree still stood in the courtyard which was the focal point of a family compound. The tree of life was the altar for the family's offerings to God, Nyame. A brass saucepan sat in the branches of the tree in which the offerings were placed. It was the same in every yard of every household, temple and palace. The KINGS representatives, civil servants, worked in the open-sided buildings. The goal being that everyone was welcome to see what they were doing.
“Kumase townhouses had upstairs toilets in 1817.This town in the 1800s is documented in drawings and photographs. Walks and public squares, cosmopolitan lives, exquisite architecture and everywhere impeccable and commissioned, a wealth of architecture, history, prosperity and a very modern life ”- PD Lawton,AfricanAgenda.net
Winwood Reade describes his visit to the Ashanti Royal Palace in Kumasi in 1874: “We went to the King's Palace, which consists of many courtyards, each surrounded with alcoves and verandas, and having two gates or gates, so that every court was a way. But the part of the palace facing the street was a stone house, in its Moorish style with a flat roof and a parapet, and apartment suites on the first floor. It was built by Fanti masons many years ago. The upstairs bedrooms remind me of Wardour Street. Each was a perfect Old Curiosity Shop. Books in many languages, Bohemian glass, clocks, silverware, antique furniture, Persian rugs, Kidderminster rugs, photos and prints, countless chests and chests. A sword bearing the inscription of Queen Victoria to the King of Ashantee. A copy of The Times, October 17, 1843. Along with these were numerous specimens of Moorish and Ashanti crafts. "- Robin Walter
The beautiful city of Kumasi was destroyed, destroyed by fire, and pillaged by the British at the end of the XNIXXth century.
Here below are some representations of the city.
In 1331, Ibn Battouta , describes the Tanzanian city of Kilwa , of the Zanj, Swahili people speaking, as follows: “one of the most beautiful and well-built cities in the world, the whole of it is elegantly built”. The ruins are complete with 'gothic arches' and intricate stones, examples of exquisite architecture. Kilwa dates back to the 9th century and was at its peak in the 13th and 14th centuries. This African international port minted its own currency in the 11th to 14th centuries. Remains of objects relating to Spain, China, Arabia and India. The inhabitants, architects and founders of this city were not Arabs and the only influence the Europeans had in the form of the Portuguese was to mark the beginning of the decline, probably thanks to smallpox and influenza. ”- Source :. UNESCO World Heritage Center, extract from “African Agenda” by PD Lawton
In 1505, the Portuguese forces destroyed and burned the Swahili towns of Kilwa and Mombasa.
The image below shows an artist's reconstruction of the Sultan's Palace at Kilwa in the 1400s, followed by other ruined photographs.
“A Moorish nobleman who lived in Spain under the name of Al-Bakri questioned merchants who visited the Empire of Ghana in the 11th century and wrote this about the king: "He sits in audience or to hear grievances against officials in a domed pavilion around which to hold ten horses covered with gold embroidered materials. Behind the king standing ten pages holding shields and swords decorated with gold, and to his right are the sons of the kings of his country wearing splendid clothes and their hair braided with gold. The governor of the city sits on the ground before the king and around him are seated ministers alike. At the door of the pavilion are dogs of excellent pedigree who hardly ever leave the place where the king is, who kept him. Around their necks they wear gold and silver necklaces studded with a number of balls of the same metals “-.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana_Empire#Government - the source of the quote is given on wikipedia that p. 80 of Corpus of Early Arabes Sources for West Africa by Nehemiah Levtzion and John Hopkins FP)
Here below are some representations of Empire of Ghana.
In 15, when the Portuguese, the first Europeans who sailed the Atlantic coasts of Africa “arrived on the coast of Guinea and landed at Vaida in West Africa, the captains were astonished to find well laid out streets , bordered on each side for several leagues by two rows of trees, for the days Thet traveled through a land of magnificant fields, inhabited by men dressed in richly colored garments of their own weaving! Further south, in the Kingdom of Kongo (sic), a swarming crowd dressed in fine silk and velvet ”; large well-ordered states, down to the finest detail, powerful rulers, booming industries-civilized to the core of their bones. And the state of the countries on the east coast of Mozambique, for example, was quite the same. “
For example, the Kingdom of the Congo in the 15th century was the epitome of political organization. It “was a flourishing state in the 15th century. It was located in the region of North Angola and West Kongo. Its population was estimated conservative at 2 or 3 million people. The country was fivided into 6 administrative provinces and a number of dependencies. The provinces were Mbamba, Mbata, Mpangu, Mpemba, Nsundi and Soyo. The outbuildings included Matari, Wamdo, Wembo and the province of Mbundu. All in turn were subject to the authority of Mani Kongo (King). The capital of the country (Mbanza Kongo), was in Mpemba province. From the province of Mbamba, the military fortress. It was possible to put 400 in the domain. "- Extract from" The African Agenda "by PD Lawton
Below is a representation by Olfert Dapper , a Dutch doctor and writer, from Loango (present Congo / Angola) 17th century city based on descriptions of the place by those who had actually seen.
Representation of the city of Mbanza Kongo in the Kingdom
King of Kongo Reception Dutch ambassadors 1642 DO Dapper, description of Africa Translated from Flemish (1686)
Portuguese emissaries received by the king of Kongo, end of 16th century Duarte Lopes, Regnum Congo hoc is warhaffte und eigentliche, of Congo in Africa (Franckfort am Mein, 1609)
Until the end of the 16th century, Africa was much more advanced than Europe in terms of political organization, science, technology, culture. That prosperity continued, despite the ravages of European slavery, until the 17th and 18th centuries.
The continent was crowded with dozens of great and good prosperous cities, empires and kingdoms with King Askia Touré of Songhay, King Béhanzin Hossu Bowelle of Benin, Emperor Menelik of Ethiopia, King Shaka ka Sezangakhona of Africa South, Queen Nzinga of Angola, Queen Yaa Asantewaa of Ghana, Queen Amina of Nigeria.
We are talking here about empires, kingdoms, Queendoms, kings, emperors, the richest man in the history of mankind in Africa.
Were these kings and queens sleeping on banana trees in the bushes? Were they dressed with tree leaves, without shoes?
If they weren't sleeping in the trees, covered in leaves, where are the rest of their palaces, their works of art?
The medieval Nigerian city of Benin was built to "a scale comparable to the Great Wall of China". There was a vast system of defensive walls totaling 10,000 miles in all. Even before the full extent of the city's masonry had become evident that the Guinness Book of Records made an entry in the 1974 edition which describes the city as: “The largest earthworks in the world carried out before the mechanical age.” - From ”The Invisible Empire“, PD Lawton, Source-YouTube, uploader-dogons2k12` African Ruins` historical
“The Benin art of the Middle Ages was of the highest quality. An official from the Berlin Museum für Völkerkunde once stated that: “These works from Benin are equal to very fine examples of European casting technique. Benvenuto Cellini couldn't throw them any better, nor could anyone else before or after him. . . Technically, these bronzes represent the very high achievement possible. “
In the mid-nineteenth century, William Clarke, an English visitor to Nigeria, remarked that: “An article of cloth can be woven by Yoruba weavers as well as by people. . . in terms of durability, their clothing excels far from the prints and home-spuns of Manchester ”.
The recently discovered 9th century Nigerian town of Eredo was found to be surrounded by a wall that was 100 miles long and seventy feet high in places. The internal area was a staggering 400 square miles. “Robin Walter
Loango City in the Congo / Angola region is depicted in another drawing from the mid 1600`s. Again, a large city planned in linear layout, spanning several miles and completely surrounded by city walls, bustling with commerce. The King`s complex alone was a mile and a half enclosure with courtyards and gardens. The people of Loango had used mathematics not only for arithmetic purposes, but for astrological calculations. They used advanced mathematics, linear algebra. The Ishango bone of Congo is a calculator that is 25 years old. “The so-called Ishango bone`s inscriptions consist of two columns of odd numbers that add up to 000, with the left column containing prime numbers between 60 and 10, and the right column containing both added and subtracted numbers. ” Source: Your Neter Foundation . It is on display in a museum in Belgium. - Extract from "The African Agenda" by PD Lawton
The beautiful city of Loango has been destroy by European fortune hunters, pseudo-missionaries and other types of Filibusters.
“On the issue of fabric, Kongolese textiles were also distinguished. Various sixteenth and seventeenth century European authors wrote of the delicate handicrafts of the peoples living in eastern Kongo and adjacent regions who made damask, sarcenet, satins, taffeta, rag cloth and velvet. Professor deGraft-Johnson made the curious observation that: "Their brocades, high and low, were far more valuable than the Italian."
On the Kongolese metallurgy of the Middle Ages, a modern researcher wrote that: “There is no doubt. . . the existence of expert metallurgical art in ancient Kongo. . . The Bakongo were aware of the toxicity of lead vapors. They devised preventive and curative methods, both (massive doses of papaya and palm oil) pharmacological and mechanical (exerting pressure to release the digestive tract), to fight lead poisoning ”.
In Nigeria, the royal palace in the city of Kano dates back to the 1463th century. Begun by Muhammad Rumfa (ruled from 1499 to 1902), it has gradually evolved over the generations into a very imposing complex. A colonial report of the city from 33, described it as “a network of buildings covering an area of 20 hectares and surrounded by a wall 30 to 15 feet high and XNUMX feet on the outside to the interior. . . in itself does not mean citadel “.
A XNUMXth century traveler visited the Central African civilization of Kanem-Bornu and commented that the Emperor's cavalry had golden “stirrups, spurs, pieces and buckles.” Even the ruler dogs had "chains of the finest gold".
One of the government posts in medieval Kanem-Bornou was Royal Astronomer.
Ngazargamu, the capital of Kanem-Bornou, became one of the largest cities in the world from the 1658th century. In 660 AD, the metropolis, according to an architectural scholar housed “about a quarter of a million people”. There were XNUMX streets. Many were broad and inflexible, reflecting the planning of the city.
The Nigerian city of Surame flourished in the 10th century. Even in ruins, it was an impressive sight, built on a horizontal vertical grid. One modern scholar describes it this way: “The walls of Surame are about 8 miles in circumference and include many large bastions or fortified suburbs running out perpendicular to the main wall. The large compound at Kanta is still visible in the center, with ruins of many buildings, one of which is said to have been two-story. The striking feature of the entire walls and ruins is the extensive use of stone and tsokuwa (lateritic gravel) or very hard red building mud, evidently brought in from a distance. There is a large mound of this near the north gate about 20 feet tall. The walls regularly show masonry yards at a height of 30 feet and more in several places. The best-preserved part is that known as sirati (the bridge) a little north of the eastern gate. . . The main city walls here appear to have provided a very heavily guarded entrance about XNUMX feet wide ”.
The Nigerian town of Kano in 1851 produced around 10 million pairs of sandals and 5 million skins each year for export.
In 1246 AD Dunama II of Kanem-Bornu exchanged embassies with Al-Mustansir, the king of Tunis. He sent the North African court presents an expensive one, which apparently included a giraffe. An old chronicle notes that the rare animal "created a sensation in Tunis".
In southern Africa, there are at least 600 stone ruins in parts of Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. These ruins are called Mazimbabwe in Shona, the Bantu language of the builders, and means great revered house and “means court”.
Great Zimbabwe was the largest of these ruins. It consists of 12 groups of buildings, spread over 3 square miles. Its exterior walls were made from 100.000 tons of granite bricks. In the fourteenth century, the city housed 18.000 people, of comparable size to that of London in the same period.
The bling culture existed in this region. At the time of our last visit, the Horniman Museum in London had headrest exhibits with the caption: “Headrests have been used in Africa since the days of the Egyptian pharaohs. Remains of some headrests, once covered in gold leaf, have been found in the ruins of Great Zimbabwe and burial sites dating from Mapungubwe as a XNUMXth century AD ”.
On bling culture, seventh century visitor to the southern African empire of Monomotapa, who ruled over this vast region, wrote that: “People dress up in various ways: at the court of the kings their great rags of rich silk, damask, satin, gold and silk chiffon; these are three widths of satin, each width of four covados [2,64m], each sewn to the other, sometimes with gold lace in between, cut on both sides, like a carpet, with a fringe of gold and silk, sewn in place with a broad two-finger ribbon, woven with gold roses on silk.
Apparently the Monomotapan Royal Palace at Mount Fura had chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. An eighteenth century geography book provided the following data: “The interior consists of a wide variety of sumptuous apartments, spacious and high rooms, all adorned with a magnificent cotton tapestry, the manufacture of the country. The floors, cielings [sic], beams and rafters are all either gilded or oddly forged gold plated, as are also the presidents of the states, tables, benches & c. The candlesticks and branches are made of ivory inlaid with gold, and hang from the cieling by chains of the same metal or vermeil. “
Monomotapa had a social protection system. Antonio Bocarro, a Portuguese contemporary, informs us that the emperor: “shows great charity for the blind and the crippled, for these are called the king's poor, and have land and income for their subsistence, and when they the wish to pass through the realms, wherever they come from food and drink are given to them at public cost as long as they stay there, and when they leave that place to go to another, they are provided with what is needed for their trip, and a guide, and someone to carry their wallet to the next village. In every place where they come, there is the same obligation ”.
In 1571 the Portuguese forces invaded Munhumutapa, and began the destruction of the place. In 1629, Emperor Mavhura became Puppet Master Munhumutapa on behalf of the Portuguese.
Chinese Archives of the XNUMXth century note that Mogadishu had "four or five story" houses.
“Gedi, near the coast of Kenya, is one of the East African ghost towns. Its ruins, dating from the XNUMXth or XNUMXth centuries, include the city walls, the palace, private houses, the Great Mosque, seven smaller mosques, and three pillar tombs.
The ruined mosque in the Kenyan town of Gedi had a water purifier made of limestone for recycling water.
The palace in the Kenyan town of Gedi contains evidence of running water controlled by taps. In addition, it had bathrooms and toilets inside.
A visitor in 1331 AD considered the Tanzanian town of Kilwa to be world class. He wrote that it was the late he said that "the main town on the coast the greater part of whose inhabitants are Zanj of very black complexion.": "Kilwa is one of the most beautiful and well-built towns in the world. The whole of it is elegantly constructed. “
The bling culture existed in early Tanzania. A XNUMXth century Portuguese chronicler wrote that: “[T] hey are finely dressed in many rich garments of gold and silk and cotton, and women as well; also with lots of gold and silver chains and bracelets, which they wear on their legs and arms, and many jewelry earrings in their ears.
In 1961, a British archaeologist, found the ruins of Husuni Kubwa, the royal palace of the Tanzanian city of Kilwa. There were over a hundred rooms, including a reception hall, galleries, patios, terraces and an octagonal swimming pool.
The Bamilike structures of Cameroon are of breathtaking delicacy and architectural beauty. The Bamum and Shomum scripts from Cameroon are similar to those from Ethiopia. There are over 7000 ancient Bamum manuscripts and the Bamum Palace is still perfectly preserved. "- When we ruled, by Robin Walter
As historical sources described above the continent was full of monuments. Where are they?
The sad truth is that the invading Europeans destroyed most of them either as punitive measures or under the stampede for Africa ” Terra nullius of the law.
During the race for Africa by the Europeans, the primary means of proving that a piece of land qualified for colonization or taken over was "Terra nullius", a Latin expression deriving from Roman law which means "land belonging to person ”, which is used in international law to describe territory that has never been subject to the sovereignty of any state, or over which no sovereign before sovereignty expressly or implicitly waived. Sovereignty over a territory which is terra nullius can be acquired by occupation ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_nullius
Many islands were acquired this way when it was possible to tear down the small population and easily prove that the land was empty before the arrival of the colonial powers.
But very quickly, the colonial powers were in difficulty to find "land belonging to no one". Africa was not a terra nullius. Hence, the law of terra nullius was amended to include lands inhabited by savages and uncivilized peoples.
Again, very quickly the colonial power found it difficult to prove that Africa was a country of savages and uncivilized peoples. Instead they found, as demonstrated above, queendoms and kingdoms with large palaces and highly developed political and social norms.
At this stage, the colonial power have to destroy any sign of civilization.
From then on, the colonial power spent a lot of energy to destroy and burn African historical buildings and monuments, slaughtering the African elite of engineers, scientists, craftsmen, writers, philosophers, etc.
There is a museum in Paris with 18 human heads of people killed by colonial troops and French missionaries. He called “Museum of Natural History of Paris”.
Among the heads are those of African kings, families of kings, African engineers, writers, army officers, spiritual leaders, but also ordinary men, women, children that the French have found unusual, quite exotic or interesting to kill to enrich their Museum of Natural History where they mainly exhibit skull animals to represent bio-diversity and evolution.
France was not alone in the European competition to behead the maximum variety of exotic people. The skulls and heads of many Africans could still be found in museums and unusual places across Europe.
Another consequence of the Terra nullius law defined as a land inhabited by savages, lead to the capture of Africans to be displayed in zoos and public events across Europe, in primitive conditions, to demonstrate inferiority and barbarity of African peoples.
From that moment until now, most Europeans think Africans are still savage, inferior, grotesque, unintelligent people. They would be the more of an African presenting characteristics that might suit the stigma, the more he or she would be loved by them.
Africans are stupid the best companion of Europeans.
An intelligent and authoritarian African is something that most Europeans are not yet used to, and would do anything to reject or ostracize.
For example, in Paris, the Soninkés of Mali play a lot on this stigma. They will go to French public administration and play the dumbest African, speaking a French, displaying signs of inintelligence and silence. Suddenly the official reportedly found a long-awaited or dormant humanitarian mission to help an uncivilized African sort through his papers and get his head around even the simplest things.
This way the Soninke often get most of the things they want from officials. They represent more than 50% of sub-Sahararian Africans living in France. An African who is going to go to the French administration with the posture of a person who is smart and rich will face a lot of obstacles, because the instinctive reaction of the officials would be “You want to show us that you are smart, we will show you! ".
Reason why you would see most Africans in Europe weaken themselves to be accepted. With the whites, they will act docile, submissive, take order-and-obey, but would strangely turn angry, aggressive, and pedantic with their fellow Black people.
Unfortunately, nothing remains of our ancestors. When the Europeans invaded Africa, they applied the 4 basic principles of all the occupying forces:
1. First of all, kill the fort and loot the place
2. Second, the weak Race
3. Third, Kill, the most intelligent and skilled deportation or exile
4. Fourth, impose the colonial rule of gold “My way or highway”.
Kings and their descendants have all been killed. Additionally, three centuries of transatlantic slavery exported over 12 million of Africa's best men and women to America, tens of millions died in the process.
Imagine what would happen to a country or civilization where almost all writers, storytellers, engineers, artisans, artists, leaders are killed or exiled? And, any sign of past heir of fame and ingenuity destroyed or burnt? Their books and records of knowledge stolen or destroyed.
Who will transmit the accumulated century of knowledge for ordinary men and women?
It is this broken link to knowledge and leadership for the past 3 centuries that has plunged the entire continent into a dark age, its people left without guidance.
Our fearless warriors and civilization builders are gone. Our Global Traders, Pyramid, United and Empire Builders are extinct.
Not surprisingly none of these generations have to be educated in the creation of empire, and to wage wars, the defense of their territory, the protection of their children and women.
This is why we no longer have the modern version of brave African warriors and the builders of civilization.
When some people ask why are they so poor, we say they are not poor, they were made poor.
Today if you want to see the glory of Africa you have to go to Europe, where thousands and thousands of stolen art objects, artefacts of civilization are in public museums and private collection (in UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Germany, etc.). If you want to see the wealth of Africa, you also have to go to Europe where they are stored in private and public accounts. 5 centuries of plunder and destruction brought the continent to its knees.
As PD Lawton put “From Egypt to Sudan, from Mali to Tanzania, from Zimbabwe to Mozambique, Africa is full of testimonies of its past. In many cases, the complete destruction of structures was not through natural elements, but deliberate acts, notably of the British Empire. The museums of Britain and Europe are full of the results of 'plunder and plunder'. There are many ancient structures which are in a state of good conservation, but in the case of most of Africa's cities, palaces, temples and ports of old trading we are left with nothing else. as written reports and drawings of traders and travelers from medieval times to the last days of complete destruction at the end of 1800s.In terms of beauty and even on the scale of occasion architecture of Egypt pyramids `s pale figure in comparison to other African historical structures. The diversity of the architecture of this continent is astounding. The traditional use of what is known as the fractal scale in the building highlights a religious tradition practiced across the continent. Fractal scaling is the 'Mandelbrot` idea of architecture where smaller parts of a structure look like larger pieces. This cultural / religious / tradition is practiced in all aspects of weaving life, from the milling of grain to the building of houses and palaces and is the embodiment of 'historical patterns and explanation of the universe and our place within it, in daily life, let us not forget. “-” Africa before the 20th century ”in“ Empire Invisible ”.
We need to invest time and resources in unearthing the ruins of our old cities to strengthen the faith of a younger generation in our ability to bounce back.
It is time to revive in the minds of a new generation of Africans the true nature of their ancestors, the past glory of their empires, the pride of its warriors, conquerors and builders of civilization, and make it clear that the 5 “Centuries of Shame” under European occupation must end with a new generation of leaders and builders!
5 th century ago, when Europeans arrived in Africa, they found the people were so advanced, richer, and were in awe of nature's abundance and civility of its people. European became jealous and bitter, and knew they could win over people because people were very nice, very welcoming, and not having guns or mounted mechanized armies like them.
Africans were exactly like what Christopher Columbus wrote about Native Americans “They are naive and generous with what they have, to such a degree that no one wanted to believe but whoever saw it. Of all they have, if one asked, they would never say no, but rather invite the person to accept it, and show as much lovingness as if they were going to give their hearts. “
Therefore, Columbus later wrote what he was going to do to these good Indians, “We will enter your land mightily, and make war against you in any way and manner that we can, and subject you to the yoke and the obedience of the Church and of their Highnesses; we will take you, and your wives and children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such will sell and dispose of them as their Highnesses may command; and we will take away your goods, and shall do you all the harm and damage we can, to vassals who disrespect and refuse to receive their lord, and resist him and contradict each other; and we protest that the deaths and losses that must result from this situation are your fault, and not that of their Highnesses, or ours, nor of those horsemen who come with us… ”
The fate of Africa from there was sealed in the evil of the devil with blue eyes.They looted what they found worthy, destroyed and burned everything that was of value but could not be removed.
As we have seen above, at “the height of Afrikan civilizations, let them master the development of a stable high culture where the arts, sciences and human dignity have flourished for thousands of years. But they do not develop a solution to the problem of the voracious violent European invader. Neither do other parts of Afrika or Native America. We and our descendants will have to solve this problem or continue to suffer endless retraining of slavery, massacres, second classness, slavery, massacres, second classiness. ” Muai-Aakhu Meskheniten
A story says,
When Europeans began to kill African writers, artisans, philosophers, nobles and kings, a group of young apprentices and courtesans decided to find a place to hide books and manuscripts.
In many parts of the continent, Europeans have already killed many writers and philosophers, and the few left to flee. While Europeans were burning books and manuscripts, a sage passed some sacred manuscripts to two brothers to hide from the invaders.
Before the two brothers were captured and killed by the savages, they managed to hide the manuscripts, divide them into parts, gave them a dozen couriers to bring to the sages of other realms on the continent.
The story says that the person who finds these manuscripts will discover the secret that will finally give the clues to rebirth Africa. They contain a coded message, integrated into their lines, which on reading it will open and enlighten the minds of African peoples, connecting them to an ancestral power specific to Africa.
These manuscripts are reported to contain the secret for Africa to become almighty once again, and to rule the world. People will come from Europe, Asia, America to bow down to the African kings. Blacks as the original human beings will be the first among all nations. People will travel the world in search of their protection and knowledge.
So far no one has been able to find these manuscripts, but the time has come to try again, and I am ready to commit my life to searching for these documents. I have already spent the last 15 years asking around for these documents.
It is certain that these manuscripts exist, and my mission is to find them. I will discover the names of the two brothers, follow their flight path, travel the routes of the dozen couriers that carried the dozen chapters, discover the places the manuscripts were hidden, and decipher the message, expose it to all African children as needed to reclaim our ancestral glory and build our path to millennial glory and greatness.
