The Meaning of History of Africa

 

When I was in Lithuania, I saw a ballet for children, in which “white people” go to Africa and save Africans. Is that correct? I would say this is brainwashing. There would’ve been such cases, but to teach proper history to children, bad acts in Africa done by “white people” should be also taught at the same time. Otherwise the ideology “White as good” would be imprinted into children’s mind and they wouldn’t believe and accept the truth of history from the bottom of heart even if the children study it at schools later on (I met in fact such young white people at Vilnius University). “Premise” is the base to think, and if you have the “White as good” in your mind, when you learn “Slavery”, how would you find the mentality of “white people”? How would you accept the evil mind of “white people”? When you see history, it is necessary for you to be neutral and objective without emotion.

On my desk, there is a book call “The Meaning of History of Africa” written in Japanese by Kumiko Usami. When I saw the book, I didn’t either pay too much attention on the title or notice how important this title was. However it is very meaningful to understand “International Development”. The other day I visited the Library of Northern Region in Tamale and checked shelves for history. There’re very few books on history of Africa. Why? Because it’s a new field in academic studies.

“White people” robbed so many things from Africa and other places in the name of Slavery, Imperialism, Colonization, Plantation, etc. and the evidence of the history are preserved in the British Museum. And “they” stole not only the treasures but also human beings, dignity of people, and “History”. Let me quote some words from the book above.

 << Nkrumah states about the education of Gold Coast before the independence in 1957 in his book, Africa Must Unite: “We were taught to regard our culture and tradition as barbarous and primitive. And our textbooks were to teach History of the Great Britain, Geography of Britain Islands, Lifestyle in Britain, Customs of Britain, and Thoughts of the British. Many of these textbooks hadn’t changed since 1895.” >>

As you can see, “white people” use two ways to brainwash us: destroy real history and teach fake history. It is true that “white people” distorted, forged, fabricated, hide, erased history of Africa.

And first of all, “they” created the myth: “There is no history in Africa” and then made up the theory that Africans were inferior and barbarous as races to justify their malicious activities.

<< First, Slavery was justified to save black people out from the land where the grace of God didn’t reach. And Africans were judged as the races who were supposed to be suitable for heavy labors from the birth and not to feel any pain physically and mentally, thus there is no problem at all to make them slaves in terms of a question of affecting humanity. And regarding Colonization, the introduction of gospel and advanced civilization in the Dark Continent was also idealized as good acts for barbarous and underdeveloped Africans. As a result of the above ideas, the discrimination consciousness that regards black Africans as an inferior race was rooted deeply in the mind of the Westerns as a ruler. >>

Extracted from the Meaning of History Africa (translated by D@IGO  D@IGO)

History tells us what happened in the past and at the same time it teaches us who we are. And it wasn’t until after the World War II that history of Africa started being taught properly at schools; during the Colonial times “white people” hided the true history of Africa. “They” needed a mask to hide the true face of “white people”. History is not an instrument to mislead people but a tool to learn something important for future. It’s the time for all peoples to know the truth of our history.