This piece stems from a
directed and properly guided desire to correct the misguided and to put aright
minds awash by the fictions, feint, convictions and the lease beliefs in the
diverse faces of the farce that continuously and repeatedly pervades every
communication medium. The faces of this farce have been adored in ignorance and
adorned shamelessly without the thirst for the waters of knowledge and truth.
Africa the rich black continent
and Africans, her very own, have always been regarded subjects of near
irrelevance and backbenchers respectively. The so called Africans seem to have
given in to the Eurocentric modes of life and have dwelled in the abode of
forgetfulness not realizing that the vast majority of what is new in the world
today are developments and further developments of ideas deeply rooted in the
most beautiful continent “AFRICA”.
Africans have been painted as
the inferior race, the subservient continent, a breeding ground for a variety of
hardcore criminals ranging from the murderers to the robbers, cybercriminals,
rapists, terrorists , drug addicts and even potential criminals for crimes not
yet invented as it is common knowledge how terribly a badly behaved
African is portrayed in relation to his
white counterpart by the media. This is not new, this no news.
As a deeply concerned and highly patriotic
African, I began to ruminate over these issues, seeking diligently the truth about
“what came from Africa and what didn’t”
with all of my heart and refusing to believe the non-fiction about what
had been wrongly plundered from Africa and the ills that had been wrongly
ascribed to a race that I belong. Today I must say that my desire to seek the
truth has led me to certain findings and conclusions.
Having drank from the fountain
of knowledge of enigmas I consider as true sons of the soil amongst certain
distinguished scholars, the erudite Prof Akin Oyebode and the rare Prof Akin
ibidapo-Obe, during my sojourn as a student of law at the University of Lagos, Nigeria,
I began to realize that not all that had been said was true and not all that is
true has been said. The average African reading this piece would, by my guess,
not be aware of credits owed to Africa by the entire world thus confirming the
words of George Kimble that the darkest thing about Africa has been
our ignorance of it.Thus the importance of what came from Africa
and what didn’t is important.
One major thing that came from
Africa is civilization though the eurocentrics may be quick to disagree.
Scholars like Sheik Anta Diop, B.C.M James among several others have posited
that Africa is indeed the bedrock of civilization, the foundation of a vast
majority of the things we call modern. Examples of such foundational ideas
abound. The alternative dispute resolution system of adjudication mistakenly
deemed as foreign was stolen from the traditional African dispute resolution
mechanism and repackaged.
As a Nigerian I know as a fact
that the traditional Nigerian societies believed mediation and amicable settlement
of disputes between parties as against
the prevalent court system today. In actual fact the system should be known as
the African dispute resolution (ADR) which embodies the nature of the African
to always live peaceably with his neighbor. The African is a peaceful being.
Research has also shown that
activities like agriculture, architecture , perfume making, astronomy ,
mathematics amongst others developed from Africa.It was the Egyptians through
the river Nile bank that invented agriculture. They revealed to the world the
concept of irrigation. What this means is that engineering was at the forefront
of Egyptian civilization. The construction of the pyramids also reveals the
architectural depth and ingenuity of the Egyptians. The credit belongs here in
Africa.
It may be quite surprising but
true that the oldest existing, and operating
educational institution in the world is
the university of Karueein, founded in 859AD in Fez, Morocco,in Africa.
In fact the oldest treaty was concluded in 1296 BC by Pharaoh Ramsel the
second. Also traceable from Africa is the concept of sanctity of contract. These
are a few amongst what was started in Africa.
Sadly Egypt experienced a revolt. Alexander the great defeated the Egyptian
armies and looted away texts, artifacts to Greece which launched Greece into
civilization. In fact the Greeks learnt all they knew from the ancient Egypt. Thus
what we have today is that the origin lies somewhere yet the glory lies
somewhere else.
Africa is thus by all standards an intelligent continent
parading highly successful individuals in every positive sphere of life ranging
from business to the arts, entertainment and lifestyle, science and whatever industry
you can think of. If I decide to come up
with a list of names, you may never get to the end of this article. This leaves
me certain that the African race is indeed a special one and all Africans
should be proud to be who they are.
Furthermore beauty and
strength, those twin ideological traits that all humans desire and desire to
acquire or be associated with both in times historical and contemporary, are
not only from Africa but reside here. Black is the only colour I know that is
accurately described as beautiful. The African people are a beautiful people.
The beauty of the African woman pervades her glowing dark skin dancing
unabashedly through the curls of her natural hair; she is beautiful deep down
to her soul. The strength of the African man is not just physical, it breaks
the bounds of physicality, surging relentlessly into the realm of spirituality.
At this point I say that
civilization, peace keeping, intelligence, beauty and strength are factors that
came from Africa, and they are traits that are deeply entrenched into ancient
African arts, music and literature. Do not be dissuaded, Africans are not
everything wrong we have been painted to be. Good things sprung from here, and
the blackness of our skin is not an evidence of a darkness of heart! I AM
AFRICAN, I AM BLACK , I AM PROUD.
If these factors came from
Africa it simply implies that the level of negativity attached to Africans is
strange to us. Whatever negativity exists in Africa has either been imported by
misguided Africans or imposed by compelling forces from outside Africa. One
recent example amongst others was the attempt to foist homosexuality on some
African nations which was met by rejection by the legislators in different
countries across the continent; at least we can still say no to some
things. Negativity is alien to the
African family except being negative to negative things!
Definitely and assuredly, I
know that negativity is not African and did not spring from Africa.
Despite the above , the African
is not totally blameless. A vast
population of Africans are lost in Eurocentric/western identities and blind to
the truth about Africa. African children are not taught to be African anymore. A
lot of Africans do not appreciate their identity; rather they are engrossed in
everything foreign, forgetting the richness of the black culture. The reason
for this from my point of view is not far- fetched. The bad portrayal of Africa
and Africans by the foreign media takes the attention off the positivity of
what stems from Africa.
It takes the attention off the
negativity resident outside Africa and focuses it on the seemingly wrong things
on our continent thus bringing to life the words of the fictional character
Frank Underwood from the TV show House of Cards that when you are fresh meat,
kill and throw them something fresher. The fresher meat in this case is the over
bloated negativity of Africa.
Little wonder they try to kill the memory that
one of the earliest forms of writing; hieroglyphics, started in Africa or that
something as symbolic as the very first calendar was made and used in Africa by
Africans and other such astronomical achievements and having killed these
memories, they fling the bleeding African ideology at the sharks of
eurocenticity, the fresher meat! Yes!! We are not problem-free
but there is a need for us to focus on our strengths as a continent,
objectively identifying our problems and intelligently proffering solutions and
not letting the rest of the world decide for us who we truly are.
Africa is a beautiful continent
filled with beautiful people. The things that came from Africa are positive and
should always be. Negativity consequently did not come from here and should not
thrive here. Raising an awareness on the positivity of Africa requires not only
the efforts of the experienced and the aged in the continent, but the young,
vibrant, adventurous and intelligent minds are called to join in the challenge
of placing the microscope on all that makes us who we truly are. AFRICANS!!!!!
BLACK!!!!!! PROUD!!!!!!!!!!!!
*Seyi Bioku is a law graduate
from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. An African with the passion for
continental re-positioning.
No comments:
Post a Comment