The untold stories in African History

Kiswend
Feb 1, 2016
10 min read

2000 years of stagnation?

We all know about the pyramids in Egypt, and the great pharaohs like Ramses and Cleopatra that have reigned through powerful dynasties; dark skinned human beings ruling like demi-gods over some of the most (if not the most) advanced societies of their times.

What happened throughout the centuries to shape the Egypt, the Sudan, the continent we know today?

I dare you to research Egypt and not find that it’s as if most of what is has to offer today still has to do with the remains of ancient Egypt. As if nothing wonderful is happening there today; as if the words “evolution” and “Africa” are antonyms.

“ We should know where we came from in order to better shape where we are going, not to simply dwell on past memories forever."

To make a long story short, I always thought it was abnormal and almost unfair that the African continent (especially sub Saharan Africa) generally has this negative connotation in people’s minds worldwide, that the great stories are always the exceptions.

Senselessness is written all over it.

Instead of sitting there partaking in the group therapy of self pity and herd instinct, I decided to look into it because in reality, it all didn’t seem to make sense to me.

It didn't make sense that the once great Mali empire would suddenly lose its greatness and turn into one of the “poorest” areas in the world.

It didn’t make sense that the first human remains were found on African soils, indicating that the continent is a place for evolution, but humans had to go up North to develop their creative spirit.

It didn’t make sense that Africans just decided to stagnate and wait for colonisation to start evolving.

It didn’t make sense that the continent had such prosperous grounds and was plagued with poverty.

“ It didn't make sense that this wide variety of climates and peoples and astoundingly rich cultures didn’t mean Africans held at least some of the keys to humanity’s problems. “

You better believe that!

I don't know about you but it seems to me that the History of Africa is generally presented as if these undeniable waves of greatness suddenly faded to give way to the colonizing “saviours” who came to rescue Africans from themselves and their lack of evolution in the thousands of years that passed.

“Even in Nollywood, this movie won’t hold; there had to be more to this story.”

In my quest for self understanding and attempt to decipher the African stereotypes which portrays a continent tagged with poor ambition, famine, corruption and war, it didn't take long for me to discover a number of incredible facts that I couldn’t (and probably shouldn’t) keep to myself. The amount of amazing discoveries about the continent was such that I decided to split them in topics and share them with you through a series named “This you should know”.In this first chapter of my discoveries, geography and history will help me translate why our African forefathers were not the savages.

“On the wake of this Black History Month, this you should know.”

Evolution or “devolution”?

No wonder I’ve always disliked history class! Subconsciously, I couldn't relate. Now that I decided to check the facts myself, things just got that much more interesting!

The Human Republic

According to the multiregional theory of evolution taught in schools today, the Homo erectus (the ancestors of today’s humans) left the African continent approximately 200,000 years ago to spread the Earth. Each group of humans evolved in time adapting to the environmental conditions of their respective settlement region creating the physical variations we see today.

Recently, with the advancement of genetic studies,some scientists decided to analyze the DNA of thousands of people all over the world to try and determine where we all really came from.

“As Mory Povich would put it :“Adam, you are the father!””

The Genographic Project was launched in 2005 and the conclusions support the Out of Africa theory of evolution which basically says that modern humans only evolved on the African continent and then migrated to the rest of the world starting about 70 millennia ago, to areas previously populated by now extinct human species such as the Neanderthals.

“If it even existed, racism should have ended there but it is clear that some people didn’t get the memo on how we are all from the same human race.”

In fact, scientists were able to determine that the variations in genetic differences were so little that the humans we are today probably all came from a few thousand individuals and that we likely all share two common ancestors that can be dated back about 130,000 years ago: one African male and one African female.

Look at that: scientific proof of Adam and Eve! And these perfect creatures of God happen to be African.

Speaking of Adam, it looks like he (or his uncle or someone from the family) might have been into astronomy already 75,000 years ago.

In fact, judging by the name, he seems to have come up with Adam’s Calendar (obviously with Eve and the family's help).

Located in the hills of Emngwenya in Mpumalanga (South Africa), Adam’s Calendar, which dates back 75 000 years, is known to be one of the earliest monolithic calendars. It’s made with an ensemble of rocks arranged in a circular shape around two stone boulders which are aligned with the geographic cardinal points of planet Earth, and marks solstices and equinoxes.

I guess there’s no need to look further for the garden of Eden then… [subscribe below and stay tuned for that chapter of this series.]

Now guess who first went to America?

An Egyptian scholar known as Ibn Fadl Al-Umari, published a book in 1342 where he talks about two large maritime voyages ordered by the predecessor of Mansa Musa, a king who inherited the Malian throne in 1312.

“Malian sailors visited America in 1311 AD, 181 years before Christopher Columbus”.

This mariner king is not named by Al-Umari, but modern writers identify him as Mansa Abubakari II.

Check out this book for details:

To add to this, archeological research unveiled that the Nigerian city of Ile-Ife was paved with decorations that originated in Ancient America in 1000 AD on the orders of a female ruler; yes, a woman in power 1000 years ago on the African continent.

I guess no one screams imposture because one could argue that African standard time was so advanced at the time that they got to visit (not discover) America 500 years before Christopher Columbus’ watch started ticking.- I’m just saying.

Meanwhile in Europe… the Dark Age was at its apogee as the continent was ravaged by plague and famine and people were murdering each other for religious and ethnic reasons.

Today the African Union has amongst its goals to achieve greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and the peoples of Africa and to accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent.This would mean that if one day these goals are met, Africa will probably have the largest, wealthiest, most culturally diverse union in the world.

It’s been proven: The greatest nation in the world has been African.

Back in the 14th century, the Mali Empire was one of the three richest regions on earth with China and Iran/Irak. From all three, the only one which was still independent and prosperous was the Mali Empire. China and the Middle East were conquered by the Genghis Kan Mongol troops which ravaged, pillaged, and raped everywhere they went.

In the 14th century, the city of Timbuktu in West Africa was considered the richest city in the world. It was five times bigger than the city of London, and was recently described by National Geographic as the Paris of the mediaeval world, on account of its intellectual culture. According to Professor Henry Louis Gates, 25,000 university students studied there.

“ Did you know the richest man in the history of Humanity was African?”

Set aside the Bill Gates, Warren Buffets and Carlos Slims of this world: Mansa Musa, emperor of the 14th century Mali Empire (which covered modern day Mali, Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea) was worth the equivalent of 400 billion dollars at the time of his death in 1331.

Back then, the Mali Empire was producing more than half the world’s supply of salt and gold. I guess that’s just a slight preview of how rich the continent can be without the “help” of some legalised mafia organisations known in politically correct terms as multinationals - but we’ll talk about this another time...[sign up below to be notified].

Until the end of 16th century, the African continent was considerably more advanced than Europe in term of political organization, science, technology and culture

Nations? Naturally.

Did you know that the African continent had precolonial states?

According to National geographic, before colonial rule there were up to 10,000 different states and autonomous groups with distinct languages and customs on the African continent.

As the continent was colonised, boundaries, which mostly are the reason behind the geography of the countries we know today, were created by pretty much dividing the land geometrically, disregarding the established cultural and linguistic boundaries already established by the existing African populations, each European colonial state getting its share.

Now let’s rewind a bit: imagine if Africans took over Europe and decided to share it based on a grid division. When hot blooded Italians and “by the book” Germans have to be one and the same people, I wonder how well the European union would work… Besides, there was nothing much to get from europe at the time for Africans to bother.

Given that Africa and its 54 or so countries (30 415 873 km2) is about 3 times bigger than Europe and its 50 or so countries including European russia (10 392 855 km2), let’s not even go there.

And there I was, wondering why it takes so many wars and trouble to sort things out…

“Now let’s take the gloves off, let’s get into the recent history of it all: Where did the savages all come from?”

Divide and conquer

When Europeans arrived on the African continent, they quickly understood that these lands held tremendous value and and potential to help them decentralized Europe, allowing them to live more peaceful and comfortable lives.

In order to weaken the existing socio-political systems, it is thought that they applied the 3 common tactics of any occupant forces:

1. Exile, kill or get rid of the strongest and smartest and breed the weakest links

2. Loot the locality and spread poverty;

3. Impose your ways and showcase them as the best way.

To achieve this in the best possible manner, African leaders and their successors were exterminated and slavery deported over a dozen million of the best people of Africa, killing millions in the process.

Imagine if suddenly, all the bright minds, inventors, white and blue collars, farmers, artists and artisans, scientists and leaders were all removed from America and all and any sign of the American dream and knowledge was completely destroyed.

Who will be left as a witness for their descendants? What will be left for their younger generations to see? How will they evolve on what their forefathers have created from centuries of mistakes and lessons learned? How will they learn greatness from being immersed in greatness?

This heritage destruction may be what threw the continent into the abyss it is still trying to recover from today.

Indeed, this chapter in African history may have inspired some to learn from what they saw perpetuated by those who seemed to win: greed, selfishness and pity.

You don’t exist, you don’t matter. It’s that simple.

We are all humans. And sometimes as humans, greed takes over and it seems that we are ready to go to the greatest lengths to get what we want.

During the European scramble for Africa, the Terra Nullius law was the main tool used to justify the horrible actions being perpetrated. This simply because Terra Nullius was (and still is) a law used in international law to describe a territory which has never belonged to anyone or that no one has claimed as theirs.

So either europeans didn't see there were established societies living on the continent (which I highly doubt) or they decided to consider that these Africans were in fact not human.

Given that the colonial trips were funded by european leaders, it probably didn't’ take much to alter the Terra Nullius law to include land inhabited by “savages and uncivilized people”.

As they witnessed the wealth, resourcefulness, organization, respectfulness and intelligence of these “savages and uncivilized people”, they realized the script required an adaptation for the movie to be believable.

It was imperative to get rid of any evidence against savagery and lack of civilization.

“ Exterminating any sign of the greatness of those kingdoms was a no brainer.“

It was time to put an almost diabolic wit to great use and loot, burn, kill and destroy any sign of eminence. This went as far as displaying some of these dark skinned creatures and their dead bodies in zoos and museums to satisfy people’s curiosity and defy any skeptic.

This was for the greater good of (european) humanity.

After African civilisations were left weakened and on their knees, their dignity destroyed and their wealth stolen, it was time to offer them assistance… Better: it was time to save them from themselves.

This apparent sign of redemption would bring the Africans back to their senses and help them join the ranks of humanity through submission.

Indeed, as African countries were trying to get their independence, most europeans still believed in the natural savagery, lack of intelligence and inferiority of African peoples.

“The more an African would display features that would fit that stigma, the more he or she would be appreciated in their dominating society.”

Many individuals, including the renowned Senegalese scholar Cheick Anta Diop, admit having played the game in order to fit in and get the resources that would allow them to move forward.

Today, many are working hard for the African continent and its people to get back on their feet and take pride; to gain more confidence and put their knowledge and creativity to good use; to encourage the small victories and polish the image of the continent; to remember their history and to apply their rich ancestral knowledge for an even brighter future.

This black history month, know that your forefathers were not the savages, remember that the African continent was, and still is, home to greatness.

All this research definitely helped boost my confidence and motivation for my birthplace and I hope you find your breath of fresh air in it. If you’ve enjoyed it, please share and help us spread this tiny piece of history. As they say, as long as lions will not have their own historians, hunting tales will always tell the glory of the hunter. I think our historians need a voice, a microphone and speakers to tell it all.

I know there’s a lot more where that came from so if you know somethings we should know, share the knowledge! – please feel free to use the comments section or start a debate on social media!

For more on the history of the African continent...

I have a good resource to recommend:

General history of Africa by UNESCO (written by african historians and with a defined proprietary african methodology, this publication has 8 volumes and counting):

If you're not a reader, check out the videos of “The Lost Kingdoms of Africa”:

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About the author - Kiswend, The Yoruba Sista

Kiswend is a Sista Tweet blogger, co-creator, designer and Creative Manager. She loves cooking, crafting and thinking outside the box and when she’s not on Sista Tweet or building up a city at her day job, this aspiring entrepreneur is busy inventing her next homemade African fusion project.