AFRICAN HISTORY AND CIVILIZATION
BY
MUOGBO
MICHAEL IZUCHUKWU
SS/PP/2368
TERM
PAPER:
Africa
was a cultural wasteland before the Europeans sowed the seed of civilization on
her cultural barren shores. Comment.
Being a Term Paper submitted to the
Department of Philosophy, Seminary of
Saints Peter and Paul, Bodija, Ibadan, in Affiliation with the
University of Ibadan, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Award
of the Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy (B.A. HONS.).
COURSE
AFRICAN
HISTORY AND CIVILIZATION
COURSE
CODE
SS/AFR/101
LECTURER
MR
D.O. AJAYI
DATE:
APRIL, 2013.
INTODUCTION
African
history is a course introduced in Africa, in high schools, pioneered by the
Ibadan school of history, Nigeria to teach students about Africa and its
history after many years of questioning and condemning the existence of an
African history by the westerners. [1]Just
as S. Ademola Ajayi said in his article titled the concept of culture, that
“Africa just like all other peoples of the world, are inseparable from their
history, culture and civilization”.
It
is ignorantly stated by some Europeans who claimed to be scholars, like Trevor Roper that “history in Africa
can only be traced back to European activities in Africa, the rest is darkness
and it is not a subject of history”. His counterpart, A.P Newton also made a fallacious statement saying “History only
begins when men take to writing, so since Africa has no culture of writing,
they have no history”, showing his ignorance about the fact that history can be
transferred to generations through oral tradition and can be preserved not only
in writing but also in art works just as the Africans did. Other erroneous
statements were made by Philip Mitchell,
G.W Hegel, and Margery Perham etc
Historically,
Africa was a continent unknown to the Europeans and had been existing before
the Europeans stepped their feet on it when need arose for human labours. [2]For
a long time, Africa has been erroneously condemned about having any history,
culture and civilization before the Europeans came and this is worth a serious
study to find out the truth value of such statements.
This
term paper is basically subjected on commenting, proving and arguing whether or
not Africa was a cultural waste land before the Europeans sowed the seed of
civilization on her cultural barren shores.
CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION
“Africa
was a cultural wasteland before the Europeans sowed the seed of civilization on
her cultural barren shores” comment. Making an approach to this statement, what
does it imply to say that Africa was culturally a wasteland? What do they mean
by Africa? What is a culture?
To
justify the claims or rather the accusation on Africa above, the above
questions should be answered and clarified conceptually in order to ascertain
the impressions the Europeans are trying to make or rather had about Africa,
what they asserted about the history and cultural practices of Africa.
AFRICA
The
context in which Africa is used in the fallacious statement does it imply a
part of Africa or Africa in general? If it is the case that it refers to a part
of Africa, it can be understandable but if it is Africa in general then the
statement is erroneous and stands to be corrected.
By
a virtue of a standard historical analysis of Africa, Africa has long been
existing as a continent even before the first set of Europeans, the Portuguese
stepped their feet on its shores; which implies that history in Africa can be
traced beyond the European activities in Africa. Logically, let me put it in
this way “Africa have a present because there was a past for them” there cannot
be a present without a past. This fact disproves the erroneous and selfish
opinions, beliefs and impressions of the Europeans about Africa.
Africa
as known worldwide is a continent rich in culture and tradition, regarding the
fact that Africa is constituted by many different cultural groups; so
culturally Africa is a mother of many and not barren. It cannot be justified
that Africa has ever been devoid of culture. the Europeans claimed to have been
on a civilization mission to Africa but the fact remains that they, for their
own interest and benefit were on a business trip.
WASTELAND
This
term ‘wasteland’ for me must have been used figuratively in the statement, but
what does it imply? Does it imply that Africa was devoid of culture or that
their cultural practices then were not useful and primitive?
[3]A
wasteland is an area of land that cannot be used or that is no longer used for
building or growing things on. Looking at the definition, does it mean Africa
is not culturally productive before the Europeans came? If it is the case that
African cultures then was seen as not worthy to be termed culture by the
Europeans, then they should be guilty of ethnocentricism
because one according to the sociologists is not expected to place any
culture above or as a standard for evaluating other cultures. Were it the case
that Africa is culturally unproductive or rather devoid of culture, then it is
a pure, authentic and a classical lie because it is obvious to say that people
of other continents does not know that Africa is a continent rich in culture,
in other words Africa is known for its constitution of many diverse cultures of
different ethnic groups.[4] Africa
is occupied by many distinct human population of a great complexity of culture
(S. Ademola Ajayi).
CULTURE
What
is culture? Culture is the entire way of life of a people as a social group
(E.B Tylor, primitive culture 1871). Culture is a concept and experience that
is universal and it implies a collective way of life of different groups of
people.
S.
Ademola Ajayi said, “Culture is perceived as a way of life or the totality of
all human efforts and achievements in the struggle for survival in the midst of
unfriendly and militant forces of nature. The sociologist defines culture as
designs for living: the values, beliefs, behaviours, practices, and material
objects that constitute a people’s way of life. Man creates the things that
makes up his culture and absorbs them by living within a cultural setting.
Culture is not a divine or natural concept but it is created out of man’s thought
and idea the way it suites him.
Cultures
of different peoples are not expected to be the same because culture is
dynamic. Since culture is a peoples’ way of life, it is meant to be a freestyle
concept depending on the situation it was created and regarding the peoples
involved, as different peoples have their different way of doing things.
Culture transcends the people of its origin.
The
Europeans asserting that Africa has no culture implies that Africa does not
exist before the Europeans came because there is no existing group of people
living together without a culture that guides their everyday way of life. Does
it mean the Europeans created Africa with their coming? The Europeans only
discovered the continent of Africa and even the discovering of the African
continent by the Europeans is questionable because the Africans then were
conscious of the fact that they are, though unknown to the Europeans.
CIVILIZATION
What
is civilization? Does it imply abandoning one’s culture and copying another
man’s culture? Civilization according to the oxford advanced learner’s
dictionary means “a society, its culture and its way of life during a
particular period of time or in a particular part of the world”.
With
regards to this dictionary meaning of civilization, I can infer that Africa was
already civilized on their own before the historical Europeans set their feet
on it because as at that time, Africans have their own different cultures.
Africans are not united in culture as a result of the diverse cultures in Africa;
this made the Eurocentric scholars to think it is impossible to talk about
culture and civilization in Africa, ignoring the fact that culture is meant for
the people concerned.
Civilization
is it a case of coming to take away our able bodied men as slaves? The
Europeans were not on a civilization mission to Africa but they were on a
business trip of buying slaves, they subjected to civilization mission if at
they did, when they saw that the need for slave labour is no more and that was
approximately after 300 years of slave trade.
AFRICAN CULTURES AND CIVILIZATION
Africa
was a cultural wasteland before the Europeans sowed the seed of civilization on
her cultural barren shores. Comment. Considering the explanations on the
conceptual clarification above, I would like to disagree with this statement.
Africa was never barren neither has it ever been a cultural wasteland because
Africa at every point of their history had been contributing to the survival,
development and advancement of humanity, disproving the theoretical grouping of
G.W Hegel that Africa belong to the non-historical group that had contributed
nothing to the development of humanity.
If
it is the case that African shores were barren, then the Europeans are foolish
enough to sow a seed so called to be civilization on a barren land because it
is obvious that any barren entity, be it whatever cannot be productive and as a
matter of fact, Africa today is civilized.
The
Europeans with the introduction of the slave trade placed Africa on a stagnant
point while them, the Europeans were undergoing serious development. It is
quite obvious that the Europeans must have reached an optimum development when
Africans are still struggling to recover from the pains and problems associated
with the slave trade and if not for that reason, Africa would have been on the
peak of development by now.
Europe
today may be more developed because during those days when Africa is been
marginalized through colonialism and slave trade, when our able bodied men were
been taken away, the Europeans were developing there continent.
Africans
were able to transfer history to their children from generation to generation
through oral tradition disregarding
the fallacious statement made by A.P. Newton that history starts when men takes
to writing, which implies that history can only be preserved and transferred in
written works.
Africans
were able to show their civilization and the uniqueness of their culture in art
works. These art works marveled the Europeans that they stole them away,
crediting them to Eurocentric ancestors who for them must have visited Africa
at some point in time. The Europeans were not humble enough to accept and to
believe that those art works were done by the African men.
The
Europeans suppose to demand for the history of Africa from the Africans because
the only met Africa after many years or rather centuries of it been in
existence as a continent, but they went ahead to assuming and asserting or kinds
of erroneous theories about Africa.
EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION
Culture
and civilization, if they are the case of values, beliefs, arts and thoughts,
then it cannot be denied that Africa has them and have not lost their cultural
values till date. This is shown by the complex, social and political art
structures in different empires and kingdoms in Africa, the precious art works
of such places in Nigeria like: Nok, Benin, Ife, Igbo-ukwu etc. another place
of noticed civilization in Africa during those days is Egypt because they were
able to preserve their art works like pyramid, pharaoh heads, and carvings on
rocks. Most of the African cultural values like art works, cultural dances are
being displayed and exhibited in different museums in the different parts of
the world.
The
Eurocentric views about the continent of Africa, their culture and civilization
has been pervaded by the hamitic hypothesis which, in turn, had credited the
origin of the best and most advanced cultural and art works of African
societies to European ancestors. They made a fallacious statement that Africans
have no history but when they noticed the art works done by the Africans for
centuries past, in order to back up and defend the lie they told about Africa,
they told another one, crediting the hard works of African ancestors to create
and preserve their marvelous art works to European ancestors.
The
Europeans never succeeded and never will in saying that Africa has no history,
culture and civilization because for ages past, Africa has been in existence
and is constituted by many diverse cultures of different African tribes. Africa
was never a cultural wasteland and they also had their own civilization and
were able to decorate and design their squares, palaces, hurts etc with art
works of their origin long before the Europeans came.
BIBIOGRAPHY
1.
African culture and civilization. Edited
by S. Ademola Ajayi. Department of history university of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Secreprint Nig. Ltd, Ibadan. 2005.
2.
Exploration of Africa. Thomas Sterling
and George H.T Kimble. American heritage publishing co., Inc, New York. 1964.
3.
Pundering Africa’s past, edited by Peter
R. Schmidt and Roderick J. Mclntosh. Indian university press. 1996.
4.
Sociology, a global introduction, third
edition. John J. Macionis and Ken Plummer. Mateu Cromo Artes Graficas, Spain.
2005.
5.
West Africa, an introduction to its
history. Michael Crowder. Butler and tanner Ltd, Frome and London. 1977.
6.
A textbook of West African history (1000
AD to the present day). Adekunle Ojelabi. Valuta educational publishers,
Ibadan.1970.
[1] African culture and
civilization, edited by S. Ademola Ajayi, department of History University of
Ibadan, Nigeria. Printed by Secreprint Nig. Ltd. Ibadan. 2005.pg 9.
[2] Ibid, pg 22.
[4]
African culture and
civilization, edited by S. Ademola Ajayi, department of History University of
Ibadan, Nigeria. Printed by Secreprint Nig. Ltd. Ibadan. 2005. pg 9.
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