History
The time is now for Africans to rewrite the history of the continent with the pen of truth.
History
In all African nations that were colonized, historians were shaped by the context in which they lived and worked, and their publications in turn influenced the history of their time (most of the African history is written by western historians and publishers). During the British colonial regimes of the nineteenth century, many authors wrote in an imperialist mode, and it has mostly been the same to date.
As could be expected with all invaders, British colonists composed works that embodied their perspective as a dominant minority in an African milieu, and by the end of the century, when British imperialism was reaching its culmination, Afrikaners were laying the foundation of an exclusive, nationalist histography.
In the segregation and apartheid years, the white regime authorized textbooks and favored other publications in the settler and Afrikaner nationalist traditions of the previous century. As a result of the racial structure of South African society, almost none of the scholars who currently hold appointments in history departments in South African Universities are Africans and nearly all the histography of South Africa has been written by white people.
It is vitally important that Africans actively participate in their histography to bring in new perspectives, experiences, and new linguistic skills to the study of the South African history. Africans have the necessary skills and research experience to revisit some of the written history and criticize or explore fresh topics that will produce distinctive results.
Many historians of the white South African establishment start their history books with a brief reference to the voyage of Vasco Da Gama around the cape of Good Hope in 1497-98 and then rush on to the arrival of the white settlers in 1652. Most of the history is focused on emphasizing the role of the white settlers as the molders of modern South Africa that it ignores the processes that shaped society before the Europeans began to intrude in the region.
Africa was and still is the cradle of human civilization. The construction of the pyramids that to this day still defy architecture and engineering were built by black people pre- white settlers. The great walls of Zimbabwe are proof of a civilized and organized society that traded and mined the earth long before colonialism. This precolonial history of Africa has been strategically eradicated and rendered insignificant.
As could be expected with all invaders, British colonists composed works that embodied their perspective as a dominant minority in an African milieu, and by the end of the century, when British imperialism was reaching its culmination, Afrikaners were laying the foundation of an exclusive, nationalist histography.
In the segregation and apartheid years, the white regime authorized textbooks and favored other publications in the settler and Afrikaner nationalist traditions of the previous century. As a result of the racial structure of South African society, almost none of the scholars who currently hold appointments in history departments in South African Universities are Africans and nearly all the histography of South Africa has been written by white people.
It is vitally important that Africans actively participate in their histography to bring in new perspectives, experiences, and new linguistic skills to the study of the South African history. Africans have the necessary skills and research experience to revisit some of the written history and criticize or explore fresh topics that will produce distinctive results.
Many historians of the white South African establishment start their history books with a brief reference to the voyage of Vasco Da Gama around the cape of Good Hope in 1497-98 and then rush on to the arrival of the white settlers in 1652. Most of the history is focused on emphasizing the role of the white settlers as the molders of modern South Africa that it ignores the processes that shaped society before the Europeans began to intrude in the region.
Africa was and still is the cradle of human civilization. The construction of the pyramids that to this day still defy architecture and engineering were built by black people pre- white settlers. The great walls of Zimbabwe are proof of a civilized and organized society that traded and mined the earth long before colonialism. This precolonial history of Africa has been strategically eradicated and rendered insignificant.
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history”
~ George Orwell
We now must answer unsettling questions from our youth concerning our ancestors ‘lack of zeal’ to fight the imperialists who were invading our land due to the erased
history about the battles that were fought throughout the continent. We must teach about the battle of Adwa in the Tigray region of Ethiopia where the Italians were defeated also the battle of Isandlwana where a Zulu army of over 350 000 defeated the British armed with heavy artillery.
These resolute victories have served as a beacon of African resistance to European colonialism. Can we fathom the vigor of black resistance to the apartheid state without knowledge of precolonial African ideals, the social and economic obligations of the rulers and rights of the subjects?
Africans need to learn about how their ancestors have endured the fragmentation of their family life as migrant labors (a practice which exists to this day and continues to tear black families apart) by understanding their customary social values and networks.
In Africa, the basic social unit was the nuclear family, although several families usually form bands numbering between twenty and eighty people. These bands were not closed, reproducing entities. People identified with other members of other bands who spoke the same language and lived in the neighboring territories in the same general environment.
Our ancestors occupied caves or camps constructed of portable material and moved from one watering and hunting area to another as the seasons dictated. As in other pre-industrial societies, there was a division of labor between women, who stayed close to the campsite and were responsible for childcare and most of the work of collecting edible plants, and men, who were hunters.
Early Africans were skillful in fashioning tools from wood and stone, clothing from animal skin, musical instruments from wood, catgut, and bows and arrows with tips smeared with poison extracted from snakes, insects or plants. Their artists have left an impressive record in the rock paintings and engravings that have survived thousands of years.
The mixed farming economy was more productive than the economies of both the herders and the hunter-gatherers. Besides possessing sheep and cattle, hunting the abundant game population, and gathering indigenous plants, the farmers cultivated sorghum. They thus had a richer and more reliable diet and possessed stronger physiques than the hunters and the herder’s and achieved denser levels of population.
Unlike their hunter and herder’s ancestors, the farmers built mud huts and established semi-permanent villages with centralized Chiefdoms. Chiefdoms were often named after an ancestral figure. Sotho and Tswana chiefdoms often carried the names of the clans of the ruling family, such as Mokoena/Mokwena (Crocodile), Tau (Lion) or Tlou (Elephant).
The populations of the chiefdoms were not closed entities. Besides members of the ruling lineage, they included people of different descent groups, and they frequently incorporated aliens – people who has quarreled with their original chiefs or had left drought stricken areas.
Whereas cattle care and ownership were a male monopoly, women did most of the agricultural work. Every married woman cultivated at least one field and the primary crop was sorghum. They also grew watermelons, pumpkins and calabashes, and a type of tobacco; in some places they produced beans and yams. The Sotho speaking people stored their grain in baskets, the Nguni-speaking people in pits.
A chief spent much of his time in the open-air meeting place near his personal hut. There, in cooperation with his councilors, who were drawn from the heads of homesteads, he regulated the affairs of his people, listened to complaints, settled disputes, and receiving visitors.
His subjects paid him in sheep and cattle for settling their disputes, his men handed to him any livestock they seized from neighboring chiefdoms, and he had the right to summon his people to work for him. The produce from the fields of the chiefs’ senior wives was used to feed the men when they were summoned to his village for political discussions or military purposes. A chief was thus rich enough to marry few wives and provide more generous hospitality than any of his subjects.
The Heritage Library will be broadcasting episodes that detail ancient civilizations that Africans developed, highlighting the most important figures in our history and documenting their achievements through animated stories. For the first time in their young lives, our children will be able to understand that the most ancient civilization circumnavigated the globe before Christopher Columbus but were humble enough not to claim discovery of the places they visited.
These resolute victories have served as a beacon of African resistance to European colonialism. Can we fathom the vigor of black resistance to the apartheid state without knowledge of precolonial African ideals, the social and economic obligations of the rulers and rights of the subjects?
Africans need to learn about how their ancestors have endured the fragmentation of their family life as migrant labors (a practice which exists to this day and continues to tear black families apart) by understanding their customary social values and networks.
In Africa, the basic social unit was the nuclear family, although several families usually form bands numbering between twenty and eighty people. These bands were not closed, reproducing entities. People identified with other members of other bands who spoke the same language and lived in the neighboring territories in the same general environment.
Our ancestors occupied caves or camps constructed of portable material and moved from one watering and hunting area to another as the seasons dictated. As in other pre-industrial societies, there was a division of labor between women, who stayed close to the campsite and were responsible for childcare and most of the work of collecting edible plants, and men, who were hunters.
Early Africans were skillful in fashioning tools from wood and stone, clothing from animal skin, musical instruments from wood, catgut, and bows and arrows with tips smeared with poison extracted from snakes, insects or plants. Their artists have left an impressive record in the rock paintings and engravings that have survived thousands of years.
The mixed farming economy was more productive than the economies of both the herders and the hunter-gatherers. Besides possessing sheep and cattle, hunting the abundant game population, and gathering indigenous plants, the farmers cultivated sorghum. They thus had a richer and more reliable diet and possessed stronger physiques than the hunters and the herder’s and achieved denser levels of population.
Unlike their hunter and herder’s ancestors, the farmers built mud huts and established semi-permanent villages with centralized Chiefdoms. Chiefdoms were often named after an ancestral figure. Sotho and Tswana chiefdoms often carried the names of the clans of the ruling family, such as Mokoena/Mokwena (Crocodile), Tau (Lion) or Tlou (Elephant).
The populations of the chiefdoms were not closed entities. Besides members of the ruling lineage, they included people of different descent groups, and they frequently incorporated aliens – people who has quarreled with their original chiefs or had left drought stricken areas.
Whereas cattle care and ownership were a male monopoly, women did most of the agricultural work. Every married woman cultivated at least one field and the primary crop was sorghum. They also grew watermelons, pumpkins and calabashes, and a type of tobacco; in some places they produced beans and yams. The Sotho speaking people stored their grain in baskets, the Nguni-speaking people in pits.
A chief spent much of his time in the open-air meeting place near his personal hut. There, in cooperation with his councilors, who were drawn from the heads of homesteads, he regulated the affairs of his people, listened to complaints, settled disputes, and receiving visitors.
His subjects paid him in sheep and cattle for settling their disputes, his men handed to him any livestock they seized from neighboring chiefdoms, and he had the right to summon his people to work for him. The produce from the fields of the chiefs’ senior wives was used to feed the men when they were summoned to his village for political discussions or military purposes. A chief was thus rich enough to marry few wives and provide more generous hospitality than any of his subjects.
The Heritage Library will be broadcasting episodes that detail ancient civilizations that Africans developed, highlighting the most important figures in our history and documenting their achievements through animated stories. For the first time in their young lives, our children will be able to understand that the most ancient civilization circumnavigated the globe before Christopher Columbus but were humble enough not to claim discovery of the places they visited.
The history episodes will be produced to cover the following areas:
The landmass now known as Africa was home to many nations over centuries. Moors, Numidians, Nubians and Ethiopians are our early ancestors.
The word Africa is Greek and Latin in origin, meaning this is not how our ancestors described their homeland.
The practice of indigenous religions that were outlawed and demonized by the missionaries. The return to indigenous faiths can help align our lost societies and rebuild the moral fibre that has long been eroded.
The richness of African musical style that has shaped and influenced the world. While most instruments in Africa serve roles that go beyond simple entertainment, stringed instruments played a role in maintaining oral traditions and accompanying religious and ritual ceremonies.
The media pressure our women are facing concerning the color of their skin and nature of their hair has pushed them to limits we could not have imagined. We must empower ourselves by understanding the scientific wonder of dark skin and its significant role in early reproduction of the entire human race.
The entire human race is African descent, any African who admires and seeks to mimic any other culture should understand that they are pursuing what is inferior to what they already are.
Africans pioneered basic arithmetic 25 000 years ago and the oldest mathematical artifact, dating back around 37 000 years was found in a cave in the Lebombo mountains of Eswatini.
The first evidence episodes of human civilization discovered in Africa, covering pioneering the evolution of modern life from the first evidence of animal domestication (15 000yrs ago) in Sudan to the first evidence of fishing (90 000yrs ago) in DR Congo.
The word Africa is Greek and Latin in origin, meaning this is not how our ancestors described their homeland.
The practice of indigenous religions that were outlawed and demonized by the missionaries. The return to indigenous faiths can help align our lost societies and rebuild the moral fibre that has long been eroded.
The richness of African musical style that has shaped and influenced the world. While most instruments in Africa serve roles that go beyond simple entertainment, stringed instruments played a role in maintaining oral traditions and accompanying religious and ritual ceremonies.
The media pressure our women are facing concerning the color of their skin and nature of their hair has pushed them to limits we could not have imagined. We must empower ourselves by understanding the scientific wonder of dark skin and its significant role in early reproduction of the entire human race.
The entire human race is African descent, any African who admires and seeks to mimic any other culture should understand that they are pursuing what is inferior to what they already are.
Africans pioneered basic arithmetic 25 000 years ago and the oldest mathematical artifact, dating back around 37 000 years was found in a cave in the Lebombo mountains of Eswatini.
The first evidence episodes of human civilization discovered in Africa, covering pioneering the evolution of modern life from the first evidence of animal domestication (15 000yrs ago) in Sudan to the first evidence of fishing (90 000yrs ago) in DR Congo.
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