Do you have any knowledge about Africa? As someone born in Kenya, what I now understand as an adult about my country and continent is different from what most Africans have learned in history. There is a saying that history is written by the victors, and in the context of African history, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
After watching Netflix series like “The Queens of Africa” and reading accounts of African history by African historians, I wonder how much we as Africans have been brainwashed. Furthermore, how much has the rest of the world been misled by misconceptions about African people? Could the negativity, racism, discrimination, poverty, illiteracy, and other challenges facing Africa be due to the distorted image of the continent and its people? If so, what is the rationale behind historians distorting the image of Africa?
There are certainly more questions than answers, and Africans are waking up to the reality that we are not being treated fairly on the global stage. It is widely known that dark-skinned people are the most discriminated against in the world. Additionally, the continent with the largest concentration of natural resources is also the poorest and plagued by wars and internal conflict, with a majority of its population living in poverty.
This article is meant to open your eyes to the harsh truths of Africa and Africans and prompt you to become an agent of change to the misconceptions of Africa and Africans in your own way, whether big or small. I do not want to incite hatred or pity for the injustices done to Africans. My goal with this short read is to attempt to change your mindset about your African neighbor, so that our collective feeling towards Africa could instigate long-overdue growth and development of the beautiful continent, breaking the stigma and stereotypes associated with blacks. Finally, I would have achieved my goal when all my readers consider Africans as equals when they sit together at the table and not as 3rd world country citizens seeking a better life in developed countries.
With all that ambition, I am finding it difficult to decide where to start. I will make this part one of a series of blog posts because there is a lot to unpack. Let’s do the unpacking together through a Q&A-style reasoning. I am also interested in your thoughts on this topic.
So, first question: At what point did Africans start to be viewed as uncivilized, primitive people? I would place it in the pre-colonialization era when European explorers discovered a land full of natural resources and labor. They saw this as an opportunity for themselves to enrich their countries and structured a way of keeping Africans uncivilized, uneducated, and poor.
European settlers systematically broke down the pride and self-worth of the locals, indoctrinating them and making them fully dependent on the ways of the West. The kind of education brought to Africa by the colonizers was not meant to serve the interests of the African population but to make Africans idolize the western way of life and view their own as primitive.
Africans had to learn the language of the colonizers, dress like them, and abandon most of what would be considered their identity, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation. Those who resisted faced the wrath of the colonizers’ superior weapons and tactical advantage.
I am not saying that bringing civilization to Africa was wrong, rather how it was brought was wrong. In comparison to China, Russia, and other non-western countries, civilization did not lead to the abandonment of their culture, language, values, and morals. These countries still maintain their identities and cultures despite being civilized.
I had someone ask why all developed countries have their entire educational system in their languages, but in Africa, they have to learn Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Architecture, etc., in colonial languages? Why is it that the Bible has been translated into hundreds of African Languages but there is no Chemical Engineering book in Swahili, Xhosa or Igbo? What is the role that religion has played in the plight of Africans?
Please write in the comments below your thoughts concerning the questions I have asked and stand by to the next blog in this series.
jackmugoya 