By Prof G. G. Darah
This is a follow-up to my comments on why Europe and America are more advanced than Africa. It is true that Black Africans are the first human beings (homo sapiens) to exist in the world. From Africa, people migrated to populate Asia, Europe and other parts. All other races are grandchildren of Black Africa. It is also true that Black Africans in ancient civilisations of Egypt, Nubia (Sudan) and Ethiopia invented many of the ideas and things in the world, including languages, writing, universities, mathematics, medicine, science, and technology in the world today. This was several thousand years ago.
About 2,500 years ago, the Greeks conquered Egypt. The conquering army was led by General Alexander, known in history as Alexander the Great. He died in 322 BC and was buried in Egypt. The Greek rulers looted the wealth and scientific books of Egypt and took them home. Greek students came to Egyptian universities to study, e.g. Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, and Pythagoras. Later the Greeks published the works looted from Egypt and published them with the names of Greeks as the authors. Historians refer to this as “stolen legacy”.
Under Gen. Julius Caesar, the Roman Empire conquered Egypt and displaced the Greeks. More Egyptian sources of knowledge were looted and taken to Rome and Europe. For about 1000 years Black Africa was in ruins while Europe prospered.
The Islamic religion emerged in about 600 A. D. Islamic armies entered Africa to conquer, loot and enslave Africans for about 800 years. The Islamic armies also conquered and governed European nations of Spain, Portugal and parts of France and Germany. But the Islamic Arab invaders translated ancient Egyptian sciences and used them to set up Universities in Africa and Europe. These universities are older than those of Oxford and Cambridge in England.. The Islamic Universities in Africa include those in Fez in Morocco and Cairo in Egypt, both about 1000 years old now. In West Africa, there was the University of Sankore in Timbuktu in ancient Mali. The oldest European-type tertiary institution in Africa is the University of Cape Town, South Africa, founded about 200 years ago, and about 120 years older than the University of Ibadan, the first in Nigeria (1948).
The current tragedy of Black Africa was caused by two slave trades: (1) the Arab Slave Trade in East Africa (2) The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in West Africa operated by European countries. These trades took away millions of able-bodied and intelligent Black Africans. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade took away about 12.5 million Africans in 400 years. The free labour of African slaves created huge profits that European countries used to develop education and industries. When the Slave trade ended about 1850s, European nations colonised Africa. The economic consequences of the Slave trade and colonial rule are described by Walter Rodney in his book, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” (1974). African countries gained independence from the 1960s. But the
colonial system of economic exploitation and lack of industries is still in practice, especially in Nigeria. The big challenge for us is to catch up with the rest of the world through Africa-focused mass education and the building of industries everywhere. That is the only way to be free, viable, and prosperous. Any government that does not undertake these programmes is an enemy of the African people. This is the best summary I can give about the situation of Africa.
G. G. Darah