Winston Churchill opined, ‘History is Written by Victors.’ This statement implies that history is often told according to the interpretation and biases of prevailing historical actors, often those who won in geopolitical disputes. Many have echoed this statement for centuries without understanding the true implication of the statement.
There have been series of controversies surrounding the Precolonial Africa. The dominant theory is that precolonial Africans were primitive people who needed colonization to be introduced into civilization. The proponents of this theory are westerners and several neo-colonized Africans who attach negativity to anything ‘Africanist’.
There have been other theories that negate the first, some of which have been propounded by the Pan-African movement. They believe that precolonial Africa has been a civilization on its own, full of splendor, possessing its own advance technology, libraries and educational system. There have been artifacts and evidences dug up to support this theory.
According to this theory, Africa had civilized empires. One of which was the African Kingdom of Kongo - one of the largest empires in Africa with a population of over half a million inhabitants, centuries before colonization. It was a progressive civilization discovered by Diogo Cao in 1483. The Kongo had a centralized political system and was advanced in farming, metalwork, weaving and textiles. By 1500 BC, the Kingdom of Kongo was trading with other countries by exporting leather, gold, textiles and cattle’s. In 1914, however, the kingdom met a tragic end as it was overthrown by the Portuguese.
Another prosperous precolonial kingdom was the Kingdom of Benin - one of the most developed states in ancient Africa, trading in bronze, gold, ivory and iron. Documents recording political activity in the kingdom of Benin dates as far back as the 1200s and the city was founded in 1180 BC, according to historical records. Historical documentation shows how British Colonialists had attempted to bargain with the king for control of the city and how they burned the city down, destroying many valuable historical documents and works of art in the process.
The Ashanti Empire was a powerful empire, under the rule of the Ashanti King, Osei Tutu, who had established a parliament, government, legal system and military, and dominated East Africa. In 1884, it was burnt down by the British Colonialists after the Anglo-Ashanti war.
Historical evidence shows that pre-colonial Africa had multiple empires that existed with inter-trading relationships, exchanging gold, textiles and spices. Locals, alongside their governmental system and commerce, had built vast cities with unique African architecture.
The notion that Europeans ‘bought civilization to Africa’ is possibly one of the greatest myths of the century. The victors- the Europeans had plundered Africa, dividing her lots among themselves, erased her history, enslaved her people physically and mentally. They rewrote her history.
The unfortunate thing is that the first theory is the most propagated. Even Africans view Africa as inferior. It is said that ‘Those who do not learn from history, repeat it.’ However, what do we learn from if we aren’t sure that it is even our history?
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