History in Africa Before Europeans
Africa Essay Part 2: Does Africa Have a History? * * * *
There has been a notion that Africa does not have a history of its own before Europeans came to Africa. Hugh Trevor-Roper made an infamous statement in 1965 proclaiming, “Perhaps, in the future, there will be some African history to teach. But at the present there is none, or very little, there is only the history of the Europeans in Africa” (Africa in World History, 3rd edition, Pp. xxi). Although this was a statement in 1965 his notions couldn’t be farther from the truth. There are many examples of great societies in Africa that have documented history and have had very advanced societies for their time. There are three societies in particular whose progressive communities have shattered these Aryan model claims of Roper. Great Zimbabwe, Ancient Ghana, and the nations of the Nile Valley have all shown that they have a proper history that is well documented before the arrival of Europeans, thus impeding on the Aryan model that had been used when first coming to Africa. It is important to understand theories of history to understand why Roper’s statement of Africa having little history before Europeans is wrong. The Aryan model, states that Caucasians are the top of the hierarchy of humans and black people or Africans are the lowest. This model proved to the early Europeans that certain African groups could not have been black because they were advanced and civilized cultures. Vasant states that “The concept of race…was in the 19th and 20th centuries held to be the key not merely to the abilities of a person or group, but an index to the character and potentials of that particular physical type, for all generations past, present and future” (Vasant Kaiwar, “Racism and the Writing of
There has been a notion that Africa does not have a history of its own before Europeans came to Africa. Hugh Trevor-Roper made an infamous statement in 1965 proclaiming, “Perhaps, in the future, there will be some African history to teach. But at the present there is none, or very little, there is only the history of the Europeans in Africa” (Africa in World History, 3rd edition, Pp. xxi). Although this was a statement in 1965 his notions couldn’t be farther from the truth. There are many examples of great societies in Africa that have documented history and have had very advanced societies for their time. There are three societies in particular whose progressive communities have shattered these Aryan model claims of Roper. Great Zimbabwe, Ancient Ghana, and the nations of the Nile Valley have all shown that they have a proper history that is well documented before the arrival of Europeans, thus impeding on the Aryan model that had been used when first coming to Africa. It is important to understand theories of history to understand why Roper’s statement of Africa having little history before Europeans is wrong. The Aryan model, states that Caucasians are the top of the hierarchy of humans and black people or Africans are the lowest. This model proved to the early Europeans that certain African groups could not have been black because they were advanced and civilized cultures. Vasant states that “The concept of race…was in the 19th and 20th centuries held to be the key not merely to the abilities of a person or group, but an index to the character and potentials of that particular physical type, for all generations past, present and future” (Vasant Kaiwar, “Racism and the Writing of
Bibliography: 1. Ancient Ghana. (n.d.). Ghana HomePage, resource for News, Sports, Facts, Opinions, Business and Entertainment. Retrieved April 9, 2012, from http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/history/ancient_ghana.php 2. BBC World Service | The Story of Africa. (n.d.). BBC - Homepage. Retrieved April 10, 2012, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1624_story_of_africa/index.shtml 3. Robert Draper, “Black Pharaohs,” National Geographic Magazine (February 2008) 4. Reynolds, J. T., & Gilbert, E. (2004). Africa in world history. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Educational. 5. Vasant Kaiwar, “Racism and the Writing of History, Part I,” Comparative Studies of Asia, Africa and the Middle East 9, 2(1989): 32-56.