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One thing I've pointed out is that sub-Saharan Africa seems to have less history to many because their history is less visible.
Since not many sub-Saharan Africans built ancient structures that are still visible and didn't leave many written records this I think makes their history less visible. That's different in comparison to some Native Americans. People know the Maya and Inca have a history based on their ancient structures and writing which are still visible.
I think the reason ancient peoples built structures seems to have been for either religious or security reasons. Maybe not many sub-Saharan Africans had any particular religious or security reasons to build many structures? Mayan and Egyptian pyramids were built for spiritual reasons. Machu Picchu and China's
Great Wall were built for security reasons.
They weren't always behind. These things have ebbs and flows. For example, just as the Western Roman Empire was collapsing in Europe, the Ghana empire was being formed in west Africa.
In the ancient and medieval worlds, you had important African empires such as Meroe, Axum, Ghana, Mali, Songhai, the Swahili states, just to name a few. The Roman world dealt with African trade cities as far south as Somalia, and made expeditions to West Africa where they might have found the Nok, who we do not know a lot about, but who were great iron workers and created art that is renowned even today.
A lot more going on in Africa than most people think.
Basically other than ancient Egypt no African history was taught in school when I was growing up. That alone may give people the impression that sub-Saharan Black Africans had no history. Everything I learned on African history I learned from the local library.
Did anyone learn about the Ghana,Mali and Songhai empires in school? The fact that Mansa Musa of the Mali empire is recorded to be the richest person in history should be taught in schools.
Basically other than ancient Egypt no African history was taught in school when I was growing up. That alone may give people the impression that sub-Saharan Black Africans had no history. Everything I learned on African history I learned from the local library.
Did anyone learn about the Ghana,Mali and Songhai empires in school? The fact that Mansa Musa of the Mali empire is recorded to be the richest person in history should be taught in schools.
I think Mansa Musa being the richest person is now being widely taught in schools, but what is often left out is that he gave away all of his money on the Hajj and had to borrow money on the return journey. The money that he accumulated was also based on a tentative control his kingdom over gold mines, which are under non-Muslim control and so are not the most reliable. His country in general produces mediocre artifacts that aren't prized in museums. The universities he founded at Timbuktu while impressive didn't create a vibrant literate society with many masterpieces. It appeared that the ruling class kept using griots for history for a long time.
As far as the video goes I'd question whether the author is quite up to date in his knowledge. For example, it is known that the Kongo kingdom had some contact with the people in modern day Nigeria, as shared artistic and religious motifs could be found. Also the idea that Africa didn't innovate that much because life is so good there is pretty laughable. My own take on the issue is that coastal East Africa, including the kingdoms on the Horn, were on par with the Eurasian countries they're in contact with, but things like disease prevented those societies from spreading inland. West Africa on the other hand had underperformed where it came to 'catching up'. Despite being part of a trading network since the 16th century they never developed a market based society, and for the most part they showed little curiosity about the outside world and were content to export resources like gold and slaves.
Toby Green's A Fistful of Shells does a good job of going over the economic history of West Africa.
Also the idea that Africa didn't innovate that much because life is so good there is pretty laughable.
Yeah I've been curious about that.
What do you think of his points about sub-Saharan Africans being shaped by isolation from outside ideas? I compared that to Native Americans like the Maya and Inca. These groups were also isolated from outside ideas but their innovations seem to come from within.
What do you think of his points about sub-Saharan Africans being shaped by isolation from outside ideas? I compared that to Native Americans like the Maya and Inca. These groups were also isolated from outside ideas but their innovations seem to come from within.
I think they're more isolated than others for sure, even from each other. Outside of the Sahel you can't really have pack animals because of tsete flies, the rivers are mostly not navigable, and there are all sorts of geographical barrier to communication. They also have their own innovation, like the group that was doing c-sections before everyone else. The ecological challenges of creating agricultural surpluses in large portions of the continent probably accounts for differences in development. It's probably not useful to talk about 'sub-Saharan' Africa as one entity but to break it up into eco-zones.
West Africa I think was cursed by too much natural resources that are in high demand elsewhere - first it was gold, then labor that can survive in tropical conditions, then palm oil. Places where rulers can make money by exporting resources tend to innovate poorly even today.
As a mid-20th century History major completing a degree in 1970, I don’t recall much emphasis on the history of Africa beyond Egypt, the Arab Islamic conquest, the slave trade, and the colonial powers carving up the continent. I took a political affairs class that focused on Ethiopian history and independence and resistance to colonial domination. That was about it. Not much emphasis apart from the white European perspective.
I don’t think there was much effort on Asian history either. My focus was on Latin American history so I got a lot more there than most other history students. The standard focus was ancient history, Greek & Roman, Medieval Europe, Modern Europe, and early and late US history. The situation in Africa was still very unsettled. The Nigerian civil war was going on. South Africa had Apartheid. Zimbabwe was a mess. I had Nigerian and Taiwanese professors so we got a little bit of their perspective but not much detail.
Watched all of them but the Eater Island one, which I will get to next week.
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