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This is true. When I was a kid I thought that Africans were all stone-age hunter gatherers, who at best lived in huts or maybe raised goats or sheep or cattle, but little did I know of the advanced civilisations that have existed in Africa for millenia, not even counting those in North and East Africa.
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Originally Posted by ROAM NYC
Learn about Mali. Mansa Musa II, the richest person -- and the most glorious and king of all history.
Learn about the real first cosmopolitan empire in the world, EGYPT.
Learn about the Nubian kingdoms.
Learn about the great histry of the kingdom on Ethiopia, the only African counrty to not be colonized.
Learn about the great histry of the kingdom on Ethiopia, the only African counrty to not be colonized.
Close to the truth, but not quite. Liberia is the only African country to not be cononized.
Italian colonial administration was present in Ethiopia and claimed the colony from 1936 to 1940, but failed to hold the territory, and withdrew after disappointing encounters with Ethiopian forces. From 1936-40, 130,000 Italians were living in Ethiopia, and built an occupied modern administrative office buildings in the capital, and an extensive system of roads in the country.
If you wish, you can correctly state that Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that militarily expelled European colonizations. But you cannot say it was never colonized.
What do you define specifically as pre colonial Africa?
I was thinking before Europeans and the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
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Europeans slave trade doesn't compare to the larger and even grander scale of the much worse Arab slave trade. Arabs are the biggest culprits of them all.
I'm not against black-Americans becoming Muslims but I think too many adopt Islam and Arab names with the idea they are adopting a more authentic black/African identity. I don't think many know the difference between Arab culture and the authentic west African culture of their ancestors.
I don't think many know the difference between Arab culture and the authentic west African culture of their ancestors.
You know i'm just thinking what an incredible job it is for say Africans to study their 'roots'. Not only could they go back to the 'slave trade' days (predominantly figruing in African-Americans view of the their ancestry) but they could go also go back centuries to ponder and investigate the kinds of different societies and cultures that their ancestors were part of. Seems like it would be arguably a very complicated and interesting kind of history for ancestors to wade through.
I was thinking before Europeans and the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
I'm not against black-Americans becoming Muslims but I think too many adopt Islam and Arab names with the idea they are adopting a more authentic black/African identity. I don't think many know the difference between Arab culture and the authentic west African culture of their ancestors.
And not to mention that Indians and Chinese and various Middle Eastern and Medittaranean groups were taking advantage of Africa and Africans and overexploiting the African peoples.
The Arabs promulgated lots of the anti black racism and hatred and was a precursor for the European transatlantic and middle passage slave trades. Islam was oppressing African peoples as well. Christianity in Africa pre dates the European transatlantic slave trading.
So one would have to go far back in time in African history because it's been pillaged and taken advantage of since ancient times.
Also Africans were never a monolith or one peoples.
I was thinking before Europeans and the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
I'm not against black-Americans becoming Muslims but I think too many adopt Islam and Arab names with the idea they are adopting a more authentic black/African identity. I don't think many know the difference between Arab culture and the authentic west African culture of their ancestors.
Many Africans did arrive to the Americas as Arabic speaking and religious practicing Muslims and many spoke other languages as well. The Arabs raped and also mixed with the black Africans, and so many Africans in the transatlantic slave trade already were significantly mixed in lineage.
So one would have to go far back in time in African history because it's been pillaged and taken advantage of since ancient times.
You know be curious to know if the look back to Africa's past is 'disproportionate' to say the look to the present and its future. Africa as shown here in post and threads has a glorious past. But I'd suggest that to navigate the modern day with its perils and advantages more of look should be put on what is 'good' in its societies and how the continent can transform and adjust itself to face the future. If you ask me and this is just my opinion Africa just isn't able to conduct itself globally at all compared to the major powers. And that's because it's so concerned with its own internal concerns that have the tremendous 'dust' of centuries behind them. Time to shake it all off and get out there and compete to make a better life for its people, no?
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