African / Black History

A picture speaks a 1000 words.?

But a map often lies!

Did you know, Africa is 14 times the size of Greenland?

But looking at usual maps, you would think they are similar!

In terms of land size, Africa is 30 million sq KM, which is nearly twice as big as Russia.?African landmass is big enough to fit USA, China, India and Europe, with room to spare!? Though looking at a standard world map, you wouldn't think so.?

(look at the maps at the end of the article)

Mercator's projection map distorts the actual size of the continents, by squashing those on the equator and enlarging those nearer the pole.? As a result, Europe (including Greenland), Russia, USA, Canada, Australia look much bigger than they really are!

Peter's projection map, made a century later, is more accurate.? But is not taught in our schools.? One has to ask why!?!

Politically, psychologically, it has made the Europeans project themselves to be bigger and more important than Africa for centuries.? Africans have been made to feel less important through size and stature.? In the past, this helped with the colonial expansion of European empires.? At present, it helps with the exploitation of Africa.?

African Maps - https://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/18/africa/real-size-of-africa/index.html

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/map-true-size-of-africa/

https://brilliantmaps.com/size-of-africa/

Inferiority Complex :-?

Africa and Africans have been given an inferiority complex by this constant narrative that they are poor, their only history is that of slavery, they had no culture, no sense of spirituality, or proper laws till now.??

The real fact of their history has been wiped off their memory. Example - Egyptian culture goes back to 4000BC - that's 6000 years!? Egypt is in Africa.? Yet, no one acknowledges it as an African history!? African kings from Nubia (Kushite) ruled Egypt on several occasions.? They are referred to as 'Black Pharaohs', why not African Pharaohs???

Just in Egypt, from the time of the Arab invasion till French invasion - that's over 1200 years, Egyptians 'forgot their history' going back thousands of years.? Their temples, their pyramids - people forgot who made them.? No one in Egypt could read the hieroglyphics and no one could speak the tongue of their ancestors.? How do you forget something as massive as a pyramid!??

But people did!??

Cultural heritage is always lost through conversion.? That has been repeated all across Africa.? After religious conversion, people stop singing ancient?hymns, speaking their sacred languages, abandon sacred spaces, forget family histories, stop retelling ancestral tales - the past is forgotten.??

'Progressive Africans' speak in Arabic, French, English, German and Dutch.? Villagers in the interior speak their local languages, but even these have a lot of foreign words - especially for all things modern.? When people are made to feel their own language is inferior, just imagine, how will they must feel about themselves!?

History :-

History of all people goes back to year dot. However, the history of black, brown and coloured people has been whitewashed in recent centuries, through concerted efforts, to make everything Euro Centric.? Efforts, achievements, pain and loss of the 'global south' has been minimised. Eg - we have a 1000s of documented Greek and Roman 'monuments'.? They are preserved, researched, photographed and displayed in well manicured lawns.? How much of that is done for monuments in central or south Africa??

History of Africa, Black history, is not a monolithic block.? It is as vast as the continent of Africa.? Its not only about slavery, or 'primitive' tribes or Barbary pirates.? It also has gold studded Ghanaian Kings, archives of Timbuktu and bravery of Shaka Zulu.? African history is as varied as the continent itself.??

Can this be covered in an hour's lesson???

Not likely!??

But, I aim to make you aware of its presence and get you to appreciate and explore it at your own pace.

Slavery :-?

Slavery has been around for thousands of years.?

Africans weren't the only slaves in the ancient world. Germans, Celts, French (Gaul), Greeks, Russians - everyone and anyone who was unlucky enough to lose a war could find themselves sold as a slave.?

Africans, for the most part, were spared this fate.? Dense jungles, ferocious animals and the scorching Sahara kept most Europeans away from the heart of Africa in ancient?times.??

Egyptians and East Africans clashed frequently and they enslaved each other.? Eg - There were African Pharaohs - from Nubia - Khushite kings.? They ruled Egypt for several generations.? Africans came to Rome as traders, soldiers and some also came as gladiators and slaves.??

But much of Africa at that time was 'free'.? Africans in ancient times traded with the Europeans, Indians and cities of the Middle East.? Ethiopia for example ruled vast swaths of land in the horn of Africa and its colonies ruled all the way to South Africa. Mali, Benin & Ghana were rich empires on the other side of the Sahara.? Congo was a great empire, trading with other?African?kingdoms, long before the Belgians brutally crushed and exploited it.??

So how and why and how was Africa enslaved?

After the middle ages, most Africans didn't have the weapons the European and Middle Eastern armies had.? With conventional weapons, in a 1-1 fight, Africans could defend themselves in any battle.?

Then came the guns!? It didn't matter how strong you were, a gun could kill warriors at a distance with ease.? European colonizers cut down forests for the hardwood.? They killed wild animals with guns that protected the forest and its people. No more forest, no more wild animals, no more barriers to protect tribes from the slavers.?

When the Silk Route was blocked due to wars between the Ottoman empire and the Europeans, Europeans sailed West and South to find a route to get to India and find their spices.? The Spanish discovered? the Americas on the western front?and the Portuguese found out how massive the African continent was in their southern journey.?

Gun toting Europeans were able to kill and enslave vast number of people across Africa & the Americas.? Africans, American tribes and the indigenous people of Australia could not protect themselves against guns and new diseases the Europeans brought to their lands.? Worse, sometimes, tribal animosities meant Africans sold fellow African's to slavers!? Ethnic rivalry, regional wars and greed made Africans fight amongst themselves.

Why does this matter to me - now? in 2023? :-

It matters because this is what's still happening on a bigger scale! African companies are making Africans work in mines for pennies and selling their mineral wealth at vast profits.? They resell this to the middlemen - political appointees - with a large profit margins.? They in turn sell this to the Western companies with a huge profit margin.? The eventual product is sold to the consumers - me and you - with an astronomical price tag the miner in Africa would be astounded by.? The miners never truly benefit for their labour.? This is in 2023!

Another example - Did you know that cocoa beans for chocolate come from Africa??

Did you know, most people who work on the farms that grow the beans have never tasted chocolate?? Some of them have no idea why the westerners buy these beans.? They have no clue what the westerns?make with these beans.? Even if they knew, most farm workers could not afford to buy the chocolate they have helped produce! This is in 2023!

Going back to the topic of trans-Atlantic slavery, while Europe celebrated the 'Age of Discovery', massive slave ships sailed back and forth, between?Africa and the Americas with human cargo.? They dehumanised them by saying people living in Africa and the Americas were a subspecies of humans.? They even insured their ships against loss of their 'cargo'.??

Life for slaves on the plantations was horrendous.? Slaves were treated with inhumane amount of cruelty.? They had no freedom to be themselves.? Working as a slave isn't just about doing some 'extra overtime when asked', you are literally at the beck and call of your master, 24x7.? For slaves, their own children were not theirs by?law - they belonged to the 'master'.? Masters could give away a slave's child as a gift or sell them to make money.? As a slave, even your own body belonged to the master.? Your soul belonged to the master.? Your language, your history, your dreams, your spirituality was dictated by the master.?

Several generations of Africans have been lost to slavery - east and west of the African continent.? Slaves were sold across the Americas, Middle East, Asia and Europe.

This history of early slavery exists in records of slave-sales, insurance papers of slave ships that claimed compensation of lost 'cargo', heartfelt songs of plantation workers, family histories - passed on through the generations.

On the African continent, history of slavery exists in the lip plates and scarification rituals of Africans.? Look at the map of the tribes that still?practice body?modifications and you will see where slave?ships would have sailed from.? Anthropological data suggests lip plates and scarification wasn't done to look pretty, but it was done to make you 'un-saleable' for slavers.? As soon as children became old enough to go out of the village by themselves, they were scarred to make sure slavers and Europeans would not kidnap them.? Because Arab and Europeans preferred their slaves to have unblemished skin and not look fierce or scary!

Over the centuries, scarification has become an artistic ritual and is used to identify people by their tribal and regional origins.

Abolishment of Slavery :-

Do you know why slavery was abolished???

Some Christians in UK were upset at enslaving fellow Christians.? Not because slavery was inherently bad, but because enslaving co-religionists was bad. White men in an Imperial country fought to free the African slaves, because they were Christian!

But, when the slaves were freed, they had no home, no food, no clothes, no jobs.? Without any means to survive, they were forced to work for their former slave-masters just to survive!? The government of England gave money to the slave owners to 'compensate them' for losing their slaves.? Shockingly, they gave nothing to the slaves.

Why does that matter??

WE - the British tax-payers were paying off interest on those loans to the slave owners till 2015!??

Why tell me all this !? I don't need to be depressed, after work, on a Wednesday evening!

I am telling you this so you understand the depth of the problem.? Its not just slavery from 200 years ago.? Its slavery that's been outsourced to African companies and farmers in the 21st century.? If we want to improve the lives of Africans, we need to insist on 'fair trade' goods.? Goods that are not going to rip the producer or the consumer.? Profit from their sale must be shared equitably with the producers.??

We need to help improve the education, access to water, access to energy, access to food, shelter, medicine in Africa.? It can't be brought in from the west and 'sold' to the Africans.? That will cripple their economy and make them permanently dependent on outsiders.? They have to be able to produce these things themselves - food, energy, technology.??

eg - during the pandemic, the world suffered due to lockdowns and movement of goods.? But we in the west did not starve.? We didn't die of the disease due to lack of medicine.??

But the Africans suffered.? They could not sell their farm produce, as there was no one to transport it!? They suffered economically.??

When the vaccines were discovered, the western nations hoarded them and refused to even let the Africans have the formula to make it themselves!?They suffered medically.

Fortunately, India and China gave Africa medicines and the vaccines the west denied them.?

??

What difference does it all make to me in London!? Wembley, Westminster, Croydon, Stanmore or Cannery Wharf?

Our fellow citizens come from all over the world to work in this beautiful city.? Some are from Africa, Caribbean, America, Asia, Middle East, Far East, Australia.? We see this in the in faces, cuisines, clothes, of people working in this fair city.? We bring our histories with us - from all over the world.? Unless we know and understand why some people are hurting, how can we understand their pain?? How can we understand why are some communities are more prone to violence than others?? What can we do to repair the societal damage that is generational and is embedded in the community?? Unless we know the history, we will be condemned to repeat it.?

16% of the world's population is in Africa. Despite being rich in natural resources and having one of the youngest population, Africa is disproportionately poor.?

Why?

Till date, Africa provides natural resources for the world - minerals, metals, diamonds, food, flowers, oil etc - and yet, Africans are still poor!?

Why?

How does this happen?

Why does this happen???

We need to reflect on that!

Just like the exploitation of Africa 500 years ago, when the African nations were robbed of all their natural and human resources, African nations were exploited in the 20th century where they were made 'free'. As soon as they became independent, they were forced to borrow money from their former colonisers and forced to pay interest on money they borrowed from those who had looted them!? Africans are still paying interest for borrowing money that was stolen from them!

How do we change this crazy up-side down economic situation?

Solution :-

Education!

Through TutorHive , we can bring education to them.? We can bring it to their home, on-line.??

We can offer to match students from far flung corners of Africa to tutors from around the world that can help them ace their STEM subjects.??

Through TutorHive , we can give a student in Soweto the lessons they need to sit and pass exams to get to King's College.?

We can also have tutors in Africa teach students in UK, and the world.?

Education is the key to uplifting an entire continent.? We can democratise that - through technology, make it more affordable, have recordings that are available at a time that is suitable for the student and thus help as many people as possible.?

Bhagwat Shah

Script of a lesson delivered on TutorHive platform on 20th Sept 2023

African Maps - https://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/18/africa/real-size-of-africa/index.html

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/map-true-size-of-africa/

https://brilliantmaps.com/size-of-africa/