100 African Cities Destroyed By Europeans: WHY there are seldom historical buildings and monuments in sub-Saharian Africa!
By: Mawuna Remarque KOUTONIN
Saturday, November 1st, 2014 at 5:33 pm.
When tourists visit sub-Saharan Africa, they often wonder “Why there are no historical buildings or monuments?”

The reason is simple. Europeans have destroyed most of them. We have only left drawings and descriptions by travelers who have visited the places before the destructions. In some places, ruins are still visible. Many cities have been abandoned into ruin when Europeans brought exotic diseases (smallpox and influenza) which started spreading and killing people. The ruins of those cities are still hidden. In fact the biggest part of Africa history is still under the ground.

In this post, I’ll share pieces of informations about Africa before the arrival of Europeans, the destroyed cities and lessons we could learn as africans for the future.

The collection of facts regarding the state of african cities before their destruction is done by Robin Walker, a distinguished panafricanist and historian who has written the book ‘When We Ruled’, and by PD Lawton, another great panafricanist, who has an upcoming book titled “The Invisible Empire”.

All quotes and excerpts below are from the books of Robin Walker and PD Lawton. I highly recommend you to buy Walker’s book ‘When We Ruled’ to get a full account of the beauty of the continent before its destruction. You can get more info about PD Lawton work by visiting her blog: AfricanAgenda.net

Robin Walter and PD Lawton have quoted quite heavily another great panafricanist Walter Rodney who wrote the book ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa‘. Additional information came from YouTube channel ‘dogons2k12 : African Historical Ruins’, and Ta Neter Foundation work.

Many drawings are from the book African Cities and Towns Before the European Conquest by Richard W. Hull, published in 1976. That book alone dispels the stereotypical view of Africans living in simple, primitive, look-alike agglomerations, scattered without any appreciation for planning and design.

In fact, at the end of the 13th century, when a european traveler encountered the great Benin City in West Africa (present Nigeria, Edo State), he wrote as follows:

“The town seems to be very great. When you enter into it, you go into a great broad street, not paved, which seems to be seven or eight times broader than the Warmoes street in Amsterdam…The Kings palace is a collection of buildings which occupy as much space as the town of Harlem, and which is enclosed with walls. There are numerous apartments for the Prince`s ministers and fine galleries, most of which are as big as those on the Exchange at Amsterdam. They are supported by wooden pillars encased with copper, where their victories are depicted, and which are carefully kept very clean. The town is composed of thirty main streets, very straight and 120 feet wide, apart from an infinity of small intersecting streets. The houses are close to one another, arranged in good order. These people are in no way inferior to the Dutch as regards cleanliness; they wash and scrub their houses so well that they are polished and shining like a looking glass.” (Source: Walter Rodney, ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, pg. 69)

Sadly, in 1897, Benin City was destroyed by British forces under Admiral Harry Rawson. The city was looted, blown up and burnt to the ground. A collection of the famous Benin Bronzes are now in the British Museum in London. Part of the 700 stolen bronzes by the British troops were sold back to Nigeria in 1972.

Here is another account of the great Benin City regarding the city walls “They extend for some 16 000 kilometres in all, in a mosaic of more than 500 interconnected settlement boundaries. They cover 6500 square kilometres and were all dug by the Edo people. In all, they are four times longer than the Great Wall of China, and consumed a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Cheops. They took an estimated 150 million hours of digging to construct, and are perhaps the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet.” Source: Wikipedia, Architecture of Africa.” Fred Pearce the New Scientist 11/09/99.

Here is a view of Benin city in 1891 before the British conquest. H. Ling Roth, Great Benin, Barnes and Noble reprint. 1968.
2benin2beninpicture_op_800x650
Did you know that in the 14th century the city of Timbuktu in West Africa was five times bigger than the city of London, and was the richest city in the world?

Today, Timbuktu is 236 times smaller than London. It has nothing of a modern city. Its population is two times less than 5 centuries ago, impoverished with beggars and dirty street sellers. The town itself is incapable of conserving its past ruined monuments and archives.

Back to the 14 century, the 3 richest places on earth was China, Iran/Irak, and the Mali empire in West Africa. From all 3 the only one which was still independent and prosperous was the Mali Empire. China and the whole Middle East were conquered by Genghis Kan Mongol troops which ravaged, pillaged, and raped the places.

The richest man ever in the history of Humanity, Mansa Musa, was the emperor of the 14th century Mali Empire which covered modern day Mali, Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea.

At the time of his death in 1331, Mansa Musa was worth the equivalent of 400 billion dollars. At that time Mali Empire was producing more than half the world’s supply of salt and gold.

Here below are some depictions of emperor Mansa Musa, the richest man in human history.
Mansa-Musa-2 Mansa Musa

When Mansa Musa went on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, he carried so much gold, and spent them so lavishly that the price of gold fell for ten years. 60 000 people accompanied him.

He founded the library of Timbuktu, and the famous manuscripts of Timbuktu which cover all areas of world knowledge were written during his reign.

Witnesses of the greatness of the Mali empire came from all part of the world. “Sergio Domian, an Italian art and architecture scholar, wrote the following about this period: ‘Thus was laid the foundation of an urban civilisation. At the height of its power, Mali had at least 400 cities, and the interior of the Niger Delta was very densely populated.’

The Malian city of Timbuktu had a 14th century population of 115,000 – 5 times larger than mediaeval London.

National Geographic recently described Timbuktu as the Paris of the mediaeval world, on account of its intellectual culture. According to Professor Henry Louis Gates, 25,000 university students studied there.

“Many old West African families have private library collections that go back hundreds of years. The Mauritanian cities of Chinguetti and Oudane have a total of 3,450 hand written mediaeval books. There may be another 6,000 books still surviving in the other city of Walata. Some date back to the 8th century AD. There are 11,000 books in private collections in Niger.

Finally, in Timbuktu, Mali, there are about 700,000 surviving books. They are written in Mande, Suqi, Fulani, Timbuctu, and Sudani. The contents of the manuscripts include math, medicine, poetry, law and astronomy. This work was the first encyclopedia in the 14th century before the Europeans got the idea later in the 18th century, 4 centuries later.

A collection of one thousand six hundred books was considered a small library for a West African scholar of the 16th century. Professor Ahmed Baba of Timbuktu is recorded as saying that he had the smallest library of any of his friends – he had only 1600 volumes.

Concerning these old manuscripts, Michael Palin, in his TV series Sahara, said the imam of Timbuktu “has a collection of scientific texts that clearly show the planets circling the sun. They date back hundreds of years . . . Its convincing evidence that the scholars of Timbuktu knew a lot more than their counterparts in Europe. In the fifteenth century in Timbuktu the mathematicians knew about the rotation of the planets, knew about the details of the eclipse, they knew things which we had to wait for 150 almost 200 years to know in Europe when Galileo and Copernicus came up with these same calculations and were given a very hard time for it.

The old Malian capital of Niani had a 14th century building called the Hall of Audience. It was an surmounted by a dome, adorned with arabesques of striking colours. The windows of an upper floor were plated with wood and framed in silver; those of a lower floor were plated with wood, framed in gold.

Malian sailors got to America in 1311 AD, 181 years before Columbus. An Egyptian scholar, Ibn Fadl Al-Umari, published on this sometime around 1342. In the tenth chapter of his book, there is an account of two large maritime voyages ordered by the predecessor of Mansa Musa, a king who inherited the Malian throne in 1312. This mariner king is not named by Al-Umari, but modern writers identify him as Mansa Abubakari II.” Excerpt from Robin Walker’s book, ‘WHEN WE RULED’

Those event were happening at the same period when Europe as a continent was plunged into the Dark Age, ravaged by plague and famine, its people killing one another for religious and ethnic reasons.

Here below are some depiction of the city of Timbuktu in the 19th century.
757px-Caillie_1830_Timbuktu_view 800px-Barthtimbuktu

“Kumasi was the capital of the Asante Kingdom, 10th century-20th century. Drawings of life in Kumasi show homes, often of 2 stories, square buildings with thatched roofs, with family compounds arranged around a courtyard. The Manhyia Palace complex drawn in another sketch was similar to a Norman castle, only more elegant in its architecture.

“These 2 story thatched homes of the Ashanti Kingdom were timber framed and the walls were of lath and plaster construction. A tree always stood in the courtyard which was the central point of a family compound. The Tree of Life was the altar for family offerings to God, Nyame. A brass pan sat in the branches of the tree into which offerings were placed. This was the same in every courtyard of every household, temple and palace. The King`s representatives, officials, worked in open-sided buildings. The purpose being that everyone was welcome to see what they were up to.

“The townhouses of Kumase had upstairs toilets in 1817.This city in the 1800s is documented in drawings and photographs. Promenades and public squares, cosmopolitan lives, exquisite architecture and everywhere spotless and ordered, a wealth of architecture, history, prosperity and extremely modern living” – PD Lawton, AfricanAgenda.net

Winwood Reade described his visit to the Ashanti Royal Palace of Kumasi in 1874: “We went to the king’s palace, which consists of many courtyards, each surrounded with alcoves and verandahs, and having two gates or doors, so that each yard was a thoroughfare . . . But the part of the palace fronting the street was a stone house, Moorish in its style . . . with a flat roof and a parapet, and suites of apartments on the first floor. It was built by Fanti masons many years ago. The rooms upstairs remind me of Wardour Street. Each was a perfect Old Curiosity Shop. Books in many languages, Bohemian glass, clocks, silver plate, old furniture, Persian rugs, Kidderminster carpets, pictures and engravings, numberless chests and coffers. A sword bearing the inscription From Queen Victoria to the King of Ashantee. A copy of the Times, 17 October 1843. With these were many specimens of Moorish and Ashanti handicraft.” – Robin Walter

The beautiful city of Kumasi was blown up, destroyed by fire, and looted by the British at the end of the 19th century.

Here below are few depictions of the city.

http://www.siliconafrica.com/terra-nullius

read more from the sites

Then, they divided us all up, they called some sub-saharan, called some african-american, called some melanesian, some polynesian, some aboringinals, called some amerindians, called some dalits, called some shrudas, called some pardoes, the ones that are indiginous to the middleeast, they haven't labelled them yet. they whitewashed our brains out. until about 100 years ago, sub saharans didn't know that they had brothers suffering in amrica, or in australia, each lost the knowledge of the others until just 1914, till today many of us don't know that there are black indiginous palestinians, israelis, syrians, turkish, iranian, iraqis in that region. they divided and conquered tactics and tricknology that they used. when infact we are all together aboringinal, original asiatic blackman.

well, why did they have such power over us, if we were this great? simple! we rebelled against the will of GOD, we deviated from the path of glory and grace. so civilization of GOD drifted away from us gradually. it took 50,000 years before we lost all senses and went to sleep and died. it took the coming of THE SON OF MAN to come and get us, raise us up again, reminded us of what and who we were before fall. He raised us up with a master grip. who can raise a lion up if not a LION?
we drifted away, in our rebellion, we made what we weren't suppose to make, we made man in our own image and likeness, and we gave him dominion to rule for a time. in this time, this mankind, "the man in the image of man" whooped us well back to GOD. GOD is the best of planners, there is no doubting that.

when it will asked? why did you make this mankind (caucasian)? the blackman that made him will reply "i had to turn the wickedness and the rebellious nature of the blackman into a physical being, to confront them, so that they can see their wickedness face to face". who was this man? it was Jacob/Yakub (blackman). he grafted out the other races from the blackman (the japanese, the chinese, these are still somewhat compassionate), (the last grafting limit was the caucasian- he whose his trouble, wickedness is not confined to himself alone, but affect everything and everybody around him.(shaitan/satan). further grafting from the whiteman will result to what is called the MONKEY! when they call you a blackman a monkey, laugh the hell out of your life for their foolishness.

i don't hate white, i am not a racist, never will be. but truth is truth, it can't be covered.

thank poster, the blackman must love himself once again, that is the beginning of his salvation. your post is wonderful.

@ Op Thanks so much for the link... This is one of the best posts on this forum so far this year...
I for one believe that the worst thing that happened to Africa was contact with Europeans... The Japanese despite their internal divisions ---leading to waring states....were unanimous in rejecting western influence untill they have fully developed their civilization and cultural way of life.

Since you no summaries
I de come

Have been asking myself the question for as long as I can remember, Where are ancient historical structures of black Africa. The truth however remain that whatever could have been the level civilisation, it was still very far behind that of the Europeans.
A lot of people were still working about naked. And I'm always of the opinion that no matter the plundering and destruction by the invaders, at the least one or two persons would have survived and would later reenact their previous attainments. Any time I think over these I kept wondering how a people where able to caste a bronze head yet unable to develop a technological prowess in other areas of human needs.
I'll continue to doubt that our forebears knew anything at all beyond hunting.

tinkinjow:
Have been asking myself the question for as long as I can remember, Where are ancient historical structures of black Africa. The truth however remain that whatever could have been the level civilisation, it was still very far behind that of the Europeans.
I'll continue to doubt that our forebears knew anything at all beyond hunting.

Please, the above assertions you made was predicated on your research, the books you read, a complete knowledge of sub-saharan history or what?. Please do enlighten us.

Nice piece...




But you forgot that Africa was never really "civilized" before the advent of Europeans.

In fact, at the end of the 13th
century, when a european
traveler encountered the
great Benin City in West
Africa (present Nigeria, Edo
State),

I don't know what the writer meant here. Obviously he has another definition of City. Back then our present day hamlet could be taken as a city.

I know the Europeans committed many atrocities...they weren't saints thou.

But I disagree with some things here. The Europeans never destroyed any city in Sub-saharan Africa...North Africa? Yes. Carthage e.t.c but then,that happened during the Roman Empire. Yea they took our natural resources blah blah blah...but that's all.

The fact remains that the Europeans brought civilization to Sub-saharan Africa.

Btw if you don't write your history,another person will write it for you.

Nairalanders has been avoiding this thread. Nobody wanna read again



Mynd44,Obinoscopy... please do the needful.

Sure

Nobleval:
Nice piece...




But you forgot that Africa was never really "civilized" before the advent of Europeans.

In fact, at the end of the 13th
century, when a european
traveler encountered the
great Benin City in West
Africa (present Nigeria, Edo
State),

I don't know what the writer meant here. Obviously he has another definition of City. Back then our present day hamlet could be taken as a city.

I know the Europeans committed many atrocities...they weren't saints thou.

But I disagree with some things here. The Europeans never destroyed any city in Sub-saharan Africa...North Africa? Yes. Carthage e.t.c but then,that happened during the Roman Empire. Yea they took our natural resources blah blah blah...but that's all.

The fact remains that the Europeans brought civilization to Sub-saharan Africa.

Btw if you don't write your history,another person will write it for you.

YOU ARE COMPLETE DUNDERHEAD AND IGNORAMUS. PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE CURSED. EVEN WHEN THE FACTS STARE YOU IN THE FACE, YOU STILL REFUSE AND WISH TO REMAIN IN THE GUTTER OF INSIGNIFICANCE. WORTHLESS, IGNORANT DUNCE.

tinkinjow:
Have been asking myself the question for as long as I can remember, Where are ancient historical structures of black Africa. The truth however remain that whatever could have been the level civilisation, it was still very far behind that of the Europeans.
A lot of people were still working about naked. And I'm always of the opinion that no matter the plundering and destruction by the invaders, at the least one or two persons would have survived and would later reenact their previous attainments. Any time I think over these I kept wondering how a people where able to caste a bronze head yet unable to develop a technological prowess in other areas of human needs.
I'll continue to doubt that our forebears knew anything at all beyond hunting.

Have you ever picked up an African history book in your life? Need I ask? Dumb and dumber.

ROSSIKE:


YOU ARE COMPLETE DUNDERHEAD AND IGNORAMUS. PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE CURSED. EVEN WHEN THE FACTS STARE YOU IN THE FACE, YOU STILL REFUSE AND WISH TO REMAIN IN THE GUTTER. WORTHLESS, IGNORANT DUNCE.

thank your god for nairaland,if not you.... ...never mind

Now here is a dude I've always thought that he has some sense. Am disappointed in you dude. You know you don't have to resort to insults to prove your point.

@op... I think you forgot to mention the city of Kerma, in present day Sudan... one of black Africa's oldest cities....though to be fair it was destroyed by the passage of time more than anything, as there were really no ''Europeans'' capable of touching it when Kerma was at the peak of its glory nearly 10,000 years ago.



'Kerma (now known as Dukki Gel, a Nubian term which can be roughly translated as 'red mound') was the capital city of the Kingdom of Kerma, which was located in present day Egypt and Sudan. Kerma is one of the largest Nubian archaeological sites. It has produced decades of extensive excavations and research, including thousands of graves and tombs and the residential quarters of the main city surrounding the Western/Lower Deffufa. The Kerma site has been confirmed by archaeology to be at least 9,500 years old.

Around 3000 BC, a cultural tradition began around Kerma. Kerma was a large urban center that was built around a large mud brick temple, known as the Western Deffufa. Some unique aspects of this culture were beautiful pottery, the importance of cattle, a system of defense, and the King's audience chamber, which bears no resemblance to any Egyptian building (it was rebuilt 10 times).

'Kerma' is also used to describe the early Sudanese culture, of which Kerma was capital. The material culture at Kerma is synonymous with the culture of Kush. This was one of the earliest African civilizations, commanding an empire that in 1600 BC rivaled Egypt..'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerma

Nobleval:
thank your god for nairaland,if not you.... ...never mind

Now here is a dude I've always thought that he has some sense. Am disappointed in you dude. You know you don't have to resort to insults to prove your point.

You have no common sense. You've just read historical accounts on great African cities destroyed by Europeans, as produced by the poster, and then you completely ignore it all and say ''the Europeans destroyed no cities in sub Saharan Africa'', and ''Africa was not civilized'', and ''there were only hamlets'' etc etc. What more left but to insult you and hopefully wake up your dull, sleeping brain? Olodo.

ROSSIKE:


You have no common sense. You've just read historical accounts on great African cities destroyed by Europeans, as produced by the poster, and then you completely ignore it all and say ''the Europeans destroyed no cities in sub Saharan Africa'', and ''Africa was not civilized'', and ''there were only hamlets'' etc etc. What more left but to insult you and hopefully wake up your dull, sleeping brain? Olodo.

all the points he raised are absolutely invalid. I repeat-the Europeans destroyed no city in Africa.

Nobleval:
all the points he raised are absolutely invalid. I repeat-the Europeans destroyed no city in Africa.

Drunken foool. Maybe you need to get off the drink and drugs and get your dead brain working again (assuming it ever worked).

ROSSIKE:
Drunken foool. Maybe you need to get off the drink and drugs and get your dead brain working again (assuming it ever worked).

Rossike please go easy on the child. we need to understand their mind set. Its only then that it can be systematically torn up and rebuilt to imbibe the real history of their great ancestors.

kmariko:


Rossike please go easy on the child. we need to understand their mind set. Its only then that it can be systematically torn up and rebuilt to imbibe the real history of their great ancestors.

Sorry my brotha. People like that just make me sick. How can you be feeding somebody free education on their own history and yet, like a cursed, mad person, he rejects it and says he never amounted to anything? I just don't understand how somebody with a God given brain can act like that.

ROSSIKE:


Sorry my brotha. People like that just make me sick. How can you be feeding somebody free education on their own history and yet, like a cursed, mad person, he rejects it and says he never amounted to anything? I just don't understand how somebody with a God given brain can act like that.

I do quite understand sir, Sometimes you just have to gently let them figure out and understand how "special" their reasonings really are

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6slFC9kDqo

[size=15pt]Kilwa and its Destruction by Europeans[/size]

Historian Basil Davidson looks a the splendor of Kilwa, Tanzania, the most important of the Swahili coastal cities and how this city was destroyed by bloodthirsy and money-hungry Portuguese.

The problem I have with article like this is simple: what do you guys want to prove? That the pre-colonial Africa was more developed than Europe? Or the pre-colonial Africans were wiser than their European counterparts? Or powerful? I just don't get it.

ProfCorruption:
The problem I have with article like this is simple: what do you guys want to prove? That the pre-colonial Africa was more developed than Europe? Or the pre-colonial Africans were wiser than their European counterparts? Or powerful? I just don't get it.

we are telling ur true history so you can ve true self worth

deflover:
we are telling ur true history so you can ve true self worth

What you have written is nothing short of a pure junk. What's the meaning of "self worth" in the context that Africa was colonized , obviously not by people less endowed than the Africans; or since the Europeans left, Africans have not been able to govern themselves properly. You should be ashamed of yourselves for talking nonsense of a city in 13th century when all you have now are slums.

Don't you folks know the best way to realize the so called "true self worth" is to make your society habitable, and comfortable for your own people. Why is it difficult for Africans to do just that? You have oil that you can't refine, common ragtag militia is defeating your military, citizens are killing each other on some vague religious doctrines and the whole continent is a monumental catastrophe. And you relish us with a glorious past?

What past? What city? So when the Europeans saw Benin city, they destroyed it out of jealousy? Because they didn't have such a "wonderful" city? Lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Heh_91lhenA

[size=15pt]The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu [/size]

Aminatta Forna tells the story of legendary Timbuktu and its long hidden legacy of hundreds of thousands of ancient manuscripts. With its university founded before Oxford, Timbuktu is proof that the reading and writing of books have long been as important to Africans as to Europeans.

ProfCorruption:


What you have written is nothing short of a pure junk. What's the meaning of "self worth" in the context that Africa was colonized , obviously not by people less endowed than the Africans; or since the Europeans left, Africans have not been able to govern themselves properly. You should be ashamed of yourselves for talking nonsense of a city in 13th century when all you have now are slums.

Don't you folks know the best way to realize the so called "true self worth" is to make your society habitable, and comfortable for your own people. Why is it difficult for Africans to do just that? You have oil that you can't refine, common ragtag militia is defeating your military, citizens are killing each other on some vague religious doctrines and the whole continent is a monumental catastrophe. And you relish us with a glorious past?

What past? What city? So when the Europeans saw Benin city, they destroyed it out of jealousy? Because they didn't have such a "wonderful" city? Lol.

Please people like me " history junkies" would sincerely like to know your family's history and by extension the "clan" or "village so that we might have an accurate set of our cultural understanding of some of the problems here in Nigeria. Please I seek your indulgence for such knowledge.. Thanks

Mongols conquerd and pillage China, but how is China today?
Mansa Musa was very rich, lavishing his wealth in Mecca, built a library in Timbuktu. How is Mali today?
Enough of all these stories, civilizations were built and destroyed all over the world but people bounced back, why cant we blacks/Africans bounce back, why do we allow strangers to destroy us physically and mentally. Those who bounced back were able to do so because as the conquoror were destroying physical things they maintained their heads, their cultures and traditions were maintained, but in Africa, we lost it all. It is not the destuction of mud walls or carting away of bronze image that is the problem, it is the loss of our cultures and traditions!

kmariko:


Please people like me " history junkies" would sincerely like to know your family's history and by extension the "clan" or "village so that we might have an accurate set of our cultural understanding of some of the problems here in Nigeria. Please I seek your indulgence for such knowledge.. Thanks

What has my family history got to do with the junk you are propagating?

Sometimes I laughed at this history junkie's junk. You build the first university before oxford? What were they studying there? What indigenous writing code do we have in Africa? Those were destroyed by Europeans too?

wazoboy:
Mongols conquerd and pillage China, but how is China today?
Mansa Musa was very rich, lavishing his wealth in Mecca, built a library in Timbuktu. How is Mali today?
Enough of all these stories, civilizations were built and destroyed all over the world but people bounced back, why cant we blacks/Africans bounce back, why do we allow strangers to destroy us physically and mentally. Those who bounced back were able to do so because as the conquoror were destroying physical things they maintained their heads, their cultures and traditions were maintained, but in Africa, we lost it all. It is not the destuction of mud walls or carting away of bronze image that is the problem, it is the loss of our cultures and traditions!

That's the main thing.

ROSSIKE:
Drunken foool. Maybe you need to get off the drink and drugs and get your dead brain working again (assuming it ever worked).

I think you need a brain transplant. Have a nice day.

wazoboy:
Mongols conquerd and pillage China, but how is China today?
Mansa Musa was very rich, lavishing his wealth in Mecca, built a library in Timbuktu. How is Mali today?
Enough of all these stories, civilizations were built and destroyed all over the world but people bounced back, why cant we blacks/Africans bounce back, why do we allow strangers to destroy us physically and mentally. Those who bounced back were able to do so because as the conquoror were destroying physical things they maintained their heads, their cultures and traditions were maintained, but in Africa, we lost it all. It is not the destuction of mud walls or carting away of bronze image that is the problem, it is the loss of our cultures and traditions!

Transatlantic slavery for over 2 centuries destroyed everything culture and tradition Black Africans had. I do not believe Africans were more civilized than the Europeans but the Europeans who came to Africa could have worked hand in hand with Africans like they did with Indians and Asians but they chose to enslave us. Teach us not enslave us take away everything we had and impose yours, by such act overtime every tradition and culture you have will fade away.They keep saying Africans needs to be given an iron hand for them to make us civilized. By enslaving us for over 200 years how do you expect us to bounce back.

tinkinjow:
Have been asking myself the question for as long as I can remember, Where are ancient historical structures of black Africa. The truth however remain that whatever could have been the level civilisation, it was still very far behind that of the Europeans.
A lot of people were still working about naked. And I'm always of the opinion that no matter the plundering and destruction by the invaders, at the least one or two persons would have survived and would later reenact their previous attainments. Any time I think over these I kept wondering how a people where able to caste a bronze head yet unable to develop a technological prowess in other areas of human needs.
I'll continue to doubt that our forebears knew anything at all beyond hunting.

Nobleval:
Nice piece...
But you forgot that Africa was never really "civilized" before the advent of Europeans.
In fact, at the end of the 13th
century, when a european
traveler encountered the
great Benin City in West
Africa (present Nigeria, Edo
State),
I don't know what the writer meant here. Obviously he has another definition of City. Back then our present day hamlet could be taken as a city.
I know the Europeans committed many atrocities...they weren't saints thou.
But I disagree with some things here. The Europeans never destroyed any city in Sub-saharan Africa...North Africa? Yes. Carthage e.t.c but then,that happened during the Roman Empire. Yea they took our natural resources blah blah blah...but that's all.
The fact remains that the Europeans brought civilization to Sub-saharan Africa.
Btw if you don't write your history,another person will write it for you.

ProfCorruption:
The problem I have with article like this is simple: what do you guys want to prove? That the pre-colonial Africa was more developed than Europe? Or the pre-colonial Africans were wiser than their European counterparts? Or powerful? I just don't get it.

I have always believed that this whole "African Civilization" thing is bullsh.it .
Everyone Africans, Latin Americans,Indians the Chinese,the Japanese and the Koreans can point to trace or definite proof of a civilization dating back 5000 - 8000 years.
In real world absolute terms non of that has any impact on the current standing development wise on any of the aforementioned groups.
Before the Chinese,Korean,Japanese and Indians made any sort of progress, they all had to follow a maxim of SCIENTIFIC knowledge RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT please note I did not say western civilization.
It's understandable that people confuse Western civilization for scientific research and development because the West after the dark ages resolved to pursue civilization based on that maxim but Scientific Civilization is not an absolutely Western concept.
The sooner Africa's (and Nigeria's) pseudo intellectuals drop the bullshit of African Civilization and focus on the laws of physics,chemistry,mathematics and biology societal mechanics / administration ,organizational dynamics as we know them ,the sooner we will reach the Civilization levels we ought to have attained decades ago.
Europe took two hundred years to achieve it level of self sustaining civilization, the US took about a hundred and fifty years,Japan took roughly sixty years,Korea some fourty five years, China roughly fourty years.
I may be off on the timeline for a few of those groups mentioned by ten / twenty years give or take but what the pattern shows is that when a group of people decide that they want to pursue Civilization,it takes shorter than the last group if they are serious and determined about it.
This is mainly because there are fewer wheels to invent and because they have taken the time to investigate the history of their successes and more importantly their failures.
That is why it takes the Americans/Europeans (Russians included)and even the Japanese a decade or two to work out the basic science of a new technology before proliferation and widespread application of that tech which could take another decade while the Chinese simply learned how the tech evolved and leap frog shaving a third ,most times, half the time effort and finance.
Is anyone honestly going to argue that the Chinese,Koreans or the Japanese have lost their culture or that the have no culture?

ProfCorruption:


What you have written is nothing short of a pure junk. What's the meaning of "self worth" in the context that Africa was colonized , obviously not by people less endowed than the Africans; or since the Europeans left, Africans have not been able to govern themselves properly. You should be ashamed of yourselves for talking nonsense of a city in 13th century when all you have now are slums.

Don't you folks know the best way to realize the so called "true self worth" is to make your society habitable, and comfortable for your own people. Why is it difficult for Africans to do just that? You have oil that you can't refine, common ragtag militia is defeating your military, citizens are killing each other on some vague religious doctrines and the whole continent is a monumental catastrophe. And you relish us with a glorious past?

What past? What city? So when the Europeans saw Benin city, they destroyed it out of jealousy? Because they didn't have such a "wonderful" city? Lol.

In order to do great things you must have self worth and high self esteem. Many Adrianna believe their history stayed with slavery and colonialism so e have low self esteem and self hateed with allot of infertility complex. We must reclaim or great history so we can move from skins to great houses and build them ourselves without getting foreigners to do everything.

We must change the way we think.