Even in this present days Africa is still conceived and perceived by some western people as one small country; they still retain a mental picture of Africa where animals are parading everywhere in Jungles and people roaming about in deserts.
The Africa I know, the One I belong to, the One I am conscious of is a vast continent of about 55 countries that have different forms of governments, economics, system of education's, thousands of diverse cultures and modern infrastructures.
It is therefore relevant to shape and to reshape; to construct and to reconstruct the true image of the African Identity both for the Africans who may be feeling inferior to the White Skill due to Western Imperialism and for the Western world whose minds are still cobwebs with this wrong and erroneous view of the African Continent due to the dishonesty of Eurocentric Scholars. It is therefore the task of the intellectuals and the philosophers to give a proper representation of reality.

GROSSLY MISREPRESENTATION OF THE AFRICAN WORLD
Surprisingly, as early as 1963 when some African Countries have gained their independence from Colonial rule; Prof. Trevor Ropper a professor of Oxford University in reaction to the request made by some students who agitated for the Introduction of African History course in their curriculum said; “perhaps in the future there will be some Africa History to teach but at the present there is none-there is only the history of the Europeans in Africa, the rest is darkness and darkness is not the subject of history; we cannot therefore amuse ourselves with the unrewarding gyrations of barbarous tribes in picturesque but irrelevant corners of the globe.”
This intellectual injustice was highly corroborated by A.P. Newton a professor of imperial history at University of London; expressed the view in 1963 that; “history only began when men are stink to writing; it is concerned almost entirely with writing documents.” Validating this spurious assertion, Sir Arthur Richard a formal colonial government of Nigeria claimed that; “for countless centuries, while all the pageant of history swept by, the African continent remain unmoved in primitive savagery.” This is a similar version of Hegel’s conception of the Absolute Spirit; Hegel held that when Spirit of Consciousness was moving round the world, Africa was by-passed by Spirit (self-conscious
ness and creativity). Authenticating this dubious claim, Sir Philip Mitchell in his work, “Africa and the West in Historical Perspective” maintained that “until the period of European colonization, Africa was living in the stone age.” Substantiating this poisonous view, Margery Perham argues that “until the very recent penetration of European the greater part of Africa continent was without the wheels, the plough, transportation, almost without stone houses or cloths except for animal skill cloths, without writing and therefore, without history. These grossly misrepresentations of Africa can be multiplied ad infinitum.
A modern contemporary African Philosopher by the name, Tsenay Serequeberhan teaching African Philosophy at Hampshire College once remarked that when he told students and the faculty there that he was teaching African Philosophy, they were shocked and raised eyebrows by asking if such a thing like “African Philosophy” ever existed at all! There are certainly reasons for that surprise. First, is the popular understanding of Africa as a Dark Continent where there are no roads, no electricity, no schools, no governments and no civilization etc. The Second reason why people usually express wonder and doubt at the mention of African History and Philosophy is due to the image of Africa as delineated by some anthropologists, social scientists, political analyses and historians with a slanted approach to reality.
when you run through these books carefully, “The Savage Mind” by C.Levis-Strauss; V. Brelsford work entitled, “The Philosophy of The Savage;” Levy Bruhl’s Book entitled, “Mental Functions Among Lower Societies;” C.P. Groves work entitled, “The Planting of Christianity in Africa,” you will logically understand that the picture of Africa by these scholars to the international community is tantamount to a body without a soul.
Africa! Stand up now and re-conceptualize and reconstruct your history for what you know of yourself is a false testimony used to justified western imperialism. The destiny of this great continent is in the hands of us all Africans. Africa Philosophers and Scholars therefore have the task of being the agents of change in Africa