Africa – An Equal Part In History That Shaped Our World Today
As people look at the history of Africa, some of their first thoughts might be that Africa as a continent was inferior and undeveloped with little to no history that proves this idea to be incorrect. Yet contrary to this this idea, Africa has a lot of history, and even if their written records didn’t start until European and Islamic traders came, there are many artifacts and ancient ruins that can support the idea that Africa was indeed a equal part in history that shaped our world today.
Great architectural structures like pyramids, castles and city walls share a great insight on how Africa was developing before the Europeans. For example the ancient city of Axum created obelisks that can be seen in Ethiopia today, the tallest one reaches up to 30.48m (Sullivan) which shows that they were advanced enough to figure out how to get the Obelisks to stand. Other places like Great Zimbabwe had walls that rose to 11 meters (Jarus) with small corridors and dips of the city’s center palace that fit into the earth’s geological puzzle.
In Lalibela you have the Ancient Christian “rock-hewn churches”(Johnblack) which are fully carved out of the rock base with an intricate and well planned drainage systems. All of these ancient architectural ruins show a sophisticated aspect of Africa’s ancient civilizations even before the Europeans came. Another source tells us that when Europeans came to Great Zimbabwe, they believed that the city was not built by Africans (“Great Zimbabwe”), who were seen as a primitive race, but built by a more developed race. Secondly, art in the early kingdoms shows advancement before the Europeans. For example, Nubia’s kingdom of Meroe’s craftsmanship in iron and pottery has helped them gain power to develop and make great weapons that allowed a “Golden Age”during 5345-5043 BC. (Muhammed) as they held onto trade with Northern Africa.
Also, Egyptian art that dates back to the time before Moses have been seen with advancements in geometry and arithmetic that were used to create huge works of art like statues and massive stone walls that contain hieroglyphics and art telling great stories of history and past glories. The ancient kingdom of Mapungubwe was found to have excellent craftsmanship in gold that has amazed archaeologists today. One famous find was a gold casing of a rhino which was formed with thin pieces of gold over a wood carving. This art created a stepping stone for greater advancements from a stronger and trusting trade partnership with other countries such as China and India. Not only did Mapungubwe and Nubia have skill in metal working but also the ancient kingdom of Ile-Ife were skilled craftsman in bronze which also allowed them to be successful traders and become an advanced civilization with a strong city.
Finally, as mentioned, many of these ancient kingdoms have influenced the world through math, religion, and art styles. To begin with Egypt has influenced Greece for example through advancements in astronomy, arithmetic, and geometry, and had used it in accounting, making a calendar, and advancing in administration. Furthermore Yeha was a strong Christian city that dated their genealogy back to the time of Moses and claims that they are the descendants of David and are of his lineage. Also the first King who converted to Christianity, his son changed the currency to have a cross on it rather than the crescent that was the previous moon god, this then influenced other kingdoms to do the same, this means that Ethiopia’s trading was very influential.
In conclusion, before the Europeans came to Africa, Africa was a very influential towards different places like continent that created many things like architectural techniques before Europeans came. So no one can say that Africa was an isolated and non-developed continent until the Europeans came because they were indeed growing and developing in front of them. The only reason we think this is because of past European journalists and ancient roman text that call them Barbarians.
