Africa's Impact on The World of Today Essay Example

📌Category: Africa, World
📌Words: 599
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 14 February 2022

History has misrepresented Africa and its contributions to the world. The development of Eurocentric views since the slave trade has served to negate the continent’s importance. Historical sources such as archaeology and linguistics state a different story. Despite the views and biases of Eurocentrism, Africa has served a vital role in human development.

Eurocentrism has its ultimate roots in the slave trade. European colonial endeavors in the Americas depended on cheap labor for production. Europeans discovered that they could use free labor, they acted on it and began importing African slaves. Slavery was contradictory to many religious views in Europe, so Europeans created ways to justify slavery. They regarded slaves as less than human, inferior to the rest of humans, therefore they deserved to be in their condition. These ideas eventually permeated into the rest of European culture, into the minds of the people as an acceptable thought. The future of European engagement with Africans would be based on this belief. 

After the period of American colonialism European nations began settling Africa. Christian missionaries spread their religion to the natives, which gave way for the eventual establishment of European government and further control. Colonies used native labor to complete projects and to further their agenda. Native rubber collecting during the period of the Congo free state represents the dire control placed on the people of Africa. Those who did not meet rubber quotas had their hands mutilated and were killed (King Leopold’s Ghost). Eurocentric culture supported the spreading of religion and western ideas to Africans to civilize them. To them, Africans being less than human also meant that they did not have any history. People could not be civilized if they did not have history. But Africans were for a long-time civilized people and had their own history to go with it. They did not have what westerners considered to be history, they instead relied on oral tradition instead of written history. This means that studying African past must rely on other sources.

Perhaps the most important evidence for African history is that it encompassed all of world history for hundreds of thousands of years. Human life originated in Africa, and it was not until long after that migration occurred to the other continents. Africa deserves to be understood as the beginning of civilization. European society then must recognize they too owe something to that of African development. 

Linguistic studies give hint to mobile and active societies in Africa. There are thousands of different languages that exist today within the continent itself. Linguistic experts show that hundreds of these languages can be grouped together with those that are similar, that use only slightly different words for common phrases. Using the information about similar languages, the experts have constructed a likely path of multiple large historical migrations among the people of Africa. Migrations shows complexity and interaction between different cultures that help to prove that the people of Africa have been dynamic throughout time. 

Recent archaeological finds, as well as architecture, demonstrate the existence of kingdoms, both old and relatively new throughout the continent. The Moors people of the north invaded the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th century and held land in the area for over seven hundred years. The castle in Grenada still up today displays their expertise with different materials and understanding of structural integrity. Remains of large buildings have been found such as Great Zimbabwe, and the churches of Lalibela in Ethiopia. These buildings give a glimpse into complex societies and kingdoms of the past. The finds show that African people developed governments and systems that point to a civilized people. Africa has a rich history that a Eurocentric view failed to recognize.

Africa has contributed in countless ways to the world of today. The people of Africa have had dynamic societies, interacting with other nations throughout history. Eurocentric views from relatively recent times have therefore failed to fairly evaluate the continent and its peoples.

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