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I left Legon 40 years ago and
have been asking students whether they found
this course (African Studies) useful and/or
interesting but most said no.
After a working life and
being exposed to the world, with 63
countries visited, I have come to understand
the rationale of the course and how to make
it interesting.
The rational is that we cannot really
develop if our development is not anchored
in our own heritage i.e history, culture,
values etc etc. I learned from an educator
that the word for this is 'nostrification'
or as one local politician would put it
'domestication'. Apparently the Germans and
Japanese did same. Now how would Africans do
this?
I believe it is by getting to
know their history from antiquity if not
from 1,750,000 years ago when Zijanthropus
Boisie was discovered in East-Central Africa
(the Biblical garden Eden) but at least from
10,000 or 6000 BC with the latter date being
almost when Pharaonic Egypt or Kimit, as
they themselves called it, started and
records were kept.
The idea is to find out what
made our ancestors able to create the best
civilization known to man at the time and
how to reclaim those values for our
development henceforth.
The way to make the
course more interesting is to show how for
almost every subject around today, the
ancient Africans contributed something to
the way it is being taught at present
- from the ancient Egyptian Mystery
System or science to educational system.
Another way is to
mention iconic world figures and landmarks
and show their African origins.
For example most of us read
Aesop's tales but how many know who Aesop
was. We assume he was Greek but that is not
the case. That was the name the ancient
Greeks gave to him when he went to spend a
few months with them, told them the stories
which they recorded and passed on.
Aesop was actually an
Ethiopian called Lochman.
Graduating doctors swear the
Hippocratic oath in which mention is made of
Aescalapius and one could ask how many
Africans know who this is? There again it
could be assumed he was Greek but in fact he
was an African ( ancient Egyptian
multi-genius) called Imhotep who was
considered the God of medicine and even
Hippocrates considered the father or
medicine deferred to him.
One more example from ancient
Egypt is the Christian religion and Bible
which seems to have lots of elements from
the Osirian drama, the Book of the Dead, the
Coffin text etc. The Ten Commandments look
like a distillation of the 147 negative
confessions of the ancient Egyptians.
Another example, who is
Gibraltar named after ? It is General Tarikh
Ziyad, the Moor or African who led the
Moorish (Africans + Arab) troops to conquer
Spain in 711 AD and occupied it for 774
years. Djabal Tarikh or Rock of Tarikh leads
to Gibraltar. It is during the occupation of
Spain by Africans or Moors that much of the
knowledge of the ancient Egyptian
civilization which had been translated into
Greek and Arabic was now translated into
Latin for onward transmission to the rest of
Europe.
Going eastward. one might ask
who the Ganges river is named after? It is
after an Ethiopian General who led troops
into conquering that part of India at the
time. Etc, etc. one can go on and on about
the African presence in world history from
ancient times through to the modern era.
Lucas Amuri
March 02, 2015
Publisher's note:
The article was prompted
by a student at University of Ghana who
wrote to the writer the following:
"My name is Caleb amprofi..
a student of the university of Ghana..
African studies is a very interesting
required course over here. Basically during
first three weeks we all learn the same
thing.. gender and development and
afterwards we are divided.. we study what we
choose individually.. I chose African art
it's philosophy and criticism.. it was very
difficult.. we were taught very unusual
things and things that don't really matter
.. I personally forced myself to learn just
because of the exam. Ancient artifacts.. how
to identify them amongst others. It was
interesting but not really useful. Thank you |
