|
In Africa
slave trade was initiated and given impetus by colonialism and Christian
missionaries.
The early
missionaries saw African culture and religion as a deadly adversary and as
an evil to be eliminated. In 1876, a 27-year-old missionary named Mary
Slessor emigrated from Scotland to spend the rest of her life in Nigeria.
For her efforts in trying to convert the people of Nigeria, Mary Slessor’s
photograph appears on Scotland’s ten pound note, and her name can be found
on schools, hospitals and roads in Nigeria.
The
introduction to Mary Slessor’s biography, titled: “White Queen of the
Cannibals” is revealing: “On the west coast of Africa is the country of
Nigeria. The chief city is Calabar. “It is a dark country because the
light of the Gospel is not shining brightly there. Black people live
there. Many of these are cannibals who eat other people.” “They’re bad
people, aren’t they, Mother?” asked little Susan. “Yes, they are bad,
because no one has told them about Jesus, the Saviour from sin, or showed
them what is right and what is wrong.”
These
opening words clearly show that Mary Slessor came to Africa on a mission
to indoctrinate us with Christian theology. She told us we worshipped an
inferior god and that we belonged to an inferior race. She worked to
expel what she described as “savagism” from our culture and heritage and
to encourage European “civilization” to take root in Africa. We accepted
the mission schools which were established to enlighten us, without
questioning the unforeseen costs of our so-called education.
The mission
schools plundered our children’s self-esteem by teaching them, as Africans
they were inherently “bad people.” Our children grew up not wanting to be
citizens of Africa. Instead, their education fostered the colonial ideal
they would be better off becoming citizens of the colonizing nations. I
speak of the price Africans have paid for their education and
“enlightenment” from personal experience. I was born “Chukwurah,” but my
missionary schoolteachers insisted I drop my “heathen” name. The prefix
“Chukwu” in my name is the Igbo word for “God.”
Yet,
somehow, the missionaries insisted that “Chukwurah” was a name befitting a
godless pagan. The Catholic Church renamed me “Philip,” and Saint Philip
became my patron and protector, replacing God, after whom I was named.
I have to
argue that something more than a name has been lost. Something central to
my heritage has been stripped away.
This denial
of our past is the very antithesis of a good education. Our names
represent not only our heritage, but connect us to our parents and past.
As parents, the names we choose for our children reflect our dreams for
their future and our perceptions of the treasures they represent to us.
My indoctrination went far deeper than just a name.
The
missionary school tried to teach me that saints make better role models
than scientists. I was taught to write in a new language. As a result, I
became literate in English but remain illiterate in Igbo – my native
tongue. I learned Latin – a dead language I would never use in the modern
world – because it was the official language of the Catholic Church, which
owned the schools I attended.
Today,
there are more French speakers in Africa than there are in France. There
are more English speakers in Nigeria than there are in the United Kingdom.
There are more Portuguese speakers in Mozambique than there are in
Portugal.
The
Organization of African Unity never approved an African language as one of
its official languages. We won the battle of decolonizing our continent,
but we lost the war on decolonizing our minds. Africa was a colony, but
it is also a key contributor to many other cultures, and the cornerstone
of today’s society. The world’s views tend to overshadow and dismiss the
value and aspirations of colonized people. Again, I must impart my own
experiences to illustrate this point.
Take, for
example, the origin of AIDS, an international disease. According to
scientific records, the first person to die from AIDS was a 25-year-old
sailor named David Carr, of Manchester, England. Carr died on August 31,
1959, and because the disease that killed him was then unknown, his tissue
samples were saved for future analysis.
The
“unknown disease” that killed David Carr was reported in The Lancet on
October 29, 1960. On July 7, 1990, The Lancet retested those old tissue
samples taken from David Carr and reconfirmed that he had died of AIDS.
Based upon scientific reason, researchers should have deduced that AIDS
originated in England, and that David Carr sailed to Africa where he
spread the AIDS virus. Instead, the white scientific community condemned
the British authors of those revealing articles for daring to propose that
an Englishman was the first known AIDS patient.
If these
scientists were neutral to race, their data should have led them to the
conclusion that Patient Zero lived in England. If these scientists were
neutral to race, they should have concluded that AIDS had spread from
England to Africa, to Asia, and to America. Instead, they proposed the
theory that AIDS originated in Africa.
Even
history has degraded our African roots. We come to the United States and
learn a history filtered through the eyes of white historians. And we
learn history filtered through the eyes of Hollywood movie producers.
Some of us
complained that Hollywood is sending its distorted message around this
globalized world. Some of us complained that Hollywood is a cultural
propaganda machine used to advance white supremacy. George Bush
understood Hollywood was a propaganda machine that could be used in his
war against terrorism. Shortly after the 9/11 bombing of New York City,
Bush invited Hollywood moguls to the White House and solicited their
support in his war against terrorism.
Some will
even argue that schools play a significant role as federal indoctrination
centers used to convince children during their formative years that whites
are superior to other races. Fela Kuti, who detested indoctrination,
titled one of his musical albums: “Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense.”
It scares
me that an entire generation of African children is growing up brainwashed
by Hollywood’s interpretation and promotion of American heroes. Our
children are growing up idolizing American heroes with whom they cannot
personally identify. We need to tell our children our own stories from
our own perspective. We need to decolonize our thinking and examine the
underlying truths in more than just movies. We need to apply the same
principles to history and science, as depicted in textbooks.
Look at
African science stories that were retold by European historians; they were
re-centered around Europe. The earliest pioneers of science lived in
Africa, but European historians relocated them to Greece. Science and
technology are gifts ancient Africa gave to our modern world. Yet, our
history and science textbooks, for example, have ignored the contributions
of Imhotep, the father of medicine and designer of one of the ancient
pyramids.
The oldest
patch on the quilt of mathematics belongs to another African named Ahmes.
Isaac Asimov also credited Ahmes as being the world’s first author of
mathematics textbook. Therefore, a study of history of science is an
effort to stitch together a quilt that has life, texture and color.
African historians must insert the patches of information omitted from
books written by European historians.
There are
many examples of the mark Africans have made on world history. Americans
are surprised when I tell them Africans built both Washington’s White
House and Capitol. According to the US Treasury Department, 450 of the 650
workers who built the White House and the Capitol were African slaves.
According
to CNN, African Australians were not recognized as human beings prior to
1967. They “were governed under flora and fauna laws.” African Australians
were, in essence, governed by plant and animal laws. For many years,
African Australians were described as the “invisible people.” In fact, the
first whites to settle in Australia named it the “land empty of people.”
http://www.blackcommentator.com/110/110_globalization.html
Globalization Not New: Look at the Slave Trade by: Philip Emeagwali
|
