American Underdeveloped Africa

Servitude in Africa, the organization of bondage as it existed in Africa, and the impacts of world slave-exchange frameworks on African individuals and social orders. As in the greater part of the world, subjugation, or automatic human bondage, was polished crosswise over Africa from ancient circumstances to the current time. At the point when individuals today consider subjection, many imagine the shape in which it existed in the United States before the American Civil War (1861-1865): one racially identifiable gathering owning and misusing another. Be that as it may, in different parts of the world, servitude has taken a wide range of structures. In Africa, numerous social orders perceived slaves simply as property, yet others considered

In Basil Davidson’s video “Different but Equal,” he outlines the European perception of Africa upon their discovery of the continent. Claims that the Europeans were making about African culture, however, were far fetched and did not depict Africa in a positive manner. History according to pre-European Africa was rich and diverse, but once Europeans saw for themselves how different their continent was from Africa, they began to make up their own version of African history.

Over the course of this semester, I was introduced to many people, ideas, writings, and discussions that sparked my interest and enlightened me on African American history. However, I feel like this was just the beginning of my journey of learning the history of my people, as there is still so much out there to be brought to the surface. Prior to taking this course, I was always ignorant on the topic of African American history and simply made the connection to slavery. Additionally, I was unaware of other black activist, movements, and struggles that I had the chance to witness for the first time in this class. I came to a realization of how deprived of this information I was, because other historic events have been deemed more important. A quote that stuck with me throughout the course that was made by Arthur Schomburg was, “... African history and negro history, are the missing pages of world history”.

I think it is important to understand that African people have been present on this Earth for a very long time, long before white people decided to rip them from their homes. Many people of America don’t know the true history of Africa and that Africans are the true creators of civilization. Because of this lack of knowledge about our history, I think many people don’t know the greatness that black people are capable of. We come from a long legacy of kings and queens, but many people think of us as thugs and felons and unfortunately some of our people perpetuate this myth. The study of the African experience is important because it is necessary to know where we come from in order to understand where we can go. Reading is the best way to learn more about our history. This semester one of the books that we are reading is Something Torn and New by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong 'o and he talks about the disembodiment of the African people.

Goal 1) I want to learn more about my how Africans lived, because it is the way my ancestors lived their lives and finding this all out will give me the knowledge I will need to know going forward in life. Goal 2) I want to know about the slavery, and all the things the Africans had to go through on a daily basis. Goal 3) I want to know about the African’s accomplishments even though they weren’t given that many rights. Looking at my goals, I am proud to say I met them, during this 7-week course I learned a lot about the past, many things I did not know about since it was never taught to me. I can say with this class I called home to my mom and discussed something new I learned about and she was very excited I decided to take this class, as well. I don’t plan to just stop here, I will expand my knowledge and continue to learn about the history and even the present things that are happening to Africans, for example to slave trade that is going on in Libya. One course-related accomplishment that I am proud of, is getting to know about the history of slavery, and seeing what my ancestors went through. Seeing how back then racism was terrible and even today African Americans still deal with it, and it will never

For what little history is taught about Africans institutionally and publically presently, it used as a tool to disempower people of African descent. To start present interpretations of African history denies the feats and accomplishments done by Africans as well as the roots from which all people come from. Presently history is made for people

All histories are an important subject to teach in every academic levels; however, African American history is a vital part of the United States. America would not be the country she is today without the accomplishments of the slaves and founding African American scholars. Slavery brought about incredible trials and established perseverance with the African American population that future generations need to know about and learn from. History teaches us our errors and our successes; furthermore, it helps us determine our future directions. Throughout history there were countless African American leaders, Godly examples and heroes. It is the duty of all generations to teach about these men and women. There is a wealth of knowledge that all people, in all walks of life, and at all ages needs to learn. No matter what race a child is today, they need to know and understand what their ancestors went through, how they lived, more importantly what they did to not only survive but to thrive (Holt & Brown, 2000).

In the 1800’s Imperialism, an action by a strong nation to take control of another country, became prominent in Europe towards Africa. The driving forces of Imperialism in Africa were competition for land, economics, and the need for power. The “Partition of Africa, 1884-85” map demonstrates the competition related to the colonization of European colonies in Africa. There were a total of 7 European countries that imperialized Africa, but the main countries were France and Britain. The only non-colonized countries were Ethiopia and Liberia; this was because they had an established strong government.

During of the course of reading this week’s section in the text one of things that hit me the hardest was the lack of credit given to the African people for their innovations and developments to the human race. The African continent has had a long history of the development of new techniques and technologies in the areas of science, technology, arts, and mathematics. Across Africa many empires and tribal groups flourished and the people prospered without outside rule or influence for decades. Throughout the continent of Africa lies some of the greatest architectural wonders and religious artifacts on the planet. However, this all changed when colonial powers of Europe started their colonization process by spreading false information about the

Imagine going through life without a trajectory. Not knowing what you and your people did that did make a good impact on world history, only knowing your history as it pertains to oppression and devastation. That has been the experience of most members of the African diaspora living in the West. Knowing the reasons why our communities are dysfunctional and we are in a subservient position in society goes a long way in helping bring the change that’s necessary, but we Africans have been denied our place in history. For a long time, the perception of the history of Africa and Africa today has been through the lens of Europeans and

After World War II had ended, colonial countries all over the world began to take advantage of the decline in power of the old European imperialist countries to invoke independent movements in order to gain their own independent from imperialism. Followed the wake of these movements, most colonial countries were able to gain their freedom. However, there is still a region where imperialist countries still managed to hold on to their power. This region is Africa. There seemed to be many issues that prevent the African countries from gaining their independence. One of these problems was the fact that most African people were denied the right to be educated as well as many other rights. Furthermore, Colonial government denied African people

When asked why is there a need for African American studies? One must understand the Eurocentric and political game the American school system imposes on young children African American students are bombarded with negative stereotypes throughout primary school and sometimes even college. The American school curriculum has a conservative effort in glorifying everything European from European art, history and music, while African American history is crammed in the month of February. During this month African American history starts with the slave trade and ends with Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech.” They refuse to enlighten students on the great African empires or the great African American inventors. Instead they are educated about slavery and how they were savages before the intervention of Europeans. Therefore, leaves lots of African American students ashamed of their history and creates this negative perspective of not wanting to be black. This leads to the question Malcom X stated in his speech, “who taught you to hate yourself?”

Of the assigned texts this week I enjoyed the first reading Reverse Sailing, Chapter One:Antiquity by Michael A. Gomez the most. Knowledge is really an incredible thing. Personally, I know I never put much thought into the history or past lifestyle of African slaves prior to their existence in America. In this text readers learn how strong their culture influenced different parts of society and the foundation of many country's education, technology, art and culture. Another topic I enjoyed learning about from this text is about how the perceptions of Africans in Europe altered through time. It's boggles my mind every time I learn that something I consider to be a concrete fact or idea has not always been so. It's like telling someone the isn't

You must be aware of the realism that almost everyone seems to be involved in a rat race trying extremely hard to prove their worth over their contenders. And, why wouldn’t they? Every individual yearns for an improved standard of living which is far better than the current one and once they have grabbed the lifestyle they so wanted, they would again crave for an enhanced one. So, you can figure out on your own that it is more or less like a vicious circle which nobody wants to get rid of. Due to this reason, people make up their minds to relocate from one place to another and there can be plenty of reasons other than the mentioned one. Those living in the underdeveloped states are the one who are affected to a great extent and as a result,

It is a common and well known saying that history repeats itself. This saying has more to it than the literal definition of it, it means we need to study it and learn from it, in order to avoid repetition. Often times we have that opportunity to study and learn from history in a way that can impact the future, in a hopefully positive way. In terms of education, improvement and innovation is always a top priority. If we can properly combine the study of other cultures with the study of history, we can have an extremely effective tool for learning ways to positively impact our own generation and future. In this essay, I will attempt to uncover the differences between current education and traditional African education, with intention of learning how to apply it today. The idea behind studying history is that it is a vital part of learning and adopting successful techniques and a good tool for avoiding the repetition of mistakes. If pre-colonial Africa can have success without the resources and technologies we have today, then it is valuable to invest time and effort in mirroring some of their methods.