EPISODE ONE: "DIFFERENT BUT EQUAL"
EXCERPTS
FROM THE FILM
One of the largest man-made structures in the world
is a stone-built structure located somewhere in the middle of Africa and built
by ancient Africans yet early European writers refused to accept the African
origins of such a magnificent structure.
Early European
notions about Africans:
1.
Friererich
Hegel, the great philosopher once said about Africa,
"This is the land where
men are children. A land lying beyond the daylight of self-conscious history
and enveloped in black color of the night. At this point, let us forget Africa
for Africa is no historical part of the world"
2.
An
English explorer Richard Burton wrote:
"The study of the Negro
is a study of man's rudimentary mind. He would appear rather degeneracy from
the civilized man than a salvage rising to the first step were it not for his
total incapacity for improvement. He has not the ring of true metal. There is
no rich nature for education to cultivate. He seems to belong to one of those
childish races never rising to man's estate who fall like worn out links from
the great chain of animated nature".
3.
Samuel
Baker, an early explorer in Africa wrote in his memoir:
"Human nature viewed in
its crudest state as seen amongst African savages is quite on the level of that
of the brute and not to be compared with the noble character of the dog. There
is neither a great pity, love nor self-denial. No idea of duty, no religion,
nothing but covetousness, ingratitude, selfishness and cruelty".
On the
Contrary:
·
Magnificent
kingdoms and empires arose and thrived in Africa in the same way as it did in
Medieval Europe but historians have never highlighted Africa’s earliest
civilization until recently.
·
In
the Medieval times, people of all color and races were seen as different but
equal. However, today black people everywhere are treated with contempt,
scorned and ridiculed etc., What brought about this change in people's attitude
and perception towards Africans?
·
The
author feels Racism is a recent development and attributes the degeneration of
Africans to the North Atlantic Slave Trade where black people were presented as
less human, objects for buying and selling like cattle and to which any inhuman
treatment was justified.
·
However
according to the author, modern science, and history has proved the perceptions
and early notions about Europeans wrong. Archaeology has proved that the first
remains of species of Homo sapiens (human ancestors) have been found in East
Africa. Culture and civilization as we know it today began in Africa. Ancient
African history is also replete with great and rich civilization equal to what
has ever happened anywhere in Europe or Asia.
Evidence from
hills of Zimbabwe:
a)
In
the Matopo hills of Zimbabwe, old carvings and art inscribed in stones portray
messages of an advanced civilization.
Evidence from
Desert Regions of Algeria and the Nile Basin:
b)
In
the Saharan desert of Algeria, rock paintings portray marvelous art galleries
of wet and fertile vegetation during which a very rich culture thrived. As
climate changed from wet to increasingly arid pastures and desert conditions,
the rich civilization of the people vanished. People moved westwards toward the
banks of the Nile where they set up the magnificent civilization of Ancient
Egypt during which the great pyramids were built.
c)
5,000
yeas ago, the Nile basin had become the center of a great civilization,
greatest ever in its time (the Age of Egyptian Pharaohs). Yet today, many
people find it hard to believe the African origins of the Egyptian Empire, the
pyramids etc. Many tend to believe the African does not have the mental
capacity to create such a civilization. Diop and other scholars refute this
notion and contend that most Egyptians were Africans.
Ancient
Greeks' notion about Africa
d)
The
Greeks knew Egypt well and believed Africans moving from the south to occupy
the Nile Delta built the Ancient Egyptian civilization.
e)
There
is evidence to show that later in history Kings of southern Nubia (in present
day Sudan) conquered Egypt.
Nubian Culture
(the Kush Empire at Meroe)
f)
At
Meroe in the Sudan desert are remnants of an early civilization of the Kush
Empire. The Nubian culture is believed to have withstood external influences of
the Egyptians, Arabs and Europeans. In early times, the Kush people might have
tamed elephants and used them in wars.
g)
The
Kush people at Meroe had an extensive Iron smelting industry. One of the
earliest alphabetical ways of writing has been found on a tablet in Nubia yet
little has been written about Nubian civilization.
h)
The
Crusade Wars beginning from about 1096 AD destroyed much of Nubian Empire
ANSWER
THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS BASED ON THE FILM
Episode
1: Different
but Equal.
1.
What
in your opinion is a civilized society? Describe the attributes of a civilized
society and explain what you consider an uncivilized behavior.
2.
If
someone is different, does it always mean he/she is inferior? Explain your answer.
3.
Why
do people tend to view others who are different from those they know in strange
ways? Explain from your own experience.
4.
Why
do people tend to fear strangers and people they do not know well?
5.
Why
do you think the World has not heard much about Ancient civilizations in
Africa?
6.
Why
do you think early European explorers and writers portrayed Africans as crude
and non-human?
7.
What
events and conditions influenced the perceptions of these early European
writers?
8.
Based
on the film, what do you believe are some of the lasting influences of the
slave trade on people of African descent in the modern world?
9.
In
what ways has the wrong interpretation of African culture, and the
non-reporting of Africa's glorious past contributed to the current state of
underdevelopment in Africa?.