The myth of the continent with the longest history
The myth of the continent with the longest history
- Many people don’t find history interesting. A group was asked to choose between two options “Love or money?”. One person responded “Rugby” ..., How many people do you think would said “History”? ?
- If we ignore those who don’t care about history and focus on the people that do, how many know about world history? A lot of us know about the history of our own countries due to national curriculums.
- Most Africans don’t know their history and people outside Africa know even less except for academics and hobby historians. In the absence of solid information, people get their information Hollywood, news articles and Tv series; which is like claiming to be a medical doctor because you’ve watched all the episodes and seasons of Grey’s Anatomy.
- Yet, in my opinion, due to Dunning Kruger effect, we will find plenty of people who either have no information or the wrong information holding onto ideas such the idea that Africa, the continent with the longest continuous habitation by behaviourally modern humans having the least history.
- It is more logical if you know the history of the continent to say “I don’t know.” and fill the knowledge gap by doing the research. This isn’t what typically happens. The Dunning Kruger effect is cognitive bias we are all capable of. To save face, rather than admit we are not experts or strong in a subject or topic, instead we want to be “right” when presented with information we are unfamiliar with or which we have no prior foundation to use to confirm.
- One thing I do is check peer-reviewed journals, books by academics, check various disciplines and material by special interest magazines focussing on all the disciplines used to build historical knowledge.
- There are a few myths about African history and a few reasons why some European writers - not all - felt the need to malign brown-skinned people and claim Africans came from a continent without history. It probably gave them moral peace of mind to believe that they were not committing physical, mental and moral violence against their fellow human beings, during the era of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and subsequently during Colonization. Without the social control over public thought that used to exist, we can now consign those myths to the “dark ages” of human history with facts and the latest scientific knowledge.
- Due to these various myths about African history, even Africans don't know about the contributions of the continent to humanity, including: cooperative behaviour (behaviourly modern humans), burials, clothes, tools, art, ornaments, fishing, weapons, cotton, kola nuts (the Cola in Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola), sea-faring vessels, rice, civilizations, elections, age sets (the equivalent of school years), law, medicine, engineering, mathematics, multi-story buildings and so on.
- This article spans 3.2million years and taps various disciplines of human knowledge. It’s a 10 to 15 minute read.
- I explain why I think it’s a myth that the continent with the longest history has no history. Rather, I explain that the reverse is true, it has a lot of history and we just haven’t got the time to look at it all.
