The Brilliance of Africa--Not Just the Sun

In the 1920s, African Americans clung to Egypt as THE benchmark of African intellectual heritage, because they, like every other American, bought into public perceptions of the so-called “Dark Continent”—a place of savagery where people grunted like animals, hoping for a Tarzan to swing through and rescue them. Today people know more, but still fairly little. Teachers don’t know too much, so who can expect their students (who may become teachers themselves) will match that low bar? Of course, if you have African friends, take classes or read on your own, or have been lucky enough to travel, more information comes forth. Still, it seems as if the interested might like to have a little more info readily available, even right here in Second Life.

With that in mind, Saminaka built its library/bookstore. Slate, Scroll & Stick (a name that alludes to Muslim, Christian, and traditional modes of education) is now sitting pretty on the sim, and this Wednesday night will host an opening of a slideshow about Timbuktu while launching an in-world hippo book The African Intellectual Tradition, and a second little volume, Nigerian Authors.

Putting these things together, I decided to ask a few friends some questions—market research after the fact. The Timbuktu slideshow is all about ancient universities—but the mere mention of “Timbuktu” had some residents ask “Is it a real place?” It still has a back-of-beyond sound to it, and my guess is relatively few Saminaka visitors know that it’s in Mali, much less that it housed a university older than any in Europe except Bologna—though the universities in Morocco’s Fez and Egypt’s Cairo are older yet. In fact, as Oliha Yiwama underlined, the university was invented in Africa. (China has even older higher educational traditions, but they were organized in a different way, without degrees).

I asked BlackMink Toshi, owner of "Someplace Else," which includes a concert stage area and tropical lounge, as well as an African Village, open for group and personal use free of charge, what she knew about Timbuktu. “Only what I have read,” she said, betraying a skeptic’s (correct) view of scholarship. “And you know what? I did not like some things I have read, that may or may not be true. Seems to me that African people were engaged in some things that may have set the stage for being taken advantage of. Whenever you find a system of "royalty" you can bet that someone is being mistreated—everyone cannot be kings and queens, and I suspect that some persons were mistreated for the sake of this ‘royalty’ and/or ‘intellectual’ tradition. In any case, whatever they were doing ‘intellectually’ was not enough to prevent being mistreated on the basis of color or factors related to it. Bragging...and showboating gold to ‘visitors.’ and offering them gifts of ‘slaves’ may not have been in the best interest of the culture.”

This hardly seemed the time to wax enthusiastically about ancient manuscripts on optics and astrology, linguistics and history—for I could not deny that a manuscript considering slave-taking in Islamic jihads by no means condemned it. Indeed, BlackMink kept this from being an “Isn’t Africa great?” feature with her independent thoughts. “Great,” she said, ‘but guilty at times of ‘Inappropriate behavior.” It’s worth remembering; intellectuals everywhere have distorted findings and misdirected people, and some have become heads of state, enthusiastically misleading their followers.

I moved quickly to a new topic, familiarity with modern African universities. When I inquired how many there were, Feretian String hesitated and said, “I would guess...oh....10?” She pointed out her education had been very Eurocentric, and that since becoming a Saminaka resident. she had “started reading the folktales and other bits from [the] library and the welcome area exhibits. And I'm fascinated by the photographs of Nigeria and the art! I am hooked.”

She wasn’t alone in her unfamiliarity, by any means. Several citizens hazarded the guess that there might be “one or two.” Linda Sautereau, a university professor by trade, knew differently. “Universities in Africa...lord...must be hundreds.” Likewise, Sentwali Gabilondo guessed 150, and PHaTTSaMM Fizz said, “I am sure hundreds...having visited Kenya and Zimbabwe. They are not strangers to higher education.” I don’t have the exact count myself—unwilling to wade through Wikipedia to get it—but it is indeed in the hundreds. Nigeria alone has scads of universities, polytechnics and other higher degree-granting institutions. And many African professors have landed teaching positions in American schools, lest anyone think their education is in any way behindhand.

African authors? Only a few had had a taste, which seems a pity—nothing can convey a real feel for a place and culture faster than a good novel. Sentwali named Wole Soyinka, Diop, Kagame, Mongo Bete. Chinua Achebe (who shares a birthday with this author) was the first name on his lips, and was also mentioned by two other readers, BlackMink Toshi and Linda Sautereau. Achebe, who authored (among many other books) the excellent Things Fall Apart (probably the most frequently assigned African novel in U.S. classrooms), is now 78 and teaching at New York’s Bard College. After a car accident in 1990, he was confined to a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down.

His vigorous prose uses traditional Igbo proverbs to explore the impact of Western culture on Igbo life. BlackMink commented, “He has pointed out the inability of some African cultures to recover from devastation to the point of being capable of preserving themselves thus are still ‘helpless,’ as things fall apart.” Linda heard Achebe speak at Princeton last year and counted herself lucky.

“I can say one thing,” she said. “His body may be ailing, but his mind is keen and he has the most wonderful view of life of life. He didn't see his life as extraordinary. He did what had to be done in the time he lived. It was inspiring to see someone who was so comfortable with himself, his life and the world, despite the hardships he had suffered. His spirit shown, through his voice and his demeanor. He didn't seem like a man who was ailing at all--still vibrant...involved...active...it was awesome! From my perspective, as a black woman ‘of a certain age,’ I felt like my best days are ahead of me.”

Asked about other great minds of Africa, PHaTTSaMM Fizz brought up Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Shaka Zulu, while Sentwali named Cheikh Anta Diop. The ever-provocative and always quotable BlackMink named Robert Mugabe. She expanded, “Robert Mugabe has visibly done more towards the effort of producing justice than any African leader. He has proven himself to be quite ‘smart.’ ‘Smart’ meaning the ability to get things done. He reminds me of the Jews in Israel, as he is taking the same direct action to reclaim the land of his ancestors, and I think he should receive the same support as Israel.”

Miles Barbasz, in SL a creative photographer (his interpretive self-portrait shown here) and also the developer of Nago Wes Estates, is an academic and an Africanist in RL. He admired a different set of Africans, quickly reeling off a list that included Okot p'Bitek, Kwame Gyekye, Wande Abimbola, V. Y. Mudimbe and Kofi Asare Opoku.

Unsurprised at a general unfamiliarity with African intellectual history, he commented. “One of the most prevalent misconceptions about precolonial African cultures is that they were lacking in intellectual sophistication or substance because their modes of knowing by and large were not encoded textually, as was and is the case in the West. However, such a notion is grossly misguided, because what the ancient African world teaches us is that intricate religio-intellectual traditions can be encoded and transmitted non-textually via proverbial knowledge and ritual practice, to name only a few methods. Moreover, indigenous Africa is also highly instructive in that it forces us to realize that intellectual activity is meaningful only to the extent that it can be effectively manifested in everyday life for the betterment of individuals and humankind.”

Indeed, the oral traditions of Africa passed along much knowledge over the centuries, both esoteric and practical. Bases other than the familiar base ten system were used to calculate currency in West Africa for centuries, and the Kuba culture of the Democratic Republic of Congo is said to have one of the highest proportions of geometric design combinations in the world—a mix of mathematics and art, as is polyrhythmic drumming. West Africa’s Fulani cattle herders knew cowpox rubbed in an incision would prevent smallpox long before Jenner made his “discovery” in England.

But knowledge did not remain only oral. Besides the early importation of Arabic literacy in parts of East and West Africa, and of European literacy of various stripes—not only in colonial times, for numerous royal children studied in Portugal in the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries—indigenous writing systems are also known. AbaBrukh Aabye’s early Eritrean/Ethiopian builds (see Saminaka Compass 6/28) includes an inscription that dates from the fifth century B.C.E. The region’s ancient Ge’ez script was employed in everything from stories of the Christian saints to histories to works of literature. Ge’ez and its descendent, Amharic, use only two African alphabets. Nubian, Bamum and Vai cultures created their own writing systems, and some other ethnic groups, like those of Nigeria’s Cross River region, employed pictographs in communication.

PHaTTSaMM noted, “Africa is the 'cradle of civilization'--most of European descent have forgotten or are ignorant of that fact.” But they are not alone; many with that blood watered by the Senegal, the Niger, the mighty Congo and the Benue are equally unfamiliar with Africa’s great gifts. Take the opportunity to learn more on Saminaka, and join us for Wednesday’s opening (see Events, below) or at any convenient time.