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.

ANCIENT ETHIOPIA IN SL--Tamsin Barzane

It takes geological change to make real continents grow, but virtual ones are faster. I am happy to report that the SL continent of Africa is swelling in its specificity—a Virtual Ethiopia called Enda Brukh has joined Saminaka (Nigeria), Virtual Africa (South Africa), Africa (Malawi/Zambia/Zimbabwe). AbaBrukh (“Aba” means “father,” while “Brukh” means “blessed”) Aabye has recreated not only some traditional stone structures of today’s Ethiopia, but has reached far back into the past to reconstruct part of an early historical palace.

AbaBrukh Aabye’s love and interest in Eritrea and Ethiopia goes back nearly forty years. “I was in the Army during the Vietnam era,” he said, “and got sent to DLI-WC, the Defense Language Institute in Monterey California, to learn Arabic for a year. At the end, I was sent to Asmara, then in Ethiopia, now in Eritrea; the US had a communications base there. I had studied archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania, so I was in heaven. I connected with the Ethiopian Institute of Archaeology, and took part in several important excavations.”

He stayed even after his stint in the service was over, but after about five years had to leave, for the political situation was heating up—this was not long before the revolution that unseated Emperor Haile Selaissie.

Although his plans for grad school in archaeology were derailed, SL has given him the opportunity to present some of his research findings to a wide audience in a lively, inviting way. “I've always wanted to do something to make people more aware of the wonderful history and archaeology of Ethiopia and Eritrea,” AbaBrukh says. “I did a lot of drawings, started scanning my huge collection of photos and slides.”

AbaBrukh discovered SL through NPR, where he formerly worked. A mother who was an artist and an engineer father had long ago developed his visual skills, and his entry into SL made building inevitable. “Finally I could make a 3D restoration of a site that is just a ruin, and make it livable!” he said.

He entered SL in Spring of 2007, and estimates it took him about a year and a half before he began constructing. He has two 1024 parcels, and hopes to acquire a third. They are located within a two-sim recreation of an ancient Roman city, since Axum (also spelled Aksum) was a kingdom that traded substantially with Rome. This environment is an attractive one—no concerns of jarring Jetson-like towers or overnight malls. Wintry snows may be out of keeping with Ethiopia when the sim gets seasonal, but that is not too heavy a price to pay.

AbaBrukh reminds visitors that ancient Axum and much of modern Eritrea and Ethiopia have a culture that mixes African and Semitic threads through language, religion and other aspects. “The palace dates from the 4th century, the height of Aksum's power,” he says. “Aksum grew from a pre-existing culture of traders and warriors that developed in the Abyssinian highlands. They spoke a Semitic language, probably native to the region, not borrowed from South Arabia, as was once thought, but related to those in southern Arabia. The cultures were also related, and tied by commerce, art and architecture, and language.” Only the Red Sea separates Ethiopia from Yemen and other Middle Eastern regions.

AbaBrukh Aabye notes, “Aksum grew very powerful by trading frankincense and spices to Rome and the Mediterranean world--and very wealthy. They controlled trade in both items.” He points out this dominance put them in a position “much like the oil states are today.” Besides these items, they also led international trade in ivory and exotic animals, as well as African gold. To consolidate their mercantile powers, they destroyed their Kushite Nubian rivals to the north, centered at Meroe.

Axum began to grow at the outset of the Christian era and maintained its position for several centuries, trading with Rome and Byzantium. AbaBrukh observes, “The Emperor Ezana decided that to stay in the good graces of newly Christanized Rome, he needed to make the same move, so in the 4th century, he made Christianity the official religion.” The Roman Emperor Constantine had legalized Christianity that same century, so its official recognition occurred at about the same time in both African and Europe.

Axum marked the graves of its kings with the tallest monolithic monuments in history, taller than Egyptian obliesks. These burial vaults must have been amazing repositories of grave goods, but were thoroughly looted in ancient times. AbaBrukh plans to use a megaprim to erect at least one in Enda Brukh.

Before it was Christian, ancient Ethiopia had a Judaic presence, as well as polytheistic religion. Ethiopia still has a strong belief that the Biblical Queen of Sheba, whom they call Makeda, was their daughter. Her union with King Solomon produced Menelik I, who brought the Ark of the Covenant from across the Red Sea, and founded a pre-Axum dynasty.

A stele just outside the palace once stood near its real-life counterpart at the important Eritrean site known as Metera or Matara. “Unfortunately,” AbaBrukh says, “During the 2000 war, Ethiopian troops camped in the site. Lacking other entertainment, they blew up this oldest example of the modern alphabet common to the two countries. The inscription survived, but all below was shattered.” Written Ge’ez (today only a liturgical language), has an imposing yet graceful character.

The palace itself is beautifully textured, its small stones showing the area’s expertise in making mortarless walls. AbaBrukh notes, “I’ve watched villagers using the same building techniques that date back to Aksum and earlier, and, as you can see from the palace, they did build multi-story buildings.” The palace section currently has two stories, but a third is planned.

Another new direction will be an even older site. AbaBrukh’s avatar seemed excited at the thought of it! It’s “a temple that is at least 2500 years old now, the walls still stand almost intact. It’s from the kingdom of Da'amat that preceded Aksum.”

The authenticity of AbaBrukh’s builds shine in every detail, as does its exquisite beauty. Its vegetation, its weaver birds--even the haystack on the room of its modern Tigray village house (so goats won’t get to it)—all add to the atmosphere. Photos and slide shows of Ethiopia provide more information, as do the specifics a guided tour can provide. He noted that a well-off villager reserves the upstairs for entertaining, while the ground floor is for the family and animals. Beer jars, skins and carpets are in the appropriate spots.

The ancient palace has an audience hall and other chambers, and includes imported Roman furniture appropriate to its wealthy rulers. Its crossed spears and shields served as an ancient Aksumite and Ethiopian symbol of authority. AbaBrukh points out that the palaces had plumbing of sorts, and may have included baths modeled after those of the Romans. “The hot tub,” he admits, “Is an anachronism.”

This fabulous site deserves more traffic, for it hasn’t yet received much publicity. Please visit and learn about an early African world few know about yet. And don’t forget the stele that acts as an offering point—AbaBrukh has knowledge and passion enough for a whole sim, if donations can get him there. He deserves that canvas, and so do we.

Visit ancient Ethiopia at Enda Brukh here: http://http//slurl.com/secondlife/Locus%20Amoenus/201/27/29