In the documentary of Africa, historian Basil Davidson described a brief origin of the land of African, some of the African kingdoms, and how Africans are looked upon as “different but equal”. He first describes how stereotypical European scholars were about African. Archeologists and scholars of Europe found structures and cities built in Africa and these scholars couldn’t understand why and how they were built for they couldn’t apprehend the fact that these structures were built by Africans. He explains how there were some scholars have never been to African, yet they still created assumptions and accusations as to how the land and the people were brought up. One example was the theory that that the African was primitive to the Homo sapiens. Davidson does explain, however, that there were African kingdoms and there is proof that Africans were treated as equals in the Renaissance. So how did racism started? What really changed for the African people? Davidson answered and said that racism started in the beginning of the slave trade era where Europeans were treating African as property. Because of this phenomenon, this showed a loss of respect of the Africans.
Afterwards, Davidson explains how rich and bountiful Africa used to be for studies show that each African ethnic groups have a rich history through art, music, and storytelling. The Sahara was a miraculous land filled with animals, grassy plains and people. He even showed us that there were ancient paintings of hunters gathering food and taming animals in the Sahara. Today, however, the Sahara is now the world’s largest desert for it is now home to desert snakes and scorpions. Once the Sahara became desertous, the people of the once green Sahara migrated further south. Some ...
... middle of paper ...
...ent, but equal. Equal because both the Africans and the Europeans have a government system, but different because of the specific rules on how to govern the land. Also it was interesting to hear how Davidson only talked positive influences of religion when it was introduced to Africa. Despite the Crusades, he never talked about the negative effects on how some Europeans used Christianity against the Africans such what was said in class and in Dr. Browder’s lecture.
Overall, the film “Different but Equal” was done really well for Davidson explains the origins of Africa and how the people migrated from the Sahara. He also explained how Africans were different and equal in various ways. He gave the audience some interesting facts about Egypt, but were somewhat limited compared to how Dr. Browder and his lecture on Egypt. The film gave some insight on Africa as a whole.
“Different but Equal” is a video in which Basil Davidson, the narrator, attempts to expand and heighten the understanding that Western civilization has about Africa. Often thought of as underdeveloped or uncivilized, Basil focuses mainly on the accomplishments of Africans throughout the years and uses them to contrast the surprisingly popular belief of African inferiority. Just a few of the main issues being brought up are how Europeans routinely discredited African accomplishments, the often disputed race of the Egyptians and their society, and why the thought that Africans are ‘uncivilized’ isn’t accurate. The video uses science, archaeology and history combined with the input of well-known researchers to give a more accurate depiction of
Over time concepts of ‘Race’, defined as a distinct group with a common linage, and ‘Primitive’ which pertains to the beginning or origin, , have been inextricably linked with the perception of Africa. The confusion of the two in the minds of people at the end of the 19th centaury, and some of the 20th, caused a sense of superiority amongst the ‘White Races’ that affected every aspect of their interaction with ‘the Black’. The ‘Civilisation’ of Africa by conquest and force was justified by these views.
The pieces we are assigned to read and the films we watch in class tells us a lot about how African Americans were very important to the creation of civilization and religion. We can start with The Evolution of the Caucasoid (Finch). The formation of the Caucasian took place in the Ice Age in Western Russia, the reason white skin was formed was because of the conditions of the regions climate, Finch states that white skin was more adaptable because of the ecologica...
Throughout the twentieth century, Rhodesia from 1960’s to the late 1970’s have always been in a struggle to fight for their independence. They had to deal with the British colonist that settled into their land and had taken over control of the country for the past couple of years. Due to the decolonisation of African countries after the second world war it gave many influences and reasons for Rhodesia to search to become an independent country. That all changed when they fully receive their independence in 1980 and during that time they fought for the control of their country, Rhodesia. The name was later changed to Zimbabwe due to a revolutionary struggle they had in their country. The battle to govern Rhodesia and also by the agreement of the Internal Settlement between the fighting forces to find and create peace
Imperialism in Africa took root in the late 19th century when European nations divided up the continent for their own benefit. Each nation practiced a certain type of rule over the Africans of which they conquered. For example, the Germans, the Dutch, and the French used the practice of Direct Rule over their colonies in Africa. This system is characterized by the colonizers need for the colonized to become assimilated into their culture. The purpose of this was to make the African people “civilized” and act like Europeans. The governing administrations forced on the native inhabitants by the colonial power were meant to undermine those institutions set in place by the indigenous people. By taking over the community’s government on all levels,
It is only recently that more reliable studies have brought to light much information about great civilizations that developed in Africa while Europe was in the period often referred to as the Dark Ages. The earliest of these mature civilizations were in West Africa. In a vast region south of the Sahara, Africans organized kingdoms which in time became great empires. This region is called the Sudan (a word meaning "land of the Blacks" in Arabic). The Sudan was important in the early history of Black Africa because the Africans first practiced agriculture in this region, and thus became the first people south of the Sahara to fashion and use iron tools and weapons.
In conclusion, racism is a recently developed term, whereas slavery has been part of the history for hundreds of years. Europeans weren’t chosen as slaves not because of their race, but because they were in short supply and were less immune to native diseases. On the other hand, African slavery was the outcome of different economic factors, followed by series of historical events. Europeans opportunists and entrepreneurs saw “Africans” as the key to generate surplus wealth, and to establish modern capitalism. On top of that, historical events such as Trans-Atlantic slave trade, Bacon Rebellion also strengthened the position of Africans as potential slaves. In short, conditions developed from gradual technological, historical, and economic change in Africa, New World, and Great Britain led to the institution of African slavery.
The African empires, kingdoms, and cities had many achievements before the arrival of the Europeans. Some of these achievements had influences many other places in the world. Three major achievements were the trading systems, their military forces and strengths of its people, and the wealth and success.
Class played a major role in the development of African history in the twentieth century. Specifically, class differentiation contributed to the political movements and social disparities that characterized the continent during the time period.
In summary, Davidson successful traces Africa’s earliest origins and demonstrates that this is a civilization far from having no arts, technology, sophistication and unique culture. Culture and civilization as we know it today can be traced back to Africa, and modern science has verified the early perceptions of Europeans to be wrong. He provides more than adequate evidence of Africa having a history complete with vast and rich civilization, including archaeological finds and specialized interviews with distinguished scholars and philosophers. Despite the fact that society possesses a more positive attitude towards African civilization today in terms of recognition, equality, and acceptance than in the past, negative stereotypes are still acknowledged and modern day racism unfortunately exists. I believe that the existence of Davidson’s work and videos such as Different but Equal are crucial to challenging these stereotypes and discrimination in order to create a more accurate image of Africa and its history. Overall, Davidson proves that the continent of Africa is home to a history that is just as meaningful, comprehensive, and progressive as that of any other civilization in the
The United States rests upon a foundation of freedom, where its citizens can enjoy many civil liberties as the result of decades of colonial struggles. However, African Americans did not achieve freedom concurrently with whites, revealing a contradiction within the “nation of liberty”. It has been stated that "For whites, freedom, no matter how defined, was a given, a birthright to be defended. For African Americans, it was an open-ended process, a transformation of every aspect of their lives and of the society and culture that had sustained slavery in the first place." African Americans gained freedom through the changing economic nature of slavery and historical events like the Haitian Revolution policies, whereas whites received freedom
(a) Africans and Europeans have relations that date all the way back to the origins of humans and human migrations. Scholars have hypothesized that Homo erectus found in Europe about 800,000 years ago originated and migrated from Africa Europeans and Africans also had religious relations; which is evident from the spread of Christianity, introduced by the Byzantines, throughout Africa specifically in North Africa, the Nile Valley, and the Horn of Africa. Aside from religious relations, Africans and Europeans also had economic and political relations as a result of European colonization and conquest of the African regions. Economic relations were a result of Europeans coming into Africa and taking natural resources to benefit from in the production of goods and trade. Another specific example of economic relations between Europeans and Africans is the practice of mercantilism, in which European nations were the mother countries and countries of Africa were the colonies. As the mother country, Europeans, would take natural resources from the colony, African regions, to produce goods, which would then be sold back to the colony. This also attributed to the political relations between Africans and Europeans because the economic desires of the Europeans often led to them controlling the Africans to maximize profit and their own personal benefits; which is directly related to slavery, one of the biggest relations between Africans and Europeans. Slavery and the slave trade in turn created social relations because slaves were considered to be a class of their own. Another social relation that resulted from slavery was the creation a “new race” known as the...
to be a kingdom before Germany started to occupy the region. Both of the Kingdom
The country of Uganda is a British colonization that began in 1860. Originally, Britain and Germany shared the country but a treaty was signed giving Britain the right to control all of Uganda. In 1962, Uganda received independence and an internal legislative government. When their independence was received A. Milton Obote declared himself the prime minister of the country.
What is religion? According to (Muzorewa), “Religion is a set of beliefs in a higher being, God, or Gods or higher principle.” All religions come with characteristics such as a set of doctrines, rituals to celebrate certain occasions, sacred literature, and concern for life-after death. African Traditional Religion, or ATR for short, is the world’s oldest religion. African Traditional Religion originated on the continent of Africa because Africa was the only location for human beings to live comfortably during that era. African Traditional Religion has approximately one hundred million supporters. The phrase ‘traditional’ stems from the word “tradition” which is simply defined as long established or “doing” (Muzorewa). Judaism is one of the