Debunking European Myths: Historical Misrepresentation of Africa

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Historic Europeans have set the African race up for constant rebellion throughout history. African Myths started to prevail when early European explorers began writing about their findings in Africa. The false claims created controversy that still affects the view of the African race in present day. Benjamin Ben Jonah, a 12th century Spanish explorer, traveled to Africa as part of his voyage and wrote about his findings. “There is a people who like animals, eat of herbs that grow on banks of the Nile, and in the fields. They go about naked and have not the intelligence of ordinary men. They cohabit with their sisters and anyone they find.” This statement along with others sends out a negative view causing others to ridicule and become uninterested …show more content…

Many explorers believed that Africans were the descendants of Ham, who saw his father naked. Genesis 9:18-26. It is then the context of the bible had become part of the customs in early civilizations and establishments. Early settlements had strong Christian beliefs which increased the negative views of Africa and its people as they believed Africans to be cursed, incompetent people. Compared to the early historians, today’s revisionist scholars believe that Africa had a history. Today, some of their primary concerns are food, shelter and other economic issues concerning the development of the countries. Before present day scholars, Africa was described as a place that lacked resources and nothing to express. In the past, African history has been re-evaluated with the early settlements of the Europeans and their interactions with slave people. Iain Smith, a historian at the University of Warwick, speaks about African history stating that “white minority is generally responsible for what we now know about African history.” The information presented in our textbooks are ideas of the white supremacy a century ago. A lot of the information presented in our textbooks is presumed fictional as many early historians has prejudice towards

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