Session 3
CHAPTER THREE: AFRICA BEFORE THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
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3.1-European Conception about Af ri ca before the Twentieth Century.
Until the end of 19th century or early 20th century, African civilisation remained
unknown, _Africa ·was considered by European writers as a continent without a past;
history or civilization, but a land of darkness, cannibalism, witchcraft, idolatry; a land of
wide savanna, deep impenetrable forest with untamable animals and wild people.
Africa was wrongly interpreted because of many factors.
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3.2 - Factors that made Africa; Unknown before the 20th Century
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Many factors made Africa unknown by the outside world.
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3.2.1- Absence of Written Documents
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Most documents on Africa were written in Arabic and not translated into
European lang uages until later 19th century or early 20th century. Even by then, the
circulation of the translated versions remained limited due to the lack of printing press at
that time.
'3.2.2.The Atlantic Slave Trade
The Atlantic Slave Trade which lasted for centuries delayed considerably
African cultural development. While other continents were developing, Africa
was submitted to the horrors and torments of Atlantic Slave Trade.
3.2.3- Distortion of Facts about Africa.
Facts in the 19th century about the existence of African civilization were greatly
distorted.
3.2.4 Africans were thought of as Inferior Individuals
Great deals of derogatory literary .documents were circulated about the pretended
inferiority of the black man and his low reasoning power. Such was the case of the
British writer David Hume who propagated in 1753, in his essay entitled On National
Characters the theory of inferiority of the Africans.
Another writer was the missionary W . H. Bentley, who observed in his book Pioneer in
Congo that the African was not capable of intelligent reasoning. In the same manner
Arthur Gobineau displayed in his book On the Inequality of Human Races, published
in 1853- the so-called inferior intellectual capacity of the Black.
As for the Belgium Missionary; De Brosses, he stated in his. popular book entitled The
cult of Fetish God, published in 1750 that, the African religion was a crude polytheism, a mixture
of magic and witchcraft.
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3.2.5 European Imperialism
With reference to all the works cited above, we come to the conclusion that they were
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written to exhibit the African as uncivilized primitive, barbarous, and- therefore
fundamentally inferior to the Europeans. Hence the necessity to civilize him This was the
argument raised at the Berlin conference (1884) where the partition of Africa was
decided, leading to the systematic and effective colonization of the continent.
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Fortunately, serious research on African civilization began in early 20th century, the
result of which denounced in clear terms the theory according to which Africa was
culturally empty. On this issue, two prominent European ethnologists: the French
scholar Maurice Delafosse and the German scholar Leo Frobenuis wrote respectively, Les
Noirs d 'Afrique (1922) and l ’ Histoire de la Civilisation Africaine (193.6), to prove the
existence of civilization in Africa. As a matter of fact,.these writers went as far back to
the 10th century and relied on · Tombouctoudocuments as well as on the writings of
some Arabic historians and geographers such as Ibn Batouta, Ibn Houkal, Ibn
Khaldoum and El Bekry. They also relied on archaeological testimonies on Africa to
show proof.
In Delafosse's work, he stated that there were civilized empires and kingdoms like
Danhomey, Benin and Oyo, which were well organized, flourishing and very
powerful, with excellent administration and military organization. He concluded that the
ideas spread by Arthur Gobineau and others about the so-called inferiority of Africans
cannot be proved scientifically.
As far as Leo Frobenius is concerned, he highlighted that the political, social and
economic organizations of African States were well advanced. He too expressed that
qualifying Africans as people without civilization or history was a pure invention of the
Europeans who had no other objectives than the oppression and exploitation of
Africans.
