The continent of Africa and her people have suffered from a great deal of misconception by Europeans.
Africa was referred to as the dark continent which meant a continent not having a past, civilization and
contribution to humanity. However with the work of some unbiased Europeans, African scholars and
intellectuals this misconceptions can be debunked and it has now been proven categorically beyond any
doubt that Africa before the coming of the Europeans had civilization
The European misconception and misrepresentation of Africa was used to defend European imperialism
and colonization of the continent and to defend the oppression of blacks in other parts of the world. The
misconceptions were also used to perpetuate the myth of racial superiority of the white race
The misconceptions include
1. Denied the humaneness of the Africans: Lord Chesterfield in a letter to his son published in 1901
wrote "The Africans are the most ignorant and unpolished people in the world little than the lions,
leopards and other wild animal which the continent produce in good number" Africans were not
regarded as humans but were compared to wild animals
This comparison is laughable as it has been proven that the continent of Africa more precisely East and
Southern Africa where the sites were the first human like species evolved. The present human specie
(Homo sapien sapien) evolved in Africa first before anywhere else in the world
2. Africa does not have history: Margery Perham a British political commentator said "Until recent
penetration of Europeans the greater part of the continent was without writing and so without history".
The Europeans assumed that writing was the only source of reconstituting history since African societies
south of the Sahara did not have a system of writing they were regarded as not having history. However
with the help of other methods of histrionical reconstruction such as oral tradition, archeology,
ethnology etc. The history of many African societies have been reconstructed and written down
3. African societies did not have a culture or civilization and contribution to humanity :Philip Mitchell
said " Until the period of European colonization Africans were living in the stone age and were the only
age with no contribution to humanity. Another European Maurice Bruce referred to an African group as
the superstitious ridden people of the coast who engage in the horrors of human sacrifice and
cannibalism. However the reconstruction of African history has brought to light the rich cultural heritage
of the continents people. The Artifacts dug from the ruins of Nok is an example
4. Africa did not have political institutions : Sir Arthur Richards former British Governor General to
Nigeria said "While all the peagants of history swept by the African remained rooted in primitive
savagery Africa boasted of large centralized States such as the Ghana, Mali, and Songhai empires Benin
and Oyo there were also societies which practiced some form of democracy such as the igbos
5. Hanitic hypothesis: This theory believes that every development of early African societies was not
indigenous but was due to contact with the whites (Hamitic people). This theory was formalized in C.G
Seligman book races of Africa. However there were several indigenous African societies south of the
Sagara that evolved complex civilizations without any contact with whites
