TOWARDS A BLACK RENAISSANCE

The time for a Black Renaissance is long overdue, without a rebirth of our ancient greatness, we will forever remain a  subjugated and defeated race.

No people, nation or race can stand the test of time without a firm hold and knowledge of their history or roots, just like how no iroko, baobab or oak tree can live and blossom for many years without a firm root which hold tight its enormous stem underneath the earth. The history of Africa in relation to the larger history of the world has been distorted in every front, misrepresented and falsified to the highest degree. It has been downgraded, downplayed, ignored and neglected in the bigger picture of the world civilization and global history by both the Blacks of this current dispensation and the Eurocentric/ Hellenistic Scholars and Historians. The history of the black race and Africa as a whole has been an object of contention, disagreements, endless debates, propositions and hypothesis over the course of history and centuries. The basic concept and tenet of Negritude and the black power has been downgraded to one of servitude in the world of today which stemmed from over 400 years of slavery, exploitation and subsequent colonization of the African continent. From the time the first set of European Scholars, Intellectuals, Traders, Missionaries and Explorers set foot on Africa, the continent has never remained the same again. The wind of change blew from unknown lands and altered the course of history of a once thriving civilization and culture blossoming at its own pace. They came with a vague agenda and mission birthed out of obscurity and lies to civilize an already civilized continent which they ignorantly referred to as a jungle and a dark continent with no history, culture or tradition, bearing from the fact that civilization is only an advanced state of culture which Africa had, and had built for centuries, long before the Europeans ever set foot on Africa, well, the history which we know and read in the world today is one that is filled with lies, ignorant biases, wrong assertions and jaundiced views. Slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism further added more injury to the already wounded pride of the Black man and his history and roots. Our mentality as Negroes has been enslaved; we are made to believe that any achievement or advancement that emanates or that ever emanated from Africa were and are a derivation of the foundations laid down by Europe which is in fact the opposite. The huge contribution of Africa and the black man to the history of humanity has been erased from the pages of history and downplayed out rightly. 

The world we inhabit is currently a White man’s world where any tangible advancement in science and technology in the course of time has being undeservedly accorded to the Greco-Roman civilization/ Western Europe/world. Many Eurocentric Scholars even hold an erroneous firm conviction that Africa have no history or origin of their own, only the history of the Europeans on Africa soil, this they have held unto for centuries, and they have subsequently ingratiated this jaundiced views and account not only into the history curriculum of the world which is their design and arrangements, but also into the mental faculty of the Black man. I keep asking why the slaves in the era of slavery were never allowed to read, write and study; they were treated as mere animals, specimens and experiments to fuel the expansion and advancement of Europe. Those caught trying to read books or study, were severely punished and beaten, some lost their hands as punishment. This is the origin of why the black man never loved reading or lack enthusiasm for learning. Knowledge is indeed power, and it is the only medium through which a lay man can be free from any laws, chains or shackles, and attain positions of power. Africa and Africans alike have been robbed of a treasure, we have been made to ignore and forget the history of the past achievements of our ancestors, we have been made to believe that civilization was birthed in a white/ Caucasian Egyptian Society which “coincidentally” was located somewhere in Africa, while evidences point to the contrary. The ancient Egyptians as a matter of fact and certainty were blacks in their mentality, culture, traditions, beliefs, physical features and way of life, until the invasion of the Arabs and the spread of Islam as well as the Greek conquest under Alexander which led to cross-breeding and the native blacks fleeing inward to the heart of Africa. It was in Egypt and other surrounding Kingdoms and Empires in the Great Rift Valley like; Sudan, Kush, Nubia and Ethiopia that man advanced and conquered the harsh climatic conditions of the tropics, invented great innovations in science, mathematics, geometry, cosmology, trigonometry, philosophy, theology, Architecture and Agriculture. All these innovations were stolen by Greco-Roman Intellectuals like; Pythagoras, Archimedes and many more who came to Egypt to learn and acquire knowledge and steal ideas which they used to build the so called Greek civilization which according to John Koskey Chang ‘Ach and Cheikh Anta Diop was a derivation from the civilization of Africa. Even the native American civilizations of the Omlecs, Aztecs and Incas testifies of the black presence and contribution in their civilization, as they evolved systems of worships, beliefs and way of life similar to that obtained in Africa. The Aborigines in Australia were in fact Bushmen who had similarities to the Bantu Bush man in Southern Africa, in ancient Chinese and Japanese history; there were presence of Blacks in their population. An ancient Japanese proverb says; “For a Samurai to be brave, he must have a bit of black blood”. In ancient Chinese History there was the story of a black military commander named Sakanonye Tamuramaro

All these bears evidence to the fact that Africa and the Black man has a very pivotal role to play in the history of mankind. It was in Africa that man the Homo sapiens first evolved and developed complex survival instincts before he began to gradually migrate to other surrounding areas and territories and to the ends of the world. As a matter of fact, the Black man needs to revive the ancient enthusiasm for knowledge and learning our ancestors once had which made them build great civilizations, kingdoms, Chiefdoms and Empires that conquered the ancient world. Oh it is time for the black man to mentally emancipate himself from the fetters that has chained his thoughts and reasoning in the prison of ignorance and self-debasing feeling, It is time for the black man to reconstruct the history of our true past, know the great deeds of our ancestors and the remarkable achievements they made in advancing the course of humanity in surviving against the harsh nature in the Neolithic period. We need not be told again that Africa was a dark continent, where ironically man achieved great trends in the ancients like; The great and numerous architectural masterpieces in the forms of temples, palaces and pyramids that were built in the Great Nile valley civilization without cement, we need to be reminded that before the Europeans ever set foot on Africa soil, the great palace of Zimbabwe was a monument that subsequent visitors marveled at, In Benin, Oyo and Dahomey Empires, they evolved well organized political system that deserved to be recognized as a form of democracy, Benin Empire according to some European Explorer observed keenly that; “it was a well-developed empire and that the capital had broad streets with houses on every side of the street and the Oba’s palace was a monument of its own, compared to what was obtained in Amsterdam” We need not be told of the exploits of the great Cavalry force of the Kanem-Bornu Empire, the vast wealth and riches of the Mali Empire under Mansa Musa and the Kongo and Buganda Kingdoms in Central Africa. The whole of Africa was a thriving civilization, with each kingdom and peoples with its own distinct and unique culture, way of life and tradition, long before European city states organized themselves into nations and states, Africa was already a thriving civilization.

There is something overtly unique about the black race and Africa which has exposed it to rape, exploitations, robbery and utter disdain by external Forces from times past. In the ancients, the Greeks and Arabs invaded Africa to steal from the vast wealth of our culture, traditions and survival techniques, in the Middle ages, the Europeans came to exploit our resources, use our man power as slaves and rob Africa of four generations who were enslaved and lost. After the abolition, they came and settled in Africa to indoctrinate Africans and transform us into Blackish white men in our deeds and mentality, Africans were forced to discontinue the use of our language as lingua-franca, instead we were forced to learn foreign languages, culture and tradition, in an effort to wipe out any trace of our past  from the pages of history forever, we have been handed down another new form of history which never recognizes the pre-colonial or pre-slavery Africa society. In the current dispensation, the Africa man is lost in a world where he has no firm knowledge of his roots or history; he has no idea or just little idea of his culture, his origin and history. He only learns what he is told to believe in the ever flawed curriculum presented to us.

Well, it is time for a Black renaissance, it is time for the Black man to arise and captain his fate to the future, it is time for the Negro to know where he is coming from, before he can know where he is headed to, it is time to challenge and discontinue the lies that have been spread, the false assumptions, the prejudiced view of history that we have been taught, it is time to restore back the pride of the Black man and finally, it is time for Africa to take its rightful place as the cradle of civilization, the most blessed and richest continent in the world, it is time to become truly a Black in a Black man’s world.