African Empires: the history we aren't being taught - Prof. Kevin MacDonald, UCL African Studies

Summary

In this enlightening discussion, Professor Kevin Macdonald of UCL dispels misconceptions about Africa's history, highlighting its rich urban and cultural heritage dating back 2000 years. He emphasizes the sophistication of early African civilizations, including urban centers, art, and technology, and criticizes the colonial-era stereotypes that have overshadowed this history. Macdonald advocates for a reintegration of African history into development narratives, stressing the importance of heritage for national dignity, unity, and tourism. He calls for a re-education on Africa's past to foster a more accurate global understanding and respect for its contributions.

Takeaways

• 🌍 Africa has a rich and complex history that is often overlooked or misunderstood in Western education.
• 🏙️ West Africa had urban centers with populations of 10-20,000 people as early as the first millennium AD.
• 🏺 The Nok culture in Nigeria had a sophisticated terracotta art tradition and early iron metallurgy dating back to around 800 BC.
• 📚 Literacy in West Africa came with the spread of Islam, not earlier.
• 🏰 There were sophisticated social formations and states in what is now the Mauritania desert around 1200 BC.
• 🛠️ Before the colonial era, Africa had advanced governance structures, towns, art, ceramics, and metalworking technology.
• 📉 The 19th-century European colonization of Africa occurred at a time when African empires had already been weakened by the Atlantic slave trade and external interventions.
• 📈 Africa is currently the fastest-growing region in the world and has reasons for optimism beyond common media portrayals.
• 🔍 Modern archaeological methods, including remote sensing and satellite imagery, have helped in the discovery and mapping of African settlements.
• 👥 There is a need for more archaeologists to document Africa's vast heritage and history.
• 🔄 African archaeology has shifted from focusing on prehistoric periods to also studying more recent, historical periods, filling gaps left by other disciplines.
• 🌱 Recognizing and integrating the rich cultural heritage of Africa is vital for national dignity, unity, and tourism development.

Q & A

What is the common misconception about Africa's development history?

The common misconception is that Africa's development has only occurred in the last century, ignoring the fact that there were already sophisticated urban centers and social formations thousands of years ago.

How old were the first urban centers in West Africa?

The first urban centers in West Africa began to form around 2000 years ago, with towns of 10-20 thousand people existing in the early first millennium AD.

What was the state in the region now known as the Mauritania desert around 1200 BC?

Around 1200 BC, there was a sophisticated social formation in the region now known as the Mauritania desert, which had hundreds of settlements and towns of considerable size.

When did literacy come to West Africa?

Literacy in West Africa came with the advent of Islam, which introduced writing systems to the region.

What is the Nok culture known for?

The Nok culture, found in central Nigeria around the Jos plateau, is known for its sophisticated figurative art tradition in terracotta, dating back to around 800 BC.

How does the sophistication of early African civilizations compare to those in Britain at the same time?

The early African civilizations were as sophisticated as those in Britain at the same time, with advanced art, metallurgy, and social structures.

What is the current movement in Africa regarding its historical rediscovery?

There is a movement in Africa to rediscover and acknowledge its rich history and heritage, which is not sufficiently recognized or taught in many educational systems.

Why is there a need to re-educate about Africa's history and heritage in development?

Re-educating about Africa's history and heritage is important for national dignity, unity, and for developing tourism, as well as for correcting misconceptions and promoting a more accurate understanding of Africa's past.

What impact did the European land grab for Africa in the 19th century have on the continent's history?

The European land grab in the 19th century occurred at a time when African empires had been weakened by factors such as the Atlantic slave trade, leading to the breakdown of older governance structures and the beginning of colonial history.

How has the field of African archaeology evolved over the past few decades?

African archaeology has evolved from focusing primarily on prehistoric periods to working more on historic periods, with archaeologists becoming their own historians and anthropologists, and engaging more with recent history and community concerns.

What role does archaeology play in understanding and promoting Africa's heritage?

Archaeology plays a crucial role in uncovering and understanding Africa's rich heritage, which can then be used to promote national pride, unity, and tourism, as well as to correct historical misconceptions.

Outlines

00:00

🌍 Misunderstandings of Africa's Historical Development

This paragraph addresses the common misconception that Africa's development is a recent phenomenon. Professor Kevin Macdonald, a specialist in African archaeology, corrects this by highlighting the existence of urban centers in West Africa around 2000 years ago, with populations of 10-20 thousand. He also discusses the advanced social formations in the region now known as the Mauritania desert around 1200 BC, and the sophisticated art and ironworking traditions of the Nok culture in Nigeria dating back to 800 BC. The paragraph emphasizes the need for a reevaluation of Africa's history in educational curricula and the importance of rediscovering Africa's rich and ancient civilization.

05:01

🔍 Evolution of African Archaeology and its Role in Development

The second paragraph delves into the evolution of African archaeology over the past two decades, with a focus on the impact of remote sensing and satellite imagery in mapping settlements. It discusses the shift in the discipline from prehistoric studies to encompassing more historical periods, including the last five hundred years. The paragraph also touches on the role of archaeologists as historians and anthropologists, collecting oral histories, and engaging with local communities. The importance of integrating heritage into development for national dignity, unity, and tourism is underscored. The speaker calls for a reeducation about Africa's past to correct misunderstandings and to recognize the continent's historical, artistic, and technological sophistication as part of human dignity and global health.

Keywords

💡Global Health

Global Health refers to the health of populations in a global context and the distribution of health resources around the world. In the video, the theme of global health is used to frame a discussion about the historical development of Africa, challenging the distorted view that Africa's development is a recent phenomenon.

💡African Archaeology

African Archaeology is the study of past societies in Africa through the excavation of artifacts and analysis of historical sites. The video emphasizes the importance of this field in understanding the sophisticated civilizations that existed in Africa thousands of years ago, as opposed to the common misconception of Africa being underdeveloped.

💡Urban Centers

Urban Centers refer to densely populated areas where people live in a community, typically characterized by infrastructure and organized social structures. The script mentions that West Africa had the first urban centers around 2000 years ago, indicating the early development of complex societies.

💡Tichitt

Tichitt is an ancient state in what is now the Mauritania desert, contemporaneous with the Kurma state in Sudan. The script uses Tichitt as an example of a sophisticated social formation in Africa dating back to 1200 BC, highlighting the advanced nature of African civilizations.

💡Nok Culture

The Nok Culture is an early Iron Age civilization in central Nigeria known for its sophisticated terracotta art and early iron metallurgy. The script uses the Nok Culture to illustrate the artistic and technological sophistication of African civilizations around 800 BC.

💡Literacy

Literacy in the script refers to the ability to read and write, which is said to have come to West Africa with the advent of Islam. This point is made to clarify that the script's discussion of early African civilizations predates the spread of Islam and its associated literacy.

💡Colonial Era

The Colonial Era refers to the period when European powers colonized Africa, which is mentioned in the script as a time that disrupted the development of African empires and contributed to the underestimation of Africa's historical achievements.

💡Afro-Optimism

Afro-Optimism is a perspective that emphasizes positive outlooks on Africa's future, based on its historical achievements and current growth. The script suggests that understanding Africa's rich history can foster optimism about its potential for development.

💡Remote Sensing

Remote Sensing is a method used in archaeology that involves satellite imagery and other technologies to map and analyze landscapes from a distance. The script mentions remote sensing as a modern archaeological method that aids in discovering and documenting African heritage sites.

💡Historical Anthropology

Historical Anthropology is the study of past human societies and cultures through anthropological methods, including the analysis of artifacts and oral histories. The script notes that archaeologists have had to become their own historians and anthropologists, filling gaps in the understanding of pre-colonial African history.

💡Heritage

Heritage in the script refers to the cultural and historical legacy of a society, including its art, architecture, and traditions. The discussion emphasizes the importance of recognizing and integrating African heritage into development strategies for national dignity, unity, and tourism.

Highlights

Africa's development is often misunderstood as a recent phenomenon, but urban centers in West Africa existed around 2000 years ago.

Early urban centers in West Africa were home to 10-20 thousand people in the first millennium AD.

The state of Tichitt or Tegdao in present-day Mauritania was a sophisticated social formation with hundreds of settlements by 1200 BC.

Literacy in West Africa came with the introduction of Islam, not earlier.

Nigeria's Nok culture, around 800 BC, had a sophisticated terracotta art tradition alongside early iron metallurgy.

Pre-colonial African civilizations were as sophisticated as those in Britain at the time.

There is a movement in Africa to rediscover and integrate its rich history into the curriculum.

African archaeology has evolved to include more historical periods and has become interdisciplinary.

Archaeologists are becoming their own historians and anthropologists, working on more recent periods.

The colonial era has led to a distorted view of Africa's history and capabilities.

Africa is currently the fastest-growing region in the world, with reasons for optimism beyond media reports.

The colonial land grab for Africa occurred at a time when older African empires had been weakened.

African optimism is fueled by the potential to rebuild governance and civilization structures with historical roots.

Stereotypes from the colonial era have undermined the understanding of Africa's rich cultural and historical heritage.

Archaeological methods have advanced with the use of remote sensing and satellite imagery.

Africa needs to remember and reclaim its heritage to counteract colonial-era stereotypes.

Archaeology and history should be considered integral to development for national dignity, unity, and tourism.

Misunderstandings about Africa's past by European politicians and UN officials highlight the need for education about Africa's history.

A sense of pride in one's heritage and past is crucial for well-being and human dignity.

Transcripts

welcome again to UCL Global Health we

have a very distorted view of Africa I

think many people think that Africa's

development has been something that's

only occurred in the last century so

it's a great pleasure to welcome Kevin

Macdonald who's professor of African

archaeology at UCL and you specialized

between West Africa that's right but

this image is completely wrong because

when I mean for example what was West

Africa like where you know about say

2000 years ago well about 2000 years ago

we already were beginning to have the

first urban centers in West Africa so

towns towns so these weren't

hunter-gatherer people no no these were

these were cities of 1020 thousand

people in the early first millennium ad

and if we go back before that in ternary

which is now the Mauritania desert there

was a state contemporary with kurma in

the in the Nile Valley over in Sudan in

Mauritania called digit or at least it's

in a region known as tissue we're not

really sure what it called itself but

there we have a very sophisticated

social formation with hundreds of

settlements and some things there would

certainly be the size of towns by 1200

BC Wow an alphabet no no literacy for

West Africa came with Islam okay and so

that's sort of Sudan inside Marte what

about Nigeria would there have been

towns in well Nigeria you have smooth

West Africa's earliest art traditions

you have the so called Nok culture which

is in central Nigeria around the Jos

plateau area we have a very

sophisticated figurative art tradition

terracotta tradition by about 800 BC and

this is going hand-in-hand with early

iron metallurgy in that area

so these civilizations were every bit as

sophisticated as anything in Britain at

that time yes and it's it's it's a one

of the great pities this is this is sort

of something which does not really

feature much in in European or indeed

American secondary school curriculum is

thorough it's a movement in Africa to

rediscover this is an academic

discipline or not sufficiently well

there are probably not sufficient

practitioners for the amount of space

and the amount of heritage the amount of

archaeology that has to be interfaced

with but at least in most African school

systems aspects of this past art hot but

again not so much so so if you come up

to the Middle Ages or the pre-industrial

era do you go up do you study I I work

right up until the 19th century so yes

so in at that time before the colonial

invasion of Africa where we think

history began there were sophisticated

governance structures there were towns

there was art there was ceramics there

was technology of it being outstanding

metalworking yeah there was all of that

and I think perhaps the the European

land grab for Africa in the 19th century

came at the wrong time for Africa a few

centuries before when Africa was at the

the height of its own internal empires I

would think that at that point in a

European attempt to control Africa would

have been repulsed so it the the great

colonial Scramble for Africa happened at

a time where a number of factors

including the Atlantic slave trade and

also transfer Herrin interventions had

broken down the older African empires

which you know more or less extended

from lake chad to the senegalese coast

say around 1300 ad or 1400 AD so

actually this is another reason for Afro

optimism if you like I'm at the moment

The Economist's are all saying that this

is the fastest-growing region of the

world and there's much more reason to be

optimistic about Africa than the press

often report but also from a historical

viewpoint if if we can get over that the

aberrant colonial-era then there's every

reason to hope that the structures of

governance and civilization will remove

its a great deal of sophistication and

dignity at the heart of African society

which has a great antiquity and I think

a lot of the stereotypes generated

during the colonial era have undermined

this and in a sense Africa needs to

remember itself so just tell me a little

bit about archaeological methods and the

way archaeology has changed so at the

time you've been doing it which is about

two decades well for one thing remote

sensing is helping us a great deal

satellite imagery and so forth for

mapping out the distribution of

settlements for assisting us in survey

because after all this is a absolutely

vast area and although we've been

working very hard since 1960s to

catalogue Africa's heritage you know

probably have an idea probably less than

50% of what's actually out there there's

a small number of African and foreign

archaeologists working and it takes a

great deal of time to document all of

this but in terms of changes more

broadly within the discipline African

archaeology has moved progressively from

being more prehistoric in terms of the

demography of its practitioners to

working more and more on historic

periods and occupying terrain which has

been emptied by a shrinkage in

pre-colonial African history as a

discipline and for that matter in

historical anthropology so

archaeologists have had to become their

own historians their own anthropologists

and we're progressively working on more

recent periods what might be considered

African historical archaeology's the

past say five hundred years so you've

moved into the space that used to be

filled by historians that's right and

we're doing the same sort of work we

we're doing one PT or is it the

historians on there are only a few left

in the UK so we we are the place where

one would come to study pre-colonial

african history now i would think in

terms of there's a the group of

permanently employed African

archaeologists in the UK most of us are

what might be termed historical

archaeologists here you see oh and and

other universities and we do the same

sort of work that historians had

previously been doing including

collecting oral histories being more

deeply embedded in local communities and

also being led to an extent by community

concerns but this our final question

this raises some really interesting

issues because we everyone says you

should always learn from history and if

archaeologists have moved into the void

occupied with it used to be occupy our

history we have got to learn from you

guys what what do you think we've got to

learn in development and the kind of

attitudes that we have towards Africa

and towards development what can we

learn from archaeology are we making

some huge mistakes yes I mean there are

some gaffes which have been committed by

European politicians by UN officials who

have a fundamental misunderstanding of

the African pastime famously Nicolas

Sarkozy came to Senegal a few years ago

and talked about Africa as being this

timeless undeveloped place which is a

complete nonsense

so there is a great deal to be done in

terms of educating ourselves about

Africa so that we have a better

understanding of its past but also

within development it's important to

realize that heritage is part of

development this is a battle that

africanist have been fighting over the

past couple of decades to have

archaeology and history considered part

of the development process both for

reasons of national dignity and and

unity but also as a means of developing

tourism rather than this sort of Africa

as Safari Park Lion King sort of idea of

Africa

where you have you know most cultures of

the world for example Disney has had

some sort of play or movie featuring

human beings Africa is unique that it

was treated with animals which is

something I think about the the wrong

end of the stick which has been grasses

we've completely written their culture

out basically from our development speak

from our history books and also from the

way we encourage people the history the

political sophistication the artistic

sophistication the technological

sophistication we need to re-educate

ourselves we need to educate Europe and

the broader world about Africa and

finally on a global health I mean

there's nothing more important for

well-being as to have a sense of pride

and in your own heritage and your own

past so it's absolutely it's part of

it's part of human dignity and I think

that the more that this is taken on

board both inside and outside of Africa

the better it will be for us all Carrie

thank you very much