Prompt: Student discussion board post in which we were asked to give our thoughts on African history prior to any understanding/reading of material. No edits, this was just a freewrite discussion post on a chat board so please excuse errors, typos, and/or mistakes. And please excuse my ignorance, my knowledge at the time of this writing was (and still is) almost nonexistent.

The media that many people are exposed to often paints a grim picture of Africa. They often emphasize the lack of medical care, malnourished children, lack of water, and political unrest. While that may be true in many parts of Africa, it doesn't represent the entire continent well nor the diversity, rich culture, and technological advancements that exist today in many urban centers. Many Americans seem to assume that Africans were backward and unaccustomed to technology. In fact, Africans pioneered certain innovations such as the mobile banking system and low-cost power units. 

The realities of neocolonialism can't be ignored, however; countries that previously colonized parts of Africa, Asia, and South America were able to obtain riches and build a stronger economy on the fruits and labor of the countries they colonized. They stalled and hindered progress in these nations as they exploited them. Its aftereffects continue to present themselves now by way of capitalism, as our world becomes increasingly divided between the wealthy and the poor as opposed to free versus colonized. One obvious example could be a quick look at the countries with the least access to COVID-19 vaccines with higher efficiency early on largely due to numerous issues early on including patents being owned by industrialized nations and the WTO not being helpful in temporarily lifting this for the purposes of COVID-19; many of them were previously colonized nations. 

In addition, many of these countries (both in Africa and other regions) still struggle with establishing a true democracy. They're relatively young with little experience running a government and some with traditions or rules that remain from an era of imperialism. The "divide and conquer" tactic was utilized by many colonizers, creating tensions between people based on religious, regional, and ethnic differences. (The way that they had a different school for every ethnic group/language spoken in South Africa and focused on teaching them "practical things" during apartheid was one way that this was executed. Thank you for clarifying that the word "tribe" is considered insulting, as I have used it metaphorically even to describe ethnic groups in Indonesia and to make associations with our evolutionary tendency to form connections with those who share similarities with us.) This included the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, previously colonized by Italy, the separation of British India into India and Pakistan due to religious conflicts, the end of apartheid in Dutch VOC-colonized South Africa that led to brutal violence between ethnic groups, primarily the Zulus and the Xhosas, and the current unrest in Myanmar. Many of these countries are indeed also struggling with economic, humanitarian, and healthcare issues. Two of the countries I mentioned are on UNHCR's top 10 list of countries with displaced citizens seeking asylum in western nations, many of whom quite literally risk their lives in the process.

Some of the first Africans who came to the Americas did so like immigrants from other nations, free and on their own accord, looking for a fresh opportunity in a new land. Through widespread efforts such as weaponry, force, and even the use of false science like the application of folk taxonomy to classify people into "races" and attach to them descriptions of traits that are false and make those who were white seem like they were superior and executing a noble cause of "civilizing" people, they were able to justify their horrendous and cruel actions. It would have been better if they just flat out admitted that they were doing it out of capitalist motivations instead of spreading the propaganda that people's intellectual ability varied based on their phenotypes.

All around the world, entire communities and nations are still paying a hefty price while western nations benefit from the spoils of colonization, whether they did it through direct rule, indirect rule like the British, or settler colonialism like the US. It would be difficult to determine how reparations should be made but at the very least, being more welcoming to the displaced people who grace us with their presence as they contribute to our communities and helping to increase the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in these nations would be a decent start.

One of the things that always struck me as I recall history books from my childhood is that history is written by those in power. As Chimamanda Adichie said so eloquently in her TEDTalk, "Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person,  but to make it the definitive story of that person. The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti writes that if you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with, 'secondly.'" (Adichie, 10:03) It is crucial that we stay informed and ensure that those around us (especially our children) are using their ability to critically think and identify their own biases. It starts with challenging our misconceptions (of which I too have SO many), and I genuinely look forward to doing that throughout this class.

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Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “The Danger of a Single Story | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.” YouTube, uploaded by TEDTalk, 7 Oct. 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg&vl=en. Accessed 21 Oct. 2021.