I originally took this course because I wanted to learn more about African culture. I am a Caucasian female who grew up in a dominantly white school and neighborhood. I must admit I was hoping the course would be more about the continent of Africa and its culture and history. Because through all of my years of learning it is the only area that I have not studied in depth apart from the book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe. I actually read this book in middle school and thought it was interesting that I was brought back to it in college. It is an interesting story of an African boy who becomes tribal leader right before the intervention of the white man. As the title suggests the ways of life that they knew began to fall apart as white culture began to take its hold on the indigenous people. I view the book as the first example of a trend that seems to have continued throughout history. Where the ideas and traditions of one culture are forced upon another completely different culture and their traditions are lost. This hold true all over the world and in most cases it is the culture of the white European that influences the other cultures.
I am almost sad to say the only African history that I learned about was the University of Sankore in Timbuktu, and how their vast library was destroyed by Moraccan invaders in 1591. It was the destruction of the library that leads future invaders to believe that the people of Timbuktu had no education and were merely barbarians and good for nothing more than being slaves. So that’s what happened men, women, and children were taken from Africa and turned into slaves. There were however African scholars that made large contributions to the library at Sankore, but are also remembered in today’s history books. One such scholar was Ahmad Baba al Massufi, he wrote over 40 books in his lifetime almost everyone had a different theme. After the invasion he was taken prisoner then exiled to Morocco and lost the 1,600 books in his library. It is understandable to think that invaders would destroy such a wealth of knowledge in those times. It was a way of erasing the culture that had been there before them so they could leavve their permanent mark and that’s exactly what they did. I feel like the destruction of this library and the loss of such great African scholars was only the first domino in a long line of them that leads to today’s racial issues America. By destroying the library the Moraccans eliminated the fact that there ever was any scholarly culture in Africa and thus returning it to a more primordial state. It pushed the African culture back many years because of this loss of knowledge, so when more European invaders came they were taken advantage of. So throughout history the Africans were always compared to unfair European standards and thus forced to remain at the bottom of the ladder.
I am almost sad to say the only African history that I learned about was the University of Sankore in Timbuktu, and how their vast library was destroyed by Moraccan invaders in 1591. It was the destruction of the library that leads future invaders to believe that the people of Timbuktu had no education and were merely barbarians and good for nothing more than being slaves. So that’s what happened men, women, and children were taken from Africa and turned into slaves. There were however African scholars that made large contributions to the library at Sankore, but are also remembered in today’s history books. One such scholar was Ahmad Baba al Massufi, he wrote over 40 books in his lifetime almost everyone had a different theme. After the invasion he was taken prisoner then exiled to Morocco and lost the 1,600 books in his library. It is understandable to think that invaders would destroy such a wealth of knowledge in those times. It was a way of erasing the culture that had been there before them so they could leavve their permanent mark and that’s exactly what they did. I feel like the destruction of this library and the loss of such great African scholars was only the first domino in a long line of them that leads to today’s racial issues America. By destroying the library the Moraccans eliminated the fact that there ever was any scholarly culture in Africa and thus returning it to a more primordial state. It pushed the African culture back many years because of this loss of knowledge, so when more European invaders came they were taken advantage of. So throughout history the Africans were always compared to unfair European standards and thus forced to remain at the bottom of the ladder.
University of Sankore, Timbuktu
Ahmed Baba al Massufi
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Knopf, 1992. Print.
Aldridge, Delores P., and E. Lincoln. James. Africana Studies. Pullman, WA: Washington State UP, 2007. Print.
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