By Damion Boycott
It's been said that history is the preserver of great actions, the enemy of oblivion, the witness of the past and director of the future. If Africans in Africa and the world over could let history direct their future it will be much brighter. In recent weeks the news coming out of Africa has been about black African Muslim groups imposing their religious way of life upon other black Africans. These Muslim groups take an aggressive and very violent approach to spread their religious propaganda.
In the West African nation of Nigeria the culture of violence took a leap forward on Christmas day when a radical Muslim group known as Boko Haram bombed a Catholic church killing over 40 people near the capitol of Abuja. The goal of Boko Haram is to bring about an Islamic state in a country with a predominant Muslim north and a mainly Christian south.
In the East African country of Somalia another radical Muslim group known as Al-Shabaab is responsible for violence in the city of Mogadishu. In the midst of a violent trend in Somalia Al-Shabaab recently ventured into more violence by using a truck bomb targeted at an Ethiopian military base in Somalia. Al-Shabaab claims this attack killed a high number of people, and boasts about an exhaustive list of victims.
The history of Africa goes far back into antiquity. Ishakamusa Barashango said that Africans were on the planet for 190,000 years before any other group entered the world stage. Africans have always lived a highly evolved way of life. These first inhabitants of the planet gave civilization and humanity to the world, and have heritage, culture and tradition that predate any other group of people on Earth. Why then are Africans embracing everyone elses culture but their own? Cultures like Christianity and Islam were brought into Africa by outsiders.
Islam was introduced to African people the same way Christianity was- by conquerors, colonizers and aggressors. For 3,000 years the Arab enemy of Africa entered Africa from the so-called Middle East. The first European invasion of Africa was carried out by Alexander The "so-called" Great. Dr John Henrik Clarke said " Africa has always been the prize of the world because of it's mineral wealth". Dr. Clarke also said "nothing brought into Africa from the outside was meant to do Africans any good". Dr. Clarke went on to say "Islam is the hand maiden of Arab imperialism and Christianity is the hand maiden of European imperialism.
Every religion that was brought into Africa was meant to dominate and control African people. The Fact that Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab are groups of black Africans that kill other black Africans, is proof of what happens when a people are stripped of the knowledge of themselves. Africans need to get back to the ancestral philosophy and traditional wisdom of their ancestors, instead of killing each other over religions that don't belong to them.They need to embrace and manifest the West African concept of Sankofa. Sankofa has been translated in English to mean "go back and get it"- or "referencing the past to invent the future". Africans on the continent need to reference their past to invent a more agreeable future. Hopefully what Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab have been doing in recent memory will not set the tone for things to come in the new year. Only time will tell.
It's been said that history is the preserver of great actions, the enemy of oblivion, the witness of the past and director of the future. If Africans in Africa and the world over could let history direct their future it will be much brighter. In recent weeks the news coming out of Africa has been about black African Muslim groups imposing their religious way of life upon other black Africans. These Muslim groups take an aggressive and very violent approach to spread their religious propaganda.In the West African nation of Nigeria the culture of violence took a leap forward on Christmas day when a radical Muslim group known as Boko Haram bombed a Catholic church killing over 40 people near the capitol of Abuja. The goal of Boko Haram is to bring about an Islamic state in a country with a predominant Muslim north and a mainly Christian south.
In the East African country of Somalia another radical Muslim group known as Al-Shabaab is responsible for violence in the city of Mogadishu. In the midst of a violent trend in Somalia Al-Shabaab recently ventured into more violence by using a truck bomb targeted at an Ethiopian military base in Somalia. Al-Shabaab claims this attack killed a high number of people, and boasts about an exhaustive list of victims.
The history of Africa goes far back into antiquity. Ishakamusa Barashango said that Africans were on the planet for 190,000 years before any other group entered the world stage. Africans have always lived a highly evolved way of life. These first inhabitants of the planet gave civilization and humanity to the world, and have heritage, culture and tradition that predate any other group of people on Earth. Why then are Africans embracing everyone elses culture but their own? Cultures like Christianity and Islam were brought into Africa by outsiders.
Islam was introduced to African people the same way Christianity was- by conquerors, colonizers and aggressors. For 3,000 years the Arab enemy of Africa entered Africa from the so-called Middle East. The first European invasion of Africa was carried out by Alexander The "so-called" Great. Dr John Henrik Clarke said " Africa has always been the prize of the world because of it's mineral wealth". Dr. Clarke also said "nothing brought into Africa from the outside was meant to do Africans any good". Dr. Clarke went on to say "Islam is the hand maiden of Arab imperialism and Christianity is the hand maiden of European imperialism.
Every religion that was brought into Africa was meant to dominate and control African people. The Fact that Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab are groups of black Africans that kill other black Africans, is proof of what happens when a people are stripped of the knowledge of themselves. Africans need to get back to the ancestral philosophy and traditional wisdom of their ancestors, instead of killing each other over religions that don't belong to them.They need to embrace and manifest the West African concept of Sankofa. Sankofa has been translated in English to mean "go back and get it"- or "referencing the past to invent the future". Africans on the continent need to reference their past to invent a more agreeable future. Hopefully what Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab have been doing in recent memory will not set the tone for things to come in the new year. Only time will tell.