Westerners' Perceptions of Africa Vis-À-Vis Africa's Urbanization Process

East African Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (2020) Volume 5 (1) 85-98 Westerners’ Perceptions of Africa vis-à-vis Africa’s Urbanization Process: Is Africa Really a Dark Continent Devoid of History as Portrayed by the Westerners? Gutema Imana* Haramaya University, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of Sociology Article History: Received: February 25, 2020; Revised: June 8, 2020; Accepted: June 15, 2020 Abstract: This paper aims to evaluate the Westerners‟ conceptions or perceptions of Africa by reviewing historical sources in the area of world urbanization in general and Africa in particular. Africa has been portrayed by many in the western world as a dark continent devoid of history and anything good. Africa has been considered as a dark continent devoid of all elements of civilization - statehood, urbanization, and advances in social and economic spheres. In this paper, therefore, an attempt is made to look at the urbanization process of the world in general and Africa, in particular, to see whether or not Africans have had their course of urban history and civilization contrary to the perceptions held by many Westerners against Africa. The study employed a qualitative secondary research method that involved the collection and review of historical data that were produced on the urbanization process of the world in general and Africa in particular. Results indicate that Africa, contrary to the Westerners‟ perceptions, had its independent urban history and civilization. Indeed, Africa‟s achievements in history are not limited to urbanization as Africa had also registered significant breakthroughs in the area of technology, creative arts, agricultural techniques, governance, gender equality, conflict resolution systems, etc. though this paper is limited only to Africa‟s achievements in the area of urbanization. Keywords: Africa; Civilization; Pre-colonial; Urbanization; Westerners Licensed under a Creative Commons. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] ISSN 2521-2192 (Print) Haramaya University, 2020 Gutema East African Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Volume 5 (1) 85-98 1. Introduction Africa and Africans have been looked down upon by the Westerners since time immemorial. Racial theories were formulated to explain Africa‟s perceived incapacity to develop before the coming of the Europeans to the continent and even later (Poncian, 2015). According to Westerners, all that was in Africa before the colonial period was nothing but extreme chaos that needed the intervention of the conquerors to be resolved (Davidson, 1972). Europeans seem to have developed contempt for Africa and Africans since the days of Herodotus who argued that “… Africa was not only different but also more threatening, sinister, and dangerous than Greece” (Bates, 2012; Poncian, 2015: 72). Other scholars such as Benjamin ben Jonah, who lived in the 12th century, characterized a group of Africans who lived in the Nile Valley as people who “… eat of the herbs that grow on the banks of the Nile and in the fields … go about naked and have not the intelligence of ordinary men” (Adler, 1907: 68; Leviant, 2008: 353). Maybe being influenced by his predecessors, G. W. F. Hegel, a German philosopher who lived from 1770-1831, wrote in his Philosophy of History, in the early 19th century, that Africa was not a historical continent “capable of neither development nor education” (Fage, 1981: 30). In the effort he made to explain the entirety of humanity and human history, he completely dismissed Africa from the pages of history arguing that Africa should be left out from the world of history since it had no change or development over time to exhibit as part of the historical processes. For Hegel, Africa was known by its unhistorical and undeveloped spirit, the spirit that could not allow Africans to enter into the territory of history (Hegel, 1956). Hegel here rationalizes away any possible claims for African accomplishments. Even half a century after its independence from colonial rule, Africa was still not different from the old days in the eyes of the Westerners (Bond, 2014; Bates, 2012). The negative perceptions about Africa persisted throughout the 20th century and even continued to the present. In the mid-1960s when many African countries were becoming independent, an Oxford University Professor, Hugh Trevor- Roper, boldly stated that there was nothing of value to be called African history, all that was there was „the history of the Europeans in Africa‟, the rest was darkness (Trevor-Roper, 1965; Murungi, 2013). However, contrary to Westerners‟ perceptions of Africa, many scholars have presented evidence- based arguments that Africa has had its history of civilization. For instance, Diamond (1997: 394), referring to Africa‟s iron technology, states that “… African smiths discovered how to produce high temperatures in their village furnaces and manufacture steel over 2,000 years before the Bessemer furnaces of 19th-century Europe and America." Sopova (2002) also concluded that iron technology did not reach Africa from western Asia, the region from which Europe acquired its iron technology, but that Africa had independently invented its own iron technology 5,000 years ago. Africa had also registered in the past its breakthroughs in creative arts and agricultural techniques which were by far more advanced than those in other parts of the world (Rubin, 1984; Craddock, 1991; Seckler, Gollin, and Antoine, 1991; Carney, 1991). Gender equality, which has become one of the top agenda of the world since recently, had been effectively in practice in Dahomey‟s public administration during the 18th century. In the Kingdom of Dahomey that existed within the area of the present-day country of Benin from about 1600 until 1904, every male official had a female counterpart who worked with him and monitored him as well (Polanyi, 1966). No other country in the world has ever succeeded in adopting that impressive achievement to date. In terms of governance, Africa had also its independent line of development. For instance, there was a strong similarity between the constitution of ancient Greece and that of the Ashanti (the empire that flourished from 1670 to 1957 in what is now modern-day Ghana). The Ashanti Constitution was more advanced in some respects than Britain‟s modern constitution and the Ashanti democracy was closer to the democratic ideal than British democracy. Ashanti customary law had rules of behavior and conduct which were not inferior to or different from the British ethical and moral code (Rattray, 1929). 86 Gutema Westerners‟ Perceptions of Africa vis-à-vis Africa‟s Urbanization Process Similarly, the Gadaa system of the Oromo people of Northeast Africa, which the Europeans came to notice for the first time in the 16th century, was also considered by Europeans themselves to be more democratic than governance institutions of contemporary Europe. Several Western travelers, who came up with first-hand information about the Gadaa system in the 19th and early 20th centuries, unanimously underlined that the system was uniquely democratic (Tuso, 2000). For instance, W. Plowden, an English traveler who visited the Horn of Africa in the 19th century, stated that the Gadaa system was a democratic system that was superior to all existing republican systems of government in the world at the time (Plowden, 1868). Africa had also developed very effective conflict resolution systems. Among these, one can mention the conflict resolution system of the Arusha (one of the peoples of Tanzania) that has attracted high praise from Western scholars. For instance, Professor Kenneth Carlston of the University of Illinois declared that the Arusha conflict resolution process was the most advanced and organized one that could even serve as a model for resolving national and international conflicts (Carlston, 1968). Africa was also known for its effective, indigenous "Ombudsman" institution before the colonial period. William Zartman, Professor of Conflict Management at Johns Hopkins University, observed: “The Ombudsman seems to be an African invention, even if better known in the West by a Scandinavian name” (Zartman, 2000: 229). As shown above, Africa had many achievements in different spheres in the past. However, it seems that these achievements have attracted the attention of many scholars only since recently and a lot remains to be done to further reconstruct the past of Africa and disprove the Westerners‟ perceptions of the continent. Africa‟s achievements in the area of urbanization have also been investigated by many scholars though results have not been used directly to respond to the Westerners‟ perceptions of Africa. This paper is, therefore, aimed at examining Africa‟s past through desk review of existing historical sources in the area of urbanization, which is assumed to be a good indicator of social, economic and political civilization, in the attempt to evaluate whether or not Africa was the way it was/is perceived by the Westerners. The paper is organized as follows: The first section is an introduction that gives a brief background of the study. Section two describes the methodology used for this study after which follows a third section which is about results and discussion. Lastly, a conclusion summarizing the main arguments is given at the end. 2. Research Methods The research that resulted in this paper was a secondary qualitative research or desk

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