Africa's Place In World History

Copyright (c) 2012 Morgan D

The African continent is both a historical and geographical entity. Africa's place in world history whether geographically or historically has enormously been influenced by the impact of Europe which affects perceptions of ourselves as Africans.

Geographically, European cartographers /mapmakers chose to depict Europe as being to the north of Africa and therefore Europe being up and Africa being down. The question that historians must ask, is Europe up and Africa down in geographical location as well as in income, in power and in global status?

These geographical representations of Africa was purely a European mapmaker's decision because whether Europe is above or bellow Africa ought to be in reality a relative question rather than an absolute question. Because it depends on the vantage point in the cosmos from which an observer is looking at planet earth. Geographically therefore it emerges that Africa has been subjected to European ethnocentrisms. Even with respect to size of the African continent, it is quite remarkable how far European ethnocentrisms have influenced cartographic projections over the centuries in order to distort the actual size of the African continent in favor of the northern continent of the world.

The modern map of the world depicts north Africa to be one and half times the size of Africa whereas on the contrary Africa is in fact three and half times the size of USA also the modern map shows Greenland to be in completion with Africa in terms of size. This comparison is fallacious because Greenland is 2million square kilometers, which is only a fraction of Africa's size, which is 30million sq. km.

Because of European ethnocentrisms influence, visual memories of Africa over generations have carried distorted information about the geographical of Africa

The questions posed by African historians is: must Africa be denied its size in square kilometers, the way it might have been denied its full credentials as an integral part of human civilization and geographically must Europe be on top of the world, isn't it there a need to put the globe the right side up and in so doing restore the much needed status to the cradle of humankind (Africa where human history started)

As a historical expression, Africa has evoked a multiplicity of connotations: the first is racial in its impulse, it is a connotation that seeks to argue that the real Africa is to be found to the south of the Sahara desert and that Africans are black. The second connotation is continental -because the northern boundary is not the Sahara desert but the Mediterranean .it is a connotation that encapsulates the Arab Berber lands to the North Africa and it influenced the organization of African unity.

The third connotation is political, political power definition of Africa which up to 1993 sought to exclude parts of Africa which had not achieved self independence particularly the republic of South Africa.

Although the Eurocentric perspective denies the existence and the relevance of African history, African history has nonetheless made very significant contributions to universal historical developments.

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