This
book every Gambian should read!
This
book seeks to decolonize the minds of all Africans because it traces the
illustrious careers of great men and women who have left their footprints
clearly in the sands of time. In this book by a 1940s American Black scholar
outstanding blacks in Asia and Africa are profiled. When you read this book you
must be proud of to be African.
One
of the great deficiencies of our time has been the insidious and even clear
neglect of the story of African achievement and contribution to world history.
Our ancestors who did great things for humanity have had their stories and
heroism relegated to the backburner, so to say. In many cases, African heroes have
become villains! Our freedom fighters have become terrorists etc. In the same
vein, those Africans who oppress and terrorize their people have become
saviours!
Close
to a 100 people are profiled in this book: they share the commonality of being
Black and of African origins. From the famed Queen of Sheba in the centuries
before Christ to Chaka Zulu(p.267) to Samory Touray(p.344); in this book Samory
is called ‘The Napoleon of the Sudan’ for his strong resistance against the
French in the 1880s. Samory built a great empire which covered the whole of
West Africa today.
He
built an advanced administrative, economic and social and political system
which even his enemies could not but accept. ‘He is handsome, brave, very
intelligent’ a French General wrote about Samory . The revered Ethiopian Emperor Haile Sellasie
I is also profiled 419-431; a much long entry which is indeed deserved for his
role as a political and spiritual leader who stood against and defeated the Fascist
Italian conquerors in 1941.
He
stood for the dignity of the African and indeed was the prime mover in the
formation of the OAU in 1963. Sadly, he met a tragic fate in 1974 when a band
of soldiers killed him in an army coup.
Indeed,
the streak of treachery against great Africans by the fellow African brothers
and sister is writ large in this book. Most of the champions of African dignity
ended up been betrayed or destroyed by fellow Africans as in the case of Chaka
and Bambata the Zulu resistance leaders profiled on page 363. Throughout the
book the author who is a pioneer exponent of African studies in the US in the
1940s reveals the efforts of individual Africans to stand up against oppression
and injustice and foreign domination. He is able to context where these men and
women operated under so as to put into tasks the focus the herculean tasks they
had to surmount in order to be great.
This
is a highly inspiring book. It is a kind of tome which you read a tiny bit
daily until you digest it all and then you will be an even more confident
African. Africa has produced great men and women.
Available
at Timbooktoo.4494345
