Africa's Greatest Legacy

Almost a year ago, a Nigerian friend and ardent read of the posts on this blog asked me a question I have been thinking about (on and off) for a while now, his question went thus:

 What do you consider as the most important legacy that Africa has given the world?

It gave me a new perspective to look at Africa. To fully understand the legacy of Africa to the world one has to employ a bird view of the continent, to detach him/her self and look at it from an angle of a disengaged observer.

Collin’s Dictionary defines legacy as something handed down or received from an ancestor or predecessor.

Nelson Mandella

Now this question is not one to be answered anyhow, not if you want to avoid perfunctory and regurgitated answers. Today I attempt to examine Africa’s greatest legacy and contribution to the world.

My thoughts were quite naïve and very idealistic and often quite sensationalist at the time.  I took a break from writing for a while to do a lot of reading on Africa; I delved into the works of our old literary giants Achebe, Taban Lo Liyong, Ezekiel Mphahlele and Mariam Ba to new breed of writers Chimamanda Aditichie and many other much younger writers who tell the African story in short stories. Frantz Fanon and Walter Rodney all gave me some insight but they couldn’t answer my question as I wanted.

What indeed is the African legacy to the world then?

In my quest I thought of celebrated leaders like Mandela, Zuma, Obasanjo, Kenyatta, Nyerere,  Nkurumah, and in the same breath mourned Patrice Lumumba, Tom Mboya, Christopher Okigbo, Ken Saro Wiwa, Gadafi and thought of the tyranny of  Iddi Amin and Robert Mugabe and many African leaders whose contribution have in a positive or negative way changed the landscape of the African continent and indeed the world.

Tom Mboya

I went back in time as far as the Slave trade era, felt the pain of the many crammed into cages for sale and cursed the chiefs selling their own subjects for western luxurious goods and most importantly examined how it felt for the mothers living at that period, imagined how they felt when their sons, husbands and brothers were snatched forcefully without them ever meeting again!! 

ken saro wiwa

I revisited the colonial occupation of Africa and how Africa was under the tyrannical rule choked almost to death from the exploitation of the west. I rejoiced when they regrouped amid all that to stand up and fight for what is rightfully theirs, thought about the call to revolt from the Maji Maji rebellion to the Mau Mau uprising in Eastern Africa to FRELIMO in Mozambique and how finally the clutches and shackles of colonialism was thrown down and I relieved the hope of the independence years, saw many bask in the glory of their hard earned independence.

Can all the stoic will, resilience and the hope that refused to die of the people of Africa termed as Africa’s greatest legacy?

chris Okigbo

I then examined the dark years when Africa lost its step at the most crucial years. The sad thought of the plunder and corruption shortly following the independence years came out loud and perhaps more than any other factor the events of those years have been given the most media attention by the west and to date Africa is struggling to change the negative picture painted during those years.  Can then these stories of misery, poverty and disease be called a legacy?  I give an unapologetic and emphatic No! to that.

I am still thinking and pondering on what the greatest legacy of Africa to the world is, I must confess that this is an ongoing conversation within me! But even at this juncture I must say that Africa’s contribution is enormous and in the coming few days I will be devoting on expounding on those contributions  

Kwameh Nkrumah

patrice Lumumba

 This is just an introductory post to many others that i am planning to do in the examination of Africa's greatest contribution and legacy to the world. 

stay posted and tell me what you think in the comment box.