By Dr Michelina Andreucci

THE West often overlooks Africa’s many intricate facets.
It sees Africa as one country, plagued with droughts, disease and disasters; hopeless and constantly undergoing misery.
But Africa is a vast and complex continent.
When colonialists arrived in Zimbabwe and other African nations, flaunting their Bibles and killing machines, they believed they were sent by God ‘to redeem the savage barbarians from their own self-destruction’.
Yet, until their arrival, Africa was more advanced institutionally, technically, scientifically, environmentally, geo-physically, mentally, sexually, politically and socio-culturally than most of Europe today; which continued until their arrival.
Africa, and Zimbabwe in particular, had founded great civilisations, developed powerful political states, influential administrations, sophisticated socio-economic networks and extensive trade systems.
Their creative ingenuity was used throughout to design and build vast mosques, churches and palaces for their kings and emperors.
The continent teemed with prosperous empires and great cities, built with the knowledge of advanced arithmetic, linear algebra and astrological calculations while the people had great skills in hunting, cosmology, medicine, weaving, textiles, metallurgy and ironmongery as was in Munhumutapa Kingdom; conducting lucrative trades in gold, ivory, semi-precious stones, copper, iron, hides, tools, pottery, among many others.
Africa is the repository of traditions and wisdoms dating back millennia that built and gave the African continent and beyond, a rich cultural legacy.
From the pyramids of Egypt, the Nigerian mediaeval city of Benin said to be ‘the largest earthworks in the world carried out prior to the mechanical era…. on a scale comparable with the Great Wall of China…’; the legendary ancient mud city of Timbuktu, the elegantly built world-class Tanzanian city of Kilwa was one of the most beautiful and well-constructed cities in the world, to the historical stone structures of Great Zimbabwe, its imposing architecture built in stages as the imperial capital of the Munhumutapa, between 800 and 1500 AD, that lasted for 600 years.
Great Zimbabwe became a citadel, a regional Mecca and the legendary world trade centre that extended to and dominated from Guruuswa in the north to parts of Mozambique, Botswana and South Africa up to the Congo.
Voracious European missionaries, fortune hunters and other freeloaders searching for African treasures and resources destroyed many of these ancient African cities.
During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe and in the process, established large overseas empires.
Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France and the Netherlands began to establish colonies and trade networks of their own in Africa, the Americas and Asia.
Africa became the colonial template for European prosperity.
Thus, between the late 16th and early 18th centuries, England established its ‘overseas possessions’ together with trading posts to become the largest empire in history.
At its height, the British Empire comprised dominions, crown colonies, protectorates, (League of Nations mandates) and other so-called dependent territories, all ruled and administered by the UK from London.
Britain was also the dominant naval and imperial power of the 19th Century.
For over a century, England was the foremost global power, with London the largest city in the world from about 1830.
In the early 20th Century, by the time of Queen Victoria’s reign, (1837-1901), the British Empire covered over
33 670 000km2, almost a quarter of the earth’s total land area and held sway over approximately one fifth of the world’s population.
Because the British Empire’s expanse around the globe was so vast, it was often described as the ‘empire on which the sun never sets’, as the sun would be shining on at least one of its colonies at any given time.
The British Empire wielded official control, not only on its colonies but also much of the world trade.
Britain was unchallenged on land and at sea.
This period of British dominance (1815-1914), described as ‘Pax Britannica’ was an era of relative peace in Europe and the world, but not for Africa.
The British Empire became the global hegemony during this time and adopted the role of ‘global policeman’; a role now shared with EU member-countries, the US and Scandinavian countries
Between the 1870s and 1900s, following the collapse of the slave trade, Africa faced unwarranted European imperialist aggression, diplomatic pressures, military invasions and eventually, conquest and colonisation from Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain that were competing for power between themselves, including the demand for assured sources of raw materials.
Prior to colonisation, due to surplus resources provided by the land, Africa boasted strong economies with many great achievements being accomplished throughout Africa.
After the conquest of Africa, with its long-established centralised state systems of empires, (such as Munhumutapa), kingdoms, chiefdoms and city-states, functional administrative and judicial systems of government, African rulers and their people were vassalised and a machinery of administrative domination was established in order for colonial officials to exercise their authority over them, dominate and facilitate their control and exploitation of their colonised lands.
With unparalleled global opportunities now available to England, the colonies of Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, South Africa and all the other settled dominions of the empire received an overflow of new immigrants.
Land became the aspiration of all white settlers, of which in Zimbabwe, approximately 23 percent were lucratively employed in agriculture; the ownership of suitable agricultural landholdings was the objective of just about every white settler, resulting in the dispossession of the indigene who lived upon and looked to his land as a source of wealth, support, security and heritage.
The 19th Century was an era of radical and extreme changes geographically and socio-politically for Africa characterised by the downfall of old African kingdoms and empires.
Some of the old societies were reconstructed and new African societies were founded on different ideological and social premises. Consequently, African societies were in a state of flux; the political and social umbilical cords that tied their people in the old familiar system had been decimated.
Ruthless imperialist demands eventually provoked many African political and diplomatic reactions that eventually led to social resistance and in some cases armed conflict, as in Zimbabwe’s protracted Chimurenga (1960s-1979).
Initially, African forces fought mostly with bows, arrows, spears, swords and old rifles against the invading forces’ more deadly firearms, machineguns, new rifles and artillery guns.
Thus, by the early 20th Century, much of Africa had been brutally colonised by the same powers that today preach rights of equality and non-discrimination as well as against corporal punishment and gender violence.
Since many of the first colonisers were men (undoubtedly married, with wives back home), it likely meant impregnating virginal young African girls; for surely, no man would choose an older mature woman to cohabit with, given the choice of the pick.
Ironically, today, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) march under the banner of the human right to freedom from forced or early marriage in Africa.
The colonial machinery of administrative dominance is still up and running.
Only the colonial officials have been replaced by NGOs dispensing their form of alms; with no clue of, or interest in our way of life, customs, traditions and beliefs.
It is unfortunate there are so many academics and ‘wannabe’-academics among us who are still under Western influence, sponsorship and control, and who, for a few pieces of silver, are gladly willing to deny their roots by repeatedly advocating and paraphrasing their bucolic rhetorics, statistics and conventions while simultaneously maligning their own country.
Can we expect our children to be stewards of our heritage by teaching and enforcing Western dogmas?
Dr Michelina Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian researcher, industrial design consultant lecturer and specialist hospitality interior decorator. She is a published author in her field.
For views and comments, email: linamanucci@gmail.com