By Chakamwe Chakamwe

IF you listen to Western imperialist nations and the entire racist community talking about Africans, you are always left with the impression that, Africans never had good and great governments, great cities nor great civilisations.
The racists go on to arrogantly lie to you that were it not for the white man who came to Africa with light and knowledge, we would still be idiots living primitive lives deep in the jungle and caves.
In this two-part series we would like to show the great achievements made by Africans in governance, creation of great civilisations, great cities and trade.
In this first part we are going to look at achievements in good governance, building of cities and great civilisations made by Africans while Europe was an ordinary primitive cold place.
In the second part we shall look at trade and commerce by Africans over the centuries.
One Basil Davidson in his book Discovering Africa’s Past speaks of Africans in olden days thus: “In several important aspects of their development, these Africans were in advance of their neighbours in Europe and Western Asia. For a long time they were among the leaders of human progress.”
The above submission is supported by the following highlights of great African civilisations and governments from right across Africa starting with the great Egyptian civilisation.
“The Africans of ancient Egypt created a civilisation, which for many centuries remained the most splendid triumph of man’s early progress. Europe’s civilisation built in several important ways on the achievements of ancient Greeks. But the Greeks in their turn owed much to the ancient Egyptians whether in the field of ideas or in that of practical skills.
“This splendid civilisation towering above the achievements of other lands, was primarily African. Most Egyptians and most aspects of their culture owed their origins to the Africans who had lived in the Sahara and who had first settled in the land of the Nile.”
Yes, the great pyramids, agriculture associated with the great Egyptians were all invented by Africans.
The Egyptian civilisation was made by Africans.
The black Africans of Kush presided over one of the greatest kingdoms and civilisations of Africa.
They built one of the greatest cities ever seen — Meroe, which was the capital of the Kingdom of Kush. Here is the story of Meroe.
“There is no doubt about the strength and beauty of the city of Meroe capital of the Kingdom of Kush. Visitors can still admire its skyline, tall with the ruins of temples and a majestic palace enclosed by a massive wall. Meroe was the centre of a large trading community living in suburbs beside the Nile.
“Here the greatest of the ancient civilisations of inner Africa flourished. The people here traded as far afield as Rome and India and perhaps China. One of their kings called Kashta began his conquest in about 750BC. They established Kushite as far as the Nile delta and the Mediterranean. With this the Kushite (Africans) became a world power.
“These Kushites were great travellers and traders, skilled in many useful arts including that of writing. But the Kushite writing was not like the Greek. It was superior to that of the Greek…
“The Kushites were also great fighters who used cavalry and elephants.”
From the Sudan we cross the continent to West Africa to the great gold empire of Ghana, which had lots of gold and was a great economic powerhouse.
“At the height of its power around 1000, Ghana controlled most of the Atlantic ports. Gold was not the only source of ancient Ghana’s wealth. Thanks to its position and wide-ranging power, Ghana also controlled the trade in salt, another essential product”. But besides learning about the economy of Ghana it is enlightening to learn that the King of Ghana was a great ruler whose governance was quite sophisticated. He ruled his vast empire very well.
“The King of Ghana is the master of a great empire and has great power. He can put into the field an army of 200 000 warriors of whom more than 40 000 are archers.”
If you compare the above figures with the number of Normans, who invaded and conquered under one William England in 1066 you get the following figure — only 4 000 could be assembled. England was really a little power compared to the empire of Ghana, which at that time could be considered a super power.
When it comes to governance this is what we find with the King of Ghana in those days:
“When this King gives audience to his people so as to listen to their troubles and set them to rights, on his right hand are the princes of his empire, splendidly clad and with gold ornaments in their hair. The governor of the city is seated on the ground in front of the King, and all around him are his ministers in the same position.
“Then the King wearing a headdress of gold-embroidered stuff and fine garments of white cotton, listened to the lawsuits that were brought before him and gave judgments.”
There is no doubt this was a more polished system of governance than those of Europe at the time.
Lastly we look at the empire which was called Songhay. It was formed by people, who lived on the middle Niger but soon spread across West Africa and Southern Sudan. The true founder of the empire was one Sunni Ali. He ruled from about 1464 to 1492. And when it came to good governance of his empire this is what he did.
“Sunni Ali divided the empire that he built into a number of provinces. In each of these he appointed a governor and other officials as well as staffing his own count with secretaries and ministers.”
Because of the good governance of the Songhay Empire education flourished of world class standards. And this was centred at a city called Timbuktu.
“Of all the cities of Songhay, Timbuktu was the most important. It became its commercial and intellectual centre. Its schools of learning whether of theology, law, history or other studies, became known throughout the world. Scholars from distant lands arrived to teach or learn. By late in the fifteenth century the various schools at Tumbuktu formed a group of colleges. At Tumbuktu you found judges, professors and devout men all handsomely maintained by the King who holds schools in much honour.”
There are still more great African empires for example the Munhumutapa Empire.
Next week we look at commerce and trade by the early Africans.