The African past

White people thought that Africans were inferior and uncivilised. This idea justified the discrimination and exploitation of black people. In fact there were important kingdoms and great civilisations in Africa at the same time as people in Britain were living in primitive iron-age huts. From Egypt, an African country, came ideas about geometry, arithmetic and astronomy. The pyramids, one of the seven wonders of the world, are a reminder to us of the skills and power of ancient Egyptians. West Africa too had a long-established civilisation.

Religion and the family were very important to Africans. But white people could not understand the value and importance of religions that were not Christian. Africans valued the idea of the family more than most Europeans did. The old, the sick and the disabled were always taken care of within the family. Whites sometimes claimed that tribal wars were evidence that Africans were uncivilised. Many of the wars were not really that serious and it is thought few people were killed. The most destructive wars in our world have been fought by white nations.

Nigel Smith: Black peoples of the Americas; Oxford University Press, 1992/2000, page 5