Africa Needs To Be Taught Its History

I happen to engage some of my colleagues on a subject entitled: Traditional Debate. The debate was about the role of the traditional leaders in the current South Africa. The debate was conducted in the group blog called “newspuppies.blogspot.com”. I must say the debate was heated: full of emotions and passionate views. I must stress that all of my colleagues are all Graduates who hold bachelor degrees and diplomas in various fields. Alas! To my shock I found out from their arguments that there is a little knowledge about how Africa turned out to be what it is today. Most of them believe that we must get rid of our traditional leaders, claiming that we live in a post-modern society. Ironically what they don’t know or fail to acknowledge is the fact that the West (the former colonisers) have their own traditional leaders in the form of Monarchs, Kings or Queens. For me, this debate highlights the urgency for us as Africans to try to re-write our history. For the future of Africa, we need to tell African history from African perspective. I challenge all the academics, intellectuals, professionals and all the Africans to try to correct our past. We cannot afford to have a situation where our young people continue to be misled and miss-informed about the continent’s history.