Unit reflections 1

 


I have learned so much from this unit about Africa and it's history with the world. I knew that there was a lot to this place especially since it's known as the birthplace of humanity. Even so, there was a lot I wasn't familiar with for example, I didn't know that ancient Greece got most of it came from African culture. I also didn't realize how much of  African culture influenced the world and how much some historians deny all that African culture has done to shape this world. Which is why like the image above it is time to shed some light on the history of this magnificent place and its people.

 

To start I will address the most basic misconception, and that is that Africa is a modern place, and not just a plain with people that act like animals. The image you see above is just one city within the continent. These misconceptions is what lead people to not understand what Africa is like now and what they were like in the past. For example, in Chapter 1 the book talks about how Africa was before the shipment through the middle passage. Even back then there were several countries and world building from the people. Like the country of Axum, Kush, Mali, and Songhay. Axum was a major trading country, that was peaceful and had a robust economy. This continent built itself from the ground up and was a major contributor to building the rest of the world, whether by influencing or by slave trade. In the history of Africa slavery was used to pay off debts, crimes, or so that people could be housed and fed. Although, back in Africa slaves were still treated as human beings and not objects. That didn't happen till slaves were traded to other countries and the people there were being mistreated.

Next, A fact that I learned from chapter 3 is that it is believed that Africans may have landed in the new world before Columbus, but the chapter also says that it has mostly be disregarded as a theory. Even so, Africans were transported to the Americas to do slave work and plant fields. According to chapter 3 the English started to fear interactions between white and black workers thus they made rules to separate the two people. The chapter also expresses that feelings of superiority didn't start until these laws were created. I had no idea how the slave owners way of thinking came about until now. I didn't realize that this dynamic was forced created by the peoples leaders.

Next what I learned from chapter 2 is the terrible and tragic conditions of the transport through the middle passage. The people were captured and sold to different countries around the world. What chapter 2 taught me was how much the people suffered just getting transported. Some went so far as to suicide themselves, or died from disease, malnutrition, and neglect. The people were trapped and compacted into the bottom deck of the ship. Chapter 2 said that millions were transported and held in dark places just to be moved on a ship to suffer even worse conditions. The Maafa is what it was called, and what that word means is great disaster. That is the word the people describe the occurrence as.

Lastly, what I learned from chapter 4 was the role slaves played in the revolutionary war. In the beginning of the war the slaves were minute men, and one free slave by the name of Criptus Attucks who became a martyr for the start of the war. I also learned how the British promised freedom to the slaves that sided with them, I also learned how Gorge Washington didn't want slaves in the war in the beginning, but was forced to change when the British were trying to win over the slaves. Then, I also learned of a black man named James Armistead was a double agent for America who gave British intel to the French to help win the war. I never knew the big role Africans played in shaping this world and its history.



My eyes have been opened to understanding my people and our history and I can't wait to learn more, I now have a more open view of these people and where they have come from. 

T