Hata mimi nakusa sangaa

Africa once had great civilizations. However, civilizations come and go. Ancient Egypt disintegrated ages ago, and has no continuity to Modern Egypt. The same for Nubia, West African civilizations, Greece, Israel and many others the world over.

I agree with @Obi, but why do we get easily offended when mention of us being poor and backwards is made, one does not even need to go back in history, just look at our current situation.

we lack the smarts to make a better life for ourselves, and what we lack most is basic organization, maybe in future we will learn, but up to now we are very weak, look at kenya we don't even have basic address system for homes, we can't even pave roads to our houses, just laying down pipes to deliver water to peoples homes is a challenge.

its like what matiangi did, showed us the level we are at, and all over sudden we are complaining we want those D's to be coated with Bs and As, the only way to move forward is to accept what we are and where we are otherwise we will keep n telling our kids how great we are, or were and yet we can't get the basics right.

I am appealing here for perspective;

- The Chinese built a 6,000Km wall that's visible from the moon, takes organization
- The Indians did the Taj Mahal etc among others
- Persians founded modern maths etc.

More importantly, these civilizations maintained records, which was passed down to other generations

More specifically, sub-saharan Africa which is what I believe we are discussing here had none of such sophistication and certainly lacked scale, many of the kingdoms many are claiming existed would probably be only as big as our current constituencies and atmost counties.

The fact that we are broken down into my guess is over 500 tribes should tell you that there was little interaction between africans beyond a small radius say 100Kms

Why is Africa poor in general compared to the West?

Because agricultural based small scale industries, like the one written about here, are the exception rather than the norm.

Take a look at the history of Somalia, you'll find that they have there own alphabet and very impressive buildings, cross over to Ethiopia and have a look at the military that they had early on plus religion then come back to Sudan where you'll find pyramids built by the Nubians before the islamization of the North that pushed them downwards into newlands such as Kenya.

Our biggest problem is bench-marking with the west.

http://atlantablackstar....ieval-african-kingdoms/

Watu wapunguze ujinga. Africa had a long line of superpowers. Mansa Musa, king of Mali is the richest man who ever lived on Earth.

Closer home the Buganda, Zulu, Wanga kingdoms controlled their own territories and with trade routes and their own succession lineages.

What we consider civilisation today is the Western concept of civilisation with roots in the Greek and Roman empires.

The Roman empire was the most significant civilisation in the West. What is today Britain, France, Germany and Scandinavia were just tribal enclaves of Celts, Gauls, Goths, Visigoths and other Germanic tribes colonised by Rome.

Even when the Western Roman empire fell in 500 CE or thereabouts, the Eastern (Byzantine) Roman empire remained strong for another 1,000 years.

In western Europe, the period between the fall of the Western Roman empire and the rise of the European monarchies is called the dark ages for a reason. During that period Europe was invaded by Arabs, Turks, Africans. Europe was constantly at war, ravaged by disease and the standard of life was probably the worst in the world.

When Europe was rising from the ashes of the dark ages, even Vasco Da Gama could not through the Suez on the way to India because he feared the Arabs. He went round the Cape just to encounter the Arabs on the East Coast of Africa from Mozambique, to Dar, to Pemba, to Tanga, to Mombasa and Lamu. Only the Sultan of Malindi welcomed him because he was at war with Mombasa and Lamu.

The balance of power obviously changed with the industrial revolution and rise of the great powers of Europe.

For 200 years the world has been dominated by western civilisation. Has the world become a better place? my answer is no. The world has been through wars involving and orchestrated by the western powers. Mass enslavement of populations, destruction of the environment, degradation of cultures...

In my opinion, western civilisation is actually regressive. The only reason we have not had a third world war and extinction of mankind is because Western Europe has been united by their EU trade pact. With UK (and god knows who else) pulling out, expect fireworks around the corner. We should not blindly worship a civilisation of war, destruction and violence that takes mankind backwards.

Isn't it likely as the western civilization goes through demographic change then it will suffer the same collapse as the Roman civilization? I was watching some documentary on History channel "Barbarians Rising" the West seems to be going through the same process. The Romans took in immigrants who then turned on them eventually. Reason why Trump says Germany made a huge mistake in taking too many immigrants. Germany on the other is trying some Marshall plan for Africa to stem the flow. In a scenario in which the west goes into an ageing decay, africans will simply go through dark ages like Europe, various tribes viciously killing one another and uthamaki rising and falling. Same old stuff.

Africans don't have respect for their own learned people, they don't preserve knowledge, they don't record innovation, they don't save their earnings, too afraid to risk. These are the things that drive civilization forward
and always lacking in Africa

Thank god someone who has done their homework is speaking. I watched the series and enjoyed it as well.

I pride myself in being a self taught student of history, I have read the history of most of the major nations or civilizations on earth. Civilizations rise and fall and you may be right in that the western civilization is ageing and will eventually implode as a result of internal stress.

However, methinks that unlike the Roman empire, the west will simply lag behind more agile countries. I can tell you the Mzungu is very unproductive and even now still depends on historical leverage to out compete the rest of the world, give them something to run and they stand no chance against an Asian. The Asians are catching up because they are better organized.

Africa hakuna, we are stuck in doldrums, tethered to personal interests and likely to make zero go-forward in the foreseeable future. In fact going by the happenings in SA, we are even regressing from positions of advantage.

Little knowledge is really dangerous.

Once you travel abit and leave your village where your forefathers degenerated themselves, you will realize how other africans were civilized. How they put up complex structures with no cranes, drainage with no pumps, passed on medical knowledge from one generation to another etc.Then will you realize that you might be the only uncivilized soul in Africa.