We all come from Africa. Anyone who believes in science knows this to be true. It makes sense, then, that the award-winning Sudanese British broadcaster, filmmaker and journalist Zeinab Badawi begins her exhaustive An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence with Dinkenesh, a hominin female whose remains were discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia. Called Lucy in the West after the popular Beatles song, she lived more than 3 million years ago and is a definitive link to our common beginnings. Dinkenesh draws the reader in from the start. Then, Badawi leads us on an epic march through time.
Badawi is an expert guide, visiting ancient, overlooked ruins and telling the stories, often carried on through oral traditions of long-ago kingdoms. She describes the mosques, tombs and monuments with a sense of awe that is palpable and contagious. Badawi was especially struck by the Koutoubia Mosque’s “vast scale” and the “elegant simplicity of its arched interior” in Marrakesh, Morocco. The mosque was built in the 12th century by the Almohad people, who dedicated their wealth to the pursuit of science, medicine and mathematics; their work later influenced European intellectuals. Kings, queens, warriors and mystics come back to life, like Mansa Musa, a 14th-century king of the Mali Empire, whose wealth is still legendary. These stories are invigorated by the passionate voices of the many people Badawi interviews, including archaeologists, anthropologists, historians and local storytellers. At the same time, she shows the devastating impact of colonialism, the transatlantic slave trade and the political unrest that have ruptured the continent for centuries.
Badawi makes her immense wealth of knowledge absorbing. There’s the tragic story of the women of Nder, a village that is now part of Senegal. In November 1819, Arab enslavers tried to capture the village women and enslave them for sex. The women sent their children into the fields and fought off the soldiers. When the enemy regrouped, the women gathered in a hut and set it ablaze, “so, it will be ash that meets the enemy,” their leader proclaimed. One pregnant woman fled and later told their story of resistance. The village’s annual festival of Talata Nder commemorates these valiant ancestors.
Badawi further illuminates how African countries have gained their hard-won independence, surviving genocides, apartheid and epidemics; she also shows how some governments continue to struggle with nation-building. As Badawi adroitly proves, Africa’s story is far richer than the West chooses to believe, and historians and activists alike are working to reconstruct these many histories. An African History of Africa is a long overdue corrective that should be studied in every school and available in every library across the West.
