An African proverb says that “until the lions do not have their own historians, hunting stories will continue to glorify the hunter.” Although many studies on the continent have been elaborated by Western, African authors are increasingly present.
The history of Africa is a great unknown, but it will not be due to lack of books. The World Negro publishing house has published several. One of them, The history of Africa in their facts, texts and places, by José Luis Cortés López, he has the virtue of including a large number of maps and texts that illustrate the main historical events in the continent from prehistory until the beginning of the 21st century. Cortés has published two more books: Contemporary History of Africa includes a series of keys (economic, social and cultural) to interpret the continent, while Africa. 50 years of independence, It gives a profile of 44 of the 55 African states. Closest over time, historian Eric García Moral published Brief history of sub -Saharan Africa, Where it synthesizes, with a pleasant narrative, the vast history of the black continent from prehistory to the present, making it accessible to a general public. However, as the author alerts, “in these pages he will not find” the African history “in its entirety, but only a part of it”, inviting us to consider the book “as a small telescope that allows you to glimpse a tiny space of the African universe.”
But the approach to the history of the continent has also found other formats. World Negro publishing house published History of Africa. The Baobab, that approaches the African past through the comic. The protagonist is a child, Rafiki, who after finding anything about the history of his continent in the books, goes to José, an old man who, under the shadow of a Baobab, will renew different episodes of that rich story. This represents how, for centuries, history has been transmitted in Africa, from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation. Africans telling their own history. And as the old José Jose to Rafiki knows before mentioning under the Baobab: “By the way, Joseph Ki-Zerbo, by Burkina Faso, is the author of one of the most important history books on the black continent.”
In the early 1970s, the Burkinés historian-the country at that time was still called Alto Volta-Joseph Ki-Zerbo, published the first edition of which has become the reference work on the history of the continent, Black Africa History. Published in Spain by Editorial Alliance in 1980 in two volumes, the Bellaterra publishing house made an edition reviewed in 2011. Ki-Zerbo’s work, one of the great African historians, can not be missing from the library of those who want to approach the past of the black continent. In the preface, the Frenchman Fernand Braudel, another famous historian, affirms that “it is more than a history work created with patience and attentive loyalty. It is a hopeful book, written by pulse ». Ki-Zerbo himself, along with other African historians, participated in the colossal work General History of Africa, An encyclopedia divided into eight volumes edited by the International Scientific Committee for the writing of a General History of Africa of UNESCO. But, as they say colloquially, this remains For the most coffee growers.
Zeinab Badawi, announcer, journalist and filmmaker Anglo-Sudanese, his last book begins: “Everyone is originally from Africa and, therefore, this book is for everyone.” Including Less coffee growers. He has titled it An African History of Africa. From the Dawn of Humanity To Independence. It is an African story of Africa. Through 17 chapters, with a close and easy -to -read style, from their own trips and experiences, Badawi invites us to immerse ourselves in different events, facts and processes that have marked the history of the continent. For the author, “ultimately, African history and African traditions should not be measured for their economic value, but for the feeling of joy, pride and identity that they contribute to Africans and for the enormous learning opportunities they provide to the rest of humanity.” Patrice Lumumba, historic leader of the RDC, in the last letter he sent to his wife, Pauline, wrote: “History will tell her word one day … Africa will write her own story.” Today, Africa continues to write its own story because, as Badawi remarks, “it is full of inspiring figures that have shaped the world: there are still many to arrive.”
