WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT AFRICA ?

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT AFRICA? - NO, REALLY? 

NIGERIA FOUND

I don't know about you, but my detailed knowledge of global geography is not something to marvel at. Sure, I can get almost any country into the right Continent , and usually into roughly the right Region. But there are , I have discovered , some areas of particular deficiency. I shall by-pass the subject of all the various "-stans"and "- zhans" which seem to have proliferated generally "up there"in the former Soviet Union. It was rather comforting in those days just to have one whapping great lump of baddies , and easy to know where they were, hemmed in by the CIA, MI5 or is it 6? and the Polaris submarines. Alas, now we have Russia and Vlad Putin trying to stay Vlad the Terrible forever and ever.And this host of feverish "- stans"and "-zhans" all generally unknowable and one suspects dreadful - somewhere "up there".


But Africa  -  she cannot be ignored. Yet there is a problem. Those of us of a certain age.....learned what we know about Africa  through British lenses, when Britannia still acted as if she "waived the rules"and governed great chunks of Africa as colonies.So, what was Africa to us, was British Africa . Thus we knew about the Zulus and their terrible reputation as fierce warriors, and the Masai and their spears, and the tall willowy Swahili and their dancing. But we couldn't accurately place them on the map necessarily.Then the whole thing became much more complicated, Britannia discovered the reality of no longer being able to "waive the rules"at Suez in 1956. Earlier,  The Sudan had won its independence from England and Egypt in December ,1955. It has of course largely proved to be a pyhrric victory.


But a relatively short time later Ghana, won her independence from England and Germany in March, 1957.On the first day of 1960 Cameroon won its independence from England, Germany and France after a rebellion. By 1st July,1960 Somalia had won its independence from England and Italy; it is still in ferment.And on October 1st. 1960 Nigeria won its independence from England.


There was a great procession of countries winning their independence from England in the following years. And as I discover how little I know about them and try to correct that ignorance, we may have the stuff of many more posts. But for the moment, let us keep our gaze on Nigeria.Because it was specifically Nigeria that brought me up short, when I realised I did not know where in Africa it is!


You see, I have the privilege of getting to form a friendship with a Nigerian soon to come to Australia to study. So when I learned where he lives , I went confidently to the map of Africa and found that someone had moved Nigeria! And in its place was Uganda!!! Then slowly, my confidence crumpled and I realised that if I had ever known where Nigeria is, I had forgotten. And then humbly , I had to begin to search for it on the map! Of course I found it where it has always been in the very  "armpit"of West Africa!


That was not all I did not know, my friend's great country has a population of 172.000.000 plus  people . This makes it the most populous country in Africa.And the seventh most populous in the world. And I didn't know where it is!!


Nigeria has three main Tribal groupings:


the Igbo , the Yoruba and the Hausa.


The Igbo kingdom can be traced back archeologically to the 10th Century and lasted until British conquest in 1911 .There is evidence of highly developed metal working techniques and pottery from an early date.


This is a very poor thumbnail sketch, the beginning of my education as I prepare to meet my friend with whom I already have excellent communications.


The West is largely an open book collectively, like Americans we are known better than we can generally know about others. As a courtesy I think I owe it to my friend to learn far more about his country , which contains 25% of the entire population of Africa!  


Watch this space!