Naturally she is awesome.

I am proud to profess that she is a very intelligent woman so does her Husband President Barack Obama.

PAPUA NEW GUINEAN

“During the early years of West African trade with the Americas, commercial seafarers made frequent voyages across the Atlantic. In fact, the oral history of a tradition of seafaring between the Americas and Africa is part of the history of the Washitaw People, an aboriginal black people who were the original inhabitants of the Mississippi Valley region, the former Louisiana Territories and parts of the southern United States.”

Oh, you learn something new every day….!

Basically, in essence, it was a number of European journalists “inadvertently” confirming many of the suspicions I’ve long held about the reasons behind the diabolically biased reporting on Africa, one of which is backward Western mindsets still clinging to redundant ideas about the continent dating from the 15th and 16th centuries!! Unbelievable.

Anyway, warming to my “Where-is-the-positive-stuff-about-Africa?!” theme, I’ve gone off to seek out some “hidden history” about Ghana and West Africa, and it’s been fascinating to learn from reading some stuff by Mr. Paul Barton that…..

“….. there were thriving trade and commercial activities between Ancient West Africa and the Americas long before Christopher Columbus (credited with the discovery of America) ever sat in a ship. There is ample evidence to show that West Africa of 1500 BC was at a level of civilisation approaching that of Ancient Egypt and Nubia-Kush.”

Okay, that got my attention! Then, there was more to consider……

“….there were similarities between the cultures of Nubia and West Africa, right down to the smaller-scaled hard brick clay burial pyramids built for West African kings at Kukia in pre-Islamic Ancient Ghana and their counterparts in Nubia, Egypt and Meso-America. Although West Africa is not commonly known for a culture of pyramid-building, such a culture existed – pyramids were created for the burial of kings and were made of hardened brick. This style of pyramid building was closer to those built by the Olmecs in Mexico. Even though today we don’t see pyramids of stone rising above the ground in West Africa, similar to those of Egypt, Nubia or Mexico, the fact remains they did exist in West Africa on a smaller scale and were transported to the Americas, where conditions made it far easier to build on a grander scale.”

Hands up, anyone, who learned any of this in school/college/university. Yep……if I wasn’t tapping away on my keyboard, my arms would be firmly plastered to my sides, too!!

http://www.biazo.co.uk

Another thought I was thinking was how lovely – and, rare – it was to see a positive spotlight shone on Ghana, and by extension Africa, instead of the usual unbalanced and negative depictions….and this led to other thoughts about wanting to see some African perspectives on this very topic.

Racking my brain to remember the titles of some brilliant articles that I’d read in the past, I tracked one down, and it’s an eye-opener, indeed, written by Ms. Michelle Hakarta. The interesting and telling thing is, that even though this piece is from 2001, in terms of what it reveals about Western reporting of Africa, next to nothing has changed.

Home Truths

http://www.africasia.com/archive/na/01_0708/cover2.htm

Interesting!

Ghana, was the absolute highlight for me. In so many of the pictures that I’ve seen, you could almost feel the warmth, intense pride and gracious hospitality of the Ghanaian people towards them, and I was so longing for an African voice or two to offer a glimpse of some aspect of the visit.

So, having spotted an article by Mr. Cameron Duodu in the sidebar, I didn’t want this piece to get “lost”. He makes many points that I agree with, and I can only imagine, Michelle….

http://www.modernghana.com/news/227274/1/how-obama-wept-in-ghana.html