Times Of Swaziland: AFRICA’S OTHER HISTORY

AFRICA’S OTHER HISTORY
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The Editor on 12/10/2017 00:24:00


Sir,
Many people are aware that the history of much of pre-colonial Africa was not
recorded in writing but rather through tradition of storytelling whereby the
knowledge of history would be passed down orally from generation to generation.
Much of that history, however, may have been lost over time such that we may
know our history as a people or nation, but we have no certainty as to who the
people who founded our present day nations were, where they were from or the
reasons why they left the territories which they previously occupied to form new
nations in territories occupied by others and as such, many different versions
of history emerge.
In Southern Africa, we know that most people are descended from the Nguni tribes
from East or Central Africa who migrated south to occupy the territories
formerly occupied by the San people who are widely referred to as bushmen.
But very few people know the history of the Nguni people and why those who
migrated south did so. Some people are not even aware that there were others
before us on this Southern tip of Africa.
Much of Africa’s oral history also contains what many people today would
consider to be mere ‘legends and ‘myths’-things which supposedly do not
exist and never really took place, such as the Dogon People’s claim that they
were visited by beings from the stars, and this therefore calls into questions
the credibility of some of that history, especially in the absence of written
records. But the lack of written records is not limited to Africa as even Europe
had no historical records in pre-grecian times and also relied on storytelling
as a means of conserving their history. European oral history also contains many
so-called ‘myths’ or ‘legends’, one of them being the African origins of
Scotland and Ireland.
The ‘legend’ suggests that the people of Scotland and Ireland are
descendants from the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh called Cheneres (who was
said to have been killed chasing the Israelites through the Red Sea), and a
Scythian prince called Nial. In fact, some historians have suggested that the
Celtic people who settled in much of Western Europe were the descendants of the
Scythians who were said to be originally from Asia. Add to that the fact that
the bagpipes for which Scotland is know are actually a musical instrument of
North African orign, ten you have another perspective of history!
Swazi Citizen