Essay Example on BEFORE THE WHITE MEN CAME The African used to Live

A LONG TIME AGO IN AFRICA The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated Mahatma Gandhi 1869 1948 BEFORE THE WHITE MEN CAME The African used to live off the land what with the rich plants animals climate and soil That was until the Arabs Then the missionaries After the colonizers the multinationals who finally culminated in the Bretton Woods institutions the African has never recovered and is still drifting backwards dizzily into the abysmal pit of diseases illiteracy poverty AND general backwardness Anonymous Northern Africa is the only part of Africa that has been in touch with European life during all the centuries from the time of Greeks and the Romans Even before these ancient peoples Egypt had been one of the earliest homes of civilized man Later in the middle ages came Moslems or moors followers of the Prophet Mohammed and they were building fine houses writing books and teaching many useful things while Europe was passing through its Dark Age The native peoples of Egypt and North Africa have ever since been Moslem Until the closing years of the eighteenth century for the greater part of Africa except North Africa it was said by Dean Swift Geographers in Afric maps With savage pictures fill their gaps And o er uninhabited downs Place elephants for want of towns 

The vast middle of Africa the real Dark Continent was almost unknown to the white man till the nineteenth century while the extreme south was for long only a port of call for ships en route to India and the East In East Africa the Swahili language half Bantu and half Arabic became the trade language The Bantu had followed the great grass road that stretches from the Sahara Desert in North along the East of Central forest to the deserts and mountains in the south The may have followed wild animals such as antelopes which they hunted while herdsmen found pasture for their flocks and herds The native word Bantu means men or people An Egyptian Greek wrote the earliest account of East Africa nearly nineteen hundred years ago In it he speaks of the rights held over the district by the king of South Arabia and of the trading stations along the coast from which ivory rhinoceros horn and slaves were exported all these have continued to be exported for nearly two thousand years From the tenth to the fifteenth century the Arabs were masters of the Indian Ocean and their ships traded between Arabia Persia and China calling at East African coastal towns Some Arab traders settled on the coast married native Negro women and were the ancestors of the Swahili coast people whose language is spoken in the large part of East Africa 

DIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY Some 100 000 to 200 000 years ago most anthropologists believe all humans were Africans Due to the feeling of an urge to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth some humans moved out of Africa displacing their humanlike cousins elsewhere such as the Neanderthals in Europe In the adaptation to their new environments they developed differences that measured on anthropological scales are relatively recent and superficial The ones who headed north of the equator evolved lighter skins capable of synthesizing vitamin D in less direct sunlight those who remained near the equator became the blackest people in the world the Africans Whatever the differences like our skins facial designs etc we are the leaves of one tree maybe with different leaves but on the same tree The human being shares a common biological heritage cut one and he bleeds just like the other but we also have common behavioural tendencies Our shared brain structure predisposes us to sense the world develop language and feel hunger through identical mechanisms Being from opposite global sides we can read one another s smiles and frowns 

Whether our last name is Chang Kamau Nkomo Smith or Gabresellasie we are afraid of strangers beginning at about 8 months of age and as adults we prefer the company of individuals whose attitudes and attributes are similar to those of our own Regardless of our gender we regard female features that signify youth and health the potential to reproduce as attractive Whether we live in Antarctica or the equator we hate sour tastes to sweet we identify the spectrum similarly we feel drawn to behaviours that produce and protect offsprings and we feel pain As a species we affiliate conform reciprocate favours punish offences organize hierarchies of status and even mourn death We also play sports and games dance and feast partying sing and worship laugh and cry live in families and form groups To be human is to be more alike than different All these universal behavioural tendencies define human nature Is it a wonder then that we would like you to visit our country Would you be surprised to know that we would not only appreciate it but also welcome you with our big hearts KARIBU KENYA WELCOME TO KENYA