Lecture given by Dr Ivan Van Sertima discussing African history and African Science, Recorded in 1986 at Camden Town Hall, London. Caribbean Cultural International & Karnak House.
In I986 when Sara Berry and I organized a graduate seminar on 'Agriculture in African History', our search of the literature for the reading list yielded primarily works of social and economic history for which agriculture was, to greater or lesser degree, a touchstone rather than a primary focus.
Abu Abdalla ibn Battuta (1304-1354) was one of the greatest travelers of pre-modern times. He traveled to Black Africa twice. He reported about the wealthy, multi-cultural trading centers of the African East coast, such as Mombasa and Kilwa, and the warm hospitality he experienced in Mogadishu.
The African continent in general, and Zimbabwe in particular, continue to endure the acrimony of “natural resource curse” in spite of an abundance of natural resources. Africa consumes what it does not produce, and produces what it does not consume.
A Kenyan philosopher surveys themes and debates in African philosophy over the last five decades. Masolo’s purview includes Francophone and Anglophone philosophers in both the analytic and phenomenological traditions
Divided into eight sections, each with introductory essays, the selections offer rich and detailed insights into a diverse multinational philosophical landscape. Revealed in this pathbreaking work is the way in which traditional philosophical issues related to ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology, for instance, take on specific forms in Africa's postcolonial struggles.