Prof. French Howard, Author and Professor of Journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, has attributed many woes of Africa to slavery and economic exploitation by the colonial masters. The American journalist said if many African countries were allowed to develop organically, may be, many African countries would be at same level with the western countries in terms of civilization and development.
Howard stated this at Sterling leadership Series SLS tagged “Born In Blackness: Truth, Lies and X,” during the week in Lagos.
He stated that aside the chain associated with slavery the main damage and purpose was to devalue the victims of slavery saying, “The first is psychological, the Bob Marly call for us to free ourselves from mental slavery comes to mind here. Slavery is not about the chain. It’s about making people to devalue themselves. You can’t be subjugated effectively until you have been internalized.
“This history of Africans written by the colonists is to convince Africans that somehow they are not worthy for equal considerations and somehow the way the world turned out to be is just normal. But it is not normal and it’s not justified.”
He added, “When I was writing my book, and in my research, one of the things you heard from this Portuguese accounts is that during the exploitation in Africa, not everywhere, many African countries they encountered, they met civilization that shows they are equal, in terms of organization, governance and military capacity.
“African’s history was sabotaged,
If they had came and told you that your people used to be as good as us in everything, in warfare, in governance, or in medicine. And my people wrongly explored your people, that would have undermined the narrative.
Freedom from mental slavery, begins with learning history.”
The discussion which was moderated by Uti Ellu and Kunle Remi, Nigerian actor had in attendance young Nigerians from different fields who engaged the professor with questions pertaining Africa.
Commenting at the event, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Sterling Bank, Dapo Martins said the bank recognized the importance of human capital and the need to encourage young talents saying, “as an organization, most of us are young people allowing us to be the best version of ourselves and usher in the future we seek as people. That is why we have continued to innovate our human capital. We as a bank know that human capital is the strongest capital.
“To us, blankness represents the richness in our continent and our lands. And in that richness lies our culture, in that culture lies our wealth and our history and that history is what we will use to drive our future.”
