[Kay]

This is my assignment, and I cannot understand it. I wanted to do a 'Africa isnt civilised', but unfortunately, all the sources I have been given are for 'Africa WAS Civilised'. Ive dont my first paragraph 'Civilised means....' but thats it lol. Any suggestions?

[MrJohnDClare]

And what - according to the first paragraph you say you have done - do you think 'civilisation' is?

I think that the whole key to your question lies there.
If you look at all those sources which say that Africa was civilised, you will find that they tell you about certain things - culture, sculpture, social relationships etc. They talk about 'cities' without saying what the houses were made of, and 'kingdoms' without defining the nature of the government. It was indeed 'civilisation', but according to a very specific definition of what constitutes civilisation. There were many things about that civilisation which we would regard today as very UNcivilised - slavery, despotism, cannibalism, tribal wars, social conventions such as exposure of the old and sick etc.

Now look at the European 'civilisations' which were coming into contact with these. Think about what those civilisations involved - structures of government, methods of building, Renaissance Art, technology, economy, commerce, etc. (Yet at the same time, there were many aspects of that civilisation also which we today would declare uncivilised - burning witches, massacres and wars of religion, racism, the slave trade etc.)

You MUST avoid the trap of comparing civilisations and saying which was 'better' - that is not acceptable nowadays. But the two 'civilisations' were VERY different.

What I would do is to restart your essay by saying that 'civilisation' is different things to different people.

Then your first section can indeed say how African people of the time, and historians of Africa today, saw/see a very civilised society (which describe with examples)

Then your second section can say that the Europeans who were beginning to explore Africa saw Africa in a very different way, because they had a civilisation which was very different (and which they thought was superior) ... and that will allow you to define the negatives.

[Kay]

I said that 'Civilised, to me, is a place of global peace. People would be able to get along without being told what they were doing was wrong. This suggests that people needed to listen to each other when they invaded, as the British did not do when they arrived in Africa. Without this very important information on the people who lived there, assumptions were made as to what they did, how they behaved, and why they did what they supposedly did. This, of course, was wrong and it proves that, in todays society we need to get to know people before negative OR positive assumptions are made.'

I did some more, but I've now handed my essay in and that is all I can remember. Thanks for all the info, it really helped me get through that paragraph.

[MrJohnDClare]

VERY impressive sentiments!
Let us know what your teacher thought about it when you get it back.

[Kay]

Will do