It's quite refreshing to see something about African history that isn't just ancient Egypt, then thousands of years of nothing, then European slave trade and colonization.
I like what you said that African history is not just about ancient Egypt and many thousands of years until the slave trade. We did have history which is older then European history including written history was around many centuries before the Greeks know how to write.
Eastern Africa was a huge trading region in the Islamic World, and West Africa had multiple large Kingdoms. Not to mention the Nubians who harassed and then conquered ancient Egypt and the Ethiopians who are one of the most ancient and continuous Christian nations in world history
Words cannot explain how happy this makes me! In school, very rarely do teachers talk about African history, creating an assumption that Africa is and has always been backwards and not worth studying. African culture and history is fascinating, sophisticated and very deserving of recognition.
i just dont understand why white people refuse to acknowledge anything positive associated with blacks and africans. They stile aftican history and inserted themselves.
I don't think it's relevant to say he was the richest man ever. True, he was, but the wealth was mentioned in this video as a means to introduce peoples' interest in him and his land. Stating that he was the wealthiest man ever wouldn't quite contribute to the video overall.
With everyone talking about how they never heard of this, I gotta say, thank you so much Mrs. Smith for teaching AP World and letting us understand that Europe isn’t the center of everything.
Can't believe that we didn't learn any of this in history class. Africa was just completely left out (except for a little bit about colonies) and so was the arab region (I don't know how to call it). German schools should seriously revise their curriculum.
Actually, this story is not a myth, this is very true. His name was Musa Keita. 'Mansa' just means King. Mansa Musa still has descendants that are alive today. Their is a singer called Salif Keita who is a direct descendant. Oh and the gold is still there, mainly in modern day Ghana (which was also part of the Mali Empire) and the Chinese are setting up illegal mines to get it.
If only we learned this much about Africa in schools. In almost every one I went to, it was all Europe this, Europe that, and I am getting tired of Europe.
+Dylan Sepasyar I learned about more than just Europe, but it was mostly about Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, etc.. Never anything from the rest of Africa. Which is a damn shame. India was also left out. Never learned anything about India or Africa outside of Egypt when I was in school. Yet every damn year they taught us about the Inuit. I'm Canadian & for some reason that means you have to learn about the Inuit.. a lot. You'd think they'd teach us about the Inuit, then move on to Africa or India, but no. SMH.
@Yasin Abdul The majority of sub Saharan Africa was not advanced. When Europeans arrived in the 1890s African nations like Zimbabwe, Zambia, the Congo, South Africa, Ghana, Angola, Cameroon, central Africa republic, Botswana, Ivory Coast, Madagascar etc all didn't have a written script The dark ages was not so dark. Before mansa musa was born there was already universities all over Europe in England, Italy, France, Constantinople, Spain Portugal etc aswell as long lasting empires like the Byzantine empire, there was the 12th century Renaissance, etc
@Yasin Abdul Firstly the city of Cordoba never reached a population of 1 million. In 1000AD it’s population was 450,000. The population of Constantinople in 1000AD was 500,000. The Umayyad and caliphate attempted to conquer the city twice and was unsuccessful the ottomans laid siege to the city 2 times before and failed before they finally were successful it took the ottomans 200 to conquer conquer just the Balkans. But took the ottomans less than a century to conquer North Africa and the Middle Eastern Constantinople was home to the library of Constantinople and the university of Constantinople which date back to the 5th century AD preserved the works of the classics. And the Hagia Sofia has changed the history of architecture as Islamic architecture were based off Byzantine architecture. In Europe there was the Carolingian Renaissance (8th and 9th centuries), the Ottonian Renaissance (10th century) and the Renaissance of the 12th century before the Italian Renaissance. In Bulgaria There was Preslav Literary School, and the Ohrid Literary School established.
Long Life No tyrone This video isn’t about just blacks This video also includes (islam) I have the right to speak and call out the racist bigoted afrocentric like yourself if you comment under any video about my ppl religion and history
true but remember Europeans burned all of the Mayan books so there's always a way to remove a culture's history if you are devious and willing enough to pursue it
@RomeDCarlo a large amount of Mayan history is still preserved in the form of monuments. Mexico is home to countless structures such as the the Chichen itza, teotihuacan, Uxmal etc Furthermore written records exist in the form of European written records about the cities and cultures they encountered in the new world.
Agreed. European colonialism dismantled the indigenous governments, laws, banks and institutions that were put in place centuries earlier to run an orderly society. Most of the instability in today's Africa is because of the absence of these institutions.
John Taylor no it's because of the government. The only good sub Saharan African country is Botswana obviously. I mean you should visit it's way better than Haiti, South Africa, and Namibia.
***** Hi, you should check out a RU-vid channel by the name of, HomeTeam History. His entire channel is dedicated to the history of African kingdoms and countries. You can bet on my life, you will totally love him!
@@joly8997 Mansa Musa was mostly rich because he inherited a very large number of slaves. Africa hasn't even stopped slavery it still goes on there today.
@@lolcox1527 that is bulsshit. Mansa Musa was rich because Mali empire controlled important trade routes between North Africa and the West African interior. The empire also captured areas with gold mines. I agree there was a trade in slaves, but this was a smaller part of a larger trade.
@@anonymousontheinternet4486 so basically he inherited that wealth, right? right. he was insanely rich because he inherited massive amounts of slaves and natural resources. if anyone else was born in his place they also would have inherited those same things
This video has really made me want to go to Africa. I really am interested to see the remaining historical monuments and ruins and get a feel for my peoples roots.
start with south Africa , the Zimbabwe , then Nigeria , Ghana , Mali and lastly egypt , you won't be disappointed, my folks are nigerian , and trust me africa is rich I. history and culture , hope you go on your voyage , it will empower you and make you know that you're from a lineage / decedent of greats .
Real proud of you, John. I rarely see Western people reveal African history without the bias of presenting it as a primitive shithole. It's good to know my black brothers in the States realize black people had a history before been sold to slavery and still have a history.
As, a descendant of West African people apart of the "lost tribe" in the Western hemisphere...........John the end made me shed a tear. Thank you for your thoughtful research to all involved:)
Once again, another topic that my high school world history class never covered (Arkansas schools have a tendency to teach 1/2 or 2/3 of the curriculum). Islam and Africa were pretty much left out. I did my year-end project on sub-saharan Africa just because of the class's inability to mention it.
That is not just Arkansas, I grew up in Washington and World History was pretty brief unless it was western and even then it was very slanted. Heck, Rome was basically taught as Pre-America lol.
Only important empires which influenced your country the most get to be mentioned, that just makes sense. Rome, greece, france, britain contributed to the evolvement of the modern western world.
I really love this channel. I have a weird relationship with Islam and your videos help me sort it out. I come from a country that teaches it the wrong way I believe and today I have to battle to find my identtity in the traditions I was teached as a kid, all the pop culuture that came from the West and the atheism and philosophical secularism that I discovered afterwards. I think I'm extremely lucky but I still struggle to find my way. And this stuff really helps. Thanks again.
Aboubacar Amine read yourself , don't just believe what people tell you , I had it with fake scholars who tell me that everything is haram haram , they made me hate myself and this world and even drive me away from religion BUT I saw ahmed dedaat and yusuf estes videos in youtube and alhamdellah I came back to the right path , hope people choose their Islamic sources carefully not everyone who say they knowledgeable is knowledgeable most of them tend to be superficial and ignorant .
YESS!! FINALLY!!! East Africans getting the due respect and recognition we deserve from Western historians. As a Tanzanian; the country where Swahili (we call it Kiswahili) originated, city-states of Kilwa, Bagamoyo and Zanzibar are located (we could've had Mombasa too but we traded it for Mt. Kilimanjaro... Literally... in 1961... with Queen Elizabeth) this is officially my favourite video on youtube right now!
Islam is a whole package with its laws about everything. it does have its problems in this modern world but can be a basis for a "good' country. just look at the city of Dubai.
I noticed that too, I think this video is credible, rather than the ridiculous "Sub-Saharan Africa is the mother of all civilization" crap that is out there.
"Without gold we only have to face the universe's depraved indifference to us without the benefit of metallic adornment." One of the wisest phrases I've ever heard!
It's worth noting that religion being spread by conquest isn't unique to Islam. Christianity also has a long, long history of violent evangelism. Of course, it also has a long history of peaceful conversion by peoples looking to benefit from joining the Jesus club, or who found the philosophy or tenets of Christianity more appealing than their own religion. And it's like that because religions, like all institutions, are the creations of people, and are as internally varied and diverse as people are.
Ghost7856 www.understandingslavery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=378&Itemid=233 this is a good website "understanding slavery" - you can just google "lost libraries timbuktu too"
Tomas Meehan Access to those libraries wasn't easy because of the distance and the various colonial wars fought for the riches of the Malian people. Some books still survive but they're in exile in Bamako now do to the latest Islamist insurgency.
Tomas Meehan Those libraries tell a story of Mansa Munsa, a great, rich and enlightened ruler. Oral tradition tells he's a foolish king that wasted the national treasury and preferred Islam to his people's traditions. Multiple sources, right? In that regard, oral tradition is a tad bit older (hence, tradition).
Although my grade 12 Comparative Civilizations teacher was kind of a mess, I appreciate one thing she did. She started the first class by having us open the textbook and look at the index. She said "what do you notice?" and pointed out the book's focus on European civilizations and the complete lack of any African culture aside from Egypt. I'm not going to say the writers of the book had an agenda; I think they wrote what they had the most evidence of. But she wanted us to be aware that when you study ancient history, the information available to you is limited by what exactly we can scrounge up out of the ground and any biases the people finding or writing about these things have.
From the responses I see in the comments it clearly shows how people are conditioned to hate anything good coming out of Africa or from Islam and Muslims. This video have both of them .
I don't know if Crash Course still replies to videos this old, but if you are still watching these comments section; How about a video chronicling Africa's history? All the way from their rise to civilisation through to how and why it is what it is today. I think that would be very educational and interesting.
Saving Your time Actaully the Sultanate of Adal as well as Ajuran were very successful empires that even engaged in conflict with Europeans such as the Portuguese and the sultanate of Adal actually conquered Abyssinia with ottoman and Arab aid
So it might be a sticking point that John Green is one of the whitest and Americanest guys out there, but whoever did it, I would *SO* watch a whole series of catchy, well-paced videos about African history.
“We were the most humiliated people on earth and God gave us honour through Islam. If we ever seek honour through anything else, God will humiliate us again.” ― *Umar ibn Al-Khattab*
Nah. Fails to adjust wording and vocab to be relevant to topics. Not exactly a shining example of credibility. One sided approach to history, actually.
A) Consistent style not = Adjusting wording and vocab to be more relevant to topic. Very Westernized view. B) Supported as fact. This was not questioned. I should, however, have been more specific in what I was assaulting, which in this case was the amount of information presented, and approach to presenting said information. C) Jokes in his videos appear regularly around potentially controversial and political topics. This should never be done in an educational setting. Ever. Doing such implies being partial to one specific end of system, and as an educator/speaker for an educational group, you wield considerable influence over viewers or spectators. It doesn't matter if it occurs evenly throughout topics, or even fairly, but it should simply never be done.
As an African from Africa who still lives in Africa (to be even more clear i'm black) its nice to see that Videos like this are destroying the negative and incorrect perceptions of Africa
I really wish they would teach about africa in schools more, like I graduate next year and the only thing I learned in school about africa was that Egypt is there and that was back in 6th grade and we barely even talked about that :(
P luck'd You must be thinking of Europe. Medicinemen discovered and treated diseases with great accuracy. Read up on the yellow fever in 1910 in Uganda and who the colonial officials have to rely on to treat it. Superstition? Are you sure you're talking about the higher ups, or the country folks? Wars hardly affected those living there. Learn to read up on history.
P luck'd I'm guessing you're a Eurocentrist, because you just to conclusions about positive facts about Africa. The pre-colonial times are celebrated for good reason that scholars and early explorers came to Africa and discovered lower crime rates, more security, disease eradication and vaccination that is still revered today by doctors, iron-smelting/production at a "semi-industrial level" to quote one European explore.
I can see why the traditionalists hate you Euro-centrics and refuse to join your mainstream society. Have you ever opened a book or watched a documentary on African history that contains peer-reviewed information? That is why traditionalists don't trust western medicine because their medicine has always been more effective. There are numerous articles written by modern scientists stating so. The Op is justified in what he/she said, only if you knew any thing about history would you understand. At least people in the 1800s didn't have to contend with corrupt leaders, apathetic security, loss of culture, lack of housing availability, lack of clean water, lack of wealth opportunities, lack of education to obtain these opportunities, dirty/disorganized cities, and western plunderers. Please do your research, even jungle tribes live better than the average African today.
I don't think that's a fair assessment. I think he knows they were convinced believers, but he highlights the geographic and historical benefits this afforded them because his teaching a history class and not one on religion. He also does this with other religions and other topics; he looks at them primarily thorough a historical lense or point of view
He's looking at it from a macro level. Of course there are individuals who converted because of belief but from a large scale historical perspective, mass conversion usually have motivations that are generally unrelated to true belief.
Mansa Musa is the richest man of all time and he was a black man. No place on this earth has the type of natural resources and raw materials that Africa ha which is why Europe colonized it and stripped africans of everything they had
Iliyas Mobley Nope, based off the amount of gold was worth in Mali, he wasn't that rich. Also, there is no historical record of exactly how much gold he had. If I have a lot of plutonium, it becomes less valuable to me, same idea. We have records of exactly how much money Rockefeller made and how much it is worth today. We can do that because he lived in a money economy not a barter economy like Mansa Musa. In truth, gold wasn't all to valuable to Mansa Musa, making him less rich than you think.
It's refreshing to come across people who are informed in the right way about African History. Especially outside of the traditional American lense. Great video!
***** Listen Dutchie, you don't know who you're dealing with here. Are you triggered by samoosas or food in general? You are a jerk if you're belligerent for no reason, especially on a non-harmful silly comment that was made in good fun. Either way I should probably ban you, I don't have any obligation taking abuse from a mentally unstable Dutch person.
I wish they would have talked about the legend of Malian kings and their journey to explore the ocean and find new land. Seems like im the only guy making vids on African History with pictures lol
I really have feeling down that a lot of knowledge on African history is based around stereotypes and bias. IT makes a lot of young children feel like they come from nothing But people like you guys show ALL history of every civilization for for the good and the bad. Thank you so much for the spread of truth and knowledge.
+abdul raheem actually Ethiopia was the first nation to accept christianity alongside Armenia in 1st century AD. The majority of people in Ethiopia since then are Christian (around 60%), but what you probably meant is that the christian ruler of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) allowed muslim refugees to settle in this region making it the first country outside arabia to have muslims in them. But it's far off to say that Ethiopia is muslim.
+Yertz Neemie no ethiopia is not much of a muslim country but a christian i know because they are my neighbors and yes christianity was acepted first but when muhammad(pbuh) came and his followers ehiopians were the first non-arab muslims out there
Omari Clarke That is, if you believe that there's some racial essence to all blacks. Of course, black people (in the US for example) have long been treated with that believe in mind by whites, but there is almost no biological difference between black and white and every other color. Race is not even a correct term, since humans are one race. What I'm trying to say is that people shouldn't define themselves or see themselves as inherently limited by their skin color, because it would be buying into the same racism that could keep them poor for so long. Sadly, statistics prove that black people in the US are still not treated equally. But if you start talking about some kind of universal potential unified by a color it seems to proliferate the idea that there is some unified global black culture and history, based on skin color.
Jip W I understand your view point but in school they always talk about how great white ppl where and how black ppl where just slaves not acknowledging that we were kings and rulers too. It makes us feel like we are not as good. And their is a difference we have melanin that has many uses it is also found in the sun. We are closer to god.
Omari Clarke I thought God was everywhere? I don't believe in him though, and if he was real I wouldn't want to get close to the guy. If God is the sun though, which it has been in many cultures, I agree that black people in Africa are closer to the sun and therefore have more melanin. White people have melanin too, just less of it. I agree though that history is often about white people, not acknowledging the level of civilization in Africa. But you have to take the bad too then, and acknowledge that black people enslaved black people and white people as well in Africa. ''Race'' is just one excuse for imagining other people as subhuman, but those in power find other excuses as well (tribal, national, etc.)
To understand that you have to look at the history of American Colonization and of course the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade which depended on Africans to work in the Americas and parts of Europe as architects, servants, manual laborers, and farmers. But the slave trade was inhumane so Europeans had to cover this up with lies about the Africans being inferior and primitive, these lies passed through generations causing racism and even promoted racially motivated pseudoscience that fueled even more negative views towards Africans and the rest is history.
I agree with what you said except for one thing; by definition and by law the United States cannot establish any colonies. You can think of them as colonies but historians will never call them that they will use the word "territory" but a lot of western nations did play a huge part in the exploitation of africans and when ever any country wishes to invade another they begin a propaganda campaign against the people to justify their motives (we see this happening today actually). It is absurd and completely delusional for one person to say that slavery has absolutely no effect on our "political" society today because it happened centuries ago. That is the most cracked out statement I hear from some people. Africa is a beautiful continent with a rich full history to bad peoples choice to remain ignorant due to their racism and religions remains well embed in the human species.
I think it would be very difficult to talk about the entirety of Sub Saharan Africa in a single video. Compared to John referring to Europe in almost all of them having multiple European vids. Just my opinion tho...
+kwadwo baidoo The problem is that African History is mostly oral or written by Arabs or Europeans. Further complicating things are the effects of colonialism where whole histories would have been erased (see also Mayan writing)
biffyqueen i know but he could have gone into detail about Mali, Songhai or islamic influence in Ghana. He didnt mention, maybe he mentioned Askia the Great i dont remember but he didnt mention the 'Lion King' at all.
biffyqueen yeah i just hope he does individual african kingdoms across Africa. He hasn't touched Carthage yet or the Moors or Nubians (Only Egypt) and this is just northern Africa. What about western, southern, central and eastern Africa? He should talk about Ethiopian kingdoms like Aksum (the first christian african nation-christian before any of Europe was). He could go in-depth on the Swahili, the city of Great Zimbabwe and the various coastal kingdoms of West Africa like the Asante, Yoruba, Benin and Senegal as well as the kingdoms of the Sahel and the kingdom of Kongo. there are sooooo many african kingdoms he could discuss...
you Canadians have it good with your stereotypes... every time John mentions the states I have to eat a cheeseburger and fire my automatic weapons into the air!
Paschtunist well, Ethiopia is one of the most ancient countries in the world and the only African country that actually stayed independent from Europe.
Paschtunist yes, but in XIX century, when all Africa was divided by European empires, only Ethiopia defended their independence. Italy occupied them much later, only when Mussolini came to power.
What up Africa! Seriously though I luv learning about African history. Egypt is probably my favorite empire to learn about, and its still the longest lasting empire ever. Not to mention the wealth of Timbuktu and west central Africa. The way I see it let Europeans (even though they dont do it as much as before) try to downplay Africa. What they cant do is take away Africa's sheer dominance in Ancient Times which I say again has lasted much longer than any other empire. Africa has had their run at historic greatness.
why cant i find my stupid homework questions im crying. Like i am, balling my eyes out because my essay is due in 30 minutes and here i am. Writing a youtube comment.
Wow! What a relief! I may have known what was said in this video already but I still learned a lot. I learned that it's possible for even some of the most popular channels to not be Eurocentrically biased towards African history and actually teach people what happened. I've never seen this before. I grew up loving Crash Course vids, but now I have so much more respect for you guys. Time to subscribe lol. Excellent work.
Thank you so much for this video, while my World History course was years and years ago, I still remember basically skipping Africa, Native Americans, and South American cultures (except when referencing colonialism which is really the only time they got spoken of). I always have a respect for all humans, but this helps me connect the pieces that were seen as insignificant and it's so wonderful to finally learn about them.
Did anybody else notice at 4:52 that the empire of Ghana does not even touch the current borders of the country of Ghana? Such is a great example of how language and politics can distort our perception of actual history.
our history has been swooped under the rag by the foreign settlers I.e British * Alhamdullilah for Islam and the faithful in humanity who preserved knowledge and are not of the ignorant. #PleaseDoAHistoryOnTembakto
Thoroughly enjoyed it except when green mentioned that there was no written literature. There were several African libraries which were burnt down by European colonialists in order to hide the truth of Africa's greatness
You it is common practice for a defeating army to destroy history and culture from a defeated peoples' perspective. That's why many African cities where obliterated after defeat, their people's subjugated and/or sold into slavery. This is usually done to eliminate them as a threat to dominance in that region forever. Case in point: the utter destruction of Carthage by Rome after the third Punic war.
Mansa Musa was once the richest and the most generous man in the world. Islam emphasizes charity and to give alms to the poor. Islamic history is an integral part of West and East African civilization so as many other parts of the world. During the reign of the Abbasid Caliphate in Iraq and Cordoba (Spain), ancient Greek philosophy, Chinese and Indian literature were all preserved and translated into Arabic before they were expanded and transmitted into Europe by Islamic scholars. Last night I was watching a documentary, the Roman Conquest of Britain, and how this 400 years of conquest and humiliation helped trigger national consciousness amongst the tribes such as Silvres and Dobunni of Britain.
I really love this channel and how objective it is, however, everytime you talk about why people converted to islam you either say for politacl or economic gains which is not necessarily true. Islam when it was first intrudoced to people it tought them too many new things that people didn't care or know much about back then. Thus, it was really powerful in convencing people to convert.
Abu Bakr II, who preceded him, is the one who set sail for The Americas...The Spanish around the Isthmus of Darien, in South America, described seeing (and depicted) Africans there.
My long term sub in the 10th grade gave me helpful way to remember who Mansa Musa is: Mansa Musa the Muslim from Mali. It helped a lot. I just needed to give him the shout out! Dan Buzzard if you every see this, we miss you!
