The Gifts of Africa: How a Continent and Its People Changed by Jeff Pearce is a book I wanted to love.
I love this book's goal.
The point is to highlight what Africa has done for the world.
Many believe Africa hasn't produced anything useful or innovative since the pyramids.
Although it has been the least innovative continent in the last two thousand years, that doesn't mean it hasn't contributed anything toward humanity's progress.
This book points out overlooked African gems.
Fortunately, Jeff Pearce isn't an insufferable, politically correct man who tries to blame everything under the sun on the white man and portray Africans purely as victims.
Still, at times, he lapses into such a tired narrative.
I also like that he's not prone to senseless cheerleading. He talks about:
"a highly impressionable writer rattles off how the Dogon people of Mali knew about Jupiter's moons and Saturn's ring and more. Impressive--except it's ridiculous. Simple common sense reminds us that none of these astronomical phenomena can be seen anywhere on Earth with the naked eye."
He's willing to admit Africa's limitations:
"The Aksumites were the only Africans aside from those in client states for Rome to issue their own national coinage, which they used from about the late third to the seventh century."
As Chinua Achebe said:
"I do not see that it is necessary for any people to prove to another that they build cathedrals or pyramids before they can be entitled to peace and safety. Flowing from that, I do not believe that black people should invent a great fictitious past in order to justify their human existence and dignity today."
Amen.
Since I am writing a book about traveling 8 years to all 54 African countries, I appreciated his insight.
Why did I dislike it?
- He is too verbose! He often goes into painful detail. TMI.
- The book goes off on tangents too often. For example, he talks extensively about Steven Biko. It's off-topic.
- He faults Europeans for making crude African maps but doesn't say that Africans made no (long-lasting) maps.
CONCLUSION: I love his conclusion. He concludes that Africans contributed to humanity. Their contributions were less than those of Eurasians, but they moved the needle. It's a vital point. I just wish he had made it more succinctly. I hope someone writes a book half the length of this one and focuses on the key points like a laser.
VERDICT: 3 out of 10 stars.
