Last week I flipped the world on its axis, giving what I hope was a glimpse of a world where men could menstruate. Today I want to fashion a world where Africa wasn’t colonised but was instead a coloniser. What would happen if African perspectives and culture had run rampant in the world as opposed to the Western ideals that have cemented themselves in the Global South?
Picture Paris crowned with pyramids. The Eiffel Tower would probably pale in comparison to the great obelisks of Axum. French children would grow up reciting proverbs from the Songhai tribe and feasting on couscous.
Maybe the infamous Da Vinci would paint queens with afros and anklets, paying special attention to the symmetry of cornrows instead of the Mona Lisa’s coy smile. Shakespeare might have written his tragedies in Zulu or Swahili. “Othello” wouldn’t be the anomaly; he’d be the norm. He wouldn’t be an unusual protagonist; he would be norm. Oxford University, the world renowned ancient stronghold of Western knowledge, would begin its syllabus with Ancient Kemet and end it with the economic policies of Mansa Musa.
If Africa had colonised Europe, what would be regarded as “primitive”? Would forks be viewed as savage when Africans ate with their hands, connecting to their food with ancestral grace? Do you suppose French, Russian, German and Polish accents would be horribly mocked in African classrooms for being “difficult to understand”? Perhaps white skin would be a marker of poverty, of exposure, of labouring too long in the cold sun? White skin would likely be a symbol of a lower status or lowly class.
We’d reside in a world where Europe was the “developing continent” and support concerts hosted in Lagos to “Save the Scots.” We’d reside in a world where Voltaire is an obscure footnote in history, and Chinua Achebe is mandatory reading in Swedish high schools and tertiary institutions.
“There would be no reason to decolonise your mind because it would never have been colonised in the first place.”
Do you suppose White girls might press their hair into kinks and coils, buy darkening creams to make themselves “darker,” and write essays about “finding their roots” in the sands of the Sahara? Perhaps little African boys would not have to prove their humanity to the world, they would simply exist in it.
Maybe the Global West would be the face of poverty? Would African missionaries fly to European nations and shove their cameras in front of starving European children without their parents’ consent? Would they touch European villagers and subject them to the violence of flashing cameras? Would they ogle the children like they are animals in a zoo?
But that’s not history. Instead, Africa was abused, maimed, damaged, carved, sold, demonised, then told to catch up. We were made to believe civilisation came with ships and chains. That English was superior. That Christianity and Islam was enlightenment. That to be developed meant to be Western.
And yet—Africa endures. Still we dance. Still we build. Still we teach. Still we rise. What we know to be true is that Africa didn’t colonise Europe (duh). But what Africa gave the world is priceless. From Africa’s bruised and battered loins, the world gained resilience, rhythm and riches.
- The “Weird” Brown Girl.
Another truly thought provoking read!!
How cruel is it that in the big 2025, we are still dealing with the effects of colonisation. I remember reading Malorie Blackman’s “Noughts and Crosses” which is set in a world where dark skin was a sign of wealth – and as much as it was entertaining, i feel the only reason that such a world was digestible to me was because i was in support of the oppressors because in that world, I would not be the butt of racially motivated attacks.
But just imagine living in a world where the history of African people wasn’t diluted or watered down to make it more digestible or to protect the feelings of the oppressors because “they’ve changed”