10 things Africa has given the world By Eliza Anyangwe
There’s more to Africa than the usual cliches of ‘sunsets, wildlife, safari boots and definitely no natives’.
Photograph: EPA
Twitter nearly gave itself an aneurysm over Taylor Swift’s latest music video Wildest Dreams,
which had all the usual cliches that make its location immediately
identifiable as idyllic, romanticised “Africa”: sunsets, wildlife,
safari boots and definitely no natives. You start to wonder, is that all
there is to this vast continent? Are Africans good for nothing else?
So I’ve ventured into the dark recesses of the web to discover how Africa shaped our world and gave us some of our favourite things. Hold on to your pith helmets.
Coffee
Italians gave it to us short and strong, Americans served it filtered
then ratcheted up the calories by adding syrups, whipped cream and even
pumpkin. But everyone’s favourite stimulant originates from Ethiopia, where it grows wild. It possibly dates back to the 10th century, when nomadic people would have eaten the red cherries rather than making a beverage with them.
A coffee house in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photograph: Karel Prinsloo/AP
Modern art
Africa’s contemporary artists are having a bit of moment,
but the world still largely ignores the continent’s role in inspiring
celebrated artists such as Picasso, Matisse or Kirchner. In the early
1900s the aesthetics of traditional African sculpture became what the Met Museum in New York describes as “a powerful influence among European artists who formed an avant-garde in the development of modern art”.
Mathematics
The history of mathematics is so Eurocentric that most accounts of
ancient mathematical systems seem to begin and end in Egypt. But the Lebombo bone found in Swaziland and the Ishango bone, discovered on the border between Uganda and Zaire, both baboon fibulas, are the world’s two oldest mathematical objects – the former at least 35,000 years old. The Ishango bone may be the oldest table of prime numbers.
Mobile phones
The Democratic Republic of Congo holds half of the world’s reserves of
cobalt, used to make rechargeable batteries such as those used in mobile
phones. Photograph: Herbert P Oczeret/EPA
Not all of it, obvs, but in the inner workings of your most precious
possession lie bits of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the form of
the mineral cobalt, which is used to make rechargeable batteries.
According to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative,
the DRC “holds almost half of the world’s cobalt reserves”. And that’s
not all: the DRC is among the world’s largest producers of cobalt,
copper, diamonds, tantalum and tin.
Nando’s
Yes, Nando’s, “the home of the legendary Portuguese flame-grilled peri-peri chicken” and the coveted black card.
Since its humble beginnings in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1987,
Nando’s blend of chicken, hot sauce and African music has spread across
the globe. At last count there was a Nando’s on every continent except
Latin America, some 1,000 restaurants in 30 countries. No chicken-loving nation is safe.
Ubuntu
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the face of refugee crisis, the word “ubuntu” has never been more
important. Popularised by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela as a
way to heal post-apartheid South Africa, the ancient Bantu word encapsulates the idea of shared humanity: “I am, because we all are.” Here’s how the New World Encyclopedia
defines the word that is also used in Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and
Zimbabwe: “It implies an appreciation of traditional beliefs, and a
constant awareness that an individual’s actions today are a reflection
on the past, and will have far-reaching consequences for the future. A
person with ubuntu knows his or her place in the universe and is
consequently able to interact gracefully with other individuals.”
Jazz
It’s all about the polyrhythms – two or more different rhythms
happening at the same time – which European folk music also has but
African music spread. The Pulitizer prize-winning composer and author Gunther Schuller wrote that “every
musical element – rhythm, harmony, melody, timbre, and the basic forms
of jazz – is essentially African in background and derivation”.
But Africa didn’t only give us blue notes, it may also have given us Beethoven. This year, a group of musicians revived the question about Beethoven’s ethnicity, arguing that his piano music should be played polyrhythmically and that, as played by most classical pianists, the left hand appears to have almost no rhythm, no soul. Ouch.
Shea butter
A woman sells shea butter at a market in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Photograph: Reuters
Chances are you’ve bought soap, lip balm, skin lotion or even shaving
cream that contains shea butter, which grows in 19 countries across the
continent from Senegal in the west to Sudan in the east. Skincare brand
L’Occitane calls it
“nature’s miracle beauty balm; the perfect quick fix for almost
anything”. Cleopatra, who knew a good thing when she saw it (hello, Marc
Antony!) is said to have used the butter, making it a very valuable commodity during her reign.
Now that Jamie Oliver has written a recipe for Jollof,
the rice dish may soon reach such dizzying heights of popularity that
its west African origins will be forgotten. Just don’t ask which particular country introduced it to the world. Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal – its origins continue to be hotly contested.
Jollof rice, fried plantain and chicken Photograph: Alamy
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