Book History vs Internet Version
Is the internet bad news for history? Yes and no. Yes because former history ‘items,’ billions of people who could not read and write, are telling their side of the story online. They are saying this is who we are, this is how it happened.
I am an item of history, so I know. I have an English name because my ancestors could not read nor write, so British historians told my story over tea and printed books and not around a fire like my ancestors. So, are you of the opinion the internet version is more accurate than book history? No. Not necessarily. Some internet history is more frightening than book history.
Example. There are black people online who believe they were in America, long before slavery. They base it on accounts of European invaders who wrote ‘black people’ in their diaries. What else could they write? It was the first time they saw humans not white like them.
The scary part of this internet version is the suggestion that blacks predate indigenous people like the Cree, Ojibwe, Dene, Lakota etc. They have their reasons, and I hope it’s not because they hate their beautiful skin and hair. Some actresses have claimed to have ‘Indian’ blood because of hair they straighten chemically.
It is a history I reject. Slavery is a painful history. African chiefs greedy for shiny coins in slave traders’ pockets invaded nearby villages for slaves. Equally, slave traders also stole men and women, bound them in chains and shipped 'the cargo' to the New World. There’s guilt on both sides, but what I know is that Africa miraculously survived and I can see the same beautiful black eyes, same teeth, same science and technology, posture and the way they speak. Self hate is no reason to conjure up non-existent history.
Ireland. The Irish also have a painful history. They went to America because the land had failed them. It could not produce potatoes, which was the bare minimum food. They were despised in America and transferred some of that anger on slaves in the South and city police departments. They never forgot they were Irish.
Both book history and the internet version have major flaws, but the land where it happened is still there and languages and proverbs have the answers.
Nonqaba waka Msimang
Executive Blogger
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