La rosée ne vous mouille pas si vous marchez derrière un élèphant (Proverbe Ga – Ghana, Togo, Benin; Proverbe Bantandu – République Démocratique du Congo (DRC); Proverbe Mandingue – Mali, Guinée, Gambie, Sénégal). – La route tracée par les parents est facile.
Dew does not get you wet if you walk behind an elephant (Ga proverb – Ghana, Togo, Benin; Bantandu proverb – Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); Mandinka proverb – Mali, Guinea, The Gambia, Senegal). – The road traced by parents is easy.
Over the weekend, ECOWAS (CEDEAO), the regional West-African agency and France’s puppet organization in the region, lifted its 6-months embargo against Mali. Back in January, with tensions escalating between France and Mali, the ECOWAS placed unbelievable sanctions on Mali, closing borders, banking, and more. For the history, Mali has been in disarray since the fall of Libya in 2011 losing up to 80% of its territory to jihadists armed by foreign forces. Faced with 80% of its territory occupied by foreign forces and terrorists, and in order to regain sovereignty over its lands, Mali sought the partnership of Russia, which France screamed against based on The 11 Components of the French Colonial Tax in Africa which denies Africans the right to other military or economic partners without France’s approval [The French Colonial Tax at the Heart of Mali-France Tensions, France confirms it will withdraw from Mali … moving to neighboring countries and beyond, Mali Rescinds France Defense Agreements].
Yesterday, the West African bloc ECOWAS has lifted the economic and financial sanctions against Mali’s military government after the promise that Mali will hold elections in February 2024. The move has been celebrated by many Malians who have been struggling under the restrictions and the global rise in fuel and food costs. As many applaud the lifting of sanctions, it is important to analyze why ECOWAS might have changed its mind: a) the countries in the West African block were not aware of how much weight Mali had in the region and the impact to their economies, and were all suffering from the Mali embargo, and thus are scramming to have Mali rejoin its ranks; b) With sanctions lifted, it will be easier for terrorists groups (armed by foreign forces) to travel back into the country easily, as there will be less control; c) a few days ago, the Spanish minister threatened Mali with a NATO intervention to protect European interests in Mali, which he later denied; d) France just moved its troops to neighboring Niger (another puppet). How convenient that the sanctions are lifted a few days after this minister’s outburst, and right before France’s troops move to Niger. Thus, knowing that ECOWAS is France’s puppet in the region, the lifting of sanctions is rather something to be skeptical of, and distrust entirely. No one should fall for this ECOWAS turncoat tactic… Mali should keep its guard high, and we should all pray and fight for the freedom of Mali and Africa as a whole!
As the economy everywhere appears to be in free-fall, with high inflation all over the world, many African countries are taking measures that will help their citizens deal with and hopefully solve some of their internal issues.
One such example is that of the Central African Republic (CAR) which adopted Bitcoin as a National Currency last April. This past Sunday, CAR President, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, announced in an online event the creation of the Sango Coin and a zero-taxation “crypto-hub“, the first in Africa. The currency is named Sango after the main African language spoken in the country. This currency will, via the a platform called Crypto Island, allow the country to trade in its vast natural resources (diamonds, uranium, gold, and other minerals). Until now, CAR has been, like 14 other African countries, enslaved by the French colonial tax that is the FCFA which served at one point to ‘siphon’ up to 75% of the countries’ resources directly back to France [Africa is funding Europe!]. It is clear that those African nations need new currencies, and we salute CAR for having the courage to start, even though crypto seems to be unsteady at the moment (like everything else at the moment); it is always scary to be a pioneer, but it is rewarding as well! As a side note, the west tends to overlook, or vilify some of our leaders who try to stand up or do things right for their people. President Touadéra is one of those African leaders who has been demonized for his want to free his country from the French chains, turning to Russia for help in stopping a war in his country which benefited France and its croonies. Rarely do the Western media highlight the fact that President Touadera is also a trained mathematician, and in his free time still teaches students at the University of Bangui in his country.
Excerpts below are from Barron’s. For more, check out articles on Bloomberg, and AfricaNews.
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Undeterred by the turmoil hitting crypto, the Central African Republic (CAR) — one of the poorest and most troubled countries in the world — has unveiled plans to launch its own digital currency.
President Faustin Archange Touadera, in an “online event” on Sunday, announced CAR would create the Sango Coin and a zero-taxation “crypto-hub“, the first in Africa.
The currency is named after Sango, which with French is one of the two official languages in the landlocked country, rated the world’s second poorest nation under the UN’s Human Development Index.
Through a platform called Crypto Island, the Sango will become “the catalyst for tokenising (CAR’s) vast natural resources,” Touadera declared, providing no timeline or other details.
He hailed Sango and Crypto Island as “a new digital system fed by blockchain,” the internet-based ledger that underpins crypto currencies.
“Sango Coin will give the whole world direct access to our resources,” attracting investors and “getting the engines of the economy going,” he enthused.
On April 27, Touadera’s office abruptly announced that the CAR had adopted Bitcoin as legal tender alongside the CFA franc, a currency the country shares with five other central African economies.
It became the first country in Africa to embrace Bitcoin as a national currency, and the second in the world after El Salvador last September.
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Touadera on Sunday said 57 percent of Africa’s population does not have access to a bank.
“The solution,” he said, was “the smartphone, the alternative to the traditional bank, cash and financial red tape“.
On Twitter, he said, “gold served as the engine of our civilisation for ages! In this new age, digital gold will serve the same for the future.”
Germany has agreed to return a sacred statue stolen in Cameroon in 1902 by a German soldier in the Nso kingdom in the Northwest region of Cameroon. The statue is the only depiction of the queen mother of the Nso people. For the story, Ngonnso founded Banso which marks the beginning of the Nso kingdom in the 14th century when she separated from her two brothers Nchare Yen, the founder of Foumban the capital and the Bamun Kingdom, and Mbe who founded Bankim. From Nso oral history, it is said that Ngonnso was able to conquer, defeat, and ensure that all Nso people stay together. She was a strong woman, who embodied the history and identity of the Nso people. When the German colonial commander in visit in Banso “took” the statue via unknown means in 1902, 120 years ago, it is as if the soul of the Nso people was gone. Special note of gratitude to all activists who demanded the return of Ngonnso for years, and to Sylvie Njobati who launched the @BringBackNgonnso Twitter account in March 2020, tweeting demands for Ngonnso’s restitution and tagging the German museum and its leaders. As always, unity is strength!
To learn more about the return of Ngonnso, check out the article on CNN, and NewsCentralAfrica. The excerpt below is from the BBC.
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Germany has agreed to return a sacred statue stolen from Cameroon at the beginning of the last century.
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which manages the museums in the capital, Berlin, said it would return the female figure, known as Ngonnso, to the Nso community in north-west Cameroon.
The statue was taken by a colonial officer and donated to Berlin’s Ethnological Museum in 1903.
A prince from the Nso kingdom told the Reuters news agency that the announcement was warmly received in Cameroon.
“After more than 120 years, we can only remain happy for it is a moment to commemorate and come closer to our ancestral links with love and togetherness,” Mbinglo Gilles Yumo Nyuydzewira is quoted as saying.
The foundation also said that it will return 23 pieces to Namibia and is planning an agreement to repatriate objects to Tanzania.
As the remains, the golden tooth, of Patrice Lumumba is finally getting returned to his family and his nation after over 60 years, I felt it was necessary to share here Patrice Lumumba’s beautiful letter to his wife which happens to be his last letter. Although it is a sad letter, it is full of hope at the thought that one day Congo will be free. Roland Lumumba, his son, said in his interview to France24, “Only the dead can forgive, the living do not have the right to forget.” Entirely true… Lumumba would not allow us to forget his fight for the Congolese freedom, just as he would not want us to forget those who died at the hands of King Leopold II in the rubber plantations of Congo (King Leopold II and the Congolese genocide)… it is part of our history. As we fight for our freedom, we need to remember, and get inspired from the fight of those who came before us.
Almost a decade ago, I published the letter here on Afrolegends.com, and it has gained in significant popularity since then. La Dernière Lettre de Patrice Lumumba / Patrice Lumumba’s Last Letter. Enjoy!
| Ma compagne chérie, Je t’écris ces mots sans savoir s’ils te parviendront, quand ils te parviendront et si je serai en vie lorsque tu les liras. Tout au long de ma lutte pour l’indépendance de mon pays, je n’ai jamais douté un seul instant du triomphe final de la cause sacrée à laquelle mes compagnons et moi avons consacré toute notre vie. Mais ce que nous voulions pour notre pays, son droit à une vie honorable, à une dignité sans tache, à une indépendance sans restrictions, le colonialisme et ses alliés occidentaux—qui ont trouvé des soutiens directs et indirects, délibérés et non délibérés, parmi certains hauts fonctionnaires des Nations, cet organisme en qui nous avons placé toute notre confiance lorsque nous avons fait appel à son assistance—ne l’ont jamais voulu.
Ils ont corrompu certains de nos compatriotes. Ils ont contribué à déformer la vérité et à souiller notre indépendance. Que pourrai je dire d’autre ? Que mort, vivant, libre ou en prison sur ordre des colonialistes, ce n’est pas ma personne qui compte. C’est le Congo, c’est notre pauvre peuple dont on a transformé l’indépendance en une cage d’où l’on nous regarde du dehors, tantôt avec cette compassion bénévole, tantôt avec joie et plaisir. Mais ma foi restera inébranlable. Je sais et je sens au fond de moi même que tôt ou tard mon peuple se débarrassera de tous ses ennemis intérieurs et extérieurs, qu’il se lèvera comme un seul homme pour dire non au capitalisme dégradant et honteux, et pour reprendre sa dignité sous un soleil pur. Nous ne sommes pas seuls. L’Afrique, l’Asie et les peuples libres et libérés de tous les coins du monde se trouveront toujours aux côtés de millions de congolais qui n’abandonneront la lutte que le jour où il n’y aura plus de colonisateurs et leurs mercenaires dans notre pays. A mes enfants que je laisse, et que peut-être je ne reverrai plus, je veux qu’on dise que l’avenir du Congo est beau et qu’il attend d’eux, comme il attend de chaque Congolais, d’accomplir la tâche sacrée de la reconstruction de notre indépendance et de notre souveraineté, car sans dignité il n’y a pas de liberté, sans justice il n’y a pas de dignité, et sans indépendance il n’y a pas d’hommes libres. Ni brutalités, ni sévices, ni tortures ne m’ont jamais amené à demander la grâce, car je préfère mourir la tête haute, la foi inébranlable et la confiance profonde dans la destinée de mon pays, plutôt que vivre dans la soumission et le mépris des principes sacrés. L’histoire dira un jour son mot, mais ce ne sera pas l’histoire qu’on enseignera à Bruxelles, Washington, Paris ou aux Nations Unies, mais celle qu’on enseignera dans les pays affranchis du colonialisme et de ses fantoches. L’Afrique écrira sa propre histoire et elle sera au nord et au sud du Sahara une histoire de gloire et de dignité. Ne me pleure pas, ma compagne. Moi je sais que mon pays, qui souffre tant, saura défendre son indépendance et sa liberté. Vive le Congo ! Vive l’Afrique ! Patrice Lumumba |
My beloved companion, I am writing these words not knowing whether they will reach you, when they will reach you, and whether I shall still be alive when you read them. All through my struggle for the independence of my country, I have never doubted for a single instant the final triumph of the sacred cause to which my companions and I have devoted all our lives. But what we wished for our country, its right to an honourable life, to unstained dignity, to independence without restrictions, was never desired by the Belgian imperialists and their Western allies, who found direct and indirect support, both deliberate and unintentional, amongst certain high officials of the United Nations, that organization in which we placed all our trust when we called on its assistance.
They have corrupted some of our compatriots and bribed others. They have helped to distort the truth and bring our independence into dishonour. How could I speak otherwise? Dead or alive, free or in prison by order of the imperialists, it is not myself who counts. It is the Congo, it is our poor people for whom independence has been transformed into a cage from whose confines the outside world looks on us, sometimes with kindly sympathy, but at other times with joy and pleasure. But my faith will remain unshakeable. I know and I feel in my heart that sooner or later my people will rid themselves of all their enemies, both internal and external, and that they will rise as one man to say No to the degradation and shame of colonialism, and regain their dignity in the clear light of the sun. We are not alone. Africa, Asia and the free liberated people from all corners of the world will always be found at the side of the millions of Congolese who will not abandon the struggle until the day when there are no longer any colonialists and their mercenaries in our country. As to my children whom I leave and whom I may never see again, to be told that the future of the Congo is beautiful and that their country expects them, as it expects every Congolese, to fulfill the sacred task of rebuilding our independence, our sovereignty; for without justice there is no dignity and without independence there are no free men. Neither brutality, nor cruelty nor torture will ever bring me to ask for mercy, for I prefer to die with my head unbowed, my faith unshakable and with profound trust in the destiny of my country, rather than live under subjection and disregarding sacred principles. History will one day have its say, but it will not be the history that is taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington or in the United Nations, but the history which will be taught in the countries freed from imperialism and its puppets. Africa will write its own history, and to the north and south of the Sahara, it will be a glorious and dignified history. Do not weep for me, my dear wife. I know that my country, which is suffering so much, will know how to defend its independence and its liberty. Long live the Congo! Long live Africa! Patrice Lumumba |
Le poids de la grossesse, l’interessée le porte seule (proverbe Ekonda – République Démocratique du Congo (RDC)). – Pour beaucoup de choses on est seul à porter les difficultés. Chacun doit porter sa croix.
The weight of pregnancy, the concerned party bears it alone (Ekonda proverb – Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)). – For many things we are alone to bear the difficulties. Everybody must carry their cross.
In 2020, Patrice Lumumba’s Children asked the Belgian King Philip for their Father’s Remains in an open letter. Today, Lumumba‘s golden tooth has been returned to his family and country 61 years after his assassination. For the history, Patrice Lumumba was the prime minister of Congo in 1960, and was assassinated by a coalition led by Belgium, and the US in 1961. At the time of his assassination, it was decided that no trace would be left of his body; thus Belgian officer Gerard Soete and his team dug up and, with a saw dismembered the corpse of Lumumba and his comrades Joseph Okito and Maurice Mpolo, and dissolved them in sulfuric acid while the bones were ground and scattered. We know this from a documentary which aired in 2000 where Soete showed two teeth which he said had belonged to Lumumba. He had taken Lumumba’s teeth as souvenir. In 2016, Ludo De Witte, author of the book “The assassination of Lumumba,” lodged a legal complaint against Soete’s daughter after she showed a gold tooth, which she said had belonged to Lumumba, during an interview with a newspaper. De Witte’s work has been essential in shattering the official Belgian government silence regarding the assassination of Lumumba.
I cannot imagine what Lumumba’s children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren and all children of mother Congo must feel… it is so painful! It is like the beginning of some closure for the family. Is what was done to Lumumba not considered a crime against humanity? Is returning Lumumba’s tooth supposed to be enough?
Below are some excerpts from the BBC article, “Patrice Lumumba: Why Belgium is returning a Congolese hero’s golden tooth.”
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A gold-crowned tooth is all that remains of assassinated Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba.
Shot dead by a firing squad in 1961 with the tacit backing of former colonial power Belgium, his body was then buried in a shallow grave, dug up, transported 200 km (125 miles), interred again, exhumed and then hacked to pieces and finally dissolved in acid.
The Belgian police commissioner, Gerard Soete, who oversaw and participated in the destruction of the remains took the tooth, he later admitted.
He also talked about a second tooth and two of the corpse’s fingers, but these have not been found.
The tooth has now been returned to the family at a ceremony in Brussels.
Soete’s impulse to pocket the body parts echoed the behaviour of European colonial officials down the decades who took remains back home as macabre mementoes.
… For Lumumba’s daughter, Juliana, the question is whether the perpetrators were human. “What amount of hatred must you have to do that?” she asks.
“This is a reminder of what happened with the Nazis, taking pieces of people – and that’s a crime against humanity,” she told the BBC.
… Nevertheless, there seemed to be a personal element to the way Lumumba was vilified and pursued. The total destruction of the body, as well as a way to get rid of the evidence, seems like an effort to obliterate Lumumba from the memory. There would be no memorial, making it almost possible to deny that he existed at all. It was not enough just to bury him.
But he is still remembered.
… [Juliana Lumumba] recognises that her father “belongs to the country, because he died for Congo… and for his own values and convictions of the dignity of the African person“.
She acknowledges that the handing over of the tooth in Belgium and bringing it back to the Democratic Republic of Congo is symbolic “because what remains is not really enough. But he has to come back to his country where his blood was shed.”
The tooth will be taken around the vast country before being buried in the capital.
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I am furious and shocked to learn that it is possible for a Dutch man to patent an Ethiopian national food! Seriously? I know about the greed of patents… but some things should be off-limit or not even allowed! Teff has been a staple food in Ethiopia for at least the past 2000 years. It is a gluten-free cereal high in protein, iron and fibre, which is considered a super-food. It is the essence of Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisines as it is ground into flour to make injera. Truly, there is no Ethiopian food without injera, thus without teff! Imagine my surprise when I learnt that a Dutchman had patented teff in the Netherlands! First of all, I am stunned that someone can patent a natural growing food, or grains, in another country! Is there no end to greed? And then a few hundred years down the line, they will write in history books that teff originated in the Netherlands, not Ethiopia… ! This is how the falsification of history starts! Africa wise up!
For the story, back in 2003, a dozen varieties of teff seeds were sent to Jan Roosjen, a Dutch agronomist in the Netherlands, through a partnership with the Ethiopian Institute of Biodiversity Conservation for research and development. 4 years later, the European Patent Office granted a patent to his company. Later on, when his company went bankrupt, he continued to sell teff products, and then tried to sue another Dutch company that was marketing teff baked goods. This is when it made headlines, and his patent was declared void in the Netherlands, but it is still valid in the rest of Europe; Ethiopia has gotten lawyers to fight for this. Why should Ethiopia even need lawyers for a case that is so obvious? Teff is Ethiopian, end of story! Now the country has to find lawyers to fight… it is like a never-ending cycle made to impoverish the already disadvantaged countries. Is there nothing in international law that stops this? … all these people who study international law don’t see loopholes like this? What if a country is so poor that it cannot afford lawyers, or what if the story had never made international headlines… then Roosjen would have kept benefiting from something that should go to Ethiopian farmers? Should natural food even be allowed to be patented? I leave you here with excerpts and quotes from several Ethiopians about this from the article in BBC Travel… but note that this is not the first time that Ethiopia has fought for its food treasures, it sued Starbucks for its coffee names in 2007.
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… The dispute over who owns teff made international headlines earlier this year after Roosjen tried to sue another Dutch company that was marketing teff baked goods for patent infringement, and his patent was declared void in the Netherlands. When the deadline for an appeal expired in February 2019, many Ethiopians hailed it as a victory on social media.
Ethiopian diplomat Fitsum Arega tweeted that it was great news. “I hope we can learn from this that our national assets must be protected by Ethiopians & friends of #Ethiopia,” he wrote.
But with Roosjen’s patent still in place in other parts of Europe, the war continues. In February [2019], Ethiopia’s attorney general Berhanu Tsegaye tweeted that the government was determined to defend Ethiopia’s legal rights related to teff. “Ethiopia has already deployed a law firm to fight the teff case internationally,” he wrote.
It is not the first time Ethiopia has had to protect one of its biggest products, with the country previously going into battle against Starbucks over the use of three premium coffee names. After intense talks, the world’s largest coffee chain and the Ethiopian government reached a licencing agreement allowing Starbucks to sell and market Harrar, Sidamo and Yirgacheffe coffee in 2007. According to a report by the World Intellectual Property Organization, the high-profile dispute greatly increased the value of Ethiopian coffee.
Dr Bula Wayessa, who is an expert in indigenous crops, believes the Dutch teff patent stripped millions of Ethiopian farmers of their rights. “It represents a manifestation of global power relations in which multi-million-dollar corporations based in the global north excise cultural appropriation in Third World countries,” he said. “The flaws in the international legal system that give private companies patent ownership without thorough investigation are disproportionally affecting developing countries such as Ethiopia.”
Dr Wayessa, visiting assistant professor at the State University of New York, New Paltz, was born into a teff-farming family in the Oromia Regional State, which is one of Ethiopia’s nine ethnically based regions. He grew up eating injera twice a day and helped cultivate, tend to and harvest the crop after school and in the summer holidays. … He said teff is not just a crop; it is part of Ethiopia’s cultural heritage. “Teff injera is a major common identity marker across more than 80 ethnic groups living in the country,” he said. “It frames Ethiopians’ indigenous food technology and informs their social and national identities by helping to chart social relationships through gathering around the plate and sharing.”
… Sofonias Melese, head of operations at New Ethiopia Tours, said … “Teff is the backbone of our kitchen. We eat it every day – sometimes three times a day – in almost all regions and tribes.”
Last week marked King Philippe of Belgium’s first visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since his ascension to the throne. He visited with his wife, Queen Matilde. This visit comes two years after the king expressed regret for the monarchy’s colonial record in the DRC [Belgian King Expresses ‘Deepest Regrets’ for Colonial Past in Congo]. Recall that King Leopold II of Belgium perpetrated a genocide in Congo, ruling DRC like his personal property and committing some unspeakable atrocities, executing and maiming over 15 million Congolese during that time, in pursuit of the money that rubber (and other things) could bring.
Some ‘visible’ highlights of King Philippe’s visit last week were: 1) The Belgian king returned a giant mask known as Kakuungu used during healing ceremonies by the Suku people from the southwest region of the DRC; the king said the object was on “indefinite loan” to the DRC… The monarch said, “I wanted, during our visit at the National Museum and in your presence, to return to you this exceptional work in order to allow Congolese to discover and admire it. …It marks the symbolic beginning of the reinforcement of the cultural collaboration between Belgium and Congo.” 2) King Philippe acknowledged the last surviving Congolese World War II veteran soldier, 97 year-old Corporal Albert Kunyuku, who served for Belgium; at a memorial of former fighters a wreath was laid, and King Phillipe presented Corporal Kunyuku with a medal. 3) King Philippe lamented the racial colonial past; the monarch said, “On the occasion of my first trip to Congo, here, in front of the Congolese people and those who still suffer from it today, I wish to reaffirm my deepest regrets for these wounds of the past.”
Honestly, this is so pathetic! First can we all stop and imagine how much this 1-week visit of the Belgian Sovereign must have cost the people of the DRC? How much were taken from the country’s coffers to accommodate the King and Queen of Belgium? How many hospitals/schools/roads will not be built because of his majesty’s visit? Then the king comes and gives one mask! One mask! Seriously? One? Of all the masks that fill up the Royal Museum of Central Africa as an example, only one? Why that one in particular? Then the mask is given as an “indefinite loan”, the height of disdain! Then, he acknowledges the last surviving soldier to have given his blood and sweat to Belgium… Although we are happy for Corporal Kunyuku, how convenient for the Belgians to wait for all of those they needed to pay pensions to die to have a ceremony with only one survivor left? … What about the families of others who served, did they get recognition from the King, medals, pensions?
Oh how I wish Patrice Lumumba was alive… he would have told the king to shove it! And actually we should all be telling his majesty just that! Keep your fake visit! Instead, tell us the true reasons of your visit: the needs for Belgium to reinforce economic partnership (get free deals from the old colony) amidst the Ukraine/Russia war; isn’t it easier to come sign and make sure all the diamonds, cobalt, and other minerals continue to flow to Belgium (let’s not forget the other European nations and the US) … Will we really want the mighty Belgium to starve without energy from Ukraine/Russia? And more importantly make sure that the DRC, the reservoir of minerals used in all electronics in the world, does not start a friendship with Russia and much more… O poor Africa, you that the King of Belgium visits with one of your masks in hand and expresses regrets without actions… O poor Congo, after getting maimed, and dying on the frontline for Belgium, you get one little medal… the metal of which is not even as pure as what comes out of your own soil!
In the past, we have talked about the great Ghana Empire of West Africa whose main center of trade was Koumbi Saleh, and whose economy was based around gold, salt, copper, and other goods. The imports included textiles, ornaments, and other materials. Many of the handcrafted leather goods found in old Morocco also had their origins in the Ghana Empire. Several strong cities of the Ghana Empire are today on the UNESCO World Heritage List, such as Koumbi Saleh, Ouadane, Chinguetti,or Oualata. The historian and scholar Ibn Battuta visited Oualata in 1352, and gives an amazing report of the people of Oualata (Walata). Enjoy! These can be found in the Travels of Ibn Battuta called A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling, better known as the Rihla (or “travels”). In Oualata, Ibn Battuta mentions his amazement that the society is matrilineal which he had not seen before anywhere in the world except among Indians of Malabar, and notices the importance of women in the society, and how they are well-treated, and mutual respect between men and women. A lot of these traditions are still be observed throughout Africa today.
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My stay at Iwalatan [Walata] lasted about fifty days; and I was shown honour and entertained by its inhabitants. It is an excessively hot place, and boasts a few small date-palms, in the shade of which they sow watermelons. Its water comes from underground waterbeds at that point, and there is plenty of mutton to be had. The garments of its inhabitants, most of whom belong to the Massufa tribe, are of fine Egyptian fabrics.
Their women are of surpassing beauty, and are shown more respect than the men. The state of affairs amongst these people is indeed extraordinary. Their men show no signs of jealousy whatever; no one claims descent from his father, but on the contrary from his mother’s brother. A person’s heirs are his sister’s sons, not his own sons. This is a thing which I have seen nowhere in the world except among the Indians of Malabar. But those are heathens; these people are Muslims, punctilious in observing the hours of prayer, studying books of law, and memorizing the Koran. Yet their women show no bashfulness before men and do not veil themselves, though they are assiduous in attending the prayers. Any man who wishes to marry one of them may do so, but they do not travel with their husbands, and even if one desired to do so her family would not allow her to go.
The women there have “friends” and “companions” amongst the men outside their own families, and the men in the same way have “companions” amongst the women of other families. A man may go into his house and find his wife entertaining her “companion” but he takes no objection to it. One day at Iwalatan I went into the qadi’s house, after asking his permission to enter, and found with him a young woman of remarkable beauty. When I saw her I was shocked and turned to go out, but she laughed at me, instead of being overcome by shame, and the qadi said to me “Why are you going out? She is my companion.” I was amazed at their conduct, for he was a theologian and a pilgrim [to Mecca] to boot. I was told that he had asked the sultan’s permission to make the pilgrimage that year with his “companion”–whether this one or not I cannot say–but the sultan would not grant it.
African Heritage 