La vache de tête se fait fouetter le plus . Se dit d’un leader. (Proverbe Zulu – South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique).
The lead cow (the one in front) gets whipped the most . Said of a leader. (Zulu proverb – South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique).
In Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso, a young scientist, Mariama Mamane who won the Young Champion of the Earth in the year 2017, is turning water hyacinth, an invasive species, into fertilizer, bio-gas and energy.
Mariama’s pilot program prevents desertification, creates food security and converts a problem into a livelihood opportunity for people in Burkina Faso. Her project, “JACIGREEN”, offers an innovative eco-solution introducing a plant-based purification mechanism to help manage fresh water and improve access to drinking water. It simultaneously implements a system to produce organic fertilizer (via anaerobic composting) and electricity (from biogas recovered from the water hyacinth transformation process). Her goal is to “Improve living conditions of population through sustainable agriculture and renewable energy for energy deficient rural communities in West Africa.”
Water hyacinth invasion in Lake Victoria (Source: Lilian Ochieng, The East African)
Recall that Achenyo Idachaba of Nigeria has been exploring other alternatives making arts and craft products with the Water hyacinth (Jacinthe des eaux) in Nigeria. For those who do not know what the water hyacinth is, it is a plant which has been suffocating rivers around the globe, and has proliferated in places such as Lake Victoria (Africa’s largest body of fresh water) not only depriving the lake of its oxygen thus reducing nutrients for fishes, blocking water ways, and breeding all sorts of new diseases. This plant is not native of Africa.
Please help me applaud the work of Mariama Mamane. She was featured in this UN video below turning plant to power in Burkina Faso. Enjoy!
Stele of Amanishakheto (center) from the temple of Amun in Wad ban Naqa (Wikipedia)
Amanishakheto was a great queen of Nubia and is known as a great warrior and pyramid builder; she built numerous pyramids and temples at Meroë. She is also the daughter of Amanirenas, the fearless and one-eyed queen who defeated the Romans, and the mother of Amanitore, another great queen. Today, vestiges of her palace which had been destroyed and plundered by the Italian explorer Giuseppe Ferlini can still be seen at Wad ban Naqa, and her jewelry (looted by the same Italian), are now on display at the Egyptian Museum of Berlin, and at the Egyptian Museum of Munich.
Great women are often left out of history. Rarely do we hear or read about African queens. It is already hard enough to read about great African men and leaders in history books, but as for African women… it is more like impossible. How many have heard of the great warrior queen of Nubia, Amanishakheto, who defeated a Roman army? Who has heard of this great queen whose pyramid/tomb was leveled to the ground by an Italian treasure hunter, Giuseppe Ferlini, in 1832? Who has heard of this woman who led her people with a strong arm, and built pyramids in Meroë? Who has heard of this great candace, whose daughter Amanitore, also queen of Nubia, is mentioned in the Bible (Acts 8:27) … yeah the Queen of Sheba is not the only African…
To celebrate our 10-years anniversary, one of our contributors is offering you this amazing book on Amazon . A king, a beautiful princess, and a pot of hot chili sauce… the combination is bound to make you laugh. Enjoy this book, an African Children’s book, for young and young at heart! It is on kindle e-book in both French and English.
Village school in French West Africa (AOF) 1900s – French assimilationism (Louis Sonolet, Source: http://exhibitions.nypl.org)
The poem ‘My Name‘ by Magoleng wa Selepe has touched many strong chords. It is the truth, and still rings true today. During colonial times, our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were stripped of their names and identity: to go to school, they had to have a European name, and very often their own names were distorted because the European colonizer could not spell it properly. Depending on the origin of the colonizer, whether it was France, Great Britain, Germany, or Portugal, one ended up with a French, British, German, or Portuguese name. Enjoy !!!
I just thought about what happened to our fathers, mothers, grandmothers, and grandfathers during colonial times: to go to school African children were forced by European missionaries to adopt a christian name such as John, Peter (Jean, Pierre), etc… as opposed to their good old African name Nomzimo, Makeba, Ndoumbe, Keïta, etc. Thus many Africans who would have just worn the name ‘Ndoumbe Mpondo‘ or ‘Binlin Dadié‘ or ‘Um Nyobé‘ had to adopt a European name such as John + their own name, such that they became: John Ndoumbe Mpondo or Bernard Binlin Dadié or Ruben Um Nyobé. To this day, the tradition has remained… most Africans would have three or four names: their family name, and their given name, plus the European first name and in some cases a European middle name as well. The poem below entitled…
Tetela woman with intricate ritual scarification designs ca 1905, Lualaba – Kasai
Today, we will reblog our article on scarification, an ‘ancient’ African tattoo culture. Not too long ago, scarification, as practiced in Africa, was much more than art work on skin. For many, it was a way of identification (the ethnic group you belonged to), a right of passage (boyhood to manhood, girlhood to womanhood, …), symbols of beauty and status, protection against evil spirits, and a rich tradition passed on from generations to generations. So next time you think about tattooing yourself, remember the ancient ways and designs of yore.
Image of a young woman’s face (agnautacouture.com)
These days, many of my fellow African brothers and sisters sport tattoos of some European or foreign symbols on their skins. These symbols are usually alien to our cultures, traditions, thinking, and history. So I thought about talking about scarification, which could be called an “ancient” African culture of tattoos.
For starters, Africa has a rich culture of scarification. Many cite HIV, and ugliness as being the reason why they would not do scarification and why the practice has been abandoned. I neither agree nor disagree with them, but I would like to give a history of scarification and why, this is something to be cherished as part of our history, even if it is no longer practiced and/or needed today.
Sculpture of a Mangbetu person, in Congo (exposed at the MET)
In the past, a woman or man would have scarification marks that…
Very often, Africans are depicted on old pictures as naked people, walking around without any clothing. This seems to be quite at odd with the fact that the Dutch textile company VLISCO has been installed in Africa, more precisely in Togo, since 1846. So how could pictures from the 1800s and early 1900s only show naked Africans? The BBC recently ran a story on VLISCO and African textile tradition actually being European. The New York Times claimed that Africa’s fabric was entirely Dutch. I find this quite appalling, and I call this a falsification of history.
For starters, before VLISCO, Africa had a very rich textile industry as noted by Kankan Moussa‘s entire delegation being clothed from cotton woven with golden threads in 1300s during his pilgrimage to the Mecca (this will be a story for another day), or the Kanembu clothing tradition which dates as far…
This is yet another favorite on the African Heritage blog.
Please take a moment to reflect on this colonial tax African countries have been made to pay for the past 70+ years, particularly in view of the new West African money ECO which is trying to come to life. We applaud the idea of a common currency in West Africa, and in Africa as a whole… remember that this was Kwame Nkrumah‘s dream and the forefathers of the African Union, but when we hear France’s puppet Alassane Ouattara of Côted’Ivoire say that the ECO will be just another name for the FCFA, we can only scream against it, or rather against France’s scheming yet again to impoverish African countries. What France is doing to African countries, by getting over 500 billion dollars every year for free (Africa is funding Europe!), is the same thing that Nazi Germany did to France with their currency at the time of World War II: the FCFA was inspired from it. Yet… after pillaging Africa yearly and raping her daily, they do not seem to hold their economy down, dealing with unemployment, and the Yellow Vests! Free money is always like that: because you did not work for it, it always seems to run out quickly! It’s about time they think of a partnership… but then it is France, so that will probably never happen!
African countries continue to pay colonial tax to France 50 years after their independence. This system is an abomination destined to keep African countries poor forever! Here are some excerpts from the article by Mawuna R. Koutonin. For the full article, go to France Colonial Tax , and do not forget to check out the article I wrote a while back on the Franc CFA: slave currency! Also, please read the book by Pr. Nicolas Agbohou on the subject: ‘Le Franc CFA et l’Euro contre l’Afrique.’
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Did you know that many African countries continue to pay colonial tax to France since their independence till today?
Sekou Toure, Cover Time Magazine, Feb. 16, 1959
Sékou Touré of Guinea decided in 1958 to get out of french colonial empire, and opted for the country’s independence, the french colonial elite in Paris got so…
Reblogging this all-time favorite poem on the African Heritage Blog.
A few questions for the readers: what do you like the most about this poem by Sandile Dikeni? What is special? And what made you connect to it? What in this poem describes your country or is there something in it which describes your country?
In the past I have always wished that we, Africans, could be patriotic. I came across this beautiful poem ‘Love poem for my country‘ by South African writer Sandile Dikeni. I really enjoy the way the author describes his country, the valleys, the birds, the ancient rivers, and its beauty. He feels the peace, the wealth, and the health his country brings. He is one with hiscountry.He is at home! His country is not just words or food, or friends, or family, it is more, it is his essence! That is true patriotism, the bond that links us to the bone to our motherland. Enjoy!
My country is for love so say its valleys where ancient rivers flow the full circle of life under the proud eye of birds adorning the…
This is another all-time favorite… The second-most popular post on Afrolegends.com: the history of Adinkra symbols and the Rich Akan culture of the Akan people of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. Enjoy!
As we revisit this favorite, please let us know if there are other things you would like to learn on the topic, and we will try to add more.
The Adinkra symbols are believed to originate in Gyaman, a former kingdom in modern day Côte d’Ivoire. According to an Ashanti (Asante) legend, Adinkra was the name of a king of the Gyaman kingdom, Nana Kofi Adinkra. King Adinkra was defeated and captured in a battle. According to the legend, Nana Adinkra wore patterned cloth, which was interpreted as a way of expressing his sorrow on being taken to Kumasi, the capital of Asante. He was finally killed and his territory was annexed to the kingdom of Asante. The Asante people, around the 19th century, took to painting of traditional symbols of the Gyamans onto cloth, a tradition which has remained to this day.
La vache de tête se fait fouetter le plus . Se dit d’un leader. (Proverbe Zulu – South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique).
Candace Amanishakheto on a mural 
Image of a young woman’s face (agnautacouture.com) 
Sculpture of a Mangbetu person, in Congo (exposed at the MET) 
Wax Hollandais 
Carte des pays de la zone CFA 
Sekou Toure, Cover Time Magazine, Feb. 16, 1959 
An antelope at dusk in the African Savannah 
Adinkra in 1817 
Adinkra work, 1825 
African Heritage 