Sparks Commentary: A review of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s “Africa's Great Civilizations” (PBS)

“The High Contracting Parties do by the present Charter establish an Organization to be known as the ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY. The Organization shall include the Continental African States, Madagascar and other Islands surrounding Africa.”

– Charter of the “Organization of African Unity” (predecessor of the current African Union), 25 May 1963

Before watching this series, I knew next to nothing about the history of Africa – I admit it freely. The only part of this continent's history that I really knew much of anything about was Ancient Egypt, and then only in that period through the Roman conquests. This documentary did not neglect Ancient Egypt, as it turned out, but this was far from being its only focus. It tried to cover all of the written history of the entire continent, which is a truly ambitious scope for a documentary of any length. They did not cover everything, of course, nor could they have done so in the mere six episodes that they had here. But they were actually able to cover quite a bit in their limited running time, and I thus marvel that they were able to do so much.

Comments on the qualifications of the host, and on the influence of European invasions

The host was Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who was (and still is) a genuine expert on the continent in general. This is because he is a professor of both African Studies and African American Studies. As an African American himself, he thus speaks English with an American accent, and is thus easy for me and my fellow Americans to understand. In this documentary, he interviewed scholars from both Africa itself, and from other parts of the world. He interviewed White scholars as well as Black scholars, and tried to get a number of different perspectives onto this program's record. As you may know, there was a lot of European colonization of this continent in past centuries, and so the mark of Europe is strongly felt in many parts of Africa. This ranges from the presence of several European languages (like English, French, and Portuguese) on the continent, to the surprising presence of many White Africans – at least, surprising to others besides myself. In American English, the term “African Americans” often has the popular meaning of “Black Americans.” But with the significant presence of White Africans on the continent, this terminology can run into some unexpected complications at times. So long as these complications are acknowledged, the term “African Americans” can acceptably be used as an substitute for “Black Americans” (at least in American English). Thus, I am quite all right with the use of this term despite this complication.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the host of this series

Comments on the influence of Christianity and Islam in Africa (particularly Northern Africa)

One subject that this documentary covers well is the history of African Christianity. People often think that Christianity arrived in Africa with the later European colonization, but it turns out that Christianity actually came to the region much earlier than that. There were actually Christian communities in Africa within the first few centuries of the religion's existence, partly because much of Northern Africa was under the rule of the Roman Empire at the time. These communities were fairly small pockets to begin with, but they became much more widespread after the conversion of Emperor Constantine in the fourth century. With him on the throne of Rome, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire – and, by extension, many parts of Northern Africa as well. This may have actually paved the way for the rise of Islam there in later centuries. This is because Islam has strong roots in Christianity, in much the same way that Christianity has strong roots in Judaism. But some other parts of the region (such as Ethiopia) were more distant from the later Muslim conquests, and thus stayed Christian long after most of Northern Africa had become officially Muslim. Nonetheless, the northernmost parts of contemporary Africa tend to be Arabic-speaking Muslim countries today. These are the two great religions of Northern Africa, as it turns out, although there are significant Jewish minorities to be found there as well. If you look at a relevant map, North Africa is not too far from the predominantly Muslim Middle East, which may help to explain why the most widely spoken language on that part of the continent is actually Arabic. Although Arabic is not as common in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is definitely the dominant language of Muslim North Africa.

The old Bet Giyorgis rock-cut church – Lalibela, Ethiopia

Two great themes are the influence of Africa on the world, and external and internal trade

One common theme in this series is how African culture influenced that of the world at large. For example, they mention how Ethiopian Christians influenced the Christianity of the wider world. I don't now remember if they mentioned that the Catholic philosopher Saint Augustine was himself a North African, but they did mention that the North African Muslims invaded Spain, and produced the philosopher Averroes – one of the greatest Muslim philosophers of all time, known (among other things) for his commentaries on Aristotle. Another common theme of this series is trade, or how the various Africans interacted economically – both with each other, and with the outside world. They mention the opening of trade routes within Africa (which brought great wealth to the parties involved in this trade), and international trade with both Europe and Asia – and, in later centuries, with the Americas. One of the episodes focuses on what it calls Africa's “Empires of Gold,” which had gold as one of the major commodities on these routes.

Statue of Ibn Rushd (or “Averroes”), the great Muslim philosopher – Córdoba, Spain

Another theme is slavery, and the kidnapping of slaves that were eventually sent to the Americas

Although much of Africa's commerce was good, some of it also involved unfortunate trafficking in human beings. Thankfully, the series mentions how slavery has existed in every nation, including the various parts of Africa. Sometimes, the Whites involved in the Atlantic slave trade would kidnap the Africans for themselves; but more often, they would hire the local Africans to do it for them – something that this series acknowledges in its primary episode on this. There were often high-stakes wars between the different African groups, in which the eventual winners would enslave (and sometimes sell) the losers. Sometimes, they would sell them to the White slave-traders for use in the Americas; but other times, they would keep them for more local use. The host makes clear that the Whites were not the only ones involved in this Atlantic slave trade, and thus gives much-deserved blame to both parties involved in the infamous trafficking of human beings. This is one of the strengths of the series, and one that I would not usually expect from PBS, which tries to be “politically correct” as a general rule.

Slave traders in Gorée, Senegal (eighteenth century)

This series may be a little weaker on twentieth-century history …

If I have any criticism of this otherwise stellar program, it may be that he is almost overly enthusiastic. But I think that we can forgive him for this, because it is his love. I also thought that this series may have been a little weaker on twentieth-century history, mainly because it stopped early in the twentieth century. But it's possible that this subject would be a much better topic for a separate program, focused on twentieth-century Africa. Presumably, such a series could be made on the cheap; by taking advantage of the vast wealth of visual records from modern times in Africa, such as photographs and film footage. Presumably, very little additional expense would be needed to take advantage of these already-existing visual records. Such a series would not necessarily have to be made by Mr. Gates – although I wouldn't object if it were, since he is obviously well-qualified, and is a good filmmaker to boot. The most important part (for me, at least) would be that the series actually be made in the first place, within a budget range that is acceptable – either to public television, or to some other network.

Ancient Egyptian pyramids at Giza

… but overall, this was a great series despite these things

A series like this obviously can't cover everything, so I wouldn't mind seeing other films focusing more specifically on particular cultures within Africa. One example of this may have already been done, with a remarkable PBS program about Ancient Egypt. But if you want something like the entire written history of the continent, this program may be as good an introduction to it as anything else that has yet been made for television. Although it may not be as strong on the prehistory of Africa, it does a truly excellent job on the recorded history of the continent, and brings it to life for a television audience in a way that nothing else yet seems to have done.