I trust you don't believe the title of this blog is true because I intend to disprove the two statements in this blog title. Let me start at home in South Africa; virtually every symbol of South Africa was indeed the idea of white people from the name of the land, the capitals, half of the national anthem, legal system, state institutions, two of the most spoken languages in the land etc. But the infrastructure was built by black hands, virtually ALL of the gold, coal & other minerals that the South African economy is built on was dug up by black hands. We can go back & forth as to who South Africa belongs to but it's quiet clear that this land was obtained through violence. Nelson Mandela saying "South Africa belongs to all who live in it", won't make everyone who sets foot in South Africa, indigenous to South Africa. Maybe Qumbu & Nelson Mandela's tribal homeland belongs to all who live in it but ask every other South African & they'll tell you South Africa is not the world's property. Maybe we'll need to collectively, deliberately call South Africa "Mthwakana" just so this land no longer has a non-African name of any kind to show our intent. Europeans attacked many African states to found South Africa - breaking the laws of each land they "conquered", starting with the KhoiSan states in the Western & Northern Cape; then the much-more-difficult-to-conquer Bantu states in the eastern part of South Africa. We could even argue that South Africa is illegally occupied by a colonial entity based on either Tswana, Pedi, Venda, Tsonga, Zulu, Khoi, Xhosa or any of the "conquered" peoples indigenous laws. For example, the British wrecked the Xhosa economy which was based on cattle (this is virtually treason), they kidnapped a Zulu monarch (virtually high treason), the Boers attacked the Ndebele kingdom in Gauteng (mass murder & treason)... the list goes on. I really wouldn't blame any indigenous king or chief in South Africa if they claimed South Africa was founded illegally based on their indigenous laws.
Now, on to the next part: If I go to Scotland & built a functioning hyperloop system, for example, using the latest AmaZizi technology, just unprovoked, no Scotsmen asked me to build it... do the Scottish now owe me if they use the hyperloop on a frequent basis? On emotional grounds, maybe... but there was no agreement between me or any Scottish dignitary or leader to build the hyperloop. This is the same situation with European colonists in Africa. Europeans built infrastructure for themselves only to realise that they built the indigenous Africans free infrastructure because they were building infrastructure in the wrong land... they should've built the infrastructure in Europe on European soil so it would belong to Europeans.
Modernisation is not Westernisation: In the modern age, any country that does not have firearms or efficient transport systems (even if it is slingshoting people across the land in a wooden capsule) is at a huge disadvantage. The Bakongo kingdom realised this & could manufacture firearms in the 18th century to combat the European threat. We have to modernise to survive, even if it means copying technology & sciences. Spears & handaxes which were first made in Africa are not exactly modern but they contributed to the creation of the modern world, could you imagine how the first human populations that went to Europe & Asia would've survived without the African discovery of fire & African creation of spears & axes? The whole reason many human populations could survive colder places in Eurasia & get protein-rich food is because of these two African inventions. Without these inventions they'd been forced to live in warmer places consuming any uncooked meat they could find including insects for protein. Blacksmithing & iron-working wouldn't have kicked off for them without these African inventions & discoveries. We could even argue that counting & therefore, mathematics is an African invention because the two oldest mathematical artefacts in human history were found in Africa i. e. present-day Congo & Eswatini. All these contribute to the modern world & are not Western creations in the least. All these gathered technologies & discoveries around the world contributed to our modern existence. So when colonising forces like right-wing Afrikaner/British nationalist movements claim that they "made South Africa", they must question with who's land, minerals, knowledge & labour. When Europe says that they "built" Africa, they must ask themselves "why?", because we have no problem confiscating anything that's on our land. The world needs to ask itself if Africa didn't contribute to the Western world & stop blaming us for things that are almost entirely not our fault.
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