By Derick Tsimba
Africa Factbook has become a platform that will assist Africans to read and store their history accurately. Despite Africans having been side-lined in the world’s history by colonialists and depicted as underdeveloped as well as being backward, they also have their success stories.
A known fact remains that Africans are seen by Europeans as inferior in respect to their history and economic advancement in the world. The Africa Factbook has a potential to create a new African perspective regarding its history and dispel the colonial aspect in the History that was crafted centred on dominance.
The African History as told in the eyes of the West remains biased and fails to reveal the actual aspects of its rich History as the Western countries where concerned about its oppression which has resulted in the distortion of the African history.
In March 2018, an international conference on The Africa Factbook was convened in Harare, Zimbabwe and attended by over 200 delegates from across Africa. These included African regional economic communities, African countries who are member states to the African Union, experts on African history and culture among others.
Zimbabwe has come out in the forefront as an African country which has realised that Africa needs an embodiment of its own knowledge based African history. Having realised this, Zimbabwe set out to fund the compilation of the 1st edition of “The Africa Fact Book” under the theme “Busting the Myths.” The Institute of African Knowledge (InstAK) in conjunction with The African Union managed to compile the 1st edition of this book which was recently published and signed by President Emmerson Mnangwagwa who presented the book to all 54 African heads of State.
The book seeks to fulfil the African Union’s Agenda 2063 which focuses on enhancing African’s cultural identity, common heritage, values and their ethics.
The launch of this book has become a leap frog to influence the media and academia fraternity to build a positive African image.
During the launch of the book President Mnangagwa was of the opinion that Africans must draw from their African heritage and knowledge to develop new technologies, innovations and systems that should improve their agriculture practices, accelerate the industrialisation and modernisation of their economies and ultimately leading to better quality of their lives.
Africa has its own success stories and advancement in society whose knowledge remains untapped. The President also revealed that African ancestors were responsible of some of the world’s remarkable achievements such as the construction of Great Zimbabwe City, Egyptian pyramid, the navigated to the Americas in prehistory, and untold scientific discoveries which have inspired modern science advancement. Today’s modern generations can still be inspired to reclaim Africa’s place in science research and technology innovation.
The future of Africa can be brighter as some countries are having success stories such as Rwanda as well as Botswana which has managed to manage its vast mineral resources.
Africa’s success has become focussed on democracy, economic growth, poverty reduction and improved governance. The Africa Factbook should help promote faster economic growth and improved governance. African nations have come out of colonialism and are now in the process of establishing and sustaining economic policies that accelerate growth, making easier the delivery of tangible benefits to citizens. In Zimbabwe the Second Republic has committed itself to turn around the nation’s economy.
