Afrika before europeans arrived

AFRICA AT THE TIME OF ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST EUROPEAN EXPLORERS When the first European explorers arrived to explore and discover Africa, they did not find in Africa savages and barbarians or people without civilization, they civilized. The German ethnologist Leo Frobenius (1873-1938) who undertook nearly a dozen expeditions in sub-Saharan Africa between 1904 and 1935, left for us a brief description, an overview of what Africa looked like upon the arrival of the first Europeans, from the accounts and descriptions of Africa given by early explorers. : "When (European navigators) arrived in the Bay of Guinea and landed at Vaida, the captains were astonished to find well-appointed streets lined with over a length of several miles by two rows of trees: they crossed for days campaign covered with beautiful fields, inhabited by men dressed in dazzling costumes which they had woven the fabric themselves! Further south, in the kingdom of Congo, a swarming crowd dressed in silk and velvet, large and well-ordered states that in detail, powerful rulers, wealthy industries. Civilized to the maarow bone! And every such was the condition of the country to the east coast, Mozambique, for example. " When European explorers arrived, they found people who had their own civilization. The accounts of foreign explorers who were very numerous to explore the African continent, are of great importance for us to enjoy the description of the situation inland. Those summaries are still alive in Frobenius minds who gives us his personal perspective of the devaluation of the image of blacks in the interests of the colonial powers "The revelations of the Portuguese navigators of the fifteenth to eighteenth century provide evidence that the negroes of Africa that extended south of the Sahara desert were still in full bloom, shining with culture and well formed civilizations. As they advanced, the conquistadores (conquerors in spanish and portuguese) annihilated every sign of life and culture as they progressed because the new country of America needed slaves and Africa was where they were getting the slaves from in hundreds and thousands. However, the slave trade was never a matter of justice rest it required justification, so we made the negro a half animal, a commodity. And this is how we invented the concept of the fetish (Portuguese word that comes: feiticero) as a symbol of African religion. European trademark! As for me, I've never seen in any part of Africa the natives negro worship fetish (...) The idea of "barbaric negro 'is a European invention which has, against time, dominated Europe until the beginning of this century " Thus the African empires and kingdoms powerful, suffered attacks and destruction, Africa had entered into a cycle of suffering (slavery, colonization, etc ...) that has not ended yet. Sources: African History - Histoire Africaine Jean Phillipe Omotunde: the African roots of European civilization, Editions Menaibuc Leo Frobenius, History of Africa Gon civilization, translated by Back and Ermont, Gallimard, Paris, 1938