The
passing of Nelson Mandela has made us reflect on forgiveness and humanity. African history has been on my mind- a way of finding
where we were and whither our road goes. It is 200 years since Dr David Livingstone –
the famous British explorer was born in 1813.
Dr David Livingstone with one of his various African porters, shown here from The Philosophy of Science Portal Blog.
Before the Afro
centric approach was introduced into our education system, white explorers were
perceived as heroes. Actually when I was
in primary school (during the 1960s) the Euro centric approach used books called
new and old lands. From Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Vasco Da Gama, Mungo
Park to Dr David Livingstone, these determined chaps supposedly came to explore
our dark world and open up global geography. Mount Kilimanjaro was “discovered” by Johannes
Rebman (and Krapf), in the 1840s. Disbelief of the German’s findings lingered;
they called him myopic, for twelve years. I can imagine it is like some of today’s older
generation who are not so keen with the internet. Geography was dark.
