10th Week

Africa: A Triple Heritage                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
The African Scholar, Ali A. Mazrui says that Africa has a triple heritage, one that represents the traditional African experience of village life, polytheism (belief in many gods), The arrival of Islam and the Arabs, and the impact of European colonial rule and culture.                                                                                                                     For the last 1600 years, African history has been characterized by the interacting relationship between these forces, often in conflict, but sometimes cooperative depending upon the time period and issues at hand.