...............14.............
Centuries later facing epidemics of death due to non-compliance with basic rules such as hygiene, Western surgeons will draw inspiration from the work of Robert Felkin an English explorer and medical student. During his trip to Uganda in 1879 he attested to the existence of the practice of caesarean section in Uganda. He described this in his book: Notes on Labor in Central Africa. Published in 1884 in the Edinburgh Medical Journal, Volume 20, April 1884, pages 922-930 how Africans were able to perform surgeries. Robert Felkin's scientific collections will be read by Western surgeons who will make it their duty to apply detailed advices inspired by Ugandan surgery.
The formation of European empires and the creation of enormous wealth were the product of the mixing of certain Ingredients.
Virtually free and extremely fertile land, labor and technology, largely of African origin, and the possibility of amassing immense profits by relying on slavery, with slaves who of course were not remunerated , neither for their work nor for their technological knowledge. While Africa was suffering the assault of a western elite eager for profit, the western population was not happier or more affluent than the African population, even if it had a relative peace, since agents of chaos were exported to the West African coast.
Beyond Moorish Spain, which played an important role in the expansion of technological progress in the world and in the West, it is important to stress that technological progress must not Be understood as an abstract fact,
that would be innate for some while, others would be doomed to melt away in the meanders of obscurantism and underdevelopment. Obscurantism and underdevelopment that prevail in sub-Saharan Africa are the result of the civilization of incivility that plunged Africa into the abyss of slavery, that continues to retard its technological and socio-economic expansion. Just like during slavery Africa's resources do not belong to africans, and it is therefore normal for Africa to develop only in a conditional way. For, what Africa and African are today, has been systematized for centuries by the Western forces, which have nonetheless had the merit to apply the principle of large-scale theft to become a misleading reference. A false god admired by a world populace of laymen, manipulated and very little inclined to grasp the facts and acts that mark time. The magnificence of the great western metropolises, is only equal to the crime of high theft perpetuated for centuries by the west. To say so, is not anti-western racism but a truth that imposes itself.
Hubert Marlin Jr.
Journalist.
Source ( Volume 12, The Slave Route, UNESCO )
Paul E. Lovejoy, "Kola in the History of West Africa", African Studies Papers
Judith Carney, Landscapes of Technology Transfer: Rice Cultivation and African Continuities ", Technology and Culture, 37, 1 (1996)
Flashmag September 2017 www.flashmag.net