WHY AFRICA NEVER CONQUERED THE WORLD

There were certain moments in African history when African people invaded regions outside the African continents. The Egyptians for instance invaded the Middle East but according to some scholars they did so to secure their borders from Northern invaders. The Berbers along with conscripted soldiers invaded Southern Europe. The concept of lasting occupation was not the goal. The Abyssinian invasion of Yemen was inspired by religious intervention (a religion not indigenous to the African continent), the same as the Moorish invasion. My focus will be on West and Central Africa, though other regions may be discussed. 

    

      The pursuit of conquering the world is not African because their concept of power was distinct according to one African philosophical thought; the meaning of power for African people meant closeness to divine power. However, this cannot be monolithically applied to all Africans but it is a useful concept for some parts of the continent, especially Western Central Africa. 

       Philosopher Innocent writes that there was a lot of confusion during colonialism because individuals with college decrees were seen as the wise ones worthy of leadership, according to a colonial model this was contrary to African tradition which held that the eldest in the community were the wise ones because of their closeness to divinity (God and the ancestors). A crucial example is demonstrated by Scholar Chancellor Williams "A European explorer became upset at an African King in East Africa because he had to wait two weeks before he could get an audience with him". The explorer assumed that the king had authority like other places around the world. However, according to Chancellor Williams the King in Africa meant something entirely different from what it meant in Europe and Asia. Also, he does not have the right to receive them socially without the presence of at least three senior elders. Those wise elders were not present at that time. 

        Another reason why Africans may not have pursued an expansive invasion of the world was because of its abundance of non-renewable natural resources - for instance, gold. One of the reasons why Europeans invaded the New World was because of their quest for non-renewable natural resources. The African continent seemed to have a plethora of desirable resources. Not only did Africans prefer the products of their smelters and smiths but the Portuguese travelled around the coast to Guinea to exchange for other products African resources. 

 

          Many Western Central Africans did not have to look overseas to acquire wealth or natural resources. Africa's diversity was one of the biggest barriers to African people adopting a conquer-the-world culture.