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TED Talks Daily

The powerful stories that shaped Africa | Gus Casely-Hayford

TED Talks Daily

TED

Ted Talks Daily, Society & Culture, Ted Talks, Ted Podcast, Ted

4.112.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2017

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the vast sweep of history, even an empire can be forgotten. In this wide-ranging talk, Gus Casely-Hayford shares origin stories of Africa that are too often unwritten, lost, unshared. Travel to Great Zimbabwe, the ancient city whose mysterious origins and advanced architecture continue to confound archeologists. Or to the age of Mansa Musa, the ruler of the Mali Empire whose vast wealth built the legendary libraries of Timbuktu. And consider which other history lessons we might unwittingly overlook.



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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:32.6

This TED Talk features cultural historian Gus Casley Hayford, recorded live at TED Global 2017.

0:41.4

Now, Hegel, he very famously said that Africa was a place without history, without past, without narrative.

0:49.4

Yet I'd argue that no other continent has nurtured, has fought for, has celebrated its history more concertedly.

0:59.1

The struggle to keep African narrative alive has been one of the most consistent and hard-fought

1:05.3

endeavours of African peoples and continues to be so.

1:09.3

The struggles endured and the sacrifices made to hold on to

1:13.3

narrative in the face of enslavement, colonialism, racism, wars, and so much else has been the

1:20.7

underpinning narrative of our history. And our narrative has not just survived the assaults that history has thrown at it.

1:29.1

We've left a body of material culture, artistic majesty, an intellectual output.

1:36.9

We've mapped and we've charted and we've captured our histories in ways that are the measure of anywhere else on Earth.

1:45.9

Long before the meaningful arrival of Europeans,

1:50.6

indeed whilst Europe was still mired in its dark age,

1:54.2

Africans were pioneering techniques in recording, in nurturing history,

2:00.3

forging revolutionary methods for keeping their story alive.

2:05.5

And living history, dynamic heritage,

...

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