Page 156 - A People Called Afrika

A PEOPLE CALLED AFRIKA

book “The Ancient Wisdom in Africa”. Mr. Bowen wrote:
“THAT Asia is the source from whence all philosophy sprang
is a universally accepted belief; and that Europe is the cus-
todian and preserver of the knowledge originated in the el-
der Continent will likewise be generally maintained. Few ever
consider that Africa also was once the home of a learning as
profound as any Asia can show; and few, if any, will believe
that such learning remains alive today among the inhabi-
tants of the Dark Continent. Yet that such is the truth, I as-
sert, and shall endeavor to make clear in the following pages.

Many years ago, when I, a boy of ten or twelve years of age,
followed my father’s wagon through the wild Bushlands of the
Northern Transvaal, Portuguese East Africa and Mashonaland,
I met and gained the friendship of many Natives—principally
Zulus—of the class known as Isanusi, a term, popularly but im-
properly interpreted as “Witch Doctor”. Why those men, who
with Europeans and even with their own people are always in-
tensely reserved, should have favored me with their confidence
is something I do not, even now, clearly understand, yet they
certainly did so. I recall a conversation with one of their num-
ber, by name, Mankanyezi (The Starry One), with whom I was
particularly intimate, which impressed me deeply; so much
so that I have never forgotten it. My father had declared his
intention of placing me in care of a Missionary, in order that
I might receive some education, and learn white men’s ways.

I repeated his words to Mankanyezi, who shook
his head doubtfully on hearing them and said:
“Your teachers are doubtless learned men. But why do they
strive to force their beliefs on us without first learning what
our beliefs are? Not one of them, not even Sobantu, knows

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