Many contend that, for centuries, the African story had been a single one. Essentially, it has been said, it is the black continent that has always wanted to be saved from itself. In fact, it has not lacked saviours with Europeans and crusaders of all kinds falling over each other to free the dark continent from its shackles.
That story has changed, no thanks to Shekere, a quarterly magazine that tells all sides of the African story through the eyes of Africans and its friends.
The current edition of the magazine, Vol 4 No 1, for instance, has several compelling and well-written articles and opinion pieces on the continent. There is ‘African Knowledge systems: The key to good leadership’ by Kofi Agorsor and ‘An African constitution in the 13th century: The Kurukan Fuga’ by Nana Olanrewaju.
Other articles include ‘Flavours of Rivers Music’ by Tam Fiofori, ‘Goodbye Euclid!’ by C.K. Rapu, and ‘The Negro and Language’, an excerpt from Frantz Fanon’s book, Black Skin, White Masks.
Incidentally, the publisher of the magazine, Obanya Halim, presents a programme on iGroove internet radio on Sunday evenings. Only last Sunday, the programme called ‘Shekere – The Historical Programme’, focussed on that ancient document called The Kurukan Fuga. Indeed, if for nothing else, every African should read this article, even if they missed the highly educative programme.
