We Were Always Here! New book a celebration of African history and innovation

You know how every now and then someone says something so wrong that it leaves you slack-jawed and loaded with questions? The latest example is Renaldo Gouws of the DA spewing hate towards black people.

Well that happened to Durban-based labour law expert Les Owen in the 1990s when he was in discussion with a white man who, bemoaning his staffing issues, said: "I mean, what has a black man ever invented?"

That got Owen questioning everything we've been indoctrinated into believing about black people. How little is known about key change-makers across the African diaspora.

Is it selective amnesia, a deliberate omission of facts to establish dominance or a simple lack of mindfulness, that so much is not known about people from Africa who pioneered, invented or passed on ancient knowledge that we all benefit from in these modern times?

Owen's mission was to put a book together that tells fireside stories about black inventors whose significance in bringing about change in everyday life was never fully acknowledged, if at all.

One of the writers, Sizwe Malinga was in conversation with Owen at the book's launch recently at Ike's Books in Durban's Florida Road, MC-ed by Professor Ashwin Desai, and attended by SA’s legendary story teller Gcina Gcina and Carol Ofori from East Coast Radio.

Malinga spoke about his own experiences meeting and interviewing subjects for his stories, including ‘Tanzania’s father of rural innovation’, Bernard Kiwia.

"A book like this is a celebration which we don't get enough of in celebrating black people and their achievements.

"It is a tool to use to challenge stereotypes that only white men invent things," he said.

The book cleverly puts the modern day inventors in the first half of the book. This is a good idea, since it gives the reader a glimpse at current inventors who are, in many cases, still alive, but hardly heard of, before launching into what is to come, the giants in whose footsteps these pioneers have ventured.

But it does start off with the almost untold story of Onesimus (circa 1709) who passed on to his Boston slave master what his African tribe had done since forever to keep themselves safe from dying from smallpox, which was decimating huge swathes of the world.

Onesimus' master, a certain preacher Cotton Mather was to pass on this knowledge, have it applied, and it was ultimately taken up by George Washington’s troops which helped win the war of Independence.

It was called variolation back then, but what we now know as vaccination. Onesimus is not mentioned for this at his passing, except to say that he had expired.

Owen believes that the book should be read by young people, particularly young black children so that they can come to understand the great achievements of their forebears, and unburden themselves of the notion that only white men have been pioneers in a range of fields, from science and medicine, through to space technology and sustainable solutions to today's problems.

Malinga adds that now is the time for black people to give acknowledgement to these living icons while they are still here, instead of hoisting statues and placing plaques in their name after they have died, in what is surely the oldest form of virtue signalling in the history of the world.

The handful of writers include Owen and Malinga, Dr Candice Bailey, Lerato Makate and Therese Owen.

They get to research and interview living icons among us, who share their back-stories, and daunting challenges, and capture the enduring spirit that kept each of them going.

The book is available at Exclusive Books and online via Amazon, and retails at R250.

IOL