Ekibaaju is curious about the world. He has spent his working life in the scientific enterprise, and keeps returning to traditional African culture and traditional Christianity for what they know about living well.
The Dogon, Yoruba, Akan, and Kongo each told a different story about how the world began. Those stories were not folklore. They were the frames through which entire civilizations decided what was real, who was responsible, and what could be seen when things went wrong.
Africa was never the continent without writing. It was the continent where writing took forms — woven, dyed, embroidered, carved — that the Western definition of literacy failed to count.
Still being woven
For three thousand years, sculptors in what is now Nigeria have been modelling the human face in clay, casting bronze, and carving copper portraits as refined as anything produced in the medieval world.
Modern advice assumes difficult relationships improve through openness and constant communication. Many African societies approached the problem differently. Some relationships, they believed, needed boundaries first.
Europeans saw mud, thatch, and compound clusters and called it primitive. They were looking at architecture the whole time — they just did not recognise the language.
From vaccination to caesarean sections, the medical breakthroughs credited to Europe were practiced across Africa centuries earlier. Here is the history they left out of the textbooks.
Long before colonialism, African secret societies like the Poro, Sande, Ogboni, and Ekpe ran courts, trained leaders, regulated trade, and held power accountable. Then colonial rulers dismantled them — and Africa is still paying the price.
From splitting the Anglican Communion to sending missionaries back to Europe, Africa isn’t just joining the conversation about Christianity’s future, it’s leading it.
