By ejike e okpa ii
The history of Iraq that Ogbuagu posted earlier is not history as it should be; it’s an old tale but it may be new to some. I remember that back In high school (in Nigeria), these were taught in our world history classes and BK – Bible Knowledge.
Because the western world uses its media powerhouses to re-write history, some of us that came from background where oral tales and history still dominate story-times, know most of what is contained in this thread.
When we read American history, we often check it against some other sources and quite often, it contradicts.
There are many in USA that decry the Muslim world, and rightly so. But the most money invested in US by sovereign nations come from Muslim countries. Also, a Muslim country – specifically Morocco (in Africa) – was the first nation to accord USA full diplomatic recognition as the US fought for her independence from Great Britain. USA reciprocated and built its first Embassy in Tangier, Morocco.
Thus, while Europe today stakes claim as the closest and most loyal ally of US, it was an African country that accorded her recognition and helped legitimize her existence when she was fighting the same continent!
Sometimes, one needs to live outside the US to appreciate World History, and in turn broaden one’s scope and widen the horizon. The attendant benefit leads to escaping the myopia that tends to govern the perception most Americans extend to the world. As the Igbos used to say to a child that wants to impress the parents about a new thing it has discovered: What we tend to see standing over others, some have seen sitting down.
President Nixon and his Secretary of State Kissinger came face-to-face with this axiom as they reached out to China with a kind of diplomacy that never left anyone in doubt about US supremacy and supreme tendencies. The Chinese, not given to display as we do in America, sat quietly as Kissinger railed on them about international relations/diplomacy, and what needs to be done; why and how.
The Chinese summed the meeting up by simply saying: We are a Dynasty and there is nothing a country less than 200 years old [then] can teach or tell us. This was the only answer that the diplomats got in return for their zillion hours of preparation. It shows that when one is confident of one’s history and is deeply rooted, one need not prove anything to anyone. The Chinese are GOOD at that.
Maybe, we can learn something from that demeanor. While China is a ‘dynasty’, their position is not all entirely true: A young nation can teach an old nation something.
But the Chinese commentary does highlight the resistance to leadership that the world extends to US when it comes to who, when and why of history. If one is not broadened in their knowledge of the world and the chronology of history, one is bound by default to think ‘westerners’ invented the world, sat next to God/Creator and obtained what should happen.
The western attitude is like BASF commercial that says, ‘We don’t make a lot of the stuff you buy but we make them better‘. Lace that with JD Power and Associates; where no one is ever ‘Second’, and you may think we in America invented the world.
enJOY
ejike e okpa ii is Next Generation Fellow of The American Assembly.
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I completely disagree with the anonymous fellow. The reference can be found at the website of the US consulate in Morocco.
Read the excerpt below, although interpretations may differ.
U.S. – Morocco Relations
Morocco was the first country to seek diplomatic relations with the Government of the United States in 1777, and remains one of our oldest and closest allies in the region. Formal U.S. relations with Morocco date form 1787, when the two nations negotiated a Treaty of Peace and Friendship. Renegotiated in 1836, the treaty is still in force, constituting the longest unbroken treaty relationship in U.S. history. As a testament to the special nature of the U.S.-Moroccan relationship, Tangier is home to the oldest U.S. diplomatic property in the world, and the only building on foreign soil that is listed in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, the American Legation in Tangier (now a musuem). Overtime, U.S. consulate’s have been located in several Moroccan cities. However, currently the U.S. Consulate General is located in Casablanca, Africa’s third largest city and Morocco’s economic, financial, industrial and demographic capital, as well as the country’s most important seaport. It is also a significant airline crossroads from the US, Europe, the Middle East, and other African countries. Casablanca’s broad boulevards, multi-story office buildings, bustling business districts, and relatively small Medina (the ancient, walled old city) contrast sharply with Morocco’s traditonal imperial cities.
E.O.Aduba
I wonder what Okpa ii is talking about when he mentioned Morocco as the first nation to recognize the US during its independence struggles. It beats me because I have tried very much to find out where he got that idea without success. All accounts I am aware of never mentioned Morocco. It was the French in 1778, when they suspected the Americans were about to reach a deal with Spain and after seing the tide turning against britain. Spain later followed and the french not only provided trade cooperation and supplies but actually contributed resources to the US war effort. Morocco at that time, though still independent, was controlled by an Arab dynasty founded by of one of Mohammed’s decendants. The portuguese were the major Western contact Morocco had at that time. Less than fifty years later the French controlled most of that region. I do not see the benefit to Morocco at that point to antagonize an imperial power such as Britain. Even the French took their time before getting involved with the US years after the war had been going on. They only took the plunge when they observed successive British losses and felt America stood a greater chance of winning especially with the possible cooperation of Spain.