Joseph
Ki-Zerbo of Burkina Faso was a History professor, politician and one of Africa's
greatest thinkers. Forced into exile in 1983 after a revolutionary government
came into power, he returned to his country in 1992 and founded and chaired his
own political party, the Party for Democracy and Progress, and served in the Burkina
Faso parliament until 2006. Joseph Ki-Zerbo wrote many books about African history
and culture, including the world-famous 1972 book, History of Black Africa,
that became internationally used in African History classes throughout the world.
He was a strong advocate for a unified Africa, and argued first against colonialism
and then after African nations won their independence, for African nations to
be allowed to develop on their own without Western interference. He believed that
the knowledge of indigenous cultures should be integrated into new technologies,
not thrown away and replaced with Western ideas. In 1980 he founded the Center
for African Development Studies to provide resources, research and ideas for African
development. In 1997
Joseph Ki-Zerbo received the Right Livelihood Award (often referred to as the
Alternative Nobel Prize) ...for
a lifetime of scholarship and activism that has identified the key principles
and processes by which Africans can create a better future.”
