35 African cooperation on a more comprehensive and ambitious basis: F i r s t : I believe, and I think it is a sound belief, that our understanding of history places Arab-African relations in their correct context. It is equally true that our success in relying on our own sources in understanding our history without recourse to a biased foreign mediator will reformulate our views of each other. Such an understanding will refute imperialists’ false claims and fraudulent allegations and will provide a fair reading of our history within its true context. Second: Africa, like the Arab world, has its own culture and civilisation. As your scholarship has shown, the colonial allegations that Africa was outside history until European intervention are completely unfounded. We just need to absorb this truth. Our intellectuals must also absorb it as they confront Western attempts at cultural hegemony. It’s a fact that should become part of our educational curricula and our media. Th i r d : there is little doubt that Islam has brought new concepts, methods of government, philosophical systems and a new edifice of great values to east and west Africa. But unlike Western culture, ArabIslamic civilisation neither excluded nor destroyed
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