The struggle to establish the African origins of Western civilisation

Abstract

Notwithstanding, definitive evidence from archaeology and anthropology (that has also found a modest foothold in the accounting history literature) that accounting and accountants in Africa, were at the beginning of human (Western) civilisation as we know it, there remains strong Eurocentric and US-centric bias against recognising the full implications of this research. This paper reviews (briefly) the archaeological and anthropological evidence that supports this thesis, and then discusses the resistance to publishing the first accounting study on colonialism in Sierra Leone (that finally resulted in success).