1749
Nzima Antonius Wilhelm Amo returns to his West African Nkubeam people after 40 years in Germany, where he has become one of the most respected Enlightenment Philosophers of the age. However, liberal thinking has become endangered as conservative forces seize Germany, and today Amo departs Rotterdam for the Gold Coast (Ghana). Brought to Europe by the Dutch West Indian Company as an enslaved four year-old, he was given to Duke Ludwig von Wolfenbüttel. He was the first African to attend a European university, the University of Helmstedt. After further study, including medicine and theology, and mastering six languages, he became a professor at the Universities of Halle and Jena. He has produced what are considered two major philosophical works. In On the Absence of Sensation in the Human Mind and its Presence in our Organic and Living Body, he championed reason, knowledge and science over spiritualism.