Will humanity ever learn from history?

South Korea is home to 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, ranging from 5,000-year-old dolmens (stone tombs) to temples, palaces and even hand-carved Buddhist scripture woodblocks that somehow survived seven centuries without decay. I had the unique opportunity to visit some of the UNESCO sites last year during the 2026 World Heritage Festival, and as the guide talked about some of the temples in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, and Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, they mentioned how these beautiful places were once raveged by war and only rebuilt sometime later with much effort made to preserve their original states.

The nation of South Korea is no stranger to war. To this day, Adm. Yi Sun-sin (1545-98) is celebrated for his 23 consecutive naval victories during the Imjin War (1592-98).

However, the admiral’s triumph against Japan not the first thing that comes to mind when "Korea" and "war" are used in the same sentence.

The 1950-53 Korean War between the North and South is well known. With the war never really coming to an amicable end, the stench of it still lingers in the air as tension boils every now and then between Pyongyang and Seoul.

The probability of the world plunging into another world war has never been higher, after the United States and Israel’s attack on Iran, this comes a few years after Russia started a war in Ukraine and plunged the entire world into disarray. I still remember how the price of almost every commodity racked up during that time, with suppliers blaming it on the war. Similarly, just in the past few weeks, fuel prices have hit sky-high levels, with all arrows pointing back to the war in Iran.

Many people were completely oblivious to the existence of the Strait of Hormuz until Iran began restricting ship traffic through it, after the U.S. and Israel attacked the country on Feb. 28.

Growing up in sub-Saharan Africa, precisely in the South-West Region of Cameroon, students were compelled to study history as a subject from primary school until the end of secondary school or middle school, before given a choice of whether or not to continue studying the subject in high school or university.

In summary, we spent about a decade of our lives studying the history of Cameroon, Africa and the world in the precolonial, colonial and postcolonial eras, and one common denominator runs through this: war. There are wars that are fought among tribes, between kingdoms, against colonial masters and with colonial masters — the list is inexhaustible. Even now, a separatist conflict in the English-speaking part of the country has left hundreds dead and thousands displaced.

With history well documented, and the effects of war evident, one would think world leaders and humanity itself must have learned from the past. Apparently, that is not the case, as nations seem to stand, guns akimbo, waiting for a provocation to attack.

Bambot Valentine Samgwa (samgwavalentine@naver.com) is a trained journalist from Cameroon, currently pursuing his master's degree at Suncheon National University. He is a Korea Times Global Supporter.