Black Studies: Maulana Karenga, Dr. Tukufu Zuberi, Dr. Molefi K. Asante

Maulana Karenga Relevance of Black Studies

AFRICAN AMRICAN STUDIES & THE HUMAN FUTURE - Asante - Zuberi

This is a discussion among Dr. Molefi K. Asante of Temple University and Dr. Tukufu Zuberi of the University of Pennsylvania at the 2nd Annual W.E.B. DuBois Symposium on April 5, 2103 at Temple University. The title of the discussion: WITHER AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES IN THE 21st CENTURY ? The moderator was Ewuare X. Osayande.

FULL WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE

African-American Studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of the history, culture, and politics of Black Americans. Taken broadly, the field studies not only the cultures of people of African descent in the United States, but the cultures of the entire African diaspora but it has been defined in different ways. The field includes scholars of African-American literature, history, politics, religion and religious studies,sociology, and many other disciplines within the humanities and social sciences.^[1]

Intensive academic efforts to reconstruct African-American history began in the late 19th century (W. E. B. Du Bois, The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1896). Among the pioneers in the first half of the 20th century were Carter G. Woodson,^[2] Herbert Aptheker, Melville Herskovits, and Lorenzo Dow Turner.^[3][4]

Programs and departments of African-American studies were first created in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of inter-ethnic student and faculty activism at many universities, sparked by a five-month strike for black studies at San Francisco State. In February 1968, San Francisco State hired sociologist Nathan Hare to coordinate the first black studies program and write a proposal for the first Department of Black Studies; the department was created in September 1968 and gained official status at the end of the five-months strike in the spring of 1969. The creation of programs and departments in Black studies was a common demand of protests and sit-ins by minority students and their allies, who felt that their cultures and interests were underserved by the traditional academic structures.

Black studies is a systematic way of studying black people in the world – such as their history, culture, sociology, and religion. It is a study of the black experience and the effect of society on them and their effect within society. This study can serve to eradicate many racial stereotypes. Black Studies implements: history, family structure, social and economic pressures, stereotypes, and gender relationships.

HISTORY OF EARLY SUDAN

Adapted from General History of Africa III: Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century

The first settlement of Sudan dates from the end of the Stone Age when the flourishing Sahara had become barren and forbidding as slowly became a desert. The Blacks who lived their migrated south to the Sahel where they found other groups of Blacks to form stronger groups and small kingdoms. When the Muslims arrived in the Sudanese Sahara, they found a series of states. The powerful Soninke kingdom of Ghana dominated the extended Mande group in the region between the Senegal and Niger rivers while the nucleus of what would become the Songhay Kingdom took shape in the eastern part of the Inland Niger Delta.

The period from the eighth to the eleventh century was decisive for the peoples of Sudan. Because of sound organization and powerfully centralized structure of their monarchies, they were able to realize the importance of trade with the Mediterranean and Saharan African. Black states succeeded in safeguarding their personality, despite the coming of Islam, and thus ensured the foundations of lasting civilization whose subsequent development found expression in Mali, the Songhay empire and in the city-states of the Hausa.

NOK CULTURE -- WESTERN AFRICA

The awareness of different African cultures throughout history is Black Heritage and world heritage.

A video about Nok Culture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVT--v-fAKw


FROM: http://nokculture.com/

Picture from: http://visualculture09.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/dont-know-much-about-nigeria/

Welcome to Nok, fountain of wealth and unique artifacts. The Nok Culture civilization was discovered in 1928. The first discoveries was  accidentally unearthed at a level of 24 feet in an alluvial tin mine in the vicinity of the village of Nok in Jaba Local Government  in the southern part of Kaduna state,   near the Jos Plateau region which lies in the  central part of Nigeria in west Africa .  As a result of natural erosion and deposition, Nok terracottas were scattered at various depths throughout the Sahel grasslands, causing difficulty in the dating and classification of the mysterious artifacts.

Luckily, two archaeological sites, Samun Dukiya and Taruga, were found containing Nok art that had remained unmoved. Radiocarbon and thermo-luminescence tests narrowed the sculptures’ age down to between 2000 and 2500 years ago, making them some of the oldest in West Africa.

Because of the similarities between the two sites, archaeologist Graham Connah believes that "Nok artwork represents a style that was adopted by a range of iron-using farming societies of varying cultures, disputing the claim of solely being the diagnostic feature of Nok people.It is however a statement of fact that ,the Nok Terracotta fugurines  earned it’s name due to the Nok civilization that  inhabited the area from around 500 BC in the  village of Nok in Jaba Local Government  in the southern part of Kaduna state,  which lies in the  central part of Nigeria in west Africa . The Nok culture was considered to be the earliest sub-Saharan producer of life-sized Terracotta. The refinement of this culture is attested to by the image of a Nok dignitary figurine. Most parts of the terracotta is preserved in the form of scattered fragments. That is why Nok art is well known today only for the heads, both male and female, whose hairstyles are particularly detailed and refined. The statues are in fragments because the discoveries are usually made from alluvial mud, in terrain made by the erosion of water. The terracotta statues found there are hidden, rolled, polished, and broken. Rarely are works of great size conserved intact making them highly valued on the international art market. The terracotta figures are hollow, coil built, nearly life sized human heads and bodies that are depicted with highly stylized features, abundant jewellery, and varied postures.

ANCIENT AFRICA TIMELINE: THE FIRST 201,000 YEARS

Ancient Africa Timeline from 

Timeline Help

http://www.timeline-help.com/ancient-africa-timeline.html

"Ancient Africa timeline part 1 of 22 from 60,000 BCE to 633 BCE at Timeline Help. First the reasons why I designed this world event chronology. Africa is the second largest of the seven world continents world, full of colored cultures and an interesting history. More than 680 million people live there, almost 15 percent of the global population.
Africa is considered to be birthplace of the modern human beings. And that's where my extended Ancient Africa timeline starts ..."

- 60,000 BCE - 200,000 BCE - 25,000 BCE - 10,000 BCE - 6000 BCE - 4000 BCE - 5000 BCE - 3200 BCE - 2750 BCE - 2686 BCE - 2134 BCE - 2630 BCE - 2611 BCE - 2589 BCE - 2566 BCE - 2575 BCE - 2551 BCE - 2528 BCE - 2520 BCE - 2520 BCE - 2494 BCE - 2494 BCE - 2472 BCE - 2472 BCE - 2467 BCE - 2046 BCE - 1995 BCE - 2030 BCE - 1640 BCE - 1570 BCE - 1070 BCE - 1370 BCE - 1330 BCE - 1343 BCE - 1325 BCE - 1200 BCE - 800 BCE - 1000 BCE - 800 BCE - 982 BCE - 712 BCE - 633 BCE - 530 BCE

Early homo sapiens in central Africa. Cave rock paintings. River People in Niger and Congo. Cyclopean masonry in central Africa. Predynastic settlements along the Nile borders and southwestern Egypt. Ancient Nubian people in central Sudan. Upper and Lower Egypt united. Pharaoh Narmer rules Egypt. The Step Pyramid of Djoser build in Memphis' necropolis at Saqqara. Old Kingdom of Egypt. Pharao King Djoser. Pharao King Khufu. Pharao King Sneferu. Djedefra rules Egypt. Pharao King Khafra. Pharao King Menkaura Pharao King Shepseskaf. Pharaoh Mentuhotep II. Middle Kingdom of Egypt. New Kingdom of Egypt. Pharaoh Queen Nefertitit. Pharaoh King Tutankhamen. Phoenicians in North Africa. Bantu migration from southern Africa to the Sahara Desert. Menelik I Ethiopia's first Ancient Emperor. Pharaoh King Piankhi rules Egypt. Phoenician colonies in the Western Sahara region.

- 500 BCE - 200 BCE - 500 BCE - 450 BCE - 334 BCE - 323 BCE - 323 BCE - 283 BCE - 300 BCE - 100 - 300 BCE - 264 BCE - 241 BCE - 247 BCE - 183 BCE - 218 BCE - 201 BCE - 196 BCE - 149 BCE - 146 BCE - 69 BCE - 30 BCE - 47 BCE - 189 - 199 - 250 - 710 - 270 - 300 - 400 - 1200 - 600 - 1000 - 600 - 1500 - 622 - 639 - 641 - 700 - 800 - 700 - 1911 - 710 - 740 - 1492 - 750 - 1240 - 750 - 1076 - 1000

Ancient Nok culture in Nigeria. Greeks establish colonies along the coast of the Red Sea. Carthaginian Hanno the Navigator explores the northern African coast. Conquests of Alexander the Great. Pharao King Ptolemy I Soter rules Egypt. The Ancient Kingdom of Axum or The Aksumite Empire in northeastern Africa. Nubian capital of Mero is founded. First of the Three Punic Wars in Ancient Africa Timeline 2 between Carthage and Rome. Hannibal rules Carthage and invades Italy. Second Punic War. The Rosetta Stone created, and found in 1799. Third Punic War, Carthage is destructed. Pharaoh Queen Cleopatra VII rules Egypt. Fire destroys the Great ancient library of Alexandria. Pope Victor I, the African pope. The Ethiopian Kingdom of Axum. The Vandals establish a kingdom in North Africa. Axum conquers southern Arabia. Parts of North Africa are converted to Christianity. Medieval Ghana Kingdom. Bantu people migrates to southern Africa. Slave trade from central to northern African continent. Prophet Muhammad travels from Mecca to Medina. Islamic Khalif Omar conquers Egypt and Persi, and controls East African trade towns. Islamic conquest of North Africa. Arabs trade slaves on the African continent. Arabs invade and destroy the Ancient Kingdom of Axum. Islamicized African Moors invade southern Spain, and rule until the fall of Granada. The Soninke Empire of Ghana. Kingdom of Ghana or Wagadou Empire. City of Timbuktu founded in Mali.

THE KINGDOM OF AKSUM/AXUM

The importance of Axum is that it is another indication of African civilization building. This kingdom lasted for more than a thousand years.

From: Aksum - UNESCO World History http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/15

The ruins of the ancient city of Aksum are found close to Ethiopia's northern border. They mark the location of the heart of ancient Ethiopia, when the Kingdom of Aksum was the most powerful state between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia. The massive ruins, dating from between the 1st and the 13th century A.D., include monolithic obelisks, giant stelae, royal tombs and the ruins of ancient castles. Long after its political decline in the 10th century, Ethiopian emperors continued to be crowned in Aksum.

Check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axum