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.

Post traumatic Slavery Disorder Dr Joy de Gruy Leary

Chains in Our DNA

Educator and author Joy DeGruy, Ph.D.,  is the woman who, 25 years ago, coined the PTSS term to help explain the consequences of multigenerational oppression from centuries of chattel slavery and institutionalized racism, and to identify the resulting adaptive survival behaviors. She turned her study into the groundbreaking book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing, published in 2005. Researchers have long investigated how historical trauma is passed down through the generations, and findings suggest actual memories are transmitted through the DNA for Jews, Native Americans and other groups, DeGruy indicates. That same concept can be applied to the impact of slavery on African-Americans. 

 

PTSS differs from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which results from a single trauma experienced directly or indirectly. “When we look at American chattel slavery, we are not talking about a single trauma; we’re talking about multiple traumas over lifetimes and over generations,” says DeGruy. “Living in Black skin is a whole other level of stress.”

Read more at EBONY http://www.ebony.com/wellness-empowerment/do-you-have-post-traumatic-slave-syndrome#ixzz486GwmuwB 
Follow us: @EbonyMag on Twitter | EbonyMag on Facebook

TRUTHS BEHIND AFRICAN POVERTY

The Misperceptions About African Poverty from 

From FONDAD: Forum of Debt and Development 

FULL ARTICLE 

The era of structural adjustment, which can be dated approximately to the last two decades of the twentieth century, was a failure for African economic development. Africa was the only major developing country region with negative per capita growth during 1980 to 2000; its health conditions are by far the worst on the planet; its soaring population is exacerbating ecological stresses; and despite the policy-based development lending of structural adjustment, it remains mired in poverty and debt. 

What went wrong?

In the extreme interpretation of the Washington Consensus by its proponents, as well as by its critics, its unambiguous promise is that if a developing country were to implement conservative macroeconomic policies while expanding the role of the private market at the expense of the state, then it would achieve sustained high growth rates on its own. By extension, if a developing country is failing to grow, the problem must be either macroeconomic mismanagement or a hindering of the private market expansion in the country, usually attributed to corruption or more broadly “bad governance”.   

A BETTER EXPLANATION

A better explanation of Africa’s poverty trap would move beyond the limitations of the Washington Consensus to recognise that before privatisation and market liberalisation can unleash private sector-led economic growth in Africa, a massive amount of public investment in health, education, and infrastructure is required, which African countries cannot afford. Africa’s poverty trap is the outcome of a complex web of many interactive factors, including structural conditions and socio-political history:

• Very high transport costs and small markets; 
• Low-productivity agriculture;  
• Very high disease burden;  
• A legacy of adverse geopolitics;  
• Very slow diffusion of technology from abroad.

FULL ARTICLE 

CLICK HERE TO BUY BOOKS ABOUT AFRICAN DEBT

Featured Book: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Youtube Video: Apologies of an Economic Hit Man

From: Wikipedia Article: Neocolonialism

The political-science term neo-colonialism became popular usage in reference to the continued European control — economic, cultural, etc. — of African countries that had been decolonized in the aftermath of the Second World War (1939–45). Kwame Nkrumah, president of Ghana (1960–66), coined the term neo-colonialism in the book Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism (1965)^[5][6] As a political scientist, Nkrumah theoretically developed and extended, to the post–War 20th century, the socio-economic and political arguments presented by Lenin in the pamphlet Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917), about 19th-century imperialism as the logical extension of geopolitical power to meet the financial investment needs of the political economy of capitalism.^[7]

Kwame Nkrumah
http://therisingcontinent.wordpress.com
/2012/07/05/kilombo-2012-annual-event-at-woezor-hotel-ho-ghana-from-24th-to-26th-august-2012/
dr-kwame-nkrumah-ghanas-first-president/

 In Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism, Kwame Nkrumah said that:In place of colonialism, as the main instrument of imperialism, we have today neo-colonialism . . . [which] like colonialism, is an attempt to export the social conflicts of the capitalist countries. . . . The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment, under neo-colonialism, increases, rather than decreases, the gap between the rich and the poor countries of the world. The struggle against neo-colonialism is not aimed at excluding the capital of the developed world from operating in less developed countries. It is aimed at preventing the financial power of the developed countries being used in such a way as to impoverish the less developed.^[8]

CLICK HERE TO BUY BOOKS ABOUT AFRICAN DEBT

HOW DID ISLAM CONQUER AFRICA? DID CHRISTIANS FIGHT BACK?

According to the General History of Africa, Vol 3: Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century, there were several basic patterns of Islamization in Africa between the 600 and 1000 C.E (A.D.)

1) The Arab conquest of Egypt and North Africa
2) The commercial activities of Muslims
3) Clerics and holy men spread the word
4) The penetration into different societies into Arab societies 

 From: http://17-122.qataracademy.wikispaces.net/Islamic+Empires+Webpage

From: General History of Africa, Vol 3: Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century, pages 90-91

"Christians fought back as much as they could, however. In North Africa, in Nubia and in Ethiopia the incoming Muslims encountered Christianity. The resistance of local Christians to Islamization varied according to local political and social conditions. In the Maghrib where the Christians represented only a minority (mostly of mixed or foreign origin), Islamization has been more complete and Christianity completely  died out by the eleventh century. In Egypt the process took a longer time being accelerated only by the Fatimids; Islamization has never been complete, as about 10 per cent of Egyptians still belong to the Coptic Church. 

In Christian Nubia, by contrast, the impact of Islam until the end of the thirteen century was minimal but during the next two centuries Christianity gradually vanished, being superseded by Islam. Only in the Ethiopian highlands were Christians able to resist. Neither the peaceful penetration of Muslim merchants nor the military campaigns of Muslim states to the south of the plateau shattered the fidelity of the Ethiopians to the faith of their fathers. Although Christianity in Ethiopia emerged from this centuries-old struggle victorious, it remained an isolated outpost amidst a Muslim sea." 

ISLAM SPREADS THROUGH AFRICA

Two different views of the same history.

1. Watch a short youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPPdpXKv_CY

From: http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/students/curriculum/m14/activity3.php

2. From the BBC's The Story of Africa: Islam
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section7.shtml

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Africa

"According to Arab oral tradition, Islam first came to Africa with Muslim refugees fleeing persecution in the Arab peninsula. This was followed by a military invasion, some seven years after the death of the prophet Mohammed in 639, under the command of the Muslim Arab General, Amr ibn al-Asi. It quickly spread West from Alexandria in North Africa (the Maghreb), reducing the Christians to pockets in Egypt, Nubia and Ethiopia.

Islam came to root along the East African coast some time in the 8th century, as part of a continuing dialogue between the people on the East coast and traders from the Persian Gulf and Oman. Like early Christianity, Islam was monotheistic, that is, Muslims worship only one God.
Islam was a modernising influence, imposing a consistent order among different societies, strengthening powers of government and breaking down ethnic loyalties. 

Unlike Christianity, Islam tolerated traditional values, allowing a man to have more than one wife. For many, this made conversion to Islam easier and less upsetting than conversion to Christianity 

In the early centuries of its existence, Islam in Africa had a dynamic and turbulent history, with reforming movements and dynasties clashing and succeeding each other. Gaining power depended on securing trade routes into gold-producing areas in Sub-Saharan Africa. Islamic rulers expanded north as well as south. In the last quarter of the 11th century, Islam dominated the Mediterranean world. 

In the 14th century the Black Death came from Europe and seriously undermined the social and economic life of North Africa, or the Maghreb, as it is known. However Islam remained the dominant religion. 

From the 16th to the 19th century, much of the Maghreb was under Ottoman rule. By the 1880's, Islam had taken root in one third of the continent."

EGYPT BIRTHPLACE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION (PART 2)

From Black Athena (The Fabrication of Ancient Greece). Check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXdgURdWRCA

Examine the claims of Professor Martin Bernal who questions the assumption of the "Europeaness" of our civilization, placing instead the "black" Egyptians and Phoenicians at the center of the West's origin. Black Athena examines Cornell Professor Martin Bernal's iconoclastic study of the African origins of Greek civilization and the explosive academic debate it provoked. This film offers a balanced, scholarly introduction to the disputes surrounding multiculturalism, "political correctness" and Afrocentrist curricula sweeping college campuses today. In his book Black Athena, Prof. Bernal convincingly indicts 19th-century scholars for constructing a racist "cult of Greece" based upon a purely Aryan origin for Western culture. He accuses these classicists of suppressing the numerous connections between African and Near Eastern cultures and early Greek myth and art. Leading classical scholars, on the other hand, contend that Bernal, like the 19th-century classicists he attacks, uses evidence selectively, uncritically and ahistorically to support his own Afrocentric agenda. They argue that cultural diffusion alone can't account for the distinctive achievements of the Greeks during the Classical Period. Black Athena can help students begin to distinguish between sound scholarship and cultural bias - whether inherited from the past or imposed by the present.

EGYPTIAN INFLUENCE ON GREEK PHILOSOPHY (Part 1)

George G.M. James wrote a book entitled Stolen Legacy: The Egyptian Origins of Western Civilization. According to Barnes & Noble:

"Western Philosophy and Civilization did not begin in ancient Greece, as is commonly assumed; many centuries before, the Ancient Egyptians began the very basis of Western European thought in Africa. With thorough research and the eye of a scholar, George James traces the evolution of Western and Hermetic philosophy in Egypt, and its migration to Europe through the Greeks."


From: Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy by George G. M. James
The Journal of Pan African Studies 2009 eBook: http://www.jpanafrican.com/ebooks/eBook%20Stolen%20Legacy.pdf

An excerpt:

Introduction
Characteristics of Greek Philosophy
The term Greek philosophy, to begin with is a misnomer, for there is no such philosophy in
existence. The ancient Egyptians had developed a very complex religious system, called the
Mysteries, which was also the first system of salvation.
As such, it regarded the human body as a prison house of the soul, which could be liberated from
its bodily impediments, through the disciplines of the Arts and Sciences, and advanced from the
level of a mortal to that of a God. This was the notion of the summum bonum or greatest good, to
which all men must aspire, and it also became the basis of all ethical concepts. The Egyptian
Mystery System was also a Secret Order, and membership was gained by initiation and a pledge
to secrecy. The teaching was graded and delivered orally to the Neophyte; and under these
circumstances of secrecy, the Egyptians developed secret systems of writing and teaching, and
forbade their Initiates from writing what they had learnt.
After nearly five thousand years of prohibition against the Greeks, they were permitted to enter
Egypt for the purpose of their education. First through the Persian invasion and secondly through
the invasion of Alexander the Great. From the sixth century B.C. therefore to the death of
Aristotle (322 B.C.) the Greeks made the best of their chance to learn all they could about
Egyptian culture; most students received instructions directly from the Egyptian Priests, but after
the invasion by Alexander the Great, the Royal temples and libraries were plundered and
pillaged, and Aristotle's school converted the library at Alexandria into a research centre. There
is no wonder then, that the production of the unusually large number of books ascribed to
Aristotle has proved a physical impossibility, for any single man within a life time.
The history of Aristotle's life, has done him far more harm than good, since it carefully avoids
any statement relating to his visit to Egypt, either on his own account or in company with
Alexander the Great, when he invaded Egypt. This silence of history at once throws doubt upon
the life and achievements of Aristotle. He is said to have spent twenty years under the tutorship
of Plato, who is regarded as a Philosopher, yet he graduated as the greatest of Scientists of
Antiquity. Two questions might be asked: (a) how could Plato teach Aristotle what he himself
did not know?; and (b) why should Aristotle spend twenty years under a teacher from whom he
could learn nothing?

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.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT EGYPT? (Easy)

Black Heritage Quiz 1

This quiz is primarily about Ancient Egypt

1. Egyptian Leaders were called:

President
Pharoah
Big Chief
Boss Man


2. Egypt is on what continent?

America
Asia
Africa
Egypt is a continent


3. You can find this in Egypt:

Pyramids
Sphinx
Nile
All of the above


4. What DIDN'T Egypt develop?

Mummification
Surgery
Astronomy
Computers


5. The affect of Egypt on Greece was:

Insignificant
Profound
Unsubstantiated
Exaggerated by most European scholars

Fantastic!

ANGOLA GOOD NEWS: OIL RICHES TRICKLE DOWN

Many countries in Africa suffered from poverty and war. Angola was no exception. Luckily, it is now blessed  with peace and oil riches. Some of that money is being used to improve the lives of the general population. Spreading the wealth is the path to long term prosperity.  

Where is Angola?

Check out the Embassy of the Republic of Angola site: http://www.angola.org/

Picture from: African Arguments

http://africanarguments.org/2011/12/13/angola%E2%80%99s-new-oil-banking-legislation-by-kissy-agyeman-togobo-songhai-advisory/

 From The Economist: http://www.economist.com/node/21557811

"Generally deemed wretched after a 14-year war for independence from Portugal followed by 27 years of civil war that only ended in 2002, Angola is now one of Africa’s economic successes—thanks almost entirely to oil. With a population of 20m, it has Africa’s fifth-biggest and fastest-growing economy. Between 2004 and 2008 its GDP surged by an average of 17% a year, topping 22% in 2007. It is the continent’s second-biggest oil producer after Nigeria. Foreign investment is pouring in at a rate of more than $10 billion a year. In the past decade GDP per person is said to have tripled."

AFRICAN KINGDOM, MEROE, ONE OF THE FIRST TO HAVE ELECTIONS

Quote:
"One of the peculiar features of the Meroitic political system was the choice of a new sovereign by election. Classical authors from Herodotus, fifth century BCE, and Diodorus of Sicily, first century BCE express their surprise about this usage, so different from the other ancient kingdoms." from General History of Africa: Abridged Edition  Vol. II page 172

http://www.dignubia.org/maps/timeline/bce-0330c.htm

Background:
Meroe seems to have been a flourishing town at least as early as the eighth century BC. It was situated at the junction of several main river and caravan routes, connecting central Africa, via the Blue and White Niles, with Egypt, and the Upper Nile region itself with Kordofan, the Red Sea and the Ethiopian highlands. Since it lay within the rainbelt, the land about it was seasonally more productive than the region of Napata, and it was thus a somewhat more pleasant place to live. By the third century BC it was only one of several large towns that had arisen in the same region. Bounded to the west by the Nile, the north by the River Atbara and to the south by the Blue Nile, this area, now known as the Butana, was the heartland of the later Kushite kingdom, and came to be known in classical literature as 'the Island of Meroe.' From Nubia Museum http://www.numibia.net/nubia/meroe.htm

Please comment

INVENTION OF WRITING AND ITS IMPORTANCE TODAY

THOTH - EGYPTIAN GOD OF WISDOM AND WRITING 

We rarely think about the fact that writing is a powerful tool; therefore, we take writing for granted. Reams of Black heritage have been lost because records have been destroyed, or accomplishments weren't ascribed to the right people, or the history was not written down. Although we are constantly writing texts or things for work, we seldom write down what is truly important. We rarely write about what we create. We don't write down our thoughts about life, philosophy, or our hopes and dreams.  We don't write our autobiographies. In short, we leave nothing for posterity. Please do not take the gift of writing for granted.

Videos about Origin of Writing in Africa:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUGc2W06rgo Origin of writing in Africa part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bpsIFT4uJo Origin of writing in Africa part 2


More traditional explanation of the origin of writing.

There is not a unique origin of writing; it was independently born in different parts of the world. It seems the first people who wrote were the Sumerians and the Egyptians around 3500-3200 BC. It is not clear which of those two peoples invented writing first, although it seems the Egyptian writing had some Sumerian influence and not vice versa. They were peoples who had known agriculture for some millennia and who felt the need for a system of notation for agricultural products. Usually, sovereigns imposed taxes on their own subjects as agricultural products. They used these resources in order to pay for the construction of palaces and temples, to maintain the army, the court officials, the court, etc. Also in the trade exchanges people felt the need to be allowed to annotate goods. The same is valid for the offers which were brought to the temples. The invention of writing closely followed many other innovations typical of the Neolithic age, such as the construction of cities, the use of bronze, the invention of the wheel, the potter's wheel and the loom for weaving. In this period, agriculture and breeding spread and it was always more important to be able to indicate goods and persons in account documents and in commercial transactions. FROM http://www.funsci.com/fun3_en/writing/writing.htm

KARMAH AND KUSH

"Before the late 1970's scholars saw Karmah and Kush as little more than Egyptian colonial outposts. Racists beliefs that Black Africans were incapable of establishing advanced cultures and civilizations contributed to the misconception. Modern archaeologists have restored Karmah and Kush to their proper places among great cultures in world history. Although they borrowed from Egyptian culture, they were indigenous Black African societies  comparable to Egypt in importance, power, material wealth, and cultural development. The civilizations of Karmah and Kush occupied the Nile Valley between present-day Khartoum (in Sudan) and Aswan (in Egypt)."

from Africana: The Concise Desk Reference 

A-Group Nubia 3100 BCE to 2780 BCE

Around 3100 BCE there flourished in Nubia a culture that archaeologists call A-group, because theirs was the first culture found in upper Nubia.  A-Group remains are quite distinct from those of contemporary Egypt, so there is good reason to suspect that the people differed from the Egyptians politically, linguistically and culturally, and perhaps ethnically. Their unmistakable objects have been found well distributed throughout Lower Nubia, from the Second Cataract north to Aswan, and a few of their objects have been found at Hierakonpolis, site of the earliest Egyptian capital in Upper Egypt. Although a few small and rather poor looking settlement sites were identified before the region was flooded forever by the Aswan High Dam, the A-Group people are known primarily from their much more prosperous looking cemeteries.

Adapted from: http://www.nubianet.org/about/about_history3.html

The most important archaeological source material related to the Nubian A-Group came from about seventy-five village cemeteries. Many graves had rich and varied funeral offerings that consisted of a whole array of indigenous and imported pottery types, including Nubian bowls and dishes with rippled surfaces, delicate thin-walled vessels with red-painted geometric patterns, and Egyptian bowls and wine jars. Among the other finds there were ivory bracelets, stone beads and amulets, mollusk shells from the Red Sea, copper tools, quartzite palettes, mortars and grinders, and female pottery figurines.

The leaders of the A-Group communities probably played an important intermediary role among the fast-developing Egyptian economy, the communities in Upper Nubia and those in surrounding regions, furnishing raw materials of various kinds, including ivory, hardwoods, precious stones, and gold, perhaps also cattle. 

Adapted from: http://www.numibia.net/nubia/a-group.htm

Black Pharaohs from Nubia

This article, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/02/black-pharaohs/robert-draper-text., talks about Black pharaohs of Egypt. Now the concept of race, the way we mean it, was not important in ancient times. In fact, the concept "race" is basically an invention by Europeans who exploited others. Many Afrocentric scholars believe that many more pharaohs were Black than the ones mentioned in this article.

"Piye was the first of the so-called black pharaohs—a series of Nubian kings who ruled over all of Egypt for three-quarters of a century as that country’s 25th dynasty. Through inscriptions carved on stelae by both the Nubians and their enemies, it is possible to map out these rulers’ vast footprint on the continent. The black pharaohs reunified a tattered Egypt and filled its landscape with glorious monuments, creating an empire that stretched from the southern border at present-day Khartoum all the way north to the Mediterranean Sea. They stood up to the bloodthirsty Assyrians, perhaps saving Jerusalem in the process.
Until recently, theirs was a chapter of history that largely went untold. Only in the past four decades have archaeologists resurrected their story—and come to recognize that the black pharaohs didn’t appear out of nowhere. They sprang from a robust African civilization that had flourished on the southern banks of the Nile for 2,500 years, going back at least as far as the first Egyptian dynasty."

African Prehistory Summarized

From General History of Africa: Volume I, Methodology and African Prehistory

In a nutshell, material civilization originated in the tropical latitudes of Africa and Asia in prehistoric times, and then shifted to more northerly latitudes in Europe where, as a result of its enhanced technology and the amassing of capital, its performance has been outstanding.... However, the more the productive forces gain strength, the sharper the conflicts generated by will to power. The struggles for national liberation and social emancipation being waged all over the continent epitomize its rejection of being shackled in the fetters imposed so long ago. It is this struggle for liberation, this unquenchable desire for higher things, free from the constraints of alienation, that have characterized human beings ever since the time when, no longer animals, they stood up and took their first steps. In Africa, the creation of Man by Man, which began thousands of millennia ago. In a sense, Africa prehistory has still not come to an end. 

Ethiopia:The First Civilization

From the blog, "An Ethiopian Journal." I am using this direct quote because of all of the books the author notes.

The Ethiopians were considered as occupying all the south coasts of both Asia and Africa,” and adds that “this is an ancient opinion of the of the Greeks.” Then we have the view of Stephanus of Byzantium, that: “Ethiopia was the first established country on earth; and the Ethiopians were the first who introduced the worship of the gods, and who established laws.” The vestiges of this early civilization have been found in Nubia, the Egyptian Sudan, West Africa, Egypt, Mashonaland, India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Arabia, South America, Central America, Mexico, and the United States. Any student who doubts this will find ample evidence in such works as The Voice of Africa, by Dr. Leo Froebenius; Prehistoric Nations, and Ancient America, by John D. Baldwin; Rivers of Life, by Major-General J. G. R. Forlong; A Book of the Beginnings by Gerald Massey; Children of the Sun and The Growth of Civilization, by W. J. Perry; The Negro by Professor W.E.B. DuBois; The Anacalypsis, by Sir Godfrey Higgins; Isis Unveiled by Madam H. P. Blavatsky; The Diffusion of Culture, by Sir Grafton Elliot Smith; The Mediterranean Race, by Professor Sergi; The Ruins of Empires, by Count Volney; The Races of Europe, by Professor William Z. Ripley; and last but not least, the brilliant monographs of Mr. Maynard Shipley: New Light on Prehistoric Cultures and Americans of a Million Years Age.

Human Diaspora

Modern Humans Evolve in Africa -
from - http://humanorigins.si.edu/human-characteristics/change

"During a time of dramatic climate change, modern humans (Homo sapiens) evolved in Africa. Like early humans, modern humans gathered and hunted food. They evolved behaviors that helped them respond to the challenges of survival. The first modern humans shared the planet with a least three other species of early humans. Over time, as modern humans spread around the world, the three other species became extinct. We became the sole survivors in the human family tree." 

 This is the beginning of African influence around the world. We are all Africans in this sense. It makes the differences in race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation all seem so petty.

Human Origins 2

Great, simplistic description of skin color differences:

http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/genetics/skin-color

Modern Human Diversity - Skin Color

Why do people from different parts of the world have different colored skin? 

Why do people from the tropics generally have darker skin color that those who live in colder climates? Variations in human skin color are adaptive traits that correlate closely with geography and the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

As early humans moved into hot, open environments in search of food and water, one big challenge was keeping cool. The adaptation that was favored involved an increase in the number of sweat glands on the skin while at the same time reducing the amount of body hair. With less hair, perspiration could evaporate more easily and cool the body more efficiently. But this less-hairy skin was a problem because it was exposed to a very strong sun, especially in lands near the equator. Since strong sun exposure damages the body, the solution was to evolve skin that was permanently dark so as to protect against the sun’s more damaging rays.

Melanin, the skin's brown pigment, is a natural sunscreen that protects tropical peoples from the many harmful effects of ultraviolet (UV) rays. UV rays can, for example, strip away folic acid, a nutrient essential to the development of healthy fetuses. Yet when a certain amount of UV rays penetrates the skin, it helps the human body use vitamin D to absorb the calcium necessary for strong bones. This delicate balancing act explains why the peoples that migrated to colder geographic zones with less sunlight developed lighter skin color. As people moved to areas farther from the equator with lower UV levels, natural selection favored lighter skin which allowed UV rays to penetrate and produce essential vitamin D. The darker skin of peoples who lived closer to the equator was important in preventing folate deficiency. Measures of skin reflectance, a way to quantify skin color by measuring the amount of light it reflects, in people around the world support this idea. While UV rays can cause skin cancer, because skin cancer usually affects people after they have had children, it likely had little effect on the evolution of skin color because evolution favors changes that improve reproductive success.

There is also a third factor which affects skin color: coastal peoples who eat diets rich in seafood enjoy this alternate source of vitamin D. That means that some Arctic peoples, such as native peoples of Alaska and Canada, can afford to remain dark-skinned even in low UV areas. In the summer they get high levels of UV rays reflected from the surface of snow and ice, and their dark skin protects them from this reflected light.