7 Nights of Learning (NIGHT 7): BLACK HISTORY DOES NOT BEGIN WITH SLAVERY...Much of what is taught and discussed about African history today focuses on the experience of the enslavement of black people in the United States. But when you consider the entire history of Africa, slavery, in perspective, occupies a minor timeframe. Scottish philosopher David Hume, in the 1700s, said of the Negro race: There scarcely ever was a civilized nation of that complexion, nor even any individual, eminent either in action or in speculation. No ingenious manufacture among them, no arts, no sciences... He could not have been more wrong. While Europe was experiencing its Dark Ages, a period of intellectual, cultural and economic regression from the 6th to the 13th centuries, Africans were experiencing an almost continent-wide renaissance. The AXUM (or Aksum) EMPIRE was a trading and military superpower that thrived from 100 to 900 A.D. Axum controlled northern Ethiopia, Eritrea, northern Sudan, southern Egypt, Djibouti, Western Yemen, and southern Saudi Arabia, totaling 1.25 million square kilometers, almost half the size of India. Axum traded and projected its influence as far as China and India, where coins minted in Axum were discovered in 1990. Between 750 and 1078 A.D., the KINGDOM OF GHANA dominated West Africa. Famous in North Africa as the Land of Gold, Ghana was said to possess sophisticated methods of administration and taxation, and a monopoly over notoriously well-concealed gold mines. Ghana was also known for its mighty military. According to one narrative, the king had at his command 200,000 warriors and an additional 40,000 archers. The MALI EMPIRE was founded by Mansa (King) Sundiata Keita and reached its peak in the 1350s. It became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa. He was the grandson of Sundiata’s half-brother, and led Mali into a time of great prosperity, during which trade tripled. During his rule, Mansa Musa doubled the land area of Mali; it became a larger kingdom than any in Europe at the time. Timbuktu, an important city in Mali, became one of the major cultural centers not only of Africa but of the entire world. Vast libraries and universities were built. These became meeting places of the finest poets, scholars and artists of Africa and the Middle East. The first words by humans (SPEECH) were believed to be spoken by Homo Sapiens in sub-Saharan Africa during the Middle Stone Age. In 1999, Archaeology Magazine reported that the earliest Egyptian hieroglyphs date back to 3400 BCE (WRITING). The earliest known surgery was performed in Egypt around 2750 B.C. and the Ebers papyrus (1550 BC) is full of incantations and applications meant to turn away disease-causing demons, and also includes 877 prescriptions. It may also contain the earliest documented awareness of tumors. The Greek poet Homer in 800 BC remarked In Egypt, the men are more skilled in MEDICINE than any of human kind. The African empire of Egypt developed a vast array of diverse structures and great monuments along the Nile (ARCHITECTURE), among the largest and most famous of which are the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Great Sphinx of Giza. The invention of MATHEMATICS is also placed firmly in African history. The Ishango bone, found near the headwaters of the Nile river (northeastern Congo), may be as much as 20,000 years old and consists of a series of tally marks carved in three columns running the length of the bone. Common interpretations are that the Ishango bone shows either the earliest known demonstration of sequences of prime numbers or a six month lunar calendar. Ethiopia was the first established country on the earth, and the Ethiopians were the first who established the necessary concept of LAWS. The oldest ART objects in the world—a series of tiny, drilled snail shells about 75,000 years old—were discovered in a South African cave. Black history is the history of enslavement. African history is the history of humanity.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 03:30:04 +0000
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