The following is based on “Birth of the Negro Myth”, chapter two of Cheikh Anta Diop’s “The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality” (1974):
The Negro Myth is the belief that black people are not as good as whites. And not just in this period of history in certain particular ways, like in weapons or wealth, but in most ways throughout all of history. Because, the myth says, blacks lack brains, morals, reason, civilization, working constitutional government and all the rest.
The myth is so firmly believed that when whites do admit that blacks can equal or pass them in something, like music or art, it is strangely twisted into proof that blacks are less than fully human, that they have more of an animal-like nature.
The myth is so firmly believed that the idea of ancient Egypt being a black civilization seems highly improbable if not laughable. So much so that when archaeologists find the remains of blacks in Egypt or the Middle East they are assumed – without the trouble of a proof – to be slaves.
The myth is so firmly believed that whites saw it as their duty to civilize blacks for their own good – the white man’s burden.
The myth is so firmly believed that that even top black thinkers sometimes believe in it.
Senghor, for example, once said:
Emotion is Negro and reason Greek.
While Cesaire pictured blacks as:
Those who invented neither gunpowder nor compass
those who tamed neither steam nor electricity
those who explored neither the sea nor the sky…
The birth of the myth:
When Egypt fell under foreign rule from about –500 onwards, most of Africa became cut off from the rest of the world for 2000 years. Since people there could make a comfortable living with just a hoe, they fell behind in terms of material progress, though they continued to progress in other ways. Constitutional government, for example, was common in West Africa before it was common in Europe.
When Europeans arrived in West Africa in the 1400s they had far better weapons and ships than anyone in that part of the world. They used this advantage to rob Africa of its riches and make its people into slaves.
Europeans assumed that their material advantage extended to morals, society, government and everything else.
They also assumed this advantage extended to all of history.
This caused them to misread history in certain ways. So, for example, when the French scholar Count Constantin de Volney arrived in Egypt in the 1780s he was shocked to find that the people there appeared to be part black – even though he knew his Herodotus.
The myth started out as an understandable misunderstanding of Portuguese sailors of the 1400s. But it proved so useful an excuse for the slave trade and colonization that it got written about and in time flowered into revealed truth, part of the European mindset.
See also:
This is good stuff! A bit like what I wrote on the Egypt section. But once again, that frigging Egypt! Forget the Egypt! Those guys perhaps could build a huge pile of rocks (I’ve been inside the great pyramid of Giza) but could not do anything for the black people in the west and south of it!
Also the thing about europeans coming into West Africa and subjacating the people over there. I mean, they had very few trade posts there. Very small ones too. The biggest ones were smaller than the houses of movie stars today. The portugese could not even wonder off 20 miles from these without being wiped out by the black nations around.This went on untill 1800’s.
The fact is that the black interior of the continent was too strong and powerfull for the whites untill the late 1800’s! It is a fact! If they could have, they would have taken over the whole thing very quickly, just like they did in Amerticas. But they just could not. In Americas the white europeans wiped out two of the most powerful civilizations in Americas, they killed off whole nations and peoples, wiped out whole cultures etc. They could not do it in Africa. Why? Because they did not want to, because they were such a nice people that even though they killed millions of indians in Americas, they liked the black africans and respected their land?
No. They just could not. They tried. And tried and tried. But they could not do it. The only reasonable explanation is this: something stopped them. And that something was those real black african civilizations.
Just think about the zulus and britts. Makes on wonder, doesn’t it?
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Forget the Egypt!
We can’t. It’s part of our history in addition to its fellow black African civilizations. That’s the point of this series.
The Ancient Egyptians were black – end of story. They may have had other people visiting their lands, but those other people were not regarded as fellow Kemites. They were foreigners, and if you read Kemetic mythology – which I noticed very few Westerners actually do – you will see how lowly non-black foreigners were regarded. Kemet was not some happy multiracial melting pot; I remember that in Civilisation ou barbarie, Diop briefly describes how a white person could be killed on sight in broad daylight in Kemet, without provocation.
Lastly, many of these paintings have faded over the last few millennia, which means that when they were first created, the people in them were painted even darker than what we see now. Once again, very few people tend to bring that up. That their darkness has lasted this long in itself is quite telling.
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Sam, the reason why Europeans were able to so easily conquer the Americas but not Africa was one and the same: diseases. It is estimated that as much as 90 percent of native Americans were killed by diseases brought over by the Europeans. The conquistadores were always heavily outnumbered (although they often had native American allies), but were victorious because the Old World germs were there too, fighting alongside them.
In Africa, it was the Europeans who were at a biological disadvantage, succumbing to tropical diseases against which the locals had much better resistance. I don’t think there were any attempts to invade the African interior with large armies until the late 19th century.
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-I don’t let any myths about Africa bother me anymore. I’ve seen videos of Milton Friedman claiming there was not one wheel in Africa, ppl saying the entire continent was filled with hunter-gathers prior to Europeans, and that blacks never created any writing systems! Some ppl are simply too lazy to escape their ignorance. Ive long accepted that their is no use in trying to teach the world.
-I reject Ancient Egypt as being apart of my history. I seriously doubt I have any ancestors who once lived there. Their race alone is not enough for me to claim them. Ill pass on trying to obtain white approval and validation by pointing at any ancient civilization.
-@Jack
Yes, I remember learning that Europeans would drop like flies when attempting to enter the African interior. My question is what happened in the late 1800s? Surely they didn’t suddenly develop an immunity?
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@ The Cynic
It was in 1820 that the active ingredient (quinine) was first successfully extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree, and in later decades became available for widespread use in Europe. The Europeans finally had an effective and abundant supply of anti-malaria medicine. Other diseases also found treatments that could be mass produces at this time.
Immunity was not necessary.
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I reject Ancient Egypt as being apart of my history. I seriously doubt I have any ancestors who once lived there. Their race alone is not enough for me to claim them. Ill pass on trying to obtain white approval and validation by pointing at any ancient civilization.
Is there a genetic connection to you specifically? Highly unlikely. A cultural, linguistic, and spiritual connection between them and their fellow black civilizations, from which you descend? Most definitely.
Invasion and increasing desertification drove many Kemites south and westward. The Zulu report they themselves were Kemites who left the north many ages ago, seeking greener lands. Diop was able to identify the Kemitic linguistic roots in his own Senegalese dialect of Wolof. Growing up as a Wimbum girl in a Western Cameroonian family (before the imperialists came, we were technically Nigerian ), I learned from my father about how our own words and customs also trace back to those of the Kemites as well.
And like many tribes throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, the Himba of Namibia redden their skin and adorn their hair much like the Kemites did.
Claiming Kemet isn’t about gaining white approval; it’s about telling white usurpers to go to hell and take their “myths” with them. It’s all about us and our interconnectedness, which colonialism and enslavement tore asunder. We don’t even need to talk to them about it.
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Another great post as usual.
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@ankhesen: Well, I can only speak for about what I have seen with my own eyes, but let me ask you this? How come in those same paintings and miniature statues they have these litterally black people among the brown, if your theory of the faiding paint is valid? They do depict absolutely black people, that is black skinned people, among these brown ones which we see usually. In the miniature statues you have the usual brown ones, black ones, yellow ones and even white skinned ones. What does this mean? That some paints faded and others did not? C’mon. You are more intelligent than that.
The same goes with all the other statues and stone carvings etc. You have people who are absolutely surely black with all the features even we associate with black features, down to the hair and lips etc. BUT at the same time they do depict people who are not.
I for one do think that this “Egypt was black” is just an ideological thing, just like the previous one “Egypt was not black” by the whites. They are exact mirrors of each other and do miss the fact that acient Egypt was indeed multiracial. You talk about “visitors” etc. I have never ever seen or heard a single egyptian scripture in which egyptians themselves claim to be black or white or anything like that. They do claim to be egyptians. That should tell you something: they did not think that way.
I find it ironic that after the whites claimed Egypt as their own, the blacks who grew up in that lie and culture (white american) try to do the same from the opposite direction. For me it says a lot of the person who wants to believe in that, it shows that you still cling on the white myths and try to “black wash” them, when in reality there is so much real stuff going on behind this Egypt of our myths.
Replacing the white Egypt myth with the black one just shows that the white angloamerican way of thinking is still influencing black americans. They want to claim something their own and something which the whites have claimed falsely previously. They want to have something Black which the whites have accepted as a Great civilization.
I do not know much about this Kemet stuff, but as someone who has been in several countries in Africa and who has talked with different people and their history, there is no such thing as common history, story that would encompass the various nations into one big happy family of blacks.
Masai from Masai mara does not think that zulu from football team in South Africa belongs the same family or nation or anything. Yoruba boxer from Nigeria does not reagard a somali pirate as a cousin. Ethiopians and eritreans are from our perspective the same, but go tell that to those people. I do not frecommend.
African unity and commonality is a western myth, and a white myth originally. Africa is a whole continent full of peoples, nations and their very own cultures, languages, histories. There is no universal experience in Africa. No more than in Indian subcontinent or in Europe.
Black americans have been trying to re-write african history which would suit their romantic ideas of Motherland etc. for decades. It is understandable but also fantasy. It bothers me a lot for one very simple reason: it is the way the whites tried to see Africa for so long, one big lump.
Also americans, white and black, tend to think Africa in similar context as their own country. It is nothing like. There is not one Africa, not a single african culture or anything like that. So it is so frustrating that very smart and intelligent black scientists waste their time to try to build black mythology in place of the white one, instead of celebrating their true heritage of multicultural black Africa with at least hundreds of civilizations.
Acient Egypt is like a decoy which veils the rest of that wonderful continent and its history. And for the only reason that Egypt has been accepted by the whites into their version of history of civilizations, black americans want to have it as their own because this way they could have a white approved civilization as theirs. When in reality it belonged to the egyptians and still do.
@jack: it still does not explain everything. There were killer diseases in Americas too. By the way, St.Petersburg was built on the malaria infested swapy delta of the river Neva too. In Siberia there were huge areas where the colonists faced all kinds of diseases. There where all sorts of diseases in Indian subcontinent too, including malaria. We can go on and on. But for some reason whites decided that African diseases were too much? Perhaps some did. But all? Not likely.
@king: I think that is the point: industrial revolution was gearing up and europeans started the mass production processes, including medicines and weapons.
@cynic: “Ill pass on trying to obtain white approval and validation by pointing at any ancient civilization.”
My point excately. There were real black civilizations other than the acient Egypt. Why not be proud of them? Why this obsession about Egypt? Because the whites have said that it was a true civilization? Because it is so well known among the whites?
What is wrong with the absolutely black Nubia? Why try to mix it with Egypt? Is Nubia alone not enough? Not enough acceptance among the whites?
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+1 Sam, + effin 1, you have said what I’ve tried to say on several occasions about this focus some Blacks have on Egypt. Its great to admire the culture but some treat it like its the end all be all of Africa.
Thank you for explaining the fallacy with the drive to make Egypt “black”
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There were real black civilizations other than the acient Egypt. Why not be proud of them? Why this obsession about Egypt? Because the whites have said that it was a true civilization? Because it is so well known among the whites?
Egypt is also a “real black civilization”, one of many. The Kemites influenced other civilizations which followed, as did Nubia influenced it. It has its place in the timeline of our history, and will not be dismissed because white people don’t know when to keep their mouths shut.
Hence my previous comment about African interconnectedness…in case anyone’s wondering.
We view things in terms of the “whole.” We are proud of all of our civilizations and legacies, and we get annoyed when non-blacks zero in on one or two – like Great Zimbabwe – and try to claim credit for them. Telling black people to stop talking about Ancient Egypt is like telling us to stop talking about racism, which not-so-coincidentally factors in here. In other words, we’ll stop talking about Ancient Egypt when non-blacks get over themselves and stop trying to take credit for it.
What is wrong with the absolutely black Nubia? Why try to mix it with Egypt? Is Nubia alone not enough? Not enough acceptance among the whites?
None of us have a problem with an all-black Nubia. None of us have said anything’s “wrong” with Nubia, period. The skin color of the ancient Nubians is not in dispute here. If it were, we would be talking about it just as much, believe me.
And this goes for all African civilizations. No one’s trying to whiten or Asianize the Empires of Ghana, Kush, Mali, or Songhai. No one’s even mentioned the Mandara or Zimbabwe or Ethiopian Kingdoms. Most non-Africans don’t know them, otherwise they’d be trying to claim credit/interject their imaginary historical influence there as well.
Let’s not forget that it was colonial policy to teach African children that “their white ancestors” were responsible for all the empires in Africa. It failed, of course, but there was a time when Europeans tried to claim credit for all the great kingdoms on our continent. Egypt’s just been the one they’ve been particularly stubborn about.
Well, whattaya know. So are we.
It was also policy simply not mention the other empires and kingdoms in Africa in schools outside of Africa in order to push the notion that Africans were a people with neither history nor accomplishment, hence the modern widespread ignorance of the other civilizations.
Egypt remains a hot-button issue because whites aren’t the only ones trying rewrite thousands of years of history; Arabs are trying to do it too. And while Africans tend to roll their eyes when white people do it, long-standing tensions with Arabs who still live in Africa tend to complicate things a bit further.
I’ll end this with a Fashion Tip from Moi: telling POC what and how they should focus on concerning their own history is condescending as hell. It’s the classic case of a white person who has gotten too comfortable and started giving opinions about being in a situation they will never fully understand.
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“Europeans assumed that their material advantage extended to morals, society, government and everything else.
They also assumed this advantage extended to all of history”
-Abagond
I don’t know about you all, but this explains alot.
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“Let’s not forget that it was colonial policy to teach African children that “their white ancestors” were responsible for all the empires in Africa. It failed, of course, but there was a time when Europeans tried to claim credit for all the great kingdoms on our continent. Egypt’s just been the one they’ve been particularly stubborn about.”
-Ankhesen Mie
Something about that helps explain why movies based in Ancient Egypt always had white actors.
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Ankhesen Mie,
Brilliant posts! Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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Brilliant comments I mean.
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@Ankhesen
Love your comments.
@ Sam- Spot on about the whole African Unity thing. There is no such thing as African Unity we Africans define ourselves first through our families both nuclear and including our relatives and then our communities and then our tribes and then our country and then finally our bordering neighboring countries and at some point as Africans. We usually feel the whole African unity thing when we are outside Africa because we are the minority or during the World Cup!. But you are right the Maasai man in Kenya does not think that the Wolof man in Senegal is a brother as they do not share a common history, language, culture etc. and that is the truth about Africa.
As for Egypt, as a Kenyan I feel no connection to that ancient civilization at all. The politics and the distortions by the historians does piss me off but there was an article in the National Geographic about two years ago where it was published that some archaeologists proved that there was a black pharaoh that ruled Egypt for like 97 years and he was from Nuba (now South Sudan). There is also more evidence that the ancient Egyptians and the earlier conquerors could not mess with the kingdoms of Kush and Nuba. This is history unfortunately most of African history is not written and/or was not well preserved.
The fact is that we Africans did not have a lot of modern inventions and our modern way of life was introduced to us by the Europeans. The nagging questions for me are:
1.What is the measure of a civilization?
2.Are we as African peoples “primitive savages” because we did not invent modern day “miracles”?
3. Is this the reason why there is such a massive interest in the “colour” of ancient Egypt?
4. What about other great African civilizations? Why can we not talk about those after all there are obviously ours? Timbuktu, Mali anyone? The Swahili coast in Kenya? That is our collective history as a continent.
I think judging from the history I have read of Egypt it was probably a multi-cultural society and issues of race were not a factor in that society. Ankhesen, as a fellow African, maybe I am not seeing the big picture?
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Good post Abagond and it was good to read all the replys
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@Ankhesen
Love your comments.
@ Sam- Spot on about the whole African Unity thing. There is no such thing as African Unity we Africans define ourselves first through our families both nuclear and including our relatives and then our communities and then our tribes and then our country and then finally our bordering neighboring countries and at some point as Africans. We usually feel the whole African unity thing when we are outside Africa because we are the minority or during the World Cup!. But you are right the Maasai man in Kenya does not think that the Wolof man in Senegal is a brother as they do not share a common history, language, culture etc. and that is the truth about Africa.
As for Egypt, as a Kenyan I feel no connection to that ancient civilization at all. The politics and the distortions by the historians does annoy me but there was an article in the National Geographic about two years ago where it was published that some archaeologists proved that there was a black pharaoh that ruled Egypt for like 97 years and he was from Nuba (now South Sudan). There is also more evidence that the ancient Egyptians and the earlier conquerors could not mess with the kingdoms of Kush and Nuba. This is history unfortunately most of African history is not written and/or was not well preserved.
The fact is that we Africans did not have a lot of modern inventions and our modern way of life was introduced to us by the Europeans. The nagging questions for me are:
1.What is the measure of a civilization?
2.Are we as African peoples “primitive savages” because we did not invent modern day “miracles”?
3. Is this the reason why there is such a massive interest in the “colour” of ancient Egypt?
4. What about other great African civilizations? Why can we not talk about those after all there are obviously ours? Timbuktu, Mali anyone? The Swahili coast in Kenya? That is our collective history as a continent.
I think judging from the history I have read of Egypt it was probably a multi-cultural society and issues of race were not a factor in that society. Ankhesen, as a fellow African, maybe I am not seeing the big picture?
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I’ve already said pretty much all I’ve had to say on this topic (so far). Anyone interested in my thoughts need only reread my comments.
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“Most non-Africans don’t know them, otherwise they’d be trying to claim credit/interject their imaginary historical influence there as well.”
hahaha. not likely.
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@malakia: I agree. I think one of big problems here is that the defenition of civilization is still the old (brittish) one. People do not understand that there were mighty empires and kingdoms, nations in sub-Saharan Africa because they tend to seek civilizations which fit to the white defenition of it. Hence the obsession with the acient Egypt, which by the old white defenition can be seen as “legitime civilization”.
The old defenition is based on the existance of stone buildings and monuments and written text. Like there can not be any others. We do know that africans used canoes which could carry up to hundreds of men, which were tens of meters long (Columbus Santa Maria was a boat compared to these, the viking boats were smaller, as were the greek trimares etc). There were whole fleets of these in the big rivers and lakes of black Africa. Many sailing ships in eeastern Africa are explained as arab ones when in reality they were black african ones.
We do know that there were “villages” in which thousands of people lived. Some “huts” of the chieftains and kings were actually buildings bigger than most of the houses in London. There were whole networks of tribal towns, market places, commerce trough the whole continent etc. All of these requier organized society, to put it shortly: a civilization. And when you add the fact that no outsiders, including whites and arabs, could not penetrate this system and continent for centuries, it is amazing that so little attention is given to this real black african history.
I would very much like to learn and read more about these black civilizations and their history. The ones which Malik mentioned, Mali, Timbuktu, coastal region of Kenya etc. Even the inland nations like the masai, who ruled a huge areas in eastern Africa and so on.
@ankhesen:
“Egypt is also a “real black civilization”, one of many. The Kemites influenced other civilizations which followed, as did Nubia influenced it. It has its place in the timeline of our history, and will not be dismissed because white people don’t know when to keep their mouths shut.
Hence my previous comment about African interconnectedness…in case anyone’s wondering.
We view things in terms of the “whole.” We are proud of all of our civilizations and legacies, and we get annoyed when non-blacks zero in on one or two – like Great Zimbabwe – and try to claim credit for them. Telling black people to stop talking about Ancient Egypt is like telling us to stop talking about racism, which not-so-coincidentally factors in here. In other words, we’ll stop talking about Ancient Egypt when non-blacks get over themselves and stop trying to take credit for it.”
Well, first of all, I do not know any “white historian” or person for that matter in Europe who would take credit for acient Egypt. Nor do I. I do not see my self as a racist even though I do not agree with you concerning the acient Egypt. I have been there, I have studied the remains of that civilization and I stand by what I have said: it was a multi racial culture and empire. It was not “black”, if you mean by that what we understand by that term today (racially pure black nation run by blacks etc.). IT WAS NOT WHITE EITHER. It was multiracial.
Egypt was african, yes, but not black african. It is a fact. This has nothing to do with me trying to “claim Egypt white” or “claim credit on Egypt”. It is just a historical fact.
What is interesting is this: why do you wish that Egypt was a black only civilization? Other than afrocentrist romantic ideas, what is it in Egypt that makes it so important that even the historical facts can be ignored for a politically motivated idea? It is as stupid as some whites claiming that Egypt was white. Why repeat that idea just from the opposite end? For political pay back or some other reason?
I am not tellin anyone to stop talking about acient Egypt. I am just wondering the mechanism of thought here: why replace one racist idea with another, particulary when all the evidence tells us that it was not monolithic racially at all. This is puzzling for me, that is why I keep asking. I do not want to offend anyone, or hurt anyones feelings, but I just wonder if it is not the racist heritage of America which influenced american blacks that plays out here. Certainly not one black african has made similar claims nor do they feel the need.
It is very american to make such claims in one way or the other, simplistic “truths” which can be used conviniently as political tools. The african slave trade for example is very dificult thing for many american blacks for obvious reasons, but it was there and it was floursihing, it was a big business even before the white colonists. There fore many american blacks do not wish to talk about it or try to explain it away, in very similar way as the white americans try to explain the whole slavery in USA smaller or a way.
The Black Egypt is such political idea which can be used to boost the morale and self esteem of black americans. No matter that is is not historical fact, it is a very useful and appealing idea. It is romantic idea which can give the opressed people the feeling that once upon a time there was a Golden age when “We” ruled the known world. But by doing so, black americans are doing the same what the white americans have done all along: they are writing history as they please just because they want to.
That is what bothers me in this question of acient Egypt.
It is news to me that any sane white person would claim Great Zimbabwe as white. That is ridicilious beyond everything.
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@ Jason
Well, not always to the extent of claiming direct credit for ancient African accomplishments, but at the very least, trying to discredit them as non-African.
If you are familiar with the ruined stone city of Great Zimbabwe, (Ankhesen also refers to it above) the occupational White Supremacist government of Rhodesia for years denied that it could have ever been produced by poor and ignorant native Zimbabweans. The notion that roving and nomadic visitors to Africa (who also happened to look more like Whites than Blacks) were responsible for anything that looked like high civilization in Africa is not unknown.
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Ankhesen Mie – You are on point girl. BTW, I like your blog page.
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And to Sam – Yes there are other great black civilization such as the zulu, Timboctoo(sp?) and not to mention what the moors did. Put Egypt is what shook the white man up the most.
Egypt (KMT =Kam, Kemet) This is the original name for Egypt just like Her em ahket is the sphinx.
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Great post, thought-provoking comments…very nice.
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Don’t know if you have watched The Lost Kingdoms of Africa documentary on the BBC it should be available on Youtube. Anyway when talking about Europeans coming to Africa the man always said how European did not believe that the African did it themselves. Whether it was the bronze sculptures in Benin or the Castle in Ethiopia there was always Western doubt.
Found them 🙂
First one was on Nubia
Zimbabwe
Ethiopia
West Africa
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Check out this website. This so called conservation work is being carried out by two main groups: EUROPEAN and AMERICAN research teams, and Egyptians working under the auspices of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (formerly the Egyptian Antiquities Organization). White and Arab workers and citizens have and still is erasing the black face off of black history and putting WHITE & ARAB faces on them.
http://www.manuampim.com/Part_I.htm
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Check out this website:
http://www.manuampim.com/Part_I,htm
The so called conservation work is being done by to main groups: WHITE & ARABS. They erase the black face off of our history and put white and arab faces on them. ENUFF SAID!
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Obviously I cant get this website up here. I tried and still nothing but anyway, here it is….AGAIN!
manuampim.com. CHECK IT OUT!!
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^^ That web will show you none believers the lies and secretes whites and arabs hide from the world.
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….and white people (westerners) always never want to believe blacks are capable of anything but killing up each other amoung other things.
thanx for those videos Aiyo.
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Great post/topic. For the life of me, I do not understand why whites/Europeans, middle easterners, Arabs and other non-Blacks/Africans are so obsessed, invested and fixated on stressing/proving blacks/Africans as ‘nothing’, or inferior. To say that it is simple racial, cultural and group competiition does nothing to explain this monstrous ‘need’ to present and ‘prove’ this belief since millenia, or for the last 500-600 years. I do’nt get it.
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@aiyo: Great post that series. Very good series, have seen it thrice.
@keekee: Well, for me it would be no problem if acient Egypt had been black. But it was not. So why say so when you have all these marvelous black african civilizations? I don’t get it. Perhaps, just like you say, it is juts to make the whites mad. If so, then it is a bit funny.
Perhaps the white americans are still saying that black africans could not built civilizations, but not over here. I haven’t heard any serious historian or researcher say that for at least twenty years.
I’m so glad that aiyo put up that link.
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White people have attempted to rewrite African history in the past. A German explorer claimed Great Zimbabwe was built by a lost white tribe, I’ve read old NYT articles with ppl claiming Nubians were white, Ethiopians were “Caucasian/Aryanized.” Europeans were in so much disbelief when they first saw the Benin bronzes that some had claimed the Portuguese were responsible for them. In modern times you might be able to say it’s unlikely, but we’ve seen it done enough in the past.
@Akhesen Mie’
“Is there a genetic connection to you specifically? Highly unlikely. A cultural, linguistic, and spiritual connection between them and their fellow black civilizations, from which you descend? Most definitely.”
There are cultural(architecture, government, etc.), linguistic(English language), spiritual(Christianity), and even genetic(Euro mixture/admixture) connections btwn Jamaicans and England/Europe! Do Jamaicans claim England/Europe as their own though? No! Why? Bc they have nothing to do with their accomplishments or culture! Which is exactly how I feel about Egypt.
I really don’t want to have some long winded debate over this, but I reject this as apart of my history and I don’t consider it West African history at all. You can do whatever you want with Egypt…
@King
Thank you
@Abagond
You shouldn’t 100% trust history from anybody, especially if the historian is highly ideological. A white racist would be much more biased, however white historians aren’t untrustworthy based on their race alone. I would much rather get my history from a simple and sensible white historian than a radical Afrocentrist.
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@KeeKee:
I fixed your links. If you put a bare URL on its own line, it will be automatically made into a link.
Warning: more than two links and your comment will be moderated. But sometimes just one link is enough to get it stuck in the spam filter, as was the case for two of your comments.
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“Because, the myth says, blacks lack brains, morals, reason, civilization, working constitutional government and all the rest.”
I agree 100%.
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thanks Aba. 🙂
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Think of Egypt this way. Imagine that Africa is a mother and Egypt is one of her children. One day, a white man, let’s call him Europe, is walking by Africa’s house and sees Egypt playing with her siblings. He immediately takes a liking to Egypt because he believes she’s beautiful. He insists she looks nothing like her siblings, so he attempts to lure her from her home, and when her mother attempts to stop him, he argues that Egypt looks more like him, and doesn’t belong to her, so she should back off.
This is why there’s so much issue with Egypt. The other African civilizations are not being pulled away from Africa, but Egypt is. Now they’re trying to push the bi-continental theory, because the others haven’t worked. I am tired of hearing nonsense such as: “Egypt is in Africa but it’s not African”–Zahi Hawass.
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[…] at Abagond’s site he has put up a post on Egypt entitled, “Diop: Birth of the Negro Myth”, based on chapter two of Cheikh Anta Diop’s “The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or […]
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This is why there’s so much issue with Egypt. The other African civilizations are not being pulled away from Africa, but Egypt is.
*nods* Like I was just saying….
And because Kemet is so old, geographically convenient, and – just as commenters are displaying on here – many modern Africans don’t automatically connect to it, whites think that if they push hard enough, they can claim it successfully because there won’t be sufficient backlash.
They’re not going to try to claim the Zulu, or the Maasai, or the Yoruba, or even the Himba, no matter how chummy they try to get with them.
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@cynic: Yes, I’ve read about these ridiculous claims in the past, I think there was some nut German or Brit back in the 1920’s who tried to claim that Zimbabwean ruins were the last remnant of the lost civilization of Atlantis.
By the way, that Atlantis myth was a huge thing back in 1800’s when the whites tried to claim all the civilizations as their own. Very simplistic and very convenient: white Atlanteans who went to west to build those pyramids and to east to build those pyramids. I really do not know how many scientists really ate that up but it was serious enough to cause serious debate in academia. Unbelievable stuff.
@mel: I think the problem here is that you wish that Egypt was black only, for various reasons, and since it is in Africa you think it must have been black, because you think Africa as a mythical Motherland, one entity. It never was nor it never will be. Why? Because it is the most diverse continent in the earth. It is the real Eden of mankind, birth place of all of us. That is were from every single human being originates. It is that diverse.
Very few would make the same claims about Asia but Asia is more monolithic than Africa culturally and ethnically, and particularly biologically, India, China, Korea, Japan, China, Malaysia and Thailand included. Very few would make these same claims about Americas either. But for some reason some black Americans try to construct a single monolithic idea of Africa, this romantic Shangri La or Motherland, and, just like the whites before, claim it as their own. On what basis? Skin color alone.
I think nobody with normal intellectual capacity would or could claim ancient Egypt as white. But at the same time, claiming it as black only, in an American sense of the concept, is as simplistic too. It was not. This is not rhetoric, racism, ideological or any other stuff. It is a historical fact. It was a multiracial society. You can see it for yourself if you ever travel to Egypt to check it out, I recommend the wall carvings and pictures in the old tombs of Sakkara for example. Still pretty well preserved, at least were some 20 yrs ago.
@ankhesen:
So now you are saying that modern Africans have no idea about their history and who they are, where they come from etc? That is the American world view right there: patronising and all-knowing, and that I find very offensive towards the real Africans, you know, those who live there and have lived all their lives there.
Sorry ’bout that, but I really do believe that this sentence: “And because Kemet is so old, geographically convenient, and – just as commenters are displaying on here – many modern Africans don’t automatically connect to it” reveals the basic problem of the so called Afrocentrism: it is an American invention to fill the needs of some American blacks. Its attitude towards the real black Africans, especially towards those who do not sign up their claims (such as the Egypt was black), is exactly the same as the attitude of the whites in past: the black Africans today do not know anything, are ignorant, do not understand etc. Very American indeed! Just like in Iraq, Americans know better what is good for the natives who do not understand or know anything about themselves or their culture or their history. Scary stuff indeed.
I am not saying that Egypt was lily white, I am not claiming it for mine, I have no problem with black pharaohs (there were some), I do not wish to prove that ancient Egyptians were Finns in disguise or any of that stuff. All I am saying is this: ancient Egyptians were Egyptians. They thought themselves as Egyptians, they saw themselves as Egyptians, they spoke the lingo, ate the foods, drank the wines, visited the temples, had weddings and funerals as Egyptians in Egyptian way etc. What was their skin color?
I have seen them with my own eyes in Egypt. In Cairo, in museums, in Giza, in Memphis, in Sakkara, in Alexandria, in Eastern desert etc. There is not a single skin color of ancient Egyptians. It was not a white nation, nor it was a black nation. It was a great African civilization and empire. But it was not racially segregated no more than USA today. Look out from your window and you see the skin colors of ancient Egypt.
Africa has produced so many great civilizations in the past that we should bring them forth. Those “real” black African civilizations are worthy of it.
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@ Cynic:
Most of the history you learn in the first 12 years of school in America is ideological trash. The Texas School Board made that apparent last year. Read Loewen’s “Lies My Teacher Told Me”. An excellent book. The history you get at university is much better and more serious, but even there a PhD in history is hardly a cure for racism, unfortunately. I wish it were that simple.
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When I took an anthropology class some forty years ago civilization wasn’t defined by the level of technology. It was simply a culture developed in cities.
One thing I don’t get is why Sudanese would rather be Arab than Nubian. The Nubians had a greater history and a more powerful civilization, than the wandering Bedouins the Saudis wax romantically.
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@Abagond
I agree 100%.
And smdh at that Texas school board travesty. I wish you wouldn’t have reminded me of that mess.
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So now you are saying that modern Africans have no idea about their history and who they are, where they come from etc?
No…I’m saying that, like various commenters on here are displaying, they don’t feel “connected” to Kemet and prefer to focus on the cultures they grew up in. Kemet isn’t a big deal to them; it’s but one of many ancient cultures. That’s a common attitude amongst Africans. Therefore, most of them don’t put up a fight when white people try to take credit for Kemet. The fact that, again, most of them don’t put up a fight is precisely what whites tend to take advantage of.
That is the American world view right there: patronising and all-knowing, and that I find very offensive towards the real Africans, you know, those who live there and have lived all their lives there.
And there’s that classic white behavior right there: argumentative, deaf, presumptuous, condescending, and dictatorial. You don’t define my identity. You don’t know my experiences. You will never have my identity or my experiences. You don’t speak my language or know my history.
But by all means…argue about me anyway.
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“The fact that, again, most of them don’t put up a fight is precisely what whites tend to take advantage of.”
Phase 1 – Take credit for all African civilizations
Phase 2
Phase 3 – Profit!
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@ankhesen:
All I am trying to figure out is that why acient Egypt is so important for american blacks, so much so that they tend to brush aside the sub-Saharan black african civilizations and history. Why is it? Why the obsession about Egypt? Why invent “black history”? To boost egos, to create fictional Golden age for american blacks? What is the real reason? And why the concept is so much similar than the white american ones? You know, “we bring you the Democracy” etc.
In my eyes this is very much american tradition, creating fictional world according ones own beliefs and when the real world does not fit into that, make the accusations about the “others”. But never ever admit that the american idea could be wrong.
Americans have always belived that they know better than the any natives how these should live and what they are and what is good for them. When you say that present day black africans do not know or think the right way, you are setting yourself above them and down playing their cultures and lives. You are not just a black person, but american black, a westener, telling them the Truth according you.
“I’m saying that, like various commenters on here are displaying, they don’t feel “connected” to Kemet and prefer to focus on the cultures they grew up in. Kemet isn’t a big deal to them; it’s but one of many ancient cultures. That’s a common attitude amongst Africans. Therefore, most of them don’t put up a fight when white people try to take credit for Kemet. The fact that, again, most of them don’t put up a fight is precisely what whites tend to take advantage of.”
Have you even considered that the black africans do not feel “connected to kemet” because it has no meaning to them? The cultures they grew up with are in many cases older than egyptian one. Some of them have been inheriting their culture from parents for thousands of years. Some tribes have traditions that go 10 000 years back in time.
And here you are telling them that they do not know nor understand their own history and culture, they do not know here they come from? That they are just basically helpless ingoramuses who do nothing when the “whites” show up and “take advantage” of them? Do you hear what that sounds? Yeah, just like listening a white missionary 100 years ago telling those africans what is truth and what is not. And that is not condescending?
“And there’s that classic white behavior right there: argumentative, deaf, presumptuous, condescending, and dictatorial. You don’t define my identity. You don’t know my experiences. You will never have my identity or my experiences. You don’t speak my language or know my history.”
I am not defining your identity, nor I am saying I speak your language, I am not saying I know your experiences nor I am claiming any of that. But I do know some history and I have been in Egypt and in few more countries in Africa. I have met various people there, talked with them about their histories, traditions, cultures, beliefs etc. And I do know that in most cases they do not see themselves as children of the lost history of anything. In most cases they know very well who they are and what is their history. And they do not need nor want any western outsiders, black or white, to tell them who they are and how they should think about themselves.
Maybe you do not like it, maybe it does not fit in to the afrocentric idea of one huge black nation, Mother Africa, kemet, one roots, one origin, but it is the real deal. It is Africa. The most diverse continent on earth. Even gentically.
By the way, is your only argument that just because I am white and you are black, I do not know anything about Egypt or history? Interesting.
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@ sam – If you had read Ankhen Mie’s comments you would know that she isn’t an American Black.
From a comment of hers above: “Growing up as a Wimbum girl in a Western Cameroonian family (before the imperialists came, we were technically Nigerian ), I learned from my father about how our own words and customs also trace back to those of the Kemites as well.”
You have been repeatedly denying her experience and views as an African who does care about and feels connected to all past African civilizations. So what if the Africans you’ve met haven’t felt that way.
If, as you say, Egypt was indeed multi-cultural, then she (and even American Blacks) have every right to claim it.
Why do some people feel thattheir knowledge, experience, or views are more valid than others? Your comments certainly come across that way.
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It is a historical fact. It was a multiracial society. You can see it for yourself if you ever travel to Egypt to check it out, I recommend the wall carvings and pictures in the old tombs of Sakkara for example. Still pretty well preserved, at least were some 20 yrs ago.
I am not arguing that Egypt isn’t or didn’t become a multicultural society. I accept it as such, even if the hypocrisy bothers me. What hypocrisy? Europeans classify any person as black in western society who has visibly black-African ancestry. By that token, Ancient Egyptians, even if they were mixed, would still be black.
But, that’s not the issue. If, you say Ancient Egyptians were mixed race, and I agree, then why is it white people continue to use that misleading “Caucasian” label to classify Ancient Egyptians? Why is that a person from Egypt is automatically classified as white in the United States today? White people have yet to modify their thinking on Egypt.
Here are some COMMON sense facts.
Egypt is in Africa. It makes more sense to think of the founders of the civilization that would become Egypt as indigenous black Africans than Caucasian/Eurasian/Semitic. These people DO NOT originate in Africa, and came to Africa over the course of the last 3000 years. They are not the original inhabitants. Egyptian civilization started in the interior of Africa, and Egypt came about when Upper Egypt–the southern region, conquered Lower Egypt–the northern parts occupied mostly by Eurasian peoples.
Did Egypt become a multicultural society? Yes. Are the original inhabitants black? Yes. But, like I said. If these people are mixed race, then why label them Caucasian/Eurasian? It’s simple. It’s so white-Europeans can claim the civilization as Caucasian. In his book, Guns, Germs and Steel,Jared Diamond classified nothern /East Africa as Caucasian/whites, completely ignoring the mixture and the indigenous African blood [non-Eurasian/Caucasian] in them.
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Mel,
In his book, Guns, Germs and Steel,Jared Diamond classified nothern /East Africa as Caucasian/whites, completely ignoring the mixture and the indigenous African blood [non-Eurasian/Caucasian] in them.
Yes, but I don’t it’s necessarily fair to single Jared Diamond out in this regard. He wasn’t the first, or the last, or even the most popular historian to do this. And that aside, while Egyptian civilization IS African civilization, it is important to recognize how they differ as an African civilization from, say, the Zulu Nation. We often talk about Africa not being a monolith, or being synonymous with Black people, yet sometimes I think the implications are not often considered fully.
Egypt to me, and to the many historians I read is often associated with Medditeranean civilizations like the Babylonians, Assyrians, like the Greeks, the Romans, and even the Jews, which is to say “White, but not quite”.
However, I do agree with that Egyptian civilization shouldn’t be so often disassociated with African civilizations and African people.
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It is necessary, when in an argument, to make an argument, and sometimes forcefully. Anyone who has taken a position on something thinks that his/her position is closer to the truth than all rival positions – otherwise they would not have taken it.
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@saadiyah: Ok, I stand corrected on that. As for my argument on Egypt, it is based on what I have seen, studied etc. This being said, I really agree that Egypt was african civilization. I do not accept that it is so called caucasian/european/white civilization.
@mel: “Europeans classify any person as black in western society who has visibly black-African ancestry. By that token, Ancient Egyptians, even if they were mixed, would still be black.”
Not so. There is no one drop rule in Europe. Nor there is any discussion that I know of about racial defenitions as such, outside the neo nazis and other nutters.
“If, you say Ancient Egyptians were mixed race, and I agree, then why is it white people continue to use that misleading “Caucasian” label to classify Ancient Egyptians? Why is that a person from Egypt is automatically classified as white in the United States today?”
Now that is a real valid question: why some americans still do think and claim acient Egypt as white, if they really do so? To dissassociate it from Africa? Perhaps. I think nobody in their right mind can claim that acient Egypt was not african civilization. It was.
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@ Mel:
Egypt is in Africa. It makes more sense to think of the founders of the civilization that would become Egypt as indigenous black Africans than Caucasian/Eurasian/Semitic.These people DO NOT originate in Africa, and came to Africa over the course of the last 3000 years. They are not the original inhabitants.
I think our need to categorise people into one thing or another is at fault here. I think Ancient Egypt was both black African and Caucasian/Eurasian/Semitic. Ethiopia is as well.
From what I understand, Caucasian (for want of a better term) people have a much deeper history in North Africa than that, going back at least 12,000 years. The originators of the Afro-Asiatic languages (Arabic, Amharic, Berber, Egyptian) most likely were a mix of Caucasian and East African, probably around the Upper Nile region.
North Africa has become further “Caucasian-ized” by the early agricultural expansion out of the Levant, and later by Arab conquests in the early Islamic era; but the region was already mostly Caucasian, at least along the Mediterranean. The Arab conquest was more cultural and linguistic than it was genetic; lots of North Africans just adopted an Arabic identity, in the same way that lots of black Sudanese just “became” Arabs.
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@ Hathor:
One thing I don’t get is why Sudanese would rather be Arab than Nubian. The Nubians had a greater history and a more powerful civilization, than the wandering Bedouins the Saudis wax romantically.
It’s because the Arabs bought Islam, which is of such paramount importance to Northern Sudanese. The Somalis are not so different, some of them claim that the Somalis have Arab origin. In many parts of the Islamic world, there is a romantic ideal of Arabic culture – its most common amongst those who don’t actually have contact with Arabs!
By contrast, Nubian civilisation is buried in the sands of time, a shadow of its former glory.
But as well, it is common for people with a colonised history to associate themselves with the culture seen as more prestigious. Lots of Filipinos love to claim Spanish ancestry, even though it’s not really all that common. Lots of North Indians and Pakistanis like to claim Persian and Middle Eastern ancestry (some have African ancestry too, but you won’t hear them talk about it).
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@ Sam (and those of a like mind!)
I’ve read you posts and have finally placed you, you’re a patronistic racist ( See Halsted’s 6 types).
With regard to Egypt It was a port from the Middle East to mainland Africa! Like all ports across the world it will be inherently but mixed over time! To use your argument/example that Egypt was neither fully black nor white but mixed what is your ground zero point of reference? Eg. The ports of northern ports of England are filled with mixed race people whose heritage goes back hundreds of years due to the slave trade. So should we consider the England a country born & built of a mixed race heritage? As there are many black people woven into the tapestries of stately home owners and historical pictures & text who were not slaves or house boys. The 1st Gym in the United Kingdom was owned by a black man who was a prize fighter and property mogul it stood where nelsons column stands now! But by this/your measure his should make the UK’s history nether white nor black?
Sam, Egypt’s “mixed” history represents on the last 500-600 of its 10,000 year history (a fact I’m sure you’re aware) which is why less than 10% of known artefacts have Non-African features. For an overwhelming part it’s history Egypt’s was BLACK & AFRICAN, why is this Fact so hard for some people to swallow?
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@ malkia
“the Maasai man in Kenya does not think that the Wolof man in Senegal is a brother as they do not share a common history, language, culture etc. and that is the truth about Africa”
Europeans, a term that ranges from Greece to Ireland (right to left) how well do you think a Irish man relates to a German? Or English to Swedish? Does this stop a Norwegian of being proud of the Scottish invention of television as a European endeavor?
Notice how European is a term used to describe so many different types of people, and is perfectly acceptable. When the term African is used we cannot believe there was any type of bond from north to south between the peoples of that continent?
Ask yourself why we are lead to believe that?
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Who ever made the comment on the slave trade in Africa existing as prior to European interjection?
The Indentured Slave trade was an accord of punishment from tribe to tribe to circumvent wars. I.e. you steal from my village you & your family work of the debt, but you were set free once the debt was paid. ALL HISTORIANS KNOW THIS! When the Arabs & Europeans came settled and were included in the system it was warped to meet there manpower needs.
Once crime could not afford them enough slaves, they were stolen then tribes were threatened with becoming slaves themselves unless they helped capture other tribes for slavery.
To illustrate the double standard of “Africans Helped Slavery” statement, picture a German man saying to you “Jews helped dig the graves and place other Jews in the gas chambers it wasn’t all the Nazi’s Fault” this did happen! Do you blame the Jews?
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“Europeans, a term that ranges from Greece to Ireland (right to left) how well do you think a Irish man relates to a German?”
Not much better than to a man from Nairobi.
“Or English to Swedish?”
Not much different to English to Ethiopian.
“Does this stop a Norwegian of being proud of the Scottish invention of television as a European endeavor?”
Yes, completely.
“Notice how European is a term used to describe so many different types of people, and is perfectly acceptable. When the term African is used we cannot believe there was any type of bond from north to south between the peoples of that continent?”
Do comprehend that the Sahara was a greater barrier than the Mediterranean Sea, as such North Africa has always been much closer to southwest Eurasia.
Ask yourself why we are lead to believe that?
Because there is that bloody big desert…
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@ Teddy
I think we get why there was separation between super-Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa. However, that separation was never a complete bisection of African cultures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Saharan_trade
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@imhotep1975: Well I try to answer to you the best I can. Firstly your claim that I am a racist. No I am not. I do not place any value on so-called race. It is a social and cultural construction, which has no biological base what so ever. Biologically we are all africans, despite the different looks we have. I do not categprise people by the color of their skin or any other thing. You are all individuals for me. I refuse, knowingly, see you as black or white or what ever. I know that it is “just hippie s**t” but that is my take on life. That is what I am living by.
I understand that you do not like my opinion concerning Egypt and that we disagree, but that does not make me a racist. I place no value on my assesment of “multiracial” Egypt one way or another, where as you do. For me it makes no difference what color acient egyptians were, this is not a matter of any racial pride or value for me what so ever. I am talking about what I have personally seen in Egypt, when I spent some months in there way back in 80’s.
If I had seen that all or absolute majority of old egyptians images present absolutely black africans, fine. But they do not. The old egyptian images look like all kinds of men and women, black and brown, white and even yellow. The miniature statues depict men of all colors, of all the “races” sort of speak. Now, for me this is not a question of racial pride or status, this is simply about history as it may have been.
But like I have said elsewhere, I belive that the people who created the egyptian civilization, where the people of the Nile valley. They were africans. They were so called nilotes. Yes, they may have resembled present day ethiopians or jemenis or what ever. I have no problem with that. But the very idea of replacing the white lie about the Egypt with a another demand of racial purity just for the sake of it makes no sense to me.
That being said, I understand what this debate is about after abagond exdplained it to me.
As for your assumed African unity, it flies into the face of the very fact that Africa is the most diverse continent in the earth, both biologically and culturally. Litterally hunderds of languages, cultures, people from Kabylia to Cape, from the coast of Mali to Sansibar. I understand that in the afrocentric idea of the world there is a need to present Africa almost countrylike, a land as it was, which makes it easier to comprehend. But the reality is that there is none in Africa. And I do base this on my travles there back in the days. Just ask any masai does he feel he is a brother of a wolof and he will tell you in no uncertain terms what he thinks about that.
As for the European unity, you do know that it is very recent political idea? It was invented some sixty years ago. Do you know what was the reason? Yeah, a little incident in Europe called World War 2. After that the bosses decided that perhaps it makes more sense to do business than fight wars. Before that there had been wars in Europe evert 20 yrs or so. And if Bosnia or Kosovo says anything to you, you do know that european unity is very thin idea indeed.
I hope this clarifies my views for you. I do remind you that english is not my motherlanguage so from time to time my posts get a bit different meanings from the ones I try to convey.
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What? Sam is a patronistic racist??
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@king: It seems that according to some I am, even if I do not think so myself. I have to ask from my togoan friend tomorrow at the gym what type of a racist I am. He should know. We train together after all.
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It seems that disagreement is automatically assumed to be racism. It’s another way of saying “You can’t be honest with me about what you think, if your skin is a different color than mine.”
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Oh true, King, the problem is that from a biological / biogeographical / paleoanthropological point of view, the Sahara is a much more important barrier than the Mediterranean Sea for the migration of life forms from the Holarctic to the Ethiopic (or Afrotropic) zone. As such it can be argued that the primary division in Man should be between Sub-Saharans and Super-Saharans on a global scale. This of course does not deny the existence of transitional populations, The Nile forms indeed a portal, and thus is in recent times (the last 10,000 years or so) a transitional population with gene flow from and into both the Sub- and the Super-Saharan population to be expected, and so far the evidence supports that.
This portal function, combined with the natural unity of the mediterrenean area (rather upset through the Christian-Islamic series of conflicts), makes the inclusion of Egyptian civilization in the history of European, or better said, Western Eurasian civilization, the correct thing to do, but it should also not be excluded from a history of Sub-Saharan civilizations, it’s a important part of both.
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“Notice how European is a term used to describe so many different types of people, and is perfectly acceptable. When the term African is used we cannot believe there was any type of bond from north to south between the peoples of that continent”
Great observation Imhotep1975!
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[…] "The following is based on “Birth of the Negro Myth”, chapter two of Cheikh Anta Diop’s “The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality” (1974)…Europeans assumed that their material advantage extended to morals, society, government and everything else.They also assumed this advantage extended to all of history.This caused them to misread history in certain ways. So, for example, when the French scholar Count Constantin de Volney arrived in Egypt in the 1780s he was shocked to find that the people there appeared to be part black – even though he knew his Herodotus. The myth started out as an understandable misunderstanding of Portuguese sailors of the 1400s. But it proved so useful an excuse for the slave trade and colonization that it got written about and in time flowered into revealed truth, part of the European mindset." – MORE – […]
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[…] "The following is based on “Birth of the Negro Myth”, chapter two of Cheikh Anta Diop’s “The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality” (1974)…Europeans assumed that their material advantage extended to morals, society, government and everything else. They also assumed this advantage extended to all of history.This caused them to misread history in certain ways. So, for example, when the French scholar Count Constantin de Volney arrived in Egypt in the 1780s he was shocked to find that the people there appeared to be part black – even though he knew his Herodotus. The myth started out as an understandable misunderstanding of Portuguese sailors of the 1400s. But it proved so useful an excuse for the slave trade and colonization that it got written about and in time flowered into revealed truth, part of the European mindset." – MORE – […]
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[…] "The following is based on “Birth of the Negro Myth”, chapter two of Cheikh Anta Diop’s “The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality” (1974)…Europeans assumed that their material advantage extended to morals, society, government and everything else. They also assumed this advantage extended to all of history.This caused them to misread history in certain ways. So, for example, when the French scholar Count Constantin de Volney arrived in Egypt in the 1780s he was shocked to find that the people there appeared to be part black – even though he knew his Herodotus. The myth started out as an understandable misunderstanding of Portuguese sailors of the 1400s. But it proved so useful an excuse for the slave trade and colonization that it got written about and in time flowered into revealed truth, part of the European mindset." – MORE – […]
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are your chapter posts written in your words or diops
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My words. I read each chapter and then wrote a 500-word summary.
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