AFRICA: IN THE BEGINNING

Revelations about Africa being the point of origin for all of humanity, which includes civilizations, has become undeniable.  In spite of this, there has been increasing confusion about the contributions of the Africa and its people to the development of the entire world.  Specifically, the more evidence that has emerged to show that all people of the world today can trace their religions, cultures, and ways of knowing to Africa has been met with a corresponding lack of knowledge and outright denial of this by people of African and non-African heritage.  Furthermore, the more evidence that emerges that shows that the indigenous people of Africa and all over were Black and defined themselves as Black has also been met with a corresponding lack of knowledge and outright denial of this by Black and non-Black people.  This paper will set out to dispel all myths and confusions about Africa and its people.  This paper will argue that not only was Africa the birthplace of all civilizations but that its people were Black.

The viciously destructive idea that Africa was and is a primitive continent waiting to be civilized although would not be openly admitted to by most but is still held on to by many.  Africa and its people are the cradle of all civilization and there is nothing on this planet that has been brought to Africa contemporarily that was not already known about.  The current state of Africa and its people must be understood as an imposed reality that is actually quite foreign.  Hunger, poverty, homelessness, disunity, fragmented families, civil wars, and weak leadership are a relatively recent phenomenon.  However, we have become so accustomed to these images and portrayals that any sort of look at Africa and its people outside of this is very disorienting.  Therefore, this paper will highlight the most hidden aspects of civilization that are undeniably African in origin.  This will be done by looking at organized spirituality or religion, expeditions, and technology and science.

WHO WERE THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA?

Before looking at the contributions of the people of Africa we must understand that the people of Africa were Black.  Chancellor Williams makes it very clear that “Africa, all Africa, is the native homeland of the Blacks.”   It is must be important to remember that non-Black people were not a reality in Africa and around the world for thousands of years (which is a modest estimate).  However, a cursory look at how identity was constructed it can be clearly seen that the people of Africa self-identified as Black.  This is an important point because Black identity was neither defined by oppression nor in relation to non-Black people (i.e the people of Africa were Black because they are not white); Black defined Black.  For example, if we were to look at Osiris (Azar), the greatest of Egyptian gods, one would notice that he was called "The Great Black".  His chief title gleans “Ford of the Perfect Black” who was sun-rayed with a complexion that was black and hair that was woolly.   Understanding that the people of Africa are Black can allow us to gain further insight into the significance of their creations.

ORGANIZED SPIRITUALITY/RELIGION

Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan shows that the very first “Bible” or “Scroll” on record produced by man, with regards to paying honour and divine respect to a Creator of all mankind, was that of the African People of the Nile Valley and Great Lakes regions of Central, East and Northeast Africa.  It was called by its African creators and developers The Book of the Coming Forth By Day and By Night. It was translated from its original Heiroglyphic Text into the English language by many Europeans since the latter part of the 19th Century A.D.  The easiest one to read is called The [Egyptian] Book of the Dead.

One can also look to Isis (As-t), the husband of Osiris, who was the greatest of the African Goddesses.  She was worshipped throughout the ancient world in not only Kemet (Egypt) but also Greece, Rome, and beyond.  She was known under many names and was considered the “Queen of Heaven” and the “Goddess from whom all becoming arose.”  In fact, the worship of her survives today under the guise of the Black Madonna throughout Catholic Europe.

Kar of Africa's Nile Valley was the inner soul of Mother Earth, a beautiful ebony virgin who was the "Heart of the World."  Shrines of Karnak in Egypt and Carnac in Brittany were dedicated to Kar, the Goddess of Agriculture, especially the growth of grain. She was Kore to the Arabs and Greeks, Ceres to the Romans. Derivatives of her name include cereal, corn, kernel, cardia (heart), care, and cherish. If you cut an apple transversely, you will discover that every apple has a "Kore," the magic pentacle which is her symbol.

EXPEDITIONS

Paul Barton shows that the earliest people in the Americas were Black people, who entered the Americas perhaps as early as 100,000 years ago, by way of the Bering Strait and about thirty thousand years ago in a worldwide maritime undertaking that included journeys from the then wet and lake filled Sahara towards the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, and from West Africa across the Atlantic Ocean towards the Americas.  According to the Gladwin Thesis, this ancient journey occurred, particularly about 75,000 years ago and included Black Pygmies, Black “Negritic” peoples and Black Australoids similar to the Aboriginal Black people of Australia and parts of Asia, including India.

Furthermore, we can see travels to many lands that are not traditionally associated with Africa or Black people.  The famous Greek historian Diodorus Siculus penned that "from Ethiopia [Osiris] passed through Arabia, bordering upon the Red Sea as far as India.... He built many cities in India, one of which he called Nysa, willing to have remembrance of that [Nysa] in Egypt, where he was brought up."

If we were to look more contemporarily, we can also see the significant travelling to and cultivating of Europe.  John G. Jackson shows that the Moors, who were Muslims from the North African region known today as Morocco, are famous for their migrations to Spain and completely transforming Europe bringing these people out of the “Dark Ages” and sparking The European Renaissance.  The Moors were in Spain from 712-1485 AD developing advanced civilizations which was commonplace in North Africa.  Education was universal in Moorish Spain, available to the most humble, while in Christian Europe ninety-nine percent of the populace were illiterate, and even kings could neither read nor write.  In the tenth and eleventh centuries, public libraries in Europe were non-existent, while Moorish Spain could boast of more than seventy, of which the one in Cordova housed six hundred thousand manuscripts.  Christian Europe contained only two universities of any value, while in Moorish Spain there were seventeen great universities.  The finest of these were located in Almeria, Granada, Juen, Malaga, Seville, and Toledo.

TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE

Looking to Dr. Ben once again valuable insight is given to the vast amount of contributions from African people.  He shows that Africa gave to the world the calendar in 10,000 B.C.E. (Before the common "Christian" Era), which is 8,000 years before Adam and Eve. They revised the dating system because of their understanding of the astronomical calculations. It is the science of astronomy that gives the ability to read calendars.  The term is self explanatory in that the solar calendar showing the relationship of the moon and the sun giving us the basis of the present calendar, with 364 days corrected each year, instead of 365 days corrected each fourth year.  The first European writer, Homer, had not been born yet and when Homer was born and finally became literate because of the teachings the Africans gave him, he too corroborated the evidence by stating that even the gods of Europe, Greece in particular, which was then called Pyrrhus, came from Ethiopia.

Moreover, we can also see the mastering and perfection of complicated medical procedures.  On the walls of the Temple of Kom Ombo, the Kemites have left records of the original medical tools they used in their operations. These tools consist of forceps, aircups, knives, sponge, scissors, triceps, a balance to weigh portions of medicine, a retractor to separate skin, a birthing or delivery chair and the origin of the modern-day RX prescription symbol. These tools are chiseled into the stone walls. In 47 B.C., the medical doctors in ancient Kemet, delivered Cleopatra VII's son named Caesarion ("Little Caesar"). The medical procedure performed by these African doctors in the B.C. era to deliver this boy-child is called the Caesarean Section in our A.D. era. And to confirm the medical originality of the Africans/Kemites, The Plain Dealer reported on 9 January 2004 as follows: "the physicians of ancient Egypt not only performed orthopedic surgery; they also outfitted some of their patients with prosthetic devices--- German physicians described "the body of a (mummified) woman probably in her 50’s, whose foot had a prosthetic big toe. Carved from wood and attached to two small woven plates, the device was tied to the forefoot with a string."

Now, while the Africans/Kemites were writing these medical texts and performing all these medical operations, the Greek Hypocrates, was not born yet, until 333 B.C.----almost 2,000 years after the African originality in medicine. Imhotep, the world's "first recorded multi-genius" is regarded as the real Father of Medicine. He was born in 2800 B.C.  So instead of taking the derived European-Greek Hypocratic Oath, (which contains two African/Kemetic Gods Heru and Imhotep), medical students today should take the true, original Imhotep Oath.

It would be very simple to continue on with the stating of the endless amount of facts but instead what must be done is to develop a new way of looking at how this information must be conveyed.  For the non-Black communities, a complete transformation must be necessary once again to bear witness to their mothers and fathers of civilization: the Black woman and man.  For the Black community, a complete transformation is necessary so as to take back this ancient knowledge that has been forgotten.  The purpose of this would be to restore the order that has been lost by humanity.