igbo2011:
Every single thing I do in my life is for the benefit of the Pan Aferican ommnity. The reason I get up is to make ifference. I go to school to make a diferene. Every ay I think of ways to make a difference. I made a site www.africanedp.com to promote our economies. My facebok page is gaining popularity www.facebook.com/africanedp Makes me wonder - is it really possibly to separate afrocentrism from pan-africanism in the real world? I know there are good ivory tower definitions for both words, but I think in practice, in the face of the reality of racism and slavery, you cant be one without the other. eGuerrilla: @igbo2011,
I posed my earlier question because, I think, Afrocentricity, much like Pan-Africanism, poses a particular challenge for Africans on the continent. As both ideals bring into sharp focus a material reality of unresolved chasms (take a look at some of the busiest discussion threads these past few days), what most adherents manage can best be described as a "fudge" which has more in common with Senghor's negritude movement and Mobutu's Africanization program.
In a sense, this strain of Afrocentricity - if one can call it that - does not stand on its own merits. why not? I see existential flaws in classic negritude, but I dont see how being on the defensive is a bad thing. I cant see how the alternative, to not react, would be any better |
Rossikk: I'm beginning to hate that term 'Afrocentric'.
[size=58pt]I prefer the term 'Truthcentric'.[/size]
So called 'Afrocentrics' are merely Truthcentrics who have rejected the 'whitewashing' of history by European newcomers to civilization. Truthcentrics believe in telling it like it is. For instance, if the ancient visitors to Egypt, the world's first major civilization, which gave birth to mathematics, chemistry, architecture et al, ALL wrote that the ancient Egyptians were blacks ''with wooly hair'', then it means they were black Africans, and that black Africans were the architects of our current global civilization. No argument. No need for DNA testing, or debate. Why would Herodotus, Aristotle, Homer, Diodorus Sicilius, Lucian, Appolodorius - ALL sages of classical western history and writing, tell a lie?
So Truthcentrics believe that, based on historical records, no African has ANY REASON WHATSOEVER to go around feeling less worthy or less able than any European or Asian. Or feel pressured to adopt the ways, religions, habits, and beliefs of these peoples, who, figuratively speaking, were babies when we were grown ups, civilizing the world and inventing things.
Today, Truthcentrics laugh in amusement and pity when they see Africans - who gave the world religion - falling over each other to worship foreign gods and deities.
Blacks were referred to in the ancient mediteranean world as Kushites or ''Ethiopians''.
Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, author of Bibliotheka Historica. From his own statements we learn that he traveled in Egypt around 60 BC. His travels in Egypt probably took him as far south as the first Cataract.
"They (the Ethiopians) say also that the Egyptians are colonists sent out by the Ethiopians, Osiris ["King of Kings and God of Gods] having been the leader of the colony . . . they add that the Egyptians have received from them, as from authors and their ancestors, the greater part of their laws."
Much of Book 3 of the Bibliotheka Historica is devoted to the intertwined histories of Dionysus and the god-favored Ethiopians whom he believed to be the originators of Egyptian civilization.
(1st century B.C., Diodorus Siculus of Sicily, Greek historian and contemporary of Caesar Augustus, Universal History Book III. 2. 4-3. 3)
Diodorus devoted an entire chapter of his world history, the Bibliotheke Historica, or Library of History (Book 3), to the Kushites ["Aithiopians"] of Meroe. Here he repeats the story of their great piety, their high favor with the gods, and adds the fascinating legend that they were the first of all men created by the gods and were the founders of Egyptian civilization, invented writing, and had given the Egyptians their religion and culture. (3.3.2).
"Now they relate that of all people the Aithiopians were the earliest, and say that the proofs of this are clear. That they did not arrive as immigrants but are the natives of the country and therefore rightly are called authochthonous is almost universally accepted. That those who live in the South are likely to be the first engendered by the earth is obvious to all. For as it was the heat of the sun that dried up the earth while it was still moist, at the time when everything came into being, and caused life, they say it is probable that it was the region closest to the sun that first bore animate beings".
Diodorus continues:
"They further write that it was among them that people were first taught to honor the gods and offer sacrifices and arrange processions and festivals and perform other things by which people honor the divine. For this reason their piety is famous among all men, and the sacrifices among the Aithiopians are believed to be particularly pleasing to the divinity,"
"The Aithiopians say that the Egyptians are settlers from among themselves and that Osiris was the leader of the settlement.The customs of the Egyptians, they say, are for the most part Aithiopian, the settlers having preserved their old traditions. For to consider the kings gods, to pay great attention to funeral rites, and many other things, are Aithiopian practices, and also the style of their statues and the form of their writing are Aithiopian. Also the way the priestly colleges are organized is said to be the same in both nations. For all who have to do with the cult of the gods, they maintain, are [ritually] pure: the priests are shaved in the same way, they have the same robes and the type of scepter shaped like a plough, which also the kings have, who use tall pointed felt hats ending in a knob, with the snakes that they call the asp (aspis) coiled round them."
"There are also numerous other Aithiopian tribes [i.e. besides those centered at Meroe]; some live along both sides of the river Nile and on the islands in the river, others dwell in the regions that border on Arabia [i.e. to the east], others again have settled in the interior of Libya [i.e. to the west]. The majority of these tribes, in particular those who live along the river, have black skin, snub-nosed faces, and curly hair".
(Diodous Siculus, Bibliotheke, 3. Translated by Tomas Hagg, in Fontes Historiae Nubiorum, vol. II: From the Mid-Fifth to the First Century BC (Bergen, Norway, 1906))
...............
So why are Africans today suddenly believing that unless you worship the god of the Jews and Arabs, you cannot possibly be worshipping the Creator?
HOW DID THE TEACHER BECOME STUDENT?
These are the sort of questions Truthcentrics ask, and demand answers to.
Ancient Africans were known globally for their honesty, piety, and near-divinity.
A people specially favoured by heaven.
Read more about ''the blameless Ethiopians''.
http://books.google.com.jm/books?id=a-NmaO-kM2UC&pg=PA166&lpg=PA166&dq=the+blameless+ethiopians&source=bl&ots=qL7IKErA2Q&sig=JzIaAEiCFVbu9-puDZOshMR1Y1Y&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jdsJUui6CsP0yQG9nYHYDQ&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=the%20blameless%20ethiopians&f=false
THANK YOU!!!!  |
