The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams - Politics (7) - Nairaland
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| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 3:33pm On Feb 27, 2012 |
[b]between Gao and Agadis . Its history under a long line of dias (kings) can be traced back to the 7th century . The 16th ruler, Dia Kossoi, was crowned at Gao early in the 11th century and the capital moved there . The capture of that city-state from the Sorko people in the 7th century was the early beginning of Songhay expansion . The Songhay were one of those unique peoples who as a whole can be characterized as highly intelligent, industrious and aggressively invincible both as traders and warriors . With the capture of Gao their success was assured, for this was the important caravan center for international trade . It dominated the commerce of the central regions of the Western Sudan, controlling the flow of gold and vory from the southern forests and the precious salt trade from the Taghaza mines in the northern desert . This was an intolerable situaticn for the still powerful Mali . Therefore, in 1325 Mansa Musa sent several divisions under his ablest generals to bring Gao and other Songhav pretended loyalty and wholehearted allegiance to the Mali empire while busily rebuilding and reorganizing their armies and political structure . They discontinued the rule of the dias in 1335 and started of sunni . The second sunni of the new line, Sulieman-Mar, was able to break away from Mali and declare Gao indepeidence in 1375, just fifty years after being under the empire's rule . There followed a long period of relative calm and inaction . The record indicates that the fortunes of the nation rose or fell according to the character of the leadership . So it was that rapid expansion in all directions was resumed when Sunni Ali, perhaps the greatest of Songhay emperors, came to the throne in 1464 . He became a nominal Muslim for the same economic reasons that influenced other black kings : The Muslims not only controlled trade with Asia and Europe, but they also dominated trading activities in towns and cities through resident merchants . The wealth of the nation depended very largely on cooperation with them . The African people, on the other hand, were generally anti-Islam . The problem of all African kings was how to be a Muslim without alienating the people . Sunni Ali was powerful enough to play it both ways . It became clear to the Arabs and Berbers that his real loyalty was to the traditional religion of the Africans . They never forgave him . However, at the close of his 35 years of leadership as a great general and statesman in 1492, the Songhay empire rivaled that of Mali in wealth and territorial expansion . The two principal seats of Learning, Timbuktu and Jenne,[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 3:42pm On Feb 27, 2012 |
[b]had been incuded in Songhay's northward and westward sweep . It was at Timbuktu that two of the great African writers of the period wrote their famous histories in Arabic . Tarikh al Fattash, by Mahmud Kati, and Tarikh Al Sudan, by Rahman as Sadi . The most famous African scholar during this period of Songhay's intellectual flowering was the biographer aid lexicographer, Ahmad Babo, 3 born in 1526 . They all wrote in Arabic, just as Black Americans, today, all write in English, and for the same reasons . THE BLACK REVIVAL OF LEARNING Songhay's greatness was due to something more than the remarkable expansion of its empire over a territory larger than the continent of Europe . That was great, but greater by far was the grand scale on which the revival of learning spread among the Blacks of West Africa-The Western Sudan, or "Land of the Blacks ." Three of the principal centers of learning were at Jenne, Gao and Timbuktu . At the head of the educational system at Timbuktu was the world famous University of Sankore, drawing students from all West Africa and scholars from different foreign countries . It was especially noted for its high standard of scholarship and, therefore, exacting admission requirements (about which there were some complaints) . The University structure consisted of a (1) Faculty of Law, (2) Medicine and surgery," 3) Letters, (4) Grammar, (5) Geography, and (6) Art . (Here "Art" had to do with such practical training as manufacturing, building and other allied crafts . After the basic training the expertise required was through the traditional apprenticeship system in the various craft guilds .) There were thousands of students from all parts of West Africa and other region . We have no record of the exact number . The accounts also mention the large number of scientists, doctors, lawyers and other 'scholars at the University without giving the exact number-perhaps not considered necessary in the 15th and 16th centuries . And there is something else that simply had to exist underneath this university system for which there is no record, account, or even a ---------------------------------------------- Notes 3. Some witers, including E .W. Bouil, classify him as Berber or Afro- Berber.[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 4:00pm On Feb 27, 2012 |
[b]passing reference . This was the West Afrcan elementary and secondary school system without which there could not have been a University of Sankore with such high standards for admission . As we have shown, the Muslim religion and its Arabic language had spread over much of West Africa, and had been embraced particularly by black rulers, notables and merchants, along with the immediate followers of all of these . The masses held on to the African religion, although thousands of these also found it expedient to pass as Muslims in towns and cities . The Arabic language, unlike any other in the world, had a three-way advantage in its spread . Like Latin in europe at the time, it was the language of religion and learning ; but unlike Latin, Arabic was also the language of trade and commerce . This latter use made it more widespread among the Blacks than it would have better otherwise . Arabic, therefore, was the language used by black scholar in West Africa whether they were Muslims or not . But the study i the Islamic Koran, law and literature was at the core of the University's curriculum . And all this made the wide-spread revival of learning in Africa appear to be an entirely Muslim affair . The fact is that the thirst for learning was so compelling that the introduction of any written language after the loss of their own native writing was welcomed as a godsend. To be able not only to read and write again, but also to advance to higher education was far more important to Africans than the vehicles of religion as media, whether Muslim or Christian in centation . For the Muslim and Christian missionaries religion was then main objective ; but for most Africans education was the main objective . It may not be without significance that the renaissance in Africa occurred at the same time it developed in Europe, between the 15th and 16th centuries, and that both in Europe and Africa Islamic sources were the catalysts . For the Arabs, like the early Greeks, had advanced their civilization by systematically drawing heavily on the cultures of pre-existing civilizations with which they came in contact as they spread out from the deserts of Arabia to distant lands . They enriched and expanded their own language in a well organized enterprise in copying the most important literature they could find . The most important classical manuscripts had disappeared from Europe entirely during the so-called "Dark Ages ." The only sources existant were those copied and preserved by the Arabs, without which scholars generally agree, the great European Renaissance could not have occurred .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 4:04pm On Feb 27, 2012 |
[b]In this region of Africa, as elsewhere wherever Asian and European influence prevailed, the destruction of black civilization was real, not imaginary. But in this widespread destruction something was generally missing, enough to give posterity a clear idea of the state of things which were . Of the period only three great black writers escaped the "Blackout," Mahmud Kati,Rahman es Sadi, and Ahmad Babo . Who were the others? Babo, the last black president of the University of Sankore, tried to tell us in his series of biographies . But these, too, were destroyed along with forty other works of which he was the author . There seems to be no question at all about Babo being the greatest and most prolific African writer and scholar in the 16th century . Perhaps "African" should be dropped here, for who else, Asian or European, authored a comprehensive dictionary and forty other works during this period? His fame as a scholar-educator spread to distant lands . In the Muslim destruction of the Songhay empire, the main centers of learning with all of their precious libraries and original manuscripts were destroyed first . Then the age-old practice was adopted of seizing all men of learning and skilled craftsmen for enslavement and service to the conquerors . Foremost among those captured and carried off to the Magreb was Ahmad Babo . There he was treated as an honored guest and instructed to use his great learning in the service of his conquerors, the Moors . Now, again,just who were the Moors? The answer is very easy . The original Moors, like the original Egyptians, were Black Africans . As amalgamation became more and more widespread, only the Berbers, Arabs and Coloureds in the Moroccan territories were called Moors, while the darkest and black-skinned Africans were called "Black-a- Moors." Eventually, "black" was dropped from "Blackamoor ." In North Africa, and Morocco in particular, all Muslim Arabs, mixed breeds and Berbers are readily regarded as Moors . The African Blacks, having had even this name taken from them, must contend for recognition as Moors. We do not know whether Babo continued to write and publish any more books during the remaining years of his captivity in Morocco, as indeed we are ignorant of even the titles of the forty books he is known to have written . But suppose just four or five of his works had escaped destruction and came down to us! Or even just one. And yet we are only considering what the African race has lost from just one man, and not the countless others whose very names were erased along with their[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 4:07pm On Feb 27, 2012 |
[b]works . It should be needless to point out in this connection that just as Blacks profit from the best works by white scholars, whites can and do profit from the contribution of Blacks to the advancement of knowledge. Therefore, the destruction of Babo's works and those of other Blacks was the destruction of an essential part of world civilization . In considering the flowering of learning in West Africa and its brutal interruption by the Moors, certain important facts should stand out because they run through the entire field of black history . The first, and perhaps the most important fact is that the general enslavement of Africans (proclaimed to the world as savages) began during the very period and in the very West Africa, the center of which held one of the great universities of the world and other colleges . The second important fact is that Black Muslims were not spared from destruction by non-Black Muslims . The third all-important fact was the non-enslavement of Mulattoes and their classification as "white," Egyptians and Moors . This crucial fact must not be glossed over, as it has been throughout our history, first, because there were many tribes or societies in Africa which were exclusively Mulatto (to use the term loosely) . Nothing was more characteristic of the mixed breed clans, tribes or societies than their unceasing efforts to emphasize their separate identity, and their constant fear of being considered "Negroes" or Black Africans . Hence, their over-anxious crusades or jihads against black states and their spearheading most of the slave raids in Africa . They further emphasized their "ethnic difference" by always retaining thousands of black slaves in their own service, while selling the others . The white man, by driving his offsprings as a wedge into the black race is not only able to keep it weak by keeping it divided, but he is able to maintain effective control over it without the necessity of his own presence . The most murderous of the Mulatto slave traders was Tippu Tib, with his slave empire headquarters on Zanzibar . His slave trails extended in every direction from the East Coast far into the interior where white slave traders feared to go . But Tib's agents and slave caravan leaders were generally coloured like himself . And since Black slave armies were always both the backbone and spearhead in European and Arab adventures, the record should be clear in identifying all of the participants in the slave-hunting crusades in Africa . There were, therefore, more significant factors in the destruction of this larger-than-Europe Songhay empire and its advancing educational system than is evident from a summary statement that it was "destroyed by the Moors ."[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 4:09pm On Feb 27, 2012 |
THE BLACK MUSLIM TRIUMPH AND THE END To be continued, |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:14pm On Feb 28, 2012 |
[b]THE BLACK MUSLIM TRIUMPH AND THE END Sunni Ali was succeeded by Sunni Baru in 1492. He refused to compromise with Islam at all, defended the African religion, and thereby lost the support of the towns and cities which were the centers of Muslim power . He was deposed after a year, thus paving the way for Sunni Ali's chief minister, greatest general, and most ardent and sincere Black Muslim, Muhammad Ture . He became emperor in 1493, with the military title of Askia . He matched Sunni Ali not only by reigning thirtyfive years, but by extending the empire eastward over the Hausa States across Northern Nigeria, northward over the Sahara beyond the Taghaza salt mines, and westward to the Atlantic Ocean . He had earned the name by which he is best known, Askia the Great . At the age of 80 he was deposed by his eldest son in 1528 and died ten years later . His successors were generally weak and had short reigns . Weak leaders and short reigns led to internal conflicts and social, political and economic disorganization . These conditions were signals for revolts by conquered states and attacks by others . In 1582 the Hausa States regained independence and within a few years the Mossi States renewed their attacks . The Sultan of Morocco, Mulay Ahmad, now saw his opportunity to capture the salt mines of Taghaza and the gold of Songhay . Armed with guns and cannons (then available to African armies) the Moroccans met the Army of Songhay under Askia Issihak at Tondibi in 1594. Spears and arrows had to give way to gunfire . Thereafter the Songhay forces split up into small units to harass enemy garrisons and outposts in surprise attacks . These attempts to dislodge the invaders lasted over 70 years . But the Songhay of glorious memory was no more. The armies of Islam continued their triumphant march in Africa, destroying its basic institutions wherever they could do so . THE REMARKABLE MOSSI They never called it an "empire ." They called it the "Mossi States ." We let it go at that . But it was, in fact, an empire if the same definition is applied as it is in other areas of the world. It was a union of kingdoms, similar to other core groups whose expansionist proclivities create empires. It differed markedly in the pattern of centralized authority. The traditional African political system of local autonomy was main[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:22pm On Feb 28, 2012 |
[b]tained in the independence of the individual states that made up the empire. There were five "core" kingdoms : Wagadugu, Yatenga, Fada- Gurma, Mamprussi and Dagomba . Each had become a kingdom independently of the others, each as powerful as the other. The union of these states was inspired by the bonds of kinship, a common Mossi origin . Although located southward between the great arms of the Niger river and almost surrounded by the expanding empires of Mali and Songhay, neither was able to subdue and bring the Mossi within their empire. Quite the contrary, with the greatest and most dashing cavalry forces in Africa, the Mossi carried the war to them . The Mossi nation is another case study because it is also a typical example of migrating Blacks who united to form new and larger political entities, conquered the people whose homeland they invaded and, at the same time, showed wide cultural variations while holding steadfastly to the fundamentals of African constitutional principles . They were reflected not only in the political organization of African states, but also in the conquerors' respect for the land rights of those whose original homeland it was . In short, the rights of coinquest did not include ownership of the land-a fundamental constitutional principle . I have emphasized the difference between two main types of migrations: The slow and almost leisurely movements of people over countless centuries because of the no longer tolerable conditions of climate and soil; and the stepped-up migrations, amounting to refugee flights, because of increasing invasions from Asia and Europe . It is these latter causes with which we are now dealing . They increased as the Arabs overran the Eastern Sudan and became a period of crisis between the 12th and 17th centuries . This was the long period during which migrating Blacks undertook to form new and stronger states all over the continent, succeeding while other refugee Blacks found themselves in areas where just to survive at all required all the energy they could muster from day to day . Progress? What pogress? How progress? Blessed, then, were the migrants who, unlike those, found territories where progress was possible . Blessed were the Mossi. By 1500 they had become a dominant power and one of the most industrious nations of the period . The Africa-wide concept of the basis for legitimate rule was held to as a means of social control and rational unification as well as the basis for all authority, high or low . As elsewhere, it all traced back to the founders of the nation, in this case Ouelraogo and Oubri . They had[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:30pm On Feb 28, 2012 |
[b]the Nam, the God-given power to lead men . All of their descendants should inherit this power and, therefore, inherit the right to rule . Implicit in this, or certainly in the ideas developed from it, was the right to conquer and rule . The idea of royalty evolved from the same source, further illustrating how a fact and a commendable idea, such as honoring the founders of a nation, may be elaborated through time to a grand old myth. But in Mossiland the Nam seems to have been carried to extremes . Everyone seeking recognition or even a minor office claimed to have the Nara . This bestowed the title of Naba (ruler) So-And-So . The extent to which the political structure was based upon the Nam made Mossi society somewhat unique among African states . Since the nabas of the five core states claimed equality and were all fiercely independent in both spirit and action, the early Contests were over what state should become the leader of them all and provide the Mogho Naba (King of Kings) . Wagadugu finally won, although it was not senior in the Nam line of descent . It won because it had become the center of economic activity and, therefore, national prosperity, and because the Wagadugu people outdid themselves in screaming praise and praise songs for their Naba, who was the "Ruler of the Whole World," his dominions were boundless, he was God's son and, therefore, sacred ; no one must look upon his face, all must prostrate themselves before him . . . supreme justice can be found only in our Mogho Naba . All this was too much for the other states to overcome. The Wagadugu Naba thus became the Mogho Naba of the united Mossi kingdoms, principalities and chiefdoms, each of which was virtually autonomous . The Mogho Naba had no real authority outside his own Wagadugu kingdom . Unity was achieved through negotiations, friendly persuasion or, all else failing, sometimes by force of arms . More national unity seems to have been achieved, however, because the various states voluntarily followed . the successful example of Wagadugu in social, economic and political organization, and the ritualistic splendor of a court that claimed rulership of the world . The political structure did not vary from the traditional African constitutional system : The village chief and council, district chief (Naba) and council, province governor (Naba) and council, and Mogho Naba and council . The Ouidi Naba (prime minister) was next in authority under the Mogho Naba . Each important minister in the national government was also the Naba (governor) of a province-another variation from traditional practice .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:38pm On Feb 28, 2012 |
[b]There were other variations . Some were highly important . One was the Minister of Muslims . For, unlike so many other African societies, the migrating Mossi had learned something from the history of the Blacks in their relations with Arab and Berber peoples . No foreigners could settle in Mossi territory. But since the Mossi themselves were great traders, they needed the far-flung outlets which the Muslims everywhere controlled . Muslim traders were therefore admitted into the country under the strict supervision of the Ministry for muslims . All Muslim activity was restricted to trade . The religion of Islam was rejected, conversion to both teaching and religion forbidden . In short, the Mossi saw Islam and Christianity as the white man's vehicles of conquest . It was the only black nation in time, to see this . Indeed, Mossi prophecy held that when the first white man appeared in the land the nation would die . That time had not yet arrived . The Mossi policy of excluding whites or rigidly limiting the number and controlling their activities in the country further illuminates an African experience that is already so clear that it should require no additional light : All African states that began to develop again after the great dispersion, rebuilding and expanding, were prosperous and advancing as black states as long as they barred the relentless, aggressive whites from their countries ; and their destruction became certain only when they abandoned this policy and let the Asians and Europeans in. On this the recod is entirely clear . The Mossi held on steadfastly to their own African religion and African institutions and survived over five hundred years, into the 20th century until it was finally overrun by France . *** A few more of these all-African institutions should be mentioned to further illustrate the "external influence" school . We are dealing with a land and a people where a white face would have been a curiosity, and white influence, even under the disguise of religion, was barred by law . Few things could be more remarkable in the history of the black people than the rigid adherence to a body of principles that indicates a humane and spiritual level of advancement that pointed the direction to real civilization . One of these was reflected in the Mossi Conquerors' recognition of the principle that no matter how powerful the conquerors of a territory might be, the land belonged to the people whose homeland it was. They were recognized as the "rightful owners of the land" and[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:41pm On Feb 28, 2012 |
[b]therefore, negotiations for settlement of newcomers were carried on with the chiefs or "priests of the earth" who represented the indigenous people . Their political system, high democratic, was unsurpassed by any state anywhere in the world . That system was developed by Africans . The family was the smallest socio-economic and political unit . The extended family council, for example, settled all cases involving offenses by members which affected only the family or were not serious enough to be carried to the village court . Bad behavior by one member was a reflection on the rest of the family . The Western creed of fierce individualism had no place in the society . What one did was either a credit to his family or a dishonor .'. The village council was the next political unit, with an elected headman and a Council of Elders . The elders were the representatives of the various family sections or wards that made up the village . The village council was the center of authority, subject to the will of the community . The districts were the next and larger divisions, varying in size, and having many villages and towns . The district Naba (chief) was a very important official . Any number of districts made up of provinces and kingdoms which formed the nation . The great Nanamse (plural for Naba), were elected by their respective councils and subject to their will . This latter fact was generally well disguised by ceremonial phraseology, ritual and autocratic sounding decrees from the throne . Indeed, it was a general practice for both the council ministers and the people to proclaim that the Mogho Naba has all power, is the "most powerful king in the world over which he rules ." These fictions seem to be one of the delights of the people . For did not these same fantastic claims help to make the Wagadugu the Mogho Naba? Indeed, during the periods African societies were most democratic, every effort seems to have beer made to make it appear that the supreme power was exercised by the rulers, never by the people . Upon the death or removal of the Mogho Naba, for example, there was the constitutional fiction that his successor must be chosen by the Ouidi Naba (Prime Minister) . And the Ouidi ---------------------------------------------------------- Note 4 . Even the author is annoyed by the number of inescapable repetitions which occur in any comparative study of a representative sample of societies or states, where the focus is on the common origin, sameness, and universality of all basic institutions . The description of these, state by state, means repetition after repetition .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:37pm On Feb 28, 2012 |
[b]Naba made the public proclamation with all the ceremonial pomp and splendid ostentation befitting one carged with such an awesome responsibility as that of naming the emperor . Yet everyone knew very well that the Ouidi Naba was merely announcing an election that had already been made by the Council of State . In addition to these councils at various local levels, the Mossi developed another way of controlling the behavior of rulers . This was the practice of moving from one unsatisfactory village or district to a more favorable one . Whole village ; might move from one district to another . No district chief could afford this direct reflection on his ability to "keep the people" 5, the most important of his inauguration oaths . It also tended to undermine the economy of his area . The question of absolutism in traditional Africa is interesting because it so often means the very opposite of what is understood by the term in Asia and the West. In seven different societies covered in my field studies in different regions, all declared that their traditional kings had "absolute powers" as rulers . Follow up analysis revealed that what was meant was that the chiefs or kings have "absolute power" to carry out the clearly understood will of the people-which, of course, is a far cry from self-assumed absolutism . There was no absolutism in Western terms . Even Shaka of the great Zulu empire complained because the council failed to check him in his excesses. He expected some control and guidance . This control was not attempted by a council overawed by his greatness as a leader . As indicated elsewhere, my studies show that factors such as the Zululand situation help to explain the decline of ancient African democratic systems .Asia and Europe were not responsible for everything that happened aDversely . The Mossi became the outstandig horse breeding country . The finest, swiftest breeds became their specialty . It was probably from this fact that they had dashing cavalry forces that so often carried them to victory and protected their land from conquest for over 500 years . There was a great outside demand for Mossi horses and donkeys . These became an important factor in one of the most economically advanced countries in Africa . We turn next to their economic enterprise and the prosperity that flowed from it as still nother illustration of what black ------------------------------------------------- Notes 5 . An African leader's oath to "keep the people" meant protecting and promoting the welfare of the people .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:45pm On Feb 28, 2012 |
[b]people can c on their own initiative without the aid of or even having seen a whitman . It was a basically farming society . A superficial, or even a non-expert look at the redish-brown soil would lead one to think that this would or could note a land for a flourishing agriculture . It gave the lie to my description , what in appearance seemed to be unproductive land in other parts of the continent-hard brown soil, robbed of its top soil and moisture . He in the Mossi States just about everything grew : cotton, millet, wheat, corn, peppers, yams, rice, peanuts, kola nuts, onions, tobacco, etc their industries included tanning, fine leather works, cloth making, bastry, straw hats, iron, lead and antimony, and copper ware, mats, jars, ps, pans, soap and dried fish . All of this production meant that the six caravan routes that crisscrossed the,country were the highways for a thriving export and import trade . They transported salt, coffee, tea, perfumes, carpets, fine robes and other things needed, such as needles, which they themselves did not produce. Ciron and cotton cloth seemed to lead in the Mossi export trade for a very long time . Honey was also an important part of the market tradition but I do not know whether it was found wild in abundance or was derived from a cultivated beehive industry .6 There we taxes levied on all trading transactions, on caravan transports through the country to other lands, and on foreign traders in the local markets throughout the country. The people paid an "income tax" in the form of a percentage of farm produce at harvest time or other commodities The Europeans had been hearing about this prosperous land that barred the whites from entering since the 15th century . Attempts had been madey various European "travelers and traders" to get inside this interior country for several centuries . All without success. Some sought permission just to pass through . But again without success . Even the usual white strategy of contacting and forming friendly relations with possible heirs to the throne and dissident factions did not succeed, -------------------------------------------------------- Notes 6 . I received conflicting answers to this question.[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:50pm On Feb 28, 2012 |
To be continued, |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:08pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]even though Arabs and Europeans were increasingly based in all the surrounding countries during the 19th century . It was during the 19th century, however, that the Mossi exclusion of foreigners became less rigid, and there began a gradual relaxation of restrictions, especially of Muslim traders. Some were allowed to settle . And while it is true that the vanguard were Black Muslims from the now wholly Islamized neighboring black states, they paved the way and made it smoother for their white Muslim brothers. Moreover, an increasing number of young "modern" Mossi leaders began to consider the age-old policy of excluding whites as unenlightened, if not downright uncivilized . What did a great military power, the greatest in Africa, have to fear from a few white faces in the land? But what about the great Prophecy : when the first white man appeared in the land the nation would die? Nothing in Mossiland was better known and more universally believed than this rophecy . It was backed up because early Africans regarded white as evil in itself. Still the young moderns could declare the prophecy to be just another old saying," manifestly untrue, because some Arabs had been admitted into the country long ago and the nation still lived, stronger than ever. So it seemed . Meanwhile, Europeans were closing in on the continent and had the Mossi States surrounded : the British on the Gold Coast and in Ashanti to the south, the Germans next door in Togoland, while the French were pressing down from the north and the Ivory Coast on the west . All had their agents busily gathering as much as data as they could about this powerful and "overly proud" black nation . At first these agents had to operate from the outside, Dupuis from Ashanti, Koelle from Sierra Leone, and Krause from Togoland. There were many others . Krause, a German in Togoland, was supposed to be the first European to slip into the country with a caravan . The Great Prophecy was now about to be fulfilled, almost precisely . The first white European had entered the country . The next white man came in boldly in 1888, backed by the supreme powers of the French Empire (albeit called a Republic) . This emissary of conquest was Louis Binger. He came to place the country "under the protection of France ." He met a strong leader, still ready to fight, in the Mogho Naba Sanum, He rejected the proffered French protectorate as a ruse for conquest, resented Binger's haughty and disrespectful attitude, and ordered him out of the country at once . The Mogho Naba knew that at that very moment German troops were marching toward his borders . Binger's[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:13pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]real importance in the history of the African people, however, was his reaffirmation of the white man's unchanging attitude toward the Blacks . Said he, "I feel that a white man traveling in this country, whoever he may be, should not prostrate himself before a black king, however powerful the latter may be . (He was not expected to do this .) It is necessary that a white man should inspire respect and consideration wherever he goes. They should come as masters (italics added), as the superior class of the society, and not have to bow their heads before indigenous chiefs to whom they are definitely superior in all respects ."7 In short, and in even plainer language, the lowest white scum of Europe, the most depraved, are, nevertheless, the superiors of the greatest black kings . The Caucasian Creed . It is a creed for destruction and death . Millions have already died for it and because of it . How many millions more? The future holds this secret . Meanwhile, the 1888 German army under Von Francois halted at the Mossi border . The great zongagongos (war drums) had sounded throughout Mossiland and easily reached the ears of the German forces. They were not fools . The death-defying Mossi armies were as well known as were their industries and flourishing trade . The Germans also knew that the Mossi forces were waiting for them, probably impatiently, under the personal command of the Tansoba himself (Minister of War) . One may wonder why Von Francois did not realize even before leaving Togoland garrisons, how foolhardy it would be to invade the country of the Mossi . In any event, he turned his forces back and thus avoided certain annihilation. The fact is that neither of the three great powers contending for Mossiland wanted to risk its forces in armed combat with these Blacks . Another stratagem was adopted : A war of attrition . Hit these fighting Blacks where it would hurt the most . Weaken them within by destroying their great international caravan routes . Throw the country into an economic panic. The British, French and Germans all participated in the great conspiracy . While the war against Mossi commerce was quietly pushed, the "friendly" missions to the Mogho Naba went forward, one after another, This was easy now ; after the death of Sanum, his weaker --------------------------------------------------- Notes 7 . Quoted in E .P . Skinner, The Mossi of the Upper Volta.[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:18pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]and more European-minded brother became Mogho Naba . Had it not been for a stronger and not so trusting Council, he would have been taken in more easily . The wide use of "black" agents, usually Mulattoes, continued to be the white man's secret weapon in becoming masters of the black world . When the Blacks were on top they could pose as loyal members of the black race-as many of them were in fact ; or they could, having "white blood," ally themselves with the whites and serve their interests . The whites always made this both easy and attractive not only by emphasizing their superiority by blood, but by giving them better education and economic opportunities than Blacks under constant survival pressures could ever hope to achieve . This system became worldwide in dividing the race and creating hostile color bars within it . For since the Mulattoes had a better education and, therefore, a higher income than their black half-brothers and sisters, they, like the whites, regarded this superior social and economic status as the index of inherent superiority itself . Here superiority seemed to be a demonstrated fact of life, not a theory . And that was why the Mulatto, or Creole George Ekern Ferguson from Sierra Leone, now playing the role of a loyal Black African, was able not only to reach the Mogho Naba without any trouble, but even to negotiate a treaty on behalf of the British, something that all the Europeans had been unable to do . The internal situation was changing ; the fierce spirit of nationalism that diverted the German Togo threat had somehow declined . Now the shadows lengthened, The whites had also been busily building up and training strong black armies . Blacks trained to hate, kill, and conquer Blacks . Blood of Blacks was to sprinkle and further darken the pages of their history . The French were the most efficient in this development, the baffling phenomenon of Blacks more readily fighting and dying for the white man's cause then they are for their own . Indeed, Africa was conquered for the whites by the Blacks, and thereafter kept under colonial control by black police and black soldiers . Very little white blood was ever spilled . Black troops, small staffs of white officers and a core group of European soldiers . Instructions were strict and brief : Always use the Blacks . Keep European forces in reserve or in the rear . And so it was that in July, 1896 a French lieutenant named Voulet and his staff led a strong army of black cavalry and infantry across the Mossi borders to battle their way to Wagadugu . The last of the great black states in Africa was now makng its last stand under Mogho Naba[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:21pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
Wobogo, who seemed to grow in courage as his country collapsed all around him . In 1897 the French, unable to secure the surrender of the Mossi leader (who continued to elude them and stage counterattacks), finally appointed a Mogho Naba who would serve them. Mossi guerrillas continued the war from the bush year after year, long after all hope for victory was gone. They were fighting on just as though they did not know that the first white man had long since come and that, therefore, the nation had died . They fought on because, while their empire passed, the deathless Mossi spirit lived on, in witness whereof their own Mogho Naba, the last of the elected line, fought with them side by side from the bush and never surrendered to France . *** |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:23pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
The Great Prophecy of the Mossi turned out to be the prophecy for all Africa : "When the first white man appears in the land the nation will die ." [b]Central Africa : Evidence from a Small State THE KINGDOM OF KUBA WE MUST NOT LOSE SIGHT OF WHAT WE ARE DOING-THE important points of what we have been doing : A partial view of the early history of the Blacks from the loss of Egyptian homeland to the coming of the Europeans has been presented through a summary study of a representative number of states ; a continent-wide view of what happened to the whole by looking at typical situations . We saw a people . . . a people forever migrating, forever on the move, forever in flight from threats to survival ; a new location found, sighs of relief and thanksgiving for a new breathing spell, and new efforts at reunification and state-building all over again . But every decade of unsettled life, every decade of wandering over deserts, savannas and through the forests-every such decade was one of retrogression, of disintegration, decades of decline, and no newly established state was able to reach the levels of achievements of the past before it was engulfed either by the , Islamic East or the Christian West . This is what we have witnessed, no matter what Black state was studied or in what region of Africa it was located .' -------------------------------------------------- Notes I . Jan Vansina has done pioneering and most outstanding oral history studies in this area . I draw heavily on his field studies here, although, and perhaps because of my own field work in the region, I interpret some of his data differently . See Bibliographical Note[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:30pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]One of these wandering groups, unlike the Kongolese and Angolans, began to migrate from the Atlantic seaboard before the whites arrived, was free from contacts with them much longer and, therefore, founded a new nation that lasted much longer . The core group was made up of Blacks who came to be known as Bushoongs . They were moving from place to place toward the interior and finally began the development of the new state during the period when the white storm clouds were slowly rising in all directions-the 200 years between 1475, the most critical in the history of the Blacks . It was during this period that the great noose of encirclement was completed and fixed, and the Blacks of Africa found themselves hemmed in and threatened from all directions, from the north, from the east, from the west and, finally, from the south . The white man's march toward world conquest and world domination was in full swing . This most critical period in the history of the race, I say, was such because this closing in on the Blacks from all directions was the beginning of the final death-blows to what remained of their own civilization . There were dire consequences in terms of their psychological impact on Africans under perpetual danger . A new fatalism emerged that carried the sentence of ultimate doom to the minds of thousands . Some gave up resistance to anything, including a resistance to slavery and resistance to the barbarism that engulfed those who either went backwards or stood still for mental atrophy ; some tried to save themselves by serving the invaders' cause, even if it meant enslaving and killing their own people ; some believed that because the white man came in big ships with big, earth-shaking guns (cannons), surely they must be the gods of the world ; others saw no sense in trying to maintain unity in the face of such overwhelming odds . Rather, the drive must be to secure these guns and ammunition from the whites even if it meant ceaseless wars rs to secure the slaves the whites demanded, secure them by warring on their own kinsmen in neighboring territories . And still others resolved never to yield, to move and keep on moving rather than submit, to rebuild, and keep rebuilding, never giving up ; and to fight for unity as the only route to survival-voluntary unity if possible, unity by force if all else failed . These last "others" were the ones who had the spirit that accounts for the survival of the most bruised and battered of the races of mankind . Such a representative group were the Bushoongs . This their record will show . As the Portuguese slave raids spread, the Bushoongs moved[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:31pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]inland from the Atlantic, enlisting new followers as they moved or temporarily stopped . They were headed toward the Congo region . Fleeing from the whites was not the only problem for them as it was not the only problem for the millions who had trampled over Africa before them. When they had settled on the Lower Kwango early in the 16th century, their immediate foes were the fierce Jaga warriors, a roaming tribe that seemed to be more interested in raids of destruction than in settling anywhere . They were destroyers, not builders ; and they were set on a course to prevent others from settling and building . And while large groups of them did split off from the main body to merge with others and form states, they seemed to be nothing more nor less than bloodthirsty barbarians who engaged in warfare for the sheer thrill of warfare . These eventually opened war against the Bushoong state that was forming over a wide area along the Kwango . Under relentless and savage attacks by the Jaga warriors, the Bushoongs were forced to retreat along the Kasai and Sanguru rivers, many groups splitting off from the main body and going in different directions . The main body, led by its chief, Woot, entered the plain of Iyool in Kasai and began the formation of a little-known state during the third quarter of the 16th century . It is precisely because it was small and generally unheard of that I selected it for a summary study . There was another reason : It was typical of hundreds of other small black states which, unlike the worldrenowned Ghana, Mali and Songhay, the migrating Blacks had built all over Africa, but which seemed to be so insignificant to the conquering Europeans that they were swept away, their people scattered, with no Vansinas to seek out its oral historians to hear how things came to be, what was achieved or failed to be achieved before death came to their society at last . The little kingdom of Kuba, then, having its history recaptured, will be telling their story also, telling it substantially as it was in all fundamental particulars . The Bushoong, or central organizing group, was allied in a federation of voluntary kindred groups, and other tribes, numbering eighteen at the outset . The Cwa and the Kete were indigenous, the Cwa, as previously stated, having lived there "since the world began ." They offered no opposition to the invaders, seemed to welcome them and[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:34pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]became members of the federal union under Woot as the elected king .2 Many of the splintered-off segments from the central groups came in later from different directions to join the federation . Other members were the Mongo l Pende, Ilebo, Shoowa, Kel, Kaam, Kayilweeng, Lulua, Luba, Ngeende, Maluk, Pyaang, Ngoombe, Byeeng, Coofa, and Mbeengi Ngongo. From the very beginning the core group of Bushoong set an example for nation-building for all Africa, but few African states ever followed it . First of all, the total population at the formation of the federal kingdom can be estimated at between 75,000 and 100,000, of which number the Bushoongs were 80 percent . All the other tribes combined, therefore, were only one-fifth of the total population . This means that even under the most liberal democratic system the Bushoongs could have dominated and ruled all the other tribes by the sheer weight and power of overwhelming numbers . They did not choose to do so . Here was what might be considered to be a justifiable occasion to depart from the traditional African constitution with its all-embracing democratic system . Quite to the contrary, they followed it to the letter by simply transforming the Village Council of Elders into a council of State in which each tribe, now constituting a constituent province, was represented as an equal by its own chief or a representative of its choice . The members of the state council were the electors who chose the king . As it was throughout Africa, the Council represented the people and, therefore, all powers not delegated rested with the Council . The significance of this was that the smallest tribe or province, which might be only 2 percent of the population, was equal in the Council to the Bushoong group that was 80 percent of the population, a situation which headcounters might criticize as the very antithesis of democracy .3 But the numerically dominant Bushoongs seem to have been statesmen with a larger view of what democracy meant if it were to operate as a unifying force with divergent and formerly independent groups . What they did in effect was to make a frontal attack on tribalism not by futile denunciations or exhortations, but by actually detribalizing ----------------------------------------------------- Notes 2. There is a record listing Woot in a much earlier period . 3. The Kaam might be the smallest minority in the "Kaam State," but only a Kaam could be the chosen councillor .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:35pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]themselves first of all . They not only treated all of the different language groups as equals, but they promoted a national policy of glorifying those cultural variations in any groups which were so outstanding that they should be adopted nationally . Hence, every tribe that in isolation had developed something noteworthy but peculiar to itself, no matter how "strange" or different from all others, could see its unique culture pattern become a national institution and be filled with both pride and gratitude . If the Pende had a different kind of dance and excelled with it, theirs would become the national dance of Kuba . If the Luba excelled in the architectural arts, they would be the leading planners and builders ; and so on in all human endeavors . Each group could win national distinction in one way or another for excellence in one or more fields, including agriculture and cattle breeding . The kingdom was south of Zambiz in Northern Katanga, covering the Province of Kasai between the Sankuri and Kasai rivers . There were five rulers during the short period of 19 years between 1568 and 1587, one being a woman . It is not known whether the Council, sitting as an electoral college, set what seems to indicate fouryear terms . After 1587 longer but still fixed terms for kings (or queens) also seem to be indicated . It appears that these limited terms of office by kings continued during the supremacy of the Council . For a long time ten years in office seemed to be the limit . This brings us to a third reason for selecting Kuba as both a sample and example state . Kuba shows how the Blacks themselves do undermine and destroy some of their own best institutions and replace black democracy with black autocracy without the slightest external influence or aid whatsoever . What is more, and often overlooked, a king may become a despot by the will of the people! This development, incidentally, is a further justification of my rejection of two equally false doctrines : One is the contention of whites that the great institutions in Africa were Caucasian in origin ; and whites that the great institutions in Africa were Caucasian in origin ; and the other is the contention of Blacks that great African institutions were destroyed by Caucasians and other outsiders, and by them alone . What it all means is that the African people act and react just as all other peoples do with the same motivations, conditions or similar circumstances, aims and objectives . The democratic direction of this state was well-established in 1587 when Lashyaang Mbal assumed the leadership . The economy was still operating along provincial interest lines and apparently without state[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:36pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]economic activity along broad national lines . The Bushoongs were still the leading boatmakers, fisherman, and hunters . Because they were the most numerous, this tended to )versupply Kuba markets with fish and game. On the other hand, farm production was not only far below demand but it was also too limited in variety . This meant a very limited diet of millet, bananas, peanuts, fish and fowl . The cloth-making industries expanded as the ironsmith and other crafts developed . The building trades were the busiest in the new nation-building . These included architects, carpenters, Drick-makers and masons . THE POLITICAL ORGANIZATION The political structure actually began with the family council or clan council, which is the basic socia unit of kinsmen . During the formative period of the state each clan had its own village . As new immigrants swelled villages into towns and cities, these became divided into clan sections or wards . Each ward sent its elder as a representative to the village, town, or city council, ov°r which presided the village headman, town subchief, or city chief. These chiefs, in turn, served as representatives of their areas on the provincial. council over which the Paramount Chief of the whole tribe presided . The Paramount Chiefs of the central provinces or states, the original eighteen founders, represented their provinces in the Central State Council over which the elected King of Kuba presided . Conquered states and tribes which came after the federal union was formed were not eligible for re aresentation on the State Council and their chiefs, therefore, could not participate in the election of kings . There were other special benefit; and privileges enjoyed by the eighteen elector-chiefs which other chief; did not have or, more pointedly, the newcomers had burdens and responsibilities from which the elector chiefs were free . The heaviest of these were the tributary taxes levied on all chiefs except the "original eighteen ." This, too, was to cause trouble later[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:49pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]THE GOVERNMENT OF KUBA The Council of State (a) The King presiding (b) The Linguist (interpreter and special aide to King) (c) "The Chief of Chiefs (Prime Minister . The title "Chief of Chiefs" actuallY is that of the King . Here it means to say to all the chiefs of Kuba : "Whenyou see and speak to my Chief Minister, you see and speak to the King ."  (d) The Governors of provinces (Paramount chiefs) . Each paramount chief of one of his elected generals was in supreme command of all military forces in his province . The King, who was also a governor of his particular tribal province, had only the soldiers of his province under his command. 2. Administrators not members of the State Council (a) First Chief of the Treasury (b) Chief of Border Defenses (c) Supervisor-General of Tax Collection, Goods and Services (d) Chief of the King's Household and Protector of Ancestral Tombs aid Regalia (e) Chief of Roads and Markets (f) Collector-General for Tributary States (This office was created in tle wake of Mboong a Leeng's imperialist expansion in 1650.) Then were twenty-six kings during the three hundred and forty-two years of Kuban history, or from about 1568 to 1910 . As in the cases of Ethiopa, Egypt, Makuria and the other states studied, here only a few of the outsanding leaders will be mentioned . In thus rigidly limiting the scope, we necessarily passed over many great leaders and important events,just as we shall be doing in the case of Kuba . Here also, we are not as interested in chronological details as we are in such things as the development of national policies to unite diverse tribes in a patriotic devotion to one nation and other policies that would clearly defeat that objective. The founder or founders of a nation constitute the specially honoured group through out Africa and it was the source of royalty itself . So Kula was still following the African constitution when it made the central or nuclear group of 18 founders the permanent ruling council to the exclusion of "strangers" (in Africa, all those who came after the communityor nation is established .) Yet it is equally clear that as newcomers increased the population and as the nation, expanded by conquering[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:53pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]neighboring societies, the reasons for future conflicts were also being expanded . These reasons, noted here in Kuba, were Africa-wide and account for the internal conflicts in the new African states today, even though all discontent has not come to the surface. And, as in the case of Kuba, the trouble stems from the failure to include every segment of the population in a national program of absolute equality, and the opportunity to participate so fully in every phase of the national life that a sense of patriotism and belonging to the nation will gradually outweigh that of belonging to a tribe . In short, what we do deprecatingly call "tribalism" is, in fact, the necessary cohesive and social mechanism for survival and defense against threats to survival . The tribe is the unit through which the race itself has survived during all of its migrating and scattered circumstances . The enemies that beset it were black as well as white . This the tribes of today know as well as their black brothers outside of the "Circle of 18" knew four hundred years ago in Kuba . Tribalism will disappear only when the reasons for its existence in the first place disappear . The most noteworthy thing about Kuba in this connection, however, was that despite the great disorganizing factor just mentioned, its original program of uniting many language groups into one nation was so successful that it has not been equaled by any nation in modern Africa . For look what actually happened : Many tribes, including the Bushoong group, merged so completely that they lost their individual tribal identity and language and became one people, speaking one language derived from all the others, the Bakuba or "People of Kuba ." This E Pluribus Unum process that went on continuously all over Africa is what makes the work of ethnologists and linguists so baffling and their dogmatic conclusions often misleading, imprecise, and sometimes simply false . Splitting off from a major into a dozen smaller groups, each developing a different language or dialect, then the remerger of any twelve splinted groups into another major group, forming once again one people and one language out of many, and so on until the next segmentation of many and the later re-formation of the many into a society and language group again. It is, therefore, unlikely, to put it modestly, that any anthropologist or linguist on Africa could take a group of Bakuba today and determine which had ancestors who were Bushoong under Queen Ngokady, or Pyanpyanng when Lashyaang Mbal was King, or Ngeende when Mbo Mboosh reigned, 1680-1695, etc. Even members of a group as distinctive as the Pygmies (Cwa) lost[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:54pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]their identity through intermarriages with almost all the other groups . Their mingling with other groups was more widespread because, unlike them, they did not occupy a particular province but were scattered in all of them . The descendants of a Cwa-Maluk marriage in King Mishe ma Tuun's day (1620) could not be described as having "Pygmoid" features today, or Maluk either . The reason is simple : There have been too many other "crossings and recrossings" during the three to four hundred years that have passed . THE RELIGION OF KUBA There was no problem of religious unity in Kuba because there was no problem of religious conflicts in traditional Africa . The Blacks, having a common origin and a common center of civilization, had the same fundamental religious beliefs throughout the continent, just as all of their other basic institutions were similar . The inevitable variations were insignificant when compared with the universal similarities. The Kubans believed, as all Africans believed, in one almighty God, the Creator of the Universe . There were numerous ways of expressing the one-god concept . He might be identified with the sun and called the Sun God, or, as a variation of this, he might be called the Sky God . The numerous other gods, far from being in conflict with the Great God, were a necessary part of His divine plan-His own deputies and emissaries who had direct charge of the various departments of life that concerned human needs-the earth (soil), water, illness, health, fertility, planting, harvest, the forests, war, hunting, fishing, rain, etc . There were lesser gods under these . Their rank or importance was determined by their role and the extent of their role . Different tribes might have different tribal gods or a group of kindred tribes might have the same sub-gods . Each family or clan might or might not have its own clan god, and each member of the family might or might not have his own personal god. In short, the traditional African religion respecting an Almighty God and a hierarchy of lesser deities was later taken over by Christianity in the forms of patron saints and higher deities who rank next to God Himself. It is said that religion in Kuba did not include "Ancestor Worship ." This ancestor worship thing is another one of those overdone myths about Africans . The Bakuba did not "worship" their ancestors . But[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:56pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]neither did other Africans, if Western writers are using the term in the sense that one worships God-and of course they are using worship in this sense . Just as they pretend not to understand the roll of the numerous African deities but understood the role of these same deities in Western civilization if we call them patron saints, in that same way as just about every other aspect of African life and history has been misrepresented and distorted . Yet one can understand why a people for whom the idea of immortality is merely a creed would find it hard to understand the all-encompassing religious philosophy of a people who actually believed in life beyond death . From this central belief numerous other beliefs developed naturally. An important one was that relatives who had passed on maintained a continuing interest in the welfare of those left behind . To justify and preserve this continuing oversight of their ancestors, the living did those things that might merit ancestral approbation . There was ancestor reverence, not ancestor worship . This reverence for elders began in early life with the living and increased with the dead . When food was periodically placed at the graves, nobody expected the ancestral spirits to eat it (only fools outside of Africa allege that they did) . What they were doing was a demonstration that the communal spirit of sharing was being maintained . Furthermore, if the ancestors approved their behavior, they were in a position to intercede on their behalf with the deities in times of crisis . The Blacks' conception of God was on a scale too grand to be acceptable to Western minds . They had to reduce it by using a term that is equated with paganism, "primitive" backwardness and barbarism . The word is "animism ." But the historian and anthropologist are witnesses against themselves, still proving the very opposite of what they intend . In documenting animism as the chief characteristic of the religion of the Blacks from remotest times they are also documenting the fact that the Blacks' belief in the existence as well as the nature of one Universal God also goes back to times immemorial . And what is animism? As applied to Africans it is the belief that the spirit of the Creator or the Universal God permeates all of His creations, living and dead . Therefore, any object, animate or inanimate, may be sacred . This concept of God and His creations would be regarded as highly "civilized" if expressed by a Westerner in some such terms as a "reverence for life." Indeed, precisely the same African religious belief becomes the doctrine of "Immanence" in Christian civilization .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:58pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]The Bakuba (people of Kuba) believed that two contending spirits affected man : the spirit of good and the spirit of evil . Evil was thought to be expressed most clearly in witchcraft, which in turn characterized persons engaged in the practice of trying to do harm to others . In Kuba, as throughout Africa, the penalty for witchcraft was either death or punishment. The much misrepresented "witch doctor," far from engaging in the practice himself, had the task of combating the practice by trying to help its victims . Hence the title "witch doctor," which came to be applied to all African doctors indiscriminately because of the widespread belief that almost all human ills resulted from the work of evil spirits through evil operators-witches . A long chapter could be devoted to the training of the native doctors and their practice of medicine . This is not our purpose at this point. But it should be noted in passing that writers have generally focused their attention on the entirely superficial externals that disguised the African doctor's real practice of the healing arts . They spent years in the forests studying the medicinal properties of various plants and herbs . They went through the same long periods of apprenticeship that the members of all the other skilled crafts had to go through under a master. The people were not fools . The prescribed medicine had to be beneficial. If not, the doctor was held to account far more rigidly than doctors are in our times . The African doctor's entire future in his community depended upon his successful ministrations, and these must overshadow inevitable failures now and then . And while the psychological ritual of hideous masks was used to frighten off evil spirits, the wild dance and mystical speech were all intended to impress the people with the mysteries of healing (carried over to modern medicine in Latin prescriptions) . After all of this, the native physician still had to produce satisfactory results or be disgraced . Religion was involved in the practice of medicine, as religion was involved in every aspect of African life . Disease was believed to be the result of some misdeed on the part of the individual himself or the working of an evil spirit . If widespread, the community as a whole may have sinned, either by commission or omission of something that offended either the deities or the ever watchful ancestors . Songs, dances and sacrifices were communal activities designed to reestablish the proper relationship between'the people and the unseen powers .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 8:59pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY Each Kuban tribe was responsible for its own history, and the state was responsible for the history of the nation . It was oral history . The oral historian, again as in the case of all other crafts, was a trained historian . His basic training was in a Mnemotechnical system . This training in memorization began as an apprentice to a recognized historian other than the principal oral historian . There were special occasions for members of the clan to assemble to listen to the story of the clan and another occasion for the general community to assemble for the overall history of the nation . The absence of written history made the task of the oral historian very exacting . He was generally held so strictly accountable for any errors made in his account that at times the reaction to mistakes made seems to have been unreasonable . For while he was allowed the widest latitude in commentaries of his own and even in fantastic embellishments designed to shock his listeners or entertain them, he dared not err in reciting the factual data of history . It seems quite clear that not only the elders (who were also well versed in oral tradition) knew the difference between the mythical and the truly historical account, but the people also understood what was intended as amusement and what was their real history . Aside from "tall tales," the historian often used proverbs reflecting the philosophy of great leaders and that of the race, praise songs of great men and great events, songs which we would call "the Blues" which told of past failures and heartaches, and dances of victories won and of thanksgiving . But the assembled elders were always keeping a sharp watch out for any serious errors on the part of the oral historian . He might be removed or even banished . In either case his career would be ended in disgrace and his disgrace might wreck his life among his people . On the other hand, if successful, the rewards were great because the oral historian was the community's storehouse of wisdom and one of its most honored personalities . He was the core of the educational system . The lineage was the key to the history of the extended family, the tribe and the nation . Within the lineage were the social, religious, economic and political ties that held together the family, tribe and nation .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:09pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]SHYAAM THE GREAT Shyaam I was one of the greatest leaders that the black race ever produced and, considering the conditions and circumstances of his time, I think he was the greatest . He became king of Kuba in 1630, and during the relatively short period of ten years he set in motion an economic development that transformed the nation and gave it a new forword direction . He was not only far ahead of his own time in perceiving that economic development was the only way to restore the ancient greatness of the Blacks, but he is still ahead of the whole black world today in the revival of economic activities on all possible fronts . The economy had remained on the subsistence level. It could hardly be otherwise because the nation was still in its formative stage, still very young . The main activities were still in the fields of agriculture, fishing, weaving, mat-making, basketry, wood-carving, carpentry, furnituremakng, pottery, iron and coppersmithing, sculpture and painting . There was a remarkable advance in all the arts, especially the pictorial arts.Since it was from the latter that the Blacks developed their writing system in earlier times (and lost it through migrations) one may wonder whether there was any rediscovery and revival of writing in Kuba . Oral history does not tell us . Or does it? We do not know . What we do know is that the kind of stable society and institutions were developing in this nation from which writing develops as a compelling and almost indipensable need . Shyaam's economic revolution stimulated many facets of the national renassance about which we now know very little . For the Revolution of 1630 was a revolution in thinking and a search for new and better ways of doing things . The new King was interested in new styles and a break frot the traditional arts forms . His drive was for national consolidation and internal development rather than the wars of conquests that so much occupied the time and energies of his predecessors . The slowly developing economy now experienced a sense of urgency and national direction. New crops were introduced : sorghum, corn, millet (not entirely new in the area), tobacco, yams, and beans . The "external influence" here was black "external influence" and now hardly external to Kuba, because some of the tribes now constituting the nation came from areas where these crops were grown . Would yams and tobacco grow in Kuba? "Let's find out," Shyaam seemed to have been saying on all fronts all down the line .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:10pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]The skilled crafts were expanded and methods of production improved and speeded up by new techniques . New weaving and embroidery methods were notable . The break with tradition was most clearly seen in the experiments in new art patterns and new styles in wood-carving . All this economic activity meant a marked transition from a subsistence to a surplus economy, and this of course led to general prosperity through the expansion of markets and foreign trade . Since Kuba was not within the orbit of the caravan routes of international commerce, her "foreign" trade was with other African areas . Kuban trade missions were sent near and far to promote trade through the establishment of markets at important trading centers in nearby and distant states . This was the most important aspect of Shyaam's Economic Revolution . In the decline of the civilization of the Blacks as they splintered off and scattered here and there over Africa and over the world, they lost this pioneering spirit of business enterprise, the most common urgent need, in recapturing their lost status in the modern world of aggressive competition . The traders were also organized into societies . Every occupation except agriculture had its society or guild . Farmers were not so organized because just about everybody was a farmer in addition to his trade . Any townsman who did not have a farm somewhere would have been considered "strange ." One's trade or profession, then, was seen as possible only because of the basic economy and, for that reason everyone was responsible for a share in agricultural production . The general prosperity engendered by the Economic Revolution did not bring general internal peace . The inevitable increase in population was further expanded by the annexation of new territories and the influx of the endless streams of migrating people who were attracted to this new land of opportunity . But they were "strangers," and this fact, as noted above, was a cause of unrest among them and even greater unrest among the conquered groups . It appears that the national prosperity served to heighten the tensions rather than reduce them . More trouble came from Bieeng elements in the country, members of a major tribe that had challenged the Bushoong leadership even before the move from Iyool . Rebellions also broke out just before Shyaam assumed the leadership . The Pyaang and Kete succeeded in capturing and destroying the capital city, while the unsubdued Bieeng continued their attacks from the area still under their control .[/b] |
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