Obalufon:
Clap for educated monkey .. All you know is grammar, Vascular Dementia again.. ..You pride your self with the stupid junks you filled your mind with Mr know all..soon you will realize that all the rubbish you've accumulated in your small brain means nothing ..

macof:
real sad the type of thing this one is suffering from
Middle East is as far as Bornu state

Obalufon:
you know nothing Mr man Africa is diverse continent .. you need to have DNA test on people from borno and chad region you will be surprised of the ancestry lineage that will come out ...your problem is your brain has been programmed to believe in savage naked Africans living in jungles .. we have the aborigine African those are the one that never had a clothing culture or organised society and religion, ...Yoruba religion never reflect our present location ..knowledge of sea and some elements that are not found in this region , Religion is created from understand of environment and its unseen forces to control the material world .

nlPoster:
The problem I'm having here is this careful distinction between who is Yoruba and who is not "properly " Yoruba.

Too subjective, explain better.

For those you say are Yoruba but not authentic, what are the parameters used for this conclusion?

Olu317:
Don't mind the Bantu macof. It is obvious, he is not a Yoruba man with known ancestry but looking for cheap popularity. Even at it, a Yoruba descendant who is maternally linked bloodline are welcome to Yoruba fold any day anytime although the one who intend selling our identity with Bantus need be dealt with intellectually and corrected. In all the gloey of the Bantu language, it is even not closely related to Yoruba language ,talkless of Semitic languge of Ancient Hebrew. As far as I am concerned, he is not worth the stress.

Obalufon:
you know nothing Mr man Africa is diverse continent .. you need to have DNA test on people from borno and chad region you will be surprised of the ancestry lineage that will come out ... your problem is your brain has been programmed to believe in savage naked Africans living in jungles .. we have the aborigine African those are the one that never had a clothing culture or organised society and religion , ...Yoruba religion never reflect our present location ..knowledge of sea and some elements that are not found in this region , Religion is created from understand of environment and its unseen forces to control the material world .

nlPoster:
The problem I'm having here is this careful distinction between who is Yoruba and who is not "properly " Yoruba.

Too subjective, explain better.

For those you say are Yoruba but not authentic, what are the parameters used for this conclusion?

macof:
just look at this.
Accuse someone of exactly what you are guilty of and even go ahead to express in the next sentence

You say I think of Africans as jungle people..which I don't. only for you to say in the next sentence that Africans never had clothes or any form of complex or organised culture.
And in all this, the post you quoted was not actually addressed rather you move to another issue. But of course when you say nonsense and I sight it you wouldn't want to dwell on it. #Middle East is as far as Bornu state#
Sad reality for this one and his vascular dementia

You are even worse than the others

Obalufon:
Your head is so block you can't understand what i'm trying to come up with ,I didn't mention bornu state Mr Macof vascular dementia, i said bornu and chad region .. Bornu is not middle east , i said that to let you know they've been migration of people from middle east and Mediterranean to the region for centuries also during the golden age of Egypt if you don't know , also a well known trade route in ancient time .. to know more about yoruba study the bariba, nupe, igala bornu , kokobiri, hausa soninke, leave oout the bantu of south south or ibos

Obalufon:
.Who are the ,beriberi ..bariba, senegal, hausa ,fulani soninke,dogon, bornu?... Middle east is as close to us as bornu state .. Did you know that Ancient kingdom of yam is located in bornu ..you can do more research on bornu and sudan because you will find the missing puzzle there to confirm the middle east migration

macof:

Yeah right.




You better go and seek healing for your inabilities.... From a medical professional I mean not some pastor

macof:
mumus
He say I am Yoruba maternally linked
Ó ṣe I didn't know you have super powers to know my maternal ancestry is Yorùbá while my paternal is Edo
Joke of the month and the month only just started

Fools, a thousand times they will be told that nobody is calling Yoruba bantus, a thousand times it flies over their heads.
The fact that you actually keep saying I say Yoruba are bantu, when I never said such and have repeatedly corrected you on that is testament to your intellectual deficiency

nlPoster:
@ olu317

The first picture you posted on this page is similar to the one known as the gatekeeper.


What features are you emphasizing and comparing to the Olokun art?

The outfit as you can see, is similar to the dressing in the other art showing the rulers.

kayfra:
Yorubas have zero Hebrew heritage. Enough of the bullshit

nlPoster:
It's a serious allegation though, to tell a Yoruba person they are not Yoruba.

That's like opening a big can of worms.

Olu317:
You are correct but the coverup of not separating the weed from the fruit is one of the major reason we have people amongst Yoruba that betray easily. Having opined this, I have never seen any one who claims to be Yoruba as non Yoruba but there is a limit to which, one use vulgar words, that such person will be seen by I as not being a Yoruba person.

In Yoruba adage, there is a word that's called ‘IWA' which when prefixed with Omo,it becomes a popularly known identity known as Omo Elu Iwa Bi( a child born of exceptional character without fault i.e born of God). So,when I stylishly use slight words to draw the uncultured man who at every instance damn people with negative statement then it is worth it to call him as non Yoruba,which was the reason, I asked him to Post is Oriki(panegyric) because he has being the one who is more Yoruba than everyone on this platform.

Note: If in doubt, kindly investigate his posts and see how many times he has used vulgar words on different monikers without tangible reasons, but simply because people's opinion differs from his or his school of thought.

macof:

@bold another comedy of the month

Coming from the person who wants to sell Yoruba identity to Hebrews by all means
Coming from one who suffers from such a huge inferiority complex that he must see himself as hebrew in order to feel self worth
Coming from one who aims to turn Yoruba history upside down and has no regard for Yoruba traditions and culture

What you call vulgar words I assume are words that agitate you .. But of course, any form of questioning would agitate you plus I give you advice that you don't want to be told
I will give you ọ̀rọ̀ as it as it is no mincing words to massage your ego. I don't need that
You are looking for who will not challenge you but compliment you. All this are schemes that you would not need to resort to had you educated yourself before deciding to dive into history.

Running around, anything to avoid the needful

Just wait, let's get the first things sorted out, your likes would be exposed and disgraced, all your cleric sponsors won't save you

absoluteSuccess:
@Olu

I recently found out something curious bro, I believe we are familiar with 'apocalypse' as revelation, this is given as ifihan or ishipaya in Yoruba.

Somehow, ishipaya sounds very similar to inspire, how that came to be beats me, but the word came through the analysis on Ashipa. It's not a name but an ancient title.

My brother, the validity of the Yoruba word as secret to Yoruba history is yielding unintended results as it's often been here. Carefully consider the intriguing wordplay in the following:

Ashipa, Ashipaya, Inspired, Ayah (quranic sura revelation). Ya is to yawn in Yoruba, to release air on another person is to "yah sini lara". This is imisi in contemporary Yoruba.

This is what "inspired" literally means. To breath upon another, as God breath to inspire His prophets of old.

Unknown to us, our fathers of old have had inspired experience in their early history. That left an indelible mark on the Yoruba tradition. We are not privy of this.

Ashipa is the father of Ado, he is meant to be a man 'inspired'. The one for that kind of description in Yoruba, pantheon you will agree with me is Orunmila, the patron of Ifa oracle.

Based on the fact that it is said "eji ogbe baba Ifa", then this is proof that the father of Ado had words on marble, and therefore an inspired man, an Ewi (The Say) of Ado.

Now "Ashipa" is the English source for "the inspired". This is like confirming the identity of the father of Ado as one who opened a path of revelation to inspire.

Shipaya is 'revelation', or to 'inspire', as is the suffix 'Aya' to the Arabs. More like it also, is the term Alefa, (alfathia), which have affinities with Arabic.

I always have the feeling that the word Alefa possibly derived from Arabic and was loaned by the Yoruba, thinking 'apere' to be more original. I just checked the meaning on Google.

Alefa in Arabic means friendly and hospitable. But Alefa in Yoruba means 'throne'. So where is the similarities?

The exchange of idea is such that Alefa in Arabic is pertinent with Yoruba's Alufa, where Alefa means 'friendly'. So what does 'friendly' means in Yoruba? Abore, that's what it means.

But given a careful look, an Alufa is a teacher, 'ab'ore' is an hospitable fellow who has the charms to make friends. So goes the saying: omo onife abure, omo adade owo remo'.

The meaning of this is that 'one who showed love will make friends'. Why did this turn out in the pynageric saying of Ile-Ife? It's in what the word of the place name roughly sounds like: lf.

Abure is akin to Abore, or Alore- which is white garment church for the priest. a friend, a priest: a friendly priest. Alufa, Alefa.

So that said, the interpretation into Yoruba of the Arabic sense of the word 'Alefa' survived as 'abore'. It is the indigenous word for priest in Yoruba, both Alore and Abore.

Alefa however is the retention of the idea of the original value of the word aleph or alpha that represent the term as royalty. It's match in Arabic is the caliphate, or khalifa precisely.

From the understanding derived from the Islamic meaning the word as successor, Alefa is to climb into succession after the departure of a penultimate leader. So, the word is in sync.

Happy Sunday bro.

Olu317:
From historical perspective, Ashipa did not exist as a royal name that I can think of in whatsoever way because there are names that are of royalty in the ancient times. And these names, beads, are determinant factor when identifying royal lineage, priest's , noble's and commoners through established research work. So, I don't know how to afix Ashipa as the father of Ado because Ado is not commonly used amongst Yoruba Royalty but a seen as a chief. Ado~Ido~ me do as a name is associated with a place where one migrated to and stationed at that point in time,(b) a priestly name associated position of ifaodu.

Therefore Ashipa being closely related to chief is what I know and only if a chief married to a princess can the son or daughter be regarded as linked to royalty bloodline,which correspond to the fact that Ashipa is purely a chief of high rank though this title is more common among Northern Yoruba Kingdom's title usage. And I have also seen a closely related title among the classic Hebrew's Bible, where the name was used it in Bible in Gen 16 : 1, where it is reffered to Hagar ,who started out as the שפח (shipha) of Sarah (Genesis 16:1). Although, the title is interpreted by one of the publication of Biblical dictionaries as a woman worker of a high rank or was a position in between a chief housekeeper and personal assistant to the mistress. Invariably the name means one who does work for a king or priest's wife and family ( She ifo~ ishe ifo).

Secondly, I agree with the fact that Ashipaya or Ishipaya is also cognate with English language's Inspired, which showed either it is accidental cognate or true cognate. However, English language is massively with loaned words in her lexicons from Germanic and non Germanic lexicons,which are linked to Mediterranean, Latin, Roman,Greek's. So, I am not surprised at all ,seeing such connection either as true cognate of accidental's.Though Ishipaya or Ashipaya is slightly more akin to mean,‘revelation' or roo okan ; meditate to prophesying, to ponder over an issue in one' mind. Interestingly, this word is also found in Classic Hebrew,called Ruack ; Roo akh , which mean the following:

1c) spirit (as that which breathes quickly in animation or agitation)

1c1) spirit, animation, vivacity, vigour

1c2) courage

1c3) temper, anger

1c4) impatience, patience

1c5) spirit, disposition (as troubled, bitter, discontented)

1c6) disposition (of various kinds), unaccountable or uncontrollable impulse

1c7) prophetic spirit

1d) spirit (of the living, breathing being in man and animals)

1d1) as gift, preserved by God, God’s spirit, departing at death, disembodied being

1e) spirit (as seat of emotion)

1e1) desire

1e2) sorrow, trouble

1f) spirit

1f1) as seat or organ of mental acts

1f2) rarely of the will

1f3) as seat especially of moral character

1g) Spirit of God, the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son

1g1) as inspiring ecstatic state of prophecy

1g2) as impelling prophet to utter instruction or warning

1g3) imparting warlike energy and executive and administrative power

1g4) as endowing men with various gifts

1g5) as energy of life

1g6) as manifest in the Shekinah glory

1g7) never referred to as a depersonalized force.


Thirdly, Yoruba's Ya,Yon or Yan in Yoruba language os cognates with English's Yawn , which is to release air out through the mouth out of fatigue(respire).Although, Ya,Yon or Yan do also mean different things at times if slight modification or diacritics are used on these words. For instance,Ya,( defecate. Another Example is Iya ( terrestrial power for dysfunctional and functional purpose) or feminine who gives birth or as a mother( Oyo and subclan term ),which was derived from Ye/Iye(survive,alive or birth new offspring).

Imisi is breath into,which also mean, Inspiration in English language. This word was coined to serve the vacuum of 18th century modern Christian oriented as far as I am concerned because imi is derived from mi ( breath, life, moves ,shakes). While si mean (is, to exist, increase etc). The point is that there coined words which are basically through inspiration even if such word is for descriptive purpose.


Fourthly ,Arabic interpretation of Khalifa shifts away from Yoruba's Alufa though Alufa in Yoruba land is also associated with royalty's throne, chiefly office; high rank office which has cognate in Classic Hebrew's Aluph(aloof) that, means, chief or Priest etc, and this falls within same cognate with Yoruba's Alufa,Olifa if one is familiar with the Biblical interpretation. Modern Christian which begun in 18th century or the white garment church can't be the yard stick to buttress our search for the classic ancient Yoruba ancestors and their language because there knowledge is fashioned after written Yoruba Bible.

Furthermore Abore is a bit not in the same as Ore/re(friend) but one who venerate Ore( form of thanksgiving through while sacrifices are offered etc to earth owner . Abore is a priestly title among initiates of Ore court in Yoruba land and the over all is an Oba; overseer of it , though some Obas don't acknowledge this festival because, they either are not connected to the lineage of this veneration or lost the ritual procedure through migration to another land. This title has nothing to do with friendliness.


Fifthly, ‘eji ogbe baba Ifa', is credited to being Orumila only and non because about Eledumare is about Orunmila. Therefore, his personality represent the spirit of God, wisdom, light, creator, spoken words, truth, destiny giver of destiny from eledumare to mankind or things with life in it ; ese ifaodu ogunda. Resurrection, safety, preservation of life in ,nese ifaodu oyeku etc.Orunmila is all in all in ‘Ela'.


Note: As far as I am concerned, Idu or Igodomigodo aren't Yoruba people even if there are about 1000± years intermarriages with them in the same way Yoruba married Hausa, Fulani,Tapa, Egun(Gu), Akpoto people ~ who were Igala partly ancestors. There many people who are linked to Yoruba but they remained a distinct people because, their languages were subjugated to a lingua franca of ifaodu's language which is Yoruba's.The point here is that many don't have Oriki~ genealogy link knowledge except the ones who are linked to Yoruba bloodline either patrilineal or matrilineal lineage and believes in Yoruba form of worship and tradition.

Rossinky:


Thanks for the knowledge you're sharing bro. I wouldn't bother too much with maceof. He's been like this for a long time, and I've had my own battles with him. It's like reasoning with a brick wall. He doesn't want to hear anything about Africa beyond the 'mud hut illiterate villagers who did nothing' narrative. He doesn't study or research anything with regard to African history, least of all from African historians or sources. He isn't really worth your time. Just give us the info abeg.

prexios:

There is no defeating the black man, history is a continuous flow of people from various places to the other. If you wax strong on 'black-man' crusade, you wont appreciate the link that binds humanity, you will bear grudges against others, maybe "whiteman" for having "victory" from the way you see the world. People exploits people, make peace with it and move on, don't get hold to recrimination over the issues of the past centuries, its an uneasy past. today, its not easy for the black, non black or for the white going over overt racial competition.

The job of a scholar or antiquarian is matching traditions and tracking the flow of culture where it seems similar, its not about "competition of races". Some other people or supremacist school of thought might be involve in this aspect. But for me, i believe people are descended from people irrespective of their present color . . .

The Yoruba culture made external validation expedient because they talk of external origin. We wont limit Yoruba history because we need to fortify black supremacy. Moreso, the expectation of the hebrew tradition is grafting a branch back to fold, who knows if this is a part of such?

macof:

Another fool.

This is what you think of Africa? A continent of nothing better than mud hut illiterate villagers?
So you would rather look to the middle East for a history that is not your own because you don't know the Greatness within Africa?

You have failed to provide any evidence or results of any worthwhile research, I have continued to stand by sanity and made arguments based on evidence available. You are indeed foolish to say I don't study. I would like to know where your studies has taken you

You insult Africa with your foolish inferiority complex. Africans don't need to be middle eastern to feel good about themselves. You seek fantasy from me, but fantasy you can't get, I would rather give you history

[This holds true till today. Africans, especially NIGERIANS, majority of whom descend from ancient Egyptians, ''have made more use of omens and prognostics (or juju for short ) than any other nation.'']

Rossinky:


Thanks for the knowledge you're sharing bro. I wouldn't bother too much with maceof. He's been like this for a long time, and I've had my own battles with him. It's like reasoning with a brick wall. He doesn't want to hear anything about Africa beyond the 'mud hut illiterate villagers who did nothing' narrative. He doesn't study or research anything with regard to African history, least of all from African historians or sources. He isn't really worth your time. Just give us the info abeg.

Rossinky:


WE WERE COMMANDERS OF THE ''MIDDLE EAST'', you conditioned man.

Egypt, a black African civilization, was the most dominant power in that region for THOUSANDS of years. There was no such place as the ''MIDDLE EAST'' in antiquity. That region was really just an outpost of African dominance that came to be later peopled by wandering Asiatic tribes. The ''MIDDLE EAST'' is a British-coined term which arose with colonialism in 1850.

Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt, circa 3000 BC, showing clear black African populace and monarchy.








THE DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE

Note: All of Africa South of the Sahara was known to the ancient Greeks as ''Ethiopia''.


Famous Greek historian, Diodorus of Sicily

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."

Diodorus's declared intention was to trace the origins of the cult of Osiris, alias the Greek Dionysus also commonly known by his Roman name Bacchus. The Homeric Hymn "To Dionysus" locates the birth of Dionysus in a mysterious city of Nysa "near the streams of Aegyptus" ...and 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.  [emphasis added]

(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 Ethiopians 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 regarding the ancient black Africans south of the Sahara:


"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, 1996))




Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) Greek philosopher, scientist, and tutor to Alexander the Great.

Aristotle is said to have written 150 philosophical treatises.



"Too black a hue marks the coward as witness Egyptians and Ethiopians and so does also too white a complexion as you may see from women, the complexion of courage is between the two."

(Physiognomics, Vol. VI, 812a)



Aristotle makes reference to the hair form of Egyptians and Ethiopians: "Why are the Ethiopians and Egyptians bandy-legged? Is it because the bodies of living creatures become distorted by heat, like logs of wood when they become dry? The condition of their hair supports this theory; for it is curlier than that of other nations, and curliness is as it were crookedness of the hair."

(Physiognomics, Book XIV, p. 317)



The evidence of Lucian (Greek writer, 125 B.C.) is as explicit as that of the previous writers. He introduces two Greeks, Lycinus and Timolaus, who start a conversation:



Lycinus (describing a young Egyptian): "This boy is not merely black; he has thick lips and his legs are too thin . . . his hair worn in a plait behind shows that he is not a freeman."



Timolaus: "But that is a sign of really distinguished birth in Egypt, Lycinus, All freeborn children plait their hair until they reach manhood. It is the exact opposite of the custom of our ancestors who thought it seemly for old men to secure their hair with a gold brooch to keep it in place."

(Lucian, Navigations, paras 2-3)


Herodotus (circa 400 bc) (Known to western historians as the Father of History)


Herodotus also asserted that "the names of nearly all the gods came to Greece from Egypt . . . for the names of all the gods have been known in Egypt from the beginning of time . . . It was the Egyptians too who originated, and taught the Greeks . . . ceremonial meeting, processions and liturgies . . . The Egyptians were also the first to assign each month and each day to a particular deity, and to foretell the date of a man's birth, his character, his fortunes, and the day of his death . . . The Egyptians, too have made more use of omens and prognostics than any other nation. . ." [This holds true till today. Africans, especially NIGERIANS, majority of whom descend from ancient Egyptians, ''have made more use of omens and prognostics (or juju for short ) than any other nation.'']

(Herodotus, The Histories, 149-150; 152; 159).


''There can be no doubt that the Colchians are an Egyptian race. Before I heard any mention of the fact from others, I had remarked it myself. After the thought had struck me, I made inquiries on the subject both in Colchis and in Egypt, and I found that the Colchians had a more distinct recollection of the Egyptians, than the Egyptians had of them. Still the Egyptians said that they believed the Colchians to be descended from the army of Sesostris. My own conjectures were founded, first, on the fact that they are black-skinned and have woolly hair, which certainly amounts to but little, since several other nations are so too. But further and more especially, on the circumstance that the Colchians, the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians, are the only nations who have practised circumcision from the earliest times.

The Phoenicians and the Syrians of Palestine themselves confess that they learned the custom of the Egyptians. And the Syrians who dwell about the rivers Thermodon and Parthenius, as well as their neighbors the Macronians, say that they have recently adopted it from the Colchians. Now these are the only nations who use circumcision, and it is plain that they all imitate herein the Egyptians. With respect to the Ethiopians, indeed, I cannot decide whether they learned the practice of the Egyptians, or the Egyptians of them (it is undoubtedly of very ancient date in Ethiopia). But that the others derived their knowledge of it from Egypt is clear to me, from the fact that the Phoenicians, when they come to have commerce with the Greeks, cease to follow the Egyptians in this custom, and allow their children to remain uncircumcised.'' (Herodotus, The Histories, Book 2:104)


The opinion of the ancient writers on the Egyptians is more or less summed up by French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero The Dawn of Civilization (1894), when he says, "By the almost unanimous testimony of ancient historians, they [the Egyptians] belong to an African race which first settled in Ethiopia on the Middle Nile: following the course of the river they gradually reached the sea."

The German scholar, Eugen Georg, in his book The Adventure of Mankind (1931) p. 121, tells us about the ". . . world-wide dominance of Ethiopian representatives of the black race. They were supreme in Africa and Asia. In upper Egypt and India they erected mighty religious centers and mastered a perfect technique in the molding of bronze --- and they even infiltrated through Southern Europe for a thousand years."

In his book Egypt, British scholar Sir E.A. Wallis Budge says: "The prehistoric native of Egypt, both in the old and in the new Stone Ages, was African and there is every reason for saying that the earliest settlers came from the South." He further states: "There are many things in the manners and customs and religions of the historic Egyptians that suggests that the original home of their prehistoric ancestors was in a country in the neighborhood of Uganda and Punt." (Some historians believe that the biblical land of Punt was in the area known on modern maps as Somalia.)


Stephanus of Byzantium, who is said to represent the opinions of the most ancient Greeks, says:

"Ethiopia was the first established country on the earth, and the Ethiopians were the first who introduced the worship of the Gods and who established laws."

Quoted by John D. Baldwin, Prehistoric Nations, p. 62.


Arnold Hermann Heeren (1760-1842), Professor of History and Politics in the University of Gottengen and one of the ablest of the early exponents of the economic interpretation of history, published, in the fourth and revised edition of his great work Ideen Uber Die Politik, Den Verkehr Und Den Handel Der Vornehmsten Volker Der Alten Weld, a lengthy essay on the history, culture, and commerce of the ancient Ethiopians, which had profound influence on contemporary writers in the conclusion that it was among these ancient Black people of Africa and Asia that international trade was first developed.

He thinks that as a by-product of these international contacts there was an exchange of ideas and cultural practices that laid the foundations of the earliest civilizations of the ancient world. Heeren in his researches says: "From the remotest times to the present, the Ethiopians have been one of the most celebrated, and yet the most mysterious of nations. In the earliest traditions of nearly all the  civilized nations of antiquity, the name of this distant people is found. The annals of the Egyptian priests are full of them, and the nations of inner Asia, on the Euphrates and Tigris, have interwoven the fictions of the Ethiopians with their traditions of the wars and conquests of their heroes; and, at a period equally remote, they glimmer in Greek mythology. When the Greeks scarcely knew Italy and Sicily by name, the Ethiopians were celebrated in the verses of their poets, and when the faint gleam of tradition and fable gives way to the clear light of history, the lustre of the Ethiopians is not diminished."


The French writer Constantin-François Volney (1757-1820), in his important work, The Ruins of Empires, extends this point of view by saying that the Egyptians were the first people to "attain the physical and moral sciences necessary to civilized life." In referring to the basis of this achievement he states further that, "It was, then, on the borders of the Upper Nile, among a Black race of men, that was organized the complicated system of worship of the stars, considered in relation to the productions of the earth and the labors of agriculture; and this first worship, characterized by their adoration under their own forms and national attributes, was a simple proceeding of the human mind."

Volney's Ruins; or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires, Boston, J. Mendum, 1869


Flora Shaw's (alias Lady Flora Lugard) book is an extraordinary look at the history of Africa, which she gathered from countless sources, and one would imagine a great deal of it came from the British Library and from the archives of The Times of London, for whom she had for many years been the Foreign Political Correspondent. She had always been known to be an intensive researcher into her subject matter, and one wonders at the months and probably years she put into this undertaking, which became the reference work for so many future books on Africa. This book was first published 100 years ago showing the detail and descriptive power, and the greatness that Africa once was. Lady Lugard argues that:


"When the history of Negroland comes to be written in detail, it may be found that the kingdoms lying towards the eastern end of Sudan (classical home of Ancient Ethiopians) were the home of races who inspired, rather than of races who received, the tradition of civilization associated for us with the name of ancient Egypt. For they cover on either side of the Upper Nile between the latitudes of ten degrees and seventeen degrees, territories in which are found monuments more ancient than the oldest Egyptian monuments. If this should prove to be the case and civilized world be forced to recognize in a black people the fount of its original enlightenment, it may happen that we shall have to revise entirely our view of the black races, and regard those who now exist as the decadent representatives of an almost forgotten era, rather than as the embryonic possibility of an era yet to come."


"The fame of the ancient Ethiopians (ancient Kushites) was widespread in ancient history. Herodotus described them as the tallest, most beautiful and long-lived of the human races, and before Herodotus, Homer, in even more flattering language, described them as the most just of men, the favorites of the gods. The annals of all the great early nations of Asia Minor are full of them. The Mosaic records allude to them frequently; but while they are described as the most powerful, the most just, and the most beautiful of the human race, they are constantly spoken of as Black, and there seems to be no other conclusion to be drawn than at that remote period of history, the leading race of the Western World was a Black race."

Lady Lugard/Flora Shaw Lugard, Asa G. Hilliard, III, A Tropical Dependency: An Outline of the Ancient History of the Western Sudan With an Account of the Modern Settlement of Northern Nigeria, Black Classic Press (1996)


http://wysinger.homestead.com/blackegypt101.html