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Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 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]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 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]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 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]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 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]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 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]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 4:09pm On Feb 27, 2012

THE BLACK MUSLIM
TRIUMPH AND THE END

To be continued,

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 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]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 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]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 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]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 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]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 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]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 3:26pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]indeed become Muslims, mainly for reasons mentioned above . Some

became as fanatic as any of the semi-barbarous Almoravides of the

deserts . Such was the great Mari Jalak, known to fame as Mansa Musa . It

appears that his driving ambition was to be known, world wide, as the

greatest Black Muslim in all Africa . He succeeded, and it paid off on all

fronts except among the masses of common people .

International trade now moved freely in all directions over the

caravan trails . Between 1307 and 1332 Mali evolved from an expanding

kingdom to an expanding empire . It extended north over the desert,

extending its authority over the all-important salt mines of Taghaza ;

eastward it reached the Hausa States of Nigeria, and westward it

covered the strong Tegrur and the countries of the Fulani (Afro-Berber)

and Tucolor peoples . The remarkable expansion of Mali meant the

remarkable expansion of Islam in the Western Sudan, and in countries

outside of the empire. The spread of Islam replaced African traditional

laws . The Koran was now the constitution . All this made for increased

internal discord, rebellions by conquered groups, and migrations from

the country .

Here we have to remind ourselves that we cannot have it both ways :

Many of the black kingdoms and empires about which we sing with

pride became great by riding roughshod over other black states and

people ; and thus sowing even more seeds of hate to grow among black

generations still unborn .

The decline did not begin until after 1400 when, under weaker

successors, the Ghana story of internal disunity and strife repeated itself .

After 1550 Mali as an empire was little more than an inspiring memory .

There followed the usual array of numerous small and "independent"

states, each ripe for easy conquest by a stronger power .

Islam was that power . It continued to spread as various black rulers

followed the example of Mansa Musa and became Muslims . Just as Mali

had spread over the former Ghana empire, Songhay was to spread over
Mali .

SONGHAY

It is almost like retelling the story of Ghana and Mali . The Songhay

people were the nuclear group that was to build their name to the

greatest African empire of the 15th and 16th centuries . Their small

state, with its capital at Kukya, was east of the Niger River bend[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 3:25pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]strategic points of power . They were able to harass and raid the great

caravans conducting the vast import and export trade of the black states

across the Sahara . The armed escort guards were powerless against

them because they could throw a mile-long caravan into disarray and

confusion by the tactics of sudden attack and withdrawal, attack and

withdrawal until the heavily ladened fleets were at their mercy . These

caravan trails, the life-lines of empires, were regularly under attack or

threatened . One solution of the problem, it is believed, was for black

kings to become Muslims . Embracing Islam became not merely a policy

to expediency'wherever Arab and Berber Muslims gained a dominant

foothold in Black Africa, but it became a compelling means to economic

survival . The Muslims not only controlled the all-important caravan

trails, but all African ports of trade with the world . The fact that many

of the desert tribes were nominally a part of the empire, or tributaries to

it, made matters worse . Pretending to be loyal to the emperor when this

served their purpose, they could play it both ways . They, therefore,

always had their separate communities in the capital city and all

important trading towns . As Muslim "brothers," they secured important

posts in the government . "Protected" caravans moved unmolested .

What it means is that the "loyal" Arabs, as advisors to the king, were in a

position to collect tribute from him to pay off potential raiders . Here, as

elsewhere, "brotherhood" and "integration" were most beneficial for

the whites even when they were in a politically subordinate status .

The second important fact to be noted is that the Arab-Berber

position near and within the empire was the base from which the

fanatical Almoravides spread the Islamic religion in West Africa with an

uncompromising aggressiveness unmatched in the history of religion .

Their proselytising brotherhoods were camps of militant missionaries .

They were hostile to the black masses because the masses actively

resisted conversion to Islam . Here, again, may be an example of why so

many Africans and, especially Afro-Americans, think of Arabs as

"Coloured people" ; for the well-known Almoravides were indeed predominantly
Mulatto.

Strong Black Muslim kings protected their people . Baranmindanah

was the first Mansa (king) of Mali to embrace Islam in 1050 A .D . He

urged that all succeeding mansas do the same . (Arabic historians, therefore,

list him as the first king of Mali . The history of the country began

with Islam and the pilgrimages to Mecca-another aspect of the

"blackout." The emperor-kings who came after Baranmindanah did[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 3:23pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]instant, show that the country was formerly inhabited, in part at least,

by sedentary peoples, and lead us to suppose that it was better watered

than it is today and more suitable for tillage . Besides, Bekri speaks of

vast and prosperous fields which extended to the east of Ghana the

Capital City and local traditions are unanimous in attributing the

decline of the kingdom and the dispersion of its inhabitants to the

drying up of the Wagadu and consequent famine . . . "

This early conclusion by Delafosse with regard to the reasons for the

disappearance of one highly civilized African state has not only been

confirmed by later investigation, but the same major factors explain the

collapse of other African states .

MALI

Mali was the second of the "Great Three" West African empires that

became well known in the medieval world . Although its history has

.been traced back to paleolithic times through rock paintings, carvings

and other archaeological finds, such as the "Asselar man" in 1927, the

empire rose in the 13th century with the decline of Ghana .

Kangoba was the small kingdom of the Mandinka people on the

southern border of Ghana near the mouth of the Niger River . It was a

tributary state and held the strategic trading position of dominance over

the gold mines of both Wangara and Boure .

Among the contestants for succession to the disintegrating empire of

Ghana were two of its rebelling provinces, Kaniaga and Diara . These

were overcome by the nearby Kingdom of Tegrur under the leadership

of Sumanguru, who succeeded in capturing the capitol of Ghana,

Kumbi Saleh, in 1203 . He undertook the task of rebuilding the empire,

proved to be unequal to it, and was defeated by the Mandinka king,

Sundiata, at the historic Battle of Kirina in 1240 . The battle's outcome

was the beginning of the Malian Empire . Under the Emperors Sundiata

Keita and Mansa Uli there was systematic reorganization and consolidation

of the former empire and expansion beyond it ; so that when Mansa

Musa came to the throne in 1312 he had a solid foundation upon which

to build what was to become one of the greatest empires of the time,

and to be recognized as such around the world .

But two things should be noted here . The first is that both Ghana and

Mali included strong Arab-Berber tribal states under their rule . Most of

these were united desert societies . They occupied the surrounding[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 3:21pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]state and of the formerly independent states which now made up the
empire .

2. The desire for independence on the part of these states, or more

security in an alliance with some other seemingly rising power, such as
Mali .

3. Hard times. Drought leading to famine was becoming more

frequent, almost a permanent condition . Farming, the occupation of the

masses, was becoming too difficult to support life as the soil itself was
dying .

4. The decline of trade . Stepped-up Arab-Berber raids on caravan

trails, the life-line of the empire .

5. Failure to capture Wangara gold mines, leaving the state in the now

precarious position of a dependent middleman .

6. Civil strife over succession to throne . The ruling class had become

Muslim, introducing revolutionary changes in traditional constitutional
practices .

7 . Weak leaders on both local and national levels . Wisdom, courage

and ability were no longer tests for high office .

8. Religious conflicts . Muslim kings versus non-Muslim masses . This

meant war on time-honored religious beliefs and practices . The African

masses, of course, were regarded as "infidels," but the ruthless program

of forced conversions to Islam failed as more and more of the people

fled the country. Islam eventually triumphed over this whole area,

which is today what was French West Africa .

9. The increasing death of the soil : Deforestation, erosion, and the

uninhibited southward movement of the Sahara . The gradual drying

up of streams and sinking of lakes and rivers were death knells for a

civilization that was already decaying for reasons which I have just
outlined .

10 . Changes in climate : The quick evaporation of rainfall, leaving the

soil as dry and thirsty as ever. Maurice Delafosse, in his Negroes of

Africa, declared : "The region where Kumbi was built is now very arid .

In truth it rains here every year, but there are (now) no rivers ; and

except at a few points where pools and sheets of not very deep subterteranean

water exist, the vegetation, although fairly thick in spots, is

reduced to thin pasturage, gum trees and other spiny bushes (halogen) .

The region contains no villages, and is traversed only by nomadic Moors

and hunters of the Nemadi tribe . But very numerous and extended

traces of former habitations and burial places which turn up at every[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 3:17pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]Here then, buried under tons of sand, was the answer to one of the

greatest riddles of history . To understand it is to understand one of the

most powerful forces in the decline of African civilization, and why so

many of the continent's famine-crazed people sank into barbarism and

the life of savages . The fall of Ghana's empire was merely a prologue to

the fate of the still greater empires of Mali and Songhay that later spread

over much of the same area and beyond . The culmination of the process

of disintegration was being slowly reached in each of these countries

even while they were expanding over vast areas, flushed with all the

glories of wealth and power . We might here observe that, nearly a

thousand years later, the illusion that bigness, wealth and military

power are sufficient to guarantee security and permanence still persist .

Indeed, power and wealth tend to make rulers both obstinate and blind

in the face of obviously undermining forces .

The destruction of the capital by the Muslims in 1076 and the great

migration from the country are part of the story ; but only a part,

because the Muslims did not stay in force . This invasion was simply

another major factor in the process of slow disintegration and expedited

it. It certainly stepped up the mass flights of Ghanaians southward into

the forests and to the coast .

A second factor that affected the stability and growth of the country

was the continuous raids by the Semitic nomads of the desert (bear in

mind that some of the attacking nomads were tributary subjects), mostly

Berbers and Arabs .' The aims were booty and destruction, not conquest

and settlement . The desert people hated settled, civilized life, regarding

it as feminine . The raider's appeared suddenly in surprise attacks and

disappeared as suddenly . Settled communities were deserted and

migrations developed en masse . The refugee movements within the

country created internal tensions and conflicts, while movements from

the country further weakened it . A chain reaction set in, and some of

the internal causes of conflict and disintegration may be noted as
follows :

1 . Dissatisfaction with a central government that tended progressively

to undermine the traditional constitutions of both the parent-nuclear
-------------------------------------------

Notes

2. A reminder : "Berbers" and "Arabs" generally included Black

Africans, Afro-Berbers and Afro-Arabs-all converted to Islam . The

most fanatical Muslims were often the Blacks and Mulattoes .[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 3:14pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]It was a mixed economy of agriculture : wheat, millet, cotton, corn,

yams, and cattle-raising (cows, horses, goats, camels, and sheep) . The

iron industry, mining and numerous crafts were organized as guilds :

blacksmiths, goldsmiths (jewelers), coppersmiths, stonemasons, brickmasons,

water diviners, carpenters, weavers, sandal-makers, dyers,

cabinet-makers, furniture-makers, and potters .

The soil was more favorable for millet than wheat . Much wheat was

imported. Other imports from African countries and abroad were salt,

textiles, cowrie shells, brass, dates, figs, pearls, fruit, sugar, dried raisins

and honey. The chief exports were gold, ivory, rubber, and slaves .

Under the Emperor Tenkamenin (1060 A.D.) the imperial army

numbered 200,000 (1060 A.D .) of which 100,000 were mounted and

40,000 were expertly trained bow and arrow brigades . It was not a

standing army ; rather, it was somewhat like a National Guard, trained

and ready to answer the call when needed, but otherwise following their

usual occupations . The most famous schools were at Kumbi-Saleh'

and Djenne . The world renowned University of Sankore was at Timbuktu

(north of Ghana) .

All this and much more passed away like a dream . What happened?

This was a great civilization . What happened to it? The country and its

capital was visited by the great Arab geographer, El Bekri, sometime

after 960 A.D . He described a vast country of fertile fields with rivers

and lakes, woods, and green plains, of busy villages, towns, and "cities of

stone ." Yet when Bonnet de Mezieres visited the site of the capital city in

1914, all he saw at first was a level wasteland of rocks and sand as far as

the eye could see . What happened to the city of stone? Where were the

green fields, the green trees? Where were the lakes? And above all, what

became of the great Wagadu River that flowed near the capital? How

could any of these things ever have been true? If there is any such thing

as the unbelievable, here it was . Yet, oral history insisted that this was

the area where Ghana's ancient capital city once stood .

Digging unbelievingly, the excavators finally reached and began to

unearth the city that had been entombed by the desert sands for

centuries . The very idea that it ever existed had almost been forgotten .
-----------------------------------------

Notes

1 . Also known as Kumbi-Kumbi . Likewise, Djenne is a variation of[/b]
Jenne

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 3:10pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]and secure at last in a kingdom that had never been conquered either

by the forces of nature or of men . And its history was long . As citizens,

they could help in the further development of the general prosperity

and the education which was an integral part of the national program .

Ghana's actual history goes far back beyond its known record . That

record listed forty-four kings before the Christian era and this along

would extend Ghana's known history beyond the 25th Dynasty when

the last black pharaohs ruled Egypt (7th century B.C .).

Holding on and holding out against a slowly but steadily expanding

ocean of sand"-the now three million square miles of the Sahara

Desert-it had, nevertheless, reached a high level of greatness in the

eleventh century and was an empire comparable to most European

states at that time . It surpassed many others in social organization,

military power, economic wealth and in the promotion of higher
education .

This African empire had expanded territorially by both conquests

and peaceful alliances with neighboring countries, including dependencies

such as Sama, Garantel, Gadiaro, Galam (present-day Northern

Ghana area), Diara, Soso and Tekrur ; the desert tribes of Berbers were

made tributaries-the Zenaga, Lemtuna, Goddala, Messufa, et. at .

The empire, known as the "Land of Gold" became great not only

because it controlled the greatest source of gold for both Europe and

Asia, but also because of its iron mining and iron manufactures for over

a thousand years . Leadership in the iron industry made her a dominant

power over less progressive peoples in the Western Sudan . This status

and the mastery of iron also meant the development of a mighty

military power, equipped with awesome weapons over which it had a

monopoly. These weapons were heralded abroad, striking fear among

neighboring states. Some were annexed without resistance, others had

to be conquered .

Control of caravan trade routes to the north, east, Ethiopia and Egypt

was probably the most important factor in the ever-growing wealth of

the nation . There were import and export taxes, a system of weights

and measures, and control of inflation by limiting the flow of gold .

Kumbi-Kumbi, the capital, was a twin city of stone mansions, temples,

mosques and schools, along with the thatched roof huts of the masses .

The larger towns and cities were generally located on or near lakes,

rivers and lesser streams such as creeks . The Niger was the most

important river for trade, travel and war boats .[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 3:08pm On Feb 27, 2012

. . . 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 in the center of

which one of the great universities of the world and other colleges

were located .

-The Black Revival of Learning, p . 247

[b]

The Resurrection and the Life:
Case Studies by States
"THEY CALLED IT "GHANA"

ONE BLACK STATE DEFIED THE SLOW ONSLAUGHT OF THE

Sahara for over two thousand years, hanging on to its fringes far into

historic times, just as though it was determined to let the world actually

see how all of its sister states in that vast wasteland had died .

Furthermore, its very antiquity and the similarity of its advanced institutions

to those of the Ethiopian empire in the east has raised the question

of whether it was a western outpost of that empire . There is, of course,

no question about the travels of Blacks between the Eastern and

Western Sudan .

The "geographers" were among the first foreigners to arrive in the

region in the 10th century A .D . The Arab and European practice of

naming countries and peoples often displayed both ignorance and arrogance

. They did not condescend to inquire of the people about the

name of their country or the meaning of the titles they held . So they

called this country "Ghana," meaning the leader, head of the state or, in

Western terms, the king .

The people who migrated into the country from all directions had

every reason to believe they were far enough into the interior to be free[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 3:03pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]remained (even in 1973) both "primitive" and "pagan," just as their

brothers elsewhere had to remain under similar circumstances .

It was still the hunting ground for slaves . The Blacks had to remain

sharply alert at all times, for the modern slave traffic was covert, subtle

and often highly sophisticated . There were no outright raids . The slave

agents may appear as employment officers seeking workers or representatives

of schools offering free training for nurses, teachers and various

trades . I was told when I was working in this area that these tactics were

successful for a long time because of the extreme poverty and the

desperate need for jobs .

The fighting that has been going on constantly for fifteen years has

caused the same kind of migrations as most of those already described .

Thousands have been migrating into any country that allowed them to

enter . Even in this modern age many will never see those left behind

again . They will scatter and settle among other people wherever they

can. They will become "lost" in the merger, while their brothers and

sisters stay behind and carry on the ancient tradition of fighting on

against overwhelming odds as long as they can stand .

In this study you must have noticed that the past and present are

joined . We study our past for the express purpose of learning what

things made the race great in the past, what explains subsequent

failures and weakness, and what, in the light of that history, we can do

now-if we have the will . This is what the study of history should mean

for African people in particular . This chapter on the Migrations, for

example, tells us much that is even alarmingly crucial . But how many of

us care to grapple with its real significance?

Who asks why is it that the black world, forever "up-tight" over South

Africa and Rhodesia, has remained silent about the 15 years of the

slaughter of Blacks in the Sudan? I asked four leaders of the Resistance

if the Southern provinces had ever appealed to the Organization of

African Unity for help . "We have been begging them ever since it

started," was the unanimous reply . "Not for arms, but just to use its

influence to stop the burning of our villages and the massacre of our

people . But, you see, the white and brown Arabs actually control the

policies of the OAU. For us that means that they still control the Blacks

of Africa . . . " Meanwhile, migrants still wander as of old . For them

freedom and independence are yet to come to Africa .[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 3:00pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]The millions who found security only in places of extreme isolationin

caves, swamps, around a few precious waterholes in deserts and on

inaccessible hills-none of these people were favored with the chance

even to begin the building of their lost civilization . Far from being

ashamed of them as "savages," this chapter is a salute to them, a salute

with pride that says to them "all honor and all glory!" Unlike the Blacks

we know most about, they could not build great kingdoms and empires .

Many were far removed even from the fringes of an advancing world .

Yet they overrode the unceasing attacks of both death and hell, and

survived . What is more, they held fast the last line of freedom on the

African continent, and they held it against cannon fire to the very end .

Even when colonialism swept over their land they were never conquered .

They had been wise enough to see both Islam and, Christianity as just

another route to the slavery they had fought and died to avoid . They

remained steadfast in their own religion and, therefore, were called

"pagans ." But all of their children were born free, none in Muslim or

Christian slavery ; and their girls were never dragged off to become

slaves in the harems of Arabs, or as breeding girls for white men in the
West.

Finally, 1 referred to Blacks who, though forced to move, never left

their homeland region. The Noba did not move very far from where

they had lived from times immemorial . A far greater number of Blacks

held on in their ancient center after it was overrun, refusing either to

leave or be enslaved . They stayed and battled against the invaders,

finally, being concentrated in the southern provinces of the Sudan

where the earlier history of the race in Egypt is still being repeated, line

by line . And this is why it is so easy to understand the history of the

Blacks and see very clearly how they were not only forced far back

behind the advancing races, but also pushed to the lowest levels of

degradation . For that history is still being made today, covertly and

openly, for all the world to see . The Blacks who are under pressure

today in Bahr El Ghazal, Upper Nile and Equatoria are still fighting for

survival against the all-conquering Coloured Arabs just as their forefathers

fought five thousand years ago from the Mediterranean in

Lower Egypt to where they are now making a last stand . Romantic

history? Who needs it? They have been massacred by the hundreds and

villages left in ashes, but they fight on . This all-black region is kept

isolated and cut off from the developments and higher levels of life seen

in the Arab-dominated Sudan . These Southern Sudanese have[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 2:58pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]universality of white nudist colonies or naked bodies (not to mention

sexual intercouse) on public stages and screens. Reference to the Noba

people, of course, is simple to give still another example of a people who

had to make the grim choice between freedom and slavery, chosing

freedom even when that choice meant isolation and, inevitably, retrogression.

Blacks who were among the very first weavers and cloth

makers on earth could no longer wear clothes .

These flights before the mighty firepower of the invaders became

more general after 1400 A .D ., even though guns, after 200 years of

development, were still not in widespread use in Africa . Only Europeans

and Arabs were able to secure a limited supply of these "precious" and

certain-to-conquer weapons . The Blacks had nothing of the kind .

Meanwhile, experimentation to improve various types of gunnery and

speed up production was frantically pushed . The successful outcome of

this great venture in firepower was the prelude to the industrial revolution

that was to change not only the material world, but what was left of

the humane nature of man himself .

It is not likely that the people were then generally aware that they

were being slowly hemmed in from all directions . It is possible that

many did "feel" it, without having any exact knowledge of being

encircled, although the danger might be several hundred miles away

where the hostile seas met the friendly land . Other groups of wandering

Blacks headed for dismal swamps, still others dug caves in hillsides .

There were those who wandered aimlessly out into the scorching desert

and died with their babies strapped to their backs and larger children

clutched by their hands . This meant that the bleached skeletons of little

babies and children greeted the eyes as though additional testimony

were needed to show how many of the young were included among

those who could not make it even to barbarism .

All of those who survived in these various groups ended up in areas

where they could do little more than survive . Even if they had not

splintered off into small independent societies, famine and disease

would have reduced their numbers anyway . Therefore, as noted elsewhere,

there were many firmly united groups that were so large that

migrating as a single unit was impossible . Here the very circumstances of

the case demanded separation, estrangement and isolation from the

mother society, and the eventual development of several new language

groups . The disunity among the Blacks that spread over the whole race

often developed from crisis situations over which they had no control in

the awful struggle to survive .[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 2:56pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]were destroyed by the European invasions . Since a representative

number of these states appear in the following pages, a final word

should be said about the vast numbers who found only caves and

swamps as places of refuge and, therefore, built no states, but sank

lower and lower in hopelessness, ever-present fears of capture, and a life

that was not life but an animal-like struggle to survive . I referred to

these before, but all too briefly . They are an inseparable part of the

history of the race . Their savage state enables us to measure the distance

from the heights to the level where so many of the race had fallen ; it also

may be the bold recognition on our part that serves as a guidelight on

the road back to greatness . Call them "savages" if that pleases you . But

these were the Blacks in retreat before the slave-hunters . These were

the Blacks who had to choose between enslavement for life, and that of

all of their descendants, and freedom . They did not hesitate . They chose

freedom even though it meant the loss of civilization, a civilization

which they had, in fact, already lost . To be slaves of Arabs, Europeans

or Americans simply meant becoming the economic foundation of their

civilization and the steady destruction of the civilization of the Blacks .

So, all hail to the Black "savages"-those noble ancestors who chose

both freedom and death in preference to white enslavement! Freedom

and death . Once the paths they made in flight could be followed for

days by their bloody footprints in the sand . The windblown sand had

easily covered these up . Later travellers and slave-hunters could

determine the various routes of flight by the skeletons found here and

there, fallen statues left by those who could not make it on . They were

generally disjointed and scattered ; sometimes it was a bony arm protruding

from the windswept sands, a leg over there or a skull seeming to

smile "peace at last!" The bones of other thousands who died in flight

were never seen . They lay buried forever under the tons of sand and

rocks that moved over much of the regions .

Masses of Blacks found security in hills that were made inaccessible to

both Arabs and Europeans . Such were Blacks who isolated themselves

in the strongholds of the Nuba Hills . They were never conquered,

throwing back all invading army units that attempted subjugation and

enslavement . Westerners point to their primitive state, to their nude

and half-nude bodies . To the somewhat twisted Western mind, unclothedness

in public is indicative of the savage . The "twisted mind" becomes

evident when the same people do not find it necessary to explain the[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 2:54pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]them? Certainly nothing coming from the Blacks required any serious

consideration . The mind transplant had been most successful as an

operation on the Blacks .

Having lost the honor of full manhood that comes only from the pride

of racial worth and identity, the black man's mind generally operates

favorably toward his white enemies and negatively toward himself and

his kind .

No one knows this better than the whites . They have, therefore, had a

free and unchallenged hand in reordering the Land of the Blacks as they

saw fit, classifying and naming people, places and things just as they

pleased . The Blacks were nonpersons or nobodies in their own land .

From one end of the continent to the other black youth saw great

monuments and statues of Europeans only, European and Arab names

for African roads, hills, lakes, towns and cities . One youngster, whose

ancestors had migrated from the north centuries ago, stood gazing at a

statue of Cecil Rhodes . "He's in our school hooks too!" he proudly

informed his parents . The smile left as he asked, "But why are our great

men forgotten? We never hear about them ." As none could answer,

there was silence . This particular group belonged to a family that was

2,000 miles from the known "original" home . This refers to the place

that oral tradition declares to be the original home . But we know that

the "place of origin" often given in the oral record means the place

where the group lived for so many generations that previous homesites

during these long drawn-out migrations had been forgotten . What they

had forgotten, however, was less tragic than their ignorance of some of

the well-known facts of their more recent history as a people . The boy

had raised important questions . They could not answer because they

are Blacks of Rhodesia . What little history they knew was white Rhodesian

history, and this they could learn from Rhodes to Ian Smith . They

did not know that they had been living for generations in the center of

what was once one of the greatest black empires in Africa, nor had they

ever heard of the great African leader of that empire, Emperor Mutota .

As elsewhere, Rhodesian history began with the coming of the whites .

All before that is "unknown pre-history ."

TO THE CAVES, TO THE SWAMPS

We have been studying those people who were actually migrating

from a highly advanced civilization to less advanced regions or regions

not advanced at all, but who continued to rebuild new states until they[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 2:51pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]THE IMPERIALISTS WITH THE PEN

The picture becomes clear, however, when we know that the "Black"

migrations were not always all black . Some of these were Afro-Asians,

some had a few white Asians, other groups were entirely Afro-Berber or

Afro-Arab . These often tended to form an independent ethnic group,

keeping to themselves. There were also some groups of Berbers and,

later, Arabs who migrated from the Sahara to favorable locations in the

interior . So, as stated above, since we are here considering the earliest

migrations from the Sahara, to find "Caucasoid" remains in any part of

Africa today is really without any particular significance . Such finds

obviously do not justify the conclusions reached by many writers .

But these experts on Africa are not ignorant of the essential facts and

outcomes of migrations . This is certainly true of those who have studied

the dispersons and the mixing of peoples over the milleniums . They

know, but there is apparently a deeply felt need, an urgent and almost

desperate compulsion to justify the power position of the white world

aver the non-white peoples . That white power is so all-encompassing

makes the task of Western scholarship, in particular, easy enough .

First of all, they are not only supported by the almost limitless wealth

amassed from the exploited peoples of the earth, but they also still

,control, directly or indirectly, the economic life of every black state

today . This is equally true of numerous non-African countries, still poor

and begging, while their wealth is being drained off to the already rich

countries . Secondly, they control world education and science . Scholarship,

supported by billions of dollars, far from being independent and

"objective," has generally served its masters well, becoming arrogant

and overbearing in the process . Their most powerful weapon is a single

word, science . Having successfully raised science far above religion in

the faith of people generally, they may now present almost any proposition

or conclusion as "scientific" and gain wide acceptance . The age has

passed when men listened with reverence when it was declared that

"Thus saith the Lord ." Now one simply has to say, "according to

science . . . " or "most scholars are agreed . . .," etc . Finally, the universities

spearheaded the final economic triumph of the West over the rest of the

world . Science pushed the partnership of big corporate wealth and big

government into exciting fields-of inventions and discoveries . Weapons

of universal destruction actually out-distanced the technology of time

and space.

Who, then, could question. white supremacy? Who dared to challenge

viewpoints held by scholars with this awesome array of power behind[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 2:49pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]homeland of the Blacks? Our "Africanist" experts do not know . Some

few, apparently seeing how ridiculous was the corner into which they

had painted themselves, suggest that perhaps the Blacks migrated from

India, or "somewhere" in Europe!

Others undertake to establish Caucasian priority in Africa by excavating

structures "which no Negroes could have built ." An example is a

prehistoric site in Uganda. They found what seems to have been a wellbuilt

fortification of earthwork, reservoirs, dams for irrigation, trenches

and pit dwellings . All this indicated the mass organization and skills of a

superior people, such as the Sidamo, for example . "Nowhere in East

Africa," the author concludes, "are Negro peoples, either Bantu or

Nilotic, known to have built structures even remotely comparable to

these ."' This, like a thousand similar false statements about Africans,

requires no answer . The facts now are well known . But let us not miss

the central point in all this . The Sidamo people, cited by this anthropologist

as the probable builders of those structures, are themselves Black

Africans, as black and as African as are the anthropologist's "Bantu" and

"Nilotic" groups . I have lived among all three groups . Some of the

people in each . group are of "mixed blood" as a simple matter of

course -just as American Blacks are mixed . But in their pathological

drive to prevent any concepts of unity from emerging in Africa, Caucasian

scholars have •been relentless in dividing the Blacks of Africa into

numerous ethnic categories . This grand strategy was designed to make

each group feel unique, special and hostile to all other groups . . The

development of different languages in the scattered and isolated societies

was the most favorable situation for the division of the Blacks and the

furtherance of hostility among them .

None of this was evil deliberately designed . The writing of the history

(or, rather, non-history) of non-Caucasians from a Caucasian viewpoint

was a development of relatively recent times . It followed logically from

the 19th century theories of social evolution . Racism, the natural byproduct,

now had a "scientific" basis, and as such became an integral

part of education itself . This is why Western anthropologists have

played the dominant role in shaping African history which, from their

viewpoint, was the study of "primitive peoples ." The migrations, as we

have seen, served their purpose well .
--------------------------------------

Notes

1 . Murdock .[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 2:44pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]oases, the otherwise indiscriminate forces of death and destruction did

indeed discriminate . Sometimes high walls of sand began to pile up just

before reaching these sites, leaving them safely in valleys thus formed .

These continued to be the centers of life and hope as the years passed

on into our own times . And it is not without significance that two-thirds

of the Sahara population today is still Black .

Like their ancestors, they continued to be settled communities of

farmers and craftsmen, the kind of communities where civilization itself

is born. But, also like their ancestors and all other advancing peoples,

they were vulnerable to the widely ranging camel-riding Berber and

Arab nomads . These tent-dwelling raiders gained absolute control of all

the trans-Saharan trade routes . With their kinsmen in control of all the

commercial seaports, they had effective control over the economic life of

Africa and, therefore, Africa itself. The matter of making that control

more complete by raiding and enslaving the Blacks in scattered oasis

communities became relatively easy . Direct contacts with Europe and

Asia meant the possession of the latest superior weapons which the

Blacks were unable to secure-firearms .

ETHNOLOGY AND THE MIGRATIONS

The great story of the Sahara is yet to be told . Archaeology has hardly

scratched the surface beneath which a lost civilization lies buried under

several thousand feet of sand and rocks . How far westward did the

effective rule of the ancient empire extend? How many kingdoms were

there and by what African names were they known? Were the fringe

states, such as ancient Ghana, that were found fighting for survival on

the edges of the desert, once a part of a vast imperial system? There is

some evidence that this may have been the case, but the actual fact

remains unknown and speculation becomes an idle pastime .

What is known is that the migrations from the Sahara, while heavily

concentrated in Upper Egypt and the Eastern Sudan, also spread out

over Africa in and through the Western Sudan .

I may seem to have overemphasized the ethnic composition of some

migrating groups by repeating reference to it . But it is so important that

white historians have bypassed it in order to establish a new theory of

prehistoric Caucasian occupation of Africa . Have they not found

supposedly "Caucasoid" remains and artifacts in different places?

According to this theory the whites, in their conquest of Africa were

simply returning to their own original homeland . But where, now, is the[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 2:42pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]opportunity to direct power, fame and fortune . Like the majority of

whites and half-whites with similar ties to the Blacks, they could have

easily cut those ties and even denied that any ties ever existed . That was

the easy way, the self-serving and expedieiat way . They refused to take it

and chose to share all the hardships of the Blacks . I dwell on this

because here -we catch a fleeting glimpse of the progress of the human

spirit as it emerged on a plane above the rewards of materialism and

self-interest. I dwell on it because wherever this small group exists in,a

world gone mad with greed, there will remain some faint hope for a

more humane world in the next 1,000 years .

Social and economic mobility came from the circumstances that the

Blacks made up the strongest contingents of the Berber and Arab

armies. Some became commanders, others became chief counselors to

sultans . Most males were castrated, however, or removed from possible

contact with all females . An equally significant group was the labor

force of enslaved Blacks . These were highly important because they

relieved the white Asians from all labor . The Blacks who were skilled

craftsmen in various fields fared better since they were generally spared

from the whip.

The plight of the Blacks in white-dominated areas, including their

enslavement, would have been different if the masses had not scattered

in small groups over the tractless Sahara, the Nile Valley, Ethiopia and

other regions of the continent . The others referred to were the Blacks

who remained where they were as their once vast and fertile homeland

slowly turned into a Sahara, or wasteland .

Geologists, archaeologists and other specialists have all advanced

various theories to explain the great mystery of the transforming

Sahara . We need not retell their interesting story here, for every

explanation seems to project still another puzzling question (for me, at

any rate) . For example, just how did the Albion Sea, a vast inland body

of water as large as France, disappear in the Sahara? How many cities

and towns lie buried under those mountains of sand and rocks?

We know that in a given area all farms, orchards and even villages

could be completely covered over with sand in a matter of weeks . The

fierce winds whipped up walls of sand and gravel like mountainous

ocean waves . Since this region is over 1,000 miles wide and more than

3,000 miles from east to west, most of the people in the interior must

have perished with their villages, farms, lakes and rivers . The exceptions

were those lucky people whose farms and villages escaped inundation

by the moving oceans of sand . In these places of refuge, later called[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 2:40pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]seaboard of Africa . This tremendous victory of the white man was not

achieved by conquest . It was achieved by default on the part of a race

too preoccupied with the immediate present and less with its future, a

race whose centuries of blind trust in the white man surpassed all understanding

. One might say that in surrendering all of their coastal areas to

the Asians and Mulattoes (apparently without a fight except in the case

of Lower Egypt) that the Blacks not only sealed themselves off from

world commerce and general international relations, but they also, at

the same time, sealed their own fate to be a surrounded, hemmed-in

hunting ground for slaves . The pattern for Egypt and Axum was clear

cut . Their story was already outlined early enough and so clearly that

even the blind could not be unaware of the shape of things to come .

That shape emerged in their present : The whites were aggressive,

always relentlessly pushing for the command position in every situation,

no matter how small their number or how insignificant the project ; the

Blacks, by contrast, were not so aggressive, tending toward the

brotherhood approach, and generally striking only in retaliation for

prior wrongs done . This overall humane and essentially religious attitude

of 'the Blacks led Arnold Toynbee to say that mankind may have to

emulate them if civilization is to be saved . This is hardly a compliment

in a world where the very meaning of civilization is lost . In the face of

the Caucasian will to power and domination, this religion of meekness is

a tacit surrender to the permanent overlordship of the aggressive and

the strong . This is the testimony of history . And perhaps this is why I

have always been puzzled by the declaration of Jesus Christ that the

meek would inherit the earth . Did he mean the grave?

The "pattern" referred to above developed from the fact that countless

thousands of Blacks did not migrate anywhere but remained among the

Asians . They gradually became the lowest class in the society, although

there was some mobility or escape .routes. The Berbers and Arabs

constituted the upper class and ruling group ; next came the Afro-

Berbers and Afro-Arabs (Mulattoes), also classified as white, but in a

class below whites ; and finally there were the still lower class of Blacks

and, strangely enough, all Berbers, Arabs and mixed breeds who chose

to cast their lot with the Blacks and share their destiny . I said "strangely

enough," but there was really nothing strange about it . It was simply a

human situation . A part of the explanation was that out of centuries of

intermarriages there had developed a network of family and kinship

relationships . But it meant much more than these kinship ties . These

whites and half-whites, admittedly a small minority, nevertheless did

not have to have themselves classified as Blacks, giving up the open[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 2:38pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]For centuries these whites must have been received with the traditional

African hospitality . They were immigrants, settlers and traders . Many,

like the early Blacks themselves, were seafaring men . That the Blacks

were once among the most adventurous of peoples is evidenced not

only by the presence of their descendants in many lands and numerous

far flung lands, but also by archaeological remains found in various

parts of Europe .

It seems clear, therefore, that the whites were not regarded as

invaders with ulterior motives, but as co-partners in the further development

of world trade . There was no obvious reason to think otherwise .

No particular significance was seen in the fact that the whites always

massed along the seacoasts and built their towns and trading-post

strongholds there . The Blacks were also in these same coastal areas .

There was a general mixing or amalgamation of the races, also, from the

earliest times . In this area the offsprings of Blacks and white Berbers and

Arabs became known as Moors, Tuaregs, Tippu and the Fulani . Like

Afro-Americans, they were of every conceivable complexion, some of

the whitest having "Negro blood ." The scientists on Africa, however,

classify even the dark-skinned in these groups as "Caucasoid ."

It does not appear that any black prophets came forth to warn the

trusting African people that over three million square miles of their

fertile land would be made a vast wasteland by the slowly moving

sandstorms from the north, or that, even fleeing, their very lives would

likewise be made a vast wasteland by the "white storms" from the
seacoast .

The sandstorms, at first, began their long and relentless rampage over

hundreds of miles, but only as previous deforesting and the disappearance

of grassland made this easy . The desiccation began far back in

time, probably during a period well after Quatenary times began . No

one knows now long that awful process of drying up lakes and rivers

lasted . What is crystal clear is that during the ensuing migrations the

Blacks made their greatest and most tragic error . It was an error to be

fraught with the direst historical consequences for the whole black race .

Instead of moving en masse to the seacoasts and maintaining the

dominant position there, which they could have done easily, they

moved en masse toward the interior, first to the remaining oases in the

desert and then into Northern and Southern Ethiopia (Egypt and the

Sudan), and to the south, central and western regions .

The Berbers, Arabs and their Afro-Asian offsprings (Moors, Tuaregs,

etc.) now firmly held the entire northern, northwestern and eastern[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 2:34pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]leaving the homeland what was happening was far worse than the sight

of their cities, towns and villages going up in flames . For now they saw

their very own leaders, kings and other notables, divesting themselves

of a tradition of civilization that went back beyond history into paleolithic

times and, for expediency or self-interest, were humbly grasping at the

robes of the Arabs, their language and their religion . Their leaders on

the throne were no longer Africans or Ethiopians . They were now of still

another race: They were black Arabs!

So it did not matter at all that new states were forming under black

Arab rule . The Arabs not only tolerated these black Muslim rulers

(sultans and emirs they were now called) but found it expedient to use

them as fronts in controlling the remaining black population . The real

rulers were the various Arab tribes that were now scattered all over the

Sudan. There was a great difference between these new black Muslim

states and Funj . For while Funj was also a sultanate in name, it had a

long line of black rulers who steadfastly refused to be Arabized even to

the extent of accepting Arab names; and even the Arab population

knew very well that the Muslim religion of those black sultans was very

superficial indeed . The new fringe states of Darfur, Wadai and others

under black Muslims offered no place of refuge for those whose very

reason for flight was to maintain their own racial identity, dignity and
religion .

THE SAHARAN TRAGEDY

We return to the Sahara again, for here is where the first black

migrations began before written history . "Sahara," or wasteland, indicates

what it became, not what it was . It was the largest northern region of

Bilad as Sudan, the "Land of the Blacks ." Viewing this vast area for at

least 5,000 years, it is difficult to believe that it was not forever thus .

But the Sahara, far bigger than the United States, was once a land of

lakes, rivers, forests, green fields, farms, villages, towns and cities .

Wildlife was abundant . Cattle grazed in meadows, and horse-drawn

chariots sped over the highways . It was a great land, yet only a part of an

even greater black world .

We have already noted that this Black African world had been under

relentless pressures from the seacoasts by invading whites from the

earliest times-Hebrews, Phoenicians, Mongols, Arabs, Berbers, Greeks,

Romans, et al . It was also pointed out that it is not without significance

that even today most of the invaders occupy the same areas where they

first came in-the seacoasts .[/b]

Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 2:17pm On Feb 27, 2012

[b]for iron, all by itself, created the greatest industrial revolution in Africa

and became at once both the catalyst and foundation of the new state

formations and expansions of power . It like manner, basic African

institutions, such as the traditional consitutional and social systems,

were reinforced by the migrations from the Heartland . And while many

of these basic institutions were influences and modified by Islam and

Christian Europe, they all remained so unyielding at the core that they

can be studied today almost as directly as they could have been five

thousand years ago . There is another fact in this connection that is not

pointed out often and never stressed . We generally speak glibly enough

about Asian and Western influence on Black Africa, but seldom about

the influence of Africa on Asian and Western institutions . The process

of Africanization began at once whenever and wherever the Blacks

came in contact with foreign institutions. Both Islam and Christianity

had to yield to Africanization . Even auotcratic sultans and emirs, allpowerful

in Asia, clashed head-on with the constitutional role of the

Council in Africa and had to yield . The religions that spread most

rapidly and widely were those which were readily adaptable to African

cultural patterns . Islam and the Catholic Church led in this, and the

Catholic Church outdistanced every other Christian denomination in
growth .

A large volume should be written on ne African influence on both

Asian and Western civilization since that influence, began in ancient

times, was not limited to Caucasians on the African continent, but was

carried to other lands by migrating whites who themselves had been

Africanized . African values did not die even among the millions of

slaves who were transplanted to distantlands . In the United States

where the system to stamp out every vesige of black culture was most

thoroughgoing and relentless, African traditions persisted and influenced

not only the white slave-owning class, but the course of American

civilization itself.

The historical significance of the movement of people, no matter

under what circumstances can hardly be overemphasized .

We have seen how and why the flight of Blacks from the Sudan

increased as the Arab hordes continued to sweep in during the 13th

century and Islamization was more aggressvely pushed. To many blacks[/b]

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