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 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] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 2:08pm On Feb 27, 2012 |
[b]already claim to be the original inhabitants, saying, as George Peter Murdock and his school proclaim, that "the Africans came into the land later ." A thousand years hence there will be no dearth of Caucasoid remains in Africa . I just referred to George Peter Murdock . All through these discussions I have been unsparing in my criticism of "Caucasoid" scholarship at various points . I have, in effect, accused them of the subtle thievery of the achievements of an important division of the human race - deliberate and unconscionable . To understand the basis for this criticism, one need not match my labor by wading through over a hundred books by them. One good example of all that I have been saying in this connection will suffice . That example is Murdock's Africa-Its People and Their Culture. For here is another one of those works which is replete with all the trappings of profound scholarship, bearing, as all such works invariably do, the mark of scientific objectivity . Yet from beginning to end, Murdock maintains his central theme : Africans are not in fact Africans ; black civilization was not in fact black civilization ; countless "peoples" thought to be "Negroes" by many, such as the Bushmen, the Masai, Kushites, Pygmies, even the Bantu, etc ., are of "Caucasoid" origins . And while his own account of migrations often contradicts his main thesis, this, I suppose, he dismisses as simply unavoidable . He was at his racist best in a specious and rather amusing argument that attempted to prove that even the Azanians were not black . Is it not significant that so many white writers spend so much time and energy trying to make this or that person or group non-African? Certain direct consequences of the migrations will not be fully understood unless the many centuries they slowly covered are kept in mind . The development and spread of the numerous languages, dialects, separate and independent small city-states from which varieties of culture patterns inevitably emerged, these outcomes highlight the factors of segmentation in the decline of advanced black institutions . But migrations from the first centers of black culture in the Sudan and Egypt had beneficial results also . The migrants were a new kind of missionaries . They carried whatever they could of their advanced civilization wherever they went, and they carried it far and wide . The backward groups that had been living far away from the centers of progress were the beneficiaries . An economic revolution occurred in areas where the Nile migrants not only brought new grain crops but also new implements and farming techniques . They also spread the gospel of industrial production through the expansion of crafts and their organization into guilds . The greatest of these was iron,[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 2:06pm On Feb 27, 2012 |
[b]black situation where no such classification could be made, to allege Caucasian influence in one way or another . This record does not require debate . It meets the eyes in most of the books by these "Africanist" experts . There should be no confusion over "Negroid" types or "Caucasoid" types where there was such a widespread mixing of races as was the case in Africa, as elsewhere, from the earliest times . It becomes even more ridiculous when it is established that certain Caucasians have "Negroid" features without the benefit of having any "Negro" blood and, conversely, many of the blackest of the Blacks have physical characteristics which are supposed to belong to Caucasians only . In line with their presumption in taking over the continent and reordering its racial composition, the anthropologists and their historian followers have declared that the "true Negroes" (Black Africans) are concentrated in West Africa only! With one wave of the magic wand in their all-powerful, "scientific" hand, they changed the biblical story that the black race descended from Ham through his son, Cush . The plain fact that the Land of Cush was ancient Ethiopia itself and that the Cushites (Kushites) were Blacks was simply ignored, and Cushites were reclassified as Caucasians! The whites and half-whites who were allied with black groups and migrated with them are singled out as the determining elements in whatever the groups achieved, even in the planting of crops and irrigation techniques . The Asiatic Caucasians who are known to have settled along the northern and eastern coasts of Africa even in pre-historic times are now being presented as the indigenous inhabitants . That archaeologists would find "Caucasoid" types centuries old in any of these areas should be taken as a simple matter of course . Nor would I think it surprising if excavations discovered Caucasoid skeletons several thousand years old anywhere in Africa . The same unshocked attitude is maintained when "Negroid" types were discovered on the British Isles . Indeed, "Negroid" remains have been found in other places in Europe and distant lands where no Blacks were known to have lived, not to mention the millions known to have settled outside of Africa . Therefore, instead of postulating a theory of history that, on the basis of a few skeletal remains, a whole people inhabited an area first, it would be more sensible to conclude that members of this or that race certainly had visited or settled in the area in the long ago, some dying there, away from their own native land . But suppose they did come as permanent settlers, such as the Dutch in South Africa and the British in Rhodesia? The whites of South Africa are not waiting for the certain verdict of anthropologists and historians in their favor . They[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 2:04pm On Feb 27, 2012 |
[b]to be generalized into neat categories . In ancient times and even later there were Caucasians who regarded the Blacks as superior people . The question about inherent inequality they would have thought absurd to entertain . The Greeks, who seemed to have studied the advanced civilization of the Blacks more than any other white people, were first among this group . There were, therefore, always Caucasians who were affectionately drawn to the Blacks as by some magic . When recognized as genuine by the Blacks, the esteem became mutual and such Caucasians became an integral part of some black groups . These were not the Caucasians, Asians or Western, who infiltrated black societies for domination and future conquests . These were the Caucasians, albeit, a small minority, who stayed with the Blacks and fought shoulder to shoulder with them against their own kind, retreated with them in defeat, and were, therefore, a part of the migrations . I have also emphasized that not all of the mixed breeds, whether Afro-Arab or Afro-European, deserted the Blacks for the whites . For a while the majority did cleave to the race of their fathers, the devotion of the minority to the race of their mothers seemed to be so spiritual in nature that it more than overshadowed the white-worshiping half-whites . WHITE SCHOLARS AS AUTHORITIES And what has all this to do with the migrations? The answer is "almost everything ." Much of the history of Africa has been written by anthropologists . They have written it within the theoretical framework of their own ethnology ; and historians and others have relied almost entirely on their classification of peoples . The usual claim that the history is a science is made despite the amount of pure guessing that characterizes its conclusions . Racism is so obvious in most of the anthropological findings that one may wonder how, if they hope to maintain the fiction of being scientific, it could escape their notice . It has been suggested that their bias does not in fact go unnoticed, but that they are so certain of the favorable reception by the white audience to which they address themselves that what others outside of that world think is a matter of consequence . These latter do not supply the millions that support their African studies . The main thrust of their findings is to make Africa Caucasian from the beginning of its history, and to give the Blacks not just a subordinate role but no significant role at all in that history . Hence their great emphasis on (1) the "Caucasoid" identity of this or that African tribe and, (2) failing that, in a highly advanced all[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 2:01pm On Feb 27, 2012 |
[b]general area . After a hundred years such groups might not be more than a hundred miles from their traditional home after several generations . Even in the cases of those who migrated farthest, the movement had been slow, slow because the whole movement was forced, every breakup a painful uprooting of communities that had been built on hopes and dreams of a permanent abode . Every move was a search for still another abode where land and water could support life and security could assure another chance of survival . These slowmoving migrations were mentioned in the discussion of geographical influences . There were also the better known migrations that erupted and moved south, east and west like tidal waves . These occurred as the result of the many Asian and European invasions and conquests . They . were further accelerated by the new turn in the institution of slavery from the seventh century A .D ., onward . At a much later period, after the sixteenth century, black marauding groups such as the Jaga and the Ngoni added to the turmoil and disorganization . It is quite clear that the waves of Blacks that spread over Africa in these migrations came mainly from the area where black concentration was greatest and the attacks on that concentration persevered relentlessly. This area of black concentration of population was the ancient Ethiopian Empire which I have described as the "Heartland of the Race"-the motherland with a civilization that, despite the Asian invasions, still included all Upper Egypt in 3100 B.C ., and extended southward over the Sudan across Abyssinia . But everywhere the people from the birthplace of black civilization wandered they found, almost without exception, people already settled, some having preceded them by decades or centuries, and others who had been there, according to their ancestors' story, "since the beginning of time ." Such, for example, was the tradition of the Kete and Cwa people in Central Africa . The inter-tribal wars and the intense tribalism that developed from them are among the fateful outcomes cited in connection with the migrations . I have stated a number of times that, inevitably, there were non- Blacks in the migrations as they were, in one way or another, integrated with Africans and participated with them in other developments . This meant that there were always a number of predominantly black groups with some Asians and Mulattoes who were as loyal to the race as any Black . This is the kind of fact that blasts any attempt to indict a whole people or put them into a single category . Human beings simply refuse[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 1:59pm On Feb 27, 2012 |
[b]The Scattering of the People : Routes to Death and Resurrection THE AFRICAN MIGRATIONS HAVE BEEN STRESSED AT VARIOUS points as one of the major developments from which so much can be learned about the history of the black people . The migrations explain many things . They were people in perpetual movements . The movements were human tragedies spanning too many milleniums . It was noted that the great pressures on the Africans actually began in prehistoric times and that the pressures that uprooted so many settled communities came from two principal agents of destruction : the slow and relentless incursions of oceans of sand and the slow and relentless incursions of Asian hordes . The Europeans, coming later, accelerated the movements . MIGRATIONS AS CULTURE DECLINES The migrations were of many different kinds, and so much so that the overall description of them is often misleading . There was no general, continuous flight of people, here and there all over the continent . Some of the movements were so slow and lim .ted in space that one might hesitate to call them migrations . These were the groups that moved only a relatively short distance each time and as a whole, never left their[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 12:11am On Feb 25, 2012 |
''. . . We have come over a way that with tears have been watered . . . We have come treading our way through the blood of the slaughtered . . .'' The Scattering of the People : Routes to Death and Resurrection To be continued, |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 12:08am On Feb 25, 2012 |
[b](16) The right to protect one's family and kinsmen, even by violent means if such becomes necessary and can be justified . (17) The right to the protection of moral law in respect to wife and children -a right which not even the king can violate . (18) The right of a man, even a slave, to rise to occupy the highest positions in the state if he has the requisite ability and character . (19) The right to protection and treatment as a guest in enemy territory once one is within the gates of the enemy's village, town or city. (20) And the right to an equal share in all benefits from common community undertakings if one has contributed to the fullest extent of his ability, no matter who or how many were able to contribute more . *** These constitutional principles and practices were held on to and carried by the migrating Blacks to every part of the African continent . This fact is one of the most remarkable parts of the black man's storymost remarkable because even those societies that sank to barbarism held on to the fundamentals age after age as though they were clutching the last threads of life itself. Even in Egypt, where the Asian and European impact was greatest, African constitutionalism could not be completely blotted out .[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 12:04am On Feb 25, 2012 |
[b]THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF THE AFRICAN PEOPLE The following is a representative number of human rights, also drawn from customary laws or tradition constitutions : Every member of the community had - (1) The right to equal protection of the law . (2) The right to a home . (3) The right to land sufficient for earning livelihood for oneself and family . (4) The right to aid in times of trouble . (5) The right to petition for redress of grievances . (6) The right to criticize and condemn any acts by the authories or proposed new laws . (Opposition groups, in some areas called "The Youngmen," were recognized by law .) (7) The right to reject the community's final decision on any matter and to withdraw from the community unmolested-the right of rebellion and withdrawal . (8. The right to a fair trail . There must be no punishment greater than the offense, or fines beyond ability to pay . This latter is determined by income and status of the individual and his family . (9) The right to indemnity for injuries or loss caused by others . (10) The right to family or community care in cases of sickness or accidents . (11) The right to special aid from the Chief in circumstances beyond a family's ability . (12) The right to a general education covering morals and good manners, family rights and responsibilities, kinship groups and social organization, neighborhoods and boundaries, farming and marketing, rapid mental calculation, and family, clan, tribal and state histories . (13) The right to apprentice training for a useful vocation . (14) The right to an inheritance as defined by custom . (15) The right to develop one's ability and exercise any developed skills .[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 12:02am On Feb 25, 2012 |
[b]XVII. In warfare the object is not to kill the enemy, but to overcome him with fear, if possible, such as screaming war cries, loud noise, hideously masked faces, etc . Where killing is unavoidable it must be kept at a minimum . In cae of defeat there must be some kind of ruse to enable the enemy to retire in honor . XIX. The African religion, not being a creed or "articles of faith," but an actual way of thinking and living, is reflected in all institutions and is, therefore, of the greatest constitutional significance . (1) Politically, the role of the Chief as High Priest who presents the prayers of the people to his and their ancestors in Heaven, is the real source of his influence, political or otherwise . (2) Socially, the "rites of passage," songs, and the dances (to drive away evil, etc .), as well as the purification and sacrificial rites for the atonement of sins-are important . XX . Since religious and moral law must prevail and the race survive, a man may have more than one wife ; for he is forbidden to sleep or cohabit with his wife either during the nine months of pregnancy or during the suckling period of one or two years thereafter . (1) The wife may not prepare meals for the husband or family during the menstrual period. (2) The husband is strictly forbidden to have any kind of relationship with one wife during the set period that belongs to another wife . XXI. The supreme command of the fighting forces is under the Council, not the King. If the King becomes the Commander-in-Chief, it is through election by the Council because of his qualification as a general or field commander . This position ends with the war and the armed forces return to former status under the Council or, more directly under the respective Paramount chiefs . There were no standing armies .[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 12:01am On Feb 25, 2012 |
[b]XII . Fines for offenses against an individual went to the victim, not the court . (a) Part of the money received from the loser was returned to him as an expression of goodwill and desire for renewal of friendship . (b) Another part was given as a fee to the trial court as an appreciation of justice . XIII . "Royalty" in African terms means Royal Worth, the highest in character, wisdom, sense of justice and courage . (a) He who founded the nation by uniting many as one must be the real leader, guide and servant of his people . (b) The people, in honor of the founder of the nation, thereafter will elect Chiefs from the founder's family (lineage) if the heirs meet the original test that reflected the Founder's character, whose spirit was supposed to be inherited . XIV. The trouble of one is the trouble of all . No one may go in want while others have anything to give . All are brothers and sisters . Each is his "brothers' or sisters' keeper ." XV. Age grades, sets, and classes are social, economic, political and military systems for (1) basic and advanced traditional education (formal) ; (2) individual and group responsibility roles ; (3) police and military training ; (4) division of labor ; (5) rites of passage and social activities . In chiefless societies the age grades are the organs of social, economic and political action . XVI. Bride Price or Bride Wealth is the gift that signifies mutual acceptance on the part of both families and is intended as a family security bond which may be returned in part if the wife turns out to be worthless or utterly unsatisfactory . (Bride Wealth tended to stabilize the institution of marriage . This was not "wife-buying ."  XVII. The community as a whole is conceived of as One Party, opposition being conducted by leaders of various factions . (1) Factions of opposition are usually formed by the different agegroups : (2) Debates may go on indefinitely or until a consensus is reached . (3) Once a consensus is reached, and the community's will determined, all open opposition to the common will must cease . (4) Those whose opposition is so serious that they are unwilling to accept the new law may "splinter off' either individually or in groups under a leader (to form a new state or the nucleus for it) .[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:59pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]III. Kings, Chiefs and Elders are leaders, not rulers . They are the elected representatives of the people and the instruments for executing their will. IV . Government and people are one and the same . V. The family is recognized as the primary social, judicial, economic and political unity in the society ; the family council may function as a court empowered to try all internal (non-serious) matters involving only members of the Extended Family Group . VI. The Elder of each Extended Family or Clan is its chosen representative on the Council . VII. Decisions in council are made by the Elders . The Chief or King must remain silent. Even when the Council's decision is announced, it is through a Speaker (Linguist) . Decrees or laws are issued in the same manner to assure that the voice of the Chief or King is the "voice of the people ." (This is an example of a provision that had wide variations .) VIII . The land belongs to no one . It is God's gift to mankind for use and as a sacred heritage, transmitted by our forefathers as a bond between the living and the dead, to be held in trust by each generation for the unborn who will follow, and thus to the last generation . IX. Each family, therefore, has a right to land, free of charge, sufficient in acreage for its economic well-being ; for the right to the opportunity and means to make a living is the right to live . (a) The land, accordingly, cannot be sold or given away . (b) The land may be held for life and passed on to the family's heirs, and so on forever . (c) The Chief is the Custodian of all land, the principal duty being to assure fair distribution and actual use . X. All moneys, gifts, taxes and other forms of donations to Chief or King still belong to the people for relief or aid to individuals in times of need. XI. Every methber of the state has the right of appeal from a lower to higher court . (In some states appeals could be taken even from the King's Court to the "Mother of the Nation ." (a) The procedure was from the Chiefs Village Court to the District Court, to the Provincial Court, to the King's Court . (b) Such appeals were allowed in serious or major crimes only (those affecting the whole society) .[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:58pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]Africa the rights of the individual never came before the rights of the community. Individual freedom was unlimited until it clashed with the interests or welfare of the community . This is also why the evolution to a highly centralized state still found the king under communal law, not above it, and definitely unable to do as he pleased . These self-governing people did not have a Utopian society in any idealistic sense . Theirs was a practical society in every way . The laws were natural laws, and order and justice prevailed because the society could not otherwise survive . Theirs was, in fact, a government of the people; theirs was, in fact, not a theory, but a government by the people; and it was, in fact, a government for the people . That this kind of government did "pass from the earth" is another fact we now call "modern progress ." We shall note later the impact of some of the developments previously mentioned on the traditional constitution, particularly as it operated in the reestablished, centralized "migratory" states . Meanwhile, it might be well if we single out some of the key provisions of that constit5tion ; for, again, the aim is to set forth-and set forth in specific terms-the actual all-African institutions that all Africans lost and of which their descendants do not have even a memory . One of the world's greatest constitutional systems was one of their tragic losses . SOME POLITICAL THEORIES AND PRINCIPLES OF ANCIENT AFRICAN CONSTITUTION LAW AND THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF THE AFRICAN PEOPLE (Drawn from African Traditional Constitutional and Customary Laws . Different versions and modifications of the same laws occurred in different societies .) 1. The People are the first and final source of all power . II. The rights of the community of people are, and of right ought to be, superior to those of any individual, including Chiefs and Kings (a) The Will of the People is the supreme law ; (b) Chiefs and Kings are under the law, not above it .[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:56pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]Elders, which also had evolved and become "the people"-their direct representatives . Africans generally prefer to dwell on the constitutional theories and not the constitutional practices . They proudly speak of the freedom and absolute powers of the chief or king .' Some will even tell you that the king "owned all the land" in the country . They are not trying to deceive . Words of another language often fail to translate the people's concepts or meaning . When they say the king is supreme or has absolute power they mean that he has absolute power to carry out the will of the people . It was so well understood that supreme power rested in the people that it was never thought necessary to state such a fact . Likewise, they would say, and say proudly, the king "owns all the land in the country" since everybody but a fool knew that he didn't, that nobody owned the land (again in the Western sense), and that the king's role was that of custodian and overseer, his principal duty being to see that the land was fairly distributed among all families . In the chiefless society the elders were the overseers of land distribution to families . Finally, nothing contributed more to the efficiency and success of self-government without governors than the system wherein each age grade was responsible for the conduct of its members, and that before any misconduct could reach one's age-grade council it was handled by his family council . This never meant leniency . It meant the very opposite, because each family was jealous of its honor and image in the community, and any member whose behavior reflected unfavorably on the family would be in trouble with their own family first of all . The result of this was that the age-grade councils rarely ever had a case and, obviously, this self-government, beginning with the basic social unit, the family, radically reduced the number of cases that went before the elders . Stated another way, each family policed itself, each age group policed itself, so that there was little or nothing that the community as a whole had to do . Each group elected its own leaders . These met with other age-grade leaders on community matters that cut across age-grade lines. It was therefore in the societies without chiefs or kings where African democracy was born and where the concept that the people are sovereign was as natural as breathing . And this is why in traditional -------------------------------------------- Notes 1. The Mossi were a specific example .[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:52pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]honored body in the society, the Council of Elders-an honor and privilege specially reserved for those 40 years old and above, group E . THE EARLIEST JUDICIAL SYSTEM In the chiefless states the function of the elders was wholly advisory . For this reason they rarely ever met as a council . A council meeting might be called by the Senior Elder in case of extreme emergency . Matters involving members of the same family or clan could be settled by the family council, each family or clan having its own elder . Conflicts between families or clans could be brought before any mutually acceptable elder for settlement . The elder's judgment was not binding on the parties to the dispute . This was the constitutional theory . If the case was "big" and serious and the disputants were dissatisfied with the elder's decision regarding it, they could call in one or more additional elders to hear and pass on the case . Their decision was also advisory and could be disregarded by the parties to the action . Yes, the elders' advisory judgments could be ignored under ancient African constitutional law . Yet under practical operation of that same constitution, the disputants could ignore their elders' judgment only at their peril . For to ignore the elders was considered to be ignoring the community itself. The only exceptions to this were those cases where the elder or elders rendered an obviously bad decision . Even then it was not left to the contestants to say whether the judgment was good or bad . The community decided, because the community was thought to be represented in the everpresent crowd at such hearings . They, the people present, always indicated their attitude by expressions and nods of approval or disapproval of decisions reached . The constitutional theory and principle here are especially significant because of the important form they took in all African societies in every part of the continent as they evolved from societies without chiefs to centralized states under chiefs, kings, and emperors . In this continentwide constitutional development the chief or king became the mouthpiece of the people and the instrument for carrying out their will . They still had no "ruler" in the Asian and European sense . On questions in dispute, he was in the same position as litigants in the chiefless states . Like them, under the constitution, he had absolute power in theory, and in theory he could ignore the Council and do exactly as he pleased . But in practice, like the disputants, he did not dare defy the Council of[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:50pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]end one went through the initiation rites for the exalted level of manhoood. The girls age-group differed from those of the boys . Introduction to womanhood roles, for example, was earlier . They had the same intellectual training as the boys : history, geography, rapid calculation, poetry, music and dance . The training in child care, housekeeping, gardening, cooking, marketing-social relations with particular stress on good manners, these were some of the essentials in the age-grade education and training of young people at this level . Housekeeping, mentioned above, does not reveal the important kind of training that came under that heading, for its most important aim was "how to be a successful wife"-an everlastingly desirable wife . In many societies, this training by older women away from the community included the art of exciting sexual intercourse, position variations, cleanliness in the relationship and, in short, the do's and don't's in intimate relations . These early black societies were in many ways far in advance of the modern . The first two grades may be designated as A and B, the third as C, the fourth as D, and the final and highest as grade E. Grade C, ages 19 through 28, was the manhood and first-line-of-action group . Its members led in the hunting, community construction, preparing the fields for planting, forming the various industrial craft guilds (secret societies, each of which guarded the processes of its art), protecting the farranging grazing cattle, the upkeep of roads and paths between the villages, policing areas when necessary, and forming the bulwark of the fighting force . The young women in grade C, were generally wives . They were responsible for the planting and care of the farms (the heavy work of bush clearing, etc ., having been done by the men), the operations of the markets (hence the stress on mental arithmetic in their training), visiting and care of the sick and the aged, formation of women's societies (the media for women's social, economic and indirect but very real political influence), and they were responsible for and in supreme control of all matters concerning the home . In those societies that had female fighting forces, the women's armies were formed almost entirely from age-grade C . In terms of constitutional rights and duties (the two were inseparable in early Africa), there was not much difference between age-group C and age-group D . Seniority was the significant difference, since D was from age 29 to 40 . If otherwise qualified, members in this class, upon reaching the age of 36, were eligible for election to the most highly[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:48pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]EARLY EDUCATION The interlocking responsibilities of the various grades accounted for the smooth functioning of the chiefless states. Each grade had its own social, economic and political role . The children's set covered the years of game and play . Around the ages of six and seven, however, general training and some little jobs began to be mingled with play . Primary education included storytelling, mental arithmetic, community songs and dances, learning the names of various birds and animals, the identification of poisonous snakes, local plants and trees, and how to run and climb swiftly when pursued by dangerous animals . Child training also included knowing and associating with members of one's age-group as brothers and sisters, and to regard them as brothers and sisters until death and beyond. Little chores around the house became routine, such as gathering sticks of wood for fuel, bringing water, tending the cattle, feeding the chickens or, if a girl, looking after baby or younger ones, imitating mother at cooking and trying to learn how to sew and knit . The nearest thing to the boy's political role in childhood was when he carried his father's or uncle's stool to village council meetings and listened to the interminable debates . The next grade above childhood was teenage through age eighteen . (These periods, of course, varied in different societies .) Now, both training and responsibilities were stepped-up . Play time was either over or very much limited . Education and training became more complex and extensive . The youths' entire future depended upon their performance at this age level. He or she was marked for success or failure in this second age-set that began at age 13. The boy was now required to learn his extended family history and that of his society, the geography of the region, names of neighboring states and the nature of the relations with them, the handling of weapons, hunting as a skilled art, rapid calculation, clearing the bush for planting, the nature of soils and which kinds grew what best, military tactics, care and breeding of cattle, the division of labor between males and females, bartering tactics, rules of good manners at home and abroad, competitive sports . He was required to provide leadership examples for the childhood age group below and responsibilities to the age-group above . The apprenticeship system in which one became a skilled craftsman was one of the most important of the second level age-set activities . This is another reason why this age-grade was the most crucial of all . At its[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:47pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]and this in the face of their increasing awareness that they are in fact one people? It is quite clear that in early Africa "war" was not much more than a frightful game when among themselves . Was the radical change brought about by the death-dealing incursions from Asia and Europe? This raises other questions of great urgency : Are we really civilized today? Have we not substituted the trappings of civilization-our triumphs in science, technology, and the computer "revolution" -for civilization ties? Suffice it to say that the steady weakening of lineage ties and its spirit of unity was also a weakening of the sense of brotherhood and unity among the Blacks . Today it finds little expression except in various languages or tribal groups, and these maintain it more and more as a cohesive force to be used against all others . Lineage, then, was the most powerful and effective force for unity and stability in early Africa, and this was so true that a state could be self-governed without the need for any one individual as ruler, chief or king . Everyone was a lawyer because just about everyone knew the Customary laws . The age-grade or age-set (also called "class" was the specific organizationalstructure through which the society functioned . Classification was determined by the period in which one was born . All persons born in the same year, or within a general but well-defined period before or after a given year, belonged in the same age-grade . Each grade covered a block of years : Age-grade one might include all children up to age twelve ; grade two, from thirteen to eighteen ; grade three, nineteen to twenty-eight ; grade four, twenty-nine to forty ; and grade five, forty and above . There was seniority within each grade according to age and intelligence . Intelligence and wisdom were supposed to match one's age . Stated another way, the African philosophy that accorded so much deference to elders was based upon the assumption that, call other things being equal, those who were living in the world and experiencing life before others were born should know more than these others . This qualification is important because it was later applied in the election of chiefs and kings . Being heir to the throne was not enough . One had to meet other qualifications or be passed over . Therefore, being older or the oldest in one's group did not command the usual respect if one was lazy, a troublemaker or a fool .[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:44pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]than the territorial expansion of the Lunda empire was their idea of a nation as one big brotherhood . Accordingly, instead of first attempting to conquer and annex by force, they would approach independent states and seek to demonstrate from oral history that all of them were merely segments of a common lineage, all brothers in fact. It appears that the majority of states believed in the principle of a common ancestry and readily became members of the empire . Some required more facts before they were convinced, still others were not convinced or preferred to remain separate and independent . These were generally conquered and given a lower status in the nation than those who united voluntarily . But we are considering lineage before the rise of kingdoms and in particular, the lineage as the governing and organizing force in states without chiefs or kings, where community consensus was the supreme law that anyone could ignore only at his peril . There were interesting aspects to the many situations where a large number of these chiefless states were scattered over a wide territory, each independent of the others, yet all fully aware (and unlike in Lundaland, had to be convinced) that they belonged to a common lineage . Kinship found expression in trade and in temporary confederations when attacked by external foes (those not considered to be members of their lineage) . There were quarrels and warfare between these member states of the common lineage . The highly humane aspect of African warfare that puzzled many Western visitors doubtlessly developed from the widespread recognition of lineage or kinship ties . For in the much heralded "tribal wars" the main objective was to overcome or frighten away the adversary, not to kill at all if it could be avoided . Hence the hideous masks and blood-curdling screams as they charged . Even when the enemy was defeated or completely surrounded, escape routes were provided, the victors pretending not to be aware of them . Indeed, there are reports of "rest periods," called when neither side seemed to be winning. At such times the warriors on both sides might meet at the nearest stream to refresh themselves, kid each other, and laugh at each others' jokes until the drums, gongs or trumpets sounded for the resumption of the battle . This was traditional Africa . How did it change to a warfare of killing, lineage or no lineage? How did it happen that even now in our modern and "advanced" civilization some of the most murderous and inhuman of wars are fought by Blacks against Blacks,[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:41pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]fact without necessarily conforming to a predetermined Western structural pattern of state . Indeed, what is called a "stateless society" in Africa would hardly be classified as such in the West, for the Western definition of a state does not include the requirements of one man as its executive head-a state being any collection of people occupying a given territory, and living under their own government independently of external control . These facts are set forth at the outset because both the constitutional system and its offspring, African democracy, originated in "chiefless societies." And, what is even more significant, democracy reached its highest development here where the people actually governed themselves without chiefs, where self-government was a way of life, and "law and order" were taken for granted . The basic structural outline of these states remained the same throughout Africa . There were the usual variations and exceptions. The amazing thing was and is the uniformity-amazing how the most basic elements of ancient black civilization could have been held on to, continent- wide, by all of these dispersed and isolated groups in spite of the continuing impact of unimaginable forces of destruction . The lineage ties and responsibilities and the age-grade or age-set system were the earliest institutions through which the African constitution functioned, and out of which its democracy was born . It was a network of kinsmen, and alleged kinsmen, all of whom descended from the same ancestor or related ancestors . All might live in the same community or state, but they were often scattered far and near in separate and independent societies . The ancestor from whom they claimed descent was always "great" because of some outstanding deed or extraordinary achievements . These generally grew in magnitude as time and the generations passed, thus causing the true achievements to be overlaid by the false claims growing out of praise songs . Each generation of poets and storytellers gave the imagination full range in Romantic glory . Myths were born in this manner, and the later concepts of both royalty and divinity gained support from the same source . In contiguous independent chiefdoms the lineage was the powerful factor in providing the basis and incentive for the later formation of kingdoms and empires . No people in African history used the concept of kinship ties more effectively than the Lunda in the remarkable expansion of their empire . Even more remarkable[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:37pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]nations or African regions . This distinction is important here, for too often things are characterized as "African" which apply only to certain societies. These represent the development of the whole complex of cultural variations about which Western writers declaim in emphasizing the "great ethnic differences" among the people . (This is not accidental or without design . Caucasian fears about the possibility of Blacks developing a sense of oneness and unity of action is deep and centuries old . Many subtle schemes are used to maintain divisiveness, and with success .) *** A student of comparative history can see without difficulty that various peoples scattered all over the world often develop similar institutions wihout ever having had any contacts whatsoever . This is equally true of the most isolated groups . Similar circumstances may produce similar ideas and culture patterns, all of which may confirm the Cartesian theory about the equal distribution of common sense among all mankind . By simply "doing what comes naturally," one society may evolve a life system not unlike another society ten thousand miles away across distant oceans . Therefore, neither the "External Influence" theory nor that of the common origin of a widely segmented people should be hastily affirmed . We hold this to be true even in the study of one race in the generally same environment of one continent. The evidence must still be conclusive . ORIGIN OF AFRICAN DEMOCRACY The foregoing observations suggest that the constitution of any people or nation, written or unwritten, derives from its customary rules of life ; and that what we now call "democracy" was generally the earliest system among various peoples throughout the ancient world . What was a relatively new development was absolute monarchy . Among the Blacks, democratic institutions evolved and functioned in a socio-economic and political system which Western writers call "Stateless societies" or "Societies without chiefs." When these societies were referred to as "primitive" democracies, the writers are in fact doing the very opposite of what they intended . Far from being just a descriptive term for backward peoples, "primitive" also means "the first," the beginners . Moreover, many of these "stateless societies" were states in[/b] |
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