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 Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:34pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
''When, if ever, black people actually organize as a race in their various population centers, they will find that the basic and guiding ideology they now seek and so much need is embedded in their own traditional philosophy and constitutional system, simply waiting to be extracted and set forth . And while the 'Work in this field has yet to be advanced further, some of the most fundamental principles of African political science and philosophy of life are to be found in the pages which follow'' .(Chancellor Williams) [b] The African Constitution : Birth of Democracy IN OUR INTRODUCTORY PREVIEW OF AFRICAN HISTORY references were made to the common origin of the people the white world prefers to call "Negro ." That we are here studying a single race, not races, and a single people, not peoples, is a major theory and fact of black history and one of our principal guidelines . We are, therefore, primarily concerned only with those things which were characteristically African, practically universal among them from one end of the continent to the other and which thereby indicated an ancient common culture in a common center of Black Civilization . On this we stand . In this light the African Constitution is discussed as a body of fundamental theories, principles and practices drawn from the customary laws that governed Black African societies from the earliest times . The first task was to divorce traditional African institutions from those influenced by later Asian and European incursions ; to determine what is truly African in origin and what is in fact either Asian or European or a reflection of any other external influence . Another task was to determine whether an institution called "African" was in fact African in the sense of being universal among the Blacks, a continent-wide institution in contra-distinction to something peculiar to one or more tribes,[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:28pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]the confusion of black history through the confusion of names, color and dynasties ; integration and amalgamation as brotherhood myths ; the great black migrations ; the splitting up of states and languages and their role in the decline of Black African civilization-all of these historical factors were set forth before the final collapse of the Ethiopian empire in the fourth century A .D., before we began the analyses of the three "children" states that were born as their imperial mother passed, bequeathing to them her own deathless spirit to carry on . The main characteristics of the history of the Blacks are reflected in those states : Building an advanced system of life, then having it destroyed ; building again, destruction again, migrating and building somewhere else, only to be sought out and destroyed again ; moving, moving, moving, always moving, rebuilding and moving, again and again ; countless thousands giving up the struggle as utterly hopeless ; internal strife increased as external pressures and threats to existence increased ; an every-man-for-himself philosophy replacing that of eternal brotherhood in some societies ; and, through it all, new states forming even during the most destructive centuries when death seemed to be a rider on every stream and passing breeze, new states trying to restore, yet, once again their lost civilization, their written languages, their forgotten arts and sciences, the organization and study of their oral history that had come down unbroken in its main outlines from generation to generation, and the chance to remain in one area long enough to live again under an African constitutional system that is unrivaled by that of any people, these efforts were still being pushed in every region of the African continent long after the undermining operation had been set in motion to pave the way for the conquests by Europe. The Africans were still rebuilding their own civilization when that of Asia and Europe was imposed.[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:25pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]difficulty becomes impossible for solution when as soon as the yoke of white oppression had been removed, the descendants of former black oppressors come forth as the rightful rulers as before, just as though nothing at all had happened to change the overlord status of their proud slave-selling ancestors . The Funj kingdom, because of its Muslim shield and "war-making machine," survived as a black state, in what otherwise would have been an impossible environment, for three hundred years . These centuries were characterized by all the ups and downs, internal power struggles, coups and counter-coups that beset other states . Sometimes an Arab dynasty ruled, sometimes it was an Afro-Arab line, and at other times, most often it was a black dynasty, or what the Arabs called the Hamaji . The end came at the beginning of the nineteenth century when the Ottoman Turks began their reign of terror in the Sudan with the seizure of Sennar by Muhammad Ali -the same Muhammed Ali who was the greatest murderer of Blacks that ever set foot on the African continent . His massacre of men, women and children was on such a scale that even the white world protested . A brief summary of the history of the three black states we have mentioned would be much longer than what we have said about Makuria, Alwa and Funj . Recounting the details of their history was not intended . Rather the case-study approach is being used, as announced in the Preview . Each of the states represents additional concrete documentation of the positions I have taken, often in what might appear to be overly generalized declarations . In each case, beginning with Egypt, the main focus was on the significant data on the history of the black people, and not on the great masses of equally interesting details . A few more states will be presented as further illustrations of all that is being said in connection with the history of the African people . We started in the "Heartland of the Race" where its history clearly extended from the Sudan over Egypt. The antiquity of Black Civilization ; the amazing heights it reached before recorded history; the early problems of Asian invasions, amalgamation and the new breed, the Coloured Egyptians ; Caucasian penetration into royal black lineages, the increasing pressures on the Blacks and their southward migrations ; the Afro-Asian wars ; the blackout of black history in Egypt ; the long drawn-out process of Caucasianization of Egypt as it was de-Africanized ; the withdrawal of the Ethiopian border to the First Cataract ; the concentration of Blacks below that line ;[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:23pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]largely on their selling activities in neighboring states, in Egypt and over the all-important caravan trade routes to distant lands . This trade was the forceful stimulus that kept the people at home, busy and happy, producing the necessary surplus in agriculture, mining and in the craft industries of various kinds . Having become Muslims, if only in name, the Funj merchants were readily received everywhere in the increasingly Islamized world in Africa and Asia . The fact that they came from a proud and war-like state may have had more to do with the deference shown them than the fact of their being Muslims . Non-Muslim Makuria and Alwa had a most flourishing trade with the Muslim world . Their traders had also been received with respect and honor by the Arabs . It is ironic that one has to be a fighter to command greater respect . Unlike Makuria and Alwa, the Funj Kingdom did not resist Islamization but welcomed it . Yet its African nationalism clearly transcended Islam . The number of sultans and notables who rejected Arabic names is impressive and significant . Their open-door policies, however, were to speed up the pace of Arabization not only in the Funj kingdom but all over the Sudan. And as Arabization spread among the Blacks so did slavery and slave raiding . The Arabs' insatiable and perpetual demands for slaves had long since changed slavery from an institution that signaled a military victory by the number of caputred prisoners to an institution that provoked warfare expressly for the enslavement of men, women and children for sale and resale . Human beings had now openly become very profitable articles of trade and the slave dealers had found shorter routes to quicker riches . The Funj, like many other Black states then and since, found added wealth in the slave trade, and a new reason for waging war on their neighbors for "prisoners of war" to further the trade .' Today it is difficult to find even a small region that does not have a history of inter-tribal conflicts stemming directly from one group's raiding another for slaves, or attempting to either conquer another group, annex it or enslave the whole society that was overrun . The Funj, then, become just another example of a role played by the Blacks that not only guaranteed their own damnation, but also made their reunification for nationhood or anything else a most difficult undertaking . The -------------------------------------------------- Notes 4. One account states that the Funj Kingdom joined Arabs in the destruction of Alwa . This, too, is possible .[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:19pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]much for our Western historians . Characteristically, and even today, they refer to the Funj as a "mysterious people," and wonder from whence they came . They debate, with the usual air of deep scholarship, whether or not these Blacks of the Funj Kingdom were really Blacks! When it is suggested that they "probably came from the east," it is a repeat of the overworked canard that plants the idea that all such people must have come from Asia . In his recent Modern History of the Sudan, P.M. Holt concludes that "A rigorous investigation of the problem of Funj origins has yet to be made ." Why is there a problem? And what is the problem, if there is one? Both questions are integral parts of the great issues in this work . They have been rather fully answered in different contexts . As to this particular case, therefore, the "problem of Funj origins" is a problem for Caucasians only, with the possible exception of those Negro scholars whose skewed vision of reality is through eyes of blue . People not concerned with the distortions of history, but desiring the truth about the past as honestly as it can be determined, will have no difficulty in understanding that the people who were called Funj were one of the uprooted and countless groups we have been describing, driven from one place and reorganizing to settle in another until uprooted again and again, and resettling and rebuilding again and again, on and on, until the Europeans swept the whole continent and, then, afterwards . Some wandered to the utmost parts, as stated before ; and some, like the Shilluks who bult the Funj Kingdom, did not leave their general region . If they "came from the east," it was from the east bank of the Nile . In the interest of trade and foreign commerce, Funj kings, as many African kings were to do later, began to accept Islam and take the Arabic title of sultans. Thereafter, writers called the kingdom the "Funj Sultanate ." In this matter of commercial activities, it should be specially noted that in early times the Blacks equaled the Semitic peoples in their interest and drive in the fields of finance, industry and foreign trade. All over Africa there were whole societies that were distinguished, enjoying fame for their skill and success in one of these business areas . That interest and drive in large scale economic endeavors were generally lost along with other institutions that had been the basis of their advanced culture . This was the major tragedy in the history of the Blacks, and one about which they have not even yet been fully awakened. Funj (or (Shilluk) traders roamed far and wide in the great game of buying and selling . The continued prosperity of the country depended[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:15pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]For the Arabs had formed a great confederation of its feuding tribes . These, while perpetually at war among themselves, could always be counted on to unite quickly against non-Arab and non-Muslim peoples . Before the United Arab armies entered Alwa, the black leadership had ordered a general evacuation of the country by all women and children and the aged . The men, warriors all, remained to face the foe . It is not known whether the traditional Black Women's Army Corps existed in Alwa. In any event, the Arabs did not find, and indeed, did not expect the conquest to be easy . They knew well the courage of the Blacks in battle and their unwillingness to surrender even when defeated . They had to take Alwa city by city, town by town, hill by hill and bush by bush. The Blacks were dying and fighting for the high order of life they had built . They fought nobly on the plains of Alwa in 1504, while their people, some never to be seen again, joined other countless thousands in the great migrations toward East, West, Central, and Southern Africa . THE SURPRISE KINGDOM During the same period these two black states were being destroyed, the history of the rebirth of destroyed African states was being repeated just beyond their borders by migrating Africans who had decided to make another stand in the midst of death and danger . These Blacks were called the Funj people . They gathered in strength and, with consummate daring, quickly formed a new nation the very year Alwa passed from the scene as a state . Under the leadership of the strong king, general and statesman, Amara Dunqas, they established their capital at Sennar on the Blue Nile and at the very outset they assumed an aggressive stance that put the world on notice that black power in Africa had not yet been completely destroyed, that another fighting state had emerged from the ashes of those which had been destroyed . Indeed, the Funj state arose with such suddenness and with policies and programs so daring that it shocked both the Arabs and the nowencroaching Ottoman Turks . The latter, after overthrowing Mameluke rule and taking~over Egypt, quickly built and expanded defensive fortifications against possible Funj invasions . For these Blacks had turned the tables of history by annexing and bringing under control the Arab tribal states in the Lower Gezira region and the areas around the present Khartoum. The Funj king appointed an Arab as his governor over Arab provinces, emphasizing the Arabs' status of tributary vassals by giving the office of governor an African title . All this proved to be just too[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:13pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]Sudan Arabization and Islamization had another outcome : Not only did the Afro-Arabs consider themselves Arabs and bitterly resented being called Sudanese (Black), but thousands of the jet-black, unmixed Africans insisted on being classed as Arabs . They still do (this fact was settled beyond question during my field studies in the Sudan in 1964) . This fact also confuses and frustrates the black world both in and outside of Africa . For who, now are our "African brothers?" AND NOW-ALWA With the capture and control of the biggest remaining kingdom of the Ethiopian empire completed through peaceful infiltration of waves of Arab refugees over centuries, the triumphant Arabs were not disposed to follow the same long drawn-out procedure in taking over the last keyi kingdom of the formerly black empire . This was Alwa . The Arabs decided on a full-scale war against this last citadel of black power in the Southern Sudan . Although Makuria was most in the spotlight of the wars against the Arab incursions, she was ably supported by Alwa . Makuria had to .carry the brunt of the burden because it was right next door to the enemy and it alone had the awesome responsibility of holding the floodgates above the First Cataract through which the Arab tides ebbed and flowed . Meanwhile Alwa, with ruins of the imperial cities of Napata and Meroe in its very midst, had a more direct responsibility for restoring and maintaining the glories of a black civilization that had refused to die with the fall of the Ethiopian Empire a thousand years before . Alwa had replaced Meroe with its beautiful capital city of Soba, and had developed its other towns and cities along such advanced lines that foreign writers could never fail to comment on the architectural designs, the wide streets lined with palm trees, the spacious homes and, in fact, all of the things they had observed in Makuria : the thriving industrial crafts, large scale cattle raising, a surplus-producing agriculture that kept alive an export trade in dates, wheat and garri, cotton fabrics and other produce not easily perishable, and an efficient administration, a strong army headed by formidable cavalry regiments . Alwa had made its defense system more secure by maintaining more walled towns and cities than Makuria. These walled places were rebuilt primarily as centers of refuge against the constant Arab slave raids . Now they were to serve as freedom's final bastions of defense against local enslavement . Alwa was ready for what everyone knew was its last war as a nation .[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:10pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]to the general degradation of a whole people . The way was now open and easy for all the relevant branches of science and scholarship to proclaim theories on the inherent inferiority of Blacks . Far worse than this, since black populations were everywhere under white control, they could actually be forced into inferiority by a dehumanizing program "silently" structured in all institutions and phases of white national life . The Blacks were the immediate victims of those diseases born of poverty and planned deprivation . Undernourished and diseased mothers carried and brought babies into the world who were both physically and' mentally handicapped even before birth . The Mameluke Sultan sent another expedition in 1323 to put the African king, Kerembes, on the throne, again, after his brother, himself, had deposed the Arab king only to die a few days later . The coups and counter-coups still seemed to be endless and not at all the presupposed political phenomena characteristically confined to the Blacks . Therefore, as soon as the Mameluke forces withdrew from the South, Kanz al- Dawlah returned, overthrew Kerembes a second time, and became king again . Meanwhile, another strong Arab tribe, the Guhayna, had been pouring into the Sudan in such great waves that they rapidly became the dominant Arab group below the Second Cataract . The kingdom known to history as Makuria was no more . It was the kingdom that, together with its more southern neighbor, battled to maintain and expand the glorious civilization of the Motherland for another thousand years after the fall of the imperial city of Meroe . That was why it was close to the fifteenth century before an Ibn Khaldun or anyone else could report that the Guhayna Arabs were the complete masters of the Land of the Blacks from the First Cataract to the highlands of Abyssinia . The history of Black Egypt had been repeated in the Black South : The coming of the Caucasian, whether from Asia or Europe, or whether in the name of peace, trade, an "integrated society," or in the name of the Allah of the Arabs or the God and Jesus Christ of the Jews and Christians, no matter under what pretext they came it meant the destruction of the highly advanced civilization of the Blacks and their total degradation as a people . And the same ethnic phenomenon that accelerated the process of racial disintegration in Egypt also operated in the Sudan . This was, simply stated, the widespread sexual activities on the part of Arab men and black slave girls, the outcome of which was a new breed of Afro-Arabs, the same sexual process that produced "Egyptians" as a nationality group neither Asian nor African . In the[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:08pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]Kanz ad-Dawlah of the Bani Kanz Arab tribe . His pleasure was to put the Black Muslim king to death and assume the kingship over the Blacks himself. Over the Blacks? This statement is misleading . This was no longer the "Land of the Blacks ." White and coloured Arabs now constituted the majority. Without this population base, the triumph of the Arabs in the Sudan could not have happened . Yet the Arab chieftain's rule as king was short-lived because the Mameluke rulers played one group off against the other in an effort to defeat Arab objectives in one way or another . For one thing, they had been unable to break the autonomy of the Arab tribes in Upper Egypt, and these tribes were spreading over the Sudan and setting up their own kings . This was a further challenge to Mameluke rule in Egypt. Who, then, were the Mamelukes? The Mamelukes were the whites who had been enslaved by the Arabs in their wild and amazing sweep out of their desert homeland to conquer all adjacent countries and establish a world empire with a speed that shocked the world . Theirs was the original blitz . The enslavement of prisoners of war, which was the way general slavery began, was the order of the day . Race had no bearing on the matter then . Whites, blacks, browns or yellows, all were made slaves if captured . The Arabs also made a practice of creating strong slave armies . The white slave armies were the Mamelukes . These, when stationed in Egypt, revolted, overthrew the government, and established their own line of ruling sultans . For this they were hated by the Arabs and looked upon with scorn, even though they had been converted to Islam . The white ex-slaves hated their former masters even more . This white slave revolt and its historical significance are underplayed . Yet its impact was such that it influenced the course of modern history in black-white relations . The effect of that revolt on the black world was tragic . For the murderous onslaughts of the white slaves against their erstwhile masters so shocked the white world that the general enslavement of whites ended forever . On this the record is clear : White slavery ended after the Mameluke rebellion . Thereafter Black Africa became the exclusive hunting ground for slaves, a situation made easy by the developments outlined in this work . All the theories of inherent black inferiority stemmed from the urgently felt need to justify the success in confining slavery to the African race . The answer to the riddle of the centuries can be traced right here, for that great change in human history when only Blacks were enslaved led[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 11:06pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]Black Land . The struggle was long and bitter, as the Sultan's strategy in using his black army, along with Shakandu's own followers, made it appear to be civil war between Blacks . In the end the Sultan won through the black heir to the throne, and allowed him to be crowned king as his protege . The dismemberment of the black kingdoms in the Sudan had begun . Now a rival tribute was exacted and almost doubled without any pretense of being an agreement of mutual exchange . The tribute exacted was harsh and the Blacks were promised nothing . The kingdom was then divided into two parts, the Sultan taking the northern region as his personal fief. Muslim rule now extended over Egypt and into the Sudan. The pattern was set that was to continue into our times and probably beyond : The Arabs in the Northern Sudan, while the Blacks were pressured into smaller and smaller areas in the Southern Sudan . Once again, learning nothing from even just yesterday, the black leadership paved the way for further Arab advances into their country . The black leadership's struggle for personal power and, above all, their own personal security and welfare, precluded their concern for the welfare and future of their people . They were quite willing and ready to welcome the Arabs arid to surrender their people to them in exchange for "high" office and limited consideration . The days of the black immortals seemed to have passed forever . Mental pygmies again occupied the throne once held by Menes, Piankhi, Shabaka, and Kalydosos . In 1304, still another self-seeking black leader journeyed to Cairo to have himself crowned as the servant-king of the Blacks by the Sultan al Nasir . The Sultan sent an expedition to Dongola-a task now easier than before-and his new servant was crowned as King Amai . It should be noted here that the Mameluke rulers' effective power was confined to Lower Egypt and that independent Arab tribes, of which the Bani Kanz were the most powerful, held all Upper Egypt . They were only nominally the sultans . In order to put an end to the endless coups and counter-coups among the Blacks, the decision was reached to overwhelm the South with united armies from both Upper and Lower Egypt and step up the Islamization of the Blacks, putting Muslim kings on the throne . In 1316 A.D., the objectives were realized when Dongola was again razed for the fifth time and Kerembes, the last black Christian king, was put to flight. A black Muslim, Abdullah, was made king temporarily while awaiting the pleasure, not of the Sultan, but of the powerful Chief[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 10:52pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]The highest ranking of the thirteen kings under the "King of Kings" was the Eparch of Faris, Lord of the Mountain . He was the commander of the frontier forces at the Egyptian border and his special mission was to bar Arab migration and settlement in the Land of the Blacks . Only the limited number of traders were permitted to pass and the time limit for their stay was fixed . The Eparch, therefore, had indeed been the most important official next to the "King of Kings," for he was directly responsible for the security and independence of the nation. Under strong kings and strong eparchs the mission was carried out and Arab incursions southward were checked .' That was now long ago . The Arabs had been passing the Lord of the Mountain and his garrisons for so many decades that by the ninth century Arabic was generally spoken below the First Cataract . HOW SLAVERY CAME TO BE CONFINED TO BLACKS ALONE In the latter part of the thirteenth century David, King of Makuria, seeing no other way to forestall Arab occupation of his country, stepped up his raids in Upper Egypt . The raids were easier to carry out because of the chaos that followed the triumphs of the Mamelukes in Egypt . But in 1272 the Blacks, in what I have attacked as the pattern of their own self-destruction, made the first major step to that end . The usual impatience of heirs to the throne soon enough found full expression in Shakandu, the King's nephew . He hastened to the Sultan of Egypt to secure an alliance and plan an invasion of his country that would assure his ascendancy to the throne . The Sultan had every reason to grasp this wonderful opportunity handed to him through the Blacks themselves . Not only would he be able to even scores with them, but he would also be able to create conditions for Mameluke hegemony over their land . Moreover, the African king had not only been raiding Egypt with impunity, but he had denounced the Treaty of 652 and refused to pay the Baqt. Sultan Baibars, therefore, did not hesitate . He organized a strong invading expedition with Shakandu at its head and entered the ------------------------------------------------ Notes 3. Because of the repeated emphasis on the fact, it should be quite clear now that reference to Egyptian, Asian or Arab invasions always include black slave armies as well as Mulattoes classified as "white ."[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 10:50pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]and progress was reflected in the advanced standard of living among the masses . The massive brickmaking industry had led to homes of brick and stone in cities, towns and villages-brick houses, and larger houses for the great common people . In the eighth century this was something for the visiting Arab scholars to write home about . (It would be something to write about anywhere in this last part of the twentieth century .) THE ARAB HORDES However, they really did not need to report all this, so well was it already generally known . The treaty barring Arab settlement in the allblack countries had been ignored almost from the beginning, and certainly treated as non-existing after the death of Kalydosos . The Arabs came in steady streams year after year, but in an inch-by-inch system over widely scattered areas that appeared not to cause immediate concern. But they came in unchecked and alarming waves when the great schisms in Islam led to bloody wars in the Arab world . The character of the refugee movements out of Arabia and other Arab centers of power depended upon what sect had captured the Caliphate . Let the record show, therefore, that all the Arabs that swarmed into Africa across the Red Sea and Indian Ocean were not bent on either conquest or domination . Countless thousands were fleeing there for refuge, fleeing for their very lives . Once settled there, however, they formed the ever-increasing population base for the Muslim leaders whose aim was to establish Islamic rule over the whole black world . They were to follow the Christian strategy of concentrating on the conversion of African kings and leaders in the belief that as the king goes, so goes the nation, a theory that did not work in Africa, except in a superficial way for expediency . However, the black kings were already dropping their African names for "Christian" names, the first step towards self-effacement . So as early as the ninth century, (831 A.D .), King Zakaria, alarmed at great incursions of Arabs into the Sudan, sent a delegation headed by his nephew (heir to the throne) to the Caliph at Bagdad, asking that the Treaty of 652 be respected and Arab migrations halted . This meant that a weak black king now held the destiny of the race in his hands . That he was so naive as to suppose that the Caliph could stop the Arab hordes even if he desired to do so was itself a sign of incompetence .[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 10:48pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]certain, but the extent of this enterprise is not indicated by the archaeological findings . The reports of Arab scholars on the cities of the Blacks during these early centuries are significant for two important reasons . The first is that, like the European explorers, "geographers" and others referred to earlier, they were not concerned with writing African history and nothing could have been farther from their intentions than glorifying the achievements of the Blacks . But their mission was to make factual reports on the conditions and exploitable possibilities of Africa to their home countries . Such reports would be the basis for future penetration, exploitation and conquest . The second highly significant fact about the accounts of Abu Salih, Ibn Salim and other scholars between the seventh and fifteenth centuries A .D . is that, unlike the case of Egypt, none questioned either the greatness or the origin of this black civilization . It was so clearly all- African that it did not seem to occur to these Arab writers that any other position was tenable . Those familiar with the traditional African religion might question whether Christianity was in fact external to Africa . In any case, the beautiful churches they saw spread over the "Land of the Black Gods" had become almost completely Africanized for those gods . The prosperity the Arab visitors reported -the magnificent stone and brick palaces, temples, churches, cathedrals, wide avenues lined with palm trees, government buildings, public baths, water supply systems, beautiful gardens, countless craft industries, huge farms with extensive pastures where camels, horses, oxen, cows, sheep, goats and pigs could be seen grazing lazily-all this was reported as messages with an unwritten message : Such is this Black Paradise, Brothers of Islam . Come! The prosperity in this center of the black world represented one of the last great epochs in the history of the Blacks . If near the final, it was also one of their finest hours on the stage of human progress . Here the measure of a people's genius could be taken without speculation . Here the message of who Blacks were was wrought in stone and iron for the succeeding generations of Blacks who were to lose their very identity in the blood and tears of unbroken oppression. The Arab scholars were properly amazed at a way of life so superior to that of their own homeland . It was something to be amazed about . For there were not only public baths but public latrines, drainage and central water systems, but the most remarkable evidence of prosperity[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 10:47pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]Guinea . It was a great surprise recently to find buried structures in the Chad region similar to those in the heart of the Empire along the Nile . BLACK MAKURIA Between 700 and 1200 A.D ., Makuria was more empire than kingdom . It was organized into thirteen major states with a subking over each and the "King of Kings" over all. The traditional African Council was the final authority no matter how powerful the king might seem to be . The great and colorful parasol of the "King of Kings" had to be wider than those of the divisional kings and theirs was larger than any lesser officials . Cyriacus was "King of Kings" in 745 when Omar, the governor of Egypt, stepped up the persecution of Christians in Egypt in what amounted to a Muslim Holy War, destroying churches or converting them into mosques and even putting the Patriarch in prison . Since the Patriarch in Egypt was the head of all Christian churches in Africa, the Africans regarded this latest onslaught against the churches as an insult as well as a breach of the peace treaty, now almost a hundred years old . Strangely, the Muslims made Lower Egypt the area of greatest church destruction . When the arrogant Omar ignored all protests and pleas, the African king headed an army of 100,000 men and marched on the Arab center of power in Lower Egypt . The governor of Egypt quickly freed the Patriarch and promised to leave the Christians and their churches alone . Cyriacus accepted these assurances and withdrew his army from Egpyt . It was during this period that an extensive body of church literature developed in the African language and the remarkable pottery industries were expanded ; painting, like writing, was stimulated by the Church, just as had been the case in temple art . Mining was a principal source of wealth, but agriculture was the basic national activity and there is evidence of the people's battles with the encroaching deserts . They followed the system of the "Mother Empire" and overcame certain arid areas by developing the system of terrace farming that was irrigated by water wheels constructed for high places . They were successful enough to produce -a surplus of agricultural commodities for export trade . Cotton had been produced from ancient times, and cloth making and other weaving arts were among the oldest crafts . That glass was made is[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 10:45pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]the Asians in 3100 B .C., for the decline of black civilization, not only in Egypt but throughout Africa, can be traced to that period despite all of its monumental achievements afterwards . The termites of its destruction, slow but steady, had been let in under the laudable dream of blackwhite brotherhood . The long, drawn-out process of penetration and eventual domination was both visible and invisible . Yet from these tiny footholds, the Asian population grew and grew until the Blacks were not only outnumbered by Asians but overwhelmed . Substantially the same scheme was followed in every black city, town and village throughout Egypt . The record of the 5,000 years that ended with the European conquest of the whole continent in the nineteenth century shows that every African state remained relatively secure and independent as long as it maintained a strict policy of excluding foreigners from settlement within its borders . That same record makes clear that wherever this policy was abandoned and whites were admitted under any pretext whatsoever, the eventual doom of that state was certain . The single point that is being made here is that King Kalydosos and the other Black leaders already had, as early as 652 A.D ., thirty-seven centuries of this record before them when they allowed the Arabs to establish a permanent base of operations in their land . They ignored the record, as other black leaders were to continue to do until Muslim Asia and Christian Europe swept the continent and left the whole black world prostrate at their feet . In the seventh century this tragic outcome was still far away . The fall of Meroe and the break-up of the Ethiopian empire into kingdoms did not check the flowering of black civilization in these states . Indeed, Makuria and Alwa seemed determined not only to maintain the ancient tradition of progress, but to overcome the imperial breakdown by pushing forward more aggressively than ever on all fronts . The 600-year detente with the Arabs in Egypt was a period of such reconstruction and progress that the criticism made regarding the leadership above would seem to be unjustified unless viewed from the long backward perspective of history . Even church and cathedral building expanded from this center of black culture over the Western regions of Chad and adjoining states. The limited excavations have revealed this much . Future archaeological work may reveal whether the Ethiopian empire in its heyday extended westward to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 10:44pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]the conquerors' Baqt, became an important provision in the treaty . The terms called for the annual delivery of 360 slaves near the frontier and forty extra slaves as a gift to the Egyptian viceroy .' In order to induce the Ethiopians to accept what at first appeared to be a tribute in fact, the Arab leaders presented it as a treaty of trade and commerce, agreeing to pay in exchange wheat, barley and wine at a value in excess of the gifts by the Africans . More important than this, however, was the provision for building a great mosque in the restored Dongola and allowing Arab traders in only as traders, not settlers . Since it was a treaty "between equals," the provisions of the treaty were reciprocal : black traders could operate in Egypt and have a church on the same terms. Even if the Africans had not known that the Arabs in Egypt were busily converting churches and temples into Muslim mosques, there would still be no occasion for building a church for their traders in Egypt . They had no long-range plans for the eventual control of Egypt through the trade and religion routes . But the Arabs did have such a plan for the eventual conquest of the Sudan through mosques and traders . The Caucasians, unable to conquer the Blacks directly, were contented when they had set in motion the process of gradual infiltration and expansion that would eventuate in victory even though it was to take 600 years . I am saying that the Blacks seem not only to have lost the grand vision of the future, but also (what should have been) the unforgettable lessons of their past . The pattern of Caucasian conquest had been cut out and made clear through thirty-seven centuries of their history . After they had allowed the Asians first to infiltrate and then to overrun all Lower Egypt, the Blacks drew a firm boundary line between the Two Lands beyond which the whites were not allowed to settle . Those were the days when the Africans were not so trusting that they were unable to perceive that the Caucasians were eternally restless unless they were the masters in every situation whatsoever . They were therefore barred from settlement in Black Upper Egypt until Narmer and Menes united the Lower and Upper Egypts . If there was ever a Pyrrhic victory in history, it could not have been more disastrous than that of Menes over ---------------------------------------------------- Notes 2. A "slave" was a captured prisoner of war, and in early history the term was no more degrading than that of prisoner of war today .[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 10:41pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]any doubt that they could defeat the Arabs again . The spirit of their decisive victory over the Arabs in 643 A.D . still fired the black armies . The King withdrew from his burning capital only to regroup and plan strategies for a "no-surrender" war . As the fighting continued with increased fury on both sides, it became clear to the Arab generals that victory over the Blacks could never be won on the field of battle . Again, their previous defeat by the Blacks was still playing a determining role in Arab-African relations . An armistice was declared, and a treaty of peace was signed by the now undefeated equals, Abdullah for Muslim Egypt and Kalydosos for the Christian kingdoms of Ethiopia-Makuria and Kalydosos for the Christian kingdoms of Ethiopia - Makuria and Alwa . The Arabs had in fact lost the war . For with carefully trained and overwhelming forces filled with vengeance for the previous disaster, they were still unable to defeat the Blacks and bring their country under Muslim control . The historic significance is twofold : (1) The psychological effects of being defeated by the Blacks twice on broad national fronts caused the Arabs to adopt a peaceful relationship with these countries that lasted 600 years . (2) The treaty included provisions that were the basis for the expansion of slavery and the "peaceful" conquest of the Sudan . Goals which could not be achieved directly on the battlefield were to be achieved indirectly by Arab traders and Muslim missionary brotherhoods. In a previous discussion, I wondered out loud whether the black race is lacking in one quality that seems to distinguish Caucasians and explain the reason for their long domination of the earth : Their deep concern about their posterity, the future role and welfare of their white offsprings to the farthest generation . Their plans and policies for today's world are often based on expected outcomes centuries hence . The Blacks as a race, on the other hand, have been so split up and preoccupied with current problems that they seem to have lost this deep concern about the future of their descendents . This matter calls for serious reflection particularly on the part of Blacks in their relations with long-range planning whites . For from the earliest times and in almost every period of history, we find the whites carefully developing plans for future results which none expect to see realized in their lifetime . And so it was here in the Sudan in 652 A.D., when the peace treaty between Arabs and Blacks was signed . First the Arabs had to make their failure appear to the world as a victory of some sort . An annual tribute,[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 10:39pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]army. An Arab historian of the period felt compelled to admit that it was the most devastating defeat ever suffered by an Arab army . There were other eye-witness reports from the scene of battle dealing with the remarkable training and dashing courage of the Black forces with the King of Makuria in personal command . (Those were the days when "king" meant leader. The leader led from the front, and not from some hill miles away from the fighting .) This immediate presence of their leader in the midst of danger with them may have had much to do with the courage and expertise of the African soldiers . The units that amazed the ancient world that memorable day between the First and Second Cataracts were the bow and arrow corps . These were so skillfully trained that they could aim their arrows at the eyes of the enemy and shoot with unbelievable accuracy . For reasons which by now must be obvious, this battle not only does not appear as "one of the decisive battles of history" in any of your history books, but it is not even mentioned . Yet it was in fact one of the decisive battles of the world : The defeat of the hitherto undefeated Arab forces was so disastrous that it took them eight years to recover, reorganize, and regain the necessary courage to attack the Blacks again and thereby avenge that awful defeat and near-annihilation on the plains of Makuria in 643 A .D. This African victory, furthermore, delayed the Arab conquests in the black South and spurred the development of subsequent events in both of the southern kingdoms . In 651 A .D ., the Arab Viceroy of Egypt decided that he had the unbeatable armed might and was ready to avenge the disaster eight years before and bring the Blacks to their knees in the process . The Arab generals proceeded boldly but cautiously in order to avoid the traps and surprise tactics of the black generals, which arrogance probably caused them to ignore before . Yet the same African strategy was used : They were allowed to invade the Nobadaen state in depth with only "token" opposition . Hell broke loose only when they crossed the former Makurian border (before the union of the two kingdoms) and headed for the capital of Dongola . However, the Arabs captured it, and destroyed all of the principal public buildings, including the great cathedral . They had brought along huge catapults for the express purpose of razing all brick and stone edifices that were the pride and glory of black civilization . With the fall of their capital city, the seat of government, the Blacks were expected to surrender . But King Kalydosos, the African leader, and his generals had no thought about surrendering or[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 10:37pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]A DECISIVE BATTLE OF HISTORY Egypt, on the other hand, was undergoing one of her periodic convulsions from an invasion, the most fateful one to which we have already referred as the Muslim invasion of 639-42 A .D . This conquest, as was usually the case, had been made easier by still a previous Persian invasion (619-629 A.D .) . Some sources suggest that the new wave of Persian invasions that began in 619 A.D . determined the course of the Blacks in conquering Nobadae and reestablishing their frontier at the great system of fortifications at the First Cataract . From there the Blacks had been raiding various areas in Egypt and attacking garrisons throughout the ten years of the last Persian occupation . In this and other similar instances, the picture that emerges clearly is that the Blacks, even after being pushed out of Egypt, were more upset by foreign invasions and resisted them more courageously than the "new" Egyptians who, by comparison, appeared to be an easily conquered and rather cowardly lot . Otherwise, how could Amr-ibn-al-As, the Muslim general, conquer all Egypt so easily with only 4,000 men? The conquering Arab general apparently knew the difference between the fighting qualities of the Blacks in the south and those of the Egyptians and their mercenary troops ; for despite the continued raids by the Blacks, he chose not to extend his operations into their land . But not so disposed was Abdullah, the new Arab governor-general (viceroy) of Egypt . The year following the complete takeover by the Muslims, 643 A.D., he decided to bring the whole Heartland of the Blacks under Muslim control at once . He knew, however, that this would really be a war, not like the easy conquest of Egypt with an army of only 4,000 men. With a larger and better equipped army, the Arab expedition invaded the black country with a confidence that was heightened by what appeared to be hasty and confused retreats by frightened warriors . This Ethiopian strategy of pretended fright and wild retreat was so well-known in Egypt that it is difficult to understand how it could have been unknown to Abdullah and his generals . Or had this too, like everything else that was African, been blotted from memory? If so, for once they were going to pay dearly for ignoring an African invention . They were allowed to advance deeply into black territory before 100,000 "retreating" and "frightened" Blacks turned in frontal and flanking onslaughts that almost completely wiped out the entire Arab[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 10:36pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]clergy . By thus preventing educational opportunities, they could always maintain that the Blacks were simply "not qualified" for this or that high post . In religion, as in every other field, the system deliberately prevented qualification in order to declare the lack of qualification on the part of Blacks in all regions under white control or in all institutions, in this case the Church, over which white power prevailed . There were situations, however, in which some Blacks overrode the obstacles to become bishops in either all-black or predominantly black countries . In discussing mass migration from Egypt, I hope no one has forgotten the countless thousands of Blacks left behind, in both Upper and Lower Egypt ; not only then, they are present there today, but as a submerged group . That there were exceptions to this general status has also been emphasized . The people who accepted a slave or inferior status as their lot in the society were the kind Aristotle had in mind when he referred to men who were born to be slaves . On the other hand, those Blacks who migrated or fought to the death rather than accept slavery were those who were born to be free-the most important point missed by many quoting this most-quoted passage from Aristotle . It was these born-to-be-free Blacks who, as we have seen, not only beat back the enslaving invaders over and over again, but just as many times either conquered their would-be-enslavers or drove them back into Asia . The fall of the black empire did not mean that the Blacks had surrendered . The fragmented kingdoms were still to carry the fight to the enemy, and they were still to fight their way again across Egypt as far as to where their ancient city of Memphis once stood . Still others remained in the conquered regions simply because they refused to leave their ancestral homes, come what may . By the seventh century, the Blacks had achieved a major goal by incorporating Nobadae with Makuria and thus reestablishing what had become the recognized boundary between Ethiopia and Egypt at the First Cataract . The precise manner of this amazing achievement is unknown: Did the "Black Noba" of Makuria overrun the "Red Noba" of Nobadae, or was it a union of kingdoms by agreement? We do not know. What we do know is that the black kingdoms of Alwa and Makuria were stronger than ever since the fall of Napata and Meroe[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 10:34pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]following protests by black church leaders, supported by their kings . And while the "Red Men" of Nobadae, caught in the middle, tended to identify with the Blacks of Makuria and Alwa, the split between the Western and Eastern churches over doctrine was reflected in the three Ethiopian kingdoms . This meant that the religious strife tended to alienate Monophysite Nobadae from Orthodox Makuria . This competition for ascendency may have had a great deal to do with the expansion of churches in Egypt and the former Ethiopian empire in the South . THE GROWTH OF STATES These southern kingdoms also carried on much of the old Ethiopian tradition of rapid reconstruction after destruction . They continued the expansion of caravan routes for external trade across the Sahara to the western black world to offset the Egyptian seacoast monopoly . They replaced the vast temple-building programs with equally vast churchbuilding programs, and they continued the development of the iron industries and better equipped armies . Egyptian, Asian, Greek and Roman influence was as marked on African institutions in Nobadae as it was on the complexion of most of the people living in this fringe kingdom . Nobadae, then, is a classic example of external influence on African institutions just as it had been on Egypt . It is an influence that could be praised to high heaven as the eclectic process of civilization itself had not the Caucasians resorted to thefts and lies in their vain and ignoble attempts to preempt the whole field of human progress as being theirs and theirs alone . In the fourth century A .D ., the areas of black power had been pushed out of Egypt down to where the kingdom of Makuria formed its borders with Nobadae . Here the concentration of Blacks began, just as though a southward movement of the race was a decree of providence. Here, once again, they took their stand ; here again, even in the lands which were officially Christian, black battle lines had to be formed again for defense . The Axumite Coloured "Solomonids" and Arabs had retired after the destruction of the black empire . The more immediate danger was still Egypt . This was true also from the viewpoint of Christiandom, for "white" Egyptian control over the churches reflected the same policies that were to follow through the centuries into our own times : No church sponsored theological schools for the training of African[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 10:31pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]some centuries Arabs and Jews (the latter called "Solomonids" by most historians) had been swarming into this southeastern region, pushing through the middle in such a way that even in Abyssinia the Blacks were pressed southward, always southward! Egyptian history was repeating itself: The Asians and Mulattoes held Northern Abyssinia, with the center of power in the strategic kingdom of Axum . From Axum the Arabs prepared their forces for the destruction of a now weakening Ethiopian empire . The weakness, as usual, came from separatist movements struggling for power . It was the old-time factional fights among leaders who felt they must "rule or ruin"-a drive so well known that is needless to recount. But it was the situation for which the Axumite Arabs and their Coloured and Jewish allies were waiting . In 350 A .D ., their armies destroyed Meroe, and an epoch in history ended . Ethiopia was now split into three major states : Nobadae, bordering Egypt at the First Cataract ; Makuria, the more powerful kingdom in the middle with its capital at Dongola ; and Alwa, another strong state south of Makuria or between Makuria and Axum . After the collapse of the central black empire in the fourth century, the Christian churches spread more rapidly through the now independent kingdoms . Even in the division of Ethiopia into smaller states, the process of ethnic transformation was obvious as it pressed southward from Egypt . Greek and Roman presence had been heavy and marked in Nobadae . Since no one now questioned that Nobadae (Nubia) was Ethiopian, the mixed breed could not be called Egyptian as was the previous case of First Cataract . The population in this kingdom bordering Caucasianized Egypt was now predominantly Afro-European and Afro-Asian . The problem was solved very neatly by calling them the "Red Noba" and the Africans were called "Black Noba ." The other two kingdoms were allblack and presented no classification problems . The churches seemed to be firmly rooted in Alwa and Makuria . Churches seemed to be everywhere . There were several in every large town, one in just about every small village, some in rural areas away from villages, and churches scattered over large urban centers, along with those of greater splendor in the "Cathedral Cities,' the seats of bishops . White administration and control of African Christianity was assured by establishing the head of the Church in Lower Egypt (the Patriarch of Alexandria) with power to appoint all bishops in Africa . The bishops appointed were always white or near-white until token appointments of Blacks to lesser posts, such as deacons, had to be made[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 10:29pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]In 332, Alexander the Great arrived and, having broken the imperial power of Persia elsewhere, had no trouble taking over Egypt . A Greek was crowned Pharaoh in 334 B .C ., as Ptolemy I . The Greeks ruled Egypt for almost 300 years before the expansion of the Roman Empire into Egypt ended their dominion in 30 B.C . This, was our "flashback" point of departure, but before returning to the Ethiopian churches, the significance of what we have been reviewing as flashbacks should again be emphasized as a great issue . For we have been reviewing the last phase of the processes of Caucasianization in Egypt that were so thoroughgoing that both the Blacks and their history were erased from memory : the Jewish rule, 500 years; the Assyrian interludes ; the Persians, 185 years ; the Greeks, 274 years ; the Romans, 700 years ; the Arabs, 1,327 years-the long, long struggle to take from the Blacks whatever they had of human worth, their land and all their wealth therein ; their bodies, their souls, and their minds, was a process of steady depersonalization, dehumanization . Yet Greece and Rome, having made :he exclusion of the Blacks from Egypt permanent, appeared to have no conquest ambitions in the black country to the south . And Pax Romany checked the constant warfare between the two regions . The great wealth-producing trade with Ethiopia was promoted and what appeared to be a general detente prevailed . Indeed, whoever held the sea-coasts, whether Asian, European or Egyptian, controlled world trade and put Ethiopia in a state of economic dependence, no matter how vast the flew of goods was from the south . Egypt was the middleman with the greater control over both volume and prices . Both the Greek and Roman rulers of Egypt left Ethiopia to play its own role . And we have seen what that role was during a thousand years of unbroken progress directed from Meroe . THE SEMITIC STORM FROM AXUM Yet a storm cloud was threatening farther south as the Roman Legions withdrew from Egypt to help check the erosion of an overextended world empire . We have noted that the Ethiopian Empire at the height of its greatness extended southward into Abyssinia (present day Ethiopia) and further, that as time passed, the Blacks were being hemmed in from almost all directions essential for survival . Now, for[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 10:26pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]end of black rule over Egypt with the close of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty in 656 B C. The victorious Assyrians, you may recall, made Necho, a king from Sais in Lower Egypt, the governor-general, supported by Assyrian garrisons . This Necho was an Asian, but by this time the practice of calling all non-African residents Egyptians had been so firmly established that it had the weight of customary law . The Afro-Asians had failed to win recognition as the only Egyptians. Whites of all nationalities, though a minority, were often the dominant groups, ruling from their power base in Lower Egypt . Hence the continuing crises between the white Egyptians and the now more populous "coloured" Egyptians .' The Black Egyptians no longer counted as a power group north of the First Cataract . When the Assyrians were finally expelled during the Twenty-Six Dynasty (664-525 B.C .), the foundations for permanent white Asian rule in Egypt had been firmly laid . From this period on, the wars for the control of Egypt were primarily wars of whites against whites . The internal corruption, jockeying for position compounded by the various partisan groups, reflected the weakness of the country in employing more and more foreign mercenary troops, especially Greeks . These large incursions of Greeks and their allies formed the same kind of advance base for a future Greek hegemony as did previous Asiatic peoples . The time was not yet . But it was the opportune time for the Persians to invade this much-invaded land and begin a rule in 525 B .C . that was to last 21 years . Since the administration of a conquered country by absentee kings is generally weak and open to revolt, the very long Persian rule in Egypt was doubtless due to an extraordinary line of strong kings and imperial administrators-Cambyses, Darius the Great and Darius 11 . The end of Persian rule came in 404 B.C . when the Egyptian Greeks joined with the Egyptian nationalists in a "War of Liberation ." The victory was short-lived . The Egyptians were in power only five years before the rebellion and independence were broken and Persian rule reestablished for another 64 years . -------------------------------------------------- Notes 1. The same development is now taking place in South Africa where the "Coloureds," once fanatically devoted to the whites, are now bitterly resentful because their privileged status vis-a-vis the Blacks is being steadily reduced .[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 10:23pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]The Two That Carried On FROM THE EARLY AFRICAN VIEWPOINT THERE WAS NOTHING earth-shaking or extraordinary about the establishment of still another cult, the cult of Christian churches . The only unusual thing about the new cults of Christians was that while they disclaimed being of the Jewish faith, they worshipped the Jewish tribal god, the God of Israel . The Christians seemed to be expanding the role of a god who had been concerned only with the Jews as his "Chosen People" to a God of the Universe, the Sun God . The Christians were not really different even in the central religious beliefs of the Africans and Jews of the period in sacrificing sheep, goats, bulls, (and sometimes humans) for the remission of sins . For, while the Christians had given up the slaughtering of animals for offerings, the very cornerstone of their faith was that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was sacrificed for the sins of man and that His blood was shed for this purpose alone . Drinking of the blood (wine) and eating of the body (bread) are all fundamental aspects of man's most ancient religion . The spread of Christianity in the land below the First Cataract gained momentum after the destruction of Ethiopia as an empire, and its world-famous capital, the city of Meroe . Such a decline and fall of a nation, empire or civilization is never as short or sudden as the date given for the event suggested, in this case, .350 (A.D.) . Many factors and forces operated over a long period of time before what can be called the "Great Age of Black Civilization" came to a close . How the black world was being adversely affected by both Asia and Europe may be better understood by a flashback to events following the[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 10:20pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]CHRISTIAN AFRICA Africa was naturally among the first areas to which Christianity spread . It was next door to Palestine, and from the earliest times there had been the closest relations between the Jews and the Blacks, both friendly and hostile . The exchange of pre-Christian religious concepts took place easily and, due to the residence of so many ancient Jewish leaders in Ethiopia -Abraham, Joseph and his brothers, Mary and Jesus . The great Lawgiver, Moses, was not only born in Africa but he was also married to the daughter of an African priest.4 The pathway for the early Christian church in the Land of the Blacks had been made smooth many centuries before . In a different work I suggested that a major reason why so many later Christian missionaries failed in Africa was because they were bringing refurbished religious doctrines that came from Africa in the first place . The religious belief in sacrifice for the remission of sins was an African belief and practice at least 2,000 years before Abraham . The results of a comparative study of the African, Jewish and Christian religions have amazed many who have undertaken the task . Practically all of the Ten Commandments were embedded in the African Constitution ages before Moses went up Mt . Sinai in Africa in 1491 B.C ., a rather late date in African history . We do not know how much significance should be read into the fact that Christianity began to spread in Ethiopia (Nubia or Cush) only after the destruction of the central Empire with the fall of Meroe . However, the most important development after the Empire passed was not the rise of Christianity, but the rise of the two Black states that picked up the mantle and staff of Ethiopia to carry on . These two states were Makuria and Alwa . ----------------------------------------------- Notes 4. Many accounts refer only to his marriage to the daughter of a Midianite priest . However, Aaron and his wife rebuked Moses for marrying a black woman .[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 9:57pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]to Napata and Meroe might lead those who do not look at the map to think that there were only two important cities in the land . Forgetting the names of ancient centers of importance was nothing compared to the tragedy of the Blacks in almost completely forgetting the very art of writing which they themselves invented! This was one of the most tragic losses, to repeat, that was ever suffered by a whole people . And in view of the anti-black course of subsequent history, the Blacks needed their written language and records more than any other people . Just how and why this people discontinued the use of writing has been set forth rather clearly and in some detail in the foregoing pages . However, the matter is of such transcendent importance that I hope some black scholar will devote an entire book detailing this one episode in the long history of Africans . The story would cover the periods of migrations and dispersions when writing was needless if not impossible, to the general loss of the art itself . I say "general loss" again because, of course, some African societies did not completely lose the art of writing even under conditions where its use seemed utterly futile . The most important fact to keep in mind, however, is that we are considering the early age when relatively few people could write, a small professional class, the scribes . All books, scrolls, inscriptions, letters, etc ., were written by them . Therefore, in any society where the scribes were either captured or, for whatever reason, disappeared, the art of writing in that society died . In view of the developments in Black Africa, the disappearance of writing is not a mystery at all . Conquest and domination tended to check migrations and bring a larger measure of iron-ruled stability to the invaded region . An integral part of that iron rule was the introduction of the conquerors' speech and writing, the first step in the process of conquering the soul and minds-of the Blacks along with their bodies . This was easy because the knowledge starved "key people" among the Blacks eagerly grasped Arabic, French, Portuguese, English, or German as the best route to status in a new civilization . Most of this developed later than the period we have been summarizing, the thousand years in Ethiopia after its last success in retaking Egypt and its defeat and withdrawal with the fall of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty . Here we speak of the period from sixth century B.C . to the fourth century of the Christian church in Ethiopia .[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 9:55pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]heartland and the scattering of groups all over Africa . They carried their knowledge of this great technological revolution wherever they went, and they began the use of iron and the development of iron industries wherever they had had the opportunity to settle in iron ore areas and remain settled long enough to create a stable society . This spread of ironworking from the cradle of black civilization is just another example of how other fundamental African institutions spread over the continent, north as well as south, and remained basically . unchanged down through the centuries, no matter how numerous were the groups into which the original society became fragmented or how countless were the various languages and dialects that resulted from that segmentation . There were, as a matter of course, many variations and modifications by different survival groups . The most remarkable of the facts was that even those groups that were pushed back into a state of barbarism still held on (God only knows how) to some of the basic institutions of the society from which they descended from one to two thousand years before . Neither Christian Europe or Muslim Asia were able to completely destroy those institutions, even in the vast regions over which both had supreme control . And this is why, in a previous discussion, I had suggested a smile of compassion when you read or hear about "Egyptian influence" on this or that black society because, in general, all that could possibly be meant is the "influence of early black civilization on subsequent black societies .'' The expansion of the iron culture, however, was a revolution in technology that ushered in a new age and gave new hope to a despairing people . It meant the use of new instruments of production in agriculture, and the industrial crafts, and, of great importance for a refugee people, for a new kind of military organization and defense . It can be seen, then, that the "Motherland of the Blacks," centered on the Nile around the cataracts, provided her wandering sons and daughters with the instruments of survival, a knowledge that still served them well centuries after the Arabs and Turks had overran that Motherland . The memory of many things had been lost, however . Who remembered Thebes, Napata, Memphis, Elephantine, Heracleopolis or Nekheb? Indeed, who remembered even Meroe, the most advanced center not only of the African age, but also of writing? And what of the other important towns and cities in Southern Ethiopia (Nubia-Cush), Musawarat, Nuri, Panopolis, Kerma, Assuan, Soleb, Abu Simbel, Kurusku, Samnah, Philae, Kawa, Dongola, etc? Our constant references[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 9:53pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]and Abyssinia was included, or how far westward the empire extended .3 All this is not so important as the point that during this period of triumph, world fame, fear, and an unprecedented prosperity from a flourishing trade with about one-half of the world, African rulers continued to neglect the updating of their military and naval defenses . Iron was the basis of the technological revolution in warfare . That the Assyrians, Hittites, Persians and other Asiatic nations were equipping their armies with new types of iron weapons, and that these were devastatingly more effective than stone and copper weapons had to be well-known to the Africans . It was not news . As was mentioned before, they not only knew about the use of iron but they had long since developed the iron smelting processes . The trouble was the highly secretive royal monopoly . No secret was more zealously guarded than the smelting of iron . This meant rigidly limited production . Here.was fear out-matching both reason and the most elementary common sense . This over-secretiveness which inhibited the expansion of iron production was to contribute mightily to the success of Assyrian arms over them . Prosperity, too, may have blurred the African's vision . Too much success can be dangerous . In this case so much wealth was piled up from foreign trade, especially in gold, ivory and copper, that the question of iron, if raised, may have been dismissed as "economically unsound ." Whatever the reasons were, the fact is that the great iron industries which had developed in this center, spreading over Africa, could have started centuries before . Even as early as 300 B.C ., when iron smelting was employed for more useful purposes than ornaments, the royal monopoly still prevented widespread use . That they knew of the importance of iron is shown by the fact that kings and high priests were often heads of the guild, and the chief iron master would often gain the status of what a Prime Minister is today . Regardless of the delay, iron smelting and tool-making got underway on a vast scale in Ethiopia at a most crucial period for Africa . Its center was Meroe, and it appears that the biggest iron works were in and around this capital city . This development was at a crucial period because it was the period of increasing migrations from the -------------------------------------------------------- Notes 3. This whole period of black achievement is minimized by writers who substitute Meroe, the city, for Ethiopia, the empire . Ethiopian writing then becomes "some Meroetic inscriptions," etc .[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 9:50pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]and from every direction ; and who fought on and on through the centuries, against the forces of man and nature until they, themselves, were completely overwhelmed . Three thousand years ago the desert, while slowly moving in on Africa, had not advanced to where it is today . There was more arable land in Ethiopia, although its agriculture did not match that of the rich delta region of Egypt . The Blacks were, however, mainly agriculturists like other Africans . Even with their remarkable industrial development, farming went on on both sides where the "two Niles" met in their land before continuing as one great river through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea . Nor should the importance of the Atbara river be overlooked . Even though the surrounding deserts were a problem insofar as agricultural expansion was desired, the more immediate problem was famine from drought . There were years during which no rain fell at all and not a hopeful cloud appeared in the sky . The Afrians met the challenge by constructing a national system of reservoirs . These were strategically located around the capital, at Musawarat, Naga, Hordan, Umm, Usuda, in the Gezira region, at Duanib, Basa, and doubtlessly at other sites not yet excavated . This master plan to defeat drought and famine by a system of reservoirs was more important than all of the architectural art that found expression in their beautiful statues, temples, palaces, columns and pyramids . The reservoirs were more significant than the monuments, important as these were in hiding the black man's intellectual achievements in the invention of writing deep under the sands . I rate the reservoirs as the supreme achievement because they reflect the real measure of African man as he met the challenge to survival head-on, with a constructive counter-attack against the adverse forces of earth, sun and sky . The irrigation system, made reasonably effective with their oxen-powered wheels, was a part of this challenge to adverse circumstances . ** Piankhi, following Kashta in 720 B.C ., began what was quickly to become again one of the greatest world powers of the time . Ethiopia was united with Afro-Asian Egypt under a single imperial rule that extended from the Mediterranean in the north to an undefined boundary in the south. Also unknown was how far its eastern boundary extended southward along the Indian Ocean coastland, how much of Uganda[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 9:45pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]still believes, teaches and proclaims that the black man had never developed a civilization of his own? It has been noted that the attractions of Ethiopia, "The Land of the Gods," were great not only because the Egyptians regarded it as the main source of their religion, but also because of its socio-political, economic and strategic importance . When African kings reconquered Egypt and became "Egyptian" pharaohs, they still longed for the motherland to the south, desiring to unite the whole of it with Egypt into one vast empire . They would often retire there, some wanting their final resting place to be in a pyramid below the First Cataract . To the south rested their ancestors whose company they were to join . Here was the capital city of both the black man's world and that of his heaven as well, the Holy City of Napata . During the different periods in which Napata came under a foreign yoke, the capital city of Meroe had to become somewhat holy in its own right, and many of the kings, queens, and other leaders were buried in pyramids there . These were constructed of stone outside of the city proper, sometimes at a visible distance of two or more miles . They were built to stand forever, an attempt that stemmed from the African's actual belief in immortality . This is why their faith included the natural assumption that those who had passed on, their ancestors, were living in the "Great Beyond," and were, therefore, in the most favorable position to represent the interests of their kinsmen below ; or, in short, to serve as mediators between God and man . The pyramids ringing the city not only added to the physical beauty of the surroundings, but they were also the silent sentinels, the ever watchful ancestral presence from which might come either a benediction or a curse . Earlier, you may recall, I was unsparing in my criticism of those African societies which seemed to be governed by fatalism and failed to counterattack against their natural and human enemies. As I read the record, it' seemed to me that these groups did not try to meet the awful challenges which confronted them . They gave up too readily and refused to ignore tribal lines or to unite for common survival strategies . They remained scattered here and there, like hunted animals, moving into barbarism and savagery . Such were my strictures and, obviously, I did not give the whole story, even about these groups . Now, however, and by a glorious contrast, we are in the midst of Blacks, the core group of all Africa, who met the challenge on all fronts[/b] |
| Politics › Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(op): 9:39pm On Feb 24, 2012 |
[b]THE DEVELOPMENT OF WRITING A distinguished line of leaders followed Tanutamon to the throne in 653 B.C., Atlanersa, Senkamanseken, Anlaman, Aspalta, Amtalka and Malenakan-palace, temple, and pyramid builders all . Two of the greatest temples were built by King Aspalta at Meroe : the Sun Temple and the Temple of Amon .2 The imposing pyramids and rows of huge royal statues added to the majesty and magnificence of Meroe . The royal tombs, as in Egypt, were the repositories of the nation's history . From them archaeologists were able to determine a line of forty-one rulers after the conquest of Lower Nubia . These monuments were not only sources of early African history from within but, of the highest impottance, they were elaborately decorated outside with both the first form of writing, hieroglyphics, and the more advanced African inscriptions in their own invented writing . For the Africans themselves had invented writing, and all attempts to connect this ancient achievement with Egyptian or Asiatic influence have failed . Here the "external influence" school has suffered a major defeat, because the written records found on statues, altars, tombstones, graffiti, etc ., were so distinctly African that their native origin could not be successfully disputed . Moreover, the African system of writing was very different from the Egyptian . It was simpler and had vowels, whereas Egyptian had none . There were twenty-three characters or letters in the African alphabet, four vowel signs, seventeen consonants, and two signs of the syllable . New concepts and new or special words could be easily introduced by the old picture system . Clarity and easy reading was assured by measured spacing between words . A system of numerical symbols for mathematics was developed . The African inscriptions on monuments and such records as those found in royal tombs were in a special category . General writing was done on tablets ofwood and skins prepared for that purpose . Such things as rocks, walls, vases and broken bits and pieces of earthenware comprised other artifacts where ancient African writing was found . Again, how and why did all this disappear? How and why was it blotted out or hidden so completely for two thousand years that an ignorant world, with unprecedented research facilities in its universities, --------------------------------------------------- Notes 2 . It is believed that the temple to Amon was not completed during Aspalta's lifetime but by his successors .[/b] |
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