Knowing Black History And Culture Can Help Build The Confidence Needed
To Initiate Progress
Some of the most powerful and culturally rich nations and peoples on
this earth have one thing in common. They think of themselves and their
cultures as being of the unmost importance. One will find this attitude
among Anglo-Americans, Latins, Chinese, Arabs, Japanese, Europeans,
Jews, Nigerians, Zulus, Afro-Brazilians, Caribbeans, East Indians and
many others.
The desire to know one's history and preserve one's culture is strong
among many nationalities and peoples. In fact, people around the world
have gone to war in order to preserve their language, culture and
identity.
Knowing this fact, we must remind ouselves of the importance as Blacks
in America to continue the cultural renaissance began in the sixties by
returning to the good aspects of Black culture, learning the history of
Black cultures and civilizations in the Americas, Africa and around the
world and using the preservation and application of cultural assets as a
way to iinstill pride and continuity into Black people.
As we approach Black History Month in February (October in England), we
must begin to look at these aspects of Black/African culture that needs
to be revived or constantly improved. These areas include the glorious
history of Blacks all over the world, the preservation of Black cultural
traditions and using Black culture to build a strong and much better
Black America and Black world.
STUDYING AND KNOWING BLACK HISTORY
The knowledge of a people of their history is of crucial importance to a
variety of aspects of their being. It reminds them of their
accomplishments and contributions that occurred in ages past. It helps
them maintain good cultural traditions when a tragedy or historical
amnesia pushes them into a period of regression, and it helps build in
them a feeling of pride, of who they are and of where they are going.
One of the most devastating policies used on Blacks by religious
colonialists and slave masters whether in India, North Africa, North
America or Latin America, was the deliberate mythologizing of Black
history in India, the keeping out of Black accomplishments in parts of
North Africa and the Middle East, and the outright refusal to educate
Blacks in the slave system of the Americas. All these policies were
geared to keep Blacks from knowing that they were once people who made
great contributions to humanity. In fact, slavemasters used the very
same techniques to miseducate Blacks in slave era (and even today's)
America, that the British used against the Irish, in order to remove any
knowledge among the oppressed of who they are and who they were.
THE HISTORY OF BLACKS INCLUDES PREHISTORIC AMERICA
Here is one of the primary reasons why Blacks and Irish were
deliberately miseducated or not educated and continue to be miseducated
to this day. IT IS A MATTER OF LAND, WHO WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE ON LANDS
TAKEN OVER BY THE BRITISH AND WHO HAS CALIMS TO THESE LANDS STILL.
Slavery was not the only catalyst that led to the settlment of Blacks in
the Americas. Blacks were in the United States, Mexico, South America
and the Caribbean for thousands of years before Columbus. In fact,
according to some sources, Black slaves were being kidnapped on the
coast of South America as well as in the Southern United States before
and after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
They were also being kidnapped and enslaved in California and in the
Mississippi Valley.
Various Black nations lived in the Americas before Columbus according I.
Rafinesque "The Primitive Black Nations of America," (Atlantic Journal
and Friend Knowledge; Philadelphia; 1832/1833: p. 86.). Among others
were the Olmecs or Xi (Shee) People of Mexico, who were found to be of
Mende, West African origins. Others include the Washitaw Nation who
still exists as a soverign "nation within a nation" in the
Louisiana/Mississippi region of the Southern U.S. The Jamasse Nation of
Gerogia is another whose lands were taken. The Black Californian of
Queen Calafia fame (the amazon queen represented on the Seal of the
State of California) are also another group of Blacks whose lands were
stolen and their people enslaved by the Spanish and Anglos in
California.
When one looks at the facts above, and the fact that Blacks have a claim
to about one third of the United States and that the English
colonialists, the French and Spanish knew very well that Black lands
were stolen and there were Black people living in the United States of
African racial background who owned these lands, then one sees why THIS
HISTORY AND THE CONSPIRACY TO KEEP BLACKS UNEDUCATED WAS VERY STRONG.
Apart from this aspect of history, the history of Blacks as creators of
civilizations and the first inhabitants of lands in all the continents
is one that is coming to light more and more. In fact both Scientific
American (September, 2000) and National Geographic (November/December
2000) presented data that proves there were Blacks in the Americas
before anyone else.
The history of Black civilization and how the spread of Black culture
influenced the world should be of utmost importance to Blacks in America
and the rest of the world. Knowing this history is important at a time
when globalization is occurring and alliance are being formed. IT WOULD
FACINATE SOME OF US TO FIND OUT THAT IN ANCIENT TIMES, AFRICAN
GLOBALIZATION AND AFRICAN ECONOMIC MONOPOLIES DOMINATED THE ENTIRE WORLD
UNTILL THE ASSYRIAN ASSENDANCY TO POWER ABOUT 700 B.C., WITH THE DEFEAT
OF NUBIA.
See the book, Susu Economics The History of Pan-African Trade, Commerce,
Money and Wealth (ISBN# 1-58721-454-7) 2511 West Third Street, Suite 1;
Bloomington, Indiana 47404 www.1stbooks.com email;
1stbooks@1stbooks.com 1(800)839-8640
1(812) 339-6000.
PRESERVATION OF BLACK CULTURE
Culture is very important to the to the preservation of a nation and
people. In the case of Black people in the U.S. and worldwide, it is
essential that steps be taken to preserve Black/African languages,
culture, art, music, traditions and all aspects of culture. Many of the
problems faced by Blacks in America, Latin America and other parts of
the world can be alleviated if there is a return to the fine aspects of
traditional Black and African culture. Those things that helped
maintain and keep Black civilizations intact such as lore, taboo, rites,
respect for elders, education, strong family structure, patriarchal and
matrilineal systems and other cultural resources must be preserved or
revived in order to maintain continuity and stop the steady degredation
of the existence of Blacks in parts of the world today.
USING BLACK CULTURE TO REBUILD BLACK NATIONS
Black culture should be revived. For example, Black people in Sudan and
parts of East Africa including Egypt should bring about a renaissance.
The history and culture of Blacks in that region is the parent of
culture and civilization throughout the world. If Blacks in Egypt,
Nubia and Mesopotamia had not given the world science and technology, we
would be in a state of backwardness today. Yet, the great irony is that
the Blacks of Sudan, Nubians and others are suffering from the racist
and sanctified racism of the Semites, while the Black Untouchables of
India who are descendants of Africans, responsible for spreading Kushite
civilization to the East, are today at the lowest level of human
existance on earth.
A world Black renaissance reviving the cultures of these various groups
of Blacks worldwide will be of tremendous help to rising Blacks all over
the world from the burden of oppression, underdevelopment and lack of
accomplishment felt by many Blacks due to the constant and pervasive
oppression coming from all sides, including from other Blacks. (See the
essay, The Coming Black Renaissance;
http://community.webtv.net/paulnubiaempire )
In retrospect, a new agenda is crucial to the development of Black
people in the United States and the world. Our very salvation and our
continued existance depends on using the positive aspects of Black
culture, the knowledge of Black/African history and the application of
beneficial Black/African cultural gifts as a means of building strong
and progressing Black nations in the Americas and around the world.
Recommended Reading:
¨ Echoes of the Old Darkland -Charles S Finch
¨ Ancient Egypt the Light of the World - [2 vols.] Gerald Massey
¨ Gerald Massey's Lectures - Gerald Massey
¨ African origins of the Major "Western" Religions - Yosef ben-Jochannan
¨ Black man of the Nile and His Family - Yosef ben-Jochannan
¨ African origins of the Major World's Religions - Amon Sakaana [Ed]
¨ Civilisation or Barbarism - Cheikh Anta Diop
¨ African Origins of Civilisation: Myth or Reality? - Cheikh Anta Diop
¨ Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth - John Jackson
¨ Man, God & Civilisation - John Jackson
¨ Pagan and Christian Creeds - Edward Carpenter
¨ World's 16 Crucified Saviours - Kersey Greaves
¨ The Passover Plot - Hugh Schonfield
¨ African Presence in Early Europe - Ivan Van Sertima
¨ African Presence in Early Asia - Runuko Rashidi, Ivan Van Sertima
¨ Egypt Revisited - Ivan Van Sertima
¨ Rituals of Power and Rebellion - Hollis Liverpool
¨ Who is this King of Glory? - Alvin Boyd Kuhn
¨ Forgery in Christianity - Joseph Wheless
¨ The Dark Side of Christian History - Helen Ellerbie
¨ Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets - Barbara G Walker
¨ Sex and Race [vol. 1] - J A Rogers
¨ When God was a Woman - Merlin Stone
¨ Gods of the Egyptians - Sir E A Wallis-Budge
¨ From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt - E A Wallis-Budge
¨ Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Papyrus of Ani - E A Wallis-Budge
¨ The Golden Bough [13 vols.] - James Frazer
¨ Black Athena [vol. 1] - Martin Bernal
Homepage / Historical Views / European History / More Books
^^ Back to top
|
