Black History Month in the US is important in its recognition of African-American achievements in the US since 1492. Yet, the celebration of Black History Month has been limited to three basic events in Black American history. That is the period of slavery and what some of our ancestors endured during slavery and our fight for freedom and acceptance by the ruling majority.
Hence, celebrating Black history has been limited to celebrating the days of slavery and celebrating the 'first Black' person to be allowed in some aspect of the majority society or celebrating the first Black person to accomplish a position that was long denied. These may include recognizing the first Blacks to be made Congressmen during the Reconstruction or the scientists like George W Carver or the first Black person to become a millionaire through hard work, invention, ingenuity and good planning such as Madame CJ Walker, the inventor and creator of many beauty products for Black and other women.
Although it is crucial that we know our history in the United States and the Americas during slavery and up to the present date. We were not created during slavery nor did we spring out of the Atlantic without a history, culture or heritage. Our history began in Africa tens of thousands of years before the Ice Age. In fact, it has been found that by 100,000 BC to 70,000 BC, Africans in the Semlike River Valley of Congo (Zaire) were creating sophisticated tools of stone and bone. In the Blombos Caves of South Africa, the first evidence of etchings was found on a block of red ocre dated about 70,000 to 100,000 years old. In that same cave, the first evidence of jewelry was found to be over 50,000 years old.
At these periods, Africans were undertaking some of the most important journeys in history by land and by sea. Many voyaged to the Middle East, India, Central Asia, Melanesia, Australia, East Asia and later on by about 30,000 BC, some made it to the Americas through the Asia route and through the Atlantic route. The evidence for a possible sea journey of Africans to the Americas is based on two facts of ancient African history.
One is the presence of a prehistoric maritime culture in the present-day 'dry' Sahara which was 'wet' and filled with a gigantic inland sea about 30,000 years ago. The second is the fact that the African/Black cultures that existed in the landed regions of the 'wet' lake-filled Sahara migrated to India, the Americas, SE Asia, Japan, Melanesia and Australia as early as 100,000 BC to as recently as 2000 BC.
In fact, Africoid/Black peoples in Papua, India, Melanesia, (see, "The Black Untouchables of India," by VT Rajshekar) have admitted that their ancestors originated in Africa and settled Asia as the first humans there. (See, "Susu Economics: The History of Pan-African Trade, Commerce, Money and Wealth," and "A History of the African-Olmecs," both by P.A. Barton, published by AuthorHouse, 1663 Liberty Drive, Suite 200, Bloomington, Indiana 47403 USA www.AuthorHouse.com)
BLACK MATERIAL HISTORY AND CIVILIZATION
The earliest beginnings of Black civilization began not in Egypt or Nubia but in the Dafur Region of Sudan. This region contained some of the earliest evidence of settled human communities on earth and was part of a prehistoric Sahara civilization called the Aquatic Civilization. The Aquatic civilization was the first on earth to produce various arts and crafts, ship building of papyrus and many cultural traits later found in Egypt including mummyfication.
As the Sahara dried out, a number of African people speaking the Manding super language began migrating to Egypt, Central and Southern Africa, the Americas, India, Mesopotamia, the Indian Ocean Islands, China, Australia. These migrations occurred later on in human history between 30,000 BC to 2,000 BC when African culture was well established and was being spread out from Africa to other parts of the world.
The civilizations produced by the Mother Civilization of the Sahara continued to exist after the Sahara dried and turned to desert. This culture reestablished itself in the Sahara Crescent where the plateau was higher and more hospitable for the flourishing of culture. (See 'Sahara Crescent," Clyde Winters writings).
Black Civilizations of Africa, Asia, the Americas, Middle East, Europe.
Black civilization and culture actually began to develop further during the Ice Age and not merely during the time of Ta-Seti/Nubia about 10,000 years ago (see Time Magazine, "Oldest Civilization in Nubia..3000 years older than Egypt,"). During the Ice Age when much of Europe was covered in ice, snow and was similar in climate to the Arctic, Africa and Southern India were in the warm, hospitable zones of the earth. In these places, particularly the Sahara and the lowlands of Southern India now covered by sea, evidence of sunken cities or ancient cultures have been found dating to about 10,000 to 20,000 years old.
The oldest culture in the Nile Valley was Ta-Seti (Nubia-Kush). It was from that region that culture, people and the famous red-black pottery of the Kushite peoples of Africa spread to India and other parts of the world. The Kushites and Manding-Kushites established ancient colonies in the Indian Ocean region, throughout East and West Africa and in the Americas.
Black civilizations were established in South Arabia, India, Cambodia, Thailand, South China and these civilizations were among the oldest in the regions, (see, "Susu Economics," pub. by AuthorHouse). Today, few traces are fond although, these traces continue to exist of the ancient Blacks of Southern China or Japan. What happened to these ancient blacks of East Asia for it seems they have been blended out of existence through violence, intermarriage and being overwhelmed by others. The plight of these Blacks is important to Black history in the United States because it warns us of what we must do and must avoid in order to make sure we are not pushed aside and made to disappear due to the self-hating behavior of some of us, or the genocidal policies of others.
THE JOURNEY OF MANDINGA KING MECI TO THE AMERICAS
According to the writings of Sahagun, a Spanish Monk who studied and translated the works of the Maya Indians of Mexico, ancient Africans arrived in Mexico thousands of years ago from the Atlantic region. They were led by a Black African called Meci who led a fleet of eight Ships. Meci is said to have established African language, religion and culture in Mexico and settled the southern region of Mexico between Yucatan and Mexico City.
This region was the domain of the Olmecs, a mysterious people who are now agreed to have included Africans based on a number of facts found about them. These facts include the hundreds of terracota pottery and collosal stone heads showing Negro/Africoid features. The other evidence includes various African skeletons found at sites created by the Olmecs and remains of the Manding alphabet found on monuments at Monte Alban in Mexico. Furthermore, it is now believed that the story of Kukulkan was actually the story of Meci, who was Black Africa from the Manding regions of West Africa rather than a 'white' God (Quetzalcoatl) as was wrongly translated by the Spaniards. (See, "A History of the African-Olmecs," pub. by AuthorHouse )
Since a significant proportion of African Americans are of the Manding groups of West Africa, it is only proper and important that it be known that West Africans from the Manding people arrived in the Americas and established culture from Mexico to the Southern US and Caribbean over 3000 years ago.
Black History in the United States is also very ancient. The first Blacks in the US did not arrive on slave ships. Blacks were well established in the Mississippi Valley and the Southern United States long before the Europeans landed at Watling Island in the Bahamas in 1492. These pre-Columbian Blacks included the Black Californians, the Jamassee of the Georgia Region and the Black Waschitaw or Washo of the Mississippi Valley. The Black Waschitaw are said to have been ancient Africans who established a base for seafaring and trade in the Mississippi River Valley, the Louisiana region and the Gulf of Mexico. The Waschitaw were primarily Black Africans and the were engaged primarily in agriculture, boat building, sea faring and trading.
The Black Californians are a fact of American history as well. The book by JA Rogers, "Africa's Gift to America" and one volume of the book "Sex and Race," has a photograph of one of the Black Californian warriors who fought in the long war between the Spanish, Spanish-Mexicans and white settlers in California. These Blacks were the original inhabitants of California and owned a large section of California before the Spaniards arrived. They were also the last groups of indigenous people to fight the white settlers in the US. (See more from the book, "A History of the African-Olmecs: Black Civilizations of America from Prehistoric Times to the Present Era," pub. by AuthorHouse, 1663 Liberty Drive, Suite 200, Bloomington, Indiana 47403 USA.
So we see that Blacks have a long history in the Americas before 1492. In fact, it may shock some to realize that the first slaves brought to North America were Africans who lived in South America. These Africans had been in the region before Columbus and it was common knowledge that they were known as 'Ethiopians' or "Moors," and the order was given by the Church to "enslave descendents of Ham," found in the new lands (see 'They Came Before Columbus," by Ivan Van Sertima, Random House).
BLACK HISTORY, SETTLEMENT AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN THE AMERICAS IS THOUSANDS OF YEARS OLD
In this period in our history, the study of Black History Month must and should be widened. It is callous to celebrate Black History Month and omit the 30,000 years of Black settlement in the Americas and pass over it as if it is not important. In that regard, findings in Brazil indicate that Africoid and Negro-Australoid peoples existed in North-Eastern Brazil and most likely other parts of the Americas as early as 30,000 years Negroid/Black peoples arrived in the Americas from across the Atlantic and from the Pacific route about 30,000 years ago or earlier. This possibility is accepted by Brazilian scientists. In fact it was discussed in National Geographic Magazine, "The Peopling of America," some years ago. This issue was also brought out in Scientific American Magazine.
Cultural traits, racial similarities in sculpture, languages and alphabets and food or plant types found in the Americas and known to be of pre-Columbian origins are solid pieces of evidence for a pre-Columbian Black presence in the Americas. In the area of food and other plant crops, cotton of African origins has been found in the Americas. The sample found was brought to the Americas about 4000 BC (see 'They Came Before Columbus," by Ivan Van Sertima," also see, "The Black Discovery of America," by Michael Bradley). Crops like plantains, tobacco, types of sweet potato, peanuts, corn are also suspected to have been trading goods between the American Indians and Africans and between the Americas and Africa before the time of Columbus.
In retrospect, the time has come to recognize the totality of Black history in the Americas and the rest of the world. Would people of English descent in the Americas only study their colonization of America without studying the makings of the British Empire and politics? Would the Chinese and Japanese only study the fact of Chinese slavery in China, or the Chinese work gangs in the building of the railroad and forget about the three thousand years of Chinese history?
Why then do we omit the most important aspects of Black history and culture created for thousands of years before the 500 years we have been the Americas as slaves and colonized subjects. Who will be brave enough to do the research and the history movies, documentaries and teaching of the history of Black Americans ancestors in Africa, the Americas before Columbus and the Americas after Columbus.
When will we stop isolating ourselves and begin working as a global Black community whose histories are all connected? Now is the time to do so and it is our duty to take the task at hand. If we are going to prepare the present generation of Black youth for a bright future and not prepare them to be numbers and residents of camps, we must teach them about slavery and our struggle in the Americas, but we must also teach them about the successful Black revolutions against slavery in Haiti and Brazil, the accomplishments of our ancestors in West Africa's urban civilizations and our history over the many centuries and thousands of years before the corruption and invasions that led to our downfall, enslavement and degradation.
MORE AFRO-CENTRIC HISTORY AND CULTURE IS NEEDED
Any person who has a good sense and knowledge of self is less likely to contribute to his or her own demise based on his or her negative and detrimental behavior and actions. To many of our youth are self-destructive because those who prefer Blacks to be slave-like have attacked and continue to attack any attempt to teach Black history that does not concentrate on slavery. These people criticize 'Afro-centric" history while at the same time they have been teaching 'beliefs' as fact. It is these same beliefs that has led to the mentality and the policies that led to our enslavement. It takes a knowledge of history to know this fact.
The return and development of a strong and powerful Afro centric history and cultural movement is one of the most effective ways of turning around Black youth in America today. Black history should be taught and along with Black history as it occurred in Africa, the history of Blacks from prehistoric and ancient times in the Americas as well as India, SE Asia and elsewhere should also be taught in a factual manner.
The need to know one's history, culture, identity and to have strong solidarity with members of one's family and people is crucial to one's survival. The idea that we are 'individuals' and should stand alone as 'individuals' in the wilderness of racism is dangerous and foolhardy. The myth of 'individualism' is nothing but a myth. When it comes to oppressing Blacks in parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, Australia and elsewhere, the oppressors work as groups, not merely as individuals.
Their strength is gained and their policies are implemented and established as groups. Hence, when they start talking against 'group' identity, they are actually using trickery to destroy the group power, strength and cohesiveness that is needed to fight and defeat thier anti-human agenda. Therefore, the teaching of Black history and culture to Black youth and adults and the attitude of 'keeping it real," or sticking together in unity and harmony is greatly needed. It is much better to be strong, and united as a group, than allowing the group to be infiltrated, blended out, socially corrupted, mixed out of existence, aborted out of existence, confined out of site, dehumanized and destroyed.
Our objectives as Blacks should be to learn and study our history so we never forget how to create, produce, survive and thrive. The present lack of ability of some Black youth to create great music as we did in the sixties or to disrespect elders, or behave unruly, or for young girls to behave like thugs is an example of what happens when a people forget their history and culture and forget the traditional means of self-respect that are important to a cultures' continued survival and existence.
