Black History Heroes

Science and Technology: African Inventors in the Americas

2013-02-24T18:38:00.003-08:00

Photo of inventor Jan Ernst Matzeliger
(September 15, 1852 – August 24, 1889)

We learn very little about inventors of African descent. The inventors highlighted here include different types of inventors: independent, corporate and government inventors from the Americas. Many of the inventions involved agricultural and food preparation processes. The drive to make the food production process more efficient after the abolition of slavery in the Americas was not lost on these innovators.

Jan Ernst Matzeliger was born in Paramaribo, Suriname (then Dutch Guyana). Matzeliger's mother was an Afrian born woman into the Dutch slave society of Dutch Guyana. His father was a wealthy Dutch engineer. Matzeliger came to the United States and settled into the New England region where he developed the shoe-lasting machine invention that assembled the upper shoe to the sole, receiving U.S. Patent No. 459,899 on September 22, 1891 -- an innovation that greatly increased efficiency in the shoe production process. Additional U.S. patents received by Matzeliger include the following:

274,207, 3/20/1883, Automatic method for lasting shoe
421,954, 2/25/1890, Nailing machine
423,937, 3/25/1890, Tack separating and distributing mechanism
415,726, 11/26/1899, Mechanism for distributing tacks, nails, etc.

Image: Patent image of Norbert Rillieux's “Improvement in Sugar Works.”
Courtesy of National Archives and Records

Norbert Rillieux was born into privilege in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of a wealthy Creole mother and a white father who was an engineer. Rillieux and his brother were educated in France. By 1830, Rillieux was teaching applied mechanics at the École Centrale in Paris. When Rillieux returned to Louisiana, there was a growing demand to replace the dangerous "Jamaica Train" sugar manufacturing process. Rillieux developed a steam-driven process for making the sweet grainy substance. His U.S. patents include the following:

3,237, 8/26/1843, Improvement in sugar works
4,879, 12/10/1846, Sugar processing evaporator

Shelby J. Davidson was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1868 and graduated from Howard University and would read law and become admitted into the DC bar and Kentucky bar. Davidson became a government inventor and worked with the United States Treasury Department where he invented adding machine automations that increased the postal division's efficiency. Davidson received U.S. Patent No. 884,721 on April 14, 1908 for what is described as a paper-rewind mechanism for adding machines. In 1912, Davidson resigned with the government amid disputes arising from Davidson's rights to the adding machine. He practiced law and entered into the real estate market.

Alexander P. Ashbourne received patent no. 170,460 for designing a unique biscuit cutter on November 30, 1875. Ashbourne's cookie cutter innovated on the variety of shapes available for biscuits, cakes or cookies. The invention involved a plate, roller and springs system whereby the cutters presses down on the dough or batter into optional shapes. Ashbourne also obtained U.S. patents for various agricultural related patents described below:

163,962 (1875), Process for preparing coconut for domestic use
194,287 (1877), Process of treating coconut 1877, no.
230,518 (1880), Refining coconut oil

Drawing of Inventor Granville T. Woods

Granville T. Woods focused his innovation in the area of railway electronic communication systems. On June 3, 1884, Woods received his first patent. This was for an improved steam-boiler furnace, U.S. Patent No. 299,894. Subsequently, Alexander Graham Bell's company would purchase the rights to his telegraphony patent, a device that allowed a telegraph station to send voice and telegraph messages over a single wire. The relationship with the Bell company enabled Woods to become a full-time inventor. Woods would go on to receive a patent for an automatic air brake, which is used to slow and stop trains.

John Standard obtained U.S. Patent No. 455,891. Born July 1891, John Standard was born in New Jersey. He improved on the original icebox by putting cold air-ducts or holds in special areas to help the air circulate within the icebox in order to keep foods fresher. His invention also provided a special place to keep the drinking water and other drinks separate from the food. This avoided liquids picking up the flavors and smells of other foods.

Photo of inventor Lewis H. Latimer

As a teenager, Lewis H. Latimer received an opportunity to work for the Boston patent firm Crosby, Halstead & Gould. He worked his way up to chief patent drawing draftsman where he began drafting for Alexander Graham Bell's patent application for the telephone. In 1874, Latimer secured his first patent for an "improvement in water-closet for railroad-cars". He moved from Boston area to Connecticut where he joined the United States Electric Lighting Company, working on electric lighting innovations while he worked on his owned lamp designs. He would later join Thomas Edison's company, which would become General Electric, and become a member of the legal department.

On February 17, 1891, Albert C. Richardson received Patent 446,470 for his innovations in the food production, particularly improved churning processes. The American churn was traditionally a wooden appliance for making butter from cream skimmed from law milk. It was shaped like a barrel with a long wooden stick coming through a hole in the center top. Richardson's improvements included installing glass panels on both sides of the churn to see the butter. This helped preps determine whether it was ready. He also included a plate inside the churn for the butter to be placed for easier removal. Richardson's U.S. patents include the following:

255,022, 3/14/1882, Hame fastener
446,470, 2/17/1891, Churn
529,311, 11/13/1894, Casket-lowering device
620,362, 2/28/1899, Insect destroyer
638,811, 12/12/1899, Bottle

Judy W. Reed 1884 patent for dough kneading

Judy W. Reed received U.S. Patent No. 305,474, received September 23, 1884, for a hand-operated dough kneader and roller that allowed for improved mixing that was more evenly distributed when processed through the rollers with corrugated slates. Little is written about Reed's life, but she has garnered the title of being the first African-American woman to receive a U.S. patent.

Joseph Lee received U.S. Patent No. 524,042 for a kneading machine invention on August 7, 1894. Lee's time saving invention mixed and kneaded the dough and also replaced the need to hand roll dough.

Robert P. Scott invented the corn silker and obtained U.S. Patent No. 524,223 on August 7, 1894. Corn silk is the silk-like thread fibers on the inside of the green husks removed from corn-on-the-cob. Removing corn silk proved both time consuming and difficult. The R.P. Scott Corn Silker helped to make this process faster and more efficient.

John T. White obtained U.S. Patent No. 572,849 on December 8, 1896 for the first commercial lemon squeezer.White's invention made it easier to squeeze all of the juice out of a lemon. It also separated the seeds and pulp from the juice, and prevented squirting.

African-American inventor: Lloyd Ray dustpan

Lloyd P. Ray received U.S. Patent No. 587,607 on August 3, 1897 for a new and useful improvement in dust pans. Ray's device included a metal collection plate that trash could be swept into, attached to a short wooden handle.

Alfred L. Cralle received U.S. Patent No. 576,395 on February 2, 1897 for an ice cream mold and ice cream scooper (disher). This made serving ice cream in perfect round portions to fit on cones.

Elbert R. Robinson received U.S. Patent Nos. 505,370, September 19, 1893, electric railway trolley and 594,286, November 23, 1897, casting composite or other car wheels.

FURTHER RESOURCES: Ohio State University's Knowledge Bank: African American Patent Holders Database

African Kingdoms: Medieval Warfare Between Ghana and Mali Empires

2013-02-09T15:18:00.001-08:00

In 1230 C.E., the western Africa Ghana Empire fell under the warfare leadership of Sundiata Keita that led to the rise of the Mali Empire in West Africa.

According to the Epic of Sundiata, the national epic poem of the Mali Empire (also referenced as Mandinka, Manding Empire, Manden Kurufa, Mandingo people, Mande language), the Mali federation of nation-states included nearly all of the land between the Sahara Desert to the coastal borders of the modern day nations of Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal. The Mali Empire would control most of west Africa for two centuries.

Sundiata Keita's Medieval Warfare in West Africa

Sundiata Keita, also known as Sogolon Djata or Mansa Sundiata, was from the Keita clan and born in the village of Niani near the modern day borders of Mali and north-east Guinea. The loosely federated Mandinka kingdoms were ruled by the medieval Ghana Empire (cir. 790 C.E., also known as the Wagadou Empire) under King Soumaoro Kanté during Sundiata’s youth. The modern country of Ghana shares no territory with the medieval Ghana Empire, though some of its inhabitants claim ancestral lineage with the inhabitants of the mediæval empire.

Mandika Kingdom-States Battle the Ghana Empire

Sundiata devoted his life to the overthrow of the Ghana Empire and was exiled after waging war against the medieval Ghana Empire by mobilizing the loosely federated Mandinka kingdom-states. In 1230 C.E., Sundiata led a rebellion against King Soumaba Cisse from the then Kangaba kingdom-state in the souther-western region of the modern day Mali nation's Koulikoro Region. Kangaba was then an important gold mining region among the Mandinka kingdom-states.

The Battle of Kirina near the Koulikoro Mountains of Bamako, Mali

In 1235 C.E., Ghana Empire forces were led by the Sosso region king Soumaoro Kanté, also known in historical accounts as Sumanguru Kanté. Soumaoro converged at the Koulikoro Region of modern day Bamako, Mali in an important battle with the Mandinka forces. The historic African military Battle of Kirina is cited by historians as the final defeat of the mediæval Ghana Empire. Military legend provides that Soumaoro was not killed but disappeared into the Koulikoro mountains of Bamako.

Sundiata was crowned Mansa or "King of Kings.” His three sons succeeded him to the throne of the Mali Empire: Mansa Khalifa Keita, Ouati Keita and Wali Keita. The famous tales of Mansa Musa (b. 1307 C.E.), the son of Sundiata's brother Abu-Bakr, chronicles his travels and trade to distant lands in East Africa and the Middle East. While part of the royal kingdom family of the Mali Empire, Mansa Musa's grandfather Abu-Bakr and father Faga Laya did not ascend the Mali Empire throne as Mansas.

Mansa Musa Rules Mali Empire and Travels to Mecca

According to Ibn-Khaldun's history of the Malian kings, Mansa Musa’s legendary caravan across Africa from Timbuktu to Mecca occurred in 1324 C.E. The historical accounts provide that Mansa Musa traveled with a band of 60,000 people; 12,000 slaves; 500 workers; 300 pounds of gold; and the nation’s foremost poets, artists, and scholars.

While the year of Mansa Musa's death is debated among modern historians, his reign is generally thought to have lasted about 25 years. The recorded rule of Mansa Musa’s son Mansa Maghan was from 1332 to 1336 C.E.. Mansa Suleyman, Mansa Musa’s older brother, ruled the Mali Empire from 1336 to 1360 C.E..

Further reading:

“The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Century Kings of Mali,” by N. Levtzion, The Journal of African History, Vol. 4, No. 3. (1963).

42 Laws of Maat Under Kemet Law and Goddess Maat

2013-02-09T15:02:00.000-08:00

Maat was the rule of law and moral justice among the ancient Kemet people, and the divine cosmological order within their mythology, astronomy, and astrophysical studies.

Kemet is the name the native African people of the country now known as Egypt called themselves in their surviving writings. Many scholars refer to the people as "kmt" or Kemet. The surviving artifacts of the Kemet viziers and scribes evidence that Kemet rule of law was “Maat,” contained at least in part in observing the 42 Laws of Maat.

The Goddess Maat as the Cosmological Origin of Kemet Rule of Law

Heliopolis-era creation stories from the Kemet people report that in the beginning Atum emerged from the Isfet (chaos) of Nu (primordial waters). Atum created the god Shu (personification of air/cool dryness) and goddess Tefnut (personification of moisture) from Nu. Shu is depicted in the Kemet iconography as an ostrich feather.

Under Kemet cosmology, Maat is designed to avert chaos (Isfet) and maintain truth (Maat). The symbol for truth, justice, balance, and order is the Goddess Maat. The iconography for Maat in the hieroglyphs depict the single ostrich feather (Shu), worn atop Goddess Maat’s head.

During the reign of Pharaoh Menes, around 2925 B.C.E., after the unification of upper and lower Kemet, archaeological finds evidence administration of the 42 Laws of Maat among the Kemet people as deduced from Kemet coffin texts or funerary papyri dating from this period.

The Duat, the Hall of Two Truths, and the Weighing the Ka (Heart)

The duat (underworld as the place for judgment) is where the popular Kemet funerary scene of the Hall of Two Truths is depicted in the various versions of the “Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Papyrus of Ani,” edited by E.A. Wallis Budge. A closer interpretation of the title from the Kemet language is said to be “Book of Coming Forth by Day.” The Budge translation was a funerary text written for the "coming forth" of Kemet scribe Ani.

In Chapter 30B of The Papyrus of Ani entitled “Chapter for Not Letting Ani’s Heart Create Opposition Against Him, in the Gods’ Domain,” we see the deceased scribe standing before his own heart/soul (ka) on the scale of Maat. On the opposite scale is the Goddess Maat’s feather of truth (Shu). The head of the Goddess Maat is depicted atop the scales of justice. Thoth, also known by other names such as Tehuti, stands holding a tablet and a writing tool to record the results from the scales. The ibis-headed Thoth is the patron saint of Maat scribes and priests.

Petitioner Announces the 42 Divine Principles of the Maat

In Chapter 125 of The Papyrus of Ani, we find the petitioner led by Anubis into duat and pronouncing his/her 42 affirmative declarations, listed below from Budge’s public domain translation of the 42 Divine Principles of Maat:

I have not committed sin.
I have not committed robbery with violence.
I have not stolen.
I have not slain men or women.
I have not stolen food.
I have not swindled offerings.
I have not stolen from God/Goddess.
I have not told lies.
I have not carried away food.
I have not cursed.
I have not closed my ears to truth.
I have not committed adultery.
I have not made anyone cry.
I have not felt sorrow without reason.
I have not assaulted anyone.
I am not deceitful.
I have not stolen anyone’s land.
I have not been an eavesdropper.
I have not falsely accused anyone.
I have not been angry without reason.
I have not seduced anyone’s wife.
I have not polluted myself.
I have not terrorized anyone.
I have not disobeyed the Law.
I have not been exclusively angry.
I have not cursed God/Goddess.
I have not behaved with violence.
I have not caused disruption of peace.
I have not acted hastily or without thought.
I have not overstepped my boundaries of concern.
I have not exaggerated my words when speaking.
I have not worked evil.
I have not used evil thoughts, words or deeds.
I have not polluted the water.
I have not spoken angrily or arrogantly.
I have not cursed anyone in thought, word or deeds.
I have not placed myself on a pedestal.
I have not stolen what belongs to God/Goddess.
I have not stolen from or disrespected the deceased.
I have not taken food from a child.
I have not acted with insolence.
I have not destroyed property belonging to God/Goddess.

After the petitioner’s testimony containing the 42 affirmative declarations, the weighing of the ka for truth, and the reading of the scales, it is said that the doer of Maat is administered Maat. If the petitioner is deemed by the Goddess Maat to be in substantial compliance with the 42 Laws of Maat the petitioner passes from duat to the Field of Reeds (Arus) where Osiris sits as the final gatekeeper.

- by Vanessa Cross

References:

"Maat the Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt," by Maulana Karenga (Sankore Publisher, 2006).
"The Book of the Dead," edited by E.A. Wallis Budge (Gramercy Publisher, 1995).
“Maxims of Good Discourse” writings of the notable Kemet vizier and scribe Ptah-Hotep (accounting of some procedural laws under Maat).

The African Renaissance Monument in Dakar, Senegal

2013-02-09T14:45:00.000-08:00

Photo: The African Renaissance Monument stands erect against the West African skyline in Senegal at 164 feet high, taller than the Statue of Liberty in the U.S.A.

The African Renaissance Monument, also referred as Monument to the African Renaissance and Monument De La Renaissance Africaine, is a bronze statue perched on a hill in Dakar, Senegal. The representation of a man, woman and child emerging from a volcano was inaugurated at a ceremony on April 3, 2010, featuring hundreds of drummers and dancers.

Marking 50 Years of an Independent Senegal

The unveiling marked Senegal's 50 years of independence. Senegalese President Aboulaye Wade has said he hopes the public monument will attract tourists to the West African country, and defended the public monument in writing, stating “[t]his African who emerges from the volcano, facing the West ... symbolizes that Africa which freed itself from several centuries of imprisonment in the abyssal depths of ignorance, intolerance and racism, to retrieve its place on this land, which belongs to all races, in light, air and freedom.”

“It's impossible to miss Senegal's new 160-foot (49 meters) African renaissance monument,” wrote NPR reporter Ofeibea Quist-Arcton. “Perched high on a hill, the mighty Soviet-style bronze statue of a man, woman and child overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and dominates the horizon of the capital, Dakar.”

Public Monument Creates Controversy

President Wade authorized the public works project in the capital of Dakar, described by some as an African Eiffel Tower and others as a work that should never have been commissioned. Its $27 million dollar (£17m) cost and style stirred complaints from many in the predominantly Muslim country.

Ndeye Fatou Toure, a member of the Senegalese Parliament, said the statue was an “economic monster and a financial scandal in the context of the current crisis,” noting that half of Senegal's population lives below the poverty line. Additionally, the choice of garb for the African family was seen as an affront to the Muslim sensibility of public discretion.

Ebrima Sillah, a Senegalese journalist, stated that many Senegalese fine artists took offense that Wade commissioned a crew of 50 North Koreans to construct the public sculpture. President Wade made a public statement that he chose the North Korean crew because they were known as experts in constructing large public monuments.

African Statue Draws Pan-African Delegates

Nineteen African heads of state attended the unveiling ceremony in Dakar. Notable public dignitaries included Bingu wa Mutharika, the Malawian and African Union president, as well as the African presidents of Benin, Cape Verde, Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania and Zimbabwe. Additionally, a delegation of 100 African-Americans attended the ceremony, including Reverend Jesse Jackson and Senegalese-American singer Akon.

“It brings to life our common destiny,” said President Wade at the unveiling ceremony, according to a Reuters report. “Africa has arrived in the 21st century standing tall and more ready than ever to take its destiny into its hands.”

After 40 years as president of Senegal, the 83 year old Wade announced that he will seek re-election in 2012. With close links to Washington D.C., the peanut and fish exporting former French colony has been cited for decades as an example of African democracy. In September 2009, Senegal was awarded a $540 million grant by the U.S. federal government to encourage its continued good governance.

References:

"Senegal unveils 'African Renaissance' statue," by Mark John and Richard Valdmanis, Reuters (4/3/10)
"For Many in Senegal, Statue Is a Monumental Failure," by Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR (1/5/2010)

Bessie Coleman: Aviation Barnstormer

2013-02-09T14:37:00.004-08:00

Photo: Bessie Coleman was the first American of any race or gender to earn an international pilot's license and she was the first person of African descent to obtain a license.

The young Coleman dreamed of a racehorse society and not one of mules. It is in her generation that the Wright Brothers would build the flying machine and American pilot fighters would lead Europe through The Great War (World War I).

The Young Bessie Coleman

Bessie Coleman was born in rural Atlanta, Texas on January 26, 1892 to a family laboring as sharecroppers. Coleman completed high school after an intensive self-study after she could no longer afford studies at the Colored Agricultural and Normal University in Langston, Oklahoma in 1910.

Coleman sought to enter flying school but her application was denied because of her race and gender. She decided to move from Oklahoma north, with two of the thirteen siblings that had relocated to Chicago. Through study and hard work, Coleman opened a beauty shop in Chicago where she would employ her family members immigrating from Texas to Chicago.

First Licensed Woman Pilot to Bessie Coleman's Last Flight in Florida

Bessie Coleman began studying the French language in Chicago and soon bought a ticket from Chicago to France in 1919. In France, she studied at the Ecole d'Aviation des Freres Caudon at Le Crotoy. After completing the program, she successfully tested to earn her International Flying License. She became the first African woman of African descent to earn a pilot's license. Bessie Coleman obtained her pilot's license on June 15, 1921, after The Great War. Amelia Earhart received her pilot license from the National Aeronautic Association, the U.S. chapter of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, on May 15, 1923.

Bessie Coleman died like she lived, in the air. On April 30, 1926 in Jacksonville, Florida, Coleman sat in the cockpit of a new plane, not the Curtis Jenny. Coleman's plane mechanic took up the new plane for a test flight. When the plane malfunctioned, Coleman fell from cockpit's opening. The plane crashed several hundred feet in the practice session. Her planned elaborate air show in Florid would never occur. Coleman's body was taken by train from Orlando to Chicago to ten thousand mourners who would pay their last respects to the flying legend. Bessie Coleman is buried at the Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Island, Cook County, Illinois, USA.

After Bessie Coleman, African flyers such as the Five Blackbirds, the Flying Hobos (James Banning and Thomas Allen), the Tuskegee Airmen, Cornelius Coffey, John Robinson, Willa Brown and Harold Hurd would take to the skies. In 1929, William J. Powell established the Bessie Coleman Aero Club. Since 1931, the Challenger Pilots' Association of Chicago has flown over Chicago's Lincoln Cemetery in honor of Bessie Coleman. Beginning in 1977, women pilots in the Chicago area have organized and associated as the Bessie Coleman Aviators Club.

Further Reading: Hardesty, Von. "Black Wings: Courageous Stories of African American in Aviation and Space History," (HarperCollins Publishers, 2007).

William Hall: Africans in Nova Scotia, Canada

2013-02-09T14:09:00.001-08:00

Photo: William Hall

The early Africans who settled in Nova Scotia were primarily fleeing from colonial America. Hall's parents, Jacob and Lucy Hall, had escaped slavery in either Maryland or Virginia -- depending on the commentator -- during the War of 1812. The Hall family arrived in Nova Scotia as part of the Black Refugee movement whereby Africans were brought to Canada by the British Royal Navy in exchange for their assistance in resisting the rebelling British colony.

During the War of 1812, the British frigate Leonard intercepted a slave ship bound from Africa to the United States and forced it to deposit its “ivory cargo” at Halifax. Among the freed captives hitherto marked to be auctioned as slaves in the southern states was William Hall’s father Jacob. Hall’s mother, Lucinda, who was a slave on a plantation near Washington, escaped her bondage when the British sacked and set fire to the American capital. She boarded one of the British warships that had conducted the raid and put into Halifax afterwards. - Excerpt from "Canada And The Victoria Cross: Of Rebellion And Rescue," by Arthur Bishop, March 1, 2004, Legion Magazine.

Born April 15, 1827 at Horton, Nova Scotia, William Hall (born William Edward) worked in Nova Scotian shipyards before going to sea with trading vessels at the age of 17 years. From 1847 to 1849, Hall served in the American merchant navy aboard the USS Ohio. On January 4, 1847, the Ohio sailed for the Gulf of Mexico arriving at Veracruz on March 22, 1847 to help in the siege of the city in the Mexican-American War. Veracruz soon surrendered.

Bombardment of Sebastopol by HMS Rodney, Crimean War (1854)

Hall enlisted in Royal Navy on February 2, 1852, and served on the flagship Victory. He entered the Crimean War in 1954, serving on the Rodney. He also served on the Shannon as Captain of the Foretop. In 1857, he won the Victoria Cross for bravery while fighting in the Siege of Lucknow in what is known by the British as the Indian Rebellion of 1857. He was the first person of African descent and the first Canadian to win the Victoria Cross, the highest award for bravery in the British Royal Navy.

Hall retired from the colonial wars to Horton Bluff, Nova Scotia. He died on August 25, 1904 and was buried at Lockhartville at the Hantsport Baptist Church Cemetery.

Queen Hatshepsut

2013-02-09T12:50:00.002-08:00

Photo: Stone Queen Hatshepsut, depicted with
pharaonic regalia. Stone. Courtesy of Museum of Modern Art.

"I have restored that which was in ruins. I have raised up that which was destroyed."

- Queen Hatshepsut

There was a woman who ruled ancient Egypt, Kemet, for 21 years while her youthful stepson lay in the shadows. Surrounded by the lands of Nubia, Kush, and Punt, Hatshepsut commissioned a trade mission down the Red Sea in 1470 B.C. to explore the wealth of her other neighbors. There was a female pharaoh in Kemet who ruled from 1479 to 1458 B.C., the 18th dynasty, the New Kingdom. She portrayed herself as a man, the traditional sex of a pharaoh. Suggestions of her feminine origins are seen in the depiction of breasts and soft chin.

Photo: Valley of the Kings, royal cemetery at Luxor that embraces Hatshepsut's mortuary temple.

Hatshepsut's lost mummy was not discovered until 2007. In 1903, archaeologist Howard Carter found a sarcophagus that belonged to Hatshepsut in KV20 Valley of the Kings. The sarcophagus, a cubicle funeral receptacle for a corpse, was empty. It was soon discovered that there was a concerted effort to eradicate the record of her reign. Thumose III, her co-regent and successor, removed all images of her as pharaoh/king. Temples,obelisks and monuments underwent a systematic chisel job.

Zahi Hawass, head of the Egyptian Mummy Project and secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and his scientific team honed in on mummy KV60a, discovered more than a century earlier and deemed a minor tomb. It had no golds or other jewels. A far cry from the treasures of the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun. Today, the tomb of Hatshepsut is said to be in one of the two of the Egyptian Museum's Royal Mummy Rooms.

Photo: Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, New Kingdom, c. 1473-1458 B.C. Limestone. MOMA, NYC.

Hatshepsut's mother, Queen Ahmose, the Great Royal Wife, is believed to be the daughter of a king. Hatshepsut's father was Thutmose I, not of royal blood lineage. Her grandfather is held by many commentators to be King Ahmose, founder of the 18th dynasty and renown for driving out the Hyksos occupiers in the norther region of the Nile Valley. Hatshepsut was the eldest child of her parents. She would marry the son of her father by another queen, Thutmose II, as was the tradition of fortifying royal lineage. They bore the child Isis who would deliver the male heir Thutmose III, who at the time of Thutmose II's reign was too young to assume control, resulting in Hatshepsut becoming the young pharaoh's queen regent. Thutmose III would be relegated to second-in-command as Hatshepsut ruled for 21 years, a clear break from the traditional role of the queen regent seen in other East African dynasties, such as the leadership of Nigiste Negaste Empress Zewditu of Ethiopia.

Photo: only remaining obelisk of Karnak, erected by Pharaoh Hatshepsut

Pharaoh Hatshepsut was a grand renovator of shrines and temples from Nubia to Sinai. Four great granite obelisks were erected at Karnak, at the temple of the great god Amun, a few of hundreds other commissions. Many monuments were erected along the Nile and in the Sinai. She focused, however, on Thebes, her capital, which is known today as the ruins of Luxor and Karnak. One of the Karnak obelisks commissioned by Hatshepsut read: "Now my hart turns this way and that, as I think what the people will say. Those who see my monuments in years to come, and who shall speak of what I have done." Only one of the four great obelisks erected by Pharaoh Hatshepsut still stands.

Above video: on-site lecture at Temple of Queen Hatshepsut

Carter G. Woodson: The New Type of Professional Man Required

2013-01-28T06:47:00.001-08:00

Photo of Carter G. Woodson, who became known as
"The Father of Black History" in the United States

Roadside Marker for Carter Godwin Woodson,
West Virginia Division of Archives and History

“THE NEW TYPE OF PROFESSIONAL MAN REQUIRED”

Excerpt from, "The Mis-Education of the Negro"

By Carter Godwin Woodson

Negroes should study for the professions for all sane reasons that members of another race should go into these lines of endeavor and also on account of the particular call to serve the lowly of their race. In the case of the law we should cease to make exceptions because of the possibilities for failure resulting from prejudice against the Negro lawyer and the lack of Negro business enterprises to require their serves. Negroes must become like English gentlemen who study the law of the land, not because every gentleman should know the law. In the interpretation of the law by the courts, too, all the rights of the Negroes in this country are involved; and a large number of us must qualify for this important service. WE may have too many lawyers of the wrong kind, but we have not our share of the right kind.

The Negro lawyer has tended to follow in the footsteps of the average white practitioner and has not developed the power which he could acquire if he knew more about he people whom he should serve and the problems they have to confront. These things are not law in themselves, but they determine largely whether or not the Negro will practice law and the success he will have in the profession. The failure to give attention to these things has often means the downfall of many a Negro lawyer.

There are, moreover, certain aspects of law which the white man would hardly address himself but to which the Negro should direct special attention. Of unusual important to the Negro is the necessity for understanding the misrepresentations in criminal records of Negroes, and race distinctions in the laws of modern nations. These matters require a systematic study of the principles of law and legal procedure and, in addition thereto, further study of legal problems as they meet the Negro lawyer in the life which he must live. This offers the Negro law school an unusual opportunity.

Because our lawyers do not give attention to these problems they often fail in a crisis. They are interest in the race and want to defend its cause. The case, however, requires, not only the unselfish spirit they sometimes manifest but much more understanding of the legal principles involved. Nothing illustrates this better than the failure of one of our attorneys to measure up in the case brought up to the United States Supreme Court from Oklahoma to test the validity of the exclusion of Negroes from Pullman cars. The same criticism may be made of the segregation case of the District of Columbia brought before this highest tribunal by another Negro attorney. In both of these cases the lawyers started wrong and therefore ended wrong. They lacked the knowledge to present their cases properly to the court.

Our lawyers must learn that the judges are not attorneys themselves, for they have to decide the merits of what is presented to them. It is not the business of the judges to amend their pleadings or decide their cases according to their good intentions. Certainly such generosity cannot be expected from prejudiced courts which are looking for every loophole possible to escape from frank decision on the rights of Negroes guaranteed by the constitution. These matters require advanced study and painstaking research; but our lawyers, as a rule, are not interested in this sort of mental exercise.

Video of Carter G. Woodson: African American Trailblazers

Fisk University's Jubilee Singers

2012-11-10T11:06:00.000-08:00

Photo: Fisk University's Jubilee Singers

Africans in America using music to fund public education for Africans.

"A band of negro singers, organized in 1869 by George White to aid in securing funds for the Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., a university for freedmen founded soon after the war.

They made their first great success in the Gilmore Jubilee Concerts in Boston and were known thereafter as the "Jubilee Singers;" made several concert tours in Europe, meeting everywhere with the most enthusiastic receptions, and attracting the attention of European composers to the negro melodies. These concerts gave the first intimation to many Europeans composers that America had a folk-song of her own."

-- Photo and Excerpt from the book The American History and Encyclopedia of Music, Irving Squire, London 1908.

Video courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways

And the musical tradition continues...

A Brief Timeline of the Ancient History of Africa to the "Scramble for Africa"

2012-09-26T04:50:00.000-07:00

Map of Africa, c. 1812

A BRIEF TIMELINE

OF THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF AFRICA

TO THE “SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA”

c. 3150 B.C.

Ancient tradition states that the first pharaoh (king) of Kemet (kmt, translation: “black land”, nka Ancient Egypt) was Pharaoh Menes, honored with having unified Upper and Lower Kemet into a single kingdom. The pharaoh of Dynasty I would begin a series of dynasties that ruled Kemet for the next three millennium. In Pliny's account, Menes was credited with being the inventor of writing in Kemet.

The New Kingdom of Kemet (c. 1550-1070 B.C.) began with the Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire into the southern, northern and western regions of continental Africa and as far east as the region now called India. Notable Pharaohs of this era include Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The last native ruled dynasty is said to have been the Thirtieth Dynasty, after which the kingdom fell into the hands of Persian rules c. 343 B.C., defeating Pharaoh Nectanebo II.

c. 1200 B.C.

Kingdom of Kush was an ancient African dynasty situated on the confluences of the Blue Nile, White Nile and River Atbara in what is now the Republic of Sudan. Established after the Bronze Age collapse (c. 1206 to 1150), it was centered at Napata in its early phase. After king Kashta ("the Kushite") invaded Egypt in the 8th century BC, the Kushite kings ruled as Pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt for a century, until they were expelled by Psamtik I in 656 BC. In early Greek geography, the Meroitic kingdom, with its imperial capital at Meroe, was known as Ethiopia. The Kushite kingdom with its capital at Meroe persisted until the 4th century C.E., when it weakened and disintegrated due to internal rebellion. The Kushite capital was eventually captured and destroyed by the kingdom of Axum.

c. 100 C.E.

Kingdom of Aksum (aka as the Axum, Aksumite Kingdom, Abyssinia and Ethiopia), encompassed the national regions now known as Ethiopia and Eritrea. Its dominion included rule over the declining Kingdom of Kush and over the Kingdom of Himyarite in the region now known as Yemen, which then included Saba (Sheba) from c. 25 B.C., Qataban from c. 200 C.E., and Hadramaut from c. 300 C.E. The kingdom existed from approximately 100 C.E. to 940 C.E. Great traders, the Aksumites minted their own currency and was named by Mani (216–276 C.E.) as one of the four great powers of his time along with Persia, Rome, and China. Aksum became the first major empire to convert to Christianity.

c. 400 C.E.

The name Nubia is derived from the Noba people, nomads who settled in the Nile valley region in the 4th century, after the collapse of the Kingdom of Kush. In the ancient commentary, however, Nubia, Kush and Ethiopia (Greek: Aithiopia) are frequently used to describe the same people. For example, while Kemet conquered Nubian lands during various times in history, the Nubians are also noted as having conquered Kemet under its 25th Dynasty.

The ancient Nubian language in written form uses a modified Coptic script that was mostly used in religious texts dating from the 8th and 15th centuries C.E.. It is now preserved in at least a hundred pages of ancient documents, including the famous The Martyrdom of Saint Menas.

There were a number of small Nubian kingdoms throughout the Middle Ages, the last of which collapsed in 1504, when Nubia became divided between The Arab Republic of Egypt and the Sennar sultanate resulting in the Arabization of much of the Nubian population. Nubia was again brought under Ottoman Egypt in the 19th century, and within Anglo-Egyptian Sudan from 1899 to 1956.

c. 400 C.E.

Kingdom of Ghana, also called the Wagadou, founded in western region of Africa. The wealth of the kingdom includes commentaries of domesticated animals adorned with gold collars and included the domestication of camels before the Arabs.

The old kingdom is not located in the same region as the current Ghana nation. It included the western region of the current nation of Mali and the southeastern section of the current nation of Mauritania and emcompassed Mande-speaking people. Gold, ivory, and salt were traded to Europe and the Middle East. Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (Arabic: عَبْدَالله مُحَمَّد بِن مُوسَى اَلْخْوَارِزْمِي‎), the Persian mathematician, astronomer and geographer writing from Baghdad c. 800 C.E. documented the legend of the Ghana dynasties.

c. 600 C.E.

The Great Zimbabwe complex was built in stone in the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, marking the rise of the Shona (Translation: dzimba dza mabwe or "great stone houses") civilization and evidencing the great Bantu expansion. The archaeological ruins known as "Great Zimbabwe" have been radiocarbon dated to approximately 600 C.E. The Kingdom of Zimbabwe controlled the ivory and gold trade from the interior to the southeastern coast of Africa. Asian and Arabic goods could be found in abundance in the kingdom.

c. 1230 C.E.

The Mali Empire (aka Mandingo Empire or Manden Kurufaba) major tribal group was the Mandinka and was founded by Sundiata Keita and gained international fame from its ruler Mansa Musa I. The empire formed on the upper Niger River, and reached the height of power in the 14th century with the center of its scholarship and trade in the ancient cities of Djenné and Timbuktu.

The pages above are from Timbuktu Manuscripts written in Sudani script (a form of Arabic) from the Mali Empire showing established knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. Today there are close to a million of these manuscripts found in Timbuktu alone.

c. 1402 C.E.

Ethiopian embassy was established in Venice.

c. 1460

The Songhai (aka Songhay) are thought to have settled at Gao as early as 800 C.E., but did not establish it as the capital until the 11th century, during the reign of Dia Kossoi. Sulaiman-Mar gained independence and hegemony over Gao c. 1340, and became the forbear of Sunni Ali, the first emperor of Songhai, reigning from c. 1464-1493. Sulaiman-Mar is often credited with wresting power away from the Mali Empire at a time of internal succession disputes. Around che Songhai Empire would eventually supplanted the Mali Empire and the Songhai Empire would collapse in 1591 in great part due to what is described as the Moroccan invasion.

1497

Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope

1505-1821

The Funj empire in Sudan.

1517

Ottomans take Cairo

1626

First French settle in Senegal and Madagascar

1628-29

War between Mozambique and Portugal, with Mozambique becoming a Portuguese protectorate

1820

Egypt conquers Sudan. British settlers arrive in Cape Colony.

1822

Liberia is established by freed Africans from America.

1824-31

First Anglo-Ashanti War.

1830-47

French conquest of Algeria.

1834-35

British defeat the Xhosa.

1849

Livingstone's first journey in Africa

1850-78

Nine Xhosa wars in South Africa.

1868

British annexes Lesotho

1869

Suez Canal opens

1879

Ango-Zulu War

c. 1880

“Scramble for Africa” begins

Note: There were many great kingdoms and empires that rose on the African continent, such as the great civilizations developed by the Moor and the Berber, the Ndongo Kingdom in the central west Africa; the absence on this time-line is a product of the need for brevity only.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall

2012-08-30T01:46:00.009-07:00

Thurgood Marshall was born July 2, 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland and died January 24, 1993. He was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court where he served from October 1967 to October 1991. The 96th justice, Marshall was the first U.S. Supreme Court justice of African descent in the United States.

Marshall was the great-grandson of a man born in the region now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo but brought to the United States as a slave, according Stewart A. Kallen in his autobiography "Thurgood Marshall: A Dream of Justice for All". Marshall's grandfather was also born into slavery in the United States. His father, William Canfield Marshall, was the first freeman of his family and became a Pullman railroad porter. His mother, Norma Arica, was a teacher.

"Before his appointment to serve on the Supreme Court, he represented and won more cases before the United States Supreme Court than any other American," according to The New World Encyclopedia. Before moving into the judiciary, Marshall was an active civil rights trial attorney, trained in law by the civil rights lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston, who was his law professor and professional mentor.

Marshall's law practice included appointment as in-house legal counsel to the NAACP. As a trial attorney, Marshall may be best known for his victory in the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which successfully challenged the racialist separate but equal doctrine in American society, a doctrine that was then enforced by the laws of the land.


	1930 1933	*A Brief Thurgood Marshall Timeline* Mr. Marshall graduates with honors from Lincoln University, cum laude Receives law degree from Howard U. (magna cum laude); begins private practice in Baltimore
	1934	Begins to work for Baltimore branch of NAACP
	1935	With Charles Houston, wins first major civil rights case, Murray v. Pearson
	1936	Becomes assistant special counsel for NAACP in New York
	1940	Wins first of 29 Supreme Court victories (Chambers v. Florida)
	1944	Successfully argues Smith v. Allwright, overthrowing the South's "white primary"
	1948	Wins Shelley v. Kraemer, in which Supreme Court strikes down legality of racially restrictive covenants
	1950	Wins Supreme Court victories in two graduate-school integration cases, Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents
	1951	Visits South Korea and Japan to investigate charges of racism in U.S. armed forces. He reported that the general practice was one of "rigid segregation".
	1954	Wins Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, landmark case that demolishes legal basis for segregation in America
	1961	Defends civil rights demonstrators, winning Supreme Circuit Court victory in Garner v. Louisiana; nominated to Second Court of Appeals by President J.F. Kennedy
	1961	Appointed circuit judge, makes 112 rulings, all of them later upheld by Supreme Court (1961-1965)
	1965	Appointed U.S. solicitor general by President Lyndon Johnson; wins 14 of the 19 cases he argues for the government (1965-1967)
	1967	Becomes first African American elevated to U.S. Supreme Court (1967-1991)
	1991	Retires from the Supreme Court
	1993	Dies at 84

MIKE WALLACE NIGHT BEAT with THURGOOD MARSHALL

Hannibal Barca of Carthage, North Africa

2012-07-04T20:31:00.006-07:00

Image: Coin bearing the image of Hannibal and his famed battalion of elephants.

In 247 B.C., the year Hannibal Barca was born, the Carthage empire was about 500 years old. Known as one of the greatest strategist in military history, the battles of Hannibal would strike a turning point in the history of the continent that would be called Africa.

Carthage had been settled by Phoenicians in North Africa near the current Tunis. In his 1961 work, French Historian Gabriel Audisio comments that he considered "Hannibal to be neither a Phoenician, nor a Carthaginian, nor a Punic, but a North African... The majority of the Punic populace seems to have had African, indeed Negroid, ancestry."

The Carthaginians, according to Audisio's research, mixed freely with the native populations of North Africa. The Punic of North Africa seem to have been a mix between the Phoenicians and native North Africans, the Berbers. The Phoenicians were a Semitic people said to have migrated from north of Palestine into Northern Africa, spreading their dominion throughout the Mediterranean regions. They were primarily known as merchant traders with an economy tied to the sea trades.

There is no picture of Hannibal in existence today. The coin above is frequently presented by commentators as a representation of Hannibal and his legacy of tamed elephants. While this writer was not able to find authority that the coins were made contemporaneously during or near the life of Hannibal -- which was more than 2,000 years ago -- the existence of such coinage during some point during our common age is no surprise in light of Hannibal's historical legacy.

What we do have are descriptions of Hannibal by commentators of his time. According to the Roman historian Levy of the first century of our era, Hannibal was "fearless, utterly prudent in danger, indefatigable, able to endure heat and cold, controlled in eating habits, unpretentious in dress, willing to sleep wrapped in military cloak, a superb rider and horseman." He was the son of the Carthage general Hamilcar Barca. There is no knowledge of his mother in the history records, not even her name. He had two brothers: Hasdrubal resided in Spain and Maharbal was captain of Hannibal's calvary.

Carthage and Rome were at war during the First Punic War (264-241 B.C.). Both empires were seeking supremacy over the Mediterranean. Hannibal's father, Hamilcar Barca, general of the Carthaginian mercenaries, was infuriated about the western Mediterranean losses of Sicily and Sardinia. When Hannibal was 17 years old, however, his father was killed in an ambush in Spain, which was primarily under the rule of the North African empire. Hannibal would son step fully into his military career.

Map of Carthage empire and Roman empire

In October 218 B.C., during the Second Punic War, Hannibal had arrived at the Alps. His soldiers are said to have stretched for more than eight miles at the Alps, the foothills of the Roman Empire. Hannibal's army of 100,000 men would trek and fight 1,500 miles to arrive at the Alps from Spain. Hannibal armies included Numidians, North Africans from an area roughly where Algeria now draws its boundaries. The Numidians were known as master horsemen who could guide their horses with their knees, leaving their hands free to use swords and throw javelins.They had fought attacks from European tribes like the Gauls.

Hannibal is said to have given this speech to the army of men who had survived and crossed the swift-flowing Rhone river:

"Why are you afraid?... The greater part of our journey is accomplished. We have surmounted the Pyrenees; we have crossed the Rhone, that mighty river, in spite of the opposition of thousands of Gauls and the fury of the river itself. Now we have the Alps in sight. On the other side of those mountains lies Italy.... Does anyone imagine the Alps to be anything but what they are--lofty mountains. No part of the earth reaches the sky, or is insurmountable to mankind. The Alps produce and support living things. If they are passable by a few men, they are passable to armies."

Hannibal lost half of his army in the first two weeks into the Alps. Landslides were touched off by mountain tribes. Men died during hand battle with tribesmen. Starvation and disease were also companions of the embattled lot. Polybus, a Greek historian and contemporary to Hannibal, described Hannibal's arrival to the Po Valley with about 26,000 men. At the Po Valley, Hannibal is said to have made this speech:

"Soldiers! You have now surmounted not only the ramparts of Italy, but also Rome. You are entering friendly country inhabited by people who hate the Romans as much as we do. The rest of the journey will be smooth and downhill, and, after one, or at most a second battle, you will have the citadel and capital of Italy in your possession."

Commentators have speculated on why Hannibal spoke these words because the men were about to face the most difficult part of the journey. Friends did not await in the Po Valley. Here, the Roman army would meet the men in battle. In retrospect, considering how far the men had come, there really was no going back at this point. The Carthaginians believed that Rome was considering an invasion of Africa. Hannibal believed he had to act through an overland attack on Roman to save Carthage. He would spend 15 years in Italy, winning many battles -- such as the Battle of Cannae where he lost 6,000 troops to Rome's 70,000 troops.

We know Hannibal did not succeed, but are astonished by how close he came to success. The second of the Punic Wars was over. When Hannibal eventually retreated with his army to Carthage, his army was defeated by Scipio Africanus in the Battle of Zama. Always sought by the Romans, when Hannibal was about the age of 64 and to be taken prisoner, he took poison and is recorded to have stated:

"Let us now put an end to the great anxiety of the Romans who have thought it too lengthy and too heavy a task to wait for the death of a hated old man."

Hon. Dr. John Henrik Clarke on Carthage

David Walker's Appeal: The Historical Document of 1829

2012-06-30T08:10:00.007-07:00

Published in September 1829, David Walker's Appeal is

cited among Pan African scholars as the most exacting

anti-slavery document of its time.

Excerpts from David Walker's Appeal

My dearly beloved Brethren and Fellow Citizens.

Having travelled over a considerable portion of these United States, and having, in the course of my travels, taken the most accurate observations of things as they exist -- the result of my observations has warranted the full and unshaken conviction, that we, (coloured people of these United States,) are the most degraded, wretched, and abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began; and I pray God that none like us ever may live again until time shall be no more. They tell us of the Israelites in Egypt, the Helots in Sparta, and of the Roman Slaves, which last were made up from almost every nation under heaven, whose sufferings under those ancient and heathen nations, were, in comparison with ours, under this enlightened and Christian nation, no more than a cypher -- or, in other words, those heathen nations of antiquity, had but little more among them than the name and form of slavery; while wretchedness and endless miseries were reserved, apparently in a phial, to be poured out upon, our fathers ourselves and our children, by Christian Americans!

...

... I call upon the professing Christians, I call upon the philanthropist, I call upon the very tyrant himself, to show me a page of history, either sacred or profane, on which a verse can be found, which maintains, that the Egyptians heaped the insupportable insult upon the children of Israel, by telling them that they were not of the human family. Can the whites deny this charge? Have they not, after having reduced us to the deplorable condition of slaves under their feet, held us up as descending originally from the tribes of Monkeys or Orang-Outangs? O! my God! I appeal to every man of feeling-is not this insupportable? Is it not heaping the most gross insult upon our miseries, because they have got us under their feet and we cannot help ourselves? Oh! pity us we pray thee, Lord Jesus, Master. -- Has Mr. Jefferson declared to the world, that we are inferior to the whites, both in the endowments of our bodies and our minds? It is indeed surprising, that a man of such great learning, combined with such excellent natural parts, should speak so of a set of men in chains. I do not know what to compare it to, unless, like putting one wild deer in an iron cage, where it will be secured, and hold another by the side of the same, then let it go, and expect the one in the cage to run as fast as the one at liberty. So far, my brethren, were the Egyptians from heaping these insults upon their slaves, that Pharaoh's daughter took Moses, a son of Israel for her own, as will appear by the following.

...

The world knows, that slavery as it existed was, mans, (which was the primary cause of their destruction) was, comparatively speaking, no more than a cypher, when compared with ours under the Americans. Indeed I should not have noticed the Roman slaves, had not the very learned and penetrating Mr. Jefferson said, "when a master was murdered, all his slaves in the same house, or within hearing, were condemned to death." -- Here let me ask Mr. Jefferson, (but he is gone to answer at the bar of God, for the deeds done in his body while living,) I therefore ask the whole American people, had I not rather die, or be put to death, than to be a slave to any tyrant, who takes not only my own, but my wife and children's lives by the inches? Yea, would I meet death with avidity far! far!! in preference to such servile submission to the murderous hands of tyrants. Mr. Jefferson's very severe remarks on us have been so extensively argued upon by men whose attainments in literature, I shall never be able to reach, that I would not have meddled with it, were it not to solicit each of my brethren, who has the spirit of a man, to buy a copy of Mr. Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia," and put it in the hand of his son.

...

But let us review Mr. Jefferson's remarks respecting us some further. Comparing our miserable fathers, with the learned philosophers of Greece, he says: "Yet notwithstanding these and other discouraging circumstances among the Romans, their slaves were often their rarest artists. They excelled too, in science, insomuch as to be usually employed as tutors to their master's children; Epictetus, Terence and Phaedrus, were slaves, -- but they were of the race of whites. It is not their condition then, but nature, which has produced the distinction." See this, my brethren! ! Do you believe that this assertion is swallowed by millions of the whites? Do you know that Mr. Jefferson was one of as great characters as ever lived among the whites? See his writings for the world, and public labours for the United States of America. Do you believe that the assertions of such a man, will pass away into oblivion unobserved by this people and the world? If you do you are much mistaken-See how the American people treat us -- have we souls in our bodies? Are we men who have any spirits at all? I know that there are many swell-bellied fellows among us, whose greatest object is to fill their stomachs. Such I do not mean -- I am after those who know and feel, that we are MEN, as well as other people; to them, I say, that unless we try to refute Mr. Jefferson's arguments respecting us, we will only establish them.

...

...I must observe to my brethren that at the close of the first Revolution in this country, with Great Britain, there were but thirteen States in the Union, now there are twenty-four, most of which are slave-holding States, and the whites are dragging us around in chains and in handcuffs, to their new States and Territories to work their mines and farms, to enrich them and their children-and millions of them believing firmly that we being a little darker than they, were made by our Creator to be an inheritance to them and their children for ever-the same as a parcel of brutes.

Are we MEN! ! -- I ask you, O my brethren I are we MEN? Did our Creator make us to be slaves to dust and ashes like ourselves? Are they not dying worms as well as we? Have they not to make their appearance before the tribunal of Heaven, to answer for the deeds done in the body, as well as we? Have we any other Master but Jesus Christ alone? Is he not their Master as well as ours? -- What right then, have we to obey and call any other Master, but Himself? How we could be so submissive to a gang of men, whom we cannot tell whether they are as good as ourselves or not, I never could conceive. However, this is shut up with the Lord, and we cannot precisely tell -- but I declare, we judge men by their works.

The whites have always been an unjust, jealous, unmerciful, avaricious and blood-thirsty set of beings, always seeking after power and authority.

...

...to my no ordinary astonishment, [a] Reverend gentleman got up and told us (coloured people) that slaves must be obedient to their masters -- must do their duty to their masters or be whipped -- the whip was made for the backs of fools, &c. Here I pause for a moment, to give the world time to consider what was my surprise, to hear such preaching from a minister of my Master, whose very gospel is that of peace and not of blood and whips, as this pretended preacher tried to make us believe. What the American preachers can think of us, I aver this day before my God, I have never been able to define. They have newspapers and monthly periodicals, which they receive in continual succession, but on the pages of which, you will scarcely ever find a paragraph respecting slavery, which is ten thousand times more injurious to this country than all the other evils put together; and which will be the final overthrow of its government, unless something is very speedily done; for their cup is nearly full.-Perhaps they will laugh at or make light of this; but I tell you Americans! that unless you speedily alter your course, you and your Country are gone! ! ! !

...

If any of us see fit to go away, go to those who have been for many years, and are now our greatest earthly friends and benefactors -- the English. If not so, go to our brethren, the Haytians, who, according to their word, are bound to protect and comfort us. The Americans say, that we are ungrateful-but I ask them for heaven's sake, what should we be grateful to them for -- for murdering our fathers and mothers ? -- Or do they wish us to return thanks to them for chaining and handcuffing us, branding us, cramming fire down our throats, or for keeping us in slavery, and beating us nearly or quite to death to make us work in ignorance and miseries, to support them and their families. They certainly think that we are a gang of fools. Those among them, who have volunteered their services for our redemption, though we are unable to compensate them for their labours, we nevertheless thank them from the bottom of our hearts, and have our eyes steadfastly fixed upon them, and their labours of love for God and man. -- But do slave-holders think that we thank them for keeping us in miseries, and taking our lives by the inches?

...

Let no man of us budge one step, and let slave-holders come to beat us from our country. America is more our country, than it is the whites-we have enriched it with our blood and tears. The greatest riches in all America have arisen from our blood and tears: -- and will they drive us from our property and homes, which we have earned with our blood? They must look sharp or this very thing will bring swift destruction upon them. The Americans have got so fat on our blood and groans, that they have almost forgotten the God of armies. But let the go on.

...

Do the colonizationists think to send us off without first being reconciled to us? Do they think to bundle us up like brutes and send us off, as they did our brethren of the State of Ohio? Have they not to be reconciled to us, or reconcile us to them, for the cruelties with which they have afflicted our fathers and us? Methinks colonizationists think they have a set of brutes to deal with, sure enough. Do they think to drive us from our country and homes, after having enriched it with our blood and tears, and keep back millions of our dear brethren, sunk in the most barbarous wretchedness, to dig up gold and silver for them and their children? Surely, the Americans must think that we are brutes, as some of them have represented us to be. They think that we do not feel for our brethren, whom they are murdering by the inches, but they are dreadfully deceived.

...

What nation under heaven, will be able to do any thing with us, unless God gives us up into its hand? But Americans. I declare to you, while you keep us and our children in bondage, and treat us like brutes, to make us support you and your families, we cannot be your friends. You do not look for it do you? Treat us then like men, and we will be your friends. And there is not a doubt in my mind, but that the whole of the past will be sunk into oblivion, and we yet, under God, will become a united and happy people. The whites may say it is impossible, but remember that nothing is impossible with God.

...

I count my life not dear unto me, but I am ready to be offered at any moment, For what is the use of living, when in fact I am dead. But remember, Americans, that as miserable, wretched, degraded and abject as you have made us in preceding, and in this generation, to support you and your families, that some of you, (whites) on the continent of America, will yet curse the day that you ever were born. You want slaves, and want us for your slaves ! ! ! My colour will yet, root some of you out of the very face of the earth ! ! ! ! ! ! You may doubt it if you please. I know that thousands will doubt-they think they have us so well secured in wretchedness, to them and their children, that it is impossible for such things to occur.

...

See your Declaration Americans! ! ! Do you understand your own language? Hear your languages, proclaimed to the world, July 4th, 1776 -- "We hold these truths to be self evident -- that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL! ! that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! !" Compare your own language above, extracted from your Declaration of Independence, with your cruelties and murders inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers and yourselves on our fathers and on us -- men who have never given your fathers or you the least provocation! ! ! ! ! !

Ancient Egypt Remembered in Photographs | Excursions Along the Nile

2012-05-06T20:20:00.002-07:00

Photo: Street vendors, Cairo, Egypt 1870's, albumen print from glass negative.

I found myself at a library book sell during the weekend of May 8, 2012, rummaging through the left behind collection of a collector of books in San Fernando Valley, Edgar Hermann, who recently passed. First the book sale attendant handed me a box, noticing my arms weighed with books. Then two boxes...I knew it was going to be a great weekend for this armchair historian.

At this early review of my finds, I am most excited about acquiring the book "Excursions Along the Nile: The Photographic Discovery of Ancient Egypt," a 1993 art exhibition catalog of photographs of the Nile published by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California. The 100+ year old photographs of Cairo from the exhibition catalog are astonishing. I could not help but share a few of my favorites here with BHH readers.

~ V. Cross

Photo: Great Pyramid and Sphinx, Egypt, 1873.

Photo: Scottish soldiers visit Sphinx in Egypt, 1880

Photo: Crocodile on sand bank of the Nile River, 1858.

Photo: Mosque at Cairo, Egypt 1857, albumen print from glass negative.

Photo: Street in Cairo, Egypt 1850's, salt print from paper negative

Photo: Street of the Citadel, Cairo, c. 1858, stereo albumen print from glass negative.

Photo: boys swimming in the Nile River, 1873, albumen print from glass negative.

Photo: Cairo, Egypt from the Citadel, 1858.

Photo: view from the Summit of Mount Serbal, Egypt looking northeast, 1868, albumen print from glass negative.

A Poem for Trayvon Martin

2012-03-24T07:25:00.004-07:00

Photo: public march for Trayvon Martin in San Francisco, California. The Commons.

Things You Should Know About the Nile River

2012-03-18T23:29:00.000-07:00

The word "Nile" is a Greek word for river valley. In the ancient Kemet language, the language of the original people of the region now called Egypt, the river was called Ḥ'pī or iteru, meaning "great river" and was represented by the hieroglyphs shown at left, which literally means 'itrw' or 'waters' determinative.

The Nile is one of the most densely populated areas on the face of the earth with more than 370 million people depending on its water. The Nile River in East Africa is more than 5 miles wide and 4,175 miles long and is thought to be about 30 million years old. The waterway now runs through Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

Map of Nile

The Nile River flows away from the equator, from south to north. In the West, Lake Victoria was historically thought to be the source of the Nile. This was based on the 1864 expedition records of Englishman John Henry Speak. It was later discovered that the source of the Nile lies further South, within the forests of Rwanda. It has also been asserted that the Atbarah River, located in the eastern portion of Sudan, is the original source of the Nile -- its last tributary before it reaches the Mediterranean Sea.

The Nile has two large tributaries: the White Nile and Blue Nile. The White Nile is longer than the Blue Nile. It is located south of Lake Victoria and derives its name from its light grey color that comes from its sediment deposits. The White Nile is subject to wild fluctuations and raises up to 20 feet at its highest point. Historical patterns have been that May is the rise of the river and around October the river falls. Ancient Kemet people captured all the water they needed from its overflow for each year's annual crops.

The Blue Nile has its origins at Ethiopia's Lake Tana. Out of Lake Tana, the Blue Nile flows southeast into the Sudan where it meets again with the White Nile near Khartoum, Sudan. The Blue Nile provides about two-thirds of the Nile River's water. It derives its name from the dark blue color that it takes on as it moves through the Sudan.

After the Nile exists Lake Victoria it is called the Victoria Nile. A monument marks where it rises outside of Jinja, Uganda. The river flows into Lake Albert opposite the Blue Mountains in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When the Nile exits through Lake Albert it becomes the Albert Nile.

The Nile River connects the countries it runs through geopolitically. This is due to national interest in controlling water use through dam systems. The most dominant national actors in Nile water control are Egypt and Sudan. Egypt has historically been the biggest player in blocking the flow of the Nile into neighboring countries. The Nile River Basin only makes up five percent of Egypt's land mass, but ninety-five percent of the population lives along the Nile.

Emperor Menelik II and Ethiopia's Imperial Succession

2012-03-17T18:42:00.001-07:00

Photo of Negus (King) Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia

In 1844, Menelik II, the son of King (Negus) Haile Melekot, was born in Ankober, Ethiopia. When King Melekot died in 1855, Menelik II was imprisoned at Magdala by Emperor Tewodros II, a noble who usurped the Imperial throne of Shewa. The royal family of the Shewa region throne traces its lineage to the union of King Solomon of ancient Israel and Queen of Sheba of Abyssinia, which goes back into the history of the Kush and Nubia ancient royal kingdoms. A young Menelik II would eventually escape his Magdala capture and return to the region of his father in Shewa where he claimed title to its Imperial throne.

Emperor Menelik II was a federalist that believed that the region would be strongest under a consolidated central Imperial crown at Addis Ababa (aka Addis Abeba or "new flower"), a location that would be chosen in 1886 by his Empress Taytu Betul, a city-state like London and Washington D.C. Menelik II's leadership efforts focused on consolidating the Ethiopian empire under royal patriarchal Imperial rule. During his reign, the British had heavily armed Emperor Yohannes IV (aka King John of Abyssinia) against Emperor Tewodros II. In 1863, Emperor Tewodros II reportedly committed suicide after being defeated by the British at Magdala.

By 1880, Menelik II was signing a treaty with the Italians in the Wollo province at Wuchale, acknowledging the establishment of the Italian colony of Eritrea and its capital at Asmara. Eritrea is in the northern Tigrean region. As a result, this treaty signing weakened the rule of Ras Mengasha, the son of the late Emperor Yohannes IV, over the region. When Menelik II signed the treaty with the Italians, he did not know that the Amharic version was different than the Italian version (Uccialli), a common trickery used by many European colonialist against native populations. When Menelik II discovered the deception, he denounced the Italian treaty. Italy declared war against Menelik II and invaded Ethiopia from Asmara.

Map of Ethiopia

Menelik II defeated the Italians at Amba-Alagi and Mekele. On March 1, 1896, Menelik II inflicted a decisive blow against Italian soldiers at the Battle of Adwa, forcing Italy to recognize Ethiopia's national sovereignty. Ras Mengesha was able to eventually secure Emperor Menelik II's recognition of his position as Prince of Tigray (aka Tigrai). Ras Mengesha had supported Menelik II's efforts to defeat the Italian invasion in 1896 in the Battle of Adwa. Menelik, however, refused to crown Ras Mengesha as King of Zion, which led to his rebellion against Menelik. In 1898, Menelik II defeated a rebellion by Ras Mangasha, further consolidating Imperial authority over Ethiopia, unifying the Ethiopian highlands. Ras Mengesha was defeated and placed under house arrest until his death. Menelik also signed agreements with the French settling the limits of French establishments on the Somali coast and at Jibuti (Djibouti).

LIJ IYASU AND ISSUES OF SUCCESSION

Photo of Lil Iyasu on horse mounted left.

In 1883, Menelik II consolidated his power further through marriage to Empress Taytu Betul, an influential noblewoman of Imperial lineage whose uncle ruled Tigrai and much of northern Ethiopia. While Menelik II would have no children with Taytu, he did have two daughters, then Princesses Zewditu and Shoaregga, and a son who died as a child, Prince Wossen Seged. In May 1909, Lij Iyasu (aka Lij Yasu), Menelik II's grandson by his daughter Shoaregga, was married to Romanework Mangasha, the daughter of Ras Mengasha and niece of his wife Empress Taytu. Lij Iyasu was 13 years old at the time of this political marriage.

In March 1910, after Negus Menelik II became ill, the Imperial Crown Council of Ethiopia was formed, headed by Fitawrari Habtegiorgis Dinagde. Lij Iyasu was designated by Menelik II as his patriarchal Imperial successor. Lij Iyasu's allegiance to the Islamist, however, precipitated a domestic crisis in Ethiopia. Iyasu had aligned himself with Ethiopia's traditional enemies, the Somalis and the Gallas, and converted to Islam -- proclaiming that Ethiopia would join the Turks' Holy War under his leadership.

On December 12, 1913, Emperor Menelik II died and was buried at the Baeta Le Mariam Monastery Church of Addis Ababa. Lij Iyasu was excommunicated by Marrheos X, Abuna of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, who feared that he might turn Ethiopia into a Muslim state. The Shewa nobility was not content with what has been described as Lil Iyasu's colorful lifestyle, including taking several Muslim wives. He also exiled Princess Zewditu Menelik and her husband to the countryside, as a threat to his rule.

Photo of Nigiste Negaste Empress
Zewditu of Ethiopia

Iyasu ruled for about three years but was never officially crowned. He was deposed in 1917 by the Imperial Crown Council and his royal cousin Ras Tafari Makonnen, the future Emperor Haile Selassie through the Imperial matriarchal lineage, was elevated as regent. Menelik II's daughter Zewditu Menelik, was crowned Nigiste Negast (Queen of Kings) and reigned as Empress from 1917 to 1930 by the ancient Abyssinian-Kushitic code of the Fetha Negast (Law of the Kings), as discerned by the Imperial Crown Council of Ethiopia.

Ras Tafari was made heir apparent to Empress Zewditu. Lij Iyasu was placed under house arrest in Sellale. To the end of her life, Empress Zewditu referred to her deposed nephew as "Getaye (my lord master) Iyasu". None of Zewditu's children survived to adulthood and the facts surrounding her death in 1930 has always left question of whether it was by natural cause.

Black History Heroes Book Club

2012-03-03T21:30:00.009-08:00

Welcome to the Book Club!

THIS QUARTER'S BOOK TITLE: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Coloredblindness

AUTHOR: Michelle Alexander

READING AND DISCUSSION PERIOD: July 1, 2012 - September 30, 2012

INITIAL DISCUSSION QUESTION: According to a The New York Times report, "[t]he United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners." See U.S. prison population dwarfs that of other nations, by Adam Liptak, NYT (04/23/08). What is the reason for America's growing Industrial Prison Complex? What, if any, connection does it have with the history of enslavement of Africans in America?

The Black History Heroes blog's quarterly online book club will be reading and discussing The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander from 7/1 through 9/30/12. The goal of the BHH book club is to gather the blog's readers into a dialogue around a book related to African history and culture. Once you have read the book, post your commentaries and develop your discussions here regarding the book.

Angela Davis discusses Prison Industrial Complex

Purchase The New Jim Crow from:

Amazon.com [Book] or [Kindle]

Barnes and Noble [Book] or [Nook]

Powell's Books [Book]

Indie Bound [Link to independent bookstores nationwide]

Freedom's Journal: The First African American Newspaper (Photo Image)

2012-02-16T20:43:00.000-08:00

FREEDOM'S JOURNAL

The first Black newspaper of record printed in the United States was Freedom's Journal,

published in New York City in 1827.

Rev. Glenwood Paris Roane Sr., Esquire

2012-01-05T18:57:00.000-08:00

Photo: Rev. Glenwood Paris Roane Sr., Esquire,
Pastor of Second Congregational United Church of Christ holds Bible,
with former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton and other Memphis elders to his left.

Rev. Glenwood Paris Roane Sr., Esquire, Pastor of Second Congregational United Church of Christ, departed this life on December 30, 2011, at the age of 81, following a long illness. He is survived by his devoted wife of 41 years, Lucie Porter Roane; a son, Glenwood P. Roane Jr.; two daughters, Dr. Karen Roane Jones (Dr. Mark) and Rosemary Ly Kallaur (Daniel); six grandchildren; two brothers, Gerald Roane (Barbara), and Russell Roane (Marie); a brother-in-law, Douglas T. Porter (Dr. Jean Butcher); and a host of nephews, nieces and cousins.

A native Virginian and the seventh of ten children, he was born to the late Ruby Richardson and James Randolph Roane in Westmoreland County VA. Glen graduated from A.T. Johnson High School and went on to receive a BS degree in Agronomy and was honored as a “Distinguished Military Graduate” from Virginia State University in 1952.

Image: Glenwood P. Roane,
Attorney at Law

He received his Juris Doctor from Howard University School of Law in 1957. He did graduate work at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University in 1970-71, and at Georgetown University in 1990. Glen loved the law and was a proud member of the bar in Washington, D.C., Virginia and Tennessee. He was a career Diplomat with the U.S. Department of State / U.S. Agency for International Development for 26 1/2 years. He served in Kenya, Egypt, Liberia, Ghana, Vietnam, and the Far East as a Foreign Service Officer. Throughout his distinguished career, he was the recipient of numerous awards.

He holds a life membership in the NAACP and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. The family will receive friends on Friday, January 6, 2012, from 4-7 p.m. at Second Congregational United Church of Christ, 764 Walker Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee. The funeral service will be held on Saturday, January 7, at 11 a.m. at Metropolitan Baptist Church, 767 Walker Avenue. Burial will take place on Saturday, January 14, 2012 at Galilee Baptist Church, Montross, VA.

The family wishes to express sincere thanks for the care and support given by the staff on 3 West at Methodist Le Bonheur Germantown Hospital and Methodist Alliance Hospice Residence. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that memorial contributions be made to the “Building Fund” at Second Congregational United Church of Christ. Memorial Park Funeral Home, "Behind the stone wall", 901-767-8930. Condolences may be offered at www.MemorialParkOnline.com.

Submitted by attorney Roane's former law clerk and associate, Vanessa M. Cross, J.D., LL.M.

THE DOGON: From the Nile Valley of East Africa to the Kingdom of Mali in West Africa

2011-10-12T12:38:00.001-07:00

The Dogon of Africa.

The Dogon, an ancient people in Africa, are mainly populated in the modern nations of Mali and Burkino Faso in West Africa, the epicenter of the historical medieval Mali Empire. When western anthropologists first began to study Dogon culture they were baffled at the group's advanced knowledge of the universe. They were specifically astonished at their intricate understanding of the Sirius planetary system (Alpha Canis Majoris).

Historical commentators believe that the Dogon's cosmological lore goes back thousands of years to at least 3200 BC, during the pre-dynastic age of ancient Egypt. The Dogon's oral history also includes an eastern migration story prior to its settling in the Bandiagara Plateau region, near the Southern edge of the Sahara desert between the 13th and 16th centuries.

Dogon Astronomy and Cosmology

Sirius B circles Sirius A like the
Earth circles the Sun.

Sigi Tolo is the name the Dogon give to the distant star Sirius, also referred to as Sirius A. Po Tolo is the name given to its smaller companion star, Sirius B. According to French anthropologist Marcel Graiule, author of Conversations With Ogotemmeli, Dogon priests have kept a precise reading of the ebbs and flow of Canis Major planetary bodies. Cosmological and astronomical knowledge are both retained in every aspect of their communal lives. In the 1960s, when Graiule studied the Dogon, he found a social order void of murder and theft. It included an elder mediation process that resolved the disputes that did arise within Dogon communities, such as who has liability for damages when a man's goat destroys property belonging to his neighbor.

For thousands of years, Dogon social and cultural systems were designed to recall this knowledge that had been obtained without any known physical telescopes. From documentary footage about the Dogon, it appears that they dwell among the cliffs and use the peaks of mountain and hill tops to anchor and measure planetary movements, aided by our pattern of rotation around the sun.

Youth viewing Dogon rock drawings.

For the Dogon, patterns and symbols related to planetary knowledge is embedded in rituals, architecture, sand drawings, etc. The Dogon are aware that Po Tolo (Sirius B) has a 50-year elliptical orbit around the super dense Sigi Tolo (Sirius A). Knowledge of Sirius B was not discovered by western astronomers until 1970 when photographed by Irving Lindenblad of the U.S. Naval Observatory.

The Nile Valley and the Sirius Connection

Seen clearly in Africa, the Canis Major
is one of Orion's great hunting dogs
(See also Canis Minor).

The Kemet story of Osiris and Isis were developed and recalled by other Nile valley civilizations such as Nubia and Kush -- all of which identify the Sirius constellation system as the dog star (Canis Major), a manifestation of Anubu (aka Upuaut or "Opener of the Ways"; Greek: Anubis). In Nile valley creation stories, Anubu is a central actor. He is probably best known for his role in the battle between the brothers Set and Osiris. When Set disassembles the body of his brother Osiris, Isis reassembles the body pieces and delivers them to Anubu who performs embalming rites that bring Osiris back to life. Anubu is also associated with Osiris as his son -- making him the brother of Horus.

Anubu is also known within Nile valley civilization populations as the one who protects and guides the spirits of the dead across the waters (Nun) of the underworld (Duat or the Hall of Two Truths). Anubu reigned over the process of mummification and embalming, leading the souls of the dead to the Hall of Two Truths for the declaration of the 42 Laws of Maat and the weighing of the heart by the goddess of law and justice, Maat.

Ancient image representing Anubu (greek: Anubis).

Image: Ancient Kmt image representing Anubu / Anubis (right).

Nommo Cosmology and the Dogon Creation Story

An unusual graffiti photographed by Scotch Mist in
Edinburgh, Scotland (Creative Commons/Flickr).

The Dogon's creation story has its origin on Po Tolo (Sirius B). According to the Dogon, Nommo came from the Sirius star system,, which is some 8.7 light years away but still bright in our night sky. According to the creation story, the Nommo traveled to Earth by ark and, upon arrival, morphed into the eight mythical human ancestors -- 4 male and 4 female (See also Tehuti (aka Thoth), Ogdoad, Rebirth, Golden Age). Over time, the first human ancestors mated and birthed all of humanity. Even today, the Dogon pray to Nommo for rain, a prayer they say was taught to them by the Nommo. The Dogon rain dance is similar to that of the Native American and involve raising of hands, chanting and making offerings.

Susana Baca: Ambassador of Afro-Peruvian Music Becomes Peru's First Black Cabinet Minister

2011-10-01T09:01:00.000-07:00

Photo: Peru's Cultural Minister Susana Baca.
Creative Commons/Wikipedia

In July 2011, Susana Baca accepted Peru's President Ollanta Humala's invitation to join his administration to become the first Peruvian cabinet minister of African descent. On accepting the post of cultural minister, Baca says that one of her goals is to combat discrimination against Peru's African and indigenous populations.

"I am the symbol of inclusion," said Baca to school students in her hometown of San Luis de Canete, reported the Associated Press. "I don't hate the people who segregated us, who punished us, who hurt us. I just don't want anyone else in our country to go through what I did."

Baca has an approval rating of 62 percent in Peru, making her the country's most popular cabinet minister, according to an 2011 Ipsos Apoyo poll. Baca is best known as a musical performer and musical anthropologist of Afro-Peruvian music. She is also known as an out-spoken advocate for human rights and equality for decades.

Africans in Peru

In 1527, Africans arrived in the modern nation of Peru as a result of the European slave trade to the west coast of Latin America. (But see also Olmec). Spain financed the establishment of sugar cane plantations using slave labor in the river valley region of San Luis de Canete. It was more than 300 years later, in 1854, that Peru finally abolished slavery in the region. San Luis de Canete continued as a booming mill town.

Today, approximately 10 percent of Peru's 29 million people are of African descent, many of which have migrated to cities such as Lima for work opportunities, as reported by The World Summit of Afro-Descendants. At one point in its history, the capital of Lima was considered a majority Black capital because its citizens were approximately 40 percent of African descent.

According to the World Summit's report, Africans in Peru have a high rate of joblessness and work in low-income sectors. Baca is among the 2 percent of Afro-Peruvians who have earned a post-secondary education. Her work through the Peruvian government may have a favorable impact on laws and policies impacting African and indigenous people in the country.

In August 2011, The World Summit of Afro-Descendants conference was held at the National University of La Ceiba in Honoduras, sponsored in part by the United Nations, to examine the African diaspora -- including the estimated 150 to 200 million Latin Americans of African descent.

References: African Diplomacy: World Summit of African Descendants in Honduras Demands Reparations; Associated Press; Peru's First Black Minister: Barefoot Singer; Frank Bajak; Sept. 2011

African Nova Scotian: Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia

2011-09-28T13:52:00.000-07:00

BLACK CULTURAL CENTRE FOR NOVA SCOTIA -- If you find yourself in Nova Scotia, make sure you visit the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia. On December 17, 2011, the Black Cultural Centre will host its Annual Christmas Concert.

Location: 10 Cherrybrook Road, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Phone: (902) 434-6223 or (800) 465-0767
Fax: (902) 465-0767
Website: bccns.com
Hours of Operation: Open year-around: Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.; Saturday, 10:00 a.m. - 3 p.m., June-September
Admission: Adults $6, seniors & students $4, family $20.

Photo: Portrait of a Nova Scotian of African descent attributed
to Lady Falkland, 1845. Source: Library and Archives Canada

The Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia recently completed its 2011 Museum Renovation Initiative. Located in the oldest Black community in the Halifx metro area, the center includes exhibit rooms, auditorium, library, picnic area and a gift shop. The center's staff also offers bus tours of the local history of blacks in Nova Scotia, dating back to the 1600s. Programs highlight themes related to community life, religious life, military service and migration.

From Nova Scotia, Canada to Sierra Leone, Africa

In addition to the Black Cultural Centre's resources, the local government has also digitized select records of African settlement patterns in Nova Scotia and made them available through a searchable online archive.

The digitized documents available from the Nova Scotia government were originally assembled by the late Records Commission, T.B. Akins, around the theme "Refugee Negroes". Spanning from 1791-1839, the earliest documents relate to the emigration of 1200 free Africans in the eastern region of Canada to Sierra Leone. The group of Africans who left Nova Scotia originally immigrated after the American Revolutionary War, in 1783, as part of the British Loyalist migration.

The documents available from these government archives are great for African diaspora genealogist because they include the individual names of African refugees from the passenger lists of British ships landing at Beechville, Hammonds Plains, Preston and other locations. Documents also include correspondence and petitions to the government by white Nova Scotian citizens expressing concern for the difficult conditions faced by the African refugees.

Black Nova Scotian Refugees from the War of 1812

The Canadian digital archives also include information regarding the settlement of 2000 African refugees in Nova Scotia from September 1813 to August 1815. This migration was a direct result of the British military's War of 1812 proclamation that offered Americans who deserted to the British side free settlement in any of the British colonies if the efforts were unsuccessful.

Unlike the early emigrants to Sierra Leone, the African refugees of the War of 1812 remained, in great part, in Nova Scotia. In 1820, the British colonial government offered to emigrate them to Trinidad. Archive records indicate that 95 Africans chose to leave for Trinidad. The record also indicates that others feared migrating to Trinidad would lead to a return to slavery.

Searchable archive records of African settlement in the Nova Scotia and emigration to West Africa and the Caribbean are at Nova Scotia Archives, available HERE.

Here's a sample of the youth music out of Nova Scotia.

Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter. - African Proverb

Dr. Wangari Maathai: African Environmentalist and Nobel Laureate

2011-09-26T10:48:00.000-07:00

Photo: Dr. Wangari Maathai. Creative Commons: Center for Neighborhood Technology/Flickr

Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai died September 25, 2011. The first African woman and environmentalist bestowed with the Nobel Peace Prize was described by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as a leading voice in Africa. "Professor Maathai introduced the idea of women planting trees in Kenya to reduce poverty and conserve the environment," said the Archbishop in an official statement. Founder of the Green Belt Movement, Dr. Maathai mobilized women to plant more than 40 million trees in Africa, championed environmental sustainability as a direct link to human sustainability and a tool against poverty.

"[Maathai] will be remembered as a committed champion of the environment, sustainable development, womens' rights, and democracy," stated former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Atta Annan. "Her contribution to all these causes will forever be celebrated and honored."

"Rest in peace Dr. Wangari Maathai. A great woman, an inspiration for many women across Africa, a magnificent visionary and embodiment of courage," stated Tanzania's President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete from his Twitter account.

Early Life in Kenya in East Africa

On April 1, 1940, Wangari Muta was born to Muta Njugi, her father, and Wanjiru Kibicho, her mother -- a Kikuyu farming family from the Nyeri District of Kenya, in the village of Ihithe. She is noted as saying that her parents gave her an early respect for the soil and its bounty. Her first formal studies in Kenya began at the age of eight at the Ihithe Primary School and late at St. Cecilia's Intermediate Primary School in Nyeri and Loreto High School Limuru.

In 1959, at the end of British rule in East Africa, Maathi left Kenya to study in the U.S. at Benedictine College (then Mount St. Scholastica College) in the state of Kansas. Studying on scholarship, she earned a Bachelors of Science in 1964 and would go on to earn a Master's of Science in Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. She would also later study at university in Germany.

Photo: Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai. Creative Commons/Wikipedia

In 1966, Maathai returned to Kenya where she was appointed research assistant to a zoology professor at University College of Nairobi and opened a family-run general store in Nairobi. In Kenya, she would marry Mwangi Mathai and have three children: Bangari Maathai, Sangari Maathai and Mangari Maathai. After an embattled divorce from Mathai, she succeeded in retaining the family name by adding an "a": Maathai.

In 1971, Maathai became the first Eastern African woman to earn a Ph.D. when she was awarded a Doctorate of Anatomy. She became a senior lecturer, associate professor and chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy at the University of Nairobi. It was at the university that Maathai began campaigning for equal benefits for women working at the university.

Green Belt Movement

To honor Nairobi's community leaders, the first "Green Belt" tree was planted in the city's Kamukunji park in 1977. Maathai encouraged Kenyan women to plant native tree nurseries throughout Kenya, agreeing to pay them stipends for each seedling found in a native forest and planted elsewhere.

Maathai became an active environmentalist, voice for women and for African self-sufficiency. In 2009, she authored the book "The Challenge for Africa." In the epilogue to her book, "Unbound: A Memoir", Dr. Maathai writes:

Trees have been an essential part of my life and have provided me with many lessons. Trees are living symbols of peace and hope. A tree has roots in the soil yet reaches to the sky. It tells us that in order to aspire we need to be grounded, and that no matter how high we go it is from our roots that we draw sustenance. It is a reminder to all of us who have had success that we cannot forget where we came from. It signifies that no matter how powerful we become in government or how many awards we receive, our power and strength and our ability to reach our goals depend on the people, those whose work remains unseen, who are the soil out of which we grow, the shoulders on which we stand.

Charles F. Bolden, Jr.: First African American NASA Administrator

2011-05-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

Photo of Charles F. Bolden Jr., NASA Administrator
(Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

In May 2009, Charles F. Bolden, Jr. (Major General, USMC Ret.) was appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama as the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the head post at the U.S. space exploration agency.

Born August 19, 1946 in Columbia, South Carolina to Charles Bolden, Sr., an educator and head H.S. football coach, and Ethel Bolden, an educator and librarian whose works included establishing libraries in Columbia's black elementary schools.

In 1964, Bolden graduated from C.A. Johnson High School. In 1968, he earned a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, joining the U.S. Marine Corps the same year. In 1977, he earned a M.S. degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California and two years later graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School.

The first black administrator of NASA, Bolden was inspired by the late Ronald E. McNair, the African American astronaut that died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. "It was Ron who inspired me to submit my application to the space program," said Bolden to The State, a South Carolina homepage.

Photo of Major General Charles F. Bolden, Jr.

In 1980, Bolden was selected to join NASA as an astronaut. He traveled to orbit four times. He flew in four space shuttle missions, including piloting the Space Shuttle Columbia and deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope. Bolden served 34 years in the military before retiring in 2003 as the Commanding General of the Third Marine Aircraft Wing.

Bolden is married to the former Alexis "Jackie" Walker. They have two children, Kelly Michelle, a plastic surgeon, and Anthony Che, a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps.