black historee month

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7 Of the Most Ruthless European Colonialists

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British General Sir Evelyn Baring

Kenya has rich and fertile agricultural land and in 1895, the Europeans wanted it. Under the lead of British Gen. Sir Evelyn Baring, war was declared on the people of Kenya. Baring imposed a death penalty on anyone who administered the so-called Mau Mau oath – an oath of the Kenyan people that gave them courage to fight for their land and their freedom.

To keep control of land that wasn’t theirs, the British executed, tortured or maimed 90,000 Kenyans during the crackdown, and 160,000 more were detained in appalling conditions, according to the Kenya Human Rights Commission.

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7 Of the Most Ruthless European Colonialists

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Francisco Pizarro

Francisco Pizarro was a notoriously evil, illiterate Spanish conquistador who conquered Peru. In only 15 years, he and his followers killed thousands of indigenous people, wiped out the ruling Inca monarchy and enslaved all remaining survivors of the empire.

He excelled in torture, he was known for burning the eyes of natives to get their gold. These acts were committed in pursuit of power, gold and religious imperialism.

Few men have changed the course of history in such a vile and evil manner than Pizarro.

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7 Of the Most Ruthless European Colonialists

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George Augustus Robinson

Before the British colonized the Australian state of Tasmania in 1803, there were an estimated 15,000 people living on the land.

By 1833, the population was cut down to only 200 survivors. George Augustus Robinson, sponsored by Lt. Gov. George Arthur, had coerced the remaining 200 surviving Aboriginal Tasmanians to surrender themselves with assurances that they would be protected, provided for and eventually have their lands returned to them.

These “assurances” were, in fact, lies. Robinson made promises to play on the survivors desperate hopes for reunification with lost family and community members. These survivors were removed from their lands to Flinders Island, where they eventually all died off.

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7 Of the Most Ruthless European Colonialists

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Hernán Cortés

Hernán Cortés was peacefully received by Emperor Montezuma, a sophisticated leader born of Aztec royalty, in Tenochtitlan.

Shortly after Cortés took Montezuma captive and demanded a huge ransom in gold. Cortes besieged the Aztec Empire and sacked the city, renaming it Mexico City. Cortes secured the city and subjected the indigenous population to great cruelty and hardship, as well as introducing foreign diseases that decimated the remaining survivors.

In the end, an estimated 120,000 to 240,000 Aztec people were killed. Cortes began the first phase of Spanish colonization of the Americas.

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7 Of the Most Ruthless European Colonialists

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Napoleon

According to Claude Ribbe, who specialized in the history of colonialism in the Caribbean, Napoleon was the man who, for the first time in history, “asked himself rationally the question how to eliminate, in as short a time as possible, and with a minimum of cost and personnel, a maximum of people described as scientifically inferior”.

French Caribbean colony in Haiti around the 1800s was the world’s richest colony, a slave-powered export factory which produced almost two-thirds of the world’s coffee and almost half its sugar. Enslaved Africans were lashed and beaten to work and forced to wear tin muzzles to prevent them from eating the sugar cane. If the slaves were fractious, they were roasted over slow fires, or filled with gunpowder and blown to pieces. He further commanded the killing of as many Blacks in Haiti as possible, to be replaced by new, more docile enslaved Africans.

In 1802, a vast program of ethnic cleansing was put in place. Napoleon banned interracial marriages and ordered that all white women who’d had any sort of relationship with a Black or mulatto (person of mixed race) be shipped to France.

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7 Of the Most Ruthless European Colonialists

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Christopher Columbus

The year 1492 marks when Christopher Columbus invaded the Western hemisphere and began 500 years of continuous indigenous genocide resulting in the holocaust of 95 % of all indigenous people there.

Upon landing in Hispaniola and despite describing the indigenous people as peaceful and friendly in his journal, Columbus quickly implemented policies of slavery, extermination and extortion for the purposes of stealing the land and the wealth. Columbus laid down the foundation of mass genocide that in the years to follow, Spanish Conquistadors Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro would follow.

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Ophelia DeVore, “Black Is Beautiful” Pioneer


History-maker Ophelia DeVore (pictured), one of the first African-American models in the U.S., and owner of the the legendary Grace Del Marco Modeling Agency and The Ophelia DeVore School of Self-Development and Modeling


DeVore pioneered the “Black is Beautiful” movements, two famous institutions, provided lessons in modeling, etiquette, poise and posture, ballet, speech and self-presentation (including grooming lessons in hair styling, applying makeup and dressing in flattering clothes) and supported the social and professional aspirations of tens of thousands illustrious students such as Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson, Richard Roundtree, Gail Fisher, Susan Taylor, Gil Noble and Faith Evans.

DeVore was born on August 22, 1922 in Edgefield, S.C. She was one of ten children. DeVore’s parents were of German, French, Native American and African-American heritage. She attended segregated schools in the South until 1933 when she was sent to New York City to live with an aunt. She managed to earn a high school diploma from the Big Apple’s prestigious and highly competitive Hunter College High School and went on to major in mathematics at New York University.

In 1938, DeVore caught the modeling bug after friends and family urged her to try her hand at it, particularly since she had a background in dance. At the time, Blacks were depicted very stereotypically in print media and DeVore decided to make it her mission to change the unflattering images.

In 1938, DeVore began taking on small hair care modeling jobs because these were the only ones being offered to Black models at the time, and the assignments were few and far in between. At age 16, DeVore decided that she needed more formal training in order to become a better– and, perhaps–more employable model, so she enrolled at New York City’s Vogue School of Modeling, which did not serve a Black clientele at the time.

At the time of enrollment, school officials did not know that DeVore was a Black woman, so she was able to slip through and hone her modeling skills. DeVore did not feel a need to broadcast to the school’s officials her race because she knew what the consequences would be. Modeling was in its infancy stages during the mid-forties and DeVore wanted to jump on this new vehicle and use it to eventually help propel her people, so mum had to be the word.

After completing the modeling school, DeVore got wind that a new Black magazine was in need of models, so she decided to pay Ebony a call. The young model then began working for Ebony exclusively. After being called for a few assignments, DeVore then truly began to see how Black women were not being recognized in mainstream media for their beauty and she felt compelled to change this way of thinking.

In 1946 with the help of four friends, DeVore opened Grace del Marco Modeling Agency and in 1948 she created the Ophelia DeVore School of Self-Development and Modeling. Besides creating opportunities to showcase African-Americans in magazines, on the runway and at pageants and fashion shows, DeVore started marketing to non-white audiences.

As part of this project, she produced a mega promotional campaign for the Johnson & Johnson corporation that launched the career of supermodel Helen Williams. In 1955, DeVore and her models made history as hosts of ABC’s weekly television show, “Spotlight on Harlem.”

It was the first television program in New York produced by and for African-Americans. She made history again in 1959 and 1960 when two of her clients, Cecilia Cooper and LaJeune Hundley, were the first Americans, Black or White, to win titles at the Cannes Film Festival.

DeVore continued to make history and alter the way the beauty industry viewed Black women throughout the years. She once sued Life Magazine after it published a story in 1969 on Black models for which she was interviewed; the resulting article cited White-owned agencies instead. Devore also created a makeup line for women of color and developed and produced the first beauty pageant for Black women here in the U.S. She was the owner and publisher of The Columbus Times, based in Columbus, Ga., and a founder of The Black Press Archives at Howard University.

The legend, who has received over 200 awards and who was bestowed with the prestigious honor of being named one of the 75 Black women who, in 1989, have positively impacted and changed the world as part of the famed “I Dream A World Series,” leaves behind five children and 21 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

http://newsone.com/2945473/ophelia-devore-dies-dead/

[Wahalla]

As i point out is that i find Black History limited to a ynki sensibility, history and social mores....We need history.... Garvey did not read black hisory, he read history...and he pulled information..What i hear constanly

His Garvey's father would lock himself for days and read not black history but history,,,,,

Cuba is a case in point, there has been black artist writers musicians who are constantly ignored..Maceo, Jose Marti, Nicolas Guillen were a cultural constant in my youth....

Here is a documentary by the great Carlos Acosta (his father a blak man is a sell out according to this board , he married a blond).... here has a documentary.. it is not "black" but it is about the antihegemonic cultural idea.. the unification of culture that has made Caribbean individual

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01t39bc

To me this is an important learning experinece....

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As i point out is that i find Black History limited to a ynki sensibility, history and social mores....We need history.... Garvey did not read black hisory, he read history...and he pulled information..What i hear constanly

His Garvey's father would lock himself for days and read not black history but history,,,,,

Cuba is a case in point, there has been black artist writers musicians who are constantly ignored..Maceo, Jose Marti, Nicolas Guillen were a cultural constant in my youth....

Here is a documentary by the great Carlos Acosta (his father a blak man is a sell out according to this board , he married a blond).... here has a documentary.. it is not "black" but it is about the antihegemonic cultural idea.. the unification of culture that has made Caribbean individual

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01t39bc

To me this is an important learning experinece....

an yet carter woodson wrote artikkles inn garvey paper bout blakk histaree cumparinn da histaree being taught by blakk caribbean countrees versus da histaree dem taught blakk merikkan yuths. imm bigg upp da caribbean system aff histaree as more beneficial to blakks. dat being sed oww yuh drawinn da canclusion dat "Black History limited to a ynki sensibility, history and social mores....We need history.... Garvey did not read black hisory, he read history...and he pulled information..

woodson neva sed dat onlee blakk histaree need fe be taught. imm sed dat blakk histaree need fe be taught along side addar histaree fe give a more accurate pitcha aff blakk peeps

pint being made iss dat a latt aff da criticisms aff carter g woodson ann blakk histaree month iss natt based pon wat carter g woodson advocated. peeps juss redefininn carter g woodson ann blakk histaree month fe suit dem bias percetshams

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The Black Victorians


The history of black people in Britain certainly goes back a long way - well before the reign of Queen Victoria. There were Black people in Britain in Roman times, and there has been a continuous Black presence here since 1555. For Shakespeare’s London audiences, Black faces would have been a familiar sight.


The eighteenth century saw a great expansion in Britain’s Black population. After the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713, British slavers dominated the infamous Atlantic slave trade. Some slaves were landed and sold at London, Liverpool or Bristol, but many Black people were brought as domestic servants by returning sea-captains, colonial administrators and plantation owners. For the English aristocracy and the newly rich, a Black page or handmaiden was an asset to be shown off as evidence of exotic wealth, so in the 18th century Black people were ironically more evident in the art and writing of the time than they were to be in the early Victorian period.





By the 1760s, the Black population had grown to somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000; Granville Sharp estimated the number of black servants in London alone at 20,000”



By the 1760s, the Black population had grown to somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000; Granville Sharp estimated the number of black servants in London alone at 20,000, in a city of 676,250 people. Many had attained freedom - or run away from their masters. In 1772, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield’s historic decision in the case of runaway John Somerset ruled that a slave could not be deported from Britain against his or her will. This was the beginning of the end of slavery in Britain itself, and an encouragement to Black people and to abolitionist campaigners. The abolition of slavery was confirmed in 1806 by an Act of Parliament.



As the 18th century drew to a close, Britain’s Black population was well established, breaking free from slavery - but usually very poor, sometimes destitute. The first-generation immigrants were overwhelmingly male, supplemented by arrivals of Black sailors, plus 4,000 Black refugees who had fought for George III against the American Revolution. Black people integrated and intermarried into poor white urban populations, and entered the nineteenth century sharing in the misery and historical anonymity of the British poor

http://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/the-black-victorians/4566344942

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life is all about evolution...
when carter g woodson proposed "knee-grow history week" in 1925 i think he would be appalled that we are still using the same concept in 2014--- almost 100 years later...
where is the progress?
almost 100 years of taking a week or a month to talk about "negro history" or "black history"...when the "white" power structure celebrates the hand-picked figures they approved as acceptable for honor--- every february;
this is preposterous...a free-minded people does not allow their enemy to set the parameters of their education...
i guarantee china would not be a world power if they had something called "yellow history month"...

evolution survival aff da fittest. natural selection ting

wat wood ave appalled carter g woodson iss da lack aff blakk histaree still being taught dat still make blakk histaree month needed.

woo care woo oyinbo hand picked as images blakk peeps shood idolized wen itt blakk peeps woo shod be selectinn blakk images woo are worthee aff lionization.

jah yuth tink pon mlk day ann oww manee blakks used dat fe pander fe oyinbo money. mii kno sum civil wrongs organization dat will jump to defend oyinbo fram allegation aff racism even dough dem kno dat dem oyinbo supremacee ave racist policies. dat doan meen dat mlk ting iss badd cah sum blakks use itt fe upliff blakks.

dat wan aff de diss tredd cah itt present blakks ann oyinbo woo ar natt usuallee chatt bout.

doan reallee care bout da images oyinbo pushinn cah itt blakk peeps responseebilleetee fe define ann redefine owaselves

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peeps luv fe gawn like blakk histaree began widd slaveree


BLACK CIVILIZATIONS OF ANCIENT AMERICA (MUU-LAN),
MEXICO (XI)

Gigantic stone head of Negritic African during the Olmec (Xi) Civilization

By Paul Barton


The earliest people in the Americas were people of the Negritic African race, who entered the Americas perhaps as early as 100,000 years ago, by way of the bering straight and about thirty thousand years ago in a worldwide maritime undertaking that included journeys from the then wet and lake filled Sahara towards the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, and from West Africa across the Atlantic Ocean towards the Americas.
According to the Gladwin Thesis, this ancient journey occurred, particularly about 75,000 years ago and included Black Pygmies, Black Negritic peoples and Black Australoids similar to the Aboriginal Black people of Australia and parts of Asia, including India.

Ancient African terracotta portraits 1000 B.C. to 500 B.C.

Recent discoveries in the field of linguistics and other methods have shown without a doubt, that the ancient Olmecs of Mexico, known as the Xi People, came originally from West Africa and were of the Mende African ethnic stock. According to Clyde A. Winters and other writers (see Clyde A. Winters website), the Mende script was discovered on some of the ancient Olmec monuments of Mexico and were found to be identical to the very same script used by the Mende people of West Africa. Although the carbon fourteen testing date for the presence of the Black Olmecs or Xi People is about 1500 B.C., journies to the Mexico and the Southern United States may have come from West Africa much earlier, particularly around five thousand years before Christ. That conclusion is based on the finding of an African native cotton that was discovered in North America. It's only possible manner of arriving where it was found had to have been through human hands. At that period in West African history and even before, civilization was in full bloom in the Western Sahara in what is today Mauritania. One of Africa's earliest civilizations, the Zingh Empire, existed and may have lived in what was a lake filled, wet and fertile Sahara, where ships criss-crossed from place to place.

ANCIENT AFRICAN KINGDOMS PRODUCED
OLMEC TYPE CULTURES

The ancient kingdoms of West Africa which occupied the Coastal forest belt from Cameroon to Guinea had trading relationships with other Africans dating back to prehistoric times. However, by 1500 B.C., these ancient kingdoms not only traded along the Ivory Coast, but with the Phoenicians and other peoples. They expanded their trade to the Americas, where the evidence for an ancient African presence is overwhelming. The kingdoms which came to be known by Arabs and Europeans during the Middle Ages were already well established when much of Western Europe was still inhabited by Celtic tribes. By the 5th Century B.C., the Phoenicians were running comercial ships to several West African kingdoms. During that period, iron had been in use for about one thousand years and terracotta art was being produced at a great level of craftsmanship. Stone was also being carved with naturalistic perfection and later, bronze was being used to make various tools and instruments, as well as beautifully naturalistic works of art.

The ancient West African coastal and interior Kingdoms occupied an area that is now covered with dense vegetation but may have been cleared about three to four thousand years ago. This includes the regions from the coasts of West Africa to the South, all the way inland to the Sahara. A number of large kingdoms and empires existed in that area. According to Blisshords Communications, one of the oldest empires and civilizions on earth existed just north of the coastal regions into what is today Mauritania. It was called the Zingh Empire and was highly advanced. In fact, they were the first to use the red, black and green African flag and to plant it throughout their territory all over Africa and the world.

The Zingh Empire existed about fifteen thousand years ago. The only other civilizations that may have been in existance at that period in history were the Ta-Seti civilization of what became Nubia-Kush and the mythical Atlantis civilization which may have existed out in the Atlantic, off the coast of West Africa about ten to fifteen thousand years ago. That leaves the question as to whether there was a relationship between the prehistoric Zingh Empire of West Africa and the civilization of Atlantis, whether the Zingh Empire was actually Atlantis, or whether Atlantis if it existed was part of the Zingh empire. Was Atlantis, the highly technologically sophisticated civilization an extension of Black civilization in the Meso-America and other parts of the Americas?

http://www.raceandhistory.com/images/postedD148.jpg

http://www.raceandhistory.com/images/postedD149.jpg

The above ancient stone carvings (500 t0 1000 B.C.) of Shamans of Priest-Kings clearly show distinct similarities in instruments held and purpose. The realistic carving of an African king or Oni and the stone carving of a shaman from Columbia's San Agustin Culture indicates diffusion of African religious practices to the Americas. In fact, the region of Columbia and Panama were among the first places that Blacks were spotted by the first Spanish explorers to the Americas.

From the archeological evidence gathered both in West Africa and Meso-America, there is reason to believe that the African Negritics who founded or influenced the Olmec civilization came from West Africa. Not only do the collosol Olmec stone heads resemble Black Africans from the Ghana area, but the ancient religious practices of the Olmec priests was similar to that of the West Africans, which included shamanism, the study of the Venus complex which was part of the traditions of the Olmecs as well as the Ono and Dogon People of West Africa. The language connection is of significant importance, since it has been found out through decipherment of the Olmec script, that the ancient Olmecs spoke the Mende language and wrote in the Mend script, which is still used in parts of West Africa and the Sahara to this day.

ANCIENT TRADE BETWEEN THE AMERICAS AND AFRICA

The earliest trade and commercial activities between prehistoric and ancient Africa and the Americas may have occurred from West Africa and may have included shipping and travel across the Atlantic. The history of West Africa has never been properly researched. Yet, there is ample evidence to show that West Africa of 1500 B.C. was at a level of civilization approaching that of ancient Egypt and Nubia-Kush. In fact, there were similarities between the cultures of Nubia and West Africa, even to the very similarities between the smaller scaled hard brick clay burial pyramids built for West African Kings at Kukia in
pre Christian Ghana and their counterparts in Nubia, Egypt and Meso-America.

Although West Africa is not commonly known for having a culture of pyramid-building, such a culture existed although pyramids were created for the burial of kings and were made of hardened brick. This style of pyramid building was closer to what was built by the Olmecs in Mexico when the first Olmec pyramids were built. In fact, they were not built of stone, but of hardened clay and compact earth.

Still, even though we don't see pyramids of stone rising above the ground in West Africa, similar to those of Egypt, Nubia or Mexico, or massive abilisks, collosal monuments and structures of Nubian and Khemitic or Meso-American civilization. The fact remains, they did exist in West Africa on a smaller scale and were transported to the Americas, where conditions
such as an environment more hospitable to building and free of detriments such as malaria and the tsetse fly, made it much easier to build on a grander scale.

http://www.raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/ancientamerica.htm

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ANCIENT TRADE BETWEEN THE AMERICAS AND AFRICA

The earliest trade and commercial activities between prehistoric and ancient Africa and the Americas may have occurred from West Africa and may have included shipping and travel across the Atlantic. The history of West Africa has never been properly researched. Yet, there is ample evidence to show that West Africa of 1500 B.C. was at a level of civilization approaching that of ancient Egypt and Nubia-Kush. In fact, there were similarities between the cultures of Nubia and West Africa, even to the very similarities between the smaller scaled hard brick clay burial pyramids built for West African Kings at Kukia in
pre Christian Ghana and their counterparts in Nubia, Egypt and Meso-America.

Although West Africa is not commonly known for having a culture of pyramid-building, such a culture existed although pyramids were created for the burial of kings and were made of hardened brick. This style of pyramid building was closer to what was built by the Olmecs in Mexico when the first Olmec pyramids were built. In fact, they were not built of stone, but of hardened clay and compact earth.

Still, even though we don't see pyramids of stone rising above the ground in West Africa, similar to those of Egypt, Nubia or Mexico, or massive abilisks, collosal monuments and structures of Nubian and Khemitic or Meso-American civilization. The fact remains, they did exist in West Africa on a smaller scale and were transported to the Americas, where conditions
such as an environment more hospitable to building and free of detriments such as malaria and the tsetse fly, made it much easier to build on a grander scale.

http://www.raceandhistory.com/images/postedD142.jpg

http://www.raceandhistory.com/images/postedD143.jpg

Large scale building projects such as monuent and pyramid building was most likely carried to the Americas by the same West Africans who developed the Olmec or Xi civilization in Mexico. Such activities would have occurred particularly if there was not much of a hinderance and obstacle to massive, monumental building and construction as there was in the forest and malaria zones of West Africa. Yet, when the region of ancient Ghana and Mauritania is closely examined, evidence of large prehistoric towns such as Kukia and others as well as various monuments to a great civilization existed and continue to exist at a smaller level than Egypt and Nubia, but significant enough to show a direct connection with Mexico's Olmec civilization.

The similarities between Olmec and West African civilization includes racial, religious and pyramid bilding similarities, as well as the similarities in their alphabets and scripts as well as both cultures speaking the identical Mende language, which was once widespread in the Sahara and was spread as far East as Dravidian India in prehistoric times as well as the South Pacific.

During the early years of West African trade with the Americas, commercial seafarers made frequent voyages across the Atlantic. In fact, the oral history of a tradition of seafaring between the Americas and Africa is part of the history of the Wa****aw People, an aboriginal Black nation who were the original inhabitants of the Mississippi Valley region, the former Louisiana Territories and parts of the Southern United States. According to their oral traditions, their ancient ships criss-crossed the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Americas on missions of trade and commerce..

Some of the ships used during the ancient times, perhaps earlier than 7000 B.C. (which is the date given for cave paintings of the drawings and paintings of boats in the now dried up Sahara desert) are similar to ships used in parts of Africa today. These ships were either made of papyrus or planks lashed with rope, or hollowed out tree trunks.

These ancient vessels were loaded with all type of trade goods and not only did they criss-cross the Atlantic but they traded out in the Pacific and settled there as well all the way to California. In
fact, the tradition of Black seafarers crossing the Pacific back and forth to California is much older than the actual divulgance of that fact to the first Spanish explorers who were told by the American Indians that Black men with curly hair made trips from California's shores to the Pacific on missions of trade.

On the other hand, West African trade with the Americas before Columbus and way back to proto historic times (30,000 B.C. to 10,000 B.C.), is one of the most important chapters in ancient African history. Yet, this era which begun about 30,000 years ago and perhaps earlier (see the Gladwin Thesis, by C.S.Gladwin, Mc Graw Hill Books), has not been part of the History of Blacks in the Americas. Later on in history, particularly during the early Bronze Age.

However, during the latter part of the Bronze Age, particularly between 1500 B.C. to 1000 B.C., when the Olmec civilization began to bloom and flourish, new conditions in the Mediterranean made it more difficult for West Africans to trade by sea with the region, although their land trade accross the Sahara was flourishing. By then, Greeks, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Babylonians and others were trying to gain control of the sea routes and the trading ports of the region. Conflicts in the region may have pushed the West Africans to strengthen their trans-Atlantic trade with the Americas and to explore and settle there.

http://www.raceandhistory.com/images/postedD150.jpg

Ancient sea-going vessel used by the Egyptians
and Nubians in ancient times.

http://www.raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/ancientamerica.htm

[Tropicana]

Yes thanks for sharing this and also They Came Before Columbus by Ivan Van Sertima is a MUST read.

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West African Trade and Settlement in the Americas Increases Due to Conflicts in the Mediterranean

The flowering of the Olmec Civilization occurred between 1500 B.C. to 1000 B.C., when over twenty-two collosal heads of basalt were carved representing the West African Negritic racial type.
This flowering continued with the appearance of "Magicians," or Shamanistic Africans who observed and charted the Venus planetary complex (see the pre-Christian era statuette of a West African Shaman in the photograph above)
These "Magicians," are said to have entered Mexico from West Africa between 800 B.C. to 600 B.C. and were speakers of the Mende language as well as writers of the Mende script or the Bambara script, both which are still used in parts of West Africa and the Sahara.

These Shamans who became the priestly class at Monte Alban during the 800's to 600's B.C. ( ref. The History of the African-Olmecs and Black Civilization of the Americas From Prehistoric Times to the Present Era), had to have journied across the Atlantic from West Africa, for it is only in West Africa, that the religious practices and astronomical and religious practices and complex (Venus, the Dogon Sirius observation and the Venus worship of the Afro-Olmecs, the use of the ax in the worship of Shango among he Yoruba of West Africa and the use of the ax in Afro-Olmec worship as well as the prominence of the thunder God later known as Tlalock among the Aztecs) are the same as those practiced by the Afro-Olmec Shamans. According to Clyde Ahmed Winters (see "Clyde A. Winters" webpage on "search."

Thus, it has been proven through linguistic studies, religious similarities, racial similarities between the Afro-Olmecs and West Africans, as well as the use of the same language and writing script, that the Afro-Olmecs came from the Mende-Speaking region of West Africa, which once included the Sahara.

Sailing and shipbuilding in the Sahara is over twenty thousand years old. In fact, cave and wall paintings of ancient ships were displayed in National Geographic Magazine some years ago. Such ships which carried sails and masts, were among the vessels that swept across the water filled Sahara in prehistoric times. It is from that ship-building tradition that the Bambara used their knowledge to build Thor Hayerdhal's papyrus boat Ra I which made it to the West Indies from Safi in Morroco years ago. The Bambara are also one of the West African nationalities who had and still have a religious and astronomical complex similar to that of the ancient Olmecs, particularly in the area of star gazing.

A journey across the Atlantic to the Americas on a good current during clement weather would have been an easier task to West Africans of the Coastal and riverine regions than it would have been through the use of caravans criss-crossing the hot by day and extremely cold by night Sahara desert. It would have been much easier to take a well made ship, similar to the one shown above and let the currents take it to the West Indies, and may have taken as long as sending goods back and forth from northern and north-eastern Africa to the interior and coasts of West Africa's ancient kingdoms. Add to that the fact that crossing the Sahara would have been no easy task when obsticales such as the hot and dusty environment, the thousands of miles of dust, sand and high winds existed. The long trek through the southern regions of West Africa through vallies, mountains and down the many rivers to the coast using beasts of burden would have been problematic particularly since malaria mosquitoes harmful to both humans and animals would have made the use of animals to carry loads unreliable.

Journeys by ship along the coast of West Africa toward the North, through the Pillars of Heracles,
eastward on the Mediterran to Ports such as Byblos in Lebanon, Tyre or Sydon would have been two to three times as lengthy as taking a ship from Cape Verde, sailing it across the Atlantic and landing in North-Eastern Brazil fifteen hundred miles away, or Meso America about 2400 miles away. The distance in itself is not what makes the trip easy. It is the fact that currents
which are similar to gigantic rivers in the ocean, carry ships and other vessels from West Africa to the Americas with relative ease.

West Africans during the period of 1500 B.C. to 600 B.C. up to 1492 A.D. may have looked to the Americas as a source of trade, commerce and a place to settle and build new civlilzations. During the period of 1500 B.C. to 600 B.C., there were many conflicts in the Mediterranean involving the Ku****es, Egyptians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Sea Peoples, Persians, Jews and others. Any kingdom or nation of that era who wanted to conduct smoothe trade without complications would have tried to find alternative trading partners. In fact, that was the very reason why the Europeans decided to sail westwared in their wearch for India and China in 1492 A.D. They were harrassed by the Arabs in the East and had to pay heavy taxes to pass through the region.

Still, most of the Black empires and kingdoms such as Kush, Mauri, Numidia, Egypt, Ethiopia and others may have had little difficulty conducting trade among their neighbors since they also were among the major powers of the region who were dominant in the Mediterranean.
South of this northern region to the south-west, Mauritania (the site of the prehistoric Zingh Empire) Ghana, and many of the same nationalities who ushered in the West African renaissance of the early Middle Ages were engaged in civilizations and cultures similar to those of Nubia, Egypt and the Empires of the Afro-Olmec or Xi (Shi) People.



Nubian-Ku****e King and Queen (circa 1000 B.C.)

Nubian-Ku****e King and Queen It is believed that there was a Nubian presence in Mexico and that the West African civilizations were related to that of the Nubians, despite the distance between the two centers of Black civilization in Africa. There is no doubt that in ancient times there were commercial ties between West Africa and Egypt. In fact, about 600 B.C., Nikau, a Pharaoh of Egypt sent ships to circumnavigate Africa and later on about 450 B.C., Phoenicians did the same, landing in West Africa in the nation now called Cameroon. There they witnessed what may have been the celebration of a Kwanza-like harvest festival, where "cymbals, horns," and other instruments as well as smoke and fire from buring fields could be seen from their ships.

At that period in history, the West African cultures and civilizations, which were offshoots of much earlier southern Saharan cultures, were very old compared to civilizations such as Greece or Babylon. In fact, iron was being used by the ancient West Africans as early as 2600 years B.C. and was so common that there was no "bronze age" in West Africa, although bronze was used for ornaments and instruments or tools.

A combination of Nubians and West Africans engaged in mutual trade and commerce along the coasts of West Africa could have planned many trips to and from the Americas and could have conducted a crossing about 1500 B.C. and afterwards. Massive sculptures of the heads of typical Negritic Africans were carved in the region of South Mexico where the Olmec civilization flourished. Some of these massive heads of basalt contain the cornrow hairstyle common among West African Blacks, as well as the kinky coiled hair common among at least 70 percent of all Negritic people, (the other proportion being the Dravidian Black race of India and the Black Australoids of Australia and South Asia).

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