black historee month

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Garveys first reported speech..

From a Gleaner report of an election meeting in Kingston in 1909:
'Mr Wareham stepped down, and one Mr Garvey took possession of the stand amidst cries of "Take him away! Take him away!" He paused for a while, and nobody having attempted to remove him, he proceeded to speak.
'He was not a speaker, he said; but he could not resist the temptation to speak a few words in support of Mr Wareham. A number of men were going up to the Council "merely to seek vain glory." Some of them were adventurers who came here from England penniless, and who having worked up their way were now seeking honours and means to further their business. (Cheers.) They talked about sanitation and unification, but that was only put to the front as a sham. They did not require any British adventurers when they had native men like H.A.L. Simpson, S.A. Gilbert Cox, and J. Wareham (prolonged cheers.) Those were the men they should vote for. They should not be misled by the Citizens' Association, for it could do no good, instead of drafting monstrous it would find better work in trying to relieve people from starvation. The electors should not be misled by the Press, for they had not a free press in Jamaica. The press was only serving the classes, and the articles were not expressing the opinions of the people. They should use their own judgment on the day of the poll and "select loyal, honest, true, and patriotic Jamaicans such as Messrs Simpson, Cox and Wareham." On no account should they have English adventurers when there were honest and capable Jamaicans. (Cheers.)
'The Citizens' Association was for the class and they were looking to serve their own ends. They had the first vice-president not long ago accepting a seat as a nominated member in the Legislative Council, and shortly after leaving for England no doubt to avoid the scandal. (Cheers.) Did they want such [illegible] seeking honours as it [illegible passage]. Then see that you vote for men of the type of Mr Simpson and Mr Wareham.' (Cheers.)
This is the report of a meeting on 5 August, 1909. It is, as far as I can make out, the first public speech of Marcus Garvey

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African American babies being used as alligator bait really happened, and it happened to real people. It doesn't seem to have been a widespread practice, but it did happen.

It is hard to process the thinking that could lead a person to actually use a live human baby as bait for an alligator. That is why the objects in the Jim Crow Museum are so important - they help tell the story of a society that defined African Americans as "sub-human" by portraying them as savage and worthless creatures ("Americans Forced", 1944). If people are indoctrinated, over and over again, with items, images, objects, and practices that devalue the humanity of African Americans, then practices like "African Dodger", "Human Zoos" and "Alligator bait" become possible.

In 1908 the Washington Times reported that a keeper at the New York Zoological Garden baited "Alligators With Pickaninnies" out of their winter quarters. In the article two "small colored children happened to drift through the reptile house among the throng of visitors" and they were "pressed into service." The alligators "wobbled out as quick as they could after the ebony mites, who darted around the tank just as the pursuing monsters fell with grunts of chagrin into the water." The alligators were "coaxed" into their summer quarters by "plump little Africans" ("Baits Alligators").

The headline in the September 21, 1923 Oakland Tribune reads "PICKANINNY BAIT LURES VORACIOUS 'GATOR TO DEATH. And Mother Gets Her Baby Back in Perfect Condition; Also $2". In the article T.W. Villiers chronicles the entire process of using black babies as bait and how "these little black morsels are more than glad to be led to the 'sacrifice' and do their part in lurking the big Florida gators to their fate without suffering so much as a scratch." Villiers is quick to point out that the babies are brought out of the "water alive and whole and come out wet and laughing" and that "there is nothing terrible about it, except that it is spelling death for the alligators." In a strange twist, Villiers reports on the hunter's attempts to rationalize the motivation of the alligators to

"jeopardize every hope of life for a live baby, and in the matter of color, the additional information is vouchsafed that black babies, in the estimation of the alligators, are far more refreshing, as it were, than white ones."

The article describes the process of placing the babies near the alligator's haunts, with the hunters hidden behind the brush with their rifles. When the baby "attracts" the gator and it exposes his "head and forequarters", the hunters shoot the gator and claim their "prize." And, just in case someone happens to care about the welfare of the baby, the reader is assured that "Florida alligator hunters do not ever miss their targets." After the baby is returned to its mother, she is paid the set price of two dollars (Villiers, 1923).

This event was also reported by the Atlanta Independent, America's Standard Negro Newspaper of Character, Circulation and Opinion, a few weeks later ("Babies Used").

One of the most disturbing articles about using babies as alligator bait was reprinted in numerous United States papers from 1888 until 1911. This article refers to an advertisement in Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka) newspapers: "Babies Wanted for Crocodile Bait. Will be Returned Alive." The whole process is described in detail and painted as a harmless way for Ceylonese mothers to earn a "small consideration" for the use of their "dark brown infants with curling toes" to attract crocodiles ("Babies for Crocodile").

In July 1968, the Los Angeles Times ran an article about the great fireballer Bob Gibson. Gibson talked about the struggle to get respect as a baseball player and as a man. He recounted a story from his rookie year in Columbus, Georgia about a fan who called him "alligator bait". Gibson laughed it off, but then he was told by some local folk that "Negro youngsters" were actually used in baiting alligators. "That's where Negroes stood in Columbus" said Gibson, and went on to talk about the struggles he was currently enduring (Chapin). One interesting aspect of Bob Gibson's story is the response from Cecil Darby, the sports editor of the Columbus, Ga. Ledger. Darby dismissed the story of African Americans as "alligator bait" as "tongue-in-cheek" and criticized Gibson for being "naive enough to fall for such a fantastic tale." Darby dismissed the claim as a complete fabrication ("Golden Park", 2007).

While actual incidents likely were rare, images and objects showing caricatured African American children as alligator bait were widespread. An article in the January 28, 1900 issue of the Washington Times reflected on the "Phenomenal success of a photograph styled 'Alligator Bait'." It told how the photograph got its name, its popularity from "coast to coast", and reported that "sales from this one negative have reached nearly $5,000" ("Branson, of Knoxville").

The term "Alligator bait" was also used as a slur toward African Americans. Examples are found in a 1908 Los Angeles Herald boxing match recap ("Bell Shows Yellow"); in a 1905 issue of the Richmond, Virginia Times Dispatch where two African American males are referred to as "alligator bait" for stealing a chunk of lead ("News Gathered"); and in an article from the 1898 Richmond Dispatch where the term "alligator bait" is used to describe the size of a "dusky bootblack" ("Bootblack's Little Deal").

In a review of popular toys in 1917, the New York Times reported that "In View of the improved call for stuffed boy and girl negro dolls, the 'alligator bait' is expected to have a big run" ("Outlook for Toys")

http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/question/may13/

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10 Interesting Backstories About How These African Countries Got Their Names


Liberia

Liberia got its name from the group of Quakers and slaveholders who wanted to repatriate freed Black people to Africa, a report by PBS explains. The group, known as the American Colonization Society, planned to send freed Black people back to Africa instead of having them potentially causing an uprising in America. The scheme of creating an entire country full of freed Black people from America ultimately resulted in the land being deemed Liberia, which translates to “Land of Freedom.”


Sierra Leone

In 1462, Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra mapped the hills around what is now known as Freetown Harbour. As he mapped the landscape, he deemed the formation Serra da Leoa, Portuguese for “lioness mountains,” according to the Kingfisher Geography Encyclopedia. The name was eventually adapted and the now misspelled term for the majestic mountains became the country’s new name — Sierra Leone.

Cameroon

Cameroon’s name originated from one Portuguese sailor’s fascination with how many shrimp he spotted when he arrived in the African country. According to an article posted by the Cameroon Embassy in the Netherlands, “Cameroon is derived from the Portuguese word, Camaroes, meaning shrimps.” Fernando Po arrived at the Wouri River in Douala when he spotted so many shrimp that he declared the river Rio Dos Camaroes, which translates to river of shrimps. Eventually, explorers from all around the globe came to know the land adjacent to the Rio Dos Camaroes as Cameroon.

Eritrea

According to a report published by Uppsala University, the country’s name comes from Italian settlers who created colonies on the Horn of Africa in the 19th century. Italians used the phrase “Mare Erythraeum,” which loosely translates to Red Sea, to describe the cluster of colonies that lined what is now known as the Red Sea. Adaptations of that name eventually led to the name it still holds today.


Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s name originates from one of the most prominent landmarks in the country. The name is derived from a large, historical stone structure called the Great Zimbabwe, which translates to “houses of stone,” the Zimbabwe embassy’s website explains. The embassy’s site states that this stone structure is one of the largest in Africa following the Egyptian pyramids.

Togo

Prior to the era of colonial rule by Germany, various tribes had already settled into the country that would soon become known as Togo. In the neighboring countries of Ghana and Benin, Portuguese settlers built forts and began to trade at the small fort at Porto Seguro, according to the Journal of the Royal African Society. The area became a major trading center for Europeans in search of slaves, earning the region the name Togo, which translates to “The Slave Coast.”


Seychelles

According to an article published by the National Assembly of Seychelles, the 115-island country was named after Jean Moreau de Sechelles, Louis XV’s minister of finance. In 1756, the French started taking control of the country, which was eventually contested by the British for years starting in 1794.


Gabon

Gabon’s name originated from the unusual shape of the Rio de Como estuary, according to Encyclopedia of Nations. The Portuguese arrived on the country’s coast around 1470 when explorers realized the estuary was shaped like a hooded cloak called a “gabao.” After a series of adaptations and translations, the country became known as Gabon.


Mauritius

According to Mauritius: A Country Study, the island nation was named in honor of Prince Maurice Nassau by Dutch explorers. In 1715, the French claimed the country and renamed it Ile de France before the British captured the country in 1810 and changed its name back to Mauritius.

Mozambique

According to the country’s official tourism site, the origin of Mozambique’s name isn’t certain, but there is a widely believed theory. The site explains that it is “believed to have come from the name of a Muslim leader called ‘Musa al Bique’ that lived in the Island of Mozambique, where Vasco de Gama in 1498 anchored his ship.”

http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/31/10-interesting-backstories-about-how-these-african-countries-got-their-names/5/

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Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia

LEATHER FROM HUMAN SKIN
[Philadelphia News.]
Printed in The Mercury, Saturday March 17, 1888

I remember that two or three years ago I incidentally referred to a prominent physician of this city wearing shoes made from the skin of negroes. He still adhered to that custom, insisting that the tanned hide of an African makes the most enduring and the most pliable leather known to man.

Only last week I met him upon the street with a brand new pair of shoes. I looked at his foot wear, as I always do - his pedal coverings have an irresistible fascination for me - and said, with a smile:

"Is the down trodden African still beneath your feet?" In the most matter of fact way, and without the shadow of a smile, he answered: " I suppose you mean to inquire if I still wear shoes made of the skin of a negro. I certainly do, and I don't propose changing in that respect until I find a leather that is softer and will last longer and present a better appearance. I have no sentiment about this matter. Were I a Southerner - in the American sense of the word - I might be accused of being actuated by a race prejudice. But I am a foreigner by birth, although now an American citizen by naturalization. I fought in the rebellion that the blacks might be freed. I would use a white man's skin for the same purpose if it were sufficiently thick, and if any' one has a desire to wear my epidermis upon his feet after I have drawn my last breath he has my ante mortem permission."

The doctor's shoes always exhibit a peculiarly rich lustrousness in their blackness. He assures me that they never hurt his feet. The new pair he was using when I last saw him emitted no creaking sound and appeared as comfortable as though they had been worn a month. Their predecessors, he told me, had been in constant use for eight months. He obtains the skins from the bodies of negroes which have been dissected in one of our big medical colleges. The best leather is obtained from the thighs. The soles are formed by placing several layers of leather together. The skin is prepared by a tanner at Womseldorf, 16 miles from Reading. The shoes are fashioned by a French shoemaker of this city, who knows nothing of the true character of the leather, but who often wonders at its exquisite smoothness, and says that it excels the finest French calf-skin.

Do not for a moment think that this doctor presents an exceptional case of one who puts the human skin to a practical use. Medical students frequently display a great variety of articles in which in the skin or bones of some dissected mortal has been gruesomely utilized, and in bursts of generosity they sometimes present these to their friends, who prize them highly. One of the dudest dudes in town carries a match-safe covered with a portion of the skin of a beautiful young woman who was found drowned in the Delaware river. It still retains its natural colour. Another young man with whom I am acquainted carries a cigar case made of negro skin, a ghastly skull and crossbones appearing on one side in relief. One of the best known surgeons in this country, who resides in this city, has a beautiful instrument case, entirely covered with leather made from an African's skin. A young society lady of this city wears a beautiful pair of dark slippers, the remarkable lustrousuess of whose leather invariably excites the admiration of her friends when they see them. The young doctor who presented them to her recently returned from an extended foreign tour, and he told her that he had purchased them from a Turk in Alexandria, and that he did not know what sort of leather they were made of, but he supposed it was the skin of some wild animal. As a matter of fact, the skin came from a negro cadaver, which was once prone on a Jefferson College dissecting table, and the leather was prepared in Womseldorf. The rosettes on the slippers were deftly fashioned from the negro's kinky hair.


The Mercury, Saturday March 17 1888

[Wahalla]

Today was mlk funeark anniversary..

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15 Major Corporations You Never Knew Profited from Slavery
atlantablackstar.com


The enslavement of African people in the Americas by the nations and peoples of Western Europe, created the economic engine that funded modern capitalism. Therefore it comes as no surprise that most of the major corporations that were founded by Western European and American merchants prior to roughly 100 years ago, benefited directly from slavery.

Lehman Brothers, whose business empire started in the slave trade, recently admitted their part in the business of slavery. According to the Sun Times, the financial services firm acknowledged recently that its founding partners owned not one, but several enslaved Africans during the Civil War era and that, “in all likelihood,” it “profited significantly” from slavery. “This is a sad part of our heritage …We’re deeply apologetic … It was a terrible thing … There’s no one sitting in the United States in the year 2005, hopefully, who would ever, in a million years, defend the practice,” said Joe Polizzotto, general counsel of Lehman Brothers.

Aetna, Inc., the United States’ largest health insurer, apologized for selling policies in the 1850s that reimbursed slave owners for financial losses when the enslaved Africans they owned died. “Aetna has long acknowledged that for several years shortly after its founding in 1853 that the company may have insured the lives of slaves,” said Aetna spokesman Fred Laberge in 2002. “We express our deep regret over any participation at all in this deplorable practice.”

JPMorgan Chase recently admitted their company’s links to slavery. “Today, we are reporting that this research found that, between 1831 and 1865, two of our predecessor banks—Citizens Bank and Canal Bank in Louisiana—accepted approximately 13,000 enslaved individuals as collateral on loans and took ownership of approximately 1,250 of them when the plantation owners defaulted on the loans,” the company wrote in a statement.

New York Life Insurance Company is the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States. They also took part in slavery by selling insurance policies on enslaved Africans. According to USA Today, evidence of 10 more New York Life slave policies comes from an 1847 account book kept by the company’s Natchez, Miss. agent, W.A. Britton. The book, part of a collection at Louisiana State University, contains Britton’s notes on slave policies he wrote for amounts ranging from $375 to $600. A 1906 history of New York Life says 339 of the company’s first 1,000 policies were written on the lives of slaves.

USA Today reported that Wachovia Corporation (now owned by Wells Fargo) has apologized for its ties to slavery after disclosing that two of its historical predecessors owned enslaved Africans and accepted them as payment. “On behalf of Wachovia Corporation, I apologize to all Americans, and especially to African-Americans and people of African descent,” said Ken Thompson, Wachovia chairman and chief executive officer, in the statement released late Wednesday. “We are deeply saddened by these findings.”

N M Rothschild & Sons Bank in London was linked to slavery. The company that was one of the biggest names in the City of London had previously undisclosed links to slavery in the British colonies. Documents seen by the Financial Times have revealed that Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the banking family’s 19th-century patriarch, made his first personal gains by using enslaved Africans as collateral in dealings with a slave owner.

Norfolk Southern also has a history in the slave trade. The Mobile & Girard company, which is now part of Norfolk Southern, offered slaveholders $180 ($3,379 today) apiece for enslaved Africans they would rent to the railroad for one year, according to the records. The Central of Georgia, another company aligned with Norfolk Southern Line today, valued its slaves at $31,303 ($663,033 today) on record.

USA Today has found that their own parent company, E.W. Scripps and Gannett, has had links to the slave trade.

There is evidence that FleetBoston evolved from an earlier financial institution, Providence Bank, founded by John Brown who was a slave trader and owned ships used to transport enslaved Africans. The bank financed Brown’s slave voyages and profited from them. Brown even reportedly helped charter what became Brown University.

CSX used slave labor to construct portions of some U.S. rail lines under the political and legal system that was in place more than a century ago. Two enslaved Africans who the company rented were identified as John Henry and Reuben. The record states, “they were to be returned clothed when they arrived to work for the company.” Individual enslaved Africans cost up to $200 – the equivalent of $3,800 today - to rent for a season and CSX took full advantage.

The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec that serves Canada and the midwestern and southern United States. The company also has a history in which it benefited from slavery. The Mobile & Ohio, now part of Canadian National, valued their slaves lost to the war and emancipation at $199,691 on record. That amount is currently worth $2.2 million.

Brown Brothers Harriman is the oldest and largest private investment bank and securities firm in the United States, founded in 1818. USA Today found that the New York merchant bank of James and William Brown, currently known as Brown Bros. Harriman owned hundreds of enslaved Africans and financed the cotton economy by lending millions to southern planters, merchants and cotton brokers.

Brooks Brothers, the high end suit retailer got their start selling slave clothing to various slave traders back in the 1800s. What a way to get rich in the immoral slave industry!

Barclays, the British multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom has now conceded that companies it bought over the years may have been involved in the slave trade.

USA Today reported that New York-based AIG completed the purchase of American General Financial Group, a Houston-based insurer that owns U.S. Life Insurance Company. A U.S. Life policy on an enslaved African living in Kentucky was reprinted in a 1935 article about slave insurance in The American Conservationist magazine. AIG says it has “found documentation indicating” U.S. Life insured enslaved Africans.

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8 African Countries Whose Independence Is a Direct Result of the Teachings of Marcus Garvey

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, is one of the greatest examples of a country being impacted by Garveyism. According to an article titled “The Seeds are Sown: The Impact of Garveyism in Zimbabwe in the Interwar Years,” Marcus Garvey’s teachings had an “electrifying effect on colonial Zimbabwean migrant workers in South Africa, inspiring them to form various associations.” Garvey’s emphasis on Black nationalism along with other principles that were considered radical at the time helped spark the “colony’s most radical African movement in the interwar years.” The teachings ultimately helped shape the political, religious and social landscape for the associations that eventually came together to form Zimbabwe.


Ghana

Garvey’s teachings inspired many great leaders including Kwame Nkrumah. As a result of this influence, Nkrumah went on to start working to free Africa of colonial with rule starting with Ghana, according to Black Business Network. From 1952 to 1966, Nkrumah acted as the leader of what was then known as the Gold Coast before he led the country to win its independence from British colonial rule. This made Ghana the “first Black African country to become independent,” according to the BBC. It also led to many people in the country crediting Nkrumah with “stabilizing a turbulent political scene and leaving a legacy of democracy.”

South Africa

Garvey was an influential proponent of repatriating, which helped mobilize powerful movements all throughout South Africa and lay the foundation for politics in the region. “Preaching the unity of all blacks, he claimed that liberty would come about only through the return of all Afro-Americans to their ancestral homes — and to this end he had founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1914,” according to sahistory.org. “By 1925 opponents of white racism, in cities and rural districts but especially in the eastern Cape had adapted the teachings of Garvey to fit in with the black South African experience. Thus the return of land to its ancestral owners became one of the central themes around which opposition to white settler rule was mobilized.”



Tanzania

Following World War II, the region now known as Tanzania was placed under United Nations Trusteeship, and development of the region was under British control. During a host of independent movements sparking as a result of Garvey’s push for African nationalism, the Tanganyika Africa National Union (TANU) emerged as one of the strongest groups. According to an article published in the Journal of Black Studies, TANU was led by none other than Julius Nyerere, an influential leader of the people who credited much of his own knowledge to Garvey’s teachings. As TANU grew, elections were scheduled to take place in 1960 and the land that is now known as Tanzania became an independent county in 1961.


Kenya

Jomo Kenyatta is not only the first president of Kenya, but he’s also the powerful leader who helped make the country an independent nation in the first place. According to “Figures from the African Nationalist and Independence Movement,” Kenyatta helped lead the Kenya African National Union in negotiations during the first and second Lancaster Conference in London. As a leader, Kenyatta supported the idea of more white people coming to the country and insisted that locals should focus on reconciliation.

Guinea

Ahmed Sekou Toure, another leader influenced by Garvey’s works, led the African country Guinea to independence back in 1958. Guinea was a part of a cluster of countries that formed the French Fourth Republic before it collapsed. That’s when the French founded the Fifth Republic and offered the countries autonomy in the new French cluster or have immediate independence. Toure led the people of Guinea in a push for independence while the other countries chose autonomy. The French withdrew from the region before the nation declared independence and made Toure its first president, according to Nations Online: Guinea.


Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Republic of the Congo is another country that gained independence based on the overwhelming presence of the nationalist movement that was sparked largely in part by Garvey. In the 1960s, the region now known as the Congo was occupied by a series of independent parties like the Mouvement National Congolais, which was led by Patrice Lumumba. MNC eventually went on to claim victory in parliamentary elections and with Lumumba as its head he became the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to a Time article from July 1960.


Angola

Garvey’s “Africa for the Africans” slogan was at the center of many historical movements for independence and liberation. The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola has Garvey to credit for the group’s ability to mobilize and become another part of the growing list of groups supporting the nationalist movement. According to an article by The New York Times, a “Garveynite-inspired rebellion” broke out in Angola in 1922, which presented yet another grand step toward independence for the country.

atlantablackstar

[Wahalla]

http://www.madote.com/2010/03/were-ethiopian-leaders-colonialist.html

WERE ETHIOPIAN LEADERS COLONIALIST?

Admin 3:02 PM




Ethiopian leaders such as Ras Alula Engida, Yohannes IV, Menelik II, and Haile Selassie are often regarded as being staunch anti-colonial leaders by many Ethiopian writers. In this article, we'll see how this portrayal of them isn't a very accurate one as it selectively ignores much of their collaboration with colonial forces.


Yohannes IV (born Kassay Mercha)
Ruled from: 1872 - 1889

For starters, Kassay Mercha of Tigray (later to be renamed Yohannes IV) is regarded as curbing colonialism by Ethiopian historians, a simple glance at his past shows that he came to power with the help of colonial British forces himself. It was not till Yohannes collaborated with British forces to dislodge emperor Tewodros did he become emperor himself. For his cooperations with the British, he ended up receiving British weapons and training of his troops, which led to his subsequent rise to power. Someone who worked with colonial forces to defeat their own countrymen certainly can not be taking as being anti-colonial.

Tewodros's death in 1868, which, like his life, was a turning point in his country's history, left Ethiopia again divided, and without a ruler. Three rival personalities then held power in different areas. The first to gain prominence was Wagshum Gobaze, the ruler of Amhara, Wag and Lasta, who was immediately crowned Emperor Takla Giyorgis at Gondar. He was, however, soon effectively challenged by Dajzmach Kasa Mercha of Tigray. The latter was militarily more pwerful, in part on account of the gift of arms he had received from the Napier expedition, and assiatance given him by a former member of the British force, John Kirkham, who had volunteered to train his army on European lines. Gobaze set out with 60,000 men to capture Adwa, the then capital of Tigray, but Kasa, making good use of his British guns, defeated him at the battle of Assam, on 11 July 1871. He then proclaimed himself Emperor Yohannes IV, on 21 January of the following year.The third contestant for power was Menilek, heir to the throne of Shawa, who had been one of Tewodro's prisoners at Maqdala, but escaped in 1865, and proclaimed himself king of his province. Though then the weakest of the three chiefs, he for a time laid ineffective claim to the imperial throne, which he was eventually to inherit. (2001, Richard Pankhurst, p.162)

Kassa [Yohannes] for his cooperation by presenting him with six mortars, six howitzers, as well as 850 muskets, and a goodly supply of ammunition. This somewhat unexpected military windfall contributed greatly to his subsequent rise to power. (2001, Richard Pankhurst, p. 161.)

Through out most of his reign, Yohannes stayed in close contact with the British. He wrote many letters to British leaders and often regarded the British as his 'protector'.

"I have now another mother and another protector among the European kings and people: Only believe England as my country: if my country is fair in the religion and love of our Lord Jesus Christ we are one and near. I cannot believe that your Majesty shall separate me from your children." (1991, Okbazghi Yohannes, p. 41)

Ras Alula Engida
Ruled from: Was Yohannes' General

After the defeat of Yohannes by the Sudanese Mahdist, Ras Alula desperately tried to solicit the Italians for friendship, confirming that they can occupy all the lands up till the Mereb River (modern Eritrea), which is still the historical and modern border between Medri-bahri/Eritrea and Tigray/Ethiopia. Although by this point, it was evident that Ras Alula had already crossed the Mereb river and retreated back into Tigray, which completely ended his brief occupation over Medri-Bahri or Mareb Mellash as the Tigrayans called it. These following two quotes made by Ras Alula shows us without a doubt, that leaders of Tigray/Abyssinia of the late 19th century, were in alliance with the Italians for their political survival and that the regions of north of the Mereb river were foreign to them.

But if he [Menilek] gives as a present what is out of his door [the Marab Mellash] the present is of no value.You want the country to the Mareb (Eritrean highlands) to cultitivate your gardens, to build your houses, to construct your churches....? We can give it to you. [And not menilek.] Let the Italian soldiers come to Adwa, I shall come to meet them like a friend. (1996, Ḥagai Erlikh, p. 164)

"And you (Italians), why do you need to look for distant friends? We are neighbors (meaning Medri Bahri and Tigray) and can serve each other. You want the road to be open and I want the road to be open. You should guard to the Mereb River and I will guard it to Gondar and even beyond Gondar. We must be able to go to the coast to trade in order that our country (meaning Tigray) would flourish, with the help of God, Menelik is too far to be of any use to you. Let us make friendship between us. (1996, Ḥagai Erlikh, 164)"

Menelik II (born Sahle Maryam)
Ruled from: 1889 - 1913

Although Menelik is regarded as fighting colonialism by Ethiopian scholars and others alike, it was Menelik himself who worked alongside with Italians colonialist, going as far as stating that he himself felt Italian and wished no greater desire then to visiting Italy. Menelik told then Italian representative to Abyssinia, Count Antonelli:

"that he loved Italy so much that he felt 'half Italian and no greater wish that to go there and see it' (1986, Chris Prouty, p. 57)

Menelik himself viewed the Italians as close allies and at times, his protectors. In a letter written to the then Italian King Umberto, Menelik begged the King of Italy to protect him from his enemies; namely Yohannes, and he reassured the Italian king that his region was theirs to share with.

"I beg Your Majesty to defend me against every one as I don't know what European kings will say about this let others know that this region is ours." (1986, Chris Prouty, p. 54)

Just like the Tigrayan leaders of Alula and Mengesha, Menelik of showa had asked the Italians to occupy Medri-Bahri (Eritrean highlands) as well, despite the fact that he had no control over that region.

"Via Antonelli's courier, Menelik informed the King of Italy that he would like the Italian soldiers to occupy Asmara, in order to discourage the imperial pretensions of Mengesha Yohannes (the son of Emperor Yohannes)." "There after," added Menelik, "God will give me the throne that for many years I have had the right to have." (1986, Chris Prouty, p.61)

Haile Selassie (born Tafari Makonnen)
Ruled from: 1930 - 1935 and 1942- 1974

Menelik himself even stated that he was a 'Caucasian'. This non-African identity was also stated by Haile Selassie.

'I am not a Negro at all; I am a Caucasian' the Emperor Menelik told the West Indian pan-Africanist Benito Sylvian who had come to Addis Ababa to solicit the Emperor's leadership in a society for the 'Amelioration of the Negro race.' Haile Sellassie confirmed that view in a declaration to Chief H. O. Davis, a well known Nigerian nationalist, stating that the Ethiopians did not regard themselves as Africans, but as 'a mixed Hamito-Semitic people (2006, John H. Spencer, p. 306)

When Halie Selassie was invaded by Mussolini's Italian forces in 1935, he had offered to sell large chunks of Ethiopia off to Italy for one and a half milliard Lira. Halie Selassie even offered to have Italian advisors to direct his policies, effectively offering to be a vessel, in return to hold on to some form of power. However, this last ditch effort to hold on to power was rejected by Mussolini.

In his desperate act to hold power, Haile Selassie now made a secret peace overture to Mussolini, sending a former Ethiopian Minister in Rome to contact the Italian consul in Djibouti. He offered to sell a large part of Ethiopia to Italy for one and half milliard Lira and to appoint six Italian advisors to direct the policy of his government. Mussolini sent sourteous reply to the intermediary, expressing his pleasure that the Negus had at last decided to negotiate directly with him; but he said the offer was unacceptable." (1997, by Jasper Godwin Ridley, p.270)

After Haile Selassie fled to London, he snubbed the black nationalist Marcus Gravey because he was black.

When Haile Selassie fled to London, Gravey tried to contact him but was snubbed, and it was reported that "the emperor did not desire any contact with 'Negroes.'" (1963, Harold Robert Isaacs, p. 153)

Unhappy with the being snubbed, the famous Marcus Gravey wrote the following quote about Halie Selassie:

Mussolini of Italy has conquered Haile Selassie of Abyssinia, but he has not conquered the Abyssinians nor Abyssinia. The Emperor of Abyssinia allowed himself to be conquered, by playing white, by trusting to white advisers and by relying white Governments, including the white League of Nations.We can remember in 1920 inviting the Government of Abyssinia to send representatives to the International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the world in common with other Negro Conventions, the Abyssinian Government returned the communication unopened. Its policy then, as during the Italo-Abyssinian war, was no doubt to rely completely on the advice and friendship of white people. They ignored Negro relationship[s] from without and throttled Negro aspirations from within. The result was that they dragged along without any racial policy, except that of the ruling classes, believing themselves white and better than the rest, with a right to suppress the darker elements which make up the tremendous population. (2009, By Girma Menelik, p.57)

Lastly, here's an Ethiopian ex-patriot explaining his struggle to defend his home from Italian occupation and his accounts of Haile selessie's last days before fleeing for England. Please fast-forward to 8:45 into the video for his eye-witness accounts.




Read more: http://www.madote.com/2010/03/were-e...#ixzz3YaawjWpg

[Wahalla]

I am re reading the second non fiction book i ever read some forty years ago... "The Fighting Maroons of Jamaica" By Carey Robinson I would strongly urge anyone who did not study Jamaican history to JSC or even CXC level read this book in its new edition "The Iron Thorn".

There are some differences between the two editions and there are also some glaring contradictions as well as some really basic things that he should have covered but did not: Dont expect heroes.... There are none. And it confirms my favourite aphorism. "There are only cowards, collaborators or compromisers".

The revised and greatly expanded edition of the well-known book, The Fighting Maroons of Jamaica (Collins & Sangster 1969), vividly describes the Maroons' war against the British in Jamaica. Benefiting from twenty years of additional thorough research, Carey Robinson's new work gives explicit details of the lifestyles and fighting tactics of both forces. The author eloquently describes the heroism and genius of the Maroons, and their mastery of guerilla warfare. Carey Robinson has made almost a lifetime study of Jamaica's history, from the "people's perspective". He has written numerous radio and television scripts, stage plays and films on historical themes. The Fighting Maroons of Jamaica was his first book, followed by Fight For Freedom which was published by Kingston Publishers in 1987. About the Author Historian Carey Robinson has worked as a Journalist (the Daily Gleaner, Spotlight, News Magazine) and broadcaster (Radio Jamaica and the Government's Public Relations Office). At the time of Independence he was put in charge of the Public Relations Office, which was shortly after renamed the Jamaica Information Service (JIS). Mr. Robinson headed JIS until 1971 when he was made General Manager of the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation; a post which he would again hold in 1987. He subsequently served overseas in Jamaican embassies in Washington D.C. and Mexico City, headed the division of art and culture in the office of the Prime Minister, and was Executive Director of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust. At present he produces and directs a weekly television programme which focuses primarily on rural Jamaica. Mr. Robinson has done extensive research into early Maroon history and authored The Fighting Maroons of Jamaica, and its expanded version The Iron Thorn. He is the recipient of a Silver Musgrave Medal, the award of Commander of the Order of Distinction and the Press Association of Jamaica's Life Time award for Outstanding Public Service in television production. Mr. Robinson has been studying Jamaica's history for well over thirty years believing that only through such a study can the character and needs of the Jamaican people be really understood

[Wahalla]

Part of the reason why i never subscribe to black history month is that it strikes me as parochial....anglo focused and yankified to boot..simplistic heros....

This morning on the Heathrow Express i picked up a complimentary copy of the Financial Times.. .the front page story was on China....What you say has that to do with this thread.. A theory was advocated in the 1950's by a great west indian thinker of African DNA was referenced... it is striking that this is the second time i have seen Arthur Lewis name in a main stream paper.. the forst time was in the Straits Times in 2004 when i first saw this issue mention...

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/211df974-e...#ixzz3ZFhntiiF

China’s ‘migrant miracle’ nears an end as cheap labour dwindles


Gabriel Wildau in Shanghai

©GettyMigrant workers on a building site in Beijing

China’s labour force is shrinking and the “migrant miracle” that powered its industrial rise is mostly exhausted, removing the factors that propelled the country’s meteoric development, according to leading economists.
The transformation will lead to slower growth, reduced investment and a loss of export competitiveness, they warn, increasing the urgency of implementing ambitious economic reforms aimed at finding new sources of expansion.

More


ON THIS STORY

• Analysis China migration — At the turning point
• China’s great migration
• China migration – Policies add to labour shortage
• End of the Migrant Miracle China at the Lewis Turning Point
• FT Data Three things we learnt from our China migration choropleth

ON THIS TOPIC

• Patti Waldmeir Chinese travel etiquette
• Patti Waldmeir Auntie Bai rules China TV
• HK builder shortage hoists up prices
• China seeks to snuff out graveyard smoke

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Today the Financial Times begins a series of articles on the end of the migrant miracle — the three decades of breakneck economic growth fuelled by the unprecedented migration of labour from the unproductive farm sector to work in factories and on construction sites.
Broad consensus has emerged that China has reached its “Lewis Turning Point” — the point at which the once-inexhaustible pool of surplus rural labour dries up and wages rise rapidly. Nobel-prize winning economist Arthur Lewis argued in the 1950s that a developing country with surplus agricultural labour could develop its industrial sector for years without wage inflation as it absorbed that surplus.
“Now we are at the so-called Lewis inflection point. I made this forecast in 2006, and today there is no need to change it,” said Ha Jiming, chief investment strategist for private wealth management at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong and formerly chief economist at China International Capital Corp, the country's first Sino-foreign joint venture investment bank.
“The working-age share of China’s population peaks this year at 72 per cent, then it will start to fall rapidly, even more rapidly than what we saw in Japan in the 1990s,” he added.
Cai Fang, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a think-tank that advises the government, estimates that China’s potential gross domestic product growth decreased from 9.8 per cent in 1995-2009 to 7.2 per cent in 2011-15 and 6.1 per cent from 2016-20.
A shrinking labour force is one of the main drivers. Since Deng Xiaoping launched market reforms in 1978, 278m migrant workers from rural villages have moved to work in the cities.
FT Series

End of the migrant miracle

At the turning point
A shrinking labour force from rural areas is driving huge economic change
Video: China at the Lewis Turning Point
The end of surplus labour has profound implications for the Chinese economy
Data blog: Three things we learnt on China migration
How the flow of labour from countryside to city in China has powered three decades of growth
China’s great migration
When China’s 170m rural migrant workers head home it is the biggest movement of people on earth

But reallocating labour from farm to factory — resulting in higher overall growth as workers’ productivity soars — is now mostly complete.
“From 2005 to 2010, the growth rate of migrant workers was 4 per cent. Last year it was only 1.3 per cent. Maybe this year it will contract,” said Mr Cai.
China faces the more difficult task of raising productivity within the urban sector through improved capital allocation, technology and management acumen.
The second trend is an ageing population and the effects of the one-child policy, which has started to influence the number of young workers entering the labour force. As in developed countries such as Germany and Japan, the ranks of the elderly are rising. Ma Jiantang, director of China’s National Bureau of Statistics, said the population aged 15 to 60 peaked in 2011.
“The excess rural surplus labour is nearly exhausted — China is reaching its Lewis Turning Point,” the World Bank said last year.
Economists debate the precise date of the turning point based on inconsistent data and contrasting theoretical models. Some say that due to varying regional labour market conditions, it is more precise to speak of a “turning period” rather than a single point. But the basic measure is not in doubt.

More video

“The fact that we have now passed the Lewis Turning Point is 100 per cent,” said Ross Garnaut, an economist at Australian National University and co-editor of a collection of papers on China.

this was the main stroy in more depth. I must say the writing in the FT is pretty good...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/767495a0-e99b-11e4-b863-00144feab7de.html#axzz3ZFeO0MH0

[Wahalla]

so i was on the royal mint website.... and found this image of an unreleased coin.. The original design for the decimal coin in the UK

http://www.royalmint.com/discover/decimalisation/unseen-ironside-designs

nothing to do with African history except from a recording of stolen silver... Look at the sword.. A scimitar and acknolwedenet that St George did his miralculous deed in Africa!

[Blackstar*]

Hidden Human Computers
Dozens of African American women worked for NASA as expert mathematicians from the 1940s to the 1960s and almost no one knows about it. Segregated within NASA facilities in Hampton, Va., well-educated Black women used slide rules and pencils to do the calculations for flights by astronauts John Glenn and Alan Shepherd.
More...

[blugiant]

Louis E. Lomax: The Man Who Introduced Malcolm X to the Masses


Photo credit: The Valdosta Museum



Born in 1922, Louis E. Lomax was raised by a prominent Valdosta, Georgia, family who pruned him from youth for his eventual greatness. From educating and authoring, to reporting and broadcasting Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam into millions of American households for the very first time, Lomax created a legacy of groundbreaking journalism to become one of the most influential African-American reporters and authors of his time.

Lomax got his start in teaching philosophy at Georgia State College (now Savannah State University); he eventually began climbing the ladder as a reporter for the Baltimore Afro-American and the Chicago American until 1958, after which he began producing documentaries at WNTA-TV in New York.

It was here that Lomax set a precedent as a journalist and activist in his own right.

Avidly involved in the movement, Lomax brought civil rights leader Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam to the attention of Mike Wallace of CBS — host of the program Newsbeat at this time. In early 1959, the network wanted to pursue filming a documentary on the Muslim leader, but Malcolm X refused to be interviewed by any white reporters, including Wallace. His race granting him exclusive access to and trust with the Nation, Lomax was permitted to interview Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X on camera, only assisted by two white cameramen.

The footage captured on that day became the documentary The Hate That Hate Produced, which was nationally televised in July 1959 as a five-part series on Newsbeat, presented by Wallace and Lomax.

The series was the first time many white people had ever seen or heard of the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X — and it was the first time a Black man appeared on television to report the news.

Now in his prime and a nationally recognized journalist, he hosted the Louis E. Lomax Show on KTTV of Los Angeles from 1964 to 1968, interviewing guests and holding debates on controversial topics of the time, frequently surrounding the differing approaches of activists in achieving racial justice. A strong supporter of unity between races while still advocating the then-rebellious beliefs of Black Power, an unpopular idea with other commentators of the day, Lomax was unafraid of criticism and frequently received it from all sides.

Lomax continued shaking up the journalism world, writing novels, teaching at various universities and challenging standards of racial inequality until his abrupt death in 1970. Killed in a car crash in New Mexico, he left behind his wife Robinette and an unfinished three-volume novel chronicling the history of African-Americans.

He was only 47 years old.

Undaunted by and unafraid to express his own unique concepts of achieving equal rights, Lomax garnered respect and achieved precedence in the civil rights movement, journalism, literature and many a college classroom. Among the many accomplishments he is known for, he will forever be remembered as the first Black reporter to appear on television, and the man who introduced the masses to Malcolm X in that now iconic 1959 interview.

[blugiant]

Pentagon Just Admitted to Using Black Soldiers as Human Guinea Pigs in WWII


By David A. Love

Black enlisted men were used as human guinea pigs in chemical experiments during World War II—not by Nazi Germany, but by Uncle Sam.

As was reported by NPR, 60,000 American soldiers were enrolled in a secret chemical weapons testing program in which they were exposed to mustard gas and the chemical agent lewisite, which causes lung irritation and blisters. Moreover, the U.S. Department of Defense conducted the tests based on the race of the soldiers. Black, Japanese-American and Puerto Rican soldiers were locked in a gas chamber and exposed to the chemicals. White soldiers were used as the control group.

“They said we were being tested to see what effect these gases would have on Black skins,” said Rollins Edwards, 93, of Summerville, S.C. “You had no choice. You did not know where you were going. They didn’t tell you anything.”

Edwards says his skin still falls off in flakes as a result of the testing. For years, the World War II veteran carried around a jar full of flakes to convince people that something had happened to him.

Although the Pentagon had admitted as early as 1991 that the Army tested mustard gas on enlisted soldiers during World War II—and the experiment program was officially declassified in 1993—news about the racial targeting of soldiers was kept under wraps until recently.

This revelation that the Army tested chemical weapons on soldiers of color is both troubling and an outrage, but the concept of Black people being used in medical and other experiments is by no means a new phenomenon. There are numerous examples of Black people being used as guinea pigs in unethical medical experiments. Perhaps the most well-known example is the Tuskegee experiment, in which the Tuskegee Institute and the U.S. Public Health Service studied the natural progression of syphilis in 600 Black men, who were never notified of their condition and were not treated. The tests, which began in 1932, did not end until news reports exposed the inhumane and racist practice in 1972.

But there are other cases beyond Tuskegee. For example, in the early 1800s, Sara Baartman, or “Hottentot Venus,” one of two KhoiKhoi women made into freak show attractions in Europe, was subjected to medical experiments. And modern gynecology was the result of torturous gynecological experiments that J. Marion Sims performed on enslaved women without anesthesia.

At the turn of the century, the U.S. Public Health Service conducted experiments on Black prisoners suffering from pellagra, which is a B-13 or niacin deficiency leading to sensitivity to sunlight skin lesions, dementia and death. In 1945, 53-year-old truck driver, Ebb Cabe, was injected with plutonium by the U.S. Atomic Agency after he was taken to the hospital and kept there for six months following a car accident. Cabe received 40 times the amount of plutonium—the key ingredient for a nuclear bomb—a typical person is exposed to over the course of a lifetime. He died eight years later of heart failure.

During the 1950s, the CIA and the U.S. military released half a million mosquitoes with yellow and dengue fever into Black Florida communities, leading to multiple illnesses and deaths. The government wanted to assess the use of mosquitoes as military weapons. Also in that decade, Henrietta Lacks became the first test subject on cloning, without her knowledge or permission, with 20 tons of her cells grown since her death.

During the 1950s and 1960s, poor Black St. Louis neighborhoods were used in Cold War experiments in which the Army, using aerosol blowers mounted on vehicles and rooftops, sprayed a radiation-laced toxin called zinc cadmium sulfide, a fluorescent powder. Thousands likely inhaled the toxins.

In the 1990s, children in Los Angeles were injected with an experimental measles vaccine unapproved by the FDA, and one which had developed a bad reputation for increasing high death rates in Haiti, Guinea Bissau and Senegal.

Between 2006 and 2010, 148 female prisoners in two California prisons—the majority Black and Latino— were sterilized without their consent. Meanwhile, Israel subjected African immigrant women to mandatory contraceptive injections of Depo-Provera, leading to a 20 percent birth rate decline for Ethiopian Israelis.

In 2000, federally funded researchers placed sludge from a sewage treatment plant on lawns and vacant lots in Baltimore and East St. Louis. The communities were told the toxic waste was safe. And in 2012, at least 500 children in Chad were given MenAfriVac—whose side effects include convulsions and paralysis— without notification or parental consent.

In addition, the CDC hid evidence that Black babies had more than triple the chance of developing autism if they were given an experimental measles vaccine before the age of three.

For years, the Black community has warned of conspiracies against their communities, and were told they were neurotic and imagining things. But as the latest news from the Pentagon shows us, these conspiracies are not theories but reality.

http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/06/24/pentagon-admits-using-black-soldiers-human-guinea-pigs-wwii/

[blugiant]

10 Mind-Blowing Things to Know About Education in Africa Before the Arrival of Europeans


African knowledge was not only passed down orally.

The notion that ancient African education was oral and not written is only a myth. In his book, “Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora,” Dr. Michael Gomez, an author and professor of history and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at New York University, declares that, from 300 B.C. to A.D. 350, the Meroë civilization had developed a writing system of its own.


Africans were literate far before Europeans.

Gomez states that while the Western perspective dates intellect and education back to the era of Socrates and Plato, the individuals of Egypt and Nubia developed “literate, urban-based, technologically advanced civilizations” centuries before the mere establishment of Rome, let alone Athens. In fact, in his book “Echoes of Ancient African Values,” Dr. Joseph Bailey, a retired orthopedic surgeon who has become an expert in the subjects of Ancient African history and African-American experiences, states that “modifications of Egyptian writing served as the basis for the ‘new’ writings developed for many Western Semitic languages — Phoenician, Hebrew, Aramaic, etc.”



Africa was home to one of the oldest universities in the world.

Founded in A.D. 989 by the erudite chief judge of Timbuktu, Al-Qadi Aqib ibn Mahmud ibn Umar, the The Sankore Mosque, or Sankore University, is one of the oldest schools of higher learning in the world. A wealthy Mandika woman financed Sankore, making it a leading center of education, according to Muslimheritage.com. K.C. MacDonald, a lecturer of African Archaeology at the University College of London’s Institute of Archaeology, writes that the school “had no central administration, student registers, or prescribed courses of study; rather, it was composed of several entirely independent schools or colleges, each run by a single master or imam.” This university reportedly produced over 700,000 manuscripts.



Individuals traveled from all over to be taught by Africans.

According to Gomez, in the 1100s, the Africans of al-Andalus, a medieval Muslim state, significantly contributed to the “intense period of intellectual and cultural production” that lasted for 800 years. The African intellect of Iberia served as the foundation for the European Renaissance that began in the 1500s and lasted until the 1800s. Also, individuals traveled from all around the globe to study at the universities at Timbuktu in both the Mali and Songhai empires. In fact, revered European scholars, such as Herodotus, journeyed to Africa to obtain knowledge and information.



Traditionally, everyone was involved in the educational process.

It takes a village to raise a child. In regards to African education prior to the arrival of Europeans, every generation was involved. In his book, “History and Development of Education in Tanzania,” Professor Philemon A.K. Mushi, the first and founding principal of the Mkwawa University College of Education, confirms that indigenous education in Africa was characterized by the “process of passing among the tribal members and from one generation to another the inherited knowledge, skills, cultural traditions, norms and values of the tribe.”



African education was never-ending.

Indigenous African education was a process that lasted a lifetime. In his article, “History of Education in East Africa,” Sam Witerson, a teacher of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, expresses that “African indigenous education was a lifelong process of learning whereby a person progressed through predetermined stages of life of graduation from cradle to grave.” Education was a journey, as opposed to a stepping stone toward monetary-inspired success.


Ancient Kemet developed a highly complex and impressive system of schooling.

The late George Granville Monah James was an author and historian of South America. In his book, “Stolen Legacy,” he expounds upon the educational Egyptian Mystery System of Ancient Egypt. At the universities of Egypt, grammar, rhetoric and logic eliminated irrationality. Geometry and arithmetic harbored the theories and techniques in which individuals eliminated problems, both internally and physically. And, astronomy gave individuals the ability to obtain knowledge and examine destiny. Lastly, music served as the “living practice of philosophy.”



The Egyptian Mystery Schools inspired Greek philosophy.

In “Stolen Legacy,” James uncovers the five primary elements that link Greek philosophy to the aspects of the Egyptian Mystery Schools. First, many Greek philosophers found studying the sciences to be pivotal; this action was a requirement for membership into the Egyptian Mystery System. Second, the four cardinal virtues of Plato heavily resemble the 10 virtues of the Egyptian Mystery System. Third, the religious institutions of Greece bear a striking resemblance to the temples of Egypt; just as the religious palaces and temple of Egypt, the religious institutions of the West are often constructed of stone and characterized by entrances lined by statues, large courts and ceilings that favor the sky with paintings of clouds or stars. Fourth, the temple of Delphi, which is often mentioned throughout the legends of Greek mythology, was solely of Egypt. And, fifth, while the later rulers of Greece opposed Egyptian influences, many philosophers of ancient Greece imitated Egyptian worship.


In Ancient Egypt, the scribe was the epitome of intellect.

In ancient Egypt, education was reserved for the royals, the rich and the “gatekeepers” of society; the scribes were these gatekeepers. In his book, “Eloquence of the Scribes: a Memoir on the Sources and Resources of African Literature,” Ayi Kwei Armah, a Ghanaian scholar, author and translator, explains that these individuals had an “unmistakable stamp of genius,” as well as “such high organizational skills that their civilization lasted thousands of years, longer than any other.” While most scribes were of the elite class, scribes could be a member of any social class, and, while most scribes were men, evidence has shown that female scribes existed. Scribes were responsible for multiple tasks, which included preserving history, collecting taxes and composing written recollections of everyday life in Egypt. Prior to becoming a scribe, one had to undergo intense training characterized by apprenticeship.



African education was rooted in collectivism, as opposed to individualism.

“(E)ducation or (e)ducation in Traditional African Societies? A Philosophical Insight,” a paper written by Amasa Philip Ndofirepi and Elizabeth Spiwe Ndofirepi, conveys that, in regards to education, communalism is “the responsibility of the community to see to it that children are raised appropriately and that as they grow into adulthood they will provide for the older members of the community.” the major goal of traditional education in Africa is to produce a complete individual; one who is cultured, respectful, integrated, sensitive and responsive to the needs of the family and neighbors.



go read and learn
SOURCES:

History and Development of Education in Tanzania by Prof. Philemon A.K. Mushi

Stolen Legacy by George Granville Monah James

Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora by Dr. Michael Gomez

http://blog.centerformaat.com/2010/11/developmental-powers-of-traditional.html

https://sitwe.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/indigenous-african-education/

https://darisoanj.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/what-is-african-indigenous-education-philosophical-bases-of-african-indigenous-education-strengths-and-limitations-of-this-education-and-relevant-is-it-to-the-modern-education-today/

http://samwiterson.blogspot.com/2011/07/history-of-education-in-east-africa.html

http://www.understandingslavery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=306:africa-before-transatlantic-enslavement&Itemid=151