It is time to spread the truth through man-made technology, the Internet. Luckily, you can read my article about the real deal on the contributions of ancient Africans to civilization. Yes, it may be hard to believe that Africans played an important role to human and science civilization but almost everything you see, touch, hear and feel can be traced to the motherland. Besides the fact that everyone’s DNA can be traced to an ancient black woman in the motherland, the earliest inventions have been created there too. Thus, human origins point to Africa as the birthplace of humanity!
Before we can proceed into the future we must walk down the path of truth. Revelations is a powerful chapter in the bible and so is the ancient african legacy before the days of Christ. It’s a shame that past and present racists and unbelievers fight to hide the truth. For many manuscripts documenting early Africans contributions to civilization had been deliberately destroyed. Fortunately, there is scientific proof that has been discovered by historians, anthropology, scientists, and stories that has been passed on from ancestors that support the following discussion.
And hey...since the oldest bones can be traced back to Africa, apparently the first man emerged from the African continent. Thus, there is a lot of scientific evidence that links ancient civilization and earliest inventions to the earliest Africans. Unfortunately, I will not cover them all in this article.
Based on the research that enlightened my soul a few years ago, I learned that several scientists such as Drs. Mary and Louis Leakey, had discovered in 1959, the remains of Homo habilis, a tool-making hominid estimated to be 1,750,000 years old. The team also found, two human skulls and stone tools that were excavated in Kenya, east of Lake Rudolph; their age is estimated to be 2.6 million years! In February, 1971, the announcement came that a human type of jawbone from the same area was five and a half million years old! No part of the world has proved as “fertile a field for the discovery” of skeletal remains and stone tools. The most remarkable to date is the finding at Fort Ternan, Kenya, of a man-like creature and animals to be fourteen million years of age.
It may be hard to digest this amazing information but several molecular biologists and paleontologists confirm this to date. As other studies proves, there is strong and accurate evidence that implies that the first humans in the world (homo sapiens) emerged in Africa about 200,000 years ago and migrated to the various continents much later as recent as 45,000 years ago in the case of migration to Europe. That’s right; Ancient Africans migrated within Africa, vertically and horizontally, as well as OUT OF AFRICA to populate the world. Woah!
Recent fossil finds suggest that the world's earliest “hominids” lived approximately 6 million years before that in Kenya. It’s further noted that the 4 million year old fossils of Dinknesh (Lucy) and her descendants and the 1996 discovery in Southern Ethiopia of stone tools were 2.5 million years old. Although subject to new finds, “The Kenyan –Ethiopian - Tanzanian region is perhaps the birthplace of modern humans. Despite all the evidence in the world that confirms that Africa is the birthplace of civilization, several religions do not accept this view on human origins. The following sections will broaden your insight of this historical topic:
Metallurgy / Mining
Do you know that metal has been used to build most skyscrapers, appliances and cars around the world ? Yes, metal is everywhere. Industrial Revolution would be dead if it wasn’t for the development of metal. Around 1,500-2,000 years ago, Africans living on the western shores of Lake Victoria, in Tanzania, had produced carbon steel that later gave life to the Industrial Revolution.
The Africans created pre-heated forced-draft furnaces, a method that was more sophisticated than any developed in Europe until the mid-19th century. It has been discovered that near Lake Victoria were 13 Iron Age furnaces that proved a technologically superior culture developed in Africa more than 1, 500 years ago overturns popular and scholarly ideas that technological sophistication developed in Europe but not in Africa.
The temperature achieved in the blast furnace of the African steel-smelting machine was higher than any achieved in a European machine until the Industrial Revolution. It was roughly 1,800 C some 200 to 400C higher that the highest reached in European cold blast bloomeries.
The secret to the African’s success was due to the fact that they preheated the air blast by inserting blowpipes into the base of the furnace. From their efforts, greater fuel economy was achieved and extraordinarily high temperatures.
Besides, Ancient Blacks creating the technology forming metal, Africans in the southern part of the continent had dug the most ancient mines found in the world. One of several discoveries was reported early in 1970, which was of an ancient mine in an iron-ore mountain in Swaziland, in southeast Africa. Stone as mining tools were found, and samples of charcoal remaining from old fires were tested by the radio-carbon dating technique. The mine turned out to be 43,000 years old!
Astronomy - Kenya
Complexity of astronomy was mastered by the people in West Africa known as the Dogon before Jesus Christ. Well known scientists from Michigan State had discovered African Stonehenge on the edge of Lake Turkana that was dated 300 years before Christ.
In their observations, they noticed that each huge pillar was accurately aligned with a star as it rose in 300 B.C. The evidence around the historical site proved that was a definite relationship existed between the pillars at Namoratunga and the stars. The scientists were able to conclude that an accurate and complex calendar system based on astronomical calculations was developed by the first millennium B.C. in eastern Africa.
The American scientists also discovered modern Cushites in Eastern Africa had a calendar based on the rising of certain stars and constellations. This being true, the modern Cushites had given life to one of the most accurate pre-Christian calendars of the prehistoric beginnings!
Another group of people in West Africa, known as the Dogon, had a very modern view of our solar system and of the universe. They lived in a mountainous area of the Republic of Mali, about 200 miles from where the legendary university of Timbuctoo once lay. They had justifiable interpretations of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, the spiral structure of the Milky Way Galaxy, in which our planet lies. They knew a billion worlds spiraled in space like the circulation of blood within the body of God. They knew that the moon was a unfruitful world. They said it was “dry and dead, like dried blood.” Basically, they knew of complex details about a star which no one can see except with the most powerful of telescopes. They saw it, observed it and estimated its mass and its nature. They plotted is orbit almost up until the year 2,000. Undoubtly, the Dogons did all of this between five and seven hundred years ago.
Despite how remarkable the Dogons had complex knowledge of astronomy, Eurocentric scientists would not accept that any African astronomer-priest could have developed a science of the heavens so advances that it could yield knowledge which, until the 20th century, escaped European observation.
Mathematics
In the study of the African history, mathematics is rarely mentioned. People with narrow-minded perceptions, are of the opinion that Africans are incapable of developing a conceptual body of thought. It may be true that not all Africans had mathematics, but neither did all Europeans.
The earliest evidence of the use of numbers is a find in Africa in the Congo (Zaire). On a 8,000 year old bone, markings of a notation count was found. It is known as the Ishango bone since it was found near an ancient fishing site of that name. The engraved marks on the Ishango bone had “close tally between the groups of marks and the astronomical lunar periods. A number of extensive tests gave even closer lunar approximations.” It was concluded that the notches on the bone, was used as a lunar calendar, comprising a period of almost six months. Definitely, the evidence was of one of man’s earliest intellectual activities.
Depending on the need for mathematics, systems of numerations may range in Africa from a few number words to the extensive numerical vocabulary of African nations having a history of centuries of commerce.
In Yoruba and the related people of the city of Benin in Nigeria, who have urbanized farmers and traders for centuries, is one nation where they developed and used a complex number system. Yoruba numerals demonstrated how the people in Western Africa had the capacity for abstract reasoning to develop and learn such a system.
Scientific discoveries had been also made in Eastern Africa. Evidence of of the “protomathematics” in southeast Africa has been traced back to 25,000 years ago. The existence of mathematical papyri from 1800 B.C.E. that are believed to be the first mathematical textbooks, containing formulas that allow for study in number theory, geometry, trigonometry and algebra.
Although Greek mathematicians and philosophers gave recognition to African science’s contributions, many of today historians still refuse to give such recognition to Africa.
Medicine
The African multi-genius Imphotep is considered as the first physician in history who’s his remedies which saved many human lives. As a member of the pharaoh’s court Imphotep was the first universal architect, philosopher, scribe, priest, chief lector, astronomer, magician, and administrator in the history of civilization. Besides there is clear evidence of his title as the “Father of Medicine”, for 3000 years he was worshipped as a god in Greece and Rome. Early Christians worshipped him as the "Prince of Peace."
Unfortunately, the medical history books never give credit to the contributions of black people. Discussions on the race of the ancient Egyptians are carefully avoided. Most sources rely heavily on quotations and citation from Herodotus to get information on ancient medicine.
Herodotus, who was considered by western society as the father of history, had made comments on many occasions about the appearance of the ancient Egyptians. Though, in the writings of medical history that fails to include his comments about the ancient society especially his knowledge of the practice of circumcision in ancient Egypt, a fact of medical importance noted by Herodotus.
Of course, it’s a fact that Imhotep diagnosed and treated over 200 diseases, 15 diseases of the abdomen, 11 of the bladder, 10 of the rectum, 29 of the eyes, and 18 of the skin, hair, nails and tongue. Imhotep treated tuberculosis, gallstones, appendicitis, gout and arthritis. He also performed surgery and practiced some dentistry. Imhotep extracted medicine from plants. He also knew the position and function of the vital organs and circulation of the blood system.
This legendary “Type of Christ” was worshipped as a god and healer from approximately 2850 B.C. to 525 B.C., and as a full deity from 525 B.C. to 550 A.D. Imhotep lived during the Third Dynasty at the court of King Zoser. His medical and anatomical knowledge still amazes medicinal professions and historians today. The Great Master of Knowledge in Egypt, who was of African origin, will never be forgotten! :)
Architect
Great engineering projects were assisted in mathematics that was founded in the homeland, Africa. It’s been believed for too long that enormous places or churches or ceremonial centers can only be found in the north of Africa and that mud and straw and vines is the limit of materials used by the traditional African. Obviously, people use what materials are available to them and where stone was available to Africans they built in stone. Even with less sturdy materials lay at hand, the African was still able to place the stamp of technological inventiveness upon those materials. I noticed in my research that a British engineer has mentioned “suspension bridges built with vines by the Kikuyu which equaled in engineering skill and potential durability any comparable bridges of wood he had seen in his own country.
It’s a sure guess that unaware folks could not imagine that south of the Sahara lie several architectural wonders. One of these is Great Zimbabwe which has the most immense construction site found in Africa outside of the pyramids of Egypt. The great stone city, as they would call it, is more than 800 years old but until recently, African scholars had studied the site closely. They noticed that the ancient plan of this stone city is in two parts. The king’s part, the Royal Enclosure, is on the top of a hill. The other buildings in the valley are the IMBA HURU, the Great Enclosure. The African team, the Asantes, calculated that within a single section was one meter long, from top to bottom, two meters thick, there were approximately 4,500 stone blocks. It is estimated that 10,000 people lived in that city, making it one of the largest cities of its day.
Although, Great Zimbabwe was the “seat of a civilization in the South,” this great stone city was polluted with greed when it was found by foreigners. Europeans not only began to steal the treasure found in the stone city but even the right of the native Africans to place ownership to their own civilization. How bizarre is that? In many literatures, they tried to prove that the architectural site which is located in the heartland of Africa, half a thousand miles away from any seacoast, was built by Persians, Phoenicians, Portuguese, Arabs or Chinese. FALSE!
So, stealing the claim of Africans was just the tip of the surface because Europeans had stolen everything they could put their hands on. Not just faience, glass and celadon, but ivory, gold, copper rings, necklaces, and bangles and bracelets, bells and goings, scared birds of soapstone, divination bowls and dishes, even ritual phalli. If you enter the ancient building in Great Zimbabwe, you’ll see bare stones. But the Asantes of the area quoted that, “in its bewildering emptiness it remained an impressive example of African workmanship.” So, this structure which was as innovative as the earlier pyramids of Egypt was a symbol of power and the beginnings of science and technology which other societies imitated.
Egypt, along with other countries in Africa played it’s part in architecture. Imhotep, the first pyramid builder, has to be mentioned again because this man was a multi-genius that must be praised for his work in this area. One of his many past accomplishments can be viewed at the step pyramid at Saqqara – the oldest monument in the world.
Imhotep was the first architect to plan and design immense funeral tombs, which were surrounded by a wall of stones in Egypt. Just the surrounding walls of the complex of Saqqarah must have been for those times a tremendous undertaking, but the crowning glory was of course the enormous pyramid, which had six steps (each sixty metres high), in the middle of the building complex. Egypt was thus thrust into a cycle of five to six hundred years during which several of these impressive tombs or "homes for eternity" sprung up (100 km west of the Nile).
How this man of genius could conceive and design such plans and to such precision, would surprise even modern architects. He not only opened builders' yards to produce large carved stones (replacing the former brick dried in the sun), but he put in place some ingenious processes to transport these by boat! He also is credited with a process of land sliding sand over the blocks to close certain passageways in the pyramids.
Writing
One of the big myths besides that blacks were "uncivilized", “illerate” and "barbaric" that Africans did not many develop writing systems. There is evidence of half a dozen scripts that obviously goes back before the Holocaust that illustrates Africans developed a complex and unique writing system which were used from ancient times, all the way up to the present. But of course, it has reported that many manuscripts have been destroyed such as in the sack of Alexandria, the destroying of Timbuctoo, and the burning of the Moorish documents in the squares of Granada on the order of Cardinal Ximenez.
It’s horrifying to know that past invaders to the motherland had purposely demolished and stolen a lot of evidence that proved that ancient blacks were brilliant inventors and as intelligent as any other race. Just as the Pope in the 15th century had ordered the Michael D’Angelo to paint all the gods white including Jesus, many non-Africans had hidden our technological and scientific advances in Africa.
The variety of writing material used in some parts of the continent, historically, reflects the complex history of Africa's writing systems which in the past were in scribed on materials such as parchment, papyrus, leather, skin, fabric, sand, clay, and metal more extensively in some parts of the continent than others.
Throughout the continent of Africa that has been discoveries and reports of evidence of the earliest writing systems. For example, it was recently announced on March 1, 1979, in the New York Times, that the origin of the Egyptian hieroglyphic system itself lies among the black people in Sudan. Dr. Bruce Williams, a research associate of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, announced the discovery of a black kingdom, known as Ta-Seti, at a place called Qustul, which preceded the first Dynasty in Egypt by twelve generations. A dozen black kings reigned at Ta-Seti and all the major religious and political symbols of a later Egypt were found in this Kingdom. Besides that these royal blacks had carvings and valuable possessions that dated back to 3,300 B.C, it was also discovered there was inscriptions in the tombs of Qustul. The writings were the earliest in the hieroglyphic system that had a influential effect upon some European writing systems.
Since the rise of worldwide Western European supremacy, it has been argued that Africans, due to a strong oral tradition, failed to invent writing. As a result, opposition to Afrocentrism has been the unfounded belief that only Egypt had writing in Africa. For example, archaeological evidence further indicates that African literacy began in the Sahara over 5000 years ago. This earliest form of writing was a syllabic system that included hundreds of phonetic signs, which over time was shorten to between 22 and 30 key signs, and used as an alphabet by the Egyptians, Meroites, Phonesians and Ethiopians. As discussed, there is tons of evidence that the earliest signs of writing systems definitely originated in Africa, but this article will not discuss all the different writing systems that were created in the many regions of Africa. - there's not enough time :)
Let’s wrap it up!! :)
I hope after sharing my beautiful knowledge with the masses that no one will no longer look at Africa as the “Dark Continent.” As a young, black woman, I am very proud of my ancestors's accomplishments and hope that readers have embraced my written words. Yet, it’s unfortunate that the numerous African treasures have been stolen over the centuries. But the facts remain that West Africa and other parts of the continent provided artifacts not only of iron, tin, gold and bronze metallurgy but also evidence of building technology, ceramics, writings, mining, engineering, physics, maths and medicine.
Scholars, archeologists and scientists had furhter confirmed my beliefs that Africa is the birthplace to humanity and civilization; yet common sense will tell you that if there was an Adam and Eve, they had to have been born in Africa where life of the first human being began. Without the earlier technological accomplishments of ancient Africans who were black, our civilization would be inexistent. Let us not violate the historical truths because the race of the ancient Africans is important to know. As Ancient Africa stands strongly besides Asian and European societies, embrace it and accept it! Life is too short to live on lies. One luv, one blood!
Written by: Nordine .a.k.a STORM!! Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!
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