AFROCENTRIC CULTURE BY DESIGN: Journey to the Empire of Mali

Monday, December 15, 2008

Journey to the Empire of Mali

The storytellers called griots tell of ancient Mali, an empire that grew rich on the trade routes of the Sahara from the 13th to the 16th centuries. Mali came to power under the leadership of Mari Diata, who later became known as Sundiata, or "the lion prince". Sundiata came out of exile to defeat the king of the Susu in 1230, and he brought the Malinke chiefs together under his rule. His people believed Sundiata to be a powerful magician king, and most of what we know about him has been passed down through centuries by the griots.
Mansa Musa, who ruled from 1307 until approximately 1337, led Mali into the height of its power. During his reign, Mali took over the trading cities Timbuktu and Gao. Mansa Musa sent ambassadors to Egypt and the other North African states, and brought Egyptian scholars to his cities. He went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and spread the fame of Mali as far as Europe. When he returned home, he brought back ideas from the countries he visited and a desire to reform his country's religion, making it more like orthodox Islam.
Read more about the ancient kingdoms of Africa online and in the library:
On the Web
Ancient Africahttp://www.penncharter.com/Student/africa/index.html
This site briefly compares the governments of ancient Mali, Ghana, and Songhay. See artifacts from the old kingdoms and learn more about their cultures.
Kids Edition and Biography Resource Center via CRRL's Online Databaseshttp://www.answerpoint.org/subpage.asp?category_id=28
Use your CRRL library card to get magazine and encyclopedia articles on the Mali Empire, Mansa Musa, and Sundiata Keita.
Mr. Dowling's Electronic Passport: Ancient Africahttp://www.mrdowling.com/609-timbuktu.html
Articles describe Timbuktu, Mansa Musa, and Sundiata and have links to additional sources. Mr. Dowling is a geography teacher in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The Story of Africa: West African Kingdomshttp://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section4.shtml
Learn about the old ancient kingdoms of Mali, Ghana, Kaneum, Songhay, Hausa States, Asante, Ife and Benin. A rich site complete with maps and online recordings of the BBC programs.
Timbuktu, Mali from the History Channelhttp://www.historychannel.com/classroom/unesco/timbuktu.html
Timbuktu, the great trading city, had its beginnings when a young herder woman named Buktu found an oasis for her herds during the dry season. Timbuktu (Buktu's Well) went on to become an important stop for nomads and traders in the Sahara region.
In the Library
Encarta Africana compact disc is available on the library computers at many branches. Call for availability.
Ghana, Mali, Songhay: The Western Sudan. Mann, Kenny.Juvenile Non-Fiction 966.1 Ma
Learn about the three kingdoms: their legends, politics, and religion. Illustrated with designs from ancient pottery and weaving.
Mansa Musa: The Lion of Mali. Burns, Khephra.Juvenile Fiction Bur
Read the beautiful legend of the boy who grew up to become Mali's great fourteenth-century leader, Mansa Musa.
The Road to TimbuktuVideo 9.60 W87
Although not geared to elementary grades, this PBS special gives a fascinating tour of the ancient empires of Africa. The series has a related Internet site.
Sundiata: Lion King of Mali. Wisniewski, David.Juvenile Non-Fiction 921 Sundi
Sundiata's story of victory both for himself and his land is retold with glorious illustrations. The notes at the end give information on the ancient African kingdoms.
Sundiata: The Epic of the Lion King, Retold. Bertol, Roland.Juvenile Non-Fiction 398.22 BE
A retelling of the African epic in which a cast out child grew up to become the liberator and founder of the great empire of old Mali.
The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay: Life in Medieval Africa. McKissack, Pat.Juvenile Non-Fiction 966.1 Mc
A history of the wealthy civilizations of the Western Sudan which flourished from 700 to 1700. The book theorizes contact between the African empires and Mesoamerica.

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ALKEBULAN-CENTRIC

KEMETIC SCIENCE - The Master Keys to the Study of Ancient Kemet~ 1. Cultural Antiquity and Continuity Starts in Pre-Dynastic Times and Go to 640 A.D. We must remember this when reading or listening to presentations about Kemet. Even those who eventually conquered Kemet adopted its culture. 2. Older is Better. The older architecture is superior to the later works. It's as if the art and discipline was forgotten with time. 3. The Entire Orientation of the Ancient Kamites is Southern. Word for face and South, right and West, left and East, North and back of head are respectively the same. 4. The Origin of the Kamites is Southern. 5. Leadership is Southern. The main leadership that ruled ancient Kemet always came from the South 6. All Invasions Were Destructive. No one donated culture to ancient Kemet. 7. Arabic Migration Mixes with Nubian People in the Kemetic Valley at and After the Time of Muhammad. Arabic people come in from Syria and Assyria in large numbers for the first time as the first large population of settlers after Muhammad. And with Islam, you have the first change in the fundamental culture of Kemet. 8. Science Generated Religion. The ancient Kemetic people got religion by studying aspects of nature. Nature, when viewed systematically, represents "God" anywhere you look. If you keep seeing the same patterns and rules repeated over and over again in nature, you suddenly realize that there is something bigger that you can't grasp that is behind all this. Therefore, you study yourself into religion. The religion that the Kemetic people developed through study is the same religion that others borrowed from the ancient Kamites without study. Science generated religion, it generated philosophy, and it generated general culture (religion was not Sunday). 9. There is No Dualism in Kemetic Culture. Dualism in interpretation philosophically or culturally is a western phenomenon. (Example, Kierkegaard: It's got to be either this or that). The priest was a scientist. No split between a person searching truth through one means and a person seeking it through another. No split between science and religion, the sacred and the secular. ~ (From a lecture given by Dr. Asa G. Hilliard, III, a.k.a. Nana Baffour Amankwatia

Professor Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-1986)

In His Lab , At the University of Dakar. An outstanding Historian, Egyptologist, Philosopher, and Chemist, ---“In this chapter I hope to demonstrate that the origin of the civilization of Egypt (khem) was black African, specifically Ethiopian or Anu . . . The history of Black will remain suspended in air and cannot be written correctly until African historians dare connect it with the history of Egypt. In reviewing Egypt’s beginnings, we find an advanced civilization already intact from the earliest Dynasty. This fact has perplexed historians down through the ages. Common sense dictates that if Egypt began fully mature, then its civilization must have originated elsewhere . . . . [Herodotus] The ‘Father of History’ was told that the first man to rule Egypt was Min, who lived so long ago that Egypt was still under water: ‘in (Min’s) time the whole country, except the district around Thebes, was marsh, none of the land below Lake Moeris, was then showing above water. To this place from the sea [Nowe] is seven days passage up the river . . . . Cheik Anta Diop, The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality (originally published Nations Negres et Culture) 1955 - (Published in English in 1974)

QUEEN NZINGA - Warrior Queen - (1583-1663)

In the sixteenth century, the Portugese position in the slave trade was threatened by England and France. As a result, the Portugese shifted their slave-trading activities to the Congo and South West Africa. Mistaking the title of the ruler (ngola) for the name of the country, the Portugese called the land of the Mbundu people Angola—the name by which it is still known today. Here, the Portugese encountered the brilliant and courageous Queen Nzinga, who was determined never to accept the Portugese conquest of her country. An exceptional stateswoman and military strategist, she harassed the Portugese until her death, at age eighty. She became renowned for the guerilla tactics she employed for resisting the technologically superior Portugese army. She was a brilliant strategist and, although past sixty, led her warriors herself. Never surrendering, she died on December 17, 1663. Her death accelerated the Portugese occupation of the interior of South West Africa, fueled by the massive expansion of the Portugese slave trade.

QUEEN TIYE - 1415-1340 BCE

Born in Nubia, Queen Tiye was the Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep III, mother of Amenhotep IV (later known as Akenhaton), and mother-in-law of Nefertiti. Highly prestigious during the reign of both her husband and son, she exerted her influence as queen consort and queen mother of Egypt over a fifty-year period. In addition, she shaped Egyptian fashion and altered the prevailing view regarding royal women. Married at an early age, her husband fiercely admired her and displayed his love lavishly by building temples and massive statues where she sits by him as an equal, a feat unparalleled in that time; dedicated a number of shrines to her; and even created a monumental artificial lake for her. She was glorified by her husband as "... The most praised, the lady of grace, sweet in her love, who fills the palace with her beauty, the Regent of the North and South, the Great Wife of the King, the lady of both lands..." Wielding her power and taking charge at this juncture in the nation's history, she used her political influence and astute decisions to maintain Egypt's authority. She averted key national crises by becoming Secretary of State when her husband's physical and mental powers deteriorated with age; and redirected political decisions to her attention when her son Akenhaton neglected his political duties while preoccupied with his religious innovation (named the Heretic King, Akenhaton was the first ruler in recorded history to believe in monotheism).

ANCIENT BLACK CHINESE

The Africans or blacks that founded civilization in China were often called li min "black headed people" by the Zhou dynasts. This term has affinity to the Sumero-Akkadian term sag- gig-ga "black headed people". In northern China the blacks founded many civilizations. The three major empires of China were the Xia Dynasty (c.2205-1766 B.C), Shang/ Yin Dynasty (c.1700-1050 B.C) and the Zhou Dynasty.The Zhou dynasty was the first dynasty founded by the Mongoloid people in China called Hua (Who-aa). These li min are associated with the Chinese cultural hero Yao. The founders of Xia and Shang came from the Fertile African Crescent by way of Iran. According to Chinese legends the first man Pan Gu, used a hammer 18,000 years ago to make man. The skeletal remains from southern China are predominately negroid. (Chang 1964, p.70) The people practiced single burials.

MANI TRIBE IN THAILAND

The Chinese legends designate various culture heroes as the inventors of various aspects of Chinese civilization. The Chinese term for emperor is Di. Huang Di (Yellow Emperor), is the Chinese culture hero credited with introducing boats, carts 'chariots, the bow and arrow, ceramics, wooded houses and writing.Chinese civilization began along the Yellow river . Here the soil was fertile and black Chinese farmers grew millet 4000 years ago, and later soybeans. They also raised pigs and cattle. By 3500 B.C., the blacks in China were raising silkworms and making silk.

AFRICA'S OLDEST KNOWN BOAT

8000 years ago, Nigeria. "Africa's oldest known boat" the Dufuna Canoe was discovered near the region of the River Yobe. The Canoe was discovered by a Fulani herdsman in May 1987, in Dufuna Village while digging a well. The canoe’s “almost black wood”, said to be African mahogany, as “entirely an organic material”. Various Radio-Carbon tests conducted in laboratories of reputable Universities in Europe and America indicate that the Canoe is over 8000 years old, thus making it the oldest in Africa and 3rd oldest in the World. Little is known of the period to which the boat belongs, in archaeological terms it is described as an early phase of the Later Stone Age, which began rather more than 12,000 years ago and ended with the appearance of pottery. evidence of an 8,000-year-old tradition of boat building in Africa throws cold water on the assumption that maritime transport developed much later there in comparison with Europe. Peter Breunig of the University of Frankfurt, Germany, an archaeologist involved in the project, says the canoe’s age “forces a reconsideration of Africa’s role in the history of water transport”. It shows, he adds, “that the cultural history of Africa was not determined by Near Eastern and European influences but took its own, in many cases parallel, course”

AFROCENTRIC CULTURE BY DESIGN

Monday, December 15, 2008

Journey to the Empire of Mali

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