Tutankhamen Fraud Alert!

AFRICANA STUDIES
Vanishing Evidence Essay Series

The  Vanishing  Evidence  of
Classical African Civilizations
2005 Update: Tutankhamen Fraud Alert!

Prof. Manu Ampim

        June 2005 issue                                 Original black ka-statue of Tutankhamen

CAIRIO  SYMPOSIUM (1974)

          The question of “What race were the ancient Egyptians?” was emphatically resolved at the historic international Cairo Symposium, held from January 28 – February 3, 1974.  The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) convened 20 of the world’s top Egyptologists to debate the race of the founders of ancient Egyptian civilization.[1]

Until this symposium, it was assumed by the vast majority of European Egyptologists that the ancient Egyptians were either Caucasians or western Asiatics.  Outside of Black scholars, few writers in the world agreed that the people of pharaonic Egypt were black Africans.  At the Cairo Symposium only two African scholars, Cheikh Anta Diop and Theophilé Obenga, held that the Egyptians were black Africans, while the other participants took opposing positions against the Diop-Obenga thesis. Their scholarly opponents offered virtually no evidence to substantiate the two long-held popular theories of the western Asiatic or Caucasoid origin of the ancient Egyptians.  These popular theories certainly needed to be proven, because they are contradicted by all of the objective evidence, such as the temple and tomb reliefs, paintings, sculpture, written records of other nations, linguistic terms, mummy remains, Egyptian customs, and royal and spiritual symbols.[2]

Armed with a formidable body of evidence from numerous academic disciplines, Diop presented specific information to prove the black origins of Kemet (ancient Egypt).  It is obvious from the conference report that Diop dominated the proceedings, and confronted with his solid arguments, most of the participants changed their positions during the conference.

Prof. Torgny Save-Soderbergh (Sweden) and other participants argued that the concept of race was now outmoded and not appropriate for characterizing the ancient Egyptians.  Prof. Abdelgadir Abdalla (Sudan) stated that it was more important to focus on the ancient Egyptian achievements rather than their race.  Prof. G. Ghallab (Egypt) stated that the Egyptians were “Caucasoids.”  However, the theory of an ancient population which was “white” with dark or black pigmentation was abandoned during the conference, as there was no evidence given to prove this assertion. 

Professors El Nadury (Egypt) and Grottanelli (Italy) argued that the Egyptian population was not a pure race and could only be regarded as “mixed.”  Prof. Jean Vercoutter (France) remarked that “Egypt was African in its way of writing, in its culture, and in its way of thinking.”  He stated, however, that “the inhabitants of the Nile Valley had always been mixed.”

Prof. Jean Leclant (France) added that there was an “African character in the Egyptian temperament and way of thinking” but that the “unity of the Egyptian people was not racial but cultural.”   He stated the civilization was “neither white nor Negro.”  Prof. Peter Shinnie (Canada), Vercoutter and others argued that terms such as “black” was too subjective and not well defined.

Dr. Diop protested that these were not positive arguments presenting any evidence, but simply negative statements against his black African origins position.  In fact Maurice Glélé, the neutral UNESCO representative, interjected on at least two occasions to state that if classifying people in terms of white, black, or yellow are so debatable and subjective then a revision should be made of the entire terminology of world history to avoid misconceptions.  It is clear that the participants abandoned the old Caucasoid and western Asiatic theories and instead retreated to a new “mixed race” position, without presenting any meaningful evidence to support this new theory.

Nevertheless, the conclusion of the official UNESCO report indicates the triumph of Diop and his colleague Obenga.  It stated, “Although the preparatory working paper sent out by UNESCO gave particulars of what was desired, not all participants had prepared communications comparable with the painstakingly researched contributions of Professors Cheikh Anta Diop and Obenga.  There was consequently a real lack of balance in the discussions.”[3]  In laymen terms, Cheikh Anta Diop and Theophilé Obenga gave out an important academic spanking on a world stage.  Western Egyptologists now unsuccessfully try and downplay the significance of Diop’s triumph over their colleagues.

MAGAZINE  FANTASIES:  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC  &  KMT

Since the 1974 Cairo Symposium, the “Caucasoid origins” theory has been slowly abandoned in academic writings.  However, this fanciful view has continued to enjoy life in the popular media, such as in TV docu-dramas, modern paintings, cartoons and comic books, museum displays which focus on the foreign period of Greco-Roman occupation, and drawings in scholarly and popular magazines such as National Geographic.  For decades, National Geographic Magazine has played a prominent role in misrepresenting ancient Egyptian images, beginning with its influential October 1941 issue which included 23 paintings by H. M. Herget, and text by William Hayes from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  This article not only presented almost two dozen wild fantasy drawings of pale-skinned ancient Egyptians, but also in this series Herget represented the short-statured Africans (called “Deng” in Egyptian; and so-called “Pygmy” by modern Westerners) as an obscene caricature with a leash around his left ankle, black skin, outrageously large red lips, and almost ape-like.  This “scholarly” article with its racist drawings covered almost a 100 pages of text.[4]

Unfortunately, these outrageous National Geographic images are still used today by Euro-American scholars as illustrations in publications, and in television documentaries to supplement their “academic” writings.  National Geographic continues to be an important leader in promoting imaginary Caucasian images of ancient Egyptians.  This publication has set a precedent with its October 1941 issue, which it and other publications continue to use more than a half century later. 

For example KMT Magazine, the over-priced ($8.95) California-based publication, in its Spring 2005 issue continues to reproduce the image of the Deng, which is most vile and absurd anti-African painting in this 1941 series.[5]  The editors of KMT -- like National Geographic -- are completely shameless in their racist representations of African people. This ongoing fraud and deliberate misrepresentation of ancient images demonstrates a relentless attempt to steal African heritage and denigrate Black people in the process.

KING  TUTANKHAMEN  &  FACIAL  RECONSTRUCTION

There is a current controversy around the exhibit, “Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs,” at the Los Angeles County Museum (LACMA).  The recent shocking facial reconstruction of King Tutankhamen as a “North African Caucasoid” has caused considerable concern and protests from the public, because this modern bust of King Tut is not a real artifact, yet it is placed in the same exhibit as the authentic artifacts from his tomb.   At the LACMA exhibit (until November 15, 2005), visitors are misled to believe that this 21^st century artistic interpretation and reconstruction of Tutankhamen is connected to the actual artifacts, when in fact there is absolutely no such relationship.  National Geographic, the usual ally of racial propaganda and deceit, carried this same “Caucasoid” image as a frontpage cover story in its June 2005 issue. The magazine appropriately indicated that this image is “the new face of King Tut.”  This facial reconstruction was done under the name of “forensic science,” as modern artists have entered the digital age and thus have moved from stencil and paintbrush to computer graphics.  With the term “forensic” it is often assumed that this implies an “exact science,” although this is not the case.

Forensic reconstruction has been used since 1895 with the pioneering work of the German anatomist Wilhelm His.  Over the past 100 years, computer technologies and digital imaging have now redefined the forensic field.  Computer tomography (CT) scans, for example, chart the contours and topography of the skull and obtain detailed data that allow researchers and artists to create a three-dimensional likeness of the deceased person.  Forensic reconstruction and illustrative art are used to help identify crime victims, and are used in archeology to create a likeness of a deceased person from the distant past.  Forensic reconstruction, then, is “any art that aids in the identification of unknown deceased persons.” 

However, although this forensic technique has significantly developed over the past century it still remains an art, not an exact science.   In constructing an image, forensic artists have to give a “guesstimate” of the person’s nose, lips, ears, hair, ethnicity and skin color.  These gaps are filled in by the overall working assumptions that the artists are using.  These data are often supplied by anthropologists or archeologists who are also working on the case.  Thus, it is important that the data inputted is accurate, because the wrong data will always lead to wrong conclusions.  In other words, “garbage in, means garbage out.” 

The latest controversial forensic reconstruction of Tutankhamen is the result of CT scans in January 2005, carried out by Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), under the direction of the Council director, Dr. Zahi Hawass. 

Below: Tutankhamen is represented in the two browned-skinned middle images. (Tomb of Tutankhamen).

 

Zahi Hawass standing over Tutankhamen’s mummy, with the two brown-skinned images of Tutankhamen on the far left.

(Tomb of Tutankhamen).  Hawass does not wear gloves or a face mask to protect the mummy from bacteria.

The CT machine scanned Tutankhamen’s mummy from head to toe and created 1,700 digital x-ray images.  The SCA wanted to determine with the scans how King Tut died.  This question is still not known, but it is certain that he was not killed from a blow to the head as was speculated by many Egyptologists and historians.  However, the CT scans did give Hawass a chance to commission teams of forensic artists to reconstruct Tut’s image as a “North African Caucasoid.”  This Caucasoid hypothesis is completely imaginary and not supported by any first-hand evidence.  It completely ignores all of the dark-skinned Africoid paintings of Tutankhamen on the walls of his tomb, his brown and black skinned statues, his Africoid thick lips, and his all-black family members.  There were three forensic teams (American, Egyptian, and French) that each produced totally different results from the same CT scan produced data.  The three teams created their reconstructions separately -- the Americans and French working from a plastic skull, the Egyptians working directly from the CT scans.  The French and Egyptians knew they were recreating King Tut, but the Americans were not told where the skull was from.  Totally ignoring the actual results, Hawass claims that "The results of the three teams were identical or very similar in the basic shape of the face, the size, shape and setting of the eyes, and the proportion of the skull."  Despite the claims of Hawass, any reasonable person can view the forensic results of the three teams and determine that the images are fundamentally different.   

http://www.guardians.net/hawass/Press_Release_05-05_Tut_Reconstruction.htm

   

Results of the French reconstruction team.

   

^{Results of the Egyptian reconstruction team.}

           

Results of the American reconstruction team.

It is obvious that all three versions are significantly different, particularly the treatment of the neck, chin, lips, and head shape.  Hawass himself even admitted that “the noses of all three are different.”

The color was arbitrarily added by the French team without any relevant data.  The National Geographic article indicates that, “Skin tone, which could have varied from very dark to very light, was based on an average shade of modern Egyptians.”  There have been no meaningful studies or data collected regarding the skin tones of ancient or modern Egyptians, thus the pale color of the French reconstruction is completely arbitrary and lacks credibility.

Hawass, representing the SCA, claims that the results of the three teams are identical or very similar in the shape of the face, the size, shape, and setting of the eyes, and the proportions of the skull.  Further, he even stretching all credibility and further asserts that “the shape of the face and skull [of the three results] are remarkably similar to a famous image of Tutankhamen…where he is shown…rising from a lotus blossom.”

When the modern forensic images are compared to the authentic Tutankhamen lotus flower image, it is plain to see that they are dramatically different and that Hawass is under a heavy illusion as his statements totally lack honesty:

American reconstruction       Tutankhamen lotus image        Tutankhamen actual skull

Tutankhamen half-body sculpture   Tutankhamen lotus image      French reconstruction

Egyptian reconstruction                   Tutankhamen lotus image            Tutankhamen on throne

From the three forensic reconstructions, we can conclude the following:
1. The three different teams came up with differing shapes of nose, ears, lips, chin/jaw, and neck;

2. The assignment of the skin color was completely arbitrary and was based on an assumption of the “average” color of the modern Egyptian population.

*See Dr. Ahmed Saleh, current member of the SCA, for his opposition to the position of Zahi Hawass, the problem with the “false image of Tutankhamen,” and the problem with facial reconstructions of Egyptians.

http://www.mummyspeaks.net/  

http://www.mummyspeaks.net/ENGLISH/facial_reconstruction.htm

Finally, it is of interest to note that nowhere does Zahi Hawass, the Supreme Council of Antiquities, or National Geographic show any of the original Tutankhamen images or his actual skull next to the three modern images for the readers to compare.  We are simply given Hawass’ biased personal opinion that all of the images are “identical” or “remarkably similar.”  National Geographic writer A.R. Williams further misleads the public with his statement that the CT scans provide “precise data for an accurate reconstruction.”

                                                                           

“The false image of Tutankhamen” (left) compared to original Africoid images from Tut’s tomb.

2002  TUTANKHAMEN  RECONSTRUCTIONS

There were two other forensic versions of King Tutankhamen made in 2002, and again they look totally different from all of the others.  The process of creating these Tut images was equally unreliable as the 2005 versions, and it involved mere guesswork.   To create the modern 2002 Tut bust, scientists in Britain and New Zealand used digital images to produce a fiberglass image of Tutankhamen.  In another version, Dr. Robin Richards of University College London scanned the faces of modern people “the same age, sex and an appropriate ethnic group, so that we've got a suitable average face to start the warping process.” This information allowed Richards and his colleagues to create an “average face for Tutankhamen,” including the nose, lips, and eyes.  The digital image was later made into a sculpture for the Science Museum in London.  However, Richards was correct to point out the obvious fact, ”It's never going to be a perfect portrait - there are just too many uncertainties, even if experts could venture back to the tomb and take a CT scan.”

These 2002 reconstructions of "Tutankhamen" are dramatically different and have no resemblance.

 

Left & Middle: In the UK, specialist facial modeler Alex Fort uses the computer images to model the Tut head in clay then cast it in fiberglass.  Right: This Tut image was created by Dr. Robin Richards and his colleagues in 2002.

1983  TUTANKHAMEN  RECONSTRUCTIONS

In 1983 Betty Pat. Gatliff, who has over 30 years experience in doing facial reconstructions in clay for police agencies and various museums, did a facial reconstruction of King Tut.  It was pictured in Life Magazine in 1983 and again in National Geographic World in 1985.  Gatliff’s reconstruction is yet another distinct version of Tutankhamen, as she depicts him with brownish skin (closer to reddish-brown) and a round face.  Gatliff’s Tut version is not very accurate but it is closer to the authentic images than the three 2005 versions, as she depicts him with the brown skin tone that Tutankhamen is always portrayed with by the ancient African artists (other than Tutankhamen’s two jet-black ka statues, now in the Cairo Museum).

CONCLUSION

Little more needs to be said about this unreliable forensic art reconstruction process, as every forensic artist for the past twenty years has produced a unique version of Tutankhamen.  Despite this fact, the public is being misled by the SCA and National Geographic to believe that the scanned digital images have somehow made the work of modern forensic artists completely “accurate” and thoroughly “scientific.”  I indicated in 2002 that we should be careful of taking *any* forensic reconstruction serious.  There is no reason to replace authentic and original paintings and sculpture of Tutankhamen (or anyone else) with modern artistic guesswork and biased interpretations.  Even if the forensic results showed Tutankhamen as a black African, it would be folly to fall for the game of modern propagandists, who are attempting to move the public away from the primary sources toward modern interpretations based on racial illusions and imaginary “North African Caucasoids.”  Back in 2002, there was much debate about whether the King Tut forensic reconstruction by the Science Museum in the UK was African enough.  I argued that the details of the modern reconstruction didn't matter because we already know precisely what Tutankhamen looked like; the African artists left us a clear record of his Africoid appearance. 

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Postscript: Previous  Examinations

In 1925, three years after the discovery of the tomb, the mummy of King Tutankhamen was dismantled by Howard Carter’s team, which was interested primarily in recovering the almost 150 jewels and other items wrapped with the body and gaining scientific information from the body itself.  In order to remove the objects from the body and the body from the coffin, Carter’s team cut the body into a number of pieces (for example, the trunk was cut in half, the arms and legs were detached). The head, cemented by the solidified resins to the golden mask, was severed, and removed from the mask with hot knives. Carter placed the mummy back in the tomb in 1926. The mummy has now been X-rayed three times, once in 1968 by a team from the University of Liverpool under R.G. Harrison, again in 1978 by J.E. Harris of the University of Michigan, and in 2005 by Z. Hawass and the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

FOOTNOTES:

[1]   UNESCO, The Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of Meroitic Script, January 28-February 3, 1974 (Paris: UNESCO, 1978).

 2.  The symbols that are central to ancient Egyptian culture are exclusively African symbols such as the ostrich feather representing divine law; leopard-skin outfit worn by high priests and pharaohs; lotus flower representing spiritual transformation and also southern Egypt; sledge plant representing kingship in southern Egypt; ivory and granite used for utensils and construction respectively; the country name KMT meaning the black land or the land of black people; the southern orientation where the term imnty means both west and right (in the sense of direction), and i3bty means both east and left.  Thus for the ancient Egyptians, on a map the region of Asia would be to the left rather than to the right.  The animals in the Egyptian religious system are exclusively African such as Djehuty (baboon), Sekhmet (lion), Het-Heru (cow), Heru (Hawk), Anpu (jackal), Khepera (scarab beetle), etc.  In the paintings and sculpture the standard color of the ancient Egyptian men was various shades of brown, and the women were depicted as tan, brown, and sometimes dark yellow.  Both genders were also depicted with a black skin tone, particularly the men in various tomb scenes dating back to the Pyramid Age.  The people of Kemet did not depict themselves as Asian or European types and are never shown with white or pale skin on authentic artifacts until the foreign period.

3.   UNESCO, Peopling, p. 91.

4.   William Hayes, “Daily Life in Ancient Egypt,” National Geographic Magazine (October 1941), pp. 419-515.

5    Omar Zuhdi, “The African Journeys of Count Harkhuf & the Gift of a Dancing Dwarf,” KMT Magazine, vol. 16, no. 1 (Spring 2005),  pp. 74-80.

August 2005

Saving American Children through Education

TONIGHT ON THE TERRORDOME: Geoffrey Canada on Saving American Children through Education

FM 88.5 Edmonton
www.cjsr.com worldwide
6 PM Mountain time

While it’s widely understood that without education, most young people cannot hope to enjoy a future of health, productivity and civic engagement, the United States continues to deny millions of its children the quality of education it lavishes on others.

Whatever the official reasons are for such disparity which effectively dooms millions to a shorter, more painful, and more economically deprived life, two things are clear. The students hurt by such policies are disproportionately poor, and disproportionately of Afrikan, indigenous and Latin-indigenous descent.

But while many are content to blame the elites for creating and maintaining this factory of inequality and despair, some have sworn to change that system.

Born in 1952, Geoffrey Canada is an educational crusader and founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone. Himself a child of the South Bronx, Canada learned early in life that doom awaited those who were unprepared for their futures. The Zone he and others established sought to provide for its constituents the opportunities widely available for middle class children, including services and activities after school ended for the day or for the week.

“In the late 1990s, HCZ ran a pilot project that brought a range of support services to a single block. The idea was to address all the problems that poor families were facing: from crumbling apartments to failing schools, from violent crime to chronic health problems.

“In 1997, the agency began a network of programs for a 24-block area: the Harlem Children's Zone Project. In 2007, the Zone Project grew to almost 100 blocks and served 7,400 children and over 4,100 adults.

“Over the years, the agency introduced several ground-breaking efforts: in 2000, The Baby College parenting workshops; in 2001, the Harlem Gems pre-school program; also in 2001, the HCZ Asthma Initiative, which teaches families to better manage the disease; in 2004, the Promise Academy, a high-quality public charter school; and in 2006, an anti-obesity program to help children stay healthy.”

The Zone school features a longer school day and a longer school year; beginning in 2004, entrance to the Zone’s Promise Academy kindergarten and grade 6 classes was selected by lottery.

Geoffrey Canada, one of the key builders of the Zone, has been widely honoured for his work, including through the $250,000 Heinz Award, a prize similar to the MacArthur “genius” fellowship. Numerous universities and colleges including Harvard have granted him honourary degrees, and he’s appeared widely on American news media. He’s the author of two books:

• Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America (1995)
• Reaching Up for Manhood: Transforming the Lives of Boys in America (1998)

Labels: charter schools, education, Geoffrey Canada, Harlem Children's Zone, The Terrordome

Monday, December 15, 2008

I don't care if this one's a photo-op. This is what photo-ops SHOULD do... set a positive example.

Director Ernest Dickerson sent me the following pictures and text of the Obamas on American Thanksgiving.

Could these be considering shameless photo-opping?

Yeah, I guess. But then, so could any good deed if photographed. I'd argue that wealthy, powerful people have a duty to be photographed doing good deeds, in order to set an example (with great power there must...).

Yes, of course, food banks are not revolutionary (although the Black Panther Party had "Survival Programmes Pending the Revolution" including Free Breakfast for Children), and we must end the cause of hunger, rather than dealing exclusively with hunger as a effect. But hungry people can't survive on political theory. Hungry people need food today.

Of course we need to monitor in detail how the Obama White House will address the cause of poverty--namely, economic exploitation by the rich of everyone else, especially the poor. I'd expect his White House, backed as it was by the super-wealthy, has no intention of ending poverty, since poverty is the necessary feeding grounds of the wealthy, that is, the only way to create wealth is by creating poverty.

But for today--TODAY--I'm happy to see these pictures. This aint W holding a plastic turkey for his war-makers in the Occupied Territory called Iraq. This is a Kenyan-American, the Emperor of the world, handing out food to people who need it, with his family. And while this deed makes me overlook not one iota of his service of the Empire and its oligarchs, I nevertheless am heartened to see these images.

The text below comes from The Huffington Post.

"CHICAGO - President-elect Barrack Obama and his wife took their daughters to work at a food bank on the day before Thanksgiving, saying they wanted to show the girls the meaning of the holiday, especially when so many people are struggling.

"Ten-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha joined their parents to shake hands and give holiday wishes to hundreds of people who had been lined up for hours at the food bank on Chicago 's south side.

"Sasha wore a pink stocking hat over her pigtails and Malia had on a purple striped hat as the family handed out wrapped chickens to the needy inthe chilly outdoor courtyard. Those seeking food on Wednesday at St. Columbanus also received boxes with potatoes, oranges, fresh bread, peanut butter, canned goods, oatmeal, spaghetti and coffee.

"The president-elect, dressed casually in a leather jacket, black scarf and khaki pants, was in a jovial mood, calling out 'happy thanksgiving' andtelling everyone 'you can call me Barack.'

"He told reporters that he wants the girls 'to learn the importance of how fortunate they are, and to make sure they're giving back.'

"The soon-to-be first lady said the Obamas wanted to give their children 'an understanding of what giving and Thanksgiving is all about.'

"The Obama family's activities in the courtyard quickly drew the attention of schoolchildren whose windows overlooked the courtyard. They put up a sign against the glass that read: 'We love our prez' and screamed when the president-elect waved to them.

"Obama then turned to his wife and suggested they go visit the kids. Secret Service agents, looking surprised, disappeared inside the building to accommodate his request.

"Minutes later, hundreds of children were brought down to the school auditorium, and Obama loped onstage as they screamed and cheered.

"'I just wanted to come by and wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving,' he said. He then asked the children what they would be eating for Thanksgiving dinner."

(I don't know who wrote the following text.)

"So let's recap.He took his kids to work in the cold? Instead of getting someone to line up and dish the gifts? Instead of telling them 'You are kids of a VIP. Therefore there are things that you can't do.

"To show the kids that people are suffering? Yes, that people are suffering? They have to live understanding the importance of giving back to the community.Let us learn from this great family and for those who have children, this is a wonderful example of raising our kids.Peace out!"

Labels: American Empire, American Oligarchs, Black Panther Party, cause of poverty, exploitation, Free Breakfast for Children, Kenyan-American, Obama, Survival Program Pending the Revolution

posted by Minister Faust at 6:39 PM

Is Black History Month Enough For So Called African-Americans?

Being that yesterday was the last day of what has been designated Black History month I felt it only proper that we end it with a reality check.
Despite me posting during Black History month, I feel that one month is not enough for us. We should never settle for just one month. We should instead demand that all schools make Black History mandatory in all grades of school. In fact, it should be global history format that includes objective history of all known cultures and races.
This will instill a sense of cultural and racial pride in our so called African-American children while at the same time lowering racism, prejudice, and intolerance from all other groups towards not only African-Americans, but other non Anglo Saxon groups.
What we need is to reconnect with our African heritage as well as our native American roots! Too many of us have a deeply rooted hatred toward our motherland. This is because we have been fed negative images of Africa for quite a few generations. Because we are not told the truth about our roots and our motherland Africa we do not want to be associated with Africa.
Because of racism much of the truth about Africa and her rich history has been hidden, lied about, and made to appear dark and without civility and culture. So much effort has been taken to make us believe that the true inhabitants of Egypt, which is a part of the continent of Africa, were not African nor Black.
They do not want to attribute anything of value towards human history to Africans. So true is this that they try to make us believe that extraterrestrial beings (i.e. aliens) designed and built the great Pyramids of Egypt. Yet they try not to allow us knowledge of the fact that south of Egypt, deeper into Africa are many more pyramids which rival and some cases surpass the great pyramids of Giza. This is proof that Africans built them. What became of many of Africa's great nations is another topic. My point is that there is much to be proud of our motherland.
Sit back and let me tell you some of what I was told as a child about our rich and beautiful motherland. We can be proud, stand tall and look at all other human being as our equals while saying I am of African decent with no shame!
The continent now known as Africa was once known as Alkebulan. Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent. Africa, particularly central Eastern Africa, is widely regarded within the scientific community to be the origin of humans and the Hominidae clade (great apes), as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest hominids and their ancestors, as well as later ones that have been dated to around seven million years ago – including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Australopithecus africanus, A. afarensis, Homo erectus, H. habilis and H. ergaster – with the earliest Homo Sapien (modern human) found in Ethiopia being dated to circa 200,000 years ago.
 It is generally conceded in most scholarly circles, that mankind originated in Africa. This makes the African man the father, and the African woman the mother of mankind. By necessity, the earliest people were ethnically homogeneous and Negroid. Gloger's Law, which would also appear to be applicable to human beings, lays it down that warm-blooded animals evolving in a warm humid climate will secrete a black pigment (eumelanin). Hence, if mankind originated in the tropics around the latitude of the great lakes, he was bound to have brown pigmentation from the start and it was by differentiation in other climates that the original stock later split into different races.
According to Cheikh Anta Diop, "the color black acts as a protection of the organism. If man was first born in Africa and had not been black, he would not have survived. We know scientifically, that ultra-violet rays would have destroyed the human organism in the equatorial regions, if the organism had not been protected by black pigmentation, that is Melanin. That is obviously why man, first born in Africa was black. It is not something we need to be proud of, it is simply a fact."
The oldest known fossil remains, according to Dr. Louis Leakey, were found in the Olduvai Gorge region in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. These first "small" people were known as the "Twa", who worshipped the God Bes, a primitive human form of Horus I, being the earliest form of Ptah—the God of Gods.
We also find this same black God, Ptah, symbolized in the mystery system in Egypt. The Twa are said to have migrated the four thousand one hundred miles of the Nile river, establishing what was later to become the Egyptian civilization.
According to Manetho, the first dynasty was established by Menes (or Narmer), about 5500 B.C., when Menes conquered Lower Egypt, combining both Upper and Lower Egypt. This alliance of the red and white crowns of the two countries were joined, and Menes inherited the double diadem, becoming the first Pharaoh of the world.
Slavery had long been practiced in Africa. Between the 7th and 20th centuries, Arab slave trade (also known as slavery in the East) took 18 million slaves from Africa via trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean routes. Between the 15th and the 19th centuries (500 years), the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the New World.
In West Africa, the decline of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1820s caused dramatic economic shifts in local polities. The gradual decline of slave-trading, prompted by a lack of demand for slaves in the New World, increasing anti-slavery legislation in Europe and America, and the British Royal Navy's increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt new economies. Between 1808 and 1860, the British West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard.
Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping King of Lagos", deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers. The largest powers of West Africa (the Asante Confederacy, the Kingdom of Dahomey, and the Oyo Empire) adopted different ways of adapting to the shift. Asante and Dahomey concentrated on the development of "legitimate commerce" in the form of palm oil, cocoa, timber and gold, forming the bedrock of West Africa's modern export trade. The Oyo Empire, unable to adapt, collapsed into civil wars. Now let us examine a few great leaders from Africa. The Nubian king Piankhi (reigned ca. 741-ca. 712 BC) began the conquest of Lower Egypt which resulted in the establishment of the Twenty-fifth, or "Ethiopian," Dynasty of pharaohs. This was one of the few times in African history when a state from the interior of the continent played a role in the politics of the Mediterranean.
Piankhi was the hereditary ruler of the kingdom of Cush on the Upper Nile in what is now the northern Sudan. About 741 B.C. he succeeded his father, Kashta, who seems to have founded this Nubian Kingdom. By this time Lower Egypt had been in full decline for almost half a millennium. The Egyptian state was torn by internal power struggles among petty rulers, so the situation was ripe for a strong invader to take over. Piankhi moved steadily down the Nile, conquering towns one by one. By 721 B.C. he was in possession of Heracleopolis, and finally he captured Heliopolis in the Delta.
At this point Piankhi regarded the conquest of Egypt as complete, and he returned home to his Cushite capital in Napata after placing the Egyptian rulers in tributary status. He was received in Napata with much acclaim for having humiliated the former Egyptian overlords of Nubia, but the tributary states which he left soon fell under the sway of a local ruler named Tefnakht, who reasserted Egyptian independence.
 A great deal is known about the details of Piankhi's campaign because he built a huge stele in Amon with a lengthy inscription. This account is regarded as unusually rational and lively by modern Egyptologists.
Just like the Nubian rulers who followed him, Piankhi was culturally very conservative, and he sought to strengthen some of the institutions which were undergoing decline in Egypt. In the brief time he was in Lower Egypt, he oversaw the restoration of some crumbling temples. Upon his return to Cush he introduced the Egyptian custom of building pyramids for royal mausoleums, and he had a great pyramid built for himself in Kuru, south of Napata on the Nile. He rebuilt the temple at Jebel Barkal and also built a number of other temples in the Egyptian style.
Curiously, all the Egyptian sources dwell on Piankhi's love of fast horses. He instituted the practice of decorating teams of horses to pull royal chariots, and the remains of a team of horses were found in his tomb at Kuru.

We should all know that Imhotep of Africa was the first medical doctor known by name. An Egyptian who lived around 2650 B.C., he was an adviser to King Zoser at a time when Egyptians were making progress in medicine. Among his contributions to medicine was a textbook on the treatment of wounds, broken bones, and even tumors. Imhotep was also an astrologer (a person who believes that the stars and planets influence human affairs) and the architect (some who designs buildings) of the earliest Egyptian pyramid. In later centuries, the Egyptians worshipped Imhotep as a god.

How could I go any further without mentioning our great African women, Queens and female warriors.
According to Greek accounts, the earliest Amazons came from Libya (then a name for most of North Africa). They wore red leather and carried crescent-shaped shields. It was these Libyan Amazons, they said, who later founded cities and temples in the Aegean and Anatolia.
At a much later period, the Amazons of Dahomey were crack all-female troops, all female, who also served as royal bodyguards. They were also priestesses and wore crescent moon crowns.
The Hausa had a number of warrior queens, notably Amina of Zau Zau. A woman named Bazao-Turunku led warriors and founded a town south of Zaria.
Nupe women warriors called Isadshi-Koseshi fought as fiercely as the men, opposing invasions of the Fulbe conquerers who raided the Nupe for cattles and slaves, especially women.
In Jamaica Nyabinghi, the "hidden queen" fought to free Africans from English slavery and rule. Also called Queen Muhmusa or Tahtahme, she inspired the Nyabinghi underpinnings of Rastafarianism.
Nanny of the Maroons was born in Ghana, and folk history says that she came to Jamaica with the express purpose of becoming a high priestess and leader of her people, never having been a slave. She was an obeah-woman who led the eastern Maroons based in Moreton, and forged an alliance with another group led by Cudjoe. (The name Maroons comes from the Spanish cimarron,meaning "gone back to the wild.")
The Jamaican Maroons were the first people to force the English to sign a treaty with their subjects, on March 1, 1738. The lands conceded in this treaty formed a base for the Maroon's independent survival. One of these communities was named Nannytown after the female Ghanaian leader. Maroon country was so feared by the English that it became known as the "Land of Look-Behind."

WOMEN BEAT BACK SLAVECATCHERS

In the summer of 1848, eight or ten people made it across the Ohio river in their northward flight from slavery. The slave catchers tracked them into town, but the bounty they were after turned out to be elusive:
"The women began to gather from adjoining houses until the Amazons were about equal to the [slave-hunters]-- the former with shovels, tongs, washboards and rolling pins; the latter with revolvers, sword-canes and bowie-knives. Finally the beseigers decamped, leaving the Amazons in possession of the field, amid the jeers and loud huzzahs of the crowd."
--Report from The North Star, an African-American paper out of Cincinnati, August 11, 1848. (For more, see Dorothy Sterling's book Speak Out In Thunder Tones.)

GHANA

"If you the men of Ashanti will not go forward, then we will. We the women will. I shall call upon you my fellow women. We will fight the white men. We will fight until the last of us falls in the battlefield."
---Ya Asantewa, an Ashanti queen who led the resistence to British colonial rule in Ghana. She succeeded in the short run, but the Ashanti were heavily outgunned.

THE "WAR OF THE WOMEN"
The Aba rebellion in southeastern Nigeria grew out of a traditional female rite of the Igbo. People were outraged at the colonial government's plan to tax women, "the trees that bear fruit." In protest, Ibo women bound their heads with ferns, painted their faces with ash, put on loincloths and carried sacred sticks with palm frond wreaths. Thousands marched on the District Office, dancing, singing protests, and demanding the cap of office of the colonial chief Okugo. When he approached one woman to count her goats and sheep, she had retorted, "Was mother counted?"
This protest spread into a vast regional insurrection. The Ibo women's councils mobilized demonstrations in three provinces, turning out over 2,000,000 protesters. The British District Officer at Bende wrote, "The trouble spread in the 2nd week of December to Aba, an important trading center on the railway. Here there converged some 10,000 women, scantily clothed, girdled with green leaves, carrying sticks. Singing angry songs against the chiefs and the court messengers, the women proceeded to attack and loot the European trading shops, stores, and Barclay's Bank, and to break into the prison and release the prisoners."
Elsewhere women protestors burned down the hated British "Native Courts" and cut telegraph wires, throwing officials into panic. The colonials fired on the female protesters, killing more than fifty and wounding more. Marches continued sporadically into 1930. These mass actions became known as the Aba Rebellion of 1929, or The War of the Women. It was one of the most significant anti-colonial revolts in Africa of that day.
Diola women led similar protests against French attempts to exact a tribute from their rice harvest in Senegal, an event dramatized by filmmaker Ousmane Sembene.

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If you want to know who I am
I am daughter of Angola, of Kêto and Nagô
I don't fear blows because I am a warrior
Inside of samba I was born
I raised myself, I transformed myself, and
no one will lower my banner, O, O, O.
I am a warrior woman daughter of Ogun and Yansâ

---Song from an album by Brazilian singer Clara Nuñes

Rain Queens of the Lovedu

Dzugudini, a grand-daughter of "the famous ruler Monomatapa," was the founding Rain Queen of the Lovedu. Her royal father was angry that she bore a child out of wedlock. Oral tradition says her mother taught her the art of rain-making and gave her rain charms and sacred beads. Then she fled south with some supporters. They settled peacefully among the Sotho. In the early 1800s, a leadership crisis was resolved by accession of the first Mujaji, a Rain Queen with both political and ceremonial power. Chiefs presented her with wives. She had no military, but even the Zulu king Shaka paid her tribute because of her rain power. Her successors have less authority, but still preside over womanhood initiations and other important rituals.

SWAZI

The queen is called by honorific titles such as "Mother of the Country" and Indlovukati, "Lady Elephant." She is a powerful rain maker, guardian of the royal clan's sacred objects, and addresses the ancestors on behalf of the Swazi nation. She has the power to give sanctuary to persons condemned by the king's court. Her village is the capital of the country, where troops are quartered.

HAUSA

Many powerful queens are remembered in Hausa tradition. Among the Kotoko, the Gumsu was the female heir of the land, associated with the morning star, mother of all stars. She lived in the southern part of the palace and performed functions associated with the south, was the head of the country's women and played a leading part in the seven year rites for its welfare. The Kotoko government was based on a delicate balance of male/female, right/left, north/south. Among the Kanuri, the Gumsu retained her authority in Muslim times. Diwan records recount that the Gumsu Fasama became angry at her son, Sultan Biri ibn Dunama, for executing a thief, rather than cutting off his hands as the Koran decreed. "Accordingly his mother put Biri in prison, and he submitted to the punishment for a whole year.

Never could we forget the Queen of Sheba, otherwise known as the Queen of the South (regina austris), or variously as the Sabaean, Maqeda (Makeda), Belkis (Bilqis), or Nikaule (Nicaula). The Queen of Sheba first appears in the Old Testament. Competing interpretations of the figure since biblical times have cast her alternatively as a figure of wisdom and faith, or as suspect and even demonized (Ginzberg 1982, VI.292.55). Jacob Lassner has devoted an extensive 1993 study to postbiblical Jewish, and then medieval Muslim, texts and traditions in which she is shown as troubling the natural, binary, gender order of male dominance over women, and being brought to heel by Solomon (Lassner, passim, and esp. 80-83). As a wealthy, powerful woman, she attracted negative gendered readings, and she was denounced by some authors for seizing power from a husband she had murdered, while for others she wrested power from an unjust tyrant. Sheba narratives are deeply gendered in a manner disdainful of or hostile to women, stipulating that the queen's desirability must be neutralized by submission to Solomon's powers, which reaffirm the gender order willed by God, against the usurped power of a woman and her wily tricks to blur gender distinctions. Iconography, by stressing the gesture of kneeling before the king, has also made her an image of subjection and subservience.
 In 960 B.C., the nation that is now called Ethiopia, came back upon the center of the stage of history. Ethiopia was then represented by a queen, who in some books is referred to as "Makeda" or "Belkis." She is better known to the world as the Queen of Sheba. In his book, "World's Great Men of Color," J.A. Rogers, gives this description: "Out of the mists of three thousand years, emerges this beautiful story of a Black Queen, who attracted by the fame of a Judean monarch, made a long journey to see him."
The Queen of Sheba is said to have undertaken a long and difficult journey to Jerusalem, in order to learn of the wisdom of the great King Solomon. Makeda and King Solomon were equally impressed with each other. Out of their relationship was born a son, Menelik I.
This Queen is said to have reigned over Sheba and Arabia as well as Ethiopia. The queen of Sheba's capital was Debra Makeda, which the Queen built for herself.
In Ethiopia's church of Axum, there is a copy of what is said to be one of the Tables of Law that Solomon gave to Menelik I.
The story of the Queen of Sheba is deeply cherished in Ethiopia, as part of the national heritage. This African Queen is mentioned in two holy books, the Bible and the Qur'an. 
 Ann Nzingha "Queen of Ndongo" (1582-1663)~In the sixteenth century, the Portuguese stake in the slave trade was threatened by England and France. This caused the Portuguese to transfer their slave-trading activities southward to the Congo and South West Africa. Their most stubborn opposition, as they entered the final phase of the conquest of Angola, came from a queen who was a great head of state, and a military leader with few peers in her time.
The important facts about her life are outlined by Professor Glasgow of Bowie, Maryland:
"Her extraordinary story begins about 1582, the year of her birth. She is referred to as Nzingha, or Jinga, but is better known as Ann Nzingha. She was the sister of the then-reigning King of Ndongo, Ngoli Bbondi, whose country was later called Angola. Nzingha was from an ethnic group called the Jagas. The Jagas were an extremely militant group who formed a human shield against the Portuguese slave traders. Nzingha never accepted the Portuguese conquest of Angola, and was always on the military offensive. As part of her strategy against the invaders, she formed an alliance with the Dutch, who she intended to use to defeat the Portuguese slave traders."
In 1623, at the age of forty-one, Nzingha became Queen of Ndongo. She forbade her subjects to call her Queen, She preferred to be called King, and when leading an army in battle, dressed in men's clothing.
In 1659, at the age of seventy-five, she signed a treaty with the Portuguese, bringing her no feeling of triumph. Nzingha had resisted the Portuguese most of her adult life. African bravery, however, was no match for gun powder. This great African woman died in 1663, which was followed by the massive expansion of the Portuguese slave trade.

 The Dohemian Female Army (1841)~Dohomey was a wealthy West African empire. The elements of Dohomey's success were its trade and its powerful army, whose soldiers were considered invincible.
The fierce and mighty Behanzin Bowelle was the king of this great empire. His army contained 25,000 warriors, 5,000 of which were women. The women were the most respected and feared part of Behanzin's army. They ranked above the men.
These women were thoroughly trained and kept trim by a system of gymnastics developed by the Dohomians themselves. Recruited from among the healthiest and strongest virgins in Dohomey, these females were sworn to chastity.
The king sometimes picked his wives from among them or gave them to his bravest warriors.
The training of these women was very rigorous. One of their drills was charging three times barefoot into a construction of thorns, nude to their waist. Another exercise was to kill a maddened bull with their bare hands.
Perfect was the discipline of these female warriors. They fought with extreme bravery. Excited by their own courage and undying energy, the women, like the men were thought to be invincible.
 More nonsense has been written about Cleopatra than any other African queen. Cleopatra was generally pictured as a distinct African woman, dark in color.
Born in 69 B.C., Cleopatra came to the throne that she shared with her brother, Ptolemy XIII, when she was 18 years old.
Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt, has come down to us through twenty centuries, as the perfect example of the seductive art in woman. With her beauty, learning, culture and charm, Cleopatra held two successive masters of the world; Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Cleopatra aligned herself with Julius Caesar, who reinforced her power. Their political and sexual relationship was a maneuver to save Egypt from the worst aspects of Roman domination. After Julius Caesar was murdered, Cleopatra, still in her early twenties, met Mark Antony, and a love affair, strongly motivated by politics began. Her effect on Mark Antony was profound. This noble Roman turned traitor to his own people when he attempted to save the country of this fascinating Black Queen.
After Antony's death, the victor, Octavius, assumed full control of Egypt. Cleopatra, now without a protector or champion, committed suicide. After Cleopatra's death, Egypt became a Roman colony and the harsher aspects of Roman rule settled over Egypt and the Middle East.

 Did you ever wonder why the Italians, especially Sicilians are olive skinned and dark haired? Why are they not considered white? Hannibal of Carthage (247-183 B.C.) is the answer. Hannibal is said to be the greatest military leader and strategist of all time. Hannibal was born in 247 B.C., when Carthage, then the maritime power, was beginning to decline. The Carthaginians were descendants of the Phoenicians, who were great Black merchants. They traded with India and the people of the Mediterranean, and the Sicily Isles.
When very young, Hannibal accompanied Hamilclar, his father in a battle with the Romans. Seventeen years later, he succeeded his father and became supreme commander of the peninsula. Hannibal had 80,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry, and 40 African war elephants. He conquered major portions of Spain and France, and all of Italy, except for Rome.
Hannibal marched his army and war elephants through the Alps to surprise and conquer his enemies. In one battle, the Romans put 80,000 men on the field to defeat Hannibal, led by Scipio. When Scipio attacked with his entire army, Hannibal had so studied the grounds and arranged his men so that they surrounded the Romans. He then turned his armored war elephants loose and trampled them. Behind them, he sent his African swordsmen to complete the slaughter.
In another battle, Rome sent 90,000 men led by Varro and Emilius. With only 50,000 men, knowing he could not win by using his main force, Hannibal placed the weakest part of his army in the center, contrary to the best military rules. With his veterans and cavalry on both wings, the Romans struck them in full center as Hannibal had anticipated. When they were sure of victory by overcoming the center, Hannibal's flank closed in and killed 70,000 men, 80 senators and Emilius.
Hannibal, it's said, later went on to become a statesman of Carthage, and later took his own life, rather than surrender to Rome. 
Aesop (560 B.C.)~ The influence of Aesop on the Western thoughts and morals is profound. Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Cicero, Julius Caesar, Shakespeare, and other great thinkers found inspiration in his words of wisdom. His writings have been translated into almost every language of the civilized world.
Aesop's was a Phygrian, in Asia Minor, a Black slave, flat-nosed, thick lips, black skin from which his name was contracted (Esop being the same as Ethiop).
Aesop's first master was Xanthus, who saw him in a market where he was for sale with two other slaves, a musician and an orator. Xanthus asked the musician what could he do? He replied "Anything." The orator to the same question replied, "Everything." Turning next to Aesop, "And what can you do?" "Nothing," Aesop replied. "Nothing," repeated Xanthus, and Aesop replied, "One of my companions says he can do anything, and the other says that he can do everything. That leaves me nothing." This is an example of the wit of Aesop.

  Queen Tiye (1415-1340 B.C.)~This celebrated Nubian queen was the beloved and honored wife of Amen-Hetep III, who was one of the world's mightiest Pharaohs and conquerors.
King Amen-Hetep III, had a very deep and unusual affection for Queen Tiye. In addition to the usual titles of a King's wife, Tiye is described as "Royal" daughter and "Royal" sister, when she was neither the daughter or the sister of a king, but of parents who were not of royal lineage.
The full queenly titles which Tiye held in common with the great heiress princesses of Egypt, were bestowed on her by Amen-Hetep III, and were honorary.
Although Tiye was a girl of common birth, she was a person of very strong character. Evident from records, she was a beautiful young Black queen. A woman of great intellect, ability, and a powerful influence. She shared the crown with her husband as though she had been its lineal heiress. Queen Tiye had such an important part in the affairs of Egypt, that foreign diplomats often appealed directly to her in matters affecting certain international relations.
Queen Tiye was a full-blooded African. Her son, Akhenaton and his wife, Nefertiti are the parents of King Tutankhamen, who is also known as "King Tut."
As a symbol of the love Amen-Hetep III, had for Queen Tiye, he declared that so she was treated in life as his equal, she would be depicted in death. At the time of her death, she was given a full "Royal" burial.




http://www.africawithin.com/hpi/hp21.htm
http://www.africawithin.com/hpi/hp16.htm
http://www.africawithin.com/hpi/hp7.htm
http://www.suppressedhistories.net/articles/africanqueens.html
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/piankhi-king/