THE AVATARS NA'VI TRIBE ARE THE WASHITAW,YAMASEE,IROQUOIS,CHEROKEE & MANY OTHER INDIGENOUS/ABORIGINAL TRIBE

Washitaw, Yamasee, Iroquois, Cherokee, Choctaw
Blackfoot, Pequot & Mohegan (and/or All Indigenous People of America)
In 1993, the United Nations Center for Human Rights, recognized the Washitaw de Dugdahmoundyah Muur Empire as the Oldest Indigenous group of people on Earth. The registered Project # 215/93 ensued. Just read this. From 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 slaves arrived in the Americas between 1540 and 1850 over—a 310 year period (according to US History books). If you look at the following facts of published material, we are living under another ideological part of American Revisionist History. Also, the following undermines the whole breadth and depth of what is written in American history books. By using simple calculations, the following information can be ascertained:







Over a period of 300 years, is it fair to say that 60,000 slaves were transported annually to the Americas or has the transportation of slaves to the Americas been one big myth?
The largest seagoing vessel carried 400 slaves but not all of the ships were that large.
Time of passage was 3 - 4 months. That means 200 vessels/ships per year would have to travel carrying 300 people. One ship could make 3 passages per year. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database says there were 1100 - 1400 voyages made over that 300 year period. If that is the case and each ship carried 400 people, the total number would be 560,000 Africans were transported. It still does not add up.
We already know that over 83% of all Americans with African ancestry have Native American blood.







Did Native American tribes help slaves escape or were Americans with African ancestry already part of the Native American Nations?
According to the figures above, many more slaving companies would have to be in the business of human trafficking annually to come up with the numbers of slaves actually transported, but the published material lists only three (3) major companies that dealt in the slave trade and were given a 31 year monopoly by the British Government. The Royal Adventurer later was named the Royal African Company, so it was one in the same company. Independent companies engaged in slave trade, but there were only three (3) main companies engaged in human trafficking. The Guinea Company--at its height--had 15 ships from 1618 - 1650. The Guinea Company also dealt in gold, dyes, and other things other than just the human trafficking of slaves. British, French, Dutch, and Danish participated in human trafficking. Statistics have not taken into consideration the Portuguese ships that sailed at the time, but from what is out there, the Portuguese and Spanish transported 81,000 slaves to the Americas. Following is a table from "Slave Statistics" by Hugh Thomas published in 1997 by Simon and Schuster:




After 20 years the Royal Adventurer--with its 15 ships had transported between 90,000 and 100,000 slaves. That is a long ways from 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 slaves who were supposedly brought to the Americas. Doesn’t that leave a little over 14,000,000 to 19,000,000 people not accounted for—What’s up with that? The calculated median of 15 and 20 million would be 17.5 million. Divide it by 400 people—the largest slave vessels. That comes out to 43,750 trips. Can you show me a record where this many trips occurred, or the number of trips calculated by the so-called experts? (Figures exist of 27,000 - 35,000 voyages). The same thing happened with the holocaust in Germany during World War II. Six million people were supposedly killed, but there are not that many names referenced who died totaling six million.





The statistics state only .05% or 1/2 of 1% of all Indigenous people of North and South America are in existence as a result of Christopher Columbus and his European travelers' conquests. Ninety-five (95%) percent were massacred by Columbus and his European crews shortly after 1492. Around 1900, it was thought Native Americans were on the brink of extinction with only 250,000 left. I would like to share a picture from my family. This is a picture of a relative who was a Michigan Chippewa Indian from the Reservation in Mt. Pleasant, MI, taken in the 1800's. It is true that Native Americans harbored runaway slaves, but the lady pictured at the right was already in Michigan before the slaves migrated as free people. I don't think it matters whether Native Americans are Washitaw or Lumbee from North Carolina or Chippewa from Michigan. All tribes have Black Roots. The phenotypes of Native Americans point to the theories held by Diop and Van Sertima. What this amounts too are further discrepancies in what is written in our history books. Even though the evidence is right here and pushed in a person's face, there are those who still believe the "Old Guard." It is nothing more than "Revisionist History".


The United Nations recognizes the Washitaw Muurs Nation within the United States along with the other Indigenous people of America. The Declaration On Rights Of Indigenous People includes the Washitaw Nation, a nation that is made up of Black People who have the archaeological and historical evidence to prove that the original inhabitants of North and South America (so called "Indians") were Black People who came here from Africa. Have you been to a Powwow? I have been and was astonished at all of the Black Native Americans. The powwows I have attended were in Michigan and Ohio. Those Native Americans did not harbor runaway slaves which led me to believe the following: Black Indians are not solely a result of African slaves mixing with so-called Red Indians who were fleeing from slavery as many documented sources would have you to believe. Black Indians are indigenous to America—North, South, and Central before the so-called Red Man, before the Europeans, before the so-called Bering Strait crossings. The Olmecs, Washitaw, Moors, Yamasee, Mound Builders planted the seed of civilization in the Americas—Black Indians!"






The Washitaw were direct descendants of the Olmecs who mixed in the Malian Moors. The name “Washitaw” comes from the Washita River which flows along Northwest Texas and Oklahoma to the Red River where the Cheyenne Native Americans lived with the Chawasha, meaning “Raccoon People.” The Washo were a Negroid tribe living above the New Orleans Bayou and were of Tunican linguistic stock. The name “Washitaw” is a derivative of the term “Ouachita” or what is now “Wichita.” The term is a Choctaw term which means “Big Arbor” which represented the Grass thatched homes. The Washitaw was originally from lower Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama (named after Nubian-Sudanese Ali Baba). The tribe was officially named “Wichita” by the US Government in the Camp Holmes Treaty of 1835. The Wichita were also known as “Paniwassaha” or by the French Panioussa which means “Black Pawnee.” French traders from Illinois called them “Pani Pique” which means Tattooed Pawnee. The Washitaw or Raccoon People were called Raccoons because of their black faces. When describing the Washitaw, the French describes the blacks who lived in the large grass houses. The tribe is the descendants of the Olmecs and Toltecs of Mexico.





Skulls shed new light on migration to Americas
Cranial shapes hint at two separate waves of settlers
(Life Science 2005)

It is recorded in history books the first group of people to populate North and South America crossed over from Siberia by way of the Bering Strait on a land-ice bridge. Research by authors like Van Sertima and Rogers have already confirmed what is now considered a new revelation set forth by Euro-American Scientists. Here we go again—VALIDATION by Euro-America. After examining a collection of South American skulls, research indicates that a different population crossed the bridge to America 3,000 years before that first crossing from Siberia.

Euro-American Scientists have now discovered skulls in South America that look like indigenous Australians, Melanesians and Sub-Saharan Africans more than Northern Asians—THE GIANT OLEMEC HEADS CAME FROM—WAKE UP! Scientists compared 81 skulls from the Lagoa Santa Region of Brazil to worldwide data on human variation.

The information indicates the skulls — dating between 7,500 and 11,000 years ago — were not anomalies but supports the hypothesis that two distinct populations colonized the Americas. The skulls of Native Americans and Northern Asians generally feature short, wide craniums, a broader face and high, narrow eye sockets and noses. This particular collection is remarkably different.

The skulls belonging to the earliest known South Americans — the Paleo-Indians — had long, narrow craniums, projecting jaws and low, broad eye sockets and noses. Drastically different from American Indians, these skulls appear more similar to modern Australians, Melanesians and sub-Saharan Africans.

The research was published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and will appear in the Dec. 2005 issue of the journal.


Photo 13>

Tlapacoyan, Mexico
100 - 1000 BC
(von Wuthenau 1969)
Oaxaca, Mexico
400 BC - 100 AD
(von Wuthenau 1975)
Veracruz, Mexico
300 - 700 AD
(von Wuthenau 1969)


Over 200,000 ancient pyramids and huge mounds of the Earth in the shape of cones, animals and geometric designs can still be found from the southern coast of America to Canada. These structures were built by people known as "The Mound Builders." They were dark-skinned woolly-haired Blacks who were indigenous (native) to North America and kin to the Olmecs of South America.



During Pangea, the Afrikan and American continents were joined. The Black Mound Builders were the Washitaw-Muurs (Ouachita-Moors), the ORIGINAL inhabitants of North and South America. Columbus was not entirely wrong in calling these people "Indians"! The true meaning of word "Indian" is ("INDI" meaning black, as in INDIa ink, hINDu and INDIgo the darkest color of the color spectrum). The massive remains of this ancient BLACK civilization /empire still stand in both North and South America.

Ivan Van Sertima writes about the reported: "Evidence for black-skinned natives in the Americas long before the arrival of Columbus Ancient American Magazine (Issue 17), From the distinctly Negroid features of colossal Olmec sculpted heads and a pre-Aztec obsidian bowl being upheld by a figure with unmistakably black characteristics, to the bones of Negroid persons excavated from a 2,000 year-old mound in northern Wisconsin, a wealth of material exists to establish the certainty of non-White, non-Indian population living in pre-Columbian America along with these other groups." Many Mound Builders were huge; their ancient skeletons were often 7 to 8 feet. The only other living people on Earth this tall are another group of Blacks, the Massai of Afrika.


Many details are available in "Return of the Ancient Ones," a book by the Empress of the Washitaw, Verdiacee 'Tiari' Washitaw-Turner Goston El-Bey. She is the Empress and Head of the present-day Washitaw Nation in Louisiana and is recognized by the United Nations.


The earliest people in the Americas were people of the Negritic African race, who entered the Americas by way of the Bering Straight. About 30,000 years ago a worldwide maritime undertaking included journeys from the Sahara towards the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, and from West Africa across the Atlantic Ocean towards the Americas. According to the Gladwin Thesis, (outlined on http://RaceandHistory.com) this ancient journey occurred, particularly about 75,000 years ago and included so called Black Pygmies, Black Negritic peoples and Black Australoids similar to the Aboriginal Black people of Australia and parts of Asia, including India.
Ancient NATIVE Black Nations of America before and after Columbus include:


The Washitaw of the Louisiana/Midwest
The Yamasee of the South East
The Iroquois
The Cherokee Indians
The Blackfoot Indians
The Pequot and Mohegans of Connecticut
The Black Californians (Calafians) (CAL in CALifornia literally means BLAK, after the name of the Great Mamma KALi / Queen KALifa)
The Olmecs of Mexico
The Darienite of Panama - A number of Black Negroid Peoples are mentioned in the works of I. Rafinesque ("Black Nations of America," Atlantic Journal and Friend Knowledge; Philadelphia 1832; p. 86: Also I. Rafinesque, pgs. 121, 186, 187, 194, 208, 209). Rafinesque was a naturalist who explored and took accurate documentation of his works through out the U.S. In mentioning Negroes, Blacks, Moors, Ethiopians....explorers such as Rafinesque referred to Negro Black Africans, not dark skinned "Indians."





NOTES

Skulls were derived from ancient mounds in Scioto Valley, Ohio.
“Mummy from Oregon”
“Two tattooed heads from Fiji”
“Peruvian mummies”
“Two Egyptian mummies”
“The skull and paws of a chimpanzee”
The collections remained in the Patent Office in part until 1858 and in part until 1862, until transferred to the Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian Institution was established.

Pigmy "Race" of Mississippi Valley. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., I, 1841, pp.215-216.

Negro Skulls capacity. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, I, 1841, p. 135.

Observations on Egyptian ethnography, derived from anatomy, history, and the monuments. Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. Phila., IX, 1843, pp. 93-159.

Observations on a second series of ancient Egyptian crania. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., II, 1844, pp. 122-126.

The Skull of a Hottentot. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., II, 1844, pp. 64-65.

Skull of a Congo Negro. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., II, 1845, pp. 232-233.

Skulls of New Hollanders (Australians). Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., II, 1845, pp. 292-293.

Remarks on an Indian cranium found near Richmond, on the Delaware, and on a Chenook Mummy. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., III, 1847, p. 330.

On an aboriginal cranium obtained by Dr Davis and Mr. Squier from a mound near Chillicothe, Ohio. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., III, 1847, pp. 212- 213.

On the Position of the Ear in the Ancient Egyptians. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., III, 1848, p. 70.

KNOW THE LEDGE TV presents TAJ TARIK BEY "THE MASTER MOORISH TEACHER"

TAJ TARIK BEY IS A MASTER TEACHER IN MOORISH SCIENCE,CIVICS & LAW,JURIS PRUDENCE & NATIONALITY
HE CAN BE CONTACTED @ WWW.RVBEYPUBLICATION.COM

PART 1

PART 2

EUROPEAN CONFESSIONS ON THE GLORIOUS MOORS PART 2

THIS INFORMATION WILL ENLIGHTEN YOU AND PROVIDE MANY ANSWERS TO YOUR INQUIRIES

EUROPEAN CONFESSIONS ON THE GLORIOUS MOORS

UNTOLD BLACK HISTORY:THE MOORS & MYTHS SURROUNDING SLAVERY /HOLOCAUST

THIS VIDEO GIVES CONCRETE EVIDENCE AND RESEARCHABLE INFORMATION REGARDING YOUR HIDDEN MOORISH HISTORY

AFRICA IN MEXICO:MEMORY & MODERNITY

MOORISH BLUEPRINT TO POWER: AN ECONOMIC IMPERATIVE FOR AN INDEPENDANT MOORISH COMMUNITY

MOORISH BLUEPRINT TO POWER:An Economic Imperative For An Independant Moorish Community

"In connection with our religious aims and beliefs, we must promote economic security. The preaching of economic security among us is by no means as widespread and intensive as the circumstances demand. No other one thing is more needed among us at this time than greater economic power. Better positions for our men and women, more business employment for our boys and girls and bigger incomes will follow our economic security. We shall be secure in nothing until we have economic power. A beggar people cannot develop the highest in them, nor can they attain to a genuine enjoyment of the spiritualities of life.

Our men, women and children should be taught to believe in the capacity of our group to succeed in business, in spite of the trials and failures of some of them. Trials and failures in business are by no means confined to any particular group of people. Some business ventures of all people fail. We have many men and women among our people who are qualified, both by training and experience, who are shining lights in the business world of all the people. It is a sad weakness in us as people that we have withheld the very encouragement, support and patronage that would have made some of our worthy business ventures a grand success. And worst of all, have joined in the condemnations of them when they failed. Except in cases of actual dishonesty, discourtesy, lack of service and actual unreliability, our business enterprises in every field of endeavor should have fullest of confidence co-operations and patronage whenever and wherever they can be given." - Noble Drew Ali

Moors in the Americas are currently facing a serious economic situation, a situation that requires intelligent planning, comprehensive foresight and effective ideals that reflect the importance of collectiveness, unity, community and family development. Plans and programs for social and financial restoration have been discussed and urged in the past on moorsgate.com, but the time has surely come when a Moorish economic and community development solution has to be implemented and enforced for the continued survival of the Moorish identity, culture and civilization. As Ronald Reagan was quoted, regarding the European American nation, that "we are one generation from extinction." This military concept must be adopted as it forces one to think in terms of longevity and social viability while also promoting a sense of urgency for security. It is paramount that Moors place into action and demonstrate community living and collective economics. If these basic ideals are ignored and replaced with disunity and misappropriated self indulgence, Moors will travel down a dangerous road of uncertainty.

After conducting an honest evaluation of our current condition, despite having exact knowledge of the physical and economic injustices, social dehumanization and unlawful denationalization of Moors and their posterity, it is thoroughly noted and documented in economic statistics that both conscious and un-conscious Asiatics alike have also contributed to our community's current state of unemployment, poverty, financial degradation, disunity and disorganization. The contribution came in the form of failing to adhere to the structured guidance, messages and warnings put forth by those prepared adepts that came with functional knowledge of social and spiritual development.

Before Moors can begin to truly gain economic security, we must first organize our efforts, pool our resources and commit to structured long-term plans that are designed to engineer and manage progress, support and maintain a positive standard of living, and develop social security components that secure Moorish values, civil liberties and human rights. However, the cart cannot be placed before the horse. Therefore, Moors must build their own communal, familial, educational and economic infrastructures first then develop plans and aims that support the core foundational elements of society which are family and community.

The value of nationality, the discipline of a divine creed and the by-products of self sufficiency and self-reliance are national security benefits for Asiatics that desire a cultured and civilized standard of living that is designed for progress and improvement which stands in opposition to the usual failed-system(s) of degradation, false promise and repeated social failure. Modern day Moors must first develop a unified and uniform collective infrastructure and stop looking for the agents of oppression to be lawful, just and supportive to and of our economic and psychological development and socio-political status as that would have eventual adverse affects on their evident plan and strategy of continued domination.

This issue is urgent and thus Moors are encouraged to recognize their role and responsibility to the Moorish Nation as nationality is one part of the socio-political and collective development formula. Proactive strategies and innovative solutions for an organized, self sufficient and independent community structure must be implemented to establish initial building blocks and blueprints for eventual state-hood or nationhood. The following Moorish Agenda displays the path to fulfillment:

1. Demonstrate the action of Unity and group co-operation

2. Eliminate wasteful spending and re-route finances back into your own community

3. Pool your resources economically as well as physically as represented by labor and collective effort

4. Eliminate internal criticism and personal attacks on and of fellow Moors as this is a violation of Act 3 of the Moorish Constitution and By-Laws. (This weakens and destroys progress and the collective infrastructure)

5. Concentrate on land purchases (in bulk) to develop institutes of education, housing, industrial facilities, security training facilities and medical centers

6. Continuously observe and study others business and structural operations to ensure success and the maintenance of relevant intelligence which helps to reduce failure and excuses

7. Emphasize education in various disciplines of industry, media, foreign relations, social service, politics and juris prudence

8. Further develop ideals and practices of security to ensure the safety and development of the women and children that generate Moorish posterity

9. Tirelessly support the economic plan(s) that engage the relevant needs of the Moorish Nation as a forward progressing national force

Just as other nationalities in the Americas develop collective economics amongst themselves to build value and substance within their community, so must the modern Moors utilize this same law of nature (regarding survival) to support and protect themselves. Otherwise, Moors will continue to be at the mercy of others. This concept is realized when Notorious B.I.G. states, "my life in that man's hands, while he just deciding."

Therefore, it is proposed that Moors act on their own behalf to eliminate psycho-economic slavery by riding themselves of the manufactured consumer's consciousness patterns of "guilt spending" and "status-by-brand" purchasing. These methods of financial control dictate that you, as consumers, buy and spend to express your love, support or importance to loved ones despite your economic condition. This is evidenced by the millions of parents that risk all of their savings and economic security to compete and/or appease their children and loved ones during the designated days of volume spending (Christmas, Valentines, etc). As a result, consumers, Moors included, purchase select brands that add social status. They also buy for the sake of buying with the fear that someone will fill left out or, in terms of parenting, less of a parent if they failed to follow the trend of "purchasing to please." These spending behaviors have now given birth to terms that further label Asiatics as undesirables or according to economic terms: Sub-prime borrowers. Since Asiatics have become financial liabilities, they will soon be taken out of the economic loop, in mass, as financial "best -practice" will state that any financial institution that continues business with sub-prime borrowers will lose financial backing. Businesses, conducting business with economic undesirables, would become a risk due to demonstrating poor economic security values thus the action of "black-balling" financial liabilities all together will become common practice thus setting the stage for the next phase of neo-economic slavery. Just as the current "Financial Matrix Meltdown" will force lenders and financial institutions to alienate Asiatics due to poor credit scores, late payments and foreclosures; Moors will have to develop plans to support those that fall victim to poor financial decision making skills. Financial statistics will be used to annihilate Asiatic's economic existence which then will again open gateways for the next phase of slavery. Thus Moors must learn to focus on finance and economics to remain competitive and relevant to the global market. As this paradigm shifts and the power holders change, Moors are going to have to put themselves in the position of power to embrace the claim of the next paradigm.

In essence, Moors and un-conscious Asiatics alike will experience a greater form of poverty, that will be inescapable if actions aren't taken immediately. Since Asiatics are the largest consumers of devalued goods and services, the attacks on the psyche and emotional body to consume and purchase for the sake of familial relationships, bonding and/or social status ,despite the fact that no sufficient wealth can be displayed, will without doubt create a prison state without bars or end of sentence. However, operating in a frame-of-mind that aids and supports collective economics and the development of a Moorish economic power system, that $900 billion of annual expenditure could easily be redirected toward large (Moorish) community development projects, socio-political campaigns for the eventual establishment of the Moorish nation and the financial status to barter and trade with others which lead to allied relationships. This ability to collectively display and express such principles of unity and proactive behavior would be an active display of self independence, self preservation and self reliance. How else could one term themselves sovereign?

For Moors to truly gain any type of economic justice, Moors must learn to own and control their own economic markets. It is no secret that Moors, conscious and unconscious alike, have endured all manners of humiliation, deprivation, denationalization, suffering and impairment under the regime and de-facto reign of the agents of oppression and their perpetuated ideologies. It also well understood, and documented, that the Oppressive agent's stronghold to power was solidified by treacherous acts of war and the exploitive extraction of Moorish wealth in the forms of resource materials, human effort and productive genius. This exploitation of Moorish wealth and resources, through the art of subjugation and subversive tactics, has continued to exponentially grow in the form of compound interest from the original principal of Moorish Wealth. As it is known, regarding injustice, it is the redistribution of gains earned and the disregard for prior injustices that, in effect, reward injustice. Although this is a topic unto itself, it must be understood that if Moors want justice as well as economic and social well-being, it is required that we control and own our communities and local and national markets. This means that Moors will have to learn how to produce and manufacture everything for and by themselves. Therefore the ownership and control of your own markets and communities places you outside of being mere workers and consumers within them. To do otherwise would be a blatant display of one handing over or giving away their commonwealth to others which, in essence, impoverishes them as well as denying future generations their god-given wealth of their ancestors (sounds familiar).

Where do we start? How do we begin?

One of the most important aspects to developing Moorish power is the deliberate focus on the human and financial resources that currently exist within the Moorish American community. There must be an analytical process that honestly evaluates the social strengths and weaknesses within our community. This analytical process must focus on our personal mistakes as a whole. It must force us to look at the "Whys" and the "Hows" of our lack of efficient organization, lack of coordinated development and application of skills that accomplish both the goals and aims that reflect the collective bottom-line expectations. In this process we must specifically look at ourselves as the culprits as this is the only path to self-mastery as a collective body (nation). The following questions have to be answered if we are to correct and improve upon our current state and condition:

1) Why is there familial instability and dysfunction?

2) Why is there inadequate housing?

3) What role have we played in the lack of educational and economic development within our community?

4) Why have we not seen more progress and stability amongst Moorish Americans?

5) What strategies have not worked that are currently being recycled as effective?

6) What is most needed to develop a long term successful exclusive Moorish community?

7) What can we do as a collective body to change our current condition?

In essence, many of the issues that plague Moorish Americans and are exhibited in our community reflect inadequate economic organization, discipline and the ability to adhere to strucure and chain-of-command which leads the development of new organization or movement. Simply put, this weakens the collective and thus the old saying "divide and conquer." Once the excitement of the new movement wears off, the commitment is lost. If these two areas became prime targets of reform (organization and discipline), impoverishment of human resources and communal deficiencies would be minimized to a high degree. Just as national debt and national deficits make a country vulnerable and prey to another, while also threatening its power and viability as a nation, and generates social and political conflict (s); Moors, must also recognize how the lack of structure and discipline, deficiencies and imbalances threatens its viability and ability to provide an inheritance to its posterity.

This will best be achieved by Moors beginning the processes of taking an inventory of the diverse skill sets and educational backgrounds, pooling finances and creating a "form" of "rotating credit association" system; however, with distinct differences in how finances are stored, saved and generated. The accumulation of material resources and networking opportunities further contribute toward the development of a cohesive Moorish unit that works together to finance and purchase land and industrial supplies that facilitate the community development process. The concept of "Community as Financier" will dissolve issues of credit, reduce high interest and minimize debt as the collective community work together to make financial decisions through a rational political process. Moors must also learn to create, maintain and serve their own ethno-cultural identity as evidenced by a business minded collective developing and supplying products and services that are unique to the Moorish community. This concept is seen and demonstrated within the Japanese, Chinese and so-called Hispanic communities. Despite their success, you will begun to see large conglomerates like Wal-Mart begin supplying items and foods that cater to specific ethno-cultural tastes and identities which capture the economic wealth that originally was supplied by that demographic. This is one of the many strategic moves to dissolve economic power within the ethno-cultural community of those that practice self reliance. Therefore strategies like this must be countered with smart economic power moves.

Like other ethnic groups that embark on enterprise and communal growth, they first rely on themselves as a source and foundation for growth. Once they achieve independent profitability, a percentage of the wealth is distributed and the next plan of action is decided upon for its growth and socio-political prosperity. This method ensures that the community and family are first taken care of, that the internal economic structure is nurtured and opportunities are created to advance the youth and less fortunate within the community. However, this type of socio-political and economic strategy could only work if there is loyal support and a strong ant-like work ethic that is realized and pursued for the outcome of the greater whole. Once the community is established and Moors are self independent, self reliant and self sufficient, then global ethnic enterprise is the next phase of development. Ethnic enterprise makes your community attractive to others as talks of trade and allied relationships are discussed.

These steps toward political, social and economic power are simple and effective if the current economic resources were to be redirected and funneled toward productive goals and spending habits that build collective wealth. This comprehensive approach would reduce dependent behavior and foster the development and esteem of a productive and genius people. If Asiatics, alone, spend $1.5-2.0 billion annually in the hair care products industry and $1.9 billion annually in the car rim industry, then we know the resources exist for the funding of something that "adds" value and substance.

It is a supreme disgrace for Asiatics, the financiers of the ancient world, to be reduced to accepting handouts and being considered beggars, government leeches and economic liabilities while also demonstrating the harms of conflict amongst and within their own family. Granted, everyone will not accept Moorish Science, Moorish aims and goals, our spiritual philosophies and the understanding of the importance of nationality and social status; but nevertheless, Moors, who have that commonality, must be willing to work within their communal structure as a unified family to bring into fruition the resurrection of the ancient ones buried in this shallow grave in the West. There are no excuses. Asiatics have always been provided a messenger that brings a message of social and spiritual reform. There is nothing new under the sun. The opportunity will not continue to present itself for the messengers to continue to be ignored, discredited and killed by their own. If Moors are truly prepared for change, desire self independence and are willing to work (together) to gain some level of control over their destiny and future, then accept the challenge, build this Moorish army that live by the principles of Love, Truth, Peace, Freedom and Justice, and demonstrate the genius of our ancestors that left the mighty blueprints for the development of advanced civilization and collective "Self Mastery."

Zothyrius Ali El

SCIENTISTS RECONSTRUCT FACE OF 1ST EUROPEAN

via Daily Mail

Dressed in a suit, this person would not look out of place in a busy street in a modern city.

The clay sculpture, however, portrays the face of the earliest known modern European - a man or woman who hunted deer and gathered fruit and herbs in ancient forests more than 35,000 years ago.

It was created by Richard Neave, one of Britain’s leading forensic scientists, using fossilised fragments of skull and jawbone found in a cave seven years ago.

His recreation offers a tantalising glimpse into life before the dawn of civilisation. It also shows the close links between the first European settlers and their immediate African ancestors.

To sculpt the head, Mr Neave called on his years of experience recreating the appearance of murder victims as well as using careful measurements of bone.

It was made for the BBC2 series The Incredible Human Journey. This will follow the evolution of humans from the cradle of Africa to the waves of migrations that saw Homo sapiens colonise the globe.

The head has taken pride of place on the desk of Alice Roberts, an anthropologist at Bristol University, who presents the programme.


‘It’s really quite bizarre,’ she told Radio Times. ‘I’m a scientist and objective but I look at that face and think “Gosh, I’m looking at the face of somebody from 40,000 years ago” and there’s something weirdly moving about that.

‘Richard creates skulls of much more recent humans and he’s used to looking at differences between populations.

‘He said the skull doesn’t look European or Asian or African. It looks like a mixture of all of them.

‘That’s probably what you’d expect of someone among the earliest populations to come to Europe.’

The head is based on remains of one of the earliest known anatomically modern Europeans.

The lower jawbone was discovered by potholers in the Carpathian mountains in Romania in 2002. The rest of the fragments were found the following year.

The bones were carbon-dated to between 34,000 and 36,000 years ago when Europe was occupied by two species of human.

They were the Neanderthals, who had arrived from Africa tens of thousands of years earlier, and the more recent modern humans, also known as Cro-Magnons.

Although the skull is similar to a modern human head, it has a larger cranium, is more robust and has larger molars. Although it is impossible to work out the skin colour of the prehistoric hunter, it is likely to have been darker than modern white Europeans.

Fossil experts are also unsure if the skull was male or female.

Many scientists believe that modern humans evolved in Africa 200,000 to 100,000 years ago. Our ancestors left Africa around 60,000 years ago and migrated around the world, replacing other branches of the family tree which had left the continent earlier.

The earliest modern Europeans were far from primitive. Living in huts and caves, they used stone tools and spears made from antlers, painted on the walls of their caves and made jewellery from shells.

The programme will be shown on BBC2 at 9.30pm on May 10.

SCIENTISTS IDENTIFY SPECIES OF HUMANS AS HOBBITTS

The tiny ancient humans dubbed hobbits, whose remains were discovered on an Indonesian island in 2003, were a previously unknown species altogether, according to two new studies.
Debate has raged in the scientific community since the fossils were found on the island of Flores, with some experts insisting they were descended from Homo erectus and others saying evolution could not account for their small brains.

About a metre (three feet) tall and weighing 30 kilos (65 pounds), the tiny, tool-making hunters may have roamed the remote island as recently as 8,000 years ago. Their fossils are about 18,000 years old.

Many scientists have said Homo floresiensis, as the creature is now formally known, was a prehistoric human stunted by natural selection over millennia through a process called insular dwarfing.

Others countered that even this evolutionary shrinking, well documented in island-bound animals, could not account for the chimpanzee-sized brain -- just a third the size of that in a modern human being.

The only plausible explanation, they insisted, was that the handful of specimens found had a genetic disorder resulting in an abnormally small skull or that they suffered from "dwarf cretinism" caused by deficient thyroids.

Two new studies in the British journal Nature go a long way toward settling the debate.

A team led by William Jungers of Stony Brook University in New York tackled the problem by analysing the hobbit's foot.
In some ways it is very human. The big toe is aligned with the others and the joints make it possible to extend the toes as the body's full weight falls on the foot -- attributes not found in great apes.

But in other respects it is startlingly primitive: far longer than its modern human equivalent and equipped with a very small big toe, long and curved lateral toes, and a weight-bearing structure closer to a chimpanzee's.

Recent archaeological evidence from Kenya shows that the modern foot evolved more than 1.5 million years ago, most likely in Homo erectus.
So unless the Flores hobbits became more primitive over time -- considered extremely unlikely -- they must have branched off the human line at an even earlier date.

For Jungers and colleagues, this suggests their ancestor was not Homo erectus "but instead some other more primitive hominin whose dispersal into southeast Asia is still undocumented."

Companion studies published by the Journal of Human Evolution bolster this theory and conjecture that these more ancient forebears may be the still poorly understood Homo habilis.

In any case, Homo floresiensis would be confirmed as a separate species.
But what still has not been explained the hobbit's inordinately small brain.
That's where hippos come into the picture.
Eleanor Weston and Adrian Lister of the Natural History Museum in London compared fossils of several species of ancient hippos found on the island of Madagascar with the mainland ancestors from which they had evolved.

They were surprised to find that insular dwarfing -- driven by the need to adapt to an island environment -- shrank their brains far more than had previously been thought possible.
"Whatever the explanation for the tiny brain of H. floresiensis relative to its body size, our evidence suggests that insular dwarfing could have played a role in its evolution," they conclude.

While the new studies answer some questions, they also raise new ones sure to spark fresh debate, Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman said in Nature.

Only more fossil evidence will indicate whether the hobbits of Flores evolved from Homo erectus, whose traces have been found throughout Eurasia, or from an even more ancient lineage not yet found outside Africa, he said.

THE AFRICAN PRESECENCE IN INDIA: PHOTO ESSAY by RUNOKO RASHIDI

THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN INDIA: A PHOTO ESSAY

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

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PART 1

AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

One of the foremost tasks for contemporary African centered scholars is to provide an historical overview of the global African community. This is a critical task that must be completed in its entirety. This includes the history, culture and present condition of African people both at home and abroad. We are already aware, it should be pointed out, based on recent scientific studies of DNA, that modern humanity originated in Africa, that African people are the world's aboriginal people and that all modern humans can ultimately trace their ancestral roots back to Africa. If not for the primordial migrations of early African people, humanity would have remained physically Africoid, and the rest of the world outside of the African continent absent of human life. This is our starting point.

Since the first modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) were of African birth, the African presence globally can be demonstrated through the history of the Black populations that have inhabited the world within the span of recent humanity. Not only are African people the aboriginal people of the planet, however, there is abundant evidence to show that Black people created and sustained many of the world's earliest and most enduring civilizations. Such was the case in India.

The questions we pose here are simply these: Who are the African people of India? What is their significance in the annals of history? Precisely what have they done and what are they doing now? These are extremely serious questions that warrant serious and fundamental answers. This series of articles, "The African Presence in India: An Historical Overview," is designed to provide some of those answers.

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PART 2

Africoid figurine from the Indus Valley photo credit: K.L.Kamat Copyright © 1996-2002, Kamat's Potpourri. All Rights Reserved

ANCIENT AFRICA AND EARLY INDIA

Exceptionally valuable writings reflecting close relationships between Africa and early India have existed for more than two thousand years. In the first century B.C.E., for example, the famous Greek historian Diodorus Siculus penned that, "From Ethiopia he (Osiris) passed through Arabia, bordering upon the Red Sea as far as India.... He built many cities in India, one of which he called Nysa, willing to have remembrance of that (Nysa) in Egypt, where he was brought up."

Another important writer from antiquity, Apollonius of Tyana, who is said to have visited India near the end of the first century C.E., was convinced that "The Ethiopians are colonists sent from India, who follow their forefathers in matters of wisdom." The literary work of the early Christian writer Eusebius preserves the tradition that, "In the reign of Amenophis III [the mighty Dynasty XVIII Egyptian king] a body of Ethiopians migrated from the country about the Indus, and settled in the valley of the Nile." And still another document from ancient times, the Itinerarium Alexandri, says that "India, taken as a whole, beginning from the north and embracing what of it is subject to Persia, is a continuation of Egypt and the Ethiopians."

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PART 3

INDIA'S EARLIEST CIVILIZATION

In Greater India, more than a thousand years before the foundations of Greece and Rome, proud and industrious Black men and women known as Dravidians erected a powerful civilization. We are referring here to the Indus Valley civilization- -India's earliest high-culture, with major cities spread out along the course of the Indus River. The Indus Valley civilization was at its height from about 2200 B.C.E. to 1700 B.C.E. This phase of its history is called the Harappan, the name being derived from Harappa, one of the earliest known Indus Valley cities.

In 1922, about 350 miles northeast of Harappa, another large Indus city, Mohenjo-daro (the Mound of the Dead) was identified. Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were apparently the chief administrative centers of the Indus Valley complex, and since their identification, several additional cities, including Chanhu-daro, Kalibangan, Quetta and Lothal have been excavated.

The Indus cities possessed multiple level houses enhanced by sophisticated wells, drainage systems and bathrooms with flushing toilets. A recognized scholar on the Indus Valley civilization, Dr. Walter Fairservis, states that the "Harappans cultivated cotton and perhaps rice, domesticated the chicken and may have invented the game of chess and one of the two great early sources of nonmuscle power: the windmill."

The decline and fall of the Indus Valley civilization has been linked to several factors, the most important of which were the increasingly frequent incursions of the White people known in history as Aryans--violent Indo-European tribes initially from central Eurasia and later Iran. Indeed, the name Iran means the "land of the Aryan."

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PART 4

Durga Temple

DRAVIDIAN KINGDOMS OF SOUTH INDIA

It is safe to say that when we speak of the Dravidians as a people we are speaking of the living descendants of the Harappan people of the ancient Indus Valley who were pushed into South India as the result of the Aryan invasions. This is certainly consistent with Dravidian traditions which recall flourishing cities that were either lost or destroyed in antiquity. The term "Dravidian," however, encompasses both an ethnic group and a linguistic group. The ethnic group is characterized by straight to wavy hair textures, combined with Africoid physical features. In reference to this Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop stated that:

"There are two well-defined Black races: one has a black skin and woolly hair; the other also has black skin, often exceptionally black, with straight hair, aquiline nose, thin lips, an acute cheekbone angle. We find a prototype of this race in India: the Dravidian. It is also known that certain Nubians likewise belong to the same Negro type...Thus, it is inexact, anti-scientific, to do anthropological research, encounter a Dravidian type, and then conclude that the Negro type is absent."

Dravidian, in addition to its ethnic component, however, is an important family of languages spoken by more than a hundred million people, primarily in South India. These languages include Tamil (the largest element), Kannada, Malayalam (from which the name of the Asian country Malaya is derived), Telegu and Tulu. The term "Dravidian" itself is apparently an Aryan corruption of Tamil.

From at least the third century C.E. three major Dravidian kingdoms existed in South India: the kingdoms of Pandya, Chera and Chola. Pandya was the southernmost Dravidian kingdom. The major city of Pandya was Madurai, the location of the famous chapel of the Tamil Sangam (Academy). The Sangam, of which there were three, was initiated by a body of forty-eight exceptionally learned scholars who established standards over all literary productions. The Pandyan rulers received these intellectuals with lavish honors.

It is also important to note that in the kingdom of the Pandyas women seem to have enjoyed a high status. This is the exact opposite of the regions of India where the Whites ruled. In these lands of Aryan domination it is said that a woman was never independent. "When she is a child she belongs to her father. As an adult when she marries she belongs to her husband. If she outlives her husband she belongs to her sons." An early queen of the Pandyas, on the other hand, for example, is credited with controlling an army of 500 elephants, 4,000 cavalry and 13,000 infantry.

In 1288 and again in 1293 the Venetian traveler Marco Polo visited the Pandyan kingdom and left a vivid description of the land and its people. Polo exclaimed that:

"The darkest man is here the most highly esteemed and considered better than the others who are not so dark. Let me add that in very truth these people portray and depict their gods and their idols black and their devils white as snow. For they say that God and all the saints are black and the devils are all white. That is why they portray them as I have described."

To the northwest of Pandya was the kingdom of Chera (present-day Kerala). Northwest of Pandya lay the kingdom of Chola, said to be the place where Saint Thomas the Apostle was buried. The same Marco Polo who visited Pandya referred to Chola as "the best province and the most refined in all India."

The Dravidians were an unusually advanced seafaring people, with the Cholas, in particular, distinguishing themselves amongst the dominant maritime powers of their era. Through its ports, the great kings of Chola traded with Ethiopia and Somalia, Iran and Arabia, Combodia and China, Sumatra and Sri Lanka, exporting spices and camphor, ebony and ivory, quality textiles and precious jewels.

It seems readily apparent that the Dravidian kingdoms and the Dravidian people were quite well known internationally. When Augustus became head of the Roman world, for example, the Dravidian kingdoms sent him a congratulatory embassy. Dravidian poets describe Roman ships, which carried bodyguards of archers to ward off pirates, while the Dravidian kings themselves employed bodyguards of Roman soldiers. In respect to the ancient East, at least one author has identified a Dravidian presence in the Philippines, noting that: "From India came civilized Indians, the Dravidians from whom the savage Aryans learned. They began at least 500 BC and soon controlled the coast."

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PART 5

Panya Woman in South India	Kanikar tribal man in South India
photos submitted by Horen Tudu

APARTHEID IN INDIA

The White tribes that invaded India and disrupted Black civilization there are known as Aryans. The Aryans were not necessarily superior warriors to the Blacks but they were aggressive, developed sophisticated military technologies and glorified military virtues. After hundreds of years of intense martial conflict the Aryans succeeded in subjugating most of northern India. Throughout the vanquished territories a rigid, caste-segmented social order was established with the masses of conquered Blacks (called Shudras) essentially reduced to slaves to the Whites and imposed upon for service in any capacity required by their White conquerors. This vicious new world order was cold-bloodily racist, with the Whites on top, the mixed races in the middle, and the overwhelming majority of Black people on the very bottom. In fact, the Aryan term varna, denoting one's societal status and used interchangeably with caste, literally means color or complexion and reflects a prevalent racial hierarchy. Truly, India is still a racist country. White supremacist David Duke claimed "that his 1970's visit to India was a turning point in his views on the superiority of the White race."

Caste law in India, based originally on race, regulated all aspects of life, including marriage, diet, education, place of residence and occupation. This is not to deny that there were certain elements of the Black aristocracy that managed to gain prominence in the dominant White social structure. The masses of conquered Black people, however, were regarded by the Whites as Untruth itself. The Whites claimed to have emerged from the mouth of God; the Blacks, on the other hand, were said to have emerged from the feet of God. This was the ugly reality for the Black masses in conquered India. It was written that:

"A Sudra [Black] who intentionally reviles twice-born men [Whites] by criminal abuse, or criminally assaults them with blows, shall be deprived of the limb with which he offends. If he has criminal intercourse with an Aryan woman, his organ shall be cut off, and all his property confiscated. If the woman has a protector, the Sudra shall be executed. If he listens intentionally to a recitation of the Veda [a traditional Hindu religious text], his tongue shall be cut out. If he commits them to memory his body shall be split in half."

Servitude to Whites became the basis of the lives of the Black people of India for generation after generation after generation. With the passage of time, this brutally harsh, color-oriented, racially-based caste system became the foundation of the religion that is now practiced throughout all India. This is the religion known as Hinduism.

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PART 6

THE BLACK UNTOUCHABLES OF INDIA: THE WORLD'S MOST OPPRESSED PEOPLE

The greatest victims of Hinduism have been the Untouchables. Indeed, probably the most substantial percentage of all the Black people of Asia can be identified among India's 160 million Untouchables. These people are the long-suffering descendants of Aryan-Sudra unions and native Black populations who retreated into the hinterlands of India in their efforts to escape the advancing Aryan sphere of influence to which they ultimately succumbed. India's Untouchables number more than the combined populations of England, France, Belgium and Spain.

The existence of Untouchability has been justified within the context of Hindu religious thought as the ultimate and logical extensions of Karma and rebirth. Indus believe that persons are born Untouchables because of the accumulation of sins in previous lives. Hindu texts describe these people as foul and loathsome, and any physical contact with them was regarded as polluting.

Untouchables were usually forced to live in pitiful little settlements on the outskirts of Hindu communities. During certain periods in Indian history Untouchables were only allowed to enter the adjoining Hindu communities at night. Indeed, the Untouchables' very shadows were considered polluting, and they were required to beat drums and make loud noises to announce their approach. Untouchables had to attach brooms to their backs to erase any evidence of their presence. Cups were tied around their necks to capture any spittle that might escape their lips and contaminate roads and streets. Their meals were taken from broken dishes. Their clothing was taking from corpses. They were forbidden to learn to read and write, and were prohibited from listening to any of the traditional Hindu texts. Untouchables were denied access to public wells. They could not use ornaments and were not allowed to enter Hindu temples. The primary work of Untouchables included scavenging and street sweeping, emptying toilets, the public execution of criminals, the disposal of dead animals and human corpses, and the clean-up of cremation grounds. The daily life of the Untouchable was filled with degradation, deprivation and humiliation.

The basis status of India's Untouchables has changed little since ancient times, and it has recently been observed that "Caste Hindus do not allow Untouchables to wear shoes, ride bicycles, use umbrellas or hold their heads up while walking in the street." Untouchables in urban India are crowded together in squalid slums, while in rural India, where the vast majority of Untouchables live, they are exploited as landless agricultural laborers and ruled by terror and intimidation. As evidence of this, several cases from 1991 can be cited: On June 23, 1991 fourteen Untouchables were slaughtered in the eastern state of Bihar. On August 10, 1991 six Untouchables were shot to death in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. On August 16, 1991, an Untouchable woman was stripped in public and savagely beaten in the southern state of Andra Pradesh. On September 6, 1991, in the western state of Maharastra, an Untouchable policeman was killed for entering a Hindu temple. Official Indian figures on violent crimes by caste Hindus against Untouchables have averaged more than 10,000 cases per year, with the figures continuing to rise. The Indian government listed 14,269 cases of atrocities by caste Hindus against Untouchables in 1989 alone. However, Indian human rights workers report that a large number of atrocities against Untouchables, including beatings, gang-rapes, arson and murders, are never recorded. Even when charges are formally filed, justice for Untouchables is rarely dispensed.

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PART 7

DALIT: THE BLACK UNTOUCHABLES OF INDIA

Possibly the most substantial percentage of Asia's Blacks can be identified among India's 160 million "Untouchables" or "Dalits." Frequently they are called "Outcastes." Indian nationalist leader and devout Hindu Mohandas K. Gandhi called them "Harijans," meaning "children of god." The official name given them in India's constitution (1951) is "Scheduled Castes." "Dalit," meaning "crushed and broken," is a name that has come into prominence only within the last four decades. "Dalit" reflects a radically different response to oppression.

The Dalit are demonstrating a rapidly expanding awareness of their African ancestry and their relationship to the struggle of Black people throughout the world. They seem particularly enamored of African-Americans. African-Americans, in general, seem almost idolized by the Dalit, and the Black Panther Party, in particular, is virtually revered. In April 1972, for example, the Dalit Panther Party was formed in Bombay, India. This organization takes its pride and inspiration directly from the Black Panther Party of the United States. This is a highly important development due to the fact that the Untouchables have historically been so systematically terrorized that many of them, even today, live in a perpetual state of extreme fear of their upper caste oppressors. This is especially evident in the villages. The formation of the Dalit Panthers and the corresponding philosophy that accompanies it signals a fundamental change in the annals of resistance, and Dalit Panther organizations have subsequently spread to other parts of India. In August 1972, the Dalit Panthers announced that the 25th anniversary of Indian independence would be celebrated as a day of mourning. In 1981, in Bangalore, India Dravidian journalist V.T. Rajshekar published the first issue of Dalit Voice--the major English journal of the Black Untouchables. In a 1987 publication entitled the African Presence in Early Asia, Rajshekar stated that:

"The African-Americans also must know that their liberation struggle cannot be complete as long as their own blood-brothers and sisters living in far off Asia are suffering. It is true that African-Americans are also suffering, but our people here today are where African-Americans were two hundred years ago.

African-American leaders can give our struggle tremendous support by bringing forth knowledge of the existence of such a huge chunk of Asian Blacks to the notice of both the American Black masses and the Black masses who dwell within the African continent itself."

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PART 8

THE BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM IN INDIA

Buddhism appeared in India during the sixth century B.C.E. and came in the form of a protest against Hinduism. Buddhism opposed the arrogance of caste, and preached tolerance. It should not be surprising, then, that it developed a large and rapid following in the regions of India where the Blacks had survived in substantial numbers. On the emergence of Buddhism in India, Diop has suggested that:

"It would seem that Buddha was an Egyptian priest, chased from Memphis by the persecution of Cambyses. This tradition would justify the portrayal of Buddha with woolly hair. Historical documents do not invalidate this tradition...There is general agreement today on placing in the sixth century not only Buddha but the whole religious and philosophical movement in Asia with Confucius in China, Zoroaster in Iran. This would confirm the hypothesis of a dispersion of Egyptian priests at that time spreading their doctrine in Asia."

Dr. Vulindlela Wobogo, another African-centric scholar, has observed that:

"Manifestations of the Buddha in Asia are Black with woolly hair. They all appear to be Egypto-Nubian priests who fled Egypt...The priests carried their spiritual knowledge but lost much of the scientific knowledge for obvious reasons. The well-known aspects of Buddhism and its companion, yoga, are all simply Egypto-Nubian priesthood practices, meditation, and...the belief that one could attain a god-like state if the soul was liberated from the body through knowledge and denial."

In a monumental two volume work entitled A Book of the Beginnings, originally published in 1881, Gerald Massey recorded that:

"It is not necessary to show that the first colonisers of India were Black, but it is certain that the Black Buddha of India was imaged in the Africoid type. In the Black [African] god, whether called Buddha or Sut-Nahsi, we have a datum. they carry in their color the proof of their origin. The people who first fashioned and worshipped the divine image in the Africoid mold of humanity must, according to all knowledge of human nature, have been Africans themselves. For the Blackness is not merely mystical, the features and the hair of Buddha belong to the Black race."

In the first volume of his massive text Anacalypsis, Godfrey Higgins wrote that:

"The religion of Buddha, of India, is well known to have been very ancient. In the most ancient temples scattered through Asia, where his worship is yet continued, he is found black as jet, with the flat face, thick lips and curly hair of the African."

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PART 9

African Merchant photo credit: K.L.Kamat Copyright © 1996-2002, Kamat's Potpourri. All Rights Reserved

HABSHIS AND SIDDIS: AFRICAN DYNASTIES IN INDIA

India also received its share of African bondsmen, of whom the most famous was the celebrated Malik Ambar (1550-1626). Ambar, like a number of Africans in medieval India, elevated himself to a position of great authority. Malik Ambar, whose original name was Shambu, was born around 1550 in Harar, Ethiopia. After his arrival in India Ambar was able to raise a formidable army and achieve great power in the west Indian realm of Ahmadnagar. Ambar was a brilliant diplomat and administrator. He encouraged manufactures and built canals and mosques. He gave pensions to poets and scholars, established a postal service, and ultimately became one of the most famous men in India.

In a collective form, however, and in respect to long term influence, the African sailors known as Siddis stand out. Certainly, Siddi kingdoms were established in western India in Janjira and Jaffrabad as early as 1100 AD. After their conversion to Islam, the African freedmen of India, originally called Habshi from the Arabic, called themselves Sayyad (descendants of Muhammad) and were consequently called Siddis. Indeed, the island Janjira was formerly called Habshan, meaning Habshan's or African's land. Siddi signifies lord or prince. It is further said that Siddi is an expression of respectful address commonly used in North Africa, like Sahib in India. Specifically, it is said to be an honorific title given to the descendants of African natives in the west of India, some of whom were distinguished military officers and administrators of the Muslim princes of the Deccan.

In the second decade of the sixteenth century a European traveler named Armando Cortesao noted that:

"The people who govern the kingdom [Bengal] are Abyssinians [Ethiopians]. These men are looked upon as knights; they are greatly esteemed; they wait on the kings in their apartments. The chief among them are eunuchs and these come to be kings and great lords in the kingdom. Those who are not eunuchs are the fighting men. After the king, it is to this people that the kingdom is obedient from fear."

The Siddis were a tightly knit group, highly aggressive, and even ferocious in battle. They were employed largely as security forces for Muslim fleets in the Indian Ocean, a position they maintained for centuries. The Siddi commanders were titled Admirals of the Mughal Empire, and received an annual salary of 300,000 rupees. According to Ibn Battuta (1304-1377), the noted Muslim writer who journeyed through both Africa and Asia, the Siddis "are the guarantors of safety on the Indian Ocean; let there be but one of them on a ship and it will be avoided by the Indian pirates and idolaters."

THE MOORS: CIVILIZERS OF EUROPE

THE MOORS
BLACK CIVILIZERS OF EUROPE

An Introduction

By Maunfu 9

The so-called "Greek Miracle" was never to have a profound effect on European culture. In fact, the record shows virulent persecution of the major Greek thinkers by their own society for teaching concepts which were entirely foreign to their culture. By the 4th century, the temples and places of learning began to be shut down by the emperors of Byzantium. By the middle ages, Europe had sunk back into barbarism. But from the south - again - would come a new age of enlightenment ushered in by black Africans and black Asians from the Arabian peninsula.

As is the custom, these legendary figures have been whitened by academia and their influence erased. Yet it is clear that the sweeping wave of civilization brought in by these sons of Africa saved Europe from its backwardness and created the scientific and cultural foundation which would result in the European Rennaissance.

Over a period of 700 years, 4 superb Moorish dynasties would rule Spain, the Umayad, the Abbasid, the Almoravid and the Almohade.

Origin and Race of The Moors

The Black scholar Wayne Chandler traces the origin of the people called the Moors to an African people known as the Garamante. This civilization stood along important trading routes in the Sahara and existed contemporaneously with other great African civilizations including Egypt of the pre-Christian era. The Moors must be distinguished from the Berbers who were a mixed race people in North Africa resulting from the intermarriage between caucasian Libyans and indigenous Africans. Black Africans had beem called Maures ('dark') by the Greeks in antiquity and no distinction had been made between The Moorish tribes which would later invade Spain and their Black African kin. There was also to be an Arab component to these peoples and in order for this to be put in context, the racial composition of Arabia in antiquity must be understood. Much of the Arabian peninsular had originally been populated by Blacks. The area was a colony of the kingdom of Kush. Southern Arabia, in particular, remained black for a considerable period as the Greeks themselves attest.

With the coming of Islam, interaction between Moors and Arabs increased but research into the manuscripts and documents of medieval Europe emphatically demonstrates that the prevailing image of the Mooor - for the period - concerned was that of the black skinned, woolly haired African. The image occurs repeatedly in such famed works as Las Cantigas de Santa Maria , a 13th century manuscript of Moorish musical works translated by Spain's King Alfonso X (El Sabio), one of the best known of Europe's acquirers of Moorish texts. Numerous works such as these leave no doubt as to what race of people the term "Moor" referred to in medieval Europe.

Alfonso set up centres in cities such as Toledo for the express purpose of acquiring and translating these texts. There is no question that it was not until centuries later that the distinctions became blurred and the term Moor began to be used for various other ethnic groups as well.

The Conquest of Spain

The Ummayad Dynasty



By the end of the 7th century AD, the Islamic Jihad had swept through the Arabian peninsular and North Africa. It was the Moorish general Tarik-bin-Ziad who was given the task of spreading Moorish holdings northward into the Iberian peninsular. The catalyst for this action was the request by the Greek governor of Ceuta for help in emancipaton from the tyrany of the visigoth king Roderick who then ruled Spain.

Tarik and his black army swept up into Spain and defeated the Visigoths in successive stages - capturing and consolidating Spanish towns from the south includingToledo and Cordoba.

By 715 AD, the Ummayad dynasty had been established.It would rule Spain for over a century until 850 AD although their racial memory hes been erased, the achievements and monuments of the Moors still endure. The great Mosque at Cordoba, the Mezquita is an architectural marvel and is to this day considered one of the most magnificent buildings of the middle ages.

The Ummayad dynasty was followed by the Abbasid an Arab dynasty which usurped the throne in 750 AD. However, in 756 AD, the African Abdurrahmon led an army of African Moors up into the Iberian Penninsula, overthrew the Abbasid and re-established the Ummayad dynasty.

A description of Cordova gives an idea of the cultural excellence introduced by the Moors into Spain. Excerpted from The Golden Age of the Moor (pg 166) , a historian provides the following analysis:

"Cordova had 471 mosques, and 300 public baths......and the number of houses of the great and noble were 63,000 and 200, 077 houses of the common people. There were ....upwards of 80,000 shops. Water from the mountains was...distributed through every corner and quarter of the city by means of leaden pipes into basins of different shapes, made of the purst gold, the finest silver or plated brass as well into vast lakes, curious tanks, amazing resevoirs and fountains of Grecian marble." The houses in Cordova were air conditioned in the summer by "ingeniously arranged draughts of fresh air drawn from the garden over beds of flowers, chosen for their perfume, warmed in winter by hot air conveyed through pipes bedded in the walls. Bathrooms supplied hot and cold water and there were tables of gold, set with emweralds rubies and pearls. This list of impressve works appears endless; it includes lampposts that lit their streets at night, to grand palaces, such as the one called Azzahra with its 15,000 doors. Rennaissance men like Zaryab."




White Slavery


Over time, an ugly development in the history of the Moors began: The initiation and growth of the aquisition of white slaves as a prevalent aspect of its culture. The trade was began by a a Jewish element which began to buy and sell captured Slavs and Germans as laborers and concubines. the polygamous tendencies of the Islamic Black Moors encouraged this development and contributed to the lightening of the complexion of the Moorish element over time. It also contributed to a degeneration of values. The Ummayyad dynasty became ripe foe overthrow and in 1031 Christian forces achieved their defeat and brought the dynasty to a close.

The Almoravid Dynasty


The famous era of the Almoravids begins with The Black Muslim leader Ibn Yasin. Originally brought from Mecca, Yasin's initial base of operations was in the area of Senegal in West Africa. He embarked upon an ambitious effort to convert all of the surrounding area to Islam through force. Over time, the Almoravids (from "Al-Murabitun") conquered a vast area of west and northern Africa. In 1076, they overwhelmed and brought to an end the mighty Empire of Ghana itself . In 1086 AD, Yusuf Ibn Tashibin became aware of events in Spain, where Christians had long been persecuting Arabs and Moors. Yusuf invaded Spain to aid in its liberation. He is unequivocably described in the Moorish work Roudh-el Kartos as a black skinned African. Other matters back home in Africa however prompted him to return before the conquest was complete. He left his army to aid the Spaniards in their battle but was later informed that the local Spanish governers had left the Moors to do most of the fighting.

Yusuf in fury, ordered their replacement with Moorish rulers and there followed a splendid era of African rule which would not end until 1142 AD

The Almohade Dynasty

In 1145, the last Moorish dynasty came to power. African accomplishment in the penisular reached its apex. But Christian resolve had strengthened, and as Moorish culture grew more and more passive, Christian forces gained courage and began a campaign which recaptured territories from the blacks over the following centuries.
The Almohade dynasty had deep intellectual concerns and encouraged its thinkers and scholars to engage in great debates and expressions of ideas of both theological and secular nature. It is during the reign of this dynasty that the tower of Seville is constructed. And it is during this time that Abu-Al-Walid Mohamed ibn Mohamed ibgn Rashd, known to the West as Averroes established a peerless intellectual body of work in the arts and sciences which is revered to this day.
Ummayad savants and scholars initiated another intellectual revolution by ushering in and promoting:
Land reforms in Spain.
Religious freedom.
Support of the arts and sciences.
A rennaissance in knowledge as the wisdom of the ancient cultures was relearned through the works of the Greeks, Hebrews, Chinese, Persians.Translating all into Arabic.
They were the first to trace the curvilinear path of light through the air.(1100)
They achieved advances in chemistry including the invention of gunpopwder.
Discoveries in Astronomy and on the nature of the earth.
The invention of the Astrolabe and the compass.
The medical use of vivisection and dissection.

The Almohade dynasty was to last until 1230 when Christian forces drove the last Moorish elements out of Spain in successive campaigns. But Europe was to benefit imeasurably from the legacy of these Africans for centuries after the expulsion:

Absence of class system, such that any man (regardless of birth stature) could rise to any rank except that of supreme ruler. This was in marked contrast to the Visigothic Christians who were legendry in their cruelty and usery
The creation of hospitals with running water and the widespread construction of baths. Christian Europe held this rite of bating in contempt for centuries.
Numerous fabulous gardens.
Latrines with running water hundreds of years before the rest of Europe.
Paved streets and street lights. Numerous bookstores and a highly literate populace.
The Moors also took interior decoration to new heights in elaborate building ideas. This compares with the rest of Europe where most structures were barren, artless hulks without the minimum of utilities even for hygiene.

Agriculture




The Moors of Al Andalu (Spain) introduced advanced numerous crops and methods of soil productivity including irrigation, crop rotation and the use of manure. After harvesting, Moorish preservation and drying know-how meant that foods could endure and be edible for several years.

Universities

There were numerous schools and places of learning in Moorish Al-Andalus (Spain).

begining with the Univerity of Cordoba, other great institutions were built in Seville, Valencia, Mallarga and Granada. Like the ancient Greeks under the Egyptians , several of the most prominent European Catholic scholars studied under the African Moors in their institutions in Spain. The Moors translated all great works they could lay their hands on from the ancients into Arabic. This included the knowledge of Egypt, Kush, India, China and the Greece. Western historians point to the Greek component of these documents and attempt to paint the Moors as merely borrowers of Greek intellectual culture. This ignores the fact that Greek knowledge comes directly from Ancient Egypt and that there is convincing evidence that the Moors already possesed similar knowledge of their own from their homelands.

But this was not only limited to higher education. The Moors promoted literacy and the advancement of the general population. Schools were everywhere, many of them free of charge.

Medicine

Again, far in advance of Western Europe, Moorish physicians were specially trained and highly regulated. They practiced surgery and cauterization and understood the importance of cleanliness in the operating environment.

Jose Pimienta Bey notes in Golden Age of the Moor (pg 211):

"Europeans offered no competition with Moorish advances in pathology, aetiology (study of diseases), therapeutics, surgery and pharmacology. Texts were written by Moorish physicians describing surgical technique and instruments that were used; doctors specialized in pediatrics, obstetrics, opthalmology, and in the treatment of hernias and tumors. Imamuddin tells us that Moorish scientists were even importing monkey skeletons from Africa for use in dissection when conditions prevented the use of cadavers."

For the Andalusan Moor, scholarly endeavor was considered devine. The more one knew of one's self and one's World, the more one was sup[posed to know of one's Creator. The ancient Kemetic creed "Know Thyself" was very much the creed of Andalus..........Rulers such as the Caliph Abd al-Rahman III, spent almost one-third of the state's income on education. At a time when most Christan monarchs could not even write their own names, the Caliphs of Moorish Spain were often scholars.

The works of a number of Moorish savants were revered, translated and became required texts in the universities which later developed in Europe. These include Generalities on Medicine by Averroes, Solitary Regime by Avempace, Primus Canonis by Avicenna and Al-Tasrif, by Abulcasis, which became the predominant university medical text for Europe's physicians.

Science

It was the Moorish chemists such as Jabir who discovered nitric, nitro-muriatric and sulphuric acid. They were well versed in the science well before Europe.

Jose Pimienta-Bey notes the proximity of the founding dates of the major European universities to the translations of Moorish works by rulers such as Alfonso X of Spain. These centres of learning relied primarilly on Moorish texts for centuries