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Anta Cheikh Diop: The Amazing Biography Of Anta Cheikh Diop

By Historian November 13, 2023

History Of Anta Cheikh Diop

Anta Cheikh Diop was a cultural nationalist who rose to fame in the 20th century as a well-known archaeologist, historian, Egyptologist, writer, and Pan-Africanist political thinker and leader. His contributions to the ideological debate helped to spark the fight for freedom in Africa. He came into the world at a time when people wanted to put Africa in its proper historical place and needed a strong cultural foundation.

Diop is well-known in African and foreign scholarship for his important contributions to the field of African cultural history and his view that ancient Egyptian culture was purely African. His time at the Sorbonne in Paris, which was known at the time for its radical intellectualism, had a big effect on the young Africanist scholar.

As the anticolonial and pan-African movements for independence among African students in Paris grew after 1946, Anta Diop became more engaged. He helped to create the student branch of the Rassemblement Democratique Africain and later served as its secretary general from 1950 to 1953. This was the first French-speaking Pan-African political movement, which began at the Bamako Congress in 1946 to push for independence from France.

A part of his work was setting up the first Pan-African Students Political Congress in Paris in 1951. He also took part in the First and Second World Congresses of Black Writers and Artists, which were held in Paris and Rome, respectively, in 1956 and 1959. The African liberation movement grew with the help of these worldwide congresses and movements.

Diop began a very thorough study of the history of African societies after having a deep understanding of how alive traditional African culture was. The academic discussion about racism and colonialism grew, and this work was a big part of it. Diop’s framework gave African studies some general research ideas and a number of ways to think about how we know what we know. It still does this.

Diop finished his doctoral work, in which he made a major contribution to the cause of reclaiming Egypt for Africa from a firmly African point of view. He believed that black African culture and people were the origin of and had an influence on ancient Egypt. He also thought that some parts of this culture made their way to Europe through ancient Greece and Rome from Egypt. This theory says that Greeks and Romans taught European scholars things that they had learned from Egyptian pharaohs.

Diop said that Black Africa is the main source of ideas and science that Europe learned about in the fields of art, law, philosophy, math, and science. In his thesis, Diop also said that black Africa was ahead of the curve in a number of other areas of culture. Because Diop presented his revolutionary thesis at a time when the majority of people in Europe believed that European culture was superior to African culture, the Sorbonne authorities rejected it.

Even so, his work, which came out in 1974 as The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality, got attention all over the world and made Diop a famous researcher. Since then, he has been linked to new ideas about the history of Africa and the continent’s place in the world. Diop finally got his doctorate from the Sorbonne in 1960 after a good defense in front of a group of scholars from different fields.

When his country gained its independence that same year, he went back to Senegal. Anta Diop became a research fellow at the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN) in 1961. It was there that he set up a laboratory for radiocarbon testing. At IFAN, he kept building his case for the idea that ancient Egypt was the cradle of modern culture. By 1980, Diop was well-known for the free carbon dating work he did for African researchers, who sent him ancient samples to identify and study. His own study led to the writing of several books that were first released in French but are now also available in English.

These include The Cultural Unity of Black Africa: The Domains of Patriarchy and Matriarchy in Classical Antiquity (1978), Black Africa: The Economic and Cultural Basis for a Federated State (1978), Pre-Colonial Black Africa: A Comparative Study of the Political and Social System of Europe and Black Africa, from Antiquity to the Formation of Modern States (1987), and Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology (1991). All of these works make it clear that Diop cared about and wanted to restore African pride and self-empowerment by putting together pieces of their colonized identities.

So, not only did he use his historical study to help with the politics of decolonization and nation-building, but he also shook up the Eurocentric view of African history that had been common in academia for a long time. At the same time, Diop helped start political resistance groups in Senegal in 1961 and 1963, as well as the Front National du Senegal. These were the main things he used to fight against President Lepold Senghor’s pro-French policies. In 1965, the Front National and other opposition parties were broken up.

In 1976, Diop and his intellectual and socialist coworkers got back together and formed the Rassemblement National Democratique (RND). The RND founded the magazine Siggi, which later changed its name to Taxaw, which means “rise up” in Wolof. Diop became the editor of this journal. The journal became a place where Senegalese people could talk about their hopes and dreams. In 1979, the RND was banned, and Diop was charged with breaking the law by running a political group that wasn’t listed.

President Abdou Diouf, who took over for Senghor, lifted the ban in 1981. People who worked hard and did good things, like Diop, were sure to get praise, honors, and distinction. At the First World Festival of Black Arts in Dakar in 1966, he was recognized as the African scholar who had had the most important impact on African and world history in the 20th century. After that, he helped put together the Second World Festival of Black and African Arts and Culture in Lagos in 1977.

Diop’s effort to create an African school of history came true in the 1970s when the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization asked him to be on the team writing The General History of Africa. He taught ancient history at the University of Dakar after being made a professor there in 1980. From the Institut Cultural Africain in 1982, he got the highest award for scientific study. To honor Diop, Mayor Andrew Young of Atlanta asked him to visit in 1985 and named April 4 “Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop Day.” Diop passed away on February 7, 1986, in Dakar.

Akan States: The Incredible History Of Akan During The Eighteenth Century

By Historian November 11, 2023

The Akan States

In the 18th century, the Akan states’ history can be broken down into three parts: 1700–1730, 1730–1750, and 1750–1800. In the first ten years of the 18th century, the states of Akwamu, Akyem Abuakwa, and Denkyira gained the most land, mostly by conquering other states. Under their famous King Akonno, the Akwamu continued to try to take over other lands in the east.
In 1702, he started an operation to put down the resistance in Ladoku.

He then crossed the Volta and took over Anlo. He also took over the Ewe states of Peki, Ho, and Kpando in the interior. After crossing the Volta again, he took over Kwahu between 1708 and 1710. With these victories, Akwamu had the most land and was at the height of its fame and honor.

During this time, the two Akyem states also reached the height of their power. It was the two Akyem states that beat the Asante in 1702, which caused the Kotoku to move across the Pra to Da near Afosu. In 1717, they beat the Asante badly again, and the great Asantehene, Osei Tutu, was killed in a surprise attack.

Both of them also attacked and beat Akwamu in 1730, then crossed the Volta to where they are now. They took over the lands of the Akwamu and gave most of them to Akyem Abuakwa. Akyem Abuakwa had grown to be the second-biggest of the Akan states in southern Ghana by the middle of the 18th century. During this time, the Fante began a series of campaigns to protect their role as middlemen from growing threats.

Between 1702 and 1710, they took over the coastal states of Fetu, Aguafo, and Asebu, and in 1724, they took over Agona.The Fante ruled the whole coast from the mouth of the Pra River to the eastern borders of the Ga kingdom by the end of the third decade.

The most recent significant political change, which one might almost call a revolution, occurred with Asante’s arrival in Ghana and its dramatic defeat and overthrow of the strong state of Denkyira at the famous fight of Feyiase near Kumasi in October 1701.

As soon as they won, Osei Tutu struck the Akyem states for helping Denkyira. In 1711, he turned his attention northward and took over Wenkyi, destroying its city, Ahwenekokoo. He did this to control the trade routes that led to Bono and Begho, which was an important trading center in Dyula.

Osei Tutu marched south and took over Twifu, Wassa, Aowin, and Nzema from 1713 to 1715. In 1717, Osei Tutu went east and fought the two Akyem states. He lost and was killed in the battle. But by that time, Akyem and Akwamu had been pushed aside, and Asante had become the biggest of the Akan states. What can be said about this sudden rise of the Asante state?
Anokye and Osei Tutu, who was his friend and advisor, made a new Asante state called Asanteman and a new country called Asantefoo. This was the first reason.

To do this, they merged all the states that were already there within 30 miles of Kumasi and gave it a new constitution with the Oyoko clan of Osei Tutu as its royal family. They also gave it a federal governing council, a new capital city called Kumasi, and a national holiday every year.
Their most powerful tool, though, was the famous golden stool called Sika Agua Kofi, which Okomfo Anokye is said to have brought down from the sky. It was seen as representing the soul of the country and had to be protected at all costs.

These things gave this young nation-state a sense of fate that has kept it alive to this day. Osei Tutu also led and inspired them. The Asante were able to get a lot of guns because they were rich from gold mining, trading, and paying tributes, which made their armies almost impossible to beat.

Between 1730 and 1750, even more big changes happened than before. After three years of chaos within the church, Opoku Ware took over from Osei Tutu. In 1720–1721, he attacked Akyem to try to stop the revolts against Asante rule by Akyem, Wassa, Aowin, and Denkyira. This was the start of his fights. Then he went west and stopped Ebrimoro, the king of Aowin, from taking over Kumasi.

Opoku Ware moved north and fought and beat the famous and old kingdom of Bono in 1723 and 1724. In 1726, he invaded Wasa again. Because of this loss, Ntsiful I (r. 1721–1752) moved Wassa’s capital from the north to Abrade, which was close to the coast. It stayed there until the 1800s. In 1732, Opoku Ware took over western Gonja and Gyaaman. In 1740, he took over Banda. In 1742, he took over the Akyem states of Akyem Abuakwa and Kotoku. And in 1744, he took over eastern Gonja and Dagomba.

At the time of his death in 1750, Opoku Ware had more than lived up to Osei Tutu’s expectations. He had turned Asante into a huge kingdom that covered an area bigger than modern-day Ghana and included all but one of the Akan states.

Osei Tutu and Opoku Ware built the Akan monarchical civilization by hiring or capturing experts, craftsmen, and musicians from the Akan states they had conquered. The civilization is known today for its gold regalia and ornaments, colorful kente cloth, beautiful music and dance forms, and impressive and complex court ceremonies.

The Akan states’ history in the second half of the 18th century is mostly about how determined the Asante were to keep their huge empire going, how determined the Akan vassal states were to get their independence back (especially Denkyira, Wassa, Twifu, and Akyem Abuakwa), and how determined the Fante were to keep and protect their independence.

So, the Asante moved their men to stop the Wassa from rising up in 1760, 1776, and 1785. Akyem also rose up in 1765, 1767, and 1772–1773. There were three times that the Asante beat the Akyem: in 1765, 1767, and 1772.

Only Fante, out of all the Akan states, stayed free from Asante rule and dominance in the 18th century. Fante was able to do this mostly through diplomacy, especially with the help of the British. The Asante defeated the Akyem states in 1742, which made the Fante feel very threatened. They worked hard to make an alliance with Kommenda, Abrem, Fetu, Akwamu, Assin, Wassa, and Denkyira, which stopped trade with the Asante. This wall worked so well that from 1742 to 1752, no Asante could trade on the coast of Fante.

The Fante were already feeling the bad effects of the blockade at that point, so in 1759, they quietly joined forces with the Asante. But in 1765, they broke away from the Asante and made a new alliance with the Wassa, Twifo, and Akyem. It was only the British who stopped the two groups from fighting.

The Asante threatened to invade the Fante in 1772 because the Fante refused to hand over some Asante hostages. The British, who were supportive of the Fante at the time to keep the Asante from taking over the whole coast of Ghana, stopped the invasion.
So, by 1775, trade between Asante and Fante was booming, and relations were calm. This lasted until 1785, when Wassa rose up against the government, but it was put down quickly. Wassa was one state until the 1820s, when it split into what are now Wassa Fiase and Wassa Amenfi.

Before we go any further, let’s review: by the end of the 18th century, the Asante empire was still whole and ruling over all of the Akan states except Fante. Fante was able to stay sovereign and independent until the early 19th century, when it was finally added to the Asante empire.

Also Read: Farmers, Traders, and the Emergence of Akan States in Akan and Asante

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Mandinka States of Gambia: The Incredible History Of The Mandinka Tribe

By Historian November 9, 2023

The Mandinka States Of Gambia

The Mandinka are a major ethnic group in Gambia. They are related to the first people who lived in the Sudanese Belt in the Stone and Iron Ages. The first people who lived on Earth were hunters who made and used knives, axes, scrapers, tools, and needles out of stone and iron.
After that, they made spears, harpoons, sticks, shields, blowguns, bows, and arrows, among other things.

Before the year 700, the black people who lived in the Sudanese Belt only lived in a small part of the area. They kept working in farmland and were able to have bigger and denser communities than people whose main job was raising cattle.
In the end, they settled in the forests of West Africa. Beginning around 700 BCE and going through the early Islamic contact period, trade over long distances became more and more important in shaping the economic, social, and political trends of western Sudan.

A lot of money was made in some parts of West Africa through trade, which helped build social classes and states. When the kingdom of Ghana was formed, the Mandinkas were part of the Soninke Clan, which was made up of people who spoke Mande. The people who lived in Mande were also called Manden, Malinke, or Mndinka, for short.

All of the former tributary states that made up the empire of Ghana got their freedom back after it fell in 1076. A small Mandinka kingdom didn’t start to form until 1235. A Mandinka king named Sundiata Keita ruled the country. He was known for building the strong Mali Empire’s foundations.

According to stories told by older people, the Mandinka first moved into Gambia when Sundiata was in charge in the 1300s. Mandinkas moved to other areas of the country in both peaceful and violent ways. Before the Mali Empire was formed, some Mandinka people went to the Senegambia area.

Early settlers went south and west to find better land for farming, food, and a place to live. Along with these people, some traders and hunters went to Senegambia, which had a lot of water. The people who moved there farmed and married into the local ethnic groups after they settled down.

Sundiata asked for the military missions to be made, and they were. In the 1300s, he sent Tiramang Traore, one of his generals, west to take over Cassamance and Guinea-Bissau. So, Tiramang easily beat the people who lived there and started the Kaabu Empire, which grew to include Gambia.

For the Mandinka, Kaabu became the center of their society. Kansala was the name of its main city. On behalf of Sundiata, Tiramang also led missions against the nearby Jollof Empire. As the Mandinka people moved from Mali to Gambia, they married people from other groups, which led to the formation of many Mandinka families.

They got married and became part of the Sanneh family. People from Mandinka families like Sanyang, Bojang, Conteh, and Jassey come from people who lived in the Mali Empire. Around the end of the 1300s, the Mandinka ruled over a land area that included Gambia and Futa Jallon.

The Mandinka Empire of Kaabu was made up of a number of different states, such as Kantora, Tumaana, Jimara, Wurapina, Nyamina, Jarra, Kiang, Foni, and Kombo. The Mandinka took over Kombo, which used to be a Jolla state, by force. Sundiata Keita’s other general, Amari Sonko, beat the kingdoms of Baddibu and Barra.

In both countries, Amari set up the Sonko dynasty. The mansas, or chiefs, were responsible for organizing and running the government in the Mandinka states. Village heads, who were also called al-cadi, ran the local government. They were noble people whose main job was to give out land and make sure the law was followed.

Their job was to handle small cases and collect taxes. In the Mandinka states, trade villages were set up starting in the 1400s. The trade towns were big and had a lot of people living in them. The trade across the Atlantic had an effect on Gambia. It was a key factor in the economic, political, and social growth of the states and the people in general.

In the sixteenth century, the Kaabu Empire was at its strongest. It had a strong government, good trade, and skilled soldiers from the fifteenth century on. During the 1400s, the Portuguese also began to explore West Africa.

At that time, the Portuguese did a lot of business with the Mandinka and made a lot of money. A Portuguese man named Rodrigo Bebello and seven other people in his group met with Mandimansa, the Mandinka king of Kantora state, in 1491. They became friends with each other, which led to the creation of a regular trading system. The Mandinka bought and sold cash, slaves, ivory, and beeswax.

People from the interior brought goods and traded them for crystal beads, iron bars, brass pans, guns and ammo, liquor, tobacco, caps, and iron. Iron bars were used to measure everything that was traded, so there were similar amounts of everything that was traded.

Berbers and Moors who had lived in Gambia earlier in the eleventh century were also drawn to the trade in the Mandinka states. Berbers and Moors, who were Muslims, set up small schools where boys could learn to read and write in Arabic.

The kings sent their kids to school and paid Muslim teachers, called marabouts, to pray and make charms for them. The marabouts also married local Mandinka women, which led to the formation of Muslim families.

Mandinka people, who used to follow traditional African religions, also became Muslims. Mandinka merchants went in groups of 40, 50, or 100 people called trade caravans. They bought and sold things in the river bottoms. In the river valley, some Mandinka dealers from the area joined the groups. The women and slaves wore heavy things on their heads.

Donkeys also assisted in carrying the loads. The women were in charge of the trip, and the guys were at the back. When they got to a town, the women cooked food for the group to eat. Worn cloth, amber, beeswax, hides, gold, civet cats, green parrots, perfumes, corn, shea butter, salt, fish, and iron were all things that could be traded.

The traders gave money to the caravan masters as taxes. As the different groups of people in Senegambia made their towns and villages, the Mandinka also did the same and created their own culture. As a culture grew, it brought new traditions, such as naming events, initiations, weddings, and funerals.

The state of Kaabu was the most important state in south-central Senegambia from the 1600s to the 1700s. The success of the theocratic change in Futa Jallon at the start of the 18th century had an impact on the end of the Kaabu Empire’s expansion.

Also Read: Who are the Mandinka: The Great History Of the Mandinka/Mandingo People

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Mummification: Incredible Funeral Practices And Mummification Of Ancient Egyptians

By Historian November 3, 2023

Mummification

The ancient Egyptians thought that the body would still live on earth after death. This was seen as an important part of the afterlife and a way for the dead to connect with the world. As a result of this idea, people felt the need to keep the body from breaking down, which led to the development of the complex practice of mummification.

When bodies from the past were buried in the sand, they often mummified naturally. After burial rooms were built around 3200 BCE, bodies were tried to stay alive artificially by being wrapped in linen bandages and sometimes also with plaster. During the Old Kingdom, a mixture of salts called natron was added to this, and the internal parts were also taken out.
Before the Middle Kingdom, plaster wasn’t used.

By the New Kingdom, it had become a normal method for the most important people. First, the brain, lungs, and belly viscera were taken out so that they could be preserved separately in “canopic” jars and chests. The body was then covered in natron and left that way for up to seventy days.

Once it was completely dry, it was wrapped in linen and given a mask that fit over the head. This was then put inside the grave. In some cases, the body parts were put in a rectangular sarcophagus made of stone or wood and put in the burial room with the person’s things. Over time, these morgue cases have changed a lot in how they look.

Because bodies were often found in a fetal position, the first tombs were rectangular and very short. During the Old Kingdom, the coffins got longer, and some eyes were added to one side so that the person lying on its left side could “see” out.

It was during the Middle Kingdom that mummy-shaped (or “anthropoid”) tombs began to form from the masks that some mummies wore at the time.

Also Read: Egyptian Mummy: The most controversial mummy ever found in Egypt

By the beginning of the New Kingdom, these had pretty much replaced the old rectangle ones. They were usually made of wood, but sometimes they were made of stone. The decorations and small details on these things are always changing. One clear sign of change over time is the color scheme of the graves.

Also, the four canopic jars had stoppers with human heads at first, but by the middle of the New Kingdom, they had stoppers with the heads of different animals for each of the gods who were thought to protect the organs inside: humans had Imseti (liver), apes had Hapy (lungs), dogs had Duamutef (stomach), and falcons had Qebehsenuef (intestines).

Along with Anubis, the embalmer god, these gods and goddesses like Isis, Nephthys, Neith, and Selqet are often shown on tombs and sarcophagi. The tomb should have had two parts: a closed burial room below ground (the substructure) and a place to make offerings above ground (the superstructure).

The place where the sacrifices were made could be the land above the grave, the area in front of a simple stela, or a large complex that stands alone or is cut into the rock. It could be above the grave or some distance away. At the upper level, family, friends, or priests left food or talked with the dead on feast days (Egyptians still visit tombs and have picnics with their families).

The building blocks of the tomb complex took on very different shapes depending on the time and place, but the main ideas were always the same: the chapel was built around a “false door,” which was the link between the living and the dead and allowed the spirit to leave the body.

Decorations on the superstructure typically focus on the deceased person’s life on earth, such as their favorite hobbies. On the other hand, when it was decorated, which happened only very rarely, the substructure focused on things like the Book of the Dead or lists of things to give to the dead.

The Egyptian funeral rituals began when the mummified body was taken from the embalmers to the tomb and carried there with the other items that belonged to the dead. In the procession were the person’s family and friends, priests, and, if the person had been rich, paid mourners. In the future, the spirit of the person who had died had a hard journey.

Before the spirit could get to its destination, the Hall of Judgment, it had to get past the guards of the different gates that stood in its way. A group of books about the afterlife, like the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead, helped people do this.

These spells were meant to fight the threats that stood between the dead person and their return. The last part of the torture was putting the feather of truth, order, and justice against the dead person’s heart, which was thought to be the seat of wisdom and knowledge.

If the scales were equal, the dead went before Osiris and went to a place that looked a lot like an idealized Egypt, where they would live forever. The soul of the dead person was sent into darkness if the heart was heavier than the feather. The heart was fed to a monster called the Devourer.

The guidebooks that the mourners gave out had magic in them and were meant to stop something like that from happening. Most of the time, these writings were put inside the coffin on papyrus, but sometimes they were written on the coffin or the walls of the tomb.

People thought that the spirit or soul had many parts, such as the ka and the ba. The latter was shown as a bird with a human head. This shape seems to have been how the spirit went to the spiritual world.

The ka was thought to have been formed at the same time as the body but to live on after the body died. During the burial rituals, gifts were made to the ka.

Also Read: Egyptian Mummy: The most controversial mummy ever found in Egypt

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Roman Conquest Of Egypt: Roman Invasion And Occupation Of Ancient Egypt

By Historian October 29, 2023

Roman Conquest Of Egypt

The Roman conquest Of Egypt: When Rome took over Egypt in 30 BCE, it took over a place with a society that was already 3,000 years old and very complex, much older than Rome itself. However, the land was already taken. The Ptolemies, a family of Greek kings who ruled Egypt from the Greek city of Alexandria, had been in charge since Alexander the Great took power in 332 BCE.

There were diplomatic ties between Rome and these Hellenistic powers as early as 273 BCE. More close links were made in the first century BCE, when Julius Caesar and Mark Antony got involved in Egyptian politics directly through their relationships with Cleopatra VII.
Augustus, the first Roman ruler, took over Egypt in 30 BCE after his civil war with Antony and Cleopatra. He said, “Aegyptum imperio populi Romani adieci,” which means “I added Egypt to the power of the Roman people.”

Rome took over a country that already had a lot of culture built into it. 300 years of Greek rule had not destroyed the Egyptians’ habits, customs, language, or way of life.

It put on top of them a class of Greek merchants and officials. Egypt consistently existed as a dual state from the time of the Ptolemies through the Roman Empire. The Egyptians, who lived in villages and other rural places, made up the largest part.

For them, life didn’t change much under Greek or Roman rule. Egyptian architecture, language, and faith all kept up with their old ways of life. People thought of Roman rulers as new pharaohs, and statues of them were found in temples dressed like Egyptian royalty.

Many parts of Greek culture, like building, philosophy, city planning, and language, came from cities, especially Alexandria. Rome changed the way it was run to meet the needs of this complicated, multilingual, and international land.

Augustus’ policy kept the Ptolemies’ administrative system, which had been in place for almost 300 years, with only minor changes. It also produced a new way of running the government. Adding Roman traits like a census every fourteen years, a new poll tax called laographia, and a prefect (praefectus Aegypti) to replace the king were some of the things he did.

The Greek towns and people who lived there kept many of their rights, like not having to pay taxes and having local city councils. In Greek communities, those with the best Greek education and upbringing continue to choose local leaders. This made sure that there was a cultural, not a racial, order that put the Greeks ahead of the native Egyptians.

Egypt’s bond with the rest of the Roman world was also one of a kind. Roman senators and even famous horse riders were not allowed to go to Egypt because it provided a lot of the grain that Rome ate.

Because the governor rode horses himself, the rich prize of the province was kept out of the hands of senators who could become rival rulers. Egypt was very important to keeping Rome stable, so the emperors paid a lot of attention to it. For example, Hadrian visited Egypt for a long time in 130 CE and founded Antinoopolis, which was the only new city in Roman Egypt. It combined Roman political and economic advantages with Greek cultural institutions.

Septimius Severus made more trips there in 199–201, and his son Caracalla did so in 215. These weren’t tours to see sights; they were inspection trips that showed imperial care and an attempt to keep an eye on how the province was run. The problems in the province led to such a close review by the imperial government. Bringing together people from different countries was not always peaceful or successful.

Egypt, especially Alexandria, had a lot of civil, political, and military problems from the first century to the third century because of these interactions between Egyptian, Greek, Jewish, and then Christian groups.

During the reigns of Caligula and Claudius, from 38–41 CE, there was the first wave of violence under Roman rule. The Alexandrine Greeks were angry that the Jewish King Agrippa I had come to Alexandria, so they rioted against the Jews and drove them into a quarter of the city, destroying homes and shops and killing anyone they caught on the streets.

The praefectus agreed with the Greeks and told them that the Jews were foreigners. He then arrested and killed many of the Jewish council of elders. Greeks and Jews both sent envoys to emperor Claudius, who told them to keep the peace, not interfere with each other’s holidays or celebrations, and for the Jews not to bring in more troops from Syria or Egypt outside of Alexandria.

When the Jews threatened to burn down the arena in 66, there were more fights. He called in the army, and 50,000 people were killed. The praefectus was a Jew from Alexandria.

In 115–117, there was a Jewish revolt that spread across Egypt, Cyrene (Libya), and Cyprus. This was the last major act of violence. Even though it was more of an attack on the Greeks than on Roman power, Roman troops were sent to defend themselves.

The reaction from Trajan the emperor and the praefectus was clear: the Jews of Alexandria were wiped out. Greek culture, on the other hand, remained popular in Egypt well into the third century. For example, a papyrus from the 260s from Hermopolis records how a town clerk welcomed a Roman citizen returning from a mission to Rome by quoting a line from Euripides’ Ion.

Most historians agree that the reign of Diocletian (284–305) marked the end of “Roman Egypt” and the start of Byzantine time in Egypt. A lot of what we know about this time period comes from religious writers whose main focus is on doctrine.

Still, evidence from Alexandria shows that a lot changed during the reigns of the Byzantine rulers. One was a change in how the Roman government collected taxes. In Egypt, the Greeks and other favored groups lost their advantages when the new tax system, which wasn’t based on the poll tax, was put in place.

Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all paid new property fees. It had a terrible effect on Alexandria. By the fourth century, Greek organizations were no longer in existence, and when Greeks and Egyptians began to mix, their cultural isolation came to an end.

Cities that used to be known as Greek villages are now known as places where Christian bishops live. Up until 642, Egypt was a Byzantine region before the Arabs took control of it.

Also Read: Ancient Egypt: A Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt

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Moors In Spain: Great African Moors who Civilized Europe

By Historian October 22, 2023

Moors In Spain

Moors In Spain: Around 711 AD, an African army under the command of Tariq ibn-Ziyad crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from North Africa onto the Iberian peninsula and invaded what was then known as “Andalus” (Spain under the Visigoths). This was the beginning of the Moorish conquest of Spain.

In the year 700 A.D., Tarik Ibn Zayid led an army consisting of approximately 300 Arabs and 6,700 Africans to Spain and conquered it. An academic from Europe who had a favorable opinion of the Spaniards recalled the conquest in this manner:

“The reins of their (Moors’) horses were as hot as fire, their faces were as dark as pitch, their eyes gleamed like flaming candles, their horses were as quick as leopards, and their riders were as ferocious as a wolf in a sheepfold at night.

The aristocratic Goths, who were German overlords of Spain and to which Roderick belonged, were overthrown in an hour, which is much faster than the tongue can tell. Oh, you unlucky Spanish people!

(Taken from Edward Scobie’s article “The Moors and Portugal’s Global Expansion,” which can be found in “Golden Age of the Moor,” edited by Ivan Van Sertima and published in the United States in 1995.)

(From Transaction Publishers’ edition from 1992, page 336)

Second, based on Alfonso X’s description,

“There is really no need to speculate on the ethnicity of these early invaders during the period of conquest because it is not known for certain who they were.” Primary Christian sources that relate to the conquest mention the following statement about the Moors: In particular, the Primera Cronica General of Alfonso X makes this observation. “Their faces were as black as pitch, and the handsomest among them was as black as a cooking pot.”

During their reign of Spain, which lasted for 800 years, the Moors introduced new scientific techniques to Europe. One of these was the astrolabe, which was used to measure the location of the stars and planets. The fields of astronomy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, geography, and philosophy all saw significant advances during the Moorish period in Spain.

Basil Davidson, a prominent historian, observed and declared that there were no territories in that era (the eighth century) “more admired by its neighbors or more comfortable to live in than a rich African civilization that took shape in Spain.” Davidson made this observation in recognition of the fact that there were no places at that time that were “more comfortable to live in.”

Córdova, which was located in the center of Moorish dominion in Spain, was considered the most modern city in Europe during its heyday. The roads were in good repair and had raised sidewalks for the convenience of pedestrians. Lamps provided adequate illumination along ten kilometers’ worth of roadways throughout the night.

(At this point in time, neither Paris nor London had either cobblestone streets or any street lamps.) It is said that a poor Moor in Cordova would choose to go without bread rather than soap because the city had 900 public baths.

In spite of the later Spanish modifications, the Great Mosque of Cordoba, also known as La Mezquita, is still considered to be one of the architectural wonders of the world. Numerous thousands of brass and silver lamps burning fragrant oil lit its low, scarlet, and gold-colored roof made of jasper and porphyry.

In Moorish Spain, education was available to anybody who wanted it; unlike in Christian Europe, ninety-nine percent of the population was illiterate, and even rulers were unable to read or write. In Moorish Spain, education was available to everyone. At the time, Europe was home to just two universities, but the Moors were home to seventeen prestigious educational institutions.

These educational institutions were situated in the cities of Almeria, Cordova, Granada, Juen, Malaga, Seville, and Toledo, respectively.

During the 10th and 11th centuries, public libraries were non-existent in Europe. On the other hand, Moorish Spain boasted more than 70 libraries, the largest of which was located in Cordova and contained 600,000 manuscripts.

Ziryab, often known as “the Blackbird,” was the most influential musician to come from the Moorish culture and settled in Spain in 822. The Moors invented the earliest versions of a number of musical instruments, including the lute (also known as the el oud), the guitar (also known as the kithara), and the lyre. They brought the necessary medication.

Ziryab introduced a new way of consuming food by dividing meals into a number of stages, starting with the appetizers and finishing with the desserts. Paper and Arabic numbers, which eventually supplanted the cumbersome Roman system, were both brought to Europe by the Moors.

The Moors were responsible for the introduction of a large number of new plant species, such as the orange, lemon, peach, apricot, fig, sugar cane, dates, ginger, and pomegranate, in addition to saffron, sugar cane, cotton, silk, and rice, all of which are still among Spain’s most important exports today.

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King Cetshwayo: The Incredible History Of Cetshwayo From The Zulu Kingdom

By Historian October 19, 2023

King Cetshwayo

The oldest son of Mpande and Ngqumbazi of the Zungu royal house was born near where Eshowe is now. His name was Cetshwayo. He lived through all but ten years of Zululand’s independent past. He was the nephew of the first Zulu kings, Shaka and Dingane. Cetshwayo, like all the other Zulu kings, went through rough times.

He was there when the first battles between Zulu armies and European invaders happened when he was a child. He also saw his father attack Dingane in January 1840 and become Zulu king with help from the Boers in exchange for giving up the land south of the Tugela River that became the Afrikaner Republic of Natalia.

As a young man, he saw the British take it over in 1843 and the first British residents move in. Even though Cetshwayo was said to have been introduced to the Boers in 1840 as Mpande’s heir, his real succession was still not certain. The army wasn’t happy with Mpande because he seemed to give in to Boer demands, couldn’t reward his soldiers when raids dropped because of more settlers, and put off demobilizing regiments.

When Cetshwayo showed off his military skills in the last big Zulu war against the Swazi (1852–1853) and young men flocked to join him, Mpande felt like his power was being questioned. Mbuyazi, Cetshwayo’s half-brother, also knew how famous Cetshwayo was. The brothers’ rivalry, which Mpande may have sparked on purpose, resulted in a civil war between their supporters at the end of 1856.

Even though Mpande and John Dunn, a white trader and gunrunner, helped Mbuyazi, he was too sure of himself and had too few soldiers. At Ndondakusuka, near the Tugela River, his army was wiped out. Thousands of people who supported Mbuyazi were killed, along with five of his kids. Cetshwayo was now sure to become king, so Mpande had to share power with him. Even so, when the king started to favor a younger son by a younger wife as his heir, the following of Cetshwayo, called the Usuthu, killed the wife.

First they ran away to Natal, and then they ran away to the Boers, who lived on the northwest edge of Zululand. Cetshwayo talked with the Boers to get them back, and Mpande asked Theophilus Shepstone, who was Natal’s secretary for native affairs, to help settle the matter. In 1861, Shepstone went to Zululand and, for his own reasons, supported Cetshwayo as heir. Now, Cetshwayo had a lot of power over the country.

The Boers moving in made Cetshwayo and Mpande decide to work together, but the dynastic disputes let both Natal and the Boers get involved in Zulu politics, which was bad for Zulu freedom. When Mpande died in 1872, Cetshwayo took over a government that was still very strong, with about 300,000 people living there.

Even so, he had major problems inside and outside of his family. In order to get Natal’s help against the Boers and stop the threat from Natal-based pretenders, Cetshwayo started collecting guns and asked Shepstone to be in charge of his coronation as king in 1873. Cetshwayo was said to not have followed Shepstone’s “guidelines” for the crown, which later became the reason for war.

But the changes in southern Africa caused by the diamond discoveries in Griqualand West in the late 1860s were too much for Cetshwayo’s kingdom to handle, and it lost its freedom. Capitalist development that moved faster and more people encroaching on African land and labor in the race for resource rights, along with the fact that more Africans had guns, made fighting between black and white people worse all over southern Africa.

White settlers all over southern Africa thought that Cetshwayo was working with local chiefs to hurt them. His contact network spread this idea. As secretary of state for the colonies from 1874 to 1878, Lord Carnarvon became sure that the many British colonies, Afrikaner republics, and separate African chiefdoms in southern Africa could only be managed by joining together into one country.

The Pedi’s embarrassment of the South African Republic, which was thought to be working with Cetshwayo, gave Carnarvon his chance. At the end of 1876, Shepstone was told to take over the republic. This changed the Zulu war against the Boers because Shepstone, who had been on the side of the Zulus before, switched sides and convinced Sir Bartle Frere, the new British high commissioner, that Cetshwayo was the main threat to peace in the area.

In order to escape war, Cetshwayo asked the governor of Natal to set up a commission to look into the disputed land. The commission’s report fully backed Zulu claims, but Frere used it to demand that Zulu people who were accused of crossing the border give up, pay a huge fine, and have the Zulu military system disbanded, which meant the end of the Zulu state. It was impossible to follow through, so on January 11, 1879, British troops went into Zululand.

Cetshwayo chose to be defensive because he knew the British army had better weapons and troops stationed overseas, but he failed in his attempts to make peace. After an amazing start at Isandhlwana, the Zulu quickly experienced major setbacks, and after the battle of Ulundi on July 4, Cetshwayo’s tired followers admitted defeat.

Two weeks later, Sir Garnet Wolseley, who was now in charge of the British troops, told the Zulu people that the Zulu kingdom was over and promised them land and cattle if they gave up their weapons and surrendered the king. Cetshwayo was tricked and sent into exile in Cape Town after being tortured and scared for six weeks.

Wolseley quickly broke up the Zulu regiments and put 13 appointed chiefs in charge of the country, who were answerable to a British resident. The Usuthu, who were Cetshwayo’s close family and allies, were put under Zibhebhu and Uhamu. They were the first chiefs to defect and were the most friendly with the British government and the colonial economy. As soon as they took the Usuthu cattle and increased their own political and economic power, fighting broke out. While he was in exile, Cetshwayo was a very good diplomat who won over important allies like Bishop Colenso of Natal, who helped get the word out about Cetshwayo’s case in South Africa and Britain.

In 1882, the new colonial secretary finally let Cetshwayo make his case in person in Britain. He did this after quietly admitting that the war was unfair. People in Britain had heard a lot of stories about how “bloodthirsty” and tyrannical Cetshwayo was, so when there was a lot of chaos in Zululand, the British government chose to bring him back.

When Cetshwayo went back to South Africa in January 1883, he found that his kingdom had been badly cut down, even though he had fought against it. A lot of land in the north was given to his main enemies, Uhamu and Zibhebhu. In the south, people who didn’t want to follow his rule were given a safe place to live.

Now came the real end of the Zulu kingdom’s rule. When the Usuthu complained about losing land, no one listened, and their failed attacks on Zibhebhu only led to more fighting. Zibhebhu’s attack on Ulundi on July 23, 1883, killed some of Cetshwayo’s most valued and experienced councilors. This was the end of the civil wars that followed.

When Cetshwayo had to run away again, he tried to get his followers from the Nkandhla forests, but it didn’t work. On October 17, he gave up and surrendered to the British Resident Commissioner at Eshowe. On February 8, 1884, he died suddenly there. A lot of Zulu people thought someone had poisoned him. His son, Dinuzulu, a 16-year-old boy with little training, took over after him. The Zulu country was no longer free on its own.

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Colonial Power: How Colonial powers Used Radio To Spread Negative News About Africa

By Historian September 28, 2023

Colonial Powers Use of Radio To Spread Negative News

Colonial Powers had exaggerated and often racist ideas about how “exposure” to mass media, such as radio, movies, and newspapers, could be dangerous for Africans. These ideas came from the propaganda of World War II, and they were made stronger by the harsh anti-communist rhetoric of the early Cold War.

After World War II, African nationalists started to pose serious challenges to colonial rule. This set the stage for late colonial information management policies that were broad, harsh, and mostly ineffective. In South Africa and Namibia, these went on well into the 1980s. Colonial Britain was generally more trusting than France, Portugal, or Belgium.

It used its extensive experience with propaganda during World War II to create, use, and tightly control radio, newspapers, and films to make postwar information policies for its African territories. Radio was first seen as a way for European settlers and colonial civil servants to stay in touch with African cities and the rest of the world.

It also met the needs of a small group of highly educated Africans. During the 1930s, Britain and France set up state radio services in West Africa. Rhodesia got radio in 1932, and South Africa got it in 1924. The first broadcasts in African languages started during World War II, when Africans needed to be recruited and told about what was going on.

Britain used radio in Ghana and Nigeria before they were independent to tell Africans about the Second World War and explain why they should join it. France used colonial radio to rally Free French forces in West and Central Africa against pro-Vichy broadcasts from Dakar, Senegal.

Powerful transmitters that were put in during the war to spread propaganda were helpful in the development of colonial radio after the war. By 1945, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was suggesting that national radio networks in English-speaking parts of Africa be set up like a semipublic corporation in Great Britain.

For its African colonies, France used a model that was more centralized and called for direct state control. In Francophone Africa, African-language broadcasts didn’t start until the late 1950s and early 1960s.

As the number of nationalist problems grew, departments of information were set up to manage and control new official sources of information, like territorial film units, radio services, and newspapers, while keeping foreign mass media from contaminating them. Radio was set up in many parts of colonial Africa at the same time that the government thought it needed to set up services as part of its overall plan for managing information and to meet the news and entertainment needs of white settlers.

By providing money, technical know-how, and training, the BBC helped get national services up and running in every Anglophone African territory by the end of World War II. Radio is the only real mass medium in Africa. It reaches about 85% of Africans, which is more than any other medium.

Even though radio was first introduced in the 1920s, it was mostly only used in cities. However, the transatlantic revolution and the rise of African nationalism in the 1950s and 1960s made it possible for radio to reach even the most remote areas. Both the colonial government and liberation movements used radio broadcasting to advance political objectives, maintain a regime in power, or promote majority rule and independence.

As early as 1953, Radio Cairo made it possible for political leaders who were living abroad to send shortwave radio broadcasts back to their home countries. As independence spread from the west to the east and down to the south of the continent, more foreign radio transmission facilities became available to liberation movements so they could send out programs in local languages. This worried colonial and white minority regimes.

South Africa started an outside African service in 1958 and grew its own vernacular radio network, “Radio Bantu,” in the style of apartheid to fight this trend. Radio’s role in the propaganda war didn’t change much during the decades that Africa was free, up until the late 1980s. South Africa kept Namibia under its control until 1989 by keeping a tight grip on the radio and using broadcasts to spread false information.

From 1962 to 1979, white minority regimes in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia, which came to power after 1948, used mass media as propaganda tools to try to shape or control public opinion. This was the lowest point in the use of mass media as propaganda tools. Racist governments in both countries also used propaganda to try to fix their bad reputations around the world.

Between 1972 and 1977, the South African Department of Information spent millions of dollars on covert propaganda to improve the world’s view of South Africa by buying influence with U.S. and European newspapers. After independence, the new states took over ownership and control. With the exception of a few religious radio stations, commercial radio and deregulated public service parastatal radio stations did not show up in Africa until the 1990s.

African leaders have seen radio as a powerful way to bring the country together, help it grow, and keep them in power. Highly centralized state monopolies on broadcasting could be justified indefinitely in this way. Colonial leaders were worried about the subversive effects of foreign radio broadcasts from communist services, especially Radio Moscow.

However, there isn’t much evidence that more than a few Africans had shortwave equipment or were interested in listening. After the war, a lot more people listened to the BBC, Radio France International, Radio RSA (South Africa), and other European services that were aimed at Africa. In a similar way, and starting in the 1920s, colonial film policy was closely tied to British, French, or Belgian efforts to build support for colonial rule, if not legitimacy for it.

Colonial Film Units were set up, and their job was to show both natives and people back home the best side of territory administration. During the war, from 1939 to 1945, colonial films were used to spread propaganda. After the war was over, the focus shifted to mass education and community development films that were made to help colonial governments get a stronger hold on their countries.

Africans were still often seen as weak and needy, while Europeans were seen as wise, powerful, and kind. People thought that film could help illiterate people understand Western civilization and the modern world and eventually join in. At times, especially when it came to film in British territories, it seemed like the Colonial Office saw film as a partial solution to major problems of communication and development in the far-flung, illiterate parts of its African empire.

At first, colonial leaders were afraid that showing Africans images of western life might corrupt them or make their subjects question colonial rule itself. In order to keep commercial films from getting messed up, the government started making documentaries and newsreels that weren’t for sale and put strict limits on the import and distribution of commercial films from Europe, the United States, and South Africa.

Colonial censorship boards worked with local missionaries to cut out scenes that could hurt the reputation of whites. Africans were never taught how to make movies by colonial filmmakers. Films were not seen very often, especially compared to radio, which became very popular in the 1950s. Because African audiences in most countries speak different languages and have different cultures, and because there aren’t many mobile film vans, it was hard to get and keep large audiences.

Many colonial films were based on an ideology that caused more confusion than cultural guidance or education. The colonial government’s overbearing desire to control movies was meant to keep the people they ruled over submissive and easy to control. Film was used because people thought they needed to “educate” Africans for citizenship and service and find new customers for European goods.

In the 1930s and 1940s, films with religious themes were made for African audiences in places like the Belgian Congo. These films used folktales, local languages, and African actors to help missionaries gain and teach new followers. Cinema was a modern way to reach a large number of people, but it was easy for colonial authorities to control. By the mid-1950s, Colonial Film Units were no longer needed because radio services were growing.

Also Read: Slave Trade: How The ‘CHURCH’ and “Islam” Became The Driving Force Of Slavery

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Amazing History Of The Congo: How The Congo Fought Back The Invaders

By Historian September 22, 2023

Amazing History Of The Congo

There was no other African nation-state, kingdom, empire, or institution that fought foreign incursions as successfully as the people who lived in what is now the Congo. In the 14th century CE, a confederacy of distinct geographical domains that had previously been independent came together to form a single political structure known as “The Congo.” This structure was the kingdom of Congo.

The Portuguese sailed to the Congo in the 16th century with the intention of engaging in commercial activity within the kingdom. However, once they had established themselves, they started kidnapping locals along the coastal pathways so that they might sell them in Europe. Around the year 1603, the queen of the Congo drove all Portuguese out of the country, destroyed all structures belonging to the Portuguese, and abolished all of their ways in order to restore an African Renaissance. As a result, the Congo grew in both wealth and influence.

A small number of Dutch people and some Portuguese settled there once more in the 18th century CE. This time, they made an appearance wearing white robes and declared that the pope had appointed them to teach a path to Paradise, which we now refer to as heaven. The queen has decided not to purchase it, but she has agreed to give the Europeans land on which to construct their forts.

Slavery on a massive scale was instituted in the Congo at this time, and Europeans also began their systematic looting and destruction of the country at this point. The nations of Europe got together in Berlin in 1884 and conducted a conference.

During the conference, they divided African kingdoms and shattered empires into their preferred entities, as it suited their agenda. The result of the meeting was the nations of Africa that are known today. Leopold, King of Belgium, moved swiftly to seize control of the Congo and immediately began looting the kingdom in order to provide food for Belgians and lift his country out of the abject poverty in which it had been mired at the time.

Those people, whether they were men, women, or children, who were unable to produce the required amount of grain to feed the Belgians had their hands hacked off and were sometimes put to death. This caused the deaths of more than 10 million people in the Congo.

In spite of the fact that Europe had learned the art of making gunpowder from the Mongols since the 11th century CE, particularly during the time that Kublai Khan invaded Europe from Mongolia, the majority of African rulers had ignored gunpowder, which was one of the things that made this feasible.

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Slave Trade: How The ‘CHURCH’ and “Islam” Became The Driving Force Of Slavery

By Historian September 15, 2023

IN THE SAME WAY THAT ISLAM WAS AT THE HEART OF THE ARAB SLAVE TRADE, THE ‘CHURCH’ WAS THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THE TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE.

In the year 1455 CE, Pope Nicholas V. signed a Roman bull (romanus pontifex) ordering that all Moors, Saracens, and all non-christian blacks were to be sentenced to eternal slavery and Charged as heretics during the early phases of the ‘Inquisitions.’ This occurred during the period when the Inquisitions were in their infancy.

By the year 1492, CE, the African Maghrebs and some Arabs, known as the Moors, had abandoned their castles on the Iberian peninsula. As a result, Spain claimed the majority of the Moorish holdings, and those with dark skin became considered to be Spain’s “property.” Some were able to make it back to Africa.

A further proclamation, known as the ‘doctrine of discovery,’ was made by Pope Alexander VI (inter caetera) in the year 1493 CE. This declaration is credited with giving origin to the idea of ‘discovery’ as a concept in Europe.

Following this, Karl Marx made the following observation regarding the subsequent events: “what was good for the Europeans was obtained on the expense of untold suffering by the Africans and American Indians… the discovery of gold in the Americas, the extra patient enslavement, and the entombment of the minds of the aboriginal population… The turning of Africa into a commercial warrant for the hunting of black skins, signaled the rosy dawn of capitalist production.”

It should come as no surprise that Reverend Richard Furman, who served as President of the South Carolina Baptist Convention in the year 1823 CE, asserted that “the right of holding slaves is clearly established in the holy scriptures, both by precepts and by example.” He owned a number of slaves.

“I draw my warrant to hold slaves in bondage from the Scripture of the old and new testaments,” Rev. Thomas Witherspoon of the Presbyterian Church of Alabama wrote in a letter to “the emancipator” in 1839 CE. Witherspoon was a proponent of the slave trade at the time. These ‘justifications’ were presented by a number of churchgoers, both men and women, and they drew inspiration from the Judeo-Christian scriptures.

The venerated scripture of the Mohammedans, the Qur’an, which was written in the eighth or ninth century CE by those who gained control from the Nabataeans, also emphasized in numerous verses that slavery was ‘fair’.

Those who seized power from the Nabataeans wrote the Qur’an. However, in this particular instance, it was frequently stated that adherents of the Islamic ideology were to be loving and gentle with one another, but that they were to “fight them” (non-believers) and “Allah will punish him by your hands” (Quran 9:14, 15).

It was also stated that “Allah will strike terror unto the unbelievers” (Q. 8:60) and until they pay gizya (Q. 9:29). “Gizya” was believed to be an Islamic tax that was aimed at non-followers of the ideology, even if they were not enslaved but if their lands were taken over by followers of the Islamic philosophy. This was the case regardless of whether or not the non-followers were forced to pay the tax.

In accordance with a number of injunctions included in the Arabian Quran, the Mohammedans who lived in Iberia attempted to gain control of the situation. According to one of these injunctions, “anyone who is known to be from those lands that are known to be lands of Islam should be let go and should be adjudged free.”

Al Umari, an Arab historian from the 14th century, stated that this was the conclusion of the Andalusia jurist. Slavery, on the other hand, was sanctioned for all other purposes.

Between the 7th and 15th centuries CE, Africa was entangled in this dreadful web, which ultimately led to its downfall. And so it came to pass that many people from Africa converted to Islam for practical reasons. This was notably true of the ancient inhabitants of north Africa known as the Garamantes, who allied themselves with the Arabs who were converting to Islam, and together they invaded and conquered Iberia in 711 CE.

In the words of Dr. Josef Ben Jochannan, “Africa took both the hook, the line, and the sinker,” and this phenomenon has continued right up until the present day. Africans who are born into this just “follow the followers,” and at times they do so while essentially blinded.

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