THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT: ANCIENT MIRACLES IN STONE

"Men fear time, but time fears the pyramids."
--Arab Proverb

Egypt's first Golden Age is chiefly appreciated as the famous epoch of pyramid building. These edifices were not built by slaves. They were erected by free African people, and remain a source of awe, wonder and inspiration. These monuments, particularly the three built over a eighty year period on Egypt's Ghiza plateau during the reigns of the African kings Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, reflect the genius of African people at our zenith, and are arguably the world's most enduring expressions of architectural prowess. Khufu's pyramid, the largest of the three, has been called the purest geometric form in human architecture, and retains the distinction of being the largest single building ever constructed by man.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu, known to the African people of ancient Egypt as 'Khufu on the Horizon,' was by far the greatest of the so-called "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World." Khufu's pyramid originally stood 481 feet high or forty-eight stories. It is composed of 2.3 million granite blocks, each weighing an average of 2.5 tons, and reaching a maximum of fifteen tons. Its precision is such that even now one would struggle in vain to place a razor blade between the stones. The entire structure was covered with fine white limestone and could be seen from a distance of hundreds of miles. It has been calculated that the cathedrals of Florence, Milan and St. Peter's at Rome, as well as Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral, could fit inside Khufu's pyramid with room to spare. Napoleon Bonaparte estimated that there was enough stone in the pyramid of Khufu to build a wall measuring ten feet high and a foot wide around the entire country of France. The Arab invaders of post-pharaonic Egypt were so struck by the pyramids that they coined the expression: "Men fear time, but time fears the pyramids."

SOURCES:
Black Man Of The Nile, by Yosef A.A. Ben-Jochannan
Egypt Revisited, Edited by Ivan Van Sertima

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

COLUMBUS CAME LATE THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN EARLY AMERICA

The first civilization of ancient America is called the Olmec. It was located along the Mexican Gulf Coast and began more than three thousand years ago. The most significant and widely acknowledged sculptural representations of African people in the Western Hemisphere (the "New World") were sculpted by the Olmecs. The Olmec developed the first civilization of the Americas. At least seventeen monumental basalt stone heads, each weighing ten to forty tons, have been unearthed in Olmec sites along the Mexican Gulf Coast. One of the first European-American scientists to comment on the Olmec heads, archaeologist Mathew Stirling, described their facial features as "amazingly Negroid."

Although major aspects of Olmec culture and history remain vague, enough has been recovered to demonstrate a significant African presence in the Americas many centuries before the advent of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Some scientists have even concluded that the Olmecs may have originally been an African settler-colony. Others are convinced that the African presence among the Olmecs was confined to a small and highly-influential elite community.

Native legends of the Americas abound with the exploits of early Black people. In the Southwest Indian story of the Emergence, a story that is as important in the region as the Book of Genesis is to Christians, the First World is called the Black World!

During his third voyage, Columbus recorded that when he reached Haiti the resident population informed him that Black men from the south and southeast had preceded him to the island. In 1513, Balboa found a colony of Black men on his arrival in Darien, Panama. All of these facts, buttressed by skeletons and sculptures, make it clear that African people had a profound presence and influence in pre-Columbian America.

SOURCES:
They Came Before Columbus, by Ivan Van Sertima
Early America Revisited, by Ivan Van Sertima

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

THE GREAT UNIVERSITY OF SANKORE AT TIMBUKTU A BRIEF NOTE

"Until the lion has his historian, the hunter will always be a hero." --African Proverb

Timbuktu was more than merely a great intellectual nucleus of the West African civilizations of Ghana, Mali and Songhai--it was one of the most splendid scientific centers of the time period corresponding to the European Medieval and Renaissance eras. Indeed, under the reign of Askia Muhammad I, also known as Askia the Great, it was celebrated as one of the world's most significant seats of learning. Among it most formidable scholars, professors and lecturers were Ahmed Baba--a highly distinguished historian frequently quoted in the Tarikh-es-Sudan and other works.

The collection of ancient manuscripts at the University of Sankore at Timbuktu leaves us in no doubt about the magnificence of the institution and permits us to reconstruct this side of her past in fairly intimate details. In testament to its glory, for example, an old West African proverb states that, "Salt comes from the north, gold from the south, and silver from the country of the white men, but the word of God and the treasures of wisdom are only to be found in Timbuktu."

Once, an aspirant to the throne of the mighty Songhai Empire collected an army with which to dispute the reigning dynasty. Pausing at Timbuktu, and have toured the university campus, visited the library, met the faculty and conversed with the Head Chancellor of the University of Sankore, the prince requested the Chancellor to write a formal letter to his rival to the throne, saying that he, "Bankouri, renounced the throne that he might follow the life of a student in this city of books."

SOURCES:
African Glory, by J.C. DeGraft-Johnson
Timbuctoo the Mysterious, by Felix Dubois

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

DR. GEORGE G.M. JAMES AND THE STOLEN LEGACY OF AFRICAN PEOPLE

"The term Greek philosophy, to begin with, is a misnomer, for there is no such philosophy in existence."

Dr. George Granville Monah James was born in Georgetown, Guyana, South America. He was the son of Reverend Linch B. and Margaret E. James. George G.M. James earned Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Theology and Master of Arts degrees from Durham University in England and was a candidate there for the D. Litt degree. He conducted research at London University and did postgraduate work at Columbia University where he read for his Ph.D. Dr. James earned a teaching certificate in the State of New York to teach mathematics, Latin and Greek. James later served as Professor of Logic and Greek at Livingston College in Salisbury, North Carolina for two years, and eventually taught at the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff.

Dr. James was the author of the widely circulated Stolen Legacy: The Greeks Were Not the Authors of Greek Philosophy, But the People of North Africa, Commonly Called the Egyptians--a controversial text originally published in 1954 and reprinted a number of times since. Professor William Leo Hansberry reviewed Stolen Legacy in the Journal of Negro Education in 1955, and noted that:

"In Stolen Legacy an author with a passion for justice and truth champions a startling thesis with which most of the little volume's readers--Hellenophiles in particular--will no doubt strongly disagree. In this work Professor James dares to contend and labor to prove, among others, that 'the Greeks were not the authors of Greek philosophy', that 'so-called Greek philosophy' was based in the main upon ideas and concepts which were borrowed without acknowledgement--indeed 'stolen'--by a few wayward and dishonest Greeks from the ancient Egyptians."

Stolen Legacy was written during Dr. James' tenure at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. As of today, there is not even a copy of the book in the University library. There is no statue or bust of Dr. James on the campus. There is no plaque of Dr. James adorning the campus walls. There is not even a certificate to note Dr. James' existence or that he even lived. This is at an historically Black college!

Dr. James's tragic death, under mysterious circumstances, reputedly, came shortly after Stolen Legacy's publication. To date, no significant biography of James has been presented.

SOURCES:
Stolen Legacy, by George G.M. James
Nile Valley Contributions To Civilization, by Anthony Browder

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

Rest In Peace Dr. Ivan Van Sertima

Many thanks for your valuable research about Ancient Africa and uncovering the truth of Egypt, The Slave Trade and among many others.
You may not be known by most people but you'll certainly be remembered here.

Make me wanna holler The way they do my life

-Marvin Gaye

It was a chilly January morning when I made my way to Rikers Island for a conversation with Tupac Shakur, what would be his first words to any journalist since being shot last November 30. After passing through a series of checkpoints and metal detectors, I reached a dingy white conference room in the same building where Tupac was being held on $3 million bail. Within weeks, he'd receive a one-and-a-half- to four-and-a-half-year sentence for a sexual abuse conviction in his New York rape case. Tupac strutted into the room without a limp, in spite of having been recently wounded in the leg-among other places. Dressed in a white Adidas sweatshirt and oversized blue jeans, he seemed more alert than he had been in all our interviews and encounters. He looked me in the eyes as we spoke and smoked one Newport after another. "I'm kinda nervous," he admitted at one point. After a brush with death and the barrage of rumor and innuendo that followed, Tupac said he'd summoned me because "this is my last interview. If I get killed, I want people to get every drop. I want them to have the real story."

How do you feel after everything you've been through these past few weeks?

Well, the first two days in prison, I had to go through what life is like when you've been smoking weed for as long as I have and then you stop. Emotionally, it was like I didn't know myself. I was sitting in a room, like there was two people in the room, evil and good. That was the hardest part. After that, the weed was out of me. Then every day I started doing, like, a thousand push-ups for myself. I was reading whole books in one day, and writing, and that was putting me in a peace of mind. Then I started seeing my situation and what got me here. Even though I'm innocent of the charge they gave me, I'm not innocent in terms of the way I was acting.

Could you tell me specifically what you mean?

I'm just as guilty for not doing nothing as I am for doing things. Not with this case, but just in my life. I had a job to do and I never showed up. I was so scared of this responsibility that I was running away from it. But I see now that whether I show up for work or not, the evil forces are going to be at me. They're going to come 100 percent, so if I don't be 100 percent pure-hearted, I'm going to lose. And that's why I'm losing.

When I got in here, all the prisoners was, like, "Fuck that gangsta rapper." I'm not a gangsta rapper. I rap about things that happen to me. I got shot five times, you know what I'm saying? People was trying to kill me. It was really real like that. I don't see myself being special; I just see myself having more responsibilities than the next man. People look to me to do things for them, to have answers. I wasn't having them because my brain was half dead from smoking so much weed. I'd be in my hotel room, smoking too much, drinking, going to clubs, just being numb. That was being in jail to me. I wasn't happy at all on the streets. Nobody could say they saw me happy.

When I spoke to you a year ago, you said that if you ended up in jail, your spirit would die. You sound like you're saying the opposite now.

That was the addict speaking. The addict knew if I went to jail, then it couldn't live. The addict in Tupac is dead. The excuse maker in Tupac is dead. The vengeful Tupac is dead. The Tupac that would stand by and let dishonorable things happen is dead. God let me live for me to do something extremely extraordinary, and that's what I have to do. Even if they give me the maximum sentence, that's still my job.

Can you take us back to that night at Quad Recording Studios in Times Square?

The night of the shooting? Sure. Ron G. is a DJ out here in New York. He's, like, "Pac, I want you to come to my house and lay this rap down for my tapes." I said, "All right, I'll come for free." So I went to his house-me, Stretch, and a couple other homeboys. After I laid the song, I got a page from this guy Booker, telling me he wanted me to rap on Little Shawn's record. Now, this guy I was going to charge, because I could see that they was just using me, so I said, "All right, you give me seven G's and I'll do the song." He said, "I've got the money. Come." I stopped off to get some weed, and he paged me again. "Where you at? Why you ain't coming?" I'm, like, "I'm coming, man, hold on."

Did you know this guy?

I met him through some rough characters I knew. He was trying to get legitimate and all that, so I thought I was doing him a favor. But when I called him back for directions, he was, like, "I don't have the money." I said, "If you don't have the money, I'm not coming." He hung up the phone, then called me back: "I'm going to call [Uptown Entertainment CEO] Andre Harrell and make sure you get the money, but I'm going to give you the money out of my pocket." So I said, "All right, I'm on my way." As we're walking up to the building, somebody screamed from up the top of the studio. It was Little Caesar, Biggie's [the Notorious B.I.G.] sideman. That's my homeboy. As soon as I saw him, all my concerns about the situation were relaxed.

So you're saying that going into it...

I felt nervous because this guy knew somebody I had major beef with. I didn't want to tell the police, but I can tell the world. Nigel had introduced me to Booker. Everybody knew I was short on money. All my shows were getting canceled. All my money from my records was going to lawyers; all the movie money was going to my family. So I was doing this type of stuff, rapping for guys and getting paid.

Who's this guy Nigel?

I was kicking it with him the whole time I was in New York doing Above the Rim. He came to me. He said, "I'm going to look after you. You don't need to get in no more trouble."

Doesn't Nigel also go by the name of Trevor?

Right. There's a real Trevor, but Nigel took on both aliases, you understand? So that's who I was kicking with-I got close to them. I used to dress in baggies and sneakers. They took me shopping; that's when I bought my Rolex and all my jewels. They made me mature. They introduced me to all these gangsters in Brooklyn. I met Nigel's family, went to his kid's birthday party-I trusted him, you know what I'm saying? I even tried to get Nigel in the movie, but he didn't want to be on film. That bothered me. I don't know any nigga that didn't want to be in the movies.

Can we come back to the shooting? Who was with you that night?

I was with my homeboy Stretch, his man Fred, and my sister's boyfriend, Zayd. Not my bodyguard; I don't have a bodyguard. We get to the studio, and there's a dude outside in army fatigues with his hat low on his face. When we walked to the door, he didn't look up. I've never seen a black man not acknowledge me one way or the other, either with jealousy or respect. But this guy just looked to see who I was and turned his face down. It didn't click because I had just finished smoking chronic. I'm not thinking something will happen to me in the lobby. While we're waiting to get buzzed in, I saw a dude sitting at a table reading a newspaper. He didn't look up either.
These are both black men?

Black men in their thirties. So first I'm, like, These dudes must be security for Biggie, because I could tell they were from Brooklyn from their army fatigues. But then I said, Wait a minute. Even Biggie's homeboys love me, why don't they look up? I pressed the elevator button, turned around, and that's when the dudes came out with the guns-two identical 9 mms. "Don't nobody move. Everybody on the floor. You know what time it is. Run your shit." I was, like, What should I do? I'm thinking Stretch is going to fight; he was towering over those niggas. From what I know about the criminal element, if niggas come to rob you, they always hit the big nigga first. But they didn't touch Stretch; they came straight to me. Everybody dropped to the floor like potatoes, but I just froze up. It wasn't like I was being brave or nothing; I just could not get on the floor. They started grabbing at me to see if I was strapped. They said, "Take off your jewels," and I wouldn't take them off. The light-skinned dude, the one that was standing outside, was on me. Stretch was on the floor, and the dude with the newspaper was holding the gun on him. He was telling the light-skin dude, "Shoot that motherfucker! Fuck it!" Then I got scared, because the dude had the gun to my stomach. All I could think about was piss bags and shit bags. I drew my arm around him to move the gun to my side. He shot and the gun twisted and that's when I got hit the first time. I felt it in my leg; I didn't know I got shot in my balls. I dropped to the floor. Everything in my mind said, Pac, pretend you're dead. It didn't matter. They started kicking me, hitting me. I never said, "Don't shoot!" I was quiet as hell. They were snatching my shit off me while I was laying on the floor. I had my eyes closed, but I was shaking, because the situation had me shaking. And then I felt something on the back of my head, something real strong. I thought they stomped me or pistol-whipped me and they were stomping my head against the concrete. I saw white, just white. I didn't hear nothing, I didn't feel nothing, and I said, I'm unconscious. But I was conscious. And then I felt it again, and I could hear things now and I could see things and they were bringing me back to consciousness. Then they did it again, and I couldn't hear nothing. And I couldn't see nothing; it was just all white. And then they hit me again, and I could hear things and I could see things and I knew I was conscious again.

Did you ever hear them say their names?

No. No. But they knew me, or else they would never check for my gun. It was like they were mad at me. I felt them kicking me and stomping me; they didn't hit nobody else. It was, like, "Ooh, motherfucker, ooh, aah"-they were kicking hard. So I'm going unconscious, and I'm not feeling no blood on my head or nothing. The only thing I felt was my stomach hurting real bad. My sister's boyfriend turned me over and said, "Yo, are you all right?" I was, like, "Yes, I'm hit, I'm hit." And Fred is saying he's hit, but that was the bullet that went through my leg. So I stood up and I went to the door and-the shit that fucked me up-as soon as I got to the door, I saw a police car sitting there. I was, like, "Uh-oh, the police are coming, and I didn't even go upstairs yet." So we jumped in the elevator and went upstairs. I'm limping and everything, but I don't feel nothing. It's numb. When we got upstairs, I looked around, and it scared the shit out of me.

Why?

Because Andre Harrell was there, Puffy [Bad Boy Entertainment CEO Sean "Puffy" Combs] was there, Biggie... there was about 40 niggas there. All of them had jewels on. More jewels than me. I saw Booker, and he had this look on his face like he was surprised to see me. Why? I had just beeped the buzzer and said I was coming upstairs. Little Shawn bust out crying. I went, Why is Little Shawn crying, and I got shot? He was crying uncontrollably, like, "Oh my God, Pac, you've got to sit down!" I was feeling weird, like, Why do they want to make me sit down?

Because five bullets had passed through your body.

I didn't know I was shot in the head yet. I didn't feel nothing. I opened my pants, and I could see the gunpowder and the hole in my Karl Kani drawers. I didn't want to pull them down to see if my dick was still there. I just saw a hole and went, "Oh shit. Roll me some weed." I called my girlfriend and I was, like, "Yo, I just got shot. Call my mother and tell her." Nobody approached me. I noticed that nobody would look at me. Andre Harrell wouldn't look at me. I had been going to dinner with him the last few days. He had invited me to the set of New York Undercover, telling me he was going to get me a job. Puffy was standing back too. I knew Puffy. He knew how much stuff I had done for Biggie before he came out.

So people did see blood on you?

They started telling me, "Your head! Your head is bleeding." But I thought it was just a pistol-whip. Then the ambulance came, and the police. First cop I looked up to see was the cop that took the stand against me in the rape charge. He had a half smile on his face, and he could see them looking at my balls. He said, "What's up, Tupac? How's it hanging?"

When I got to Bellevue Hospital, the doctor was going, "Oh my God!" I was, like, "What? What?" And I was hearing him tell other doctors, "Look at this. This is gunpowder right here." He was talking about my head: "This is the entry wound. This is the exit wound." And when he did that, I could actually feel the holes. I said, "Oh my God. I could feel that." It was the spots that I was blacking out on. And that's when I said, "Oh shit. They shot me in my head." They said, "You don't know how lucky you are. You got shot five times." It was, like, weird. I did not want to believe it. I could only remember that first shot, then everything went blank.

At any point did you think you were going to die?

No. I swear to God. Not to sound creepy or nothing-I felt God cared for me from the first time the niggas pulled the gun out. The only thing that hurt me was that Stretch and them all fell to the floor. The bullets didn't hurt. Nothing hurt until I was recovering. I couldn't walk, I couldn't get up, and my hand was fucked up. I was looking on the news and it was lying about me.

Tell me about some of the coverage that bothered you.

The No. 1 thing that bothered me was that dude that wrote that shit that said I pretended to do it. That I had set it up, it was an act. When I read that, I just started crying like a baby, like a bitch. I could not believe it. It just tore me apart. And then the news was trying to say I had a gun and I had weed on me. Instead of saying I was a victim, they were making it like I did it.

What about all the jokes saying you had lost one of your testicles?

That didn't really bother me, because I was, like, Shit, I'm going to get the last laugh. Because I've got bigger nuts than all these niggas. My doctors are, like, "You can have babies." They told me that the first night, after I got exploratory surgery: "Nothing's wrong. It went through the skin and out the skin." Same thing with my head. Through my skin and out the skin.

Have you had a lot of pain since then?

Yes, I have headaches. I wake up screaming. I've been having nightmares, thinking they're still shooting me. All I see is niggas pulling guns, and I hear the dude saying, "Shoot that motherfucker!" Then I'll wake up sweaty as hell and I'll be, like, Damn, I have a headache. The psychiatrist at Bellevue said that's post-traumatic stress.

Why did you leave Bellevue Hospital?

I left Bellevue the next night. They were helping me, but I felt like a science project. They kept coming in, looking at my dick and shit, and this was not a cool position to be in. I knew my life was in danger. The Fruit of Islam was there, but they didn't have guns. I knew what type of niggas I was dealing with.

So I left Bellevue and went to Metropolitan. They gave me a phone and said, "You're safe here. Nobody knows you're here." But the phone would ring and someone would say, "You ain't dead yet?" I was, like, Damn! Those motherfuckers don't have no mercy. So I checked myself out, and my family took me to a safe spot, somebody who really cared about me in New York City.

Why did you go to court the morning after you were shot?

They came to the bed and said, "Pac, you don't need to go to court." I was, like, no. I felt like if the jury didn't see me, they would think I'm doing a show or some shit. Because they were sequestered and didn't know I got shot. So I knew I had to show up no matter what. I swear to God, the farthest thing from my mind was sympathy. All I could think of was, Stand up and fight for your life like you fight for your life in this hospital.

I sat there in a wheelchair, and the judge was not looking me in my eyes. He never looked me in my eyes the whole trial. So the jury came in, and the way everybody was acting, it was like a regular everyday thing. And I was feeling so miracle-ish that I'm living. And then I start feeling they're going to do what they're going to do. Then I felt numb; I said, I've got to get out of here.

When I left, the cameras were all rushing me and bumping into my leg and shit. I was, like, "You motherfuckers are like vultures." That made me see just the nastiest in the hearts of men. That's why I was looking like that in the chair when they were wheeling me away. I was trying to promise myself to keep my head up for all my people there. But when I saw all that, it made me put my head down; it just took my spirit.

Can we talk about the rape case at all?

Okay. Nigel and Trevor took me to Nell's. When we got there, I was immediately impressed, because it was different than any club I'd been in. It wasn't crowded, there was lots of space, there were beautiful women there. I was meeting Ronnie Lott from the New York Jets and Derrick Coleman from the Nets. They were coming up to me, like, "Pac, we're proud of you." I felt so tall that night, because they were people's heroes and they saying I was their hero. I felt above and beyond, like I was glowing.

Somebody introduced me to this girl. And the only thing I noticed about her: She had a big chest. But she was not attractive; she looked dumpy, like. Money came to me and said, "This girl wants to do more than meet you." I already knew what that meant: She wanted to fuck. I just left them and went to the dance floor by myself. They were playing some Jamaican music, and I'm just grooving.

Then this girl came out and started dancing-and the shit that was weird, she didn't even come to me face-first, she came ass-first. So I'm dancing to this reggae music; you know how sensuous that is. She's touching my dick, she's touching my balls, she opened my zipper, she put her hands on me. There's a little dark part in Nell's, and I see people over there making out already, so she starts pushing me this way. I know what time it is.

We go over in the corner. She's touching me. I lift up my shirt while I'm dancing, showing off my tattoos and everything. She starts kissing my stomach, kissing my chest, licking me and shit. She's going down, and I'm, like, Oh shit. She pulled my dick out; she started sucking my dick on the dance floor. That shit turned me on. I wasn't thinking, like, This is going to be a rape case. I'm thinking, like, This is going to be a good night. You know what I'm saying?

Soon as she finished that-just enough to get me solid, rock-hard-we got off the dance floor. I told Nigel, "I've got to get out of here. I'm about to take her to the hotel. I'll see you all later." Nigel was, like, "No, no, no. I'm going to take you back." We drive to the hotel. We go upstairs and have sex, real quick. As soon as I came, that was it. I was tired, I was drunk, I knew I had to get up early in the morning, so I was, like, "What are you going to do? You can spend the night or you can leave." She left me her number, and everything was cool. Nigel was spending the night in my room all these nights. When he found out she sucked my dick on the floor and we had sex, he and Trevor were livid! Trevor is a big freak; he was going crazy. All he kept asking me was, "D-d-did you fuck in the ass?" He was listening to every single detail. I thought, This is just some guy shit, it's all good.

What happened on the night of the alleged rape?

We had a show to do in New Jersey at Club 88. This dude said, "I'll be there with a limo to pick you up at midnight." We went shopping, we got dressed up, we were all ready. Nigel was saying, "Why don't you give her a call?" So we were all sitting in the hotel, drinking. I'm waiting for the show, and Nigel's, like, "I called her. I mean, she called me, and she's on her way." But I wasn't thinking about her no second time. We were watching TV when the phone rings, and she's downstairs. Nigel gave Man-man, my manager, some money to pay for the cab, and I was, like, "Let that bitch pay for her own cab." She came upstairs looking all nice, dressed all provocative and shit, like she was ready for a prom date.

So we're all sitting there talking, and she's making me uncomfortable, because instead of sitting with Nigel and them, she's sitting on the arm of my chair. And Nigel and Trevor are looking at her like a chicken, like she's, like, food. It's a real uncomfortable situation. So I'm thinking, Okay, I'm going to take her to the room and get a massage. I'm thinking about being with her that night at Nell's. So we get in the room, I'm laying on my stomach, she's massaging my back. I turn around. She starts massaging my front. This lasted for about a half an hour. In between, we would stop and kiss each other. I'm thinking she's about to give me another blow job. But before she could do that, some niggas came in, and I froze up more than she froze up. If she would have said anything, I would have said, "Hold on, let me finish." But I can't say nothing, because she's not saying nothing. How do I look saying, "Hold on"? That would be like I'm making her my girl.

So they came and they started touching her ass. They going, "Oooh, she's got a nice ass." Nigel isn't touching her, but I can hear his voice leading it, like, "Put her panties down, put her pantyhose down." I just got up and walked out the room.

When I went to the other suite, Man-man told me that Talibah, my publicist at the time, had been there for a while and was waiting in the bedroom of that suite. I went to see Talibah and we talked about what she had been doing during the day, then I went and laid down on the couch and went to sleep. When I woke up, Nigel was standing over me going, "Pac, Pac," and all the lights was on in both rooms. The whole mood had changed, you know what I'm saying? I felt like I was drugged. I didn't know how much time had passed. So when I woke up, it was, like, "You're going to the police, you're going to the police." Nigel walks out the room, comes back with the girl. Her clothes is on; ain't nothing tore. She just upset, crying hysterically. "Why you let them do this to me?" She's not making sense. "I came to see you. You let them do this to me." I'm, like, "I don't got time for this shit right here. You got to chill out with that shit. Stop yelling at me and looking at me all crazy." She said, "This not the last time you're going to hear from me," and slammed the door. And Nigel goes, "Don't worry about it, Pac, don't worry. I'll handle it. She just tripping." I asked him what happened, and he was, like, "Too many niggas." You know, I ain't even tripping no more, you know? Niggas start going downstairs, but nobody was coming back upstairs. I'm sitting upstairs smoking weed, like, Where the fuck is everybody at? Then I get a call from Talibah from the lobby saying, "The police is down here."

And that's what landed you in jail. But you're saying that you never did anything?

Never did nothing. Only thing I saw was all three of them in there and that nigga talking about how fat her ass was. I got up, because the nigga sounded sick. I don't know if she's with these niggas, or if she's mad at me for not protecting her. But I know I feel ashamed-because I wanted to be accepted and because I didn't want no harm done to me-I didn't say nothing.

How did you feel about women during the trial, and how do you feel about women now?

When the charge first came up, I hated black women. I felt like I put my life on the line. At the time I made "Keep Ya Head Up," nobody had no songs about black women. I put out "Keep Ya Head Up" from the bottom of my heart. It was real, and they didn't defend it. I felt like it should have been women all over the country talking about, "Tupac couldn't have did that." And people was actually asking me, "Did you do it?"

Then, going to trial, I started seeing the black women that was helping me. Now I've got a brand-new vision of them, because in here, it's mostly black female guards. They don't give me no extra favors, but they treat me with human respect. They're telling me, "When you get out of here, you gotta change." They be putting me on the phone with they kids. You know what I'm saying? They just give me love.

What's going to happen if you have to serve time?

If it happens, I got to serve it like a trooper. Of course, my heart will be broke. I be torn apart, but I have to serve it like a trooper.

I understand you recently completed a new album.

Rapping...I don't even got the thrill to rap no more. I mean, in here I don't even remember my lyrics.

But you're putting out the album, right?

Yeah. It's called Me Against the World. So that is my truth. That's my best album yet. And because I already laid it down, I can be free. When you do rap albums, you got to train yourself. You got to constantly be in character. You used to see rappers talking all that hard shit, and then you see them in suits and shit at the American Music Awards. I didn't want to be that type of nigga. I wanted to keep it real, and that's what I thought I was doing. But now that shit is dead. That Thug Life shit...;I did it, I put in my work, I laid it down. But now that shit is dead.

What are your plans after prison?

I'm going to team up with Mike Tyson when we get out. Team up with Monster Kody [now known as Sanyika Shakur] from California. I'm going to start an organization called Us First. I'm going to save these young niggas, because nobody else want to save them. Nobody ever came to save me. They just watch what happen to you. That's why Thug Life to me is dead. If it's real, then let somebody else represent it, because I'm tired of it. I represented it too much. I was Thug Life. I was the only nigga out there putting my life on the line.

Has anybody else been there for you?

Since I've been in here I got about 40 letters. I got little girls sending me money. Everybody telling me that God is with me. People telling me they hate the dudes that shot me, they're going to pray for me. I did get one letter, this dude telling me he wished I was dead. But then I got people looking out for me, like Jada Pinkett, Jasmine Guy, Treach, Mickey Rourke. My label, Interscope Records, has been extremely supportive. Even Madonna.

Can you talk about your relationship with Madonna and Mickey Rourke?

I was letting people dictate who should be my friends. I felt like because I was this big Black Panther type of nigga, I couldn't be friends with Madonna. And so I dissed her, even though she showed me nothing but love. I felt bad, because when I went to jail, I called her and she was the only person that was willing to help me. Of that stature. Same thing with Mickey Rourke-he just befriended me. Not like black and white, just like friend to friend. And from now on, it's not going to be a strictly black thing with me. I even apologized to Quincy Jones for all the stuff I said about him and his wives. I'm apologizing to the Hughes Brothers...but not John Singleton. He's inspiring me to write screenplays, because I want to be his competition. He fired me from Higher Learning and gave my idea to the next actor.

Do you worry about your safety now?

I don't have no fear of death. My only fear is coming back reincarnated. I'm not trying to make people think I'm in here faking it, but my whole life is going to be about saving somebody. I got to represent life. If you saying you going to be real, that's how you be real-be physically fit, be mentally fit. And I want niggas to be educated. You know, I was steering people away from school. You gotta be in school, because through school you can get a job. And if you got a job, then that's how they can't do us like this.

Do you think rap music is going to come under more attack, given what's happened to you?

Oh, definitely. That's why they're doing me like this. Because if they can stop me, they can stop 30 more rappers before they even born. But there's something else I understand now: If we really are saying rap is an art form, then we got to be true to it and be more responsible for our lyrics. If you see everybody dying because of what you saying, it don't matter that you didn't make them die, it just matters that you didn't save them.

You mentioned Marvin Gaye in "Keep Ya Head Up." A lot of people have compared you to him, in terms of your personal conflicts.

That's how I feel. I feel close to Marvin Gaye, Vincent van Gogh.

Why van Gogh?

Because nobody appreciated his work until he was dead. Now it's worth millions. I feel close to him, how tormented he was. Him and Marvin too. That's how I was out there. I'm in jail now, but I'm free. My mind is free. The only time I have problems is when I sleep.

So you're grateful to be where you are now?

It's a gift-straight-up. This is God's will. And everybody that said I wasn't nothing...my whole goal is to just make them ashamed that they wrote me off like that. Because I'm 23 years old. And I might just be my mother's child, but in all reality, I'm everybody's child. You know what I'm saying? Nobody raised me; I was raised in this society. But I'm not going to use that as an excuse no more. I'm going to pull myself up by my bootstraps, and I'm going to make a change. And my change is going to make a change through the community. And through that, they gonna see what type of person I truly was. Where my heart was. This Thug Life stuff, it was just ignorance. My intentions was always in the right place. I never killed anybody, I never raped anybody, I never committed no crimes that weren't honorable-that weren't to defend myself. So that's what I'm going to show them. I'm going to show people my true intentions, and my true heart. I'm going to show them the man that my mother raised. I'm going to make them all proud.

UP! YOU MIGHTY RACE: A TRIBUTE TO MARCUS MOSIAH GARVEY (1887-1940)

"Up! You mighty race, you can accomplish what you will."
--Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, one of the greatest leaders African people have produced, was born August 17, 1887 in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, and spent his entire life in the service of his people--African people. He was bold; he was uncompromising, and he was one of the most powerful orators on record. He could literally bring his audiences to a state of mass hysteria. Garvey emphasized racial pride. His goal was nothing less that the total and complete redemption and liberation of African people around the planet. His dream was the galvanization of Black people into an unrelenting steamroller that could never be defeated. I consider myself, along with many others, as one of Garvey's children.

As a young man of fourteen, Garvey left school and worked as a printer's apprentice. He participated in Jamaica's earliest nationalist organizations, traveled throughout Central America, and spent time in London, England, where he worked with the Sudanese-Egyptian nationalist Duse Mohamed Ali. In 1916 Garvey was invited by Booker T. Washington to come to the United States in the hopes of establishing an industrial training school, but arrived just after Washington died.

In March 1916, shortly after landing in America, Garvey embarked upon an extended period of travel. When he finally settled down, he organized a chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. The UNIA & ACL had been formed in Jamaica in 1914. Its motto was "One God, One Aim, One Destiny," and pledged itself to the redemption of Africa and the uplift of Black people everywhere. It aimed at race pride, self-reliance and economic independence.

Within a few years Garvey had become the best-known and most dynamic African leader in the Western Hemisphere and perhaps the entire world. In 1919 Mr. Garvey created an international shipping company called the Black Star Line. By 1920 the UNIA had hundreds of divisions. It hosted elaborate international conventions and published a weekly newspaper entitled the Negro World.

No other organization in modern times has had the prestige and the impact as the UNIA & ACL. During the 1920s UNIA divisions existed throughout North, South and Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and Australia.

SOURCES:
Marcus Garvey & The Vision Of Africa, Edited by John Henrik Clarke
Black Power & The Garvey Movement, by Theodore Vincent

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

JOHN HENRIK CLARKE, RUNOKO RASHIDI RACE MEN of the NINETIES

Runoko Rashidi said he was surprised yet "exhilarated" when Dr. John Henrik Clarke joined him on stage during a conference presentation appropriately entitled "Race Women and Race Men: In Recognition of the African Intellectual Genealogy." No better introduction could have been planned for the preeminent scholar, Clarke, who appeared on stage accompanied by his new wife, Sybil Clair Williams, Dr. Leonard Jeffries of City College and Clarke’s assistant, Barbara True.

"Race Women and Race Men" was part of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilization’s (ASCAC) 15^th Annual Ancient Kemetic Studies Conference, which was held at City College March 13-15. The conference attracted hundreds of participants from all over the world.

On the first day of the conference, Rashidi was showing a slide presentation highlighting the lives of various men and women who’ve contributed to the field of Black Studies when he was interrupted by Nzinga Ratibisha Heru, International President of ASCAC.

"I would like to introduce to the African family, Mr. and Mrs. John Henrik Clarke" Heru announced. The crowd stood literally exploded with applause. Heru also introduced Clarke’s assistant, "Sister Barbara," and she introduced Jeffries as "A black man from the Nile, walking in the footsteps, standing on the shoulders of Dr. John Henrik Clarke."

A hush filled the crowded auditorium as Clarke began to speak. "I’m very pleased to be here, to be at home on my way back to work," he said to more applause. "I had an unfortunate illness to blame it on…but it’s not going to keep me from going back to work doing what I’m supposed to do…"

"The most important thing I have to do is stay in the struggle," he continued. "I’m glad that all of you are here…I have not lost my enthusiasm or my drive."

Clarke concluded his brief statement saying, "[If] you are in the struggle, I will be with you. Thank you very much."

Clarke remained on the stage while Rashidi, continued his presentation talking about Bishop Henry McNeal Turner referring to him and Edward Wilmont Blyden as "Garveys of the 19^th Century." Turner lived during the post-Reconstruction era and in 1898, he wrote an article entitled "God is a Negro" in a publication called The Voice of Missions. In the article Turner wrote, "in my mind I believe we will ultimately have to go back to Africa."

Later in the chronological presentation, Rashidi showed a picture of Marcus Garvey and said "He is the closest thing I’ve found to God in my lifetime." Garvey(1887-1940) was the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, which headed the largest back to Africa Movement in history.

Concluding the presentation, Rashidi showed three slides of children. The last slide was of a young girl from Gambia looking directly into the camera. According to Rashidi, she "seems to be asking the same question the last poets asked in the early 1970’s, ‘Black folks what y’all gonna do?’"

Rashidi, being a link in what he calls "the intergenerational transmission of wisdom," said he dedicated his presentation to Clarke and Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan, two current scholars who were both featured in the slides. He went on to say during the presentation that Clarke is like a father to him. "He is the father of all of us in so many ways."

In Rashidi’s own words, Clarke is like a father and Marcus Garvey is close to God. If looking at his statements using the Christian paradigm of the trinity, that would make Rashidi "the son."

Rashidi is living up to his legacy as "the son." He is a cultural historian who since 1981 has been lecturing on African history throughout the country. He travels extensively to other parts of the world researching the presence of African people. His articles and historical essays have appeared in Afro-Am, Return to the Source, and the Journal of African Civilizations. He is the author of a book entitled Introduction to the Study of African Classical Civilizations, and is a founding member of Amenta, Southern Cradle Research Organization and the Egyptian Civilization Monitoring Committee.

It’s important to note, however, that Rashidi is not an only child. Clarke has many "sons and daughters." Marimba Ani and Booker T. Coleman, who like Rashidi presented at this year’s Ancient Kemetic Studies Conference, give credit to Clarke for playing an important role in their development. Ani wrote in the acknowledgements to her groundbreaking book entitled Yurugu that "I owe my awakening and growth toward a Pan-African Nationalist consciousness to Professor John Henrik Clarke."

Coleman, public school curriculum evaluator and author of several curriculums including "The Kemetic Origin of the Universe" and "The Kemetic Origin of the Earth," says he has been studying under Clarke since he was 12 years old.

Clarke has trained many scholars, and is the author of numerous books including Africans at the Crossroads: Notes for an African World Revolution and most recently My Life in Search of Africa, an autobiographical sketch of his more than sixty-year career in the field of Black Studies.

Another one of Clarke’s contributions is the founding of ASCAC 15 years ago along with Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan, Dr. Jacob H. Carruthers, Dr. Asa Hilliard, Dr. Leonard Jeffries, and Dr. Maulana Karenga. The mission of ASCAC is to promote the study of African civilizations by developing study groups and research institutions. The Ancient Kemetic Studies Conference has been an annual event ever since the organization’s inception.

This year’s conference theme was "Sebayet (The Instructions): The African Curriculum." According to Heru, who in the conference journal wrote that the theme "acknowledges and celebrates our scholars and activists who have participated in the thirty year movement of Black Studies." Clarke, Rashidi and the other scholars and participants who attended the conference definitely deserve this recognition.

Posted by RUNOKO RASHIDI

REV. JAMES MARMADUKE BODDY AND THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN ANCIENT JAPAN AND CHINA

"For a Samurai to be brave, he must have a bit of Black blood."
--Japanese Proverb

Presbyterian minister Reverend James Marmaduke Boddy (1886-?), of Troy, New York, was a graduate of Lincoln and Princeton Universities, and the first known African-American writer to address the issue of the African presence in early Japan and China.

Rev. Boddy contributed several articles to the Colored American Magazine, including "The Ethnic Unity of the Negro and the Anglo-Saxon Race" in March 1905, and "Brain Weight and Intellectual Development: Physical Variations of the Negro and the Anglo-Saxon Races" in July 1905. Founded in May 1900, by May 1901 the readership of the Colored American Magazine had grown to one hundred thousand people. Called "the first significant Afro-American journal to emerge in the twentieth century," in October 1905 the Colored American Magazine published Boddy's essay entitled "The Ethnology of the Japanese Race."

In "The Ethnology of the Japanese Race" Boddy attempted to document what he considered a prominent and indelible African strain running through early Japanese history, and that the Japanese people are, at least in part, "Asian Negroes." Reference the work of pioneer ethnologist and anthropologist James Cowles Prichard, M.D. (1786-1848), Rev. Boddy wrote that:

"They are also described as having `peculiar features, `Crisp hair' and `dark complexion.' Besides their Negro features, which are very observable, the early Japanese historians themselves have described for us the `Black Barbarians of the South,' who, in an age which antedates authentic history, came from the south in ships and settled in Japan."

Rev. Boddy concluded by saying that:

"These immigrants mingled and amalgamated one with another and with the natives, and in time became a homogeneous race, whose predominating physical characteristics bespeak the unmistakable presence of a large Negro element."

As for the African presence in early China, there is evidence of substantial populations of an African substratum in the earliest periods of Chinese history, and reports of major kingdoms ruled by Africans are frequent in Chinese documents. The Shang dynasts of ancient China are described as "having black and oily skin." The Chinese sage Lao-tze (ca. 600 B.C.E.) was "black in complexion." He was described as "marvelous and beautiful as jasper." Magnificent temples were erected for him, inside of which he was worshipped like a god."

SOURCES
African Presence In Early Asia, Edited by Runoko Rashidi & Ivan Van Sertima
The Ethnology Of The Japanese Race, by James Marmaduke Boddy

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

GEORGE WELLS PARKER RACE MAN AND PIONEER TO THE PAST

"Teach a child or nation that it springs from an inferior race and that is can never hope to overcome that inferiority, and you have made an obedient servant and a community of slaves." --George Wells Parker

In the words of George Wells Parker (1882-1931): "No race can lay claim to such glory as can the African race, and when the truth is known, as it must be known some day, all other races will bow to it, not because they wish, but because truth is a tyrant that admits of no falsity."

An historian and activist, George Wells Parker was born September 18, 1882, the son of Abraham W. Parker of Petersburg, Virginia and Augusta Bing of Charleston, South Carolina." After moving to Nebraska he attended Creighton University in Omaha, until his junior year, 1909-10. Later in life Parker became an enthusiastic supporter of Marcus Garvey, and performed a dynamic function in aiding Black people relocating to Omaha in 1916 and 1917.

In 1917 Parked helped found the Hamitic League of the World. The term "Hamitic" was a popular and progressive expression used at the time to denote African people. It was a term particularly applied to the great ancient African builders of grand civilizations. The declared aims of the Hamitic League of the World were:

"To inspire the Negro with new hopes; to make him openly proud of his race and of its great contributions to the religious development and civilization of mankind and to place in the hands of every race man and woman and child the facts which support the League's claim that the Negro Race is the greatest race the world has ever known."

In 1918 the Hamitic League of the World published a twenty-nine page pamphlet by Parker entitled The Children of the Sun which contained an enlightening section highlighting the African presence in classical African, Asian and European civilizations.

SOURCES:
Children Of The Sun, by George Wells Parker
African Origin Of The Grecian Civilization, by George Wells Parker

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/hopkins.jpg

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (1859-1930), called the "Dean of African-American women writers," was born in Portland, Maine. She moved to Boston as an infant and was educated in the Boston public schools. In time, Hopkins became a journalist, essayist, novelist, poet, publisher, public lecturer, actress, musician, and stenographer for the Bureau of Statistics on the Massachusetts Census of 1895 for four years.

From the age of fifteen, after winning a literary contest sponsored by the African-American playwright, novelist, essayist, historian, and abolitionist, William Wells Brown (1814-1884), Hopkins wrote prolifically. At the age of twenty she completed her first play--Slaves' Escape; or The Underground Railroad, and soon became a founder and literary editor of the Colored American Magazine, "the first significant Afro-American journal to emerge in the twentieth century." During this period, she began to lecture on Black history in churches and schools.

As an historian, the pinnacle of her writing career came in 1905. From February to July 1905 Hopkins wrote one of the earliest discourses on the Global African Community in the form of a four-part series on "The Dark Races of the Twentieth Century," published in The Voice of the Negro. In the same year Hopkins authored and published a thirty-one page booklet entitled "A Primer of Facts Pertaining to the Early Greatness of the African Race and the Possibility of Restoration by its Descendants--With Epilogue."

Beginning in 1904, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins began to suffer from poor health. She died in obscurity on August 13, 1930 after a full lifetime of "placing the interests of her people above all else." This brief essay is designed to help rescue Ms. Hopkins from that obscurity.

SOURCES:
Primer Of Facts, by Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins
African Presence In Early Asia, Edited by Runoko Rashidi & Ivan Van Sertima

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN EARLY ARABIA

The Arabian Peninsula was early populated by Black people. Once dominant over the entire peninsula, the African presence in early Arabia is most clearly traceable through the Sabeans. The southwestern corner of the peninsula was their ancient home. This area is today called Yemen. In antiquity this region gave rise to a high degree of civilization because of the growth of frankincense and myrrh.

The city of Makkab was considered a holy place and the destination of pilgrims long before the prophet Muhammad. Muhammad himself, who was to unite the whole of Arabia, appears to have had a prominent African lineage. According to al-Jahiz, the guardian of the sacred Kaaba, Abd-al-Muttalib, "fathered ten Lords, Black as the night and magnificent." One of these men was Abdallah, the father of Muhammad.

According to tradition, the first Muslim killed in battle was Mihja--a Black man. Another Black man, Bilal, was such a pivotal figure in the development of Islam that he has been referred to as "a third of the faith."

Many of the earliest Muslim converts were Africans, and a number of the Muslim faithful sought refuge in Ethiopia because of initial Arabian hostility to Muhammad's teachings. It was this relationship which caused Muhammad to declare that, "Who brings an Ethiopian man or an Ethiopian woman into his house, brings the blessings of God there."

SOURCES:
African Presence In Early Asia, Edited By Runoko Rashidi & Ivan Van Sertima
Wonderful Ethiopians Of The Ancient Cushite Empire by Drusilla D. Houston, Al I. Obaba (Editor)

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN THE ANCIENT FAR EAST

Although the island nation of Japan is assumed by many to have been historically composed of an essentially homogenous population, the accumulated evidence places the matter in a vastly different light. A Japanese proverb states that: "For a Samurai to be brave, he must have a bit of Black blood." Another recording of the proverb is: "Half the blood in one's veins must be Black to make a good Samurai." Sakanouye Tamura Maro, a Black man, became the first Shogun of Japan.

In China, an Africoid presence is visible from remote antiquity. The Shang, for example, China's first dynasts, are described as having "black and oily skin." The famous Chinese sage Lao-Tze was "black in complexion."

Funan is the name given by Chinese historians to the earliest kingdom of Southeast Asia. Their records expressly state that, "For the complexion of men, they consider black the most beautiful. In all the kingdoms of the southern region, it is the same."

The first kingdom in Vietnam was the Kingdom of Lin-yi. Its inhabitants possessed "black skin, eyes deep in the orbit, nose turned up, hair frizzy at a period when they were not yet subject to foreign domination and preserved the purity of this type."

The fate of the Black kingdoms and the Black people of Far East Asia must be tied to increased pressure from non-Africoid peoples pushing down from northern Asia. Indeed, the subject of what might be called "Black and Yellow racial and cultural relations in both ancient and modern times" is so critical that it must be developed as a special area of study. It is of particular importance to African and African-oriented scholars and historians.

SOURCES:
African Presence In Early Asia, Edited by Runoko Rashidi & Ivan Van Sertima
Black Jade, by James E. Brunson

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

THE MOORISH CONQUEST OF SPAIN

Early in the eighth century Moorish soldiers crossed over from Africa to the Iberian peninsula. The man chosen to lead them was General Tarik ibn Ziyad. In 711, the bold Tarik, in command of an army of 10,000 men, crossed the straits and disembarked near a rock promontory which from that day since has borne his name--Djabal Tarik (`Tarik's Mountain'), or Gibraltar. In August 711, Tarik won paramount victory over the opposing European army. On the eve of the battle, Tarik is alleged to have roused his troops with the following words:

"My brethren, the enemy is before you, the sea is behind; whither would ye fly? Follow your general; I am resolved either to lose my life or to trample on the prostrate king of the Romans."

Wasting no time to relish his victory, Tarik pushed on with his dashing and seemingly tireless Moorish cavalry to the Spanish city of Toledo. Within a month's time, General Tarik ibn Ziyad had effectively terminated European dominance of the Iberian peninsula. Musa ibn Nusayr, Arab governor of North Africa, joined Tarik in Spain and helped complete the conquest of Iberia with an army of 18,000 men. The two commanders met in Talavera, where the Moors were given the task of subduing the northwest of Spain. With vigor and speed they set about their mission, and within three months they had swept the entire territory north of the Ebro River as far as the Pyrenees Mountains and annexed the turbulent Basque country.

In the aftermath of these brilliant struggles, thousands of Moors flooded into the Iberian peninsula. So eager were they to come that some are said to have floated over on tree-trunks. Tarik himself, at the conclusion of his illustrious military career, retired to the distant East, we are informed, to spread the teachings of Islam.

SOURCES
Golden Age Of The Moor, Edited by Ivan Van Sertima
The Story Of The Moors In Spain, by Stanley Lane-Poole

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

MARTIN ROBISON DELANY & EDWARD WILMOT BLYDEN RACE MEN AND PIONEER BLACK NATIONALISTS

"Let me forever be discarded by the Black race, and let me be condemned by the White, if I strive not with all my powers, if I put not forth all my energies to bring respect and dignity to the African race." --Dr. Edward Wilmot Blyden

Among the most acclaimed of the early pioneer advocates of the rights of African people were Martin Robison Delany (1812-1885) and Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832-1912). They were intellectuals and activists whose lives personified the maxim of Kwame Nkrumah--"Thought without practice is empty, action without thought is blind."

Dr. Martin Robison Delany has been called "the father of Black Nationalism." It was Delany, in fact, who coined the phrase "Africa for the Africans." Delany was born May 6, 1812 in West Virginia, of a free mother and a father who purchased his own freedom in 1823. Delany's paternal grandfather was an African chief; his maternal grandfather a Mandingo prince. Born in the South, Delany resorted to learning how to read and write illegally. Due to his continued desire to learn, he later settled in New York where he attended the African Free School. Between 1843 and 1846 Delany published his own newspaper--the Mystery. Subsequently, he worked with Frederick Douglass on his weekly newspaper--the North Star. In 1850, Delany entered Harvard Medical School as one of its first Black students. In 1859, he traveled to Africa, where he stayed for nearly a year, searching for a suitable location for emigration. On February 8, 1865, during the U.S. Civil War, Delany received the commission of Major in the Federal Army--the first Black man to receive such a commission.

Delany was an accomplished author. Not surprisingly, his favorite subject was histoy. One of his books, Principia of Ethnology: The Origin of Races and Color, With an Archaeological Compendium of Ethiopian and Egyptian Civilization, From Years of Careful Examination and Enquiry, was published in 1879, and detailed the African origins of Nile Valley civilizations.

The racial and historical consciousness of Martin Robison Delany is apparent in the names he gave his children. One of his son's name was Ramses Placido, named after the mighty Egyptian pharaoh Usemare Ramses II and the Cuban poet and revolutionary. Other names for his children included Alexander Dumas, Saint Cyprian and Toussaint l'Ouverture. Frederick Douglass said of Delany, "I thank God for making me a man, simply, but Delany always thanks Him for making him a Black man."

Dr. Edward Wilmot Blyden was born August 3, 1832 in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. Blyden often remarked that "I would rather be a member of this race than a Greek in the time of Alexander, a Roman in the Augustan period, or Anglo-Saxon in the nineteenth century." Blyden wrote and traveled extensively. During a visit to Egypt in 1866 he recorded that:

"I felt that I had a peculiar heritage in the Great Pyramid built...by the enterprising sons of Ham, from which I descended. The blood seemed to flow faster through my veins. I seemed to hear the echo of those illustrious Africans. I seemed to feel the impulse from those stirring characters who sent civilization to Greece...I felt lifted out of the commonplace grandeur of modern times; and, could my voice have reached every African in the world, I would have earnestly addressed him...: `Retake your fame.'"

Of Blyden, the great Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887-1940) stated that:

"You who do not know anything of your ancestry will do well to read the works of Blyden, one of our historians and chroniclers, who has done so much to retrieve the lost prestige of the race."

In 1869, Blyden's essay entitled "The Negro in Ancient History" appeared in the Methodist Quarterly Review. In 1887, Blyden's most comprehensive work- -Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race--was published. A monument stands to Dr. Blyden's memory at Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone, West Africa.

In spite of fact that Delany and Blyden struggled during the heart of the nineteenth century, time has not diminished the glory of their deeds. This brief essay, therefore, is intended as a tribute to those deeds with the hope that it will help to inspire the present generation of African people to continue their noble struggle.

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

DR. CHEIKH ANTA DIOP & THE AFRICAN ORIGIN OF EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION

At this point Egypt continues to dominate the focus of our African oriented studies. These studies have clearly demonstrated that not only were early Egypt's origins African, but that through the whole of Egypt's Dynastic Era (the age of the Pharaohs), and during all of her many periods of national splendor, men and women with black skin complexions, broad noses, full lips, and tightly curled hair, were dominant in both the general population and governing elite.photo

In the intense and unrelenting struggle to establish scientifically the African foundations of Egyptian civilization, the late Senegalese scholar Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop remains a most fierce and ardent champion. Dr. Diop (1923-1986) was without a doubt the world's leading Egyptologist and held the position of Director of the Radiocarbon Laboratory at the Fundamental Institute of Black Africa in Dakar, Senegal. In stating the importance of the work, Diop noted emphatically and early on that, "The history of Black Africa will remain suspended in air and cannot be written correctly until African historians dare to connect it with the history of Egypt."

The solid range of methodologies employed by Dr. Diop in the course of his extensive Afro-Egyptian labors included: examinations of the epidermis of the mummies of Egyptian kings for verification of their melanin content; precise osteological measurements and meticulous studies in the various relevant areas of anatomy and physical anthropology; careful examinations and comparisons of modern Upper Egyptian and West African blood-types; detailed Afro-Egyptian linguistic studies and the corroboration of distinct Afro-Egyptian cultural traits; documents of racial designations employed by the early Africans themselves; Biblical testimonies and references that address the ancient Egyptian's ethnicity, race and culture; and the writings of early Greek and Roman travelers and scholars describing the physical characteristics of the ancient Egyptians.

There is no doubt that Ancient Egypt was an African civilization.

SOURCES:
African Origin Of Civilization, by Cheikh Anta Diop
Civilization Or Barbarism, by Cheikh Anta Diop

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

BLACK PEOPLE IN THE BRITISH ISLES AND EARLY NORTHERN EUROPE

Any comprehensive account of the African presence in early Europe should include England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Scandinavia. The history and legends of Scotland confirm the existence of "purely Black people." We see one of them in the person of Kenneth the Niger. During the tenth century Kenneth the Niger ruled over three provinces in the Scottish Highlands.

The historical and literary traditions of Wales reflect similar beliefs. According to Gwyn Jones (perhaps the world's leading authority on the subject), to the Welsh chroniclers, "The Danes coming in by way of England and the Norwegians by way of Ireland were pretty well all black: Black Gentiles, Black Norsemen, Black Host."

There is also strong reason to suggest an African presence in ancient Ireland. We have, for example, the legends of the mysterious "African sea-rovers, the Fomorians, who had a stronghold on Torrey Island, off the Northwest Coast." The Fomorians, shrouded deep in mist, came to be regarded as the sinister forces in Irish mythology.

A prominent Viking of the eleventh century was Thorhall, who was aboard the ship that carried the early Vikings to the shores of North America. Thorhall was "the huntsman in summer, and in winter the steward of Eric the Red. He was, it is said, a large man, and strong, black, and like a giant, silent, and foul-mouthed in his speech, and always egged on Eric to the worst; he was a bad Christian."

Another Viking, more notable than Thorhall, was Earl Thorfinn, "the most distinguished of all the earls in the Islands." Thorfinn ruled over nine earldoms in Scotland and Ireland, and died at the age of seventy-five. His widow married the king of Scotland. Thorfinn was described as "one of the largest men in point of stature, and ugly, sharp featured, and somewhat tawny, and the most martial looking man... It has been related that he was the foremost of all his men."

SOURCES:
Ancient And Modern Britons, by David Mac Ritchie
Nature Knows No Color-Line, by J.A. Rogers

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

ANCIENT AFRICA AND EARLY ROME

Ancient African people, sometimes called Moors, are known to have had a significant presence and influence in early Rome. African soldiers, specifically identified as Moors, were actively recruited for Roman military service and were stationed in Britain, France, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Romania. Many of these Africans rose to high rank. Lusius Quietus, for example, was one of Rome's greatest generals and was named by Roman Emperor Trajan as his successor. He is described as a "man of Moorish race and considered the ablest soldier in the Roman army."

For most of the second century Africans dominated the intellectual life of Rome. By the end of the second century nearly a third of the Roman senate was of African origin. St. Victor I became the first African bishop of Rome in 189 C.E. and reigned until 199 C.E. Victor I, the first pope known to have had dealings with the imperial household, is described as "the most forceful of the 2nd-century popes."

Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus, the most distinguished of the African emperors of Rome, reigned from 193 to 211, and was born at Leptis Magna on the North African coast. Marcus Opellius Macrinus, Emperor of Rome for fourteen months, "was a Moor by birth." St. Miltiades, a Black priest from Africa, was elected the thirty-seventh pope in 311 C.E. Under Miltiades the Roman persecution of Christians ceased. The third African pope, St. Gelasius I, governed as pope from 492 to 496 C.E.

Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullian, another African, was the first of the Church writers to make Latin the language of Christianity. Other Africans included the playwright Publius Terentius Afer. It is to Terence that we owe the expression, "I am a man, and reckon nothing human is alien to me."

SOURCES:
Rome And Africa, by Susan Raven
African Presence In Early Europe, Edited by Ivan Van Sertima

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

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