Black History Month! Why?
First off, I am an African. I was born here in America, true enough. I have a passport from these United States. But I belong to a group of people far older than these United States, than Europe than even the name of the continent, “Africa” I can’t even begin to tell you how important it is for people of African descent to know their history, to understand their place in history, where we as Africans came from and how we came to be in these places, the Caribbean, North, South and Central America. It is really important to know as much as possible about our origins.
It is from this knowledge of our history, our origins, our past battles, our cultures that we gather strength. In this modern age, this new America, where we are rushing to assimilate and keep our heads down, we don’t want to stand out anymore. I want to stand out. I want people to know that I am African, I stand proudly as an African because I know who I am, I know that Slavery represented just a few hundred years of our millennia of history.
Black history is world history, but if you didn’t know the facts of course you would think that the Europeans and their traitorous African collaborators did all of us a favor by exporting us to the Americas. Most African Americans are descended from people that were valuable members of stable societies, that were kidnapped as prisoners of European sponsored wars and brought to the New World to be enslaved. We only have to read the accounts of the people who were alive at that time to know how terrible a price we paid for selling our own people to the Europeans.
The diasporic Africans, those Africans living outside of the continent of Africa, we are descended from the most skilled workers, the intelligentsia, the teachers, the people who supplied the infrastructure of West African society. Africa was depopulated so that the colonial powers of Europe could gain access to the natural resources of Africa. At first, the Europeans had little access to the interior of Africa. They were vulnerable to the environment, the diseases and often Africans would just kill them. The Africans themselves were not blameless. All power struggles to gain more power, and African people are no different. When the leaders saw that the Europeans had luxury goods, alcohol and weapons that they wanted, the traditional system of warfare completely collapsed and the entire trading life of West Africa centered around capturing people to trade with Europeans for goods. Eventually, even the most powerful leaders, teachers, artisans, were captured and traded into slavery. When we say we are descended from the best that Africa had to offer, it is based on historical fact.
Good research on the slave trade
http://www.brycchancarey.com/slavery/chrono2.htm
BBCs The Story Of Africa
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index.shtml
PBS Africans in America
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr1.html
First off, I am an African. I was born here in America, true enough. I have a passport from these United States. But I belong to a group of people far older than these United States, than Europe than even the name of the continent, “Africa” I can’t even begin to tell you how important it is for people of African descent to know their history, to understand their place in history, where we as Africans came from and how we came to be in these places, the Caribbean, North, South and Central America. It is really important to know as much as possible about our origins.
It is from this knowledge of our history, our origins, our past battles, our cultures that we gather strength. In this modern age, this new America, where we are rushing to assimilate and keep our heads down, we don’t want to stand out anymore. I want to stand out. I want people to know that I am African, I stand proudly as an African because I know who I am, I know that Slavery represented just a few hundred years of our millennia of history.
Black history is world history, but if you didn’t know the facts of course you would think that the Europeans and their traitorous African collaborators did all of us a favor by exporting us to the Americas. Most African Americans are descended from people that were valuable members of stable societies, that were kidnapped as prisoners of European sponsored wars and brought to the New World to be enslaved. We only have to read the accounts of the people who were alive at that time to know how terrible a price we paid for selling our own people to the Europeans.
The diasporic Africans, those Africans living outside of the continent of Africa, we are descended from the most skilled workers, the intelligentsia, the teachers, the people who supplied the infrastructure of West African society. Africa was depopulated so that the colonial powers of Europe could gain access to the natural resources of Africa. At first, the Europeans had little access to the interior of Africa. They were vulnerable to the environment, the diseases and often Africans would just kill them. The Africans themselves were not blameless. All power struggles to gain more power, and African people are no different. When the leaders saw that the Europeans had luxury goods, alcohol and weapons that they wanted, the traditional system of warfare completely collapsed and the entire trading life of West Africa centered around capturing people to trade with Europeans for goods. Eventually, even the most powerful leaders, teachers, artisans, were captured and traded into slavery. When we say we are descended from the best that Africa had to offer, it is based on historical fact.
Good research on the slave trade
http://www.brycchancarey.com/slavery/chrono2.htm
BBCs The Story Of Africa
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index.shtml
PBS Africans in America
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr1.html
What is Morgan Freeman talking about?
that's my elder, so I won't be disrespectful, but I don't agree with him. May be the comments were taken out of context.
Peace to the Peaceful, All Power to the People, Ever Forward Never Backward
KNOW YOUR HISTORY.
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