Afrocentrists

It has been discussed by many archaeologists and such that Egypt had originated around 3000 BC. Egypt is located in North Africa bordering on the Mediterranean Sea to the North with Libya, Sudan and Israel as neighbouring countries. Egypt has had a complex but stable culture that was later altered and affected by Western and nearby countries. Egypt is known for the religious festivals held there and the etiquettes and customs of Egyptians. Nepotism is present with people making it apparent that they are more wealthy or that they are prosperous. The culture of Egypt is mostly westernised as Western countries seem to have the biggest impact on all cultures. It used to only be influenced by neighbouring countries by soon started becoming westernised as it grew as a country and a nation. Indonesia however originated in 2500B.C. Indonesia is a group of islands that stretch along the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Indonesia’s culture is intertwined with past

We begin with the early origins of Africa, and the civilizations in place before, the Western world had an influence on them. Africa like the other continents had its array of civilizations set up in the different nation states, their own power systems, economy, and way of living, ways that differed, but resembled other civilizations as well. In validating this claim, I will be looking and analyzing the source, Ibn, Battuta, Visit from Mombasa and Kila, Rhila (c. 1358). The source is an account by Ibn Battuta, who was a scholar from Morocco, who is known for his travels to different lands, over a 30-year period of time. In this source, he visits the Swahili coast of Mombasa and ends his trip in Kilwa, a city in modern-day Tanzania. It is here we see the initial state of some of the nation-states in Africa, Battuta described the two cities “the city of Kulwa is amongst the most beautiful of cities, and most elegantly built” (57). The description

Egypt is without a doubt one of the earliest and greatest civilizations of the ancient world. Egypt clearly fits our definition of being a black nation since it is located in Africa. Northern Africa is still Africa. The original Egyptians were probably dark. This is supported by a number of arguments.

A great example of an African mask is Bayaka Mask. This mask is used for a form of rite. When a boy reaches puberty he is circumcised. After this is done, the boy is removed from the village for one year of seclusion from women. During this time, the boy is taught to hunt and protect by fellow men from the village. To end the one year confinement, a ceremony is held when the boy and his teachers return in the Bayaka Masks. Sculptures are another form of African Art that is very important to its history.

There have been numerous historical evidences shown about the Pre-colonial history of Black kingdoms in Africa. Many historians have concluded that the people that inhabit Pre-colonial Africa were anthropologically Black. However, there has been so much controversy and misconception about the ethnicity of ancient Egyptians by many historians. The controversy is due to many ethnocentric historians and anthropologists attributing the development of the Egyptian civilization to the Caucasian people. Dr. Herbert J. Foster, historian from Staten Island Community College, argues that significant amounts of people inhabiting Egypt were black; they were major contributors to the development of the Egyptian civilization.

I definitely favor Van Sertima's theory about the Egypto-Nubians who came during the "contact period" (800-680 B.C). He argues some parallelism that I agree with in regards to the pyramids. Although the physical appearance of the American and Egyptians pyramids may seem to differ a bit, as Sertima suggests, there's certainly a way to determine if some parallelism is a result of an outside connection or completely coincidental, and I don't believe the pyramids we a coincidence. I do not believe that the huge Olmec heads who appear to have Negroid attributes are a figment of one's imagination. I have always been taught, that a lot of archaeological findings are depictions of what one has seen before or interact with on a daily basis.

The little that is known of the history of the African people comes from the stories that the Africans pass down from one generation to another. These stories have been changed or confirmed by the studies of archaeologists, who have found evidence doing so. The biggest problem for archaeologists is that most of the artwork and other remnants of the African culture has been destroyed over the years due to natural elements (Jirousek, para.1). This is because they were made of organic materials, which decompose easily in the environmental conditions of Africa (Jirousek, para.1). Even though there is not many examples of historical African Art archaeologists

I have always been fascinated with Egyptian culture. I liked how forward thinking the Egyptians were, how they built pyramids and large statues with the tools that are now obsolete. I like the status that women held in ancient Egypt. Women in Egypt at that time were allowed more freedoms than many other women of the same time. There are so many varying reasons to love the Egyptians and because of this I would pick their infant civilization to be a part of. Let’s take a step back in time and relive what we know about the Egyptians.

Those who believe in and research it does not apply the scientific process it as their process is leaning more towards proven the theory instead of disproving the theory; nothing is used to disprove the claim of ancient aliens but instead support the theory. For instance the skulls examples, the researchers did not include that fact the there a more probable explanation such as the incest among ancient Egyptians royal families which results in genetic mutations because of the limited gene pool, thus resulting in the medical condition called craniosynostosis, the reason for the elongated

“We are united, and divided, by our skin color. Perhaps no other feature of the human body has more meaning. Our skin is the meeting place of biology, and everyday experience, a product of human evolution that is perceived within the context of human culture” Nina G. Jablonski, Living Color: The Biological and Social Meaning of Skin Color (2012). The most substantial controversy of Egyptians and there proof of being African is indeed there skin complexion as well as African like features. For years and centuries countless individuals have come to the realization that Egyptians were white but didn’t have much proof until the 19 century when scientist began to dissect more and more into the actual reality of Egypt and

Cheikh Anata Diop was born in Caytou, to a Muslim Wolof family in 1923. After earning his doctorate degree in Paris, he returned to Senegal and started the first carbon dating laboratory at Dakar 's Institute of African Studies. Dr. Diop contributed to the scientific understanding of African history by refuting flawed euro-centric ideas on the origins of Egyptian civilization. Throughout his work, the main themes of Dr. Diop 's work was that Egypt was the center of a vast network linking Africa 's main cultures and languages and that it was the product of cultural influences from the African heartland. Therefore, the originators of classical Egyptian civilization were not Mediterranean whites nor Asiatic invaders as euro-centric scholars claim, but black-skinned, indigenous Africans. Secondly, Greek civilization and by extension western civilization derived many of its practices and ideas from Egyptian culture.

The culture I have chosen is the Nubian culture. The name “Nubians” come from either the Nubian language meaning “slaves” or ancient Egyptian word nab meaning “gold”. It was a meaning for gold because the Nubian Valley had gold mines area surrounding the valley. To some scholars, Nubians are also referred as Kushites because of the Kingdom of Kush. The Nubians originated form present-day Sudan and Egypt. The Nubia region was in the southern part of Egypt and northern part of Sudan. Nubia was also broken into two parts, the Lower Nubia region and Upper Nubia region. Today, most of the Nubian descendants still live in the area of ancient Nubia and some parts of Egypt. The ancient people of Nubia inhabited the along the banks of the Nile

     Africa has more than 800 languages native to its continent. African cultures are so diverse that they are different from any other culture of the world. African cultures contain many different languages. African languages range from common French to languages unheard of to most people such as Swahili. African arts are much different than American arts. Their art involves much more creative pottery, masks, and paintings. Africa has a very interesting culture. Reasons being the people are very creative and like to express their individuality. The most diverse cultures in the world belong to Africa.

Ancient Africa’s contribution toward the development of early civilization was most profound and most well known in the United Kingdoms of Egypt. The long history is very well known and studied so much, even today. I liked that in this chapter it talked a little about Cheikh Anta Diop, Since I chose to write a little about him in the second writing assignment. It goes on to explain what I had found before—Diop found (and many people following him believe) that “Africa was a “black” civilization” (pg. 66). It was also explained that we’ve never had any reason to believe that ancient African civilizations were “ever “white” or fair-skinned” as they were commonly portrayed in Hollywood. On the other hand, there are also very many modern historians who disagree with Cheikh Anta Diop. They disagree with his translation of “Kmt” which he translates as “land of the blacks” they believe it can also be translated as “the land of black [Nile Valley] soils”. A little bit further down this section it states that modern scientists “hypothesize that different skin pigmentations reflect different amounts of dark melanin and keratin particles in peoples underskin (properly regulating the skins intake of sun rays) according to their relative distance away from the direct sunshine of the tropics” (p.66). Because of this it makes sense to infer that northern Egyptians had somewhat of lighter skin than those who lived in more southern Egypt. I also like that it was

Another African contribution to the world is math. I learned that the modern high school level concepts in math were first developed in Africa. In Arica the first counting method was done. The Article Great Achievements in Science and Technology in Ancient Africa states that 35,000 years ago Egyptians scripted textbook in math containing division and multiplication of fractions, geometric formulas of shapes to calculate area and volume, distance and angles, algebraic equations,