marcus garvey pan african university - Blackherbals.com

African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic
Volume 8, Issue 7 NEWSLETTER August 2013
FEATURED ARTICLES
HOW AFRICANS LED HUMANITY IN CIVILIZATION
First let as deal with the origin of the name Africa. It is
now settled that human beings evolved in Africa. The
theory put forward by Dr. Leakey, based on the age of
fossils discovered in this region, was amplified by Dr.
Cheikh Anta Diop, a Senegalese nuclear physicist who
devoted his lifetime (1923-1985) to scholarship. Dr.
Diop, exploiting his rich knowledge of nuclear physics
and chemistry, established that among the human
beings there is a clear genetic sequence defining racial
characteristics. African genes are the most diverse and
original, indicative of precedence in appearance on
earth among humanity. European genes are mutant in
nature, suggesting mutation of Africans after they
crossed from the African continent to the Eurasia land
mass. The mutation was due to changes in climate and
environment.
Intermarriages between whites and blacks resulted into
Arabs, Jews another Semites. This is inferred from
hybrid nature of their genes, showing interbreeding
between Africans and Europeans. Other groups such as
Chinese and Japanese show characteristics indicative of
further interbreeding from earlier groups. Hence there
is only one unigenic, linear emergence of human
beings, from black to white, to brown to yellow.
The earlier theory of polygenic evolution has been
disproved. There are no human beings on earth who do
not fall within the aforesaid evolutionary sequence. The
disgraced polygenic theory of evolution held that
whites, blacks, browns and yellows arose from different
sources and are different types of beings. It was racist
in nature and sought to project some human beings as
special and superior to others.
After human beings acquired tools and developed the
capacity to tame and harness nature, some of them
settled along the Nile valley. More than 10,000 years
ago the Africans inhabiting the Nile Valley had
developed agriculture- wheat, barley, millet, lentils,
beans, peas, onions, cabbages, lettuces, grapes, figs and
pomegranates were grown. Flax for linen cloth and
papyrus for paper making were important plants in the
By Justice Patrick Tabaro
Chair, MPAU, University Council
Nile valley, especially in Egypt (The March of
Civilization, F.G.T. 1950).
With civilization came humankind’s capacity to move in
defiance of wild beasts and nature generally. By 4230
BC, Egyptians had invented the calendar based on
annual revolution of the earth around the sun and epochs
were counted with the appearance of the star Sirius,
which is visible only once in 1,460 years. When it
appeared, year one began and after 1,460 years the
epoch would close and counting, with the first year
would begin again. The black people of Dogon of Mali
retain this memory to this day. They have never forgot
or lost their system of writing, astronomy, philosophy or
mathematics inherited from the ancient Egyptians.
Egypt comes from Aigyptos, which is Greek for land of
black people. The Egyptians called themselves Khemite,
which also means Black.
In subsequent contributions it will be show how the
black character of Egypt changed to its present state.
The inventors of the calendar, which is basically what is
in use today, were also the builders of the pyramids
from which structures such as temples, libraries,
observatories for study of the stars (astronomy). From
the pyramids you can calculate the distance from the sun
to the earth, get proof that the perimeter at the base was
a comparison with the revolution the planet Venus
makes around the sun and the engineers had knowledge
of cardinal points of the earth.
We are not engaging in fairy tales.
10- Traditional African Clinic – August 2013
From the features of the pharaohs and fossils of the
human beings of the time and from literature etc, the
civilization of the Great Pyramids (about 3,00 BC) was
Bantu in character (Cheikh Anta Diop, 1991 (1981)
English translation). Cheikh Anta Diop regards his
language, Wolof, as Semi-Bantu in essence. It is spoken
by 95% of the Senegalese people and retains remarkable
similarities with ancient Egyptians (ibid). The Mashona
people of Zimbabwe who built the cities that now lie in
ruins known to the history as Zimbabwe are Bantu.
Continued on page 11