"A climate of alienation has a profound effect on the Black personality,
particularly on the educated Black, who has the opportunity to see how the
rest of the world regards him and his people. It often happens that the Black
intellectual thus loses confidence in his own potential and that of his race.
Often the effect is so crushing that some Blacks, having evidence to the contrary, still find it hard to accept the fact we really were the first to civilize the world" .
Cheikh Anta Diop b. Dec. 29, 1923, d. Feb.7 1986
Memories of the African past: a tribute to Cheikh Anta Diop
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez
I can remember the first time I began to think of Africa, no longer as "the dark continent", which was never linked to the word “civilizations”. It was on a visit to the Brooklyn museum in NYC, a treasure trove of archaeological finds. A stark contrast to the bigoted 5th grade schoolteacher who had given me an F on a paper I wrote about Egypt, since I claimed Egypt was in Africa (rightly so) and she of course dismissed that, since “everyone knows that Africans were simply tribal primitives”. This was in the era of Tarzan on television, where monkeys erroneously swung by their tails, an impossibility for anyone knowledgeable about primates, but what are facts, when one need only present the fiction of cannibals and natives adoring or fearing a lost white man and his Jane.
In stark contrast another teacher, a few years later while I was in high school assured me that gangly awkward teenager that I may be, I had a certain African aesthetic, reminding her of Nefertiti. I tucked this compliment away and cherished it. It was years later that forensic anthropologists reconstructed her to look more like what was historically probable.
Two years later, in my first class in anthropology, I was exposed to the thought and work Cheikh Anta Diopin Nations nègres et culture: De l'antiquité nègre égyptienne aux problèmes culturels de l'Afrique Noire d'aujourd'hui
Thankfully, in later years his work would become available in English, and he would provide a foundation for me to explore other earthshaking challenges to an historical world view of an Africa which only seemed to exist after exploration by explorers like Livingston, and brutal exploitation by a host of European scavengers.
I would move on to of course read Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972) and Claude Meillassoux’s The Anthropology of Slavery: The Womb of Iron and Gold, and Martin Bernal's Black Athena among other important works of revelation for me – but my foundation and transformation in thinking was sparked by Diop. Years later I cherished Ali Mazuri’s The Africans: A Triple Heritage, on PBS.
I would also study the work of physical anthropologists and bio-geneticist's who would use dna evidence to confirm Diop's theories and refute Eurocentric and ofttimes racist scholars like Carlton Coons.
Scholars in the 1950s and 1960s such as Carleton Coons, claimed people like those depicted at left the Tutsi of Rwanda in East Africa, were “Caucasoid” due to their height and narrow noses. Quote by Coons:
“In Arabia prehistoric archaeology has barely been started. Yet we can be reasonably confident, until other evidence upsets the theory, that these deserts were the home of the slender variety of Caucasoid man.” - Carleton Coons, The Story of man, 1954)
Today is the anniversary of Diop's death in 1986, but he will live on in his work that has nourished whole new generations of scholars–especially those who challenge the narrow view of Europe as the center of the intellectual universe–be it those who acknowledge Columbus did not discover America, that indigenous people had civilizations and intellect, that history is not not defined by European Euro-centric scholarship.
His early history:
Diop was born in Caytou, close to the commercial town of Diourbel, Sénégal, on 29 December 1923. Sénégal was then under the political and military occupation of France. Diop studied locally for his early education and his teachers variously recalled that he was an "intensely studious student" who was fascinated by science – particularly the science of origins, as he would indeed demonstrate most profoundly in later life in his studies and copious publications on Kemet. In high school, he had written a term paper about the origins of the Wolof people and their language which was later published in a 1948 edition of the Paris-based journal Présence Africaine (included in the collection of Diop’s essays published in 2000 entitled Towards the African Renaissance: Essays in African Culture and Development, 1946-1960).
In 1946, at the age of 23, Diop left Caytou for Paris to study physics at the Sorbonne. He soon expanded his studies into history, anthropology and linguistics as he embarked on a doctoral thesis on the Kemetic civilisation, focusing particularly on its origins, the crucial epochs of its 5000 years of development, and impact on subsequent civilisations, especially the Greek. Five years later, Diop completed his thesis. Contrary to the dominant scholarly and popular cultural opinion at the time, Diop demonstrates in his research that Africans, Africoid peoples, were the indigenous peoples of Kemet who built the civilisation that has been a marvel to the world ever since.
Not simply a brilliant scholar, historian, anthropologist, and physicist, Diop was also a
political activist.
During his student days, Cheikh Anta Diop was an avid political activist. From 1950 to 1953 he was the Secretary-General of the Rassemblement Democratique Africain (RDA) and helped establish the first Pan-African Student Congress in Paris in 1951. He also participated in the First World Congress of Black Writers and Artists held in Paris in 1956 and the second such Congress held in Rome in 1959.
His accomplishments during his life spanned many disciplines and areas of activism and
research.
Upon returning to Senegal in 1960, Dr. Diop continued his research and established a radiocarbon laboratory in Dakar. In 1966, the First World Black Festival of Arts and Culture held in Dakar, Senegal honored Dr. Diop and Dr. W.E.B. DuBois as the scholars who exerted the greatest influence on African thought in twentieth century. In 1974, a milestone occurred in the English-speaking world when the African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality was finally published. It was also in 1974 that Diop and Theophile Obenga collectively and soundly reaffirmed the African origin of pharaonic Egyptian civilization at a UNESCO sponsored symposium in Cairo, Egypt. In 1981, Diop's last major work, Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology was published.
Dr. Diop was the Director of Radiocarbon Laboratory at the Fundamental Institute of Black Africa (IFAN) at the University of Dakar. He sat on numerous international scientific committees and achieved recognition as one of the leading historians, Egyptologists, linguists and anthropologists in the world. He traveled widely, lectured incessantly and was cited and quoted voluminously. He was regarded by many as the modern `pharaoh' of African studies. Cheikh Anta Diop died quietly in sleep in Dakar, Senegal on February 7, 1986.
For those of you still not familiar with Diop, and his work, I suggest you start with
The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality
Too many of the stereotypes and myths of Africa are alive and well even now. Just think about how many times bigots portray our President as a monkey.
Perhaps one day Diop's insights into history and those of the scholars after him will win out in our textbooks.
Thank you Cheikh Anta Diop for the gift of knowledge you have given us.
"The role of history in the existence of a people is vital. History is one of the factors that undergirds the cohesion of different elements of a collective. Without historical consciousness, people are not able to be called to their grand destiny"
Cheikh Anta Diop
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News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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In a letter from 1965, A freed slave candidly writes to his former master. Ebony: 'To My Old Master' Goes Viral
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In a world where Youtube clips and breaking news is constantly going viral, it’s rare to see old letters and artifacts raise attention. Published in “The Freedman Book” --- a collection of notes and letters from emancipated slaves --- one letter in particular is getting its due favor. Jourdan Anderson, an emancipated slave who moved to Ohio as a free man, responded to a request from his former Tennessee master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, to return to work.
A few excerpts below:
I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well.
Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.
As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville…I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars.
I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters.
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Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis is a finalist for induction to the Hall of Fame, the highest NFL honor, but the cause he supports is even greater. ColorLines: Jerome Bettis’s Hall of Fame-Worthy Fight to Save Kids From Asthma
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Since his days on the field (Bettis retired in 2006), Bettis has been an advocate for children suffering from asthma. He has asthma himself, and NFL fans probably remember the catharsis after many of his memorable runs when, whether for a tough-earned five yards or a 50-plus yard break away, he’d end up on the bench with an inhaler pumping into his mouth, trying to catch his breath. Bettis developed the health condition as a young teenager, growing up in Detroit, where the air above is often misted with soot and toxic metals from factory clusters. It didn’t stop him from becoming an outstanding football player both in high school and in close-by Notre Dame for college.
Since a pro, first with the St. Louis Rams and then finally with the Steelers, where he played for 13 years, Bettis amassed a spectacular career on the field, ranking fifth in NFL history for yards rushed and making the Pro Bowl six times before retiring after his 2005 season-capping Super Bowl win, earned in his native Detroit.
Off the field, he raised money and created special programming and camps for children with asthma, a breathing condition that’s grown worse for children over the decades, particularly for children of color. Last year, Bettis took a step beyond, when he teamed with the Environmental Protection Agency to produce a public service announcement in support of their new Mercury and Air Toxics rules [MATS], which will regulate the amount of pollution that large factories can emit. And it’s for this reason alone that Bettis ought to be inducted into the Hall of Fame—if not in Canton, then the Hall of Fame in the minds of those who cherish professional heroism in general.
After a meeting with EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, Bettis said, “I don’t think I’m courageous or anything. … She said I was courageous.”
Here’s why he is courageous. When Jackson thanked Bettis for his courage, she also explained to him that he was “going to meet some resistance.”
The Resistance: The Republican Party, not to mention Big Industry in general, which has profited handsomely for decades by not having to control the amount of particulate matter, lead, mercury, dioxides and other pollutants that diminish the quality of the air. These pollutions have harmed the lives of people who live near factories, and mostly without the offending companies paying a dime for the neurological, respiratory and economic damage they’ve caused in thousands of communities from Detroit to Pittsburgh and beyond.
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I guess he was too blah blah blah even for blah people ha ha ha.
New York Times
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Things are starting to return to normal at Shaw University. Charlotte Post: College campus bounces back from tornado
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A tornado that hit the campus of the South’s oldest historically black college on April 16 caused no injuries, but it shortened the semester, peeled roofs, damaged dorms, broke windows, and uprooted trees.
Almost all of the buildings needed repair after the storm, including 27 that suffered roof damage, according to Jeffrey Smith, the Raleigh school's vice president of student affairs. Six were either fully or partially replaced.
“We’ve done lots of work on the gym in terms of renovations and restorations as a response to the storm,” said Dorothy Yancy, Shaw’s interim president and former president at Johnson C. Smith University. “We’re almost ready to open up all of the Willie E. Gary Student Center. The furniture came (last week).”
The storm tore a hole in the student center’s roof, which left students eating meals from a temporary cafeteria. In December, the cafeteria reopened with balloons and a disc jockey.
“Students were able to go to the dining area just before Christmas and move out of the temporary dining facility where they have been eating out of Styrofoam plates since August,” Yancy said. “And students are really excited to be back in a nice, really well decorated facility.”
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The black unemployment rate has dropped from 15.8 to 13.6 percent, good news but it's still too high. The Root: Black Unemployment Rate Drops to Lowest in 3 Years
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The percentage drop represents the lowest unemployment rate for African Americans in nearly three years. According to a report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor, unemployment for black men dropped to 12.7 percent from 15.7 percent. The unemployment rate for black women saw a drop from 13.9 percent to 12.6 percent.
The decrease in black unemployment can be attributed to the overall dip in unemployment to 8.3 percent as the economy added 243,000 nonfarm jobs last month. The current unemployment rate is the lowest in three years, and the first time since 1994 that the rate has fallen for five months straight. Last month's unemployment rate was 8.5 percent.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam
Black Kos Poetry Editor
"Gramps was in Immortal, right up to the moment he died."
"Fup"
-- Jim Dodge
The sins of my sporting life have caught up with me. I thought I had paid the proper penance; I thought I had recited the fair amount of "Hail Mary's", had invoked in the fair and proper order, the saints of football and travel and fair play.
But physics is physics and bones are bones and tendons tear; even in the shoulders of Immortals.
Yes, I hereby now confess, I am an Immortal; that’s why it’s so hard to admit my life has been a mistake. But if you’re living forever, you might as well get used to it.
The problem with being an Immortal is that early on, when you just start being an Immortal in your youth; you think all mistakes can be rectified. But that is just youthful Immortal folly. Being an Immortal is recognizing that you make the same mistakes over and over, always thinking that it will be different the next time. And you have the rest of your Immortal life to ponder that.
Like the time a photography gig took you to Honduras. An Immortal always knows the danger. That’s why you went. And when the military broke your camera and your arm, you knew it was no different than surfing over coral, or hang gliding off El Capitan.
In time, an Immortal will ponder these dangers of the past, these mistakes. None of them killed you, after all you’re an Immortal; but the scars and the pain are there; for the rest of your Immortal life.
JP
What the Body Told
Not long ago, I studied medicine.
It was terrible, what the body told.
I’d look inside another person’s mouth,
And see the desolation of the world.
I’d see his genitals and think of sin.
Because my body speaks the stranger’s language,
I’ve never understood those nods and stares.
My parents held me in their arms, and still
I think I’ve disappointed them; they care
And stare, they nod, they make their pilgrimage
To somewhere distant in my heart, they cry.
I look inside their other-person’s mouths
And see the wet interior of souls.
It’s warm and red in there—like love, with teeth.
I’ve studied medicine until I cried
All night. Through certain books, a truth unfolds.
Anatomy and physiology,
The tiny sensing organs of the tongue—
Each nameless cell contributing its needs.
It was fabulous, what the body told
-- Rafael Campo
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Front Porch Music by Youssou N'dour-Africa, Dream Again