Stop denigrating the Pharaohs
Posted by By Akogun Akomolafe at 2 April, at 08 : 49 AM Print
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My Books on Amazon
- Africa: it shall be well: https://tinyurl.com/sn64ocd
- Africa: Destroyed by the gods: https://tinyurl.com/vglfk7w
- 18 African Fables & Moonlight Stories: https://tinyurl.com/s7qrp4p
Try and get your copy. And, please, help me share the links.
Kind regards,
Femi Akomolafe
In the absence of an African alternative, the Chinese CGTN has become my favorite TV station of late. I greatly admire the way the Chinese go about modernizing their country while doing their best to preserve their culture and traditions. Chinese politicians, scientists, academics do not spare any occasion to remind the world of their 5,000 years old history. The Japanese did the same thing.
Sadly, WE in Africa do our best to destroy our every aspect of own culture in the name of modernization. Not only do we not study our history, we always jump to the defense of any foreigner who denigrate our historical and cultural heritage.
It is sad and quite disheartening to see Africans, especially those who claimed the benefit of education, gleefully retelling the fable of the destruction of the Pharaohs by Jehovah, the partisan god of the Habiru, or Hebrew. That the Egyptians, who kept good records, did not mention any Hebrew have not dissuaded these people from parroting the lie which is not supported by any historical record. They are not bothered by African historians and griots who told us about our linkage with Ancient Egypt.
Geography alone should tell us that Egypt is African, and NOTHING should make us celebrate any attempt to portray the Egyptians in a bad light. I cannot imagine Europeans joyfully celebrating an African victory over a part of Europe.
The Great Egyptologist, Cheikh Anta Diop, devoted his PhD thesis to firmly and organically link Modern Africa with Ancient Egypt.
He told us: “Ancient Egypt was a Negro Civilization. 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.”
I reviewed Anta Diop’s book, The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality, and have posted my review on this platform several times.
“Our investigations have convinced us that the West has not been calm enough and objective enough to teach us our history correctly, without crude falsifications. Today, what interests me most is to see the formation of teams, not of passive readers, but of honest, bold research workers, allergic to complacency and busy substantiating and exploring ideas expressed in our work, such as:
“In particular, the study of languages, institutions, and so forth, cannot be treated properly; in a word, it will be impossible to build Africa humanities, a body of African human sciences, so long as that relationship does not appear legitimate. The African historian who evades the problems of Egypt is neither modest nor objective, nor unruffled; he is ignorant, cowardly, and neurotic. Imagine, if you can, the uncomfortable position of a western historian who wants to write the history of Europe without referring to Greco-Latin Antiquity and try to pass that off as a scientific approach.
“The ancient Egyptians were Negroes. The moral fruit of their civilization is to be counted among the assets of the Black world. Instead of presenting itself to history as an insolvent debtor, that Black world is the very initiator of ‘western’ civilization flaunted before our eyes today. Pythagorean mathematics, the theory of the four elements of Thales of Miletus, Epicurean materialism, Platonic idealism, Judaism, Islam, and modern science are rooted in Egyptian cosmogony and science. One needs only to mediate on Osiris, the redeemer- god, who sacrifice himself, dies, and is resurrected to save mankind, a figure essentially identifiable with Christ.
“A visitor to Thebes in the Valley of the Kings can view the Moslem inferno in detail (in the tomb of Seti I, of the Nineteenth Dynasty), 1700 years before the Koran. Osiris at the tribunal of the dead is indeed the ‘lord’ of revealed religions, sitting enthroned on Judgement Day, and we know that certain Biblical passages are practically copies of Egyptian moral texts. Far be it from me to confuse this brief reminder with a demonstration. It is simply a matter of providing a few landmarks to persuade the incredulous Black African reader to bring himself to verify this. To his great surprise and satisfaction, he will discover that most of the ideas used today to domesticate, atrophy, dissolve, or steal his “soul,” were conceived by his own ancestors. To become conscious of that fact is perhaps the first step toward a genuine retrieval of himself; without it, intellectual sterility is the general rule, or else the creations bear I know not what imprint of the subhuman.
“In a word, we must restore the historical consciousness of the African people and reconquer a Promethean consciousness.
- Anthropologically and culturally speaking, the Semitic world was born during protohistoric times from the mixture of white-skinned and black- skinned people in Western Asia. This is why an understanding of the Mesopotamian Semitic world, Judaic or Arabic, requires constant reference to the underlying Black reality. If certain Biblical passages, especially in the Old Testament, seem absurd, this is because specialists puffed up with prejudices, are unable to accept documentary evidence.
- The triumph of the monogenetic thesis of humanity (Leakey), even at the stages of “Homo sapiens-sapiens,” compels one to admit that all races descended from the Black race, according to a filiation process that science will one day explain.”(pp.xiv-xv)
‘What were the Egyptians?’ was the first chapter in this excellently researched work. To answer this mother of all questions, Anta Diop didn’t rely on conjectures. He went straight to quote ancient sources, he quoted Herodotus, the Greek historian whom Western scholars love to call the ‘father of history.’ It was Herodotus who informed us that: “It is certain that the natives of the country are black with the heat.”
Why would Herodotus, whom the Western scholars like to roll out like an oracle, whenever it suits them, affirmed the Egyptians Blacks if they weren’t? So jaundiced were these scholars that they refused to believe what they read, many of them simply declared, without justification, Herodotus to be in error.
Western scholars also like to use the Bible to support their arguments, again whenever it serves their purposes. And Anta Diop reminded us that, according to the Bible, Egypt was peopled by the offspring of Ham, ancestors of the Blacks! The Egyptian called their country Kemit, which means ‘black’ in their language.” The Hebrew rendered this Ham, also meaning black or burned. That was the origin of the word, Ham.” – quotations from The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality,
The great Anta Diop lamented: “The generation that followed did not have the same concerns; none of its members attempted to follow the example of the past generation. There was no longer anyone with the noble determination to get to know the great men of the world, or if there were some individuals consumed with this curiosity, they were few in number. From then on, there remained only vulgar minds given over to hatred, envy and discord, who took an interest only in things which did not concern them, gossip, slander, calumny of one’s neighbors, all those things which are the source of the worst of our troubles.”
As Africans, let us remind ourselves of these immortal words of one of our greatest scholars: “Along the same lines, in order to counter the budding anti-intellectualism evident throughout [Black] Africa among those in political power, as if it were a defense mechanism, Intellectuals have to be able to present perspectives for Africa, solutions to problems on a national scale which allow no other possible ways.
The intellectuals must gain respect at the same time through their efficiency, their taste of unselfish work on behalf of the people, and their clarity. They must be sincere, and to do that they must truly feel themselves animated by an ideal that will stand come what may. They must set themselves apart from those minds which shine only with deceptive light, as artificial as it is sterile, the flashy pseudo-intelligences that so readily prove to be insignificant. self-defense anti-intellectualism would spell a new loss of Africa if it were to become general. We cannot afford the luxury of rejecting what we have most been missing during these last three centuries”. Cheikh Anta Diop,’ Black Africa: The Economic and Cultural Basis for a Federated States,’ Africa World press edition, pp.27-28
Those who care to study further can explore the legend of Sargon of Agade which is the prototype of the Moses, Oedipus, Joseph and Karma stories.
About the Author
Femi Akomolafe, a passionate Pan-Africanist, was one of the PCs Pioneers and ran a Computer Consultancy firm in Amsterdam, the Netherlands for several years, where he also set up the first African Bulletin Board System (BBS), the precursor to the Internet. He also established the first Black Newspaper, The African, in the country.
Femi has been very active in the Pan African Movement since the early 1990s.
A columnist for ModernGhana and a Correspondent for the London-based New African magazine, Femi lives in both Europe and Africa and writes regularly on Africa-related issues for various newspapers and magazines.
Femi was the producer of the FOCUS ON AFRICANS TV Interview programme for the MultiTV Station.
He was also the Man and Machine Coordinator at Alaye Dot Biz Limited, a Kasoa-based Multimedia organization that specializes in Audio and Video Production. He loves to shoot and edit video documentaries.
He is currently engaged in vegetable farming.
His highly-acclaimed books (“Africa: Destroyed by the gods,” “Africa: It shall be well,” “18 African Fables & Moonlight Stories” and “Ghana: Basic Facts + More”) are available for sales at the following bookshops/offices:
- Freedom Bookshop, near Apollo Theatre, Accra.
- WEB Dubois Pan-African Centre, Accra
- Ghana Writers Association office, PAWA House, Roman Ridge, Accra.
Where to buy them online:
On Lulu Books:
18 African Fables & Moonlight Stories https://goo.gl/Skohtn
Ghana: Basic Facts + More: https://goo.gl/73ni99
Africa: Destroyed by the gods: https://goo.gl/HHmFfr
Africa: It shall be well: https://goo.gl/KIMcIm
Africa: it shall be well
on Kindle books: https://www.createspace.com/4820404
on Amazon books: http://goo.gl/QeFxbl
on Lulu Books: https://goo.gl/SQeoKD
Africa: Destroyed by the gods
on Kindle books: https://www.createspace.com/4811974
18 African Fables & Short Stories: https://goo.gl/s9tWAf
on Amazon books: http://goo.gl/1z97ND
on Lulu Books: http://goo.gl/KIMcIm
My Lulu Books page: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/FemiAkomolafe
Get free promotional materials here:
- Africa: it shall be well: http://alaye.biz/africa-it-shall-be-well-introduction-in-pdf/
A FREE Chapter of ‘Africa: It shall be well’ can be downloaded here: http://alaye.biz/africa-it-shall-be-well-a-free-chapter/
- Africa: Destroyed by the gods (How religiosity destroyed Africa) http://alaye.biz/africa-destroyed-by-the-gods-introduction/
A FREE Chapter of ‘Africa: Destroyed by the gods’ can be downloaded here: http://alaye.biz/africa-destroyed-by-the-gods-free-chapter/
Contact Femi:
Femi’s Blog: www.alaye.biz/category/blog
Website: www.alaye.biz
Femi on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/author/femiakomolafe
Femi Akomolafe’s Lulu Books page: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/FemiAkomolafe
Twitter: www.twitter.com/ekitiparapo
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/Femi Alaye;
Gmail+: https://plus.google.com/112798710915807967908;
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/femiakomolafe;
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/fakomolafe
Email: fakomolafe@gmail.com
Profile on New African magazine: http://newafricanmagazine.com/tag/femi-akomolafe/
Kindly help me share the books’ links with your friends and, grin, please purchase your copies.
Comradely,
Femi Akomolafe
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