Enriquillo Taino Revolts

http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/cstone/span312/Wagner_&_Parish_Enriquillo.pdf

The Spanish Conquest of the Tainos

"I found very many islands filled with people without number, and all of them I have taken possession for their Highnesses...

As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might

learn and might give me information on whatever there is in these parts"   Christopher Columbus

On December 5 or 6 1492 a fateful wind led Christopher Columbus to the island of Haiti that he renamed Española

thinking that it looked like Spain. Guacanagaric, the cacique of the Marien in the northern part of the island, warmly welcomed

Columbus. He thought the Taino looked coward and could easily be defeated and enslaved:

"They...brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things... They would make fine servants... With fifty

men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.

On Christmas night, his biggest ship, the Santa Maria sank on a harbor of the island. With its remnants, Columbus built the fortress

of the Navidad. He left thirty-nine men at the fortress and sailed to Spain on January 16, 1493 taking with him six Taino captives

and a cargo of parrots, plants and gold. The purpose of Columbus’s second voyage was to colonize, control and exploit the island. His

goal was to bring to the Spaniards "as much gold as they need...and as many slaves as they ask." His fleet thus comprised 17 ships

and 1,300 men as well as 20 horsemen to terrorize the native people.

When Columbus returned to Española, he found that the thirty men he had left on the Navidad were all dead, killed by the Indians

after they had invaded the kingdom of the Maguana governed by the intrepid Caonabo. Guillermo Coma who had accompanied

Columbus wrote that "bad feeling had arisen and had broken out in warfare because of the licentious conduct of our men towards

the Indian women, for each Spaniard had five women to minister to his pleasure." Columbus then built a new town, Isabella, forty

leagues east of Navidad, near the river where Pinzon had found gold in the Cibao. After Isabella was built, Columbus set out for

the gold mines of Cibao with his horsemen and infantry. Several forts were built on the way, especially in the plains of the Yaque

River, which he named Vega Real. During their invasion of the interior of the island, thousands of Indians were killed. By the end

of 1494 the Taino were in open revolt. Columbus had hoped to put down the resistance by kidnapping Caonabo the chief of the

Cibao region and making an exemplary spectacle of him.

Columbus sent troops to occupy the north east of the island and had more forts built in the Cibao region. He immediately instituted

a system requiring a quarterly tribute in gold from the Taino, which was calculated according to the number of people over the age

of fourteen. He introduced Indian slavery suggesting that it would be lucrative enough to compensate for the meager supply of gold

found. In 1495, he and his men went on a raid in the interior of Española capturing as many as fifteen hundred Taino, men, women

and children. Columbus picked the 500 best specimens and sent them to Spain. Two hundred of these five hundreds Taino died en

route to Spain. Columbus’s reaction was to exclaim: "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold."

Columbus and his brother Bartholomew as well as Alonso de Hojeda undertook a series of military expeditions all over the island.

Villages that could not pay the tribute imposed on the Taino were brutally repressed. Las Casas charged that two thirds of the

population was thus wiped out. On July 22, 1497 the Crown authorized the distribution of lands to the Spanish colonists (Repartimiento)

to sow grain and plant gardens. This land was designed to encourage permanent Spanish settlers in Espanola who were expected to

establish small farms with Spanish labor. Columbus on the contrary instituted a Repartimiento where native communities were allocated

to Spaniards for their own use. This system was the first concrete measure to colonize and annihilate the Taino population of Española.

The colonization of Haiti

The arrival of Nicholas Ovando in 1502 with some 2500 Spaniards infused a new dynamism to Española. No sooner had they arrived

that they rushed to the gold mines. There, the close contact between large number of Europeans and native workers provided a propitious

environment for diseases to set in. Both groups died in large numbers. Ovando set out to pacify the island more completely than Columbus

had. He instituted more efficient and coercive systems to control the Taino. He brought his cruelty to highest levels in dealing with the

caciquat of the Xaragua and their lovely queen Anacaona. Anacaona was the sister of Behecchio, and widow of Caonabo whom had fallen to

Columbus in an earlier campaign. He requested a meeting with Anacaona. In 1503 Ovando marched into the Western part of Xaragua where

he and Anacaona met. Queen Anacaona and chieftains of the province entertained him and his men. She and her brother Behecchio had earlier

offered to Bartholomew Columbus and Roldan friendship and tribute. In the midst of festivities in the royal house, Ovando gave the signal to

massacre the Indians; he brought his hand to his Alcantara cross on his chest. Immediately, the Spanish soldiers seized the Xaraguayans,

attached them to poles and put fire on them. Men, women and children were cut to pieces. Queen Anacaona herself was taken to Santo

Domingo where she was hanged. Thus perished the Xaraguayans.

In 1504 Juan de Esquivel and Ponce de Leon committed a similar deed on the Higuey, governed by Cotubanama. By 1508 there were as

many as fifteen towns in Española. Ovando organized a system where a council (Cabildo) consisting of those who held encomiendas and

repartimientos governed each Spanish town.

The boom in the mining of gold in Espanola was short-lived. The decline in the supply of gold paralleled the decline in population. The Spaniards

soon left the island for the richer lands of Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Cuba. Upon Ovando’s retirement in 1509, Columbus’s son Diego Columbus

became governor of Española.

Resistance and Revolts of the Taino

Knight Templars Cruel Treatment Of Native American People

Native American and Freemason

Freemasonry recognizes men of many faiths, backgrounds and races; after all we are a "Brotherhood of man under the Fatherhood of God".  When one takes the lessons that are obtained from Masonry by "practicing outside of Lodge what he has learned within" he has the opportunity to become a better man.  These two aspects of Freemasonry are intimately tied together no better than they were in the case of Bro. Ely S. Parker, (pronounced E-lee). Brother Parker lived in an unfortunate time where the race of a man was a huge issue in the United States, but even some did not let this stop him from becoming the best man he possibly could, and the impact his life had was a huge benefit to our country.

           He was born in 1828 on the Tonawanda Indian Reservation in Indian Falls, New York a Seneca Indian with the name of Ha-Sa-No-An-Da, which means "coming to the front" or "leading name".  Ironically he would live up to his birth name.  There is also record of his birth name being Hasanowanda which means "the reader".  At the age of 23 when he became Grand Sachem of the Six Nations (chief) he was given the Indian name of Do-Ne-Ho-Ga-Wa which translates to "keeper of the western gate" or "open door", it's also quite ironic that Parker lived up to all of these names and the fact that a Freemason can see the relation of Parker's Indian names and their relation to Freemasonry.  He acquired the white mans name Ely S. Parker being named after a Reverend Ely Stone who was a teacher at the Baptist mission school he attended as a boy.

           As a young man Parker was an excellent student and was extremely fluent in the English language, while a teenager he was one of three people chosen as an interpreter to speak with President James Polk to discuss Indian affairs and a grievance over the sale of reservation land to a developer.  It was during these talks when Parker realized the significance that law would have on the future of him and his people.  It was also when he met a man by the name of Lewis Henry Morgan.  Morgan saw the potential in Ely and aided in furthering his education by paying for his tuition at the Cayuga Academy.  Together both men were members of a club called "The Grand Order of the Iriquois" which held their meetings in Scipio Masonic Lodge #110 in Aurora, New York which is where Ely Parker's first exposure to Freemasonry occured.  Brother Ely S. Parker was raised to Master Mason in Batavia Lodge #88 in 1847 and throughout his Masonic career he was affiliated with and served in many Lodges in New York and Illinois as well as being an active member in Council, Chapter and Commandery in both states.  Ely Parker Lodge #1002 in Buffalo, New York is named after him.  While in Illinois and serving as Master of Miner's Lodge #273 in Galena; Parker raised a man by the name of John Corson Smith who eventually became the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Illinois.  Smith who wrote a book titled " History of Freemasonry in Illinois" also considered Parker to be his "Masonic Father" and also credits Parker to have had the most influence on his Masonic life.

           After attending and graduating from the Cayuga Academy in his youth, Parker indeed decided to study law, and he did extremely well; he even took the bar exam and passed with exceptionally high scores.  Unfortunately due to his Native American Heritage and also considering the time in which he lived, he was not considered a citizen and therefore could not practice law.  Undoubtedly disappointed by this he sure did not let it stop him from reaching his full potential, anyways his knowledge of the law would come in handy later in his life.  He then went on to study civil engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  Upon his graduation from there he went to work as a civil engineer on the Erie Canal working on rebuilding sections of the canal that had deteriorated over time.  After the Erie Canal project he moved on and was working for the Federal Government as Chief Engineer for the Chesapeake and Albermarle Canal as well as for the U.S. Customs House and Post Office in Galena, Illinois which still stands today.  While working in Galena as well as his Masonic activities, Ely Parker became a very close friend to a man by the name of Capt. Ulysses S. Grant.

           When the Civil War broke out in 1861 Parker was desirous to join the Union side of the fight like his friend Grant, but again and sadly his ethnicity initially kept him from serving at that time.  He even went as far as to plead with the then Secretary of State Steward to retain a commission to allow him to fight only to be told "go home, it's a white mans war", suffice it to say, this wasn't the first time Parker ran into this racial problem and this one instance sure wasn't going to stop him either.  He kept on trying to join the war effort, and through Masonic connections he was granted a commission courtesy of General J.C. Smith and he joined the Union forces.  Ulysses Grant didn't forget about his friend, Ely Parker; he secured an appointment for Parker in 1863 as Capt. of engineers and later that same year Ely served with Grant in Vicksburg, Mississippi.  In the spring of 1864 Grant was promoted to Lieutenant General and posted in the eastern U.S. as the Commander of all Union Forces, wherein he asked Parker to follow him and serve as his personal aid. Towards the end of the Civil War, Parker would do one last monumental thing where he would have the ability to put his education and knowledge of law to good use.

           Brother Ely Samuel Parker, a Native American Indian and Freemason who had fought against racism, and intolerance his entire life was the man who wrote the surrender terms and treaty agreement that was signed by Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee and in turn put an end to the U.S. Civil war.  It was said the General Lee stated at the signing that "it is good to see a real American present" wherein Parker responded by saying " we are all Americans Sir!"

 

Sources:

A biography of Ely S. Parker, by Daryl Watson,

Native Americans and Freemasonry

The scope of this subject is so large that more than once in my research I got sidetracked on trivial and dead end issues.  For instance I spent hours trying to track down verification that Freemasonry existed in North America before any European White man landed here.  Well there is absolutely no proof that Native Americans did not get Freemasonry from the White man. But one factor that makes life difficult for the researcher is the lack of written records by the American Indian.  Native Americans did not write down anything, in fact it was not until 1920 that written records were kept by Indians and that is probably only due to their homogenization into general society. Everything was passed down by word of mouth.  Sound familiar? So there will be many areas and much information that will not be covered in this paper.  We will confine ourselves to similarities of Indian customs and mores with Freemasonry and some of their secret societies.

 There seems to be a sacred number in many religions and bonding societies and even in certain cultures.  In the Hebrew Scripture the number 7 is said to occur over 360 times.  Masonry reveres numbers and so does the American Indian.  For Masonry it is the number 3, for the Indian it is 4.  Being a hunter the Indian is always has super awareness of the points of the compass whence comes the importance of the number 4.  Equally important it is from these points that the Creators and spirits come from.  In the ceremonies of the Mide-wiwin of the Ojibwa, which we will explore in detail later, there are 4 degrees.  In each degree the Indian paints a different colored band or stripe on his face – 4 colors. The Mason will have of course the 3 different displays of the apron in the 3 degrees.  The Chippewas initiated a candidate into Meda craft by sending him to a Lodge of 4 poles, with 4 stones before its fire and there he was to remain for 4 days and sit at 4 banquets.  The Otoe and Missouri Indians buried their people by keeping a fire at the grave 4 days and 4 nights.  On the fifth day the spirit would gallop away to the Happy Hunting grounds. The Zuni Indians believe that a spirit hovers about their village 4 nights after death. The Indian believes that spirit that looks over the deceased lives in the North and in Freemasonry is not the North also a place of darkness?  The Cherokee Shaman (Medicine Man) prepares his tribe for war by situating the warriors of the tribe at the edge of a stream facing east.  Thus placed the Shaman sings the war song and this is repeated on four successive nights.  The Creeks had a celebration called “The Busk” or the making the new fire.  It was a celebration to the four winds and was commenced by placing four logs in the center of a square, end to end forming a cross pointing to the four cardinal points.  In the center “new fire” was made which was symbolic of wiping the slate of sin clean.  This for the Native American was the day of Atonement. In the snake dance of the Moqui Indians they use four kinds of medicine utilizing four different roots. Not only does the number 4 appear in the four cardinal points of the compass, it is revered in the peace pipe ceremonial, the four colors ( generally red, black, yellow and white), and what might be referred to as the four essential virtues of Native American spirituality, respect for deity, respect for Mother Earth, respect for one’s fellow man, and respect for individual freedom. This all according to Robert G. Davis who states that because of the four virtues it is very rare to find American Indians quarrelling about religion.  Jim Tresner talks about the four arrows at the cardinal points in a circle all pointing inwards.  The circle represents the world and also an individual.  The arrows represent “the attitudes or attributes with which a person must view every event and consider every problem if he is to find enlightenment.  Thus he must look at things from:

1) The direction of wisdom (arrow of the North)

2)  The direction of innocence (the arrow of the south)

3)  The direction of Introspection (the arrow of the West)

4) The direction of far sight (the arrow of the East)” (3)

The points of the four arrows all meet at the exact center of the circle.  This symbolism is quite similar to the Masonic point within a circle.

Closely allied with the number four is the Indian use of the Cross long before contact with the White Man.  The swastika and the Maltese cross show up in war shields, sand paintings and medicine shirts of various tribes.  The often designation of four gods at the four points of the compass for the Native American was a story illustrated by the symbol of the cross.  This is noted in Indian illustrations long before the White Man tried to convert American Indians to Christianity.  The Blackfeet would arrange stones on open land in the form of a cross to honor “Natose” the “old man who sends the winds”.  These four winds were explained as the “tree of life” which provided for our nourishment.  Most nations have revered some shrub or growing thing.  The Egyptians revered the lotus and the Mason the acacia. The Indian revered his ghost tree.

Enoch

http://muggletonian.org.uk/Non%20Muggletonian/content%20files/enoch.pdf

African Voodoo People

The Science Of Voudon

Voudon (Voodoo)

Within the voodoo society, there are no accidents. Practitioners believe that nothing and no event has a life of its own. That is why "vous deux", you two, you too. The universe is all one. Each thing affects something else. Scientists know that. Nature knows it. Many spiritualists agree that we are not separate, we all serve as parts of One. So, in essence, what you do unto another, you do unto you, because you ARE the other. Voo doo. View you. We are mirrors of each others souls. God is manifest through the spirits of ancestors who can bring good or harm and must be honored in ceremonies. There is a sacred cycle between the living and the dead. Believers ask for their misery to end. Rituals include prayers, drumming, dancing, singing and animal sacrifice. 

 The serpent figures heavily in the Voodoo faith. The word Voodoo has been translated as "the snake under whose auspices gather all who share the faith". The high priest and/or priestess of the faith (often called Papa or Maman) are the vehicles for the expression of the serpent's power. The supreme deity is Bon Dieu. There are hundreds of spirits called Loa who control nature, health, wealth and happiness of mortals. The Loa form a pantheon of deities that include Damballah, Ezili, Ogu, Agwe, Legba and others. 

 Despite Voodoo's noble status as one of the worlds oldest religions, it has been typically characterized as barbaric, primitive, sexually licentious practice based on superstition and spectacle. Much of this image however, is due to a concerted effort by Europeans, who have a massive fear of anything African, to suppress and distort a legitimate and unique religion that flourished among their enslaved Africans. When slavers brought these peoples across the ocean to the Americas , the African's brought their religion with them.

However, since slavery included stripping the slaves of their language, culture, and heritage, this religion had to take some different forms. It had to be practiced in secret, since in some places it was punishable by death, and it had to adapt to the loss of their African languages. 

 

In order to survive, Voodoo also adopted many elements of Christianity. When the French who were the colonizers of Haiti , realized that the religion of the Africans was a threat to the colonial system, they prohibited all African religion practices and severely punished the practitioners of Voodoo with imprisonment, lashings and hangings. This religious struggle continued for three centuries, but none of the punishments could extinguished the faith of the Africans.  This process of acculturation helped Voodoo to grow under harsh cultural conditions in many areas of the Americas . 

 

Alchemy

Alchemy is one of the world’s oldest traditions – a unique blend of science and spirituality that has the potential to create a new vision of the world. Alchemy offers a way of living in accord with the basic patterns of the universe that can result in magical transformations in your life. In our school, these ancient teachings are presented in their purest form. Join us in the Great Work of personal and global transformation. Become part of our international community of students and instructors dedicated to preserving this ancient wisdom!

The Egyptian Great Year And Christianity

There can be no understanding of the major religions of the world unless one has a working knowledge and an unbiased appreciation of the way the ancient pre-Christian beliefs saw the spiritual world. An impossible task for some religious types given the extent to which man took away the brain the Almighty gave them. The late Dr. JH Clarke never tired of reminding us that Europeans not only colonised people but also colonised people's understanding of history. Nowhere is that more evident than in religion. In this essay, the second of a three-part glimpse at Western Xianity from an Africentric perspective, the Kemetic/Egyptian language and development of the calendar will be examined in relation to the formulation of Judaism and Xianity. This is as vital in reconstructing the history of Africa as the archaeological and the Classical Greco-Roman historical accounts. Indeed, Charles Finch and Ivan Sertima argue that in the reconstruction of the history of African peoples wherever they are in the world, one must utilise the multidisciplinary approach.

Literal interpretations of the scripture are all but useless; most if not all sacred writings of that time were written in such a way that only the initiated could understand what the texts really meant. Often the texts did not speak of a particular time but were cleverly constructed moral teachings handed down from generation to generation. In Africa, along the Nile Valley, teachings also corresponded to the zodiacal time period where celestial observers divided an imaginary heavenly circle into twelve arcs. Within each arc all teachings corresponded to a particular zootype. We shall first examine this form of time reckoning so that we can better understand why certain biblical texts were written they way they were. Also, understanding the concept of the Kemetic/Egyptian Great Year and the Precession of the Equinoxes is crucial to understanding the history of the world and how we, like our ancestors, can traverse backwards and forwards through time in order to access knowledge.


There are very, very few historians today who would [openly] admit that highly intelligent human societies are older than 7000 years. But the African invention of the 365 ¼ day calendar is one example that makes a mockery of the traditional views of Eurocentric academia. It comes as a surprise to many of us that our calendar, albeit with a few Roman alterations, is actually of Egyptian origin. Surprise, because unfortunately, the African contribution to such scientific achievements is still ignored and many textbooks still retain the misconception that the calendar was invented in Sumeria. Of course, Sumer is painted as a "Semitic"[read Caucasian] civilisation never mind that the Sumerians referred to themselves as "black heads". Never mind the fact that much of classical Africa's civilisations were already quite old before Sumeria or Europe had even entered into history. Also glossed over are the Classical Greek and Roman accounts that the Egyptians and Nubians had been charting the heavens from over 10,000 years. Dr Ben and Gerald Massey argued that in Egypt alone, African stargazers have been observing and recording movements in the heavens for at least 52,000 years. Evidence from the dating of erosion patterns of the Great Sphinx as well as the position of the pyramids in relation to the stars in Orion's belt, shows clearly that our accepted chronology of human history is totally inadequate. To begin to even appreciate the genius of our ancestors, we have no choice but honestly admit that what we think we know about the ancient world is actually very miniscule and much of that has been tainted by intellectual dishonesty, imperialistic designs, religious conservatism and outright racial bigotry.

Prof. Molefi Asante and Dr Finch maintain that unlike the Tigris-Euphrates region, the Nile Valley was ideally suited to the study of the celestial bodies. Egypt, a dry country, enjoyed clear nighttime skies for months on end, ideal for naked eye and telescopic observations of the stars and planets. Consequently, they were able to devise three calendars, stellar, lunar and solar. The lunar year of 354 days was well known to them and Dr Yosef ben-Jochannan, Sir James Frazer and Cheikh Anta Diop have shown that long before the dynastic period they had discovered the 360 day calendar which they retained even though they were well aware that this cycle lost a quarter of a day each year. Being practical people they used 360 days for the conventional year because it gave them convenient, whole number multiples by which the year could be sub-divided equally into twelve 30-day months, ten 36-day decans, 36 10-day weeks, etc. It is no coincidence that the 360-day solar year is the same number of degrees in a geometric circle. They knew that the earth was spherical and described an elliptical orbit around the sun. The Kemites later added five additional days which incidentally, are the roots of the Carnival traditions of the world.

Ancient Ghana

The kingdom of Ghana lasted about 800 years, until the kingdom of Mali took over.
The kingdom of Ghana was rich! Ancient Ghana is located in a different place than the modern country of Ghana in West Africa. The ancient kingdom of Ghana was a key part of the Trans-Sahara Trade Route.
But even earlier than the trading that went on between east and west Africa, the kingdom of Ghana acted as guards for the traders from the north, and the traders from the south. Ghana was in the middle. Ghana was a great military power in ancient times. They had an army of 200,000 fighting men. People in the north had salt mines. People in the south had gold mines. Ghana had an army that could protect the traders.
Ghana charged a fee for their protection in gold and in salt and in other goods. This arrangement worked well for everyone. Ghana became rich.
The people in Ghana were very happy. They worked hard, but they were safe and protected. They benefited from the wealth that poured into the empire. The king and nobles lived in the best houses, but they too were comfortable.
They had plenty to eat. The Niger River ran through ancient Ghana. The river provided water for bathing and washing. There were ample fish and waterfowl to eat. The people also farmed. They grew sweet potatoes and other vegetables. No one went hungry in ancient Ghana.
They were creative people. Their artists wove cotton fabrics. They designed these fabrics by painting wet mud on woven cloth, and then placing the fabric in the sun to dry. This created a permanent design in the cloth. It was very clever and very unique.
Their storytellers were called Griots. The Griots were the first to tell the wonderful stories of Anansi the Spider. The people believed in many gods and goddesses. The storytellers told stories about their gods, their people, their villages, their triumphs, their trades, their wonderful king, and of course, everyone's favorite, stories of Anansi the Spider.
The people of Ghana were peace loving. Their laws were gentle. People were important. The king had a council of elders to advise him. There were district leaders all over the kingdom to make sure people were treated fairly.
Ghana was so good at protection and trade that the kingdoms to the north and south of Ghana, along with Ghana herself, became known as the Gold Coast. Word of their wealth spread across Africa. Traders braved the Sahara Desert, bringing with them silks and spices to trade for gold. The kingdom of Ghana again acted as the protection for traders. The more traders braved the Trans-Sahara Trade Route, the more the kingdom of Ghana flourished.

Ethiopia

Human settlement in Ethiopia is very ancient, and some of the earliest hominid ancestors have been discovered there. Together with Eritrea and the southeastern coast of the Red Sea in Sudan, it is considered the most likely location of the area known to the ancient Egyptians as the Land of Punt, whose first mention dates to the 25th century BCE. By 980 BCE, the beginnings of a state were evident in the area that would become Abyssinia. Though this date serves as its legendary date of establishment, it may have had more to do with dynastic lineage than the actual establishment of a state.

Aksumite Ethiopia

By the 4th century BCE, the Kingdom of Axum was established on the coast and made itself known as a seafaring people, active in the Indian spice trade. They became known to the Romans no later than the 30s BCE when Augustus conquered Egypt and it is believed by then that the square-rigged Axumite galleys were disdaining the long slow coastal trade route in favor of riding the monsoon winds to and from India. Having established trade with Rome for goods from inland Africa, the Ethiopians passed the trick on to Roman traders and probably carried some of their cargoes for hire. The sea route also connected with the Silk Road through what is now Pakistan, so the Axumites also aided Rome in obtaining Chinese silk. By the 3rd century CE, Rome had established trade entrepôts in India and the sea route carried virtually all the eastern trade, to the consternation of Roman statesmen who decried the flow of bullion out of Rome. Around 300 CE, Axum became Christian and conquered the neighboring ancient Kingdom of Kush. From that time on, others began to call them an Empire, and they themselves were by then using "Ethiopia" in correspondence. The Kingdom spread south and westwards and into the Arabian peninsula over the next few centuries, and generally flourished in trade with both the Western Roman Empire or the barbarians who supplanted it and the Byzantine Empire, until the Islamic conquest of Egypt in around 640 CE cut the Empire off from European markets. The evidence indicates that the Empire turned inland, locating its capital further west and expanding its territory in the uplands to the south and west. References to "Ethiopia" and "Ethiopian Christians" are sprinkled through European and Byzantine documents throughout the Early and High Middle Ages, but gradually dwindle, indicating there was some contact over the ensuing centuries after the Muslim conquest. In general, however, the Empire went into a slow decline, enduring until the last Axumite king was killed by the mysterious Queen Gudit around 960 CE.


After the conquest of Axum by Queen Gudit or Yodit, a period began which some scholars refer to as the Ethiopian Dark Ages. According to Ethiopian tradition, she ruled over the remains of the Axumite Empire for 40 years before transmitting the crown to her descendants. Very little is known about the queen or the state, if indeed there even was one, she set up. What is evident however, is that her reign marked the end of Axumite control in Ethiopia.
The last of Queen Yodit's successors were overthrown by Mara Takla Haymanot. He founded the Zagwe Dynasty in 1137, and married a female descendant of the last Axumite emperor to stake his claim as the legitimate heir to the long dead empire. The Zagwe were of the Agaw people, whose power never extended much farther than their own ethnic heartland. The capital was at Adafa, not far from modern day Lalibela in the Lasta mountains. The Zagwe continued the Christianity of Axum and constructed many magnificent churches such as those at Lalibela. The dynasty would last until its overthrow by a new regime claiming descent from the old Axumite Kings.
In 1270, the Zagwe dynasty was overthrown by a king claiming lineage with the Axumite emperors and thus that of Solomon (hence the name "Solomonid"). The Solomonid Dynasty was born of and ruled by the Habesha, from whom Abyssinia gets its name. The Habesha reigned with only a few interruptions from 1270 until the late 20th century. It is under this dynasty that most of Ethiopia's modern history is formed. During this time, the empire conquered and incorporated virtually all the peoples within modern Ethiopia and Eritrea. They successfully fought off Arab and Turkish armies and made fruitful contacts with some European powers.
From 1769 to 1855, the Ethiopian Empire went through the "Age of Princes" (Zemene Mesafint). This was a period in Ethiopian history when the country was rent by conflicts between warlords, the Emperor was reduced to little more than a figurehead confined to the capital city of Gondar, and both society and culture stagnated. Religious conflict both within the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and with Ethiopian Muslims were often used as the pretext for the powerful to battle each other. The "Age of Princes" ended with the reign of Tewodros II.

Black Panther Vs. The Avengers

Furious 7

Ariana Miyamoto

by: Zenitha Prince Senior AFRO CorrespondentAriana Miyamoto, Miss Universe Japan. (Courtesy Photos/Facebook))Mar 20, 2015

 Apparently Black is also beautiful in Japan, despite the nation’s reputation for a lack of diversity

Ariana Miyamoto, daughter of a Japanese mother and African-American father, recently became the first multiracial contestant to be crowned Miss Universe Japan, according to news reports. The former Miss Nagasaki will represent Japan in the 2015 Miss Universe pageant.
Local media describe the 20-year-old as a “saishoku kenbi,” a woman blessed with both intelligence and beauty. She holds a fifth-degree mastery of Japanese calligraphy, according to JapanToday.com.
But there have been mixed reactions to a “hāfu,” the Japanese word used to refer to half-Japanese individuals, representing the country.



 Ariana Miyamoto, Miss Universe Japan.

 The selection of Ariana Miyamoto as this year’s Miss Universe Japan is a huge step forward in expanding the definition of what it means to be Japanese,” Megumi Nishikura, filmmaker and co-director of the film “Hafu: The Mixed-Race Experience in Japan,” told NBC News. “The controversy that has erupted over her selection is a great opportunity for us Japanese to examine how far we have come from our self-perpetuated myth of homogeneity while at the same time it shows us how much further we have to go.”
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has reported that one in 49 babies born in Japan today are born into families with one non-Japanese parent, according to “Hafu.”
While the nation remains a center of global tourism and trade, it remains skeptical of diversity and actually prides itself on its homogeneity—more than 98 percent of the population comprise Japanese nationals, according to Vox.com. As such, it has a long and complicated history of racism.
For example, the Vox article cited Japanese entertainers’ donning of “blackface,” theatrical makeup traditionally used in entertainment to perpetuate negative stereotypes about African Americans.
“The blackface thing is emblematic of a larger problem of Japanese politics and civil society in which diversity is not recognized, or cultivated, or respected,” said Kyle Cleveland, an associate professor of sociology at Temple University’s Tokyo campus who lectures on race.
For example, artists who wear “blackface” and other appropriations, say they are signs of their appreciation for other cultures, but rather, they are signs of cultural ignorance and insensitivity that can be addressed through education, Cleveland said.

 “Japan is a globalized society,” he said, but sometimes, it’s “very tone deaf.”

Ariana Miyamoto - African American/ Japanese Beauty

Hidden Colors 4

Dr. Kaba Kamene

The Spanish Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition was a legally constituted court decreed by Sixtus IV's Papal Bull and implemented under Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile beginning in 1478. As Christian European monarchs regained control of Spain from Muslim rulers, the Christian Monarchy gradually imposed and enforced certain legal restrictions on non-Catholics. Spaniards who were not Catholics were not allowed into any of the major professions. Similarly, non-Catholics were forbidden from civil service by royal decree. Other legal and property rights depended on being baptized as did entrance into schools and general social standing.
Many Muslims and Jews in Spain went along with the Crown in order to keep or get jobs, be considered part of Spanish society or simply to comply with the obvious wishes of the government. Many conversos (people who had converted from one religion to Christianity) were secular by upbringing and had little or no connection to their abandoned religions. But many who had converted during and after the massacres of 1391 did it simply to avoid death and had held onto what was, by 1478, more than a thousand years of Jewish culture and tradition in Spain.
The Crown and the Vatican were concerned with the idea of converts following non-Christian ways of life. There was also a realization in Spain and Rome that large amounts of wealth had been looted in 1468 and 1473 along with concern that those proceeds should have gone to the government and the Church. Certain behaviors (some actual religious practices - others created by the Inquisitors) were labeled by the Church as “Judaising” and were strictly prohibited under punishment of death.
As of 1478, any convert suspected or accused (however haphazardly) of Judaising was tried and put through an “act of faith” (auto de fe), the result of which was always one form of horrible punishment or another. None of the accused was found innocent - the only two possible outcomes of the Church’s would-be trials were guilt by admission and guilt with denial, the latter being cause for Church and State sponsored execution. Certain Church historians have recently asserted that anti-Semitism was not one of the main motivators for Rome or Spain, pointing out that the Inquisition only targeted converted Jews accused of Judaising, not Jews who refused to convert. This argument seems less convincing in view of Ferdinand’s expulsion of the Jews (including and especially the ones who never converted) from the country of Spain in 1492.
Any Jew or Muslim who had not converted and did not leave Spain was thereafter legally executed by the Crown with the Pope’s knowledge and approval. Many practicing Jews and Muslims had left Spain by early August of 1492 and any who did not leave were executed soon afterwards. Many of the converts were killed anyway when they were accused of heresy thereafter, usually people who a) had money and/or b) could be accused of having a Jewish or Muslim ancestor, whether it was true or not.
The Spanish Inquisition was loosely connected with the Holy Office of the Inquisition into Heretical Depravity (which lacked the manpower/resources to conduct the inquisition properly). The Holy Office of the Inquisition into Heretical Depravity was responsible for many other inquisitions, largely targeting Christian dissenters, secular freethinkers and Jews.
The Inquisition was removed during Napoleonic rule (1808–1812), but reinstituted when Ferdinand VII of Spain recovered the throne. It was officially ended on 15 July 1834. Schoolmaster Cayetano Ripoli, garroted to death in Valencia on July 26, 1826 (allegedly for teaching Deist principles), was the last person executed by the Spanish Inquisition. 

 

The Catholic Church's holy terror

A docudrama based on secret Vatican files shows people literally arguing for their lives
By Brian Bethune
"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Monty Python famously joked in 1970, and we all laughed, probably quite unaware that only a century earlier the Holy Office of the Inquisition into Heretical Depravity -- to give the Roman Catholic Church's enforcer its proper, ominous name -- was still hard at work. For 600 years the Inquisition was a real and dangerous presence in the lives of millions and, in the minds of those the Church persecuted as enemies of the true faith -- Christian dissenters, secular freethinkers and Jews -- the ultimate icon of religious tyranny. Even now its name conjures up nightmares of Pit and Pendulum-style torture and victims burning at the stake. So potent is the image that it's never been easy to separate the Inquisition of myth from the Inquisition of history. But the Vatican's 1998 decision to open up its files -- made by Pope Benedict XVI when he was still the cardinal in charge of the Inquisition's archives -- finally allowed historians to make a start.
And not just historians. The Vatican announcement also caught the imagination of American filmmaker David Rabinovitch. "My first thought was, 'There's got to be some stories there,' " he told reporters. And so it proved. His four-part docudrama, Secret Files of the Inquisition, which began airing on Vision TV on Feb. 1, brings to life chilling incidents through the actual words -- spoken by an all-Canadian vocal cast, including narrator Colm Feore -- of a kaleidescope of victims, people literally arguing for their lives.
During the 15th- and 16th-century Inquisition in Spain, which was primarily motivated by a profound anti-Semitism, the main targets were conversos -- Jews who had converted to Christianity in recent years, often at the point of a sword, or their descendants. Spanish Catholics suspected most, if not all, of them of still being secret Jews. (Ironically, professing Jews were not directly subject to the Inquisition's tender mercies: its legal mandate was to root out heresy among Christians.) So the interrogators obsessed over the telltale minutiae of everyday life, particularly food. "There was salt pork on the table, but she ate none," was the damning testimony of one witness about a converso. There were endless questions about recipe ingredients, so much so that one historian has created a medieval cookbook solely from inquisitorial records.
Scholars tend to doubt the plausibility of most accusations of secret Judaism, but sometimes the charges were true. Rabinovitch's story centres on a young woman, baptized Juana but called Cinfa by her family members who had for decades lived a dangerous double existence, trying to preserve their lives and their ancestral faith. Betrayed by neighbours, Cinfa remained defiant to the end, her last words to her torturers among the most stirring in the records: "You are the ones who are lost. We are the fortunate ones. And don't call me Juana -- my name is Cinfa."
In the French Pyrenean village of Montaillou, inquisitors turned up a soap opera-worthy web of heresy, local politics and sexual jealousy in 1308, most of it swirling about Pierre Clergue, village priest, heretic sympathizer and local Casanova. Clergue's conquests included the local noblewoman, wooed through his unorthodox theology: he assured her that God had forgiven their sexual trespasses even before they happened. It is impossible to tell, in fact, if Clergue's heretical beliefs were genuine or simply aids to seduction. A French historian once wrote that it seemed every woman in the village had slept with the priest, wanted to sleep with him, or had deloused him. (The last was a common medieval lovers' intimacy, one with million-year-old roots -- consider chimpanzee foreplay -- that modern hygiene has thankfully abolished.) In the end, only one villager went to the stake out of more than 100 interrogated; many others were imprisoned or sentenced to wear yellow crosses on their clothing, the reconciled heretic's equivalent of a Jew's yellow star.
Rabinovitch argues that his rich source material proves that "evil loves to document itself." But that's not really true. Far more often, evil likes to hide its tracks, as any historian who has tried to find a paper trail linking Adolf Hitler to Auschwitz will attest. Those meticulous notes were taken by men convinced of their own righteousness. What those records do show is the fate of individuals caught up in great historical storms: most are accidental and half-hearted participants, but all of them have to decide whether to bend with the wind or stand and die for their beliefs.

John Henrick Clarke

Tuskeegee Experiment Exposed

Stolen Legacy

http://www.jpanafrican.com/ebooks/eBook%20Stolen%20Legacy.pdf

Stolen Legacy

The greatest crime Europe committed against the world is the intellectual theft of Africa's heritage. Empires could be stolen, whole countries snatched and named after pirates rapists and swindlers. Palaces and monumental edifices destroyed could be rebuild. But when you steal a people's cultural patrimony, and used it to enslaved and insult them, you have committed unforgivable acts that border on the sacrilege.

That Greece invented philosophy, the Arts and the Sciences is the only basis on which the arrogance of Europe stands. It is those things credited to the Greek that made every European believed himself superior to other peoples\races. Conversely, it is the awe with which the other races view these grand ancient achievements, which made them cringe at the altar of supposed European superiority.

What course would the history of the world had taken if the European scholars[?] had not FALSELY claim for the Greeks what is certainly not theirs? Would the arrogance of Europeans not have been diminished if the truth about the contribution of Africa to human civilization have been correctly stated and interpreted? Would Africans have held themselves in such self-contempt if they have tried sooner to uncover the truth about their past? Would Africans be cringing at the altar of westernism if they know that almost every idea Europeans are using today was brazenly stolen from us? Would we be supplicating to a supposed son of an imaginary god if we knew that we gave RELIGION to the world?

Every European hold 'Greek Civilization' as an inspiration. They go around the world with volumes upon volumes celebrating Greek this, Greek that. From their original abode in Europe to the real estate they stole from other people, they shouted on top-voice about how they single-handedly invented and sustained human civilization! Sororities are created at institutions of higher learning. 'Great thinkers' waxed lyrical and sentimental about 'Greek Civilization.' In the same vein, Africans are lamenting their singular historic 'un-achievement.' Some even believe that theirs is a 'cursed-race.'

"The term Greek philosophy, to begin with is a misnomer, for there is no such philosophy in existence. The ancient Egyptians had developed a very complex religious system, called the Mysteries, which was also the first system of salvation." That was the opening statement from Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy, by George G.M. James.

George James began his book by informing us that the Egyptian Mystery System was the oldest in the world and was 'also a Secret Order, and membership was gained by initiation and a pledge to secrecy. The teaching was graded and delivered orally to the Neophyte; and under these circumstances of secrecy, the Egyptians developed secret systems of writing and teaching, and forbade their Initiates from writing what they had learn.' - p.1

The Egyptians have developed their systems and taught same to Initiates around the world long before the Greeks were allowed into the temples. It was only after the invasion of Alexander the Destructor (called the Great by western mythorians) when the temples and the libraries were plundered, that the Greek gained access to all the ancient books, on which Aristotle built his own school and his reputation as the wisest man that ever lived!

In the first chapter of his book, James masterfully destroyed the myth of a Greek philosophy. Pythagoras, the oldest of the so-called Greek-thinkers was a student in Egypt for several years. He was exiled when he started to teach what he had learned. Socrates was executed for teaching 'foreign ideas.' Plato was sold into slavery. Aristotle was also exiled. What we are asked to believed by western scholars was that these ancient Greeks were persecuted in a society that is sufficiently advanced in philosophy.

On what basis do western scholars claim philosophy for Greece? Because the literature were written in Greece. As is still in existence unto today, most Orders prohibit their members from writing down what they learn. This explains why Socrates, as even the Encyclopedia Britannica admitted, did not commit anything to writing! The Babylonians and the Chaldeans, who also studied under the Egyptian Masters, also refused to publish those teachings. It is usurpers like Plato and Aristotle that brought into book forms all the secret teachings of Egyptian and claim authorship!

George James pointed out the absurdity of this stance. The Hebrew scriptures, called the Septuagint, the Gospels and the Epistles were also written in Greek, why are the Greek not claiming authorship of them? 'It is only the unwritten philosophy of the Egyptians translated into Greek that has met such an unhappy fate: a legacy stolen by the Greeks.'

This is not the only absurdities James pointed out in the book. Another instance: The number of books whose authorship is credited to Aristotle is simply impossible to be the work of one single man, even in our age when word-processing software makes writing a lot easier. We also have to keep in mind that Aristotle was purported to have been taught by Plato. Plato, as the books, show was a philosopher. Aristotle is still regarded as the greatest scientist of antiquity. The question thus beggared is how could Plato taught Aristotle what he didn't know himself?

The truth of the matter was that Aristotle, aided by Alexander the Destroyer (some called him the Great), secured the books from the Egyptian Royal Libraries and Temples. 'In spite however of such great intellectual treasure, the death of Aristotle marked the death of philosophy among the Greeks, who did not seem to possess the natural abilities to advance these sciences.' p. 3

'The aim of this book is to establish better race relations in the world, by revealing a fundamental truth concerning the contribution of the African Continent to civilization. It must be borne in mind that the first lesson in the Humanities is to make a people aware of their contribution to civilization; and the second lesson is to teach them about other civilizations. By this dissemination of the truth about the civilization of individual peoples, a better understanding among them, and a proper appraisal of each other should follow. This notion is based upon the notion of the Great Master Mind: Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.' Consequently, the book is an attempt to show that the true authors of Greek philosophy were not the Greeks; but the people of North Africa, commonly called the Egyptians; and the praise and honor falsely given to the Greeks for centuries belong to the people of North Africa, and therefore to the African Continent. Consequently this theft of the African legacy by the Greeks led to the erroneous world opinion that the African Continent has made no contribution to civilization, and that its people are naturally backward. This is the misrepresentation that has become the basis of race prejudice, which has affected all people of color.

For centuries the world has been misled about the original source of the Arts and Sciences; for centuries Socrates, Plato and Aristotle have been falsely idolized as models of intellectual greatness; and for centuries the African continent has been called the Dark Continent, because Europe coveted the honor of transmitting to the world, the Arts and Sciences.' p.7

To leave no one in doubt about the cogency of his impressive arguments, chapter one (Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy) opens with an examination of the stories of the so- called 'Greek Philosophers. Pythagoras, after receiving his training in Egypt, went back to his native Samos and established an Order as was the custom in those days. Anaximander and Anaximenes, native, Parmenides, Zeno and Melissus were all native of Ionia and they taught nothing but Egyptian mysteries. Ditto, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras and Democritus. What we have to remember here is that Ionia was a colony of Egypt (readers are directed to Martin Bernal's, Black Athena,published by Vintage, especially vol. I, ISBN 0 09 988780 0). At the apex of its glory, Egypt held sway over much of the known world. The Ionians would later become Persian subjects after the fall of Egypt, before they even became Greek citizens.

All of these Ionians did not claim for themselves the glory of philosophy or the sciences. The Persians and the Chaldeans were also introduced to the Ancient Mystery Systems, yet they did not claim authorship. It was the Athenians - Socrates, Plato and Aristotle who usurped this African legacy and thereby distorted the reality of human history. What is quite clear was that it was Athens that those who taught the mysteries were persecuted the most until Alexander's time. We know with certainty that these philosophers were roundly persecuted by the Athenian Government for teaching foreign doctrines.

What is incredible about these 'Great Philosopher' is the total lack of any knowledge about their early lives. The world is asked to believe that these men who possessed all the super-natural abilities attributed to them had no education, no training, philosophy, mathematics and the sciences just came to them! The only evidence adduced for this fraud was that the books were written by the Orders founded by the Athenian impostors. But as James repeatedly reminded us, the ancient Egyptians forbade their pupils from writing, and this injunction was obeyed by all but the Athenians. We have to excuse Socrates, whom James believed to be the only properly trained Initiate. Instead of divulging the secrets he had learned, he drank a poison. Both Plato and Aristotle fled. Yet they came back and claim the credits!

The crucial question of how Aristotle got all the books that bore his credit is easily answered by the simple historical fact that he went with his friend, Alexander, in the latter campaign and conquest. After Egypt was conquered and destroyed, the Royal Library and the Temples were looted by Aristotle. It was with these books that he established his own school and, aided by his pupils, Theophrastus, Andronicus of Rhodes and Eudemus, started to copy the books. These men were also credited with the authorship of several books, and it was them who formed the organization of 'The Learned study of Aristotle Writings.' 'It would certainly appear that the object of the Learned Association was to beat Aristotle's own drum and dance. It was Aristotle's idea to compile a history of philosophy, and it was Aristotle's school and its alumni that carried out the idea, we are told." (p.19)

Chapter II, 'So-Called Greek Philosophy was Alien to the Greeks And their Conditions of Life.' Here James drew for us the conditions under which the Greeks were living at this period in history. According to the western mythorians, the period of 'Greek Philosophy' was located 640-322 BC. 'The period of Greek philosophy (640-322 BC was a period of internal and external wars, and was therefore unsuitable for producing philosophers. History supports the fact that from the time of Thales to the time of Aristotle, The Greeks were victims of internal disunion, on the one hand, while on the other, they lived in constant fear of invasion from the Persians who were a common enemy to the city states.

. . . The obstacles against the origin and development of Greek philosophy, were not only the frequency of wars; and the constant defense against Persian aggression; but also the threat of extermination from the Athenian government, its worst enemy.' pp. 21-26

Chapter three shows that the so-called 'greek Philosophy' was just an offspring of the Egyptian Mystery System. All the arts, philosophy and religion, credited to the Greeks have been in existence in Egypt thousands of years before the Greeks were permitted to learn them. 'The earliest theory of salvation is the Egyptian theory. The Egyptian Mystery System has as its most important object, the deification of man, and taught that the soul of man if liberated from its bodily fetters, could enable him to become godlike and see the Gods in this life and attain the beatific vision and hold communion with the immortals.' (Ancient Mysteries, C.H. Vail. P.32)

Close attention should be paid to the foregoing paragraph. What that simply means is that a system of beliefs that Africans evolved thousands of years ago, has been distorted and use to abuse the Africans today!

When Western mythorians roll out Aristotle, Plato and Socrates, they fail to tell their audience how these guys were persecuted by their own government. These 'philosophers' were persecuted for the exactly the same reason - 'introducing strange divinities.' Socrates charge sheet read, in part, 'Socrates commit a crime by not believing in the Gods of the city, and by introducing other new divinities. He also commit a crime by corrupting the youth.' He was further accused of 'busying himself with investigating things beneath the earth and in the sky,a nd who makes the worse appear the better reason, and who teaches others the same thing.' Whereas astronomy was part of the required study in the Egyptian schools, the Athenian government was persecuting its citizens for pursuing such studies. Who, now, is the father of what?

Chapter three further dealt with the Egyptian mystery systems and show its close correlation with what has been wrongly attributed to the Greeks. Even the structures of the Lodges are built to Egyptian standards.

The conquest of Alexander and the destruction of the Lodges and the libraries plus the edicts of Theodosius and Justinian suppressed the Egyptian mystery systems and the Greek philosophy schools alike, paving the way for christianity which is nothing but a badly mis-understood Egyptian religion.

In chapter four, we learn how the Greeks were allowed into Egypt where they have been banned for several years. 'Owing to the practice of piracy, in which the Ionians, and Garians were active, the Egyptians were forced to make immigration laws restricting the immigration of the Greeks and punishing their infringement by capital punishment, i.e, the sacrifice of the victim.' - p.41. It was Egyptian king Amasis who lifted the restriction and allowed the Greeks to enter Egypt as mercenaries - they were not permitted to study until the persian invasion. And it was not until the Alexandrian conquest that they gained access to the libraries, most especially the Royal Library at Alexandria, which was converted into a Greek city.

Plato himself attested to the fact (in his Timaeus) that Greek aspirant to wisdom visited Egypt for initiation, and that the Egyptian priests refer to them as children in the mysteries.

It was Herodotus who informed us that Pythagoras was allowed into Egypt only after Polycrates (king of his native Samos and a friend of Amasis) gave him a letter of introduction. Even after that, he had to undergo several trials including circumcision which was compulsory - "Apud Aegyptios nullus aut geometrica studebat, aut astonomiae secreta remabatur, nisi circumcisione suscepta,' (No one among the Egyptians, either studied geometry, or investigated the secrets of Astronomy, unless circumcision had been undertaken.)" - p.44. It was to Pythagoras that the world is giving credit for a theorem that the Egyptians most certainly used in building their pyramids!

Herodotus, Diogenes, Laertuis informed us that Democritus travelled to Egypt to receive instructions from the priests. Plato was also shown to have undergone similar pilgrimage.

In Chapter five through chapter seven, George James analyzed the doctrines of the so-called Greek philosophers and convincingly show their Egyptian origin. From pre-Socratic 'Philosophers' like Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes and Pythagoras to Eleatic 'philosophers' like Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno and Melissus, to the Ionian school of Heraclitus, Anaxagoras and Democritus, he showed that what history has attributed to these impostors were nothing but what they copied from the Egyptians.

In these, the most important chapters, James concluded that the Greeks were guilty of plagiarism of the highest order.

Chapter eight dealt with the Memphite Theology which 'is an inscription on a stone, now kept in the British Museum. It contains the theological, cosmological and philosophical views of the Egyptians. It has already been referred to in my treatment of Plato's doctrines; but it must be repeated here to show its full importance as the basis of the entire field of Greek philosophy.' p. 139. Here James show how portions of the philosophy of the Memphite Theology were assigned to the Greeks. This is a very important chapter as it throws enough light, not only on the whole argument of where the Greek got the ideas credited to them, but also about the true source of modern scientific knowledge.'

If the modern Nebular hypothesis credited to Laplace which holds that our present solar system was once a molten gaseous nebula is ever proven right, credit should go to the ancient Egyptians. Their cosmology is strikingly similar. They knew that the universe was created from fire. The Egyptian God Atum (Atom) together with his eight Created Gods that composed the Ennead or Godhead of nine, this correspond with our nine major planets. Atom, the sun God, was the Unmoved Mover, a doctrine which has been falsely attributed to Aristotle. Likewise, the injunction, 'Know Thyself,' was wrongly attributed to Socrates. As James pointed out, it was an inscription found on every Egyptian Temple. The Cardinal virtues, justice, wisdom, temperance and courage which was falsely credited to Plato owed their origin to the Egyptian Masters.

We also learn the attributes of the Egyptian God Atum which is shared by modern ATOM: The similarity of names; the Egyptian God means self-created, everything and nothing, a combination of positive and negative principles:- all-inclusiveness and emptiness. Even beginner science students will recognized these as the properties of atoms.

In the concluding chapter nine, 'Social Reformation through the New Philosophy of African Redemption,' James wrote: 'Now that it has been shown that philosophy, and the arts and sciences were bequeathed to civilization by the people of North Africa and not by the people of Greece; the pendulum of praise and honor is due to shift from the people of Greece to the people of the African continent who are the rightful heirs of such praise and honor.

This is going to mean a tremendous change in world opinion, and attitude, for all people and races who accept the new philosophy of African redemption, ie the truth that the Greeks were not the authors of Greek philosophy; but the people of North Africa; would change their opinion from one of disrespect to one of respect for the Black people throughout the world and treat them accordingly.

It is going to mean a most important change in the mentality of the Black people: a change from an inferiority complex, to the realization and consciousness of their equality with all the other great peoples of the world, who have built great civilizations. With this change in mentality of the Black and White people, great changes are also expected in their respective attitudes towards each other, and in society as a whole.' p. 153.

James sketched for us a simple New Philosophy of Redemption which consists of the following proposition: 'The Greeks were not the authors of Greek Philosophy, but the Black people of North Africa, The Egyptians.'

He exhorted us to live up to this philosophy. 'Being liberated from inferiority complex by their New Philosophy of Redemption, which is destined to destroy the chain of false tradition which has incarcerated them, the Black people must face and interpret the world according to their new vision and philosophy. Throughout the centuries up to our modern times, world conditions have been influenced by two phenomena which has affected human relations:

1. - The giving of false praise to the Greeks: a conduct which appears to be an educational policy conducted by education institutions...
2. - The second phenomena is Missionary enterprise whereby Black people's culture has been caricatured in literature and exhibitions, in such specimens as provoke disrespect and laughter. Let us not forget that the Roman Emperors Theodosius and Justinian were responsible for the abolition of the Egyptian Mysteries that is the culture system of the Black people, and also for the establishment of Christianity for its perpetual suppression.' pp. 159-160.