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.
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