African Pyramids Of Knowledge Summary

Marcus Garvey, a ‘proponent of Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements” (), once stated that “a people without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” (Good Reads Quotes) He was in fact very much so right. Most people in this world care about where they come from, who they descended from and where the backbone of their identity lies. Have you ever wondered why almost most orphans tend to look for their family lines or go out in search of where they belong? It is with this very essence my quest to look for answers and investigate about two very distinct yet similar groups. The groups I examine throughout this paper are Africans and African-Americans. What I seek to find out is why two very ‘distinct’ yet similar groups of people fail to see eye to eye, judging from the fact that Africans and African-Americans look alike, originated from Africa and their histories and culture somehow intertwine with each other. The main question here really is: what are the factors that hinder the relationship between Africans and African-American people.

Ever since the European colonists settled in what is now America, they have used exploitation as a means for their own advantage. Whether done so with the Native Americans who lived on the land before their arrival, or with the Africans who were uprooted and brought to the new colonies, the mistreatment of the “other,” that is, anyone different from the Europeans, was cruel and unjust as they persistently treated them as subhuman. As a result, many African Americans wrote against their mistreatment at the first chance they had. One such author was Olaudah Equiano who establishes his credibility at the beginning of and throughout the entirety of his argument against slavery by portraying his identity in a dual fashion to show his authority on the subject to his audiences.

In this first-hand account, Blyden speaks directly to African American people encouraging them to embrace their Africa roots. He wants African Americans to feel a connection to Africa, as well as understand important information about Africa. In several places in this text he tries to dispel some myths that were commonly held in the 19th century, and even today. Myths like there was never any great society that existed in Africa, and Africa was completely uncivilized. However, even though Blyden dispelled many of these myths, he also played into them. He did this by stating that African Americans could go to Africa and help “furnish a development of civilization which this world has never seen” (201). He makes an argument that Africa is civilized, and

The cultural diversity and advancements portray the progression developed in African history. The growth of these two subcontinents prove that American and European historians were incorrect on how advanced and civilized Africa was.

In Basil Davidson’s video “Different but Equal,” he outlines the European perception of Africa upon their discovery of the continent. Claims that the Europeans were making about African culture, however, were far fetched and did not depict Africa in a positive manner. History according to pre-European Africa was rich and diverse, but once Europeans saw for themselves how different their continent was from Africa, they began to make up their own version of African history.

However, Professor Muggins is, of course, far more concerned with Black America than with Black Africa, and here his journal is much more persuasive. He is right to point out that all forms of social and cultural achievement among the slaves - such as the black family, black Christianity and black speech, music and dance - can be shown to be essentially black achievements. Far from being parodies by inferior beings of white models, these were heroic achievements, constructed and maintained in the face of white attitudes that ranged from condescending amusement through indifference to outright hostility. They preserved, for the Afro-American people, individual and collective self-respect, and prevented them, as Professor Huggins rightly emphasizes, from being mere victims. Furthermore, they contributed to American culture in general some of its most vital, characteristic and creative achievements - hence the paradox that no Americans are more American than the black slaves and their descendants, who were excluded from full membership of American society, North or South.

This idea has taken on many different forms over the past century and a half, and its discourse has evolved alongside the major works of prominent figures like W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Delany, and Marcus Garvey. A common theme among these thinkers is the notion of historicizing the development of black culture relative to diasporic movements in the preceding centuries. However, they differ significantly in their visions and aspirations for the culture at large, as well as in their interpretations of how peoples of African descent should behave with respect to the dominant (primarily white) societies in which they live and function. In particular, earlier scholars like Du Bois tended to “sustain their faith in a partnership with white allies, wagering that [their] commitments to ‘civilization building’ ... would hasten the day when they and their race would be respected as equal partners” (Ewing 16). In contrast, Garvey, a contemporary of Locke, supported a radical agenda for African independence, and a mass migration to bring peoples of African descent back to Africa (Ewing 76).

It is generally accepted by scholars and scientists today that Africa is the original home of man. One of the most tragic misconceptions of historical thought has been the belief that Black Africa had no history before European colonization. Whites foster the image of Africa as a barbarous and savage continent torn by tribal warfare for centuries. It was a common assumption of nineteenth-century European and American Whites - promoted by the deliberate cultivation of pseudoscientific racism - that Africans were inferior to Whites and were devoid of any trace of civilization or culture.

Africans have, since the early settlement of America, has had a great influence in the nation’s growth. These contributions to the United States from enslaved Africans have been greatly portrayed in American culture. Varying from cuisine, to song and dance are not only portrayed today but it has a deep-rooted impact throughout the United States. During the middle passage, enslaved Africans were forced to abandon their everyday lives, their families and their homes and forced to adapt to a new lifestyle they knew nothing of. However, upon arrival into the New World, due to their prior knowledge and wisdom from back home, they were able to quickly adapt and custom themselves to this new lifestyle in order to survive with the hope of potentially one day returning back to Africa. Unfortunately, African contributions to the culture of the United States has received little to no recognition and it has been taken credit for by Europeans and Whites since the early establishment of the United States.

In the last 50 years much has been done to combat the entirely false and negative views about the history of Africa and Africans, which were developed in Europe in order to justify the Transatlantic Slave Trade and European colonial rule in Africa that followed it. In the eighteenth century such racist views were summed up by the words of the Scottish philosopher David Hume, who said, ‘I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There scarcely ever was a civilised nation of that complexion, nor even any individual, eminent either in action or in speculation. No ingenious manufacture among them, no arts, no sciences”. In the nineteenth

     Out of all of the continents, Africa is the most central. It is told that the first man was found in Africa, so with this, many feel that Africa is the birthplace of human culture. Within this continent, there are many different lifestyles, which are lived. Many blame the variety of lifestyles on western influence, but the truth is that different lifestyles began thousands of years before the west had influence on Africa. African’s

1. “The particular cultures and societies of Africa and of the Americas discussed in this chapter

In the book Dr. Williams ' thesis was that Africans had enormous civilizations but that the Semitic and Caucasian people destroyed them in hopes of imperializing them. This book established why other folks destroyed black civilizations and how black folks are always victims of other people’s depredations and predatory behaviors upon them which leads to sole domination against the expected “inferior” population.

The key to find the “Black Nationality” was by establishing an American colony in Africa. Christianity, Commerce and Civilization were the plane to build the colony. Whereas the Africans will be converted to Christianity and that what the Americans and English would prefer to happen: generalization of the Christianity over Africa. “Delany 's efforts, epitomized this approach. In an open letter to the Eng-lish, Garnet stated the Society 's goals: "We feel it to be our duty, as well as privilege, to give the Gospel and Christian Civilization to our Father-land .... With the blessing of God we hope to secure, as the result of our efforts, the triumph of the Gospel in Africa, and the consequent overthrow of idolatry and superstition” (Blacket). And the commerce which it would bring the profits to the colonizer, it would motivate the colonizer to establish and aid the colony financially. “"It is possible that a settlement of American blacks near Lagos if under special British protection might obtain some aid from Englishmen” (Blacket). Christianity and commerce would be a strong foundation ideologically and financially to initiate a strong civilization in Africa that would form the Africans nation. Then, the African nation could be the home to receive the African descendants and be the original home for the Africans who will stay in America after the Civil War. “no nation can exist as a viable entity without a homeland, to which allegiance can be given and from which

Why were the pyramids so important to the history of Egypt? Pyramids housed dead, important pharaohs and is now a main source of income through tourism. Pyramids were representations of Ancient Egyptian religion, and also benefit many people by learning more about it.