Friday 15 July 2011

HOW AFRICANS LED THE WORLD IN CIVILIZATION

BY JUSTICE TABARO PATRICK

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s inaugural discourse in the Sunday vision of November 4 on the similarities of African culture opens the forum for interrogation of racist scholarship that portrays the African people as hopeless since eternity and incapable of re-organizing themselves. My contribution will be limited to culture, science (including mathematics, medicine, religion, and astronomy) philosophy and religion, since as a judge, I cannot participate in political debate because our system of government demands that judges to refrain from partisan politics.
First let as deal with the origin of the name Africa. It is now settled that human beings evolved in Africa. The theory put forward by Dr. Leakey, based on the age of fossils discovered in this region, was amplified by Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop, a Senegalese nuclear physicist who devoted his lifetime (1923-1985) to scholarship. Dr. Diop, exploiting his rich knowledge of nuclear physics and chemistry, established that among the human beings there is a clear genetic sequence defining racial characteristics. African genes are the most diverse and original, indicative of precedence in appearance on earth among humanity. European genes are mutant in nature, suggesting mutation of Africans after they crossed from the African continent to the Eurasia land mass. The mutation was due to changes in climate and environment.
Intermarriages between whites and blacks resulted into Arabs, Jews another Semites. This is inferred from hybrid nature of their genes, showing interbreeding between Africans and Europeans. Other groups such as Chinese and Japanese show characteristics indicative of further interbreeding from earlier groups. Hence there is only one unigenic, linear emergence of human beings, from black to white, to brown to yellow.
The earlier theory of polygenic evolution has been disproved. There are no human beings on earth who do not fall within the aforesaid evolutionary sequence. The disgraced polygenic theory of evolution held that whites, blacks, browns and yellows arose from different sources and are different types of beings. It was racist in nature and sought to project some human beings as special and superior to others.
After human being acquired tools and developed the capacity to tame and harness nature, some of them settled along the Nile valley. More than 10,000 years ago the Africans inhabiting the Nile Valley had developed agriculture- wheat, barley, millet, lentils, beans, peas, onions, cabbages, lettuces, grapes, figs and pomegranates were grown. Flax for linen cloth and papyrus for paper making were important plants in the Nile valley, especially in Egypt (The March of Civilization, F.G.T. 1950).
With civilization came humankind’s capacity to move in defiance of wild beasts and nature generally. By 4230 BC, Egyptians had invented the calendar based on annual revolution of the earth around the sun and epochs were counted with the appearance of the star Sirius, which is visible only once in 1,460 years. When it appeared, year one began and after 1,460 years the epoch would close and counting, with the first year would begin again. The black people of Dogon of Mali retain this memory to this day. They have never forgot or lost their system of writing, astronomy, philosophy or mathematics inherited from the ancient Egyptians. Egypt comes from Aigyptos, which is Greek for land of black people. The Egyptians called themselves Khemite, which also means Black.
In subsequent contributions it will be show how the black character of Egypt changed to its present state. The inventors of the calendar, which is basically what is in use today, were also the builders of the pyramids from which structures such as temples, libraries, observatories for study of the stars (astronomy). From the pyramids you can calculate the distance from the sun to the earth, get proof that the perimeter at the base was a comparison with the revolution the planet Venus makes around the sun and the engineers had knowledge of cardinal points of the earth.
We are not engaging in fairy tales. From the features of the pharaohs and fossils of the human beings of the time and from literature etc, the civilization of the Great Pyramids (about 3,00 BC) was Bantu in character (Cheikh Anta Diop, 1991 (1981) English translation). Cheikh Anta Diop regards his language, Wolof, as Semi-Bantu in essence. It is spoken by 95% of the Senegalese people and retains remarkable similarities with ancient Egyptians (ibid). The Mashona people of Zimbabwe who built the cities that now lie in ruins known to the history as Zimbabwe are Bantu. The similarities in culture and language of the people of Africa are a result of the commonality of civilization in the Nile valley in the past.
rom the interior of Africa some communities moved in all directions –southwards, northwards, eastwards and westwards. Among the people who settled on the Mediterranean coast were the Afri (sometimes spelt Afer)- Ivan Van Sertima 1992, Editor. During Roman times the area these people occupied in Tunisia and neighboring territories was known as Afriqia (from Afr.) The Roman governor or conqueror of the province thus became Africanus - conqueror of Africa. Africanus was named after Africa and not the other way round. Students of literature will note in Caesar and Cleopatra by Bernard Shaw that the ruler or conqueror of Britain could be referred to as Britainicus.
According to information which we have interacted with this year, evidence covered by the New Scientist magazine indicates that Egyptian capacity to read and write extended to earlier than 5,000 BC, as opposed to invention of the earliest calendar available in 4,230 BC.
However, this does not change the anteriority of the black civilization to any other in the world. The spread of African civilization to Asia, Europe, and pre-Columbian America because of its significance must be covered in a separate article. Above all, Greek classical civilization (650-300 BC) from which European claim mastery of knowledge is too recent. The philosophers and mathematicians, scientists, etc such as Thales and Aristole, the end point of the scale (650-300BC), are shown never to have known more than the wisdom or science of the Egyptian. The Greeks of the time especially Herodotus, who lived at that time and wrote the history of the time described the Egyptians of the period as having wooly hair, and dark in complexion--typical Africans. He (Herodotus) made it clear that Greeks borrowed their ideas from the Egyptians. Herodotus was one of the most prominent intellectuals of the time.
The Epoch-making scholarship of recent times in Europe typified by Isaac Newton, Copernicus, John Dalton, etc was based on heavily borrowed from Egyptian knowledge systems. What about the burning of the Great Library at Alexandria, which had been established by Egyptians?
What about Memphite theology (750 BC) which many authoritative scholars believe is the basis of all modern science and philosophy? Ancient Egyptians made no distinction between science and religion. The Memphite Theology was authored by a black Pharaoh called Shabaka.
Incidentally the Egyptian empire probably extended, at its zenith, from Ethiopia to the Atlantic Ocean (Chancellor Williams, 1991). Ethiopia in Greek means land of sun-burnt people- land of blacks. I have started an article entitled “The Ethnicity of Bafumbira and British Conquest of South Western Uganda-Kisoro Today (2005)’’ that the Batusi entered this region from Ethiopia - land of black people through Acholi, before Asian and Europeans invaders turned it brown in the northern parts. Some of the blackest Africans I have seen in Kisoro District (my birthplace) are Batusi or the Bahima of Ankole. At the time of colonization the ruling dynasties were Batusi in Rwanda (which then encompassed Kisoro) and Bahima in Ankole.
The state of law and order was impressive and so John Speke posulated that no African was capable of possessing such administrative acumen, and hence the Batusi and Bahima were not Africans, but Hamites--aclear affront to the Africans people. Once it becomes clear to scholarship and the ordinary reader that the founders of the Egyptian civilization from which European civilization was built, had melanin in their bodies to the same level as blacks do south of the Sahara and that Africans owe their blackness to melanin, it will be unnecessary to quarrel with John Speke and other racist authors--the Africans will reclaim their glorious past and put racial theories where they belong-- to the dustbin of history. It is melanin and hence blackness that identifies Africans from other people. The Batusi or the Bahima, did not acquire their melanin/blackness from the sky. They inherited it from their black ancestors.
Once it is established that Africa’s misery is not genetic, but is due to cultural, socio-economic factors and that Africans led humanity in civilization until recently, then ideas can be exchanged without self-doubt on the part of Africans, or racial condescension on the part of Europeans and their kin. John Speke who put forward his racial theory in 1860s should have been aware that 1801 Count Volney, the famous French scholar who was in Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, made it clear that Egyptian civilization was black in character.

AFRICAN HERITAGE SERIES:THREE; -BLACKS GAVE THE WORLD KNOWLEDGE

BY JUSTICE PATRICK TABARO

High Court of Uganda
 January 13, 2008

From my description of the pyramids in the Sunday vision of November 25, 2007, it is evident that black Egyptians were very advanced in civilization and had mastered astronomy, technology, mathematics, science, the arts, etc.
It is tragic that in our schools the pyramids are spoken of as mere burial structures (tombs) for Kings yet in fact they were much more. They served as centres of learning (colleges) and temples for scholars from other lands, priests, sages and prophets. The combination of tombs, colleges, temples, libraries, royal meeting places in one place was a result of the Egyptian belief that the dead, the living and the unborn belong to the same system.
Most Africans to day still hold that belief and the same doctrine survives in Christianity and Islam in resurrection of the body after death and trial for one's deeds on earth on the day of Judgment.
In Catholicism it is normal in prayer to invoke patron saints, who are departed persons, for intercession with God on behalf of supplicants. The Hindu doctrine of reincarnation is not much different.
 Over time, Egyptian learning and civilization spread to the Mediterranean Islands, Italy, India, China, Japan, etc. The Dravidian (black) people of India trace their ancestry to Africa and Leopold Senghor, the former president of Senegal, established a link between their languages and African languages. In 2005 at an international cultural studies workshop at Makerere University, one presenter, Prof. Dr.Murindwa Rutanga, stunned Ugandans by identifying words common to Rukiga and the Dravidian languages of southern India, the black civilization of India, the Harappan civilisation is well covered by Prof. Runoko Rashidi with Prof. Ivan van Sertima in African Presence in Early Asia.
Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop in The African Origin of Civilisations - Myth or Reality is further treatment of the theme that major civilisations of the world originate from black Egypt.
When Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492 he found there black settlers from the Mandinka community of West Africa. With this there can be no debate for it is from the biography of Christopher Columbus written by his own son.
If descendants of the Vikings should claim credit for having discovered America through Eric the Red, then they should be courteous enough to mention that Thorhall, a black man, jointly did so as Eric's deputy in 11th century (African Presence in Early Europe, van Sertima, 1985, 2000). It should come as no surprise, therefore, that the European map of America, drawn at the request of King Don Juan of Portugal in 1494 was based on information gleaned from the sailors of Guinea. The Africans found in the Americas were subsequently exterminated along with so many of the indigenous communities, known to the world as Red Indians.
The natives of Australia, Papua New Guinea and many other black people in the Pacific Ocean Islands (Melanesia or Black Asia ) came from Africa (Runoko,Rashidi, 2007). The misrepresentation of the African people in European scholarship led the eminent scholar, Fr.Alex Kagame, in Inganji Karinga to come to an unfortunate conclusion, by asserting that the Batutsi came from Ethiopia while the Bahutu came from Melanesia. It is the Melanesians who came from Africa and both Bahutu and Batutsi came from black areas of Africa. The Bahutu, the Batutsi and the Batwa constitute the Banyarwanda of Rwanda and neighbouring countries of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Tanzania. The differences in physique among Bahutu, Batutsi and Batwa are due to adaptation to changes in environment and climate since they took different routes to reach Rwanda, without forgetting the effect of diet since traditionally they ate different foods according to occupation.
We can now look at three intellectuals of classical Greek civilization - Thales (640-546 B.C.), Pythagoras (582-500 B.C.) and Aristotle who was among the last of the classical (Greek) philosophers. Aristotle was tutor to Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.), and accompanied him to Egypt after Alexander established the capital of his empire at the then greatest centre of learning. Both Pythagoras and Thales went to Egypt as did all great Greek intellectuals to access advanced knowledge.
Pythagoras who is taught at all levels of education in school mathematics and in philosophy at university will easily reveal the debt owned by Europe to Africa in matters of knowledge. He spent 22 years in Egypt gathering information about Egyptian science and later returned to Greece to establish his own centre of learning. He was a pupil of Thales.
By the time Pythagoras went to Egypt, the Egyptian had used the inclined plane to move blocks of stones up heights during the construction of the Pyramids 2,500 years before.
The philosophical doctrinesof Thales, Aristotle and Pythagoras can be dealt with together. First of all, the world philosophy has no root in any European language. It has its etymology in sofia - Egyptian for deep thought or divine speech which were the hallmarks of wisdom. The Greek philosophers who sojourned to Egypt to study were acutely aware that they were not equals of the Egyptians sages.
Tradition has it that they settled for being mere lovers of Egyptians wisdom (philo=love, Sophia=wisdom). That is how they came to be known as philosophers. Their doctrines such as immorality of the soul, salvation and God, the uncreated creator, owe their origin to the Memphite Theology of 750 B.C. (by which time classical Greek philosophers were not yet on the scene) compiled from the doctrines of the people of the interior of Africa. The theology is inscribed on a stone which is kept in the British Museum. It was an attempt by Egyptians to explain the origin of the universe.
The turning of chaos into order or logic (logos in Greek) shows the Egyptian /Africans origin of the New Testament though written in Greek. The sun was worshipped as the ultimate symbol of God. This is proof that they had realised that without the sun there could be no life on earth.
Early Egyptians made no distinction between religion, science or the arts. It was all knowledge and the most sophisticated elite was the clergy who were required to master science, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, music etc, as we know them. There was harmony between religion and science and the two reinforced each other. The belief in eternal life motivated men to construct eternal building e.g. the pyramids and other permanent structures for the departed souls to rest eternally in peace.
Like all other ancient people they believed that heavenly bodies affect and influence human lives on earth (astrologers still do).
The belief that heavenly bodies, especially stars, influence people motivated the black Egyptians to try and establish the distance between them (heavenly bodies) and the earth as well as between the bodies themselves. Hence, the perfection of astronomy and mathematics.
The war between religion and science was a consequence of the doctrines of Europeans in the Dark Ages. Later we shall show that the so- called Dark Ages in Europe were the golden ages elsewhere- in North Africa, the Middle East, China, etc. When Europe declined, religion sank to the level of superstition- remember the teaching in Europe that the sun moves around the earth? Whoever taught otherwise was imprisoned, like Galileo Galilei was.
Black Egyptians knew the truth - that the earth and the planets move around the sun and worshiped the sun precisely because of its centrality to life.
Although ancient Egyptians believe in many gods by the time of Pharaoh Ikhenaton, more than 600 years before classical Greeks, they had arrived at the doctrine that there is only one God. This predates the religious beliefs of all people.
From this observation it follows readily that the Greeks acquired their knowledge from the black Egyptians. From the Greeks, the Egyptian ideas spread to the rest of Europe, especially during the reign of Alexander the great (356-323).
When the Roman Empire collapsed in 476 A.D., Rome was occupied by barbarians and the Christian Dark ages set in. The Barbarians reduced Europe and the civilisation acquired from the Egyptians through the Greeks to ruins, ignorance and superstition. Although the Church kept a modicum of learning in the monasteries under the Monks, Europe became so backward that bathing became a rare event. The mathematics, science, astronomy, medicine etc inherited earlier from Egyptians disappeared.
We shall soon see why scientific terminology and mathematical formulae still bear Arabic tags. Mathematics, logarithms, algebra, acid, alkali, arithmetic, etc are either names of Muslim scholars or the subjects they popularized.
Although the Roman Empire extended to the Middle East, the main theatre of destruction was Western Europe. The destruction in northern Africa was mild and hence some Egyptian knowledge survived. Islam, unlike the Christianity of the day, encouraged learning generally, and paid much attention to science. It is significant that Arabia itself was initially populated by black people of Ethiopia (land of sun burnt people). The black people of North Africa, after 642 A.D. when Egypt was taken over by Arabs/Muslims, were the main motivation for the renaissance (rebirth of Europe).

AFRICAN HERITAGE SERIES: TWO; BLACKS GAVE SCIENCE TO EUROPE

BY JUSTICE PATRICK TABARO
High Court of Uganda

“How are we astonished when we reflect that to the race of Negroes at present our slaves and the objects of our extreme contempt, we owe our arts and science,” Count Volney, 1791 (Egypt vs Greece, by M.K. Asante and Ama Mazama, 2002).
The quotation above epitomises one of history’s greatest paradoxes the fall of Africans from the pinnacle of civilisation to the status of the wretched of the earth (to borrow Franz Fanon’s phase). Count Volney accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte to Egypt (1799 – 1801) in the latter’s quest to establish his short-lived empire. Volney was a scholar of great insight and objectivity. He went on to observe that original Egyptians “must have been real Negroes of the same species with all the natives of Africa.” He was a French man and so he had no desire or motive to falsify history in favour of Africans against Europeans.
Readers will have noticed from media publications that Japan and China, as examples are interested in the way each other’s history text books are written. The way history is taught affects our attitudes towards ourselves and other people we interact with, and thus can have practical implications. In this column, I have attempted to show from available academic publications, without any embellishment, that Africans should think of themselves as people who once “advanced and civilized the rest of the world, but due to certain factors, especially violence against them, later declined. It is significant emphasize that I am not a professional scholar or academic. I rely mainly on proven authorities to advance my views. In this discourse it is intended to show that science as learnt by Europeans in modern times is African in origin. The controversy as to whether the classical Greeks acquired their science and other form of knowledge from Africans (Egyptians) continues to engage the minds of intellectuals and general readers and observers. Greeks in European tradition are regarded as the paragons of rationality, abstract thinking, and the scientific spirit. Hence, to contend that Greeks were civilized by Africans is to challenge the whole edifice of European claim (on the part of racists) to superiority over “people of colour”, and equally important, to lay a ground for Africans demand to be treated with dignity. Your presenter is alive to famine, poverty and civil strife engulfing many parts of Africa; by pointing out some of our positive qualities and achievements it is hoped, to some measure, we can start thinking positively and eventually get our priorities right.
In academia and scholarship generally, writers talk about white triumphalism – the phenomenon of white preponderance globally in the last 500 years, in the exercise of power, influence in military, economic and cultural spheres. Martin Bernal, [a well-known author, who wrote Black Athena, The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilisation (1991, Vol. I)] and a European himself argued that Greeks acquired their civilization from Egyptians and some Asiatics. Leading intellectuals in America were up to arms against him. An entire book, Heresy in the University – Berlinerbalu (1999) was written largely based on the fact that Bernal was not trained in anthropology or sociology. One of the writers referred to Martin Bernal as the son of an infamous scientist. Dr. Martin Bernal’s father, Dr. David Bernal, wrote Science in History, in 4 volumes and was quite critical of the abuse of science (both physical and social) in some quarters in Europe and North America. Yet other authors raised doubts about his evidence and reasons in arriving at the conclusions that Greece was influenced by black – Egypt. He responded yet in another volume Black – Athena – Vol. II, the Archaeological and Documentary Evidence.” Of interest to readers, I hope, is Martin Bernal’s intention from his own explanation in writing his book, (a third volume, providing a linguistic proof that the Greek language has many of its roots, more than 25% in Egyptian was in the offing when I last acquainted myself with his works) to the effect that he wanted to curb European arrogance – by demonstrating that European achievements owe a lot to other cultures as well. My humble endeavor is to show the vital role-played by Africans in the crucial inventions and discoveries in European civilization – the spread of African knowledge to the rest of the world was traced in earlier presentations in this column. As earlier as indicated, if we go by the invention of writing by Africans, Africans became civilized over 6000 years ago: European dominance is only 500 years old; starting with the defeat of Moors (Blacks originating from North Africa) in 1492 at the hands of the Spanish when they were finally pushed out of Southern Europe into Africa. Moors were Islamized Africans who carried civilization to Europe after the European Dark Ages.
As matters of historical fact, the decisive inventions and discoveries in human affairs (culture and civilization) before modern times were made by people other Europeans. Among some of the crucial inventions and discoveries are printing, gunpowder, and the prismatic compass. The leading ‘discoveries’ made by Johannes Kepler on movement of the planets, Nicolaus Copernicus on the central position of the sun in our solar system, the foundation of modern mechanics by Isaac Newton, circulation of blood by William Harvey, were in fact African in origin.
The punishments meted out to Galileo Galilei and Giordano Bruno for their sins in opposing the Church will be compared to demonstrate European hostility to African ideas, and argue that the Eurocentricism should be tempered with acknowledgement of other people’s contribution to culture and civilization. The wonder of wonders, Atomic Theory and gravitation are black African ideas in essence.
The importance of printing in modern times is that during the European Renaissance, the Bible became available in large numbers and so an average person could acquire and read it. This was very important in the reformation of the Church (Protestant) and Counter-Reformation (Catholic). Printing was invented by the Chinese Europeans acquired the art at the time of the Renaissance.
The decisive role played by gunpowder in warfare and conquest of the rest of the world by Europeans is beyond contention. According to David Bernal, (Science in History, 1981) debate on who get credit for its invention centres on Arabs, Greeks, Chinese (and Egyptians) but the scales lean in favour of Chinese. The Egyptians knew the chemical composition of gunpowder. The ancients used it for fireworks in ceremonies: it was modified to propel a missile in Europe in the middle ages. The Egyptians were the pioneers of the discipline of Chemistry – the etymology of the word, KHEM, being the same as KEMET (black people of Egypt). The heating of equipment and substances turned the apparatus black and, probably, gave its name to the subject (Cheikh anta Diop [1981].
The prismatic compass makes the navigation of the high seas possible without losing direction, and hence in decisive in voyages of discovery of other lands. The builders of the Great Pyramid at Giza, near Cairo had knowledge of the compass because the pyramid is aligned to the cardinal points of the earth (Martin Bernal).
From information on the Pyramid (Great) one can also tell that Ancient Black Egyptians had discovered movement of the planets round the sun because the measurements at the base of the pyramid are a comparison with the distance marked by the planet Venus in its revolution around the sun and our present calendar is based on approximately 265 days our earth takes to move around the sun. Incidentally to the best of my knowledge, only the King (Pharaoh, Cheops in Greek; Khufu in Egyptian) is named among the giant brains behind the amazing Great Pyramid. African approach tends to be communal rather than individualistic and does not insist on personal fame. But evidently Kepler [1571-1630] was not the first person to explain the movement of planets. He was preceded by Blacks (Egyptians).
Copernicus is credited with marking the end of the Church’s supremacy in scientific thought by demonstrating that the earth is not the centre of the universe Heliocentricity (the idea that the earth moves round the sun and not the other way round) was commonplace among the ancients. The Egyptians worshipped the sun because of its central position in our solar system, and as the chief divinity and life giving force. They were aware that without the un there can be no life on earth.
Isaac Newton [1440-1700], the father of modern mechanics, in his book Principia Mathematica, made it clear that he was convinced after studying Egyptian systems, that Egyptians knew gravity and were acquainted with the Atomic Theory.
Although Dr. Harvey is thought to have discovered circulation of blood in the body, Dr. Charles Finch III of Morehouse University reminds us that 6,000 years ago, in a book entitled The Book of the Heart and Vessels, Nile Valley doctors had realized the heart is the centre of a circulatory system that sends blood through the major vessels emanating from the heart to the body’s vital organs, and as expected, measured the pulse as an aid to diagnosis (M.K. Asante and Ama Mazama – Egypt vs Greece and The American Academy 2002).
When classical Greeks appeared on the historical scene as men of great learning (650 – 300 B.C.), Egyptians had, which is evident from above observations, mastered science, astronomy, mathematics, medicine etc. The clearest indication of African anteriority in scientific thought as opposed to European ideas is available in the Memphite Theology, formulated by Pharaoh (King) Shabaka, dated 750 B.C. The king made it clear that he had compiled the wisdom of his ancestors from the interior of Africa. The civilization of Egypt emanated from the interior in Sudan as can be demonstrated beyond contention and subsequently spread northwards. Classical Greeks never disputed their debt in scientific thought to Africans and readily studied under the tutelage of Egyptian Priests who at the time were the most advanced in matters of learning of all types – Theology, Philosophy, the Arts, Law Medicine, Mathematics, Astronomy, Music etc. Egypt in Greek means black and the name was given to mean the land of Black people.
 Historians and general readers alike will recall the empire of Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) a Greek, encompassed Egypt and its capital eventually was shifted from Greece to Alexandria. Egyptians of today’s Egyptian Republic retain the name of their city of more than 6 million people on the Mediterranean Coast. At the time of Alexander the city had the biggest collection of books (Library) in the whole world, based and containing ideas from African civilization. All these facts were taken for granted until the era of racist ideologies, after enslavement of Africans and decimation of the native populations of America (North and South) as well as Australia. The motive was to justify colonialism and slavery.
Hence the latest explanations to explain the nature of reality and the character of matter – attributed to John Dalton (Atomic Theory) cannot be fully and properly appreciated in its historical context unless the Egyptian (African) basis of Greek learning is addressed. Dalton (1766-1844) postulated that matter exist in small particles which can neither be created nor destroyed (among other things). Of course now, since the era of Dr. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) it is common knowledge that matter is destroyed (changed) in nuclear reactions and converted into energy. The theory in actual fact is traceable back to Greek philosophers such as  Democritus (420 – 310 B.C.) As we all remember the European Renaissance was said to be a return to Greek learning and ideas after the Dark Ages but Egyptians had much earlier than the Shabaka era put forward theories which indicate that they are the originators of Atomic Theory (as Isaac Newton himself acknowledged) in that according to them, creation came after chaos, commenced with the sun God Atum (Atom) from which all other planets sprang. George G. M. James, [1992, 1998] informs us that the current theory associated with Laplace [1749-1827] to explain the origin of the solar system based on the Memphite Theology - so known because it was worked in the city of Memphis in Egypt. The practice of learned Greek intellectuals visiting Egypt for acquisition of knowledge has been noted. Incidentally ancient Egyptians did not assert that matter cannot be destroyed. According to the sourced authorities the Greek inclusion in the Atomic Theory on the indestructibility of matter was due to a misinterpretation of Egyptian science and philosophy (George G.M. James).
As the debate as to whether Greeks were civilized by Africans rages on, two factors settle the question in favour of Africans once and for all, unless racism is permitted to continue to blur our sense of judgment. These factors are melanin and hieroglyphics.
Melanin is the substance in the body that most sharply defines Africans, because Africans have the most of it. In the course of evolution through mutation, European lost it (Cheikh Anta Diop). African genes are the most diverse an original of all human beings. The presence of melanin in the (mummified) bodies of Egyptians in pyramids 3000 BC, which is the same degree as Africans south of the Sahara, settles the debate conclusively. According to Cheikh Anta Diop, melanin can survive for millions of years and so no amount of testimony will change the character of African civilizations from black to any other colour. At the risk of repetition, Greek science and philosophy surfaced more than 2500 years after Egyptians had perfected all ideas that led to European civilization.
Hieroglyphics as a system of writing was peculiarly Egyptian in character. It is pictorial with phonetic signs for ‘letters’, which indicate the category of the word’s meaning. It first appeared in the 4th millennium B.C. (Martin Bernal).  Classical Greeks (650 – 300 B.C.) wrote in the alphabet and therefore if any scientific or mathematic principle (or any other idea for that matter) is written in hieroglyphics it is Egyptian and not Greek. The hieroglyphics gradually developed into hieratic and eventually into demotic, which survives in the Coptic Church liturgy but still cannot be mistaken for the alphabet, which is a late development, applied by Phoenicians and other people. Many scholars including Cheikh Anta Diop believe Phoenicians were black in race: as great men of commerce in many countries the alphabet was much simpler than hieroglyphics and was meant to simplify communication.
The Egyptian elite, on the other hand, jealously guarded their knowledge and hieroglyphics achieved this end by concealing the inner meaning from those who were not initiated into their secret knowledge system. For this reason, by the way, many observers, such as George G.M. James, believe classical Greeks never mastered Egyptian ideas. Proof of scientific and mathematical ideals lies in the hieroglyphics writings available before Greek Classical Civilization.
Any attempt to portray Egyptian civilization as non-black is not tenable. Egypt as a world power was not militarily defeated by Assyria till 6th century, and it was not until 525 BC, that Black (Egypt) was defeated, occupied and colonized on a large scale by another power – Persia in 525 B.C. It is then that mass movement of Black Egyptians headed southwards and might as well have marked mass migrations of Black Africans from Egypt to other parts of the continent. Thereafter, Greek, Roman, Arab, Turkish and European conquerors followed. Egyptian civilization, then by 525 B.C. had reached its apogee.
The arts, religion, philosophy, science and mathematics had been established – the latter were highly theoretical and abstract in nature – giving the lie to racist claims that Africans are incapable of thinking at abstract level. The theory of the origin of the universe covered in Memphite Theology, 750 B.C., on which present day scientific theories are based could not have been put forward by people without capacity to think at abstract level. Cheikh Anta Diop, [Civilization or Barbarism – An Authentic Anthropology, 1981, 1991] has devoted a whole chapter to Africans’ contribution to science and mathematics. The theories cover geometry, Pythagorean Theorem, irrational numbers, quadratic equation of the circle, surface of the triangle and trapezium, volume of the cylinder, the parallelepiped, the sphere, algebraic equations, the calendar, phases of the moon, engineering monuments, medicine, mummification, astronomy, etc. And you guessed right. The mathematical and scientific writing covered by Cheikh Anta Diop were not in Greek but rather in Egyptian.
Greek legends and documentary records in Egyptian language suggest a period of Egyptian colonization of Greece (Martin Bernal). A crucial chapter in our heritage as Africans must cover an explanation of how the culture and civilization came to be lost and how we can achieve an African Renaissance.
The author is a judge of the High Court of Uganda.

AFRICAN HERITAGE SERIES: ONE

THE LEGACY OF ANCIENT EGYPT IN AFRICA TODAY

BY JUSTICE PATRICK TABARO
 During the Renaissance in Europe, (circa 1440-1700), and thereafter, scholars continued to access the knowledge of the Black Egyptians and with it, established epoch-making systems. Copernicus’ (1473-1543) important contribution that the earth revolves around the sun and not the reverse is noted. Isaac Newton, the father of Modern Mechanics, is no less important for his contribution to mathematic and physics that also threatened the stability of a Europe that had not yet reconciled religion with science.
By Newton’s time (1642-1727), two academic subjects had emerged whose descriptions tell a lot about how African civilizations were established; Egyptology (study of Egypt and its knowledge systems) and Pyramidology, the latter being the study of Pyramids. This is not surprising in view of the advanced, complex systems built into the technology of the pyramids that addresses religion, mathematics, astronomy, physics, engineering, education, etc. In his book, Principia Mathematica, written in Latin, the language of the elite/intellectuals at the time, Newton after mastering Pyramidology, was convinced that the Egyptians pioneered astronomy (the study of the stars) and from this, science spread to the rest of the world. He became aware that earlier Black African Egyptians were acquainted with gravitation and the atomic theory (Martin Bernal, 1987).
Like Copernicus, Isaac Newton realized the sun, and not the earth is the centre of our solar system. The change of his stance towards the end of his life was significant, because it demonstrates the manner in which ideology affects people’s knowledge and how epistemology (the theory of knowledge) changes with time and circumstances. He was a sympathizer of the Whig Party of Britain at the time and a believer in the monarchy. When he realized that his theories could jeopardize Christianity and the constitutional order based on monarchy, he downgraded the anteriority of Egyptian civilization to suite his religious inclination by placing the beginning of Egyptian civilization to just before the legendary Trojan War (about 1200-1300 B.C.). Yet, the Egyptian civilization and ideas stretched thousands of years prior to the Trojan War!
The contributions of John Dalton (1766-1844) in his Atomic Theory, which states that elements consisted of tiny particles called atoms, are well-known even to non-scientists. What is more noteworthy is that Isaac Newton was aware that the atomic theory was known to the Ancient Egyptians. It requires extraordinary courage on the part of non-African scholars to volunteer this information to the Africans because it has practical implications. It mentally liberates present day Africans. After all, the poverty and plight of Africans cannot be due to genes – the same genes that made the Ancient Egyptians are still at work today. We shall come to the causes of Africa’s decline later.
Dalton’s Atomic Theory held that matter can neither be created nor destroyed and atoms are the smallest particles of matter [inter alia].  It is not until the era of Einstein (1879-1955) with his famous equation, E=MC2, showing the relationship between the amount of energy released when matter is destroyed in a nuclear reaction times the speed of light squared, that Dalton was surpassed in modern times.
However, George James in his book Stolen Legacy (1992, 1998), explains that the Egyptian Atomic Theory did not say atoms cannot be split. As it is common place now, in 1938 the first atom was split in the laboratory through the work of Hahn and Strassman. Earlier, Lord Rutherford had demonstrated the existence of sub-atomic particles. In 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the first time atomic energy was ever used in warfare (J.D. Bernal – Science in History).  
It appears by the time of Dalton, through faulty translation and lack of understanding, the Egyptian Atomic Theory had been misrepresented. But it is evident, from Isaac Newton in his Principia Mathematica that Europeans derived their atomic theory from Black Egyptians, especially from the Memphite Theology, compile by Pharaoh Shabaka in 750 B.C. It will be recalled that Shabaka made it clear he was formulating the knowledge and wisdom of the Africans of the interior, which they possessed several thousands of years before him.
This takes us to the question as to whether the theoretical knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians has ever been surpassed. I am aware this question takes us to the domain of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Physics, which concerns the interconnectedness between matter, energy, space, time, gravitation, the velocity of light and the mechanics of sub-atomic particles. According to Reader’s Digest, a journalist once asked Dr. Albert Einstein whether it was true that only three people understood his Theory of Relativity. The story goes that Einstein took time to answer and when he was reminded that he was delaying in giving the answer, he stated that he was trying to figure out who the third person might be. So Einstein was sure of only two people – himself and another scientist. Even if I had been there as an adult, I wouldn’t have been one of the few to master the Theory of Relativity. I hope someone who has grasped the General Theory of Relativity will one day totally unraveled the riddle of the Memphite Theory and provide the answers to our questions.
One thing is certain. The Egyptian Memphite Theory has been utilised in science to explain the origin of our Solar system in the Nebular Hypothesis put forward by Kant and Laplace in the 18th Century. The Big Bang Theory, which holds that the universe came into being as a result of an explosion (Big Bang), seeks its origin in the Memphite Doctrine of the Uncreated Creator (George James, Stolen Legacy). The explosion could not have come from nothing. The difficulty with Egyptian knowledge systems is that it was kept secret and jealously guarded, as much as professionals still do jealously protect their professions today. One would need long periods of training before being initiated into the Mystery System of the Egyptians. It is for this reason that the Greek philosophers never fully mastered Egyptian knowledge and new information continues to surface. This takes us to the loss of knowledge to humankind with the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria in Egypt and the lost universities of Africa.
University students relish anecdotes about artful novices who used to successfully pass for world famous professors in the Timbuktu and deliver public lectures in the names of the professors. Whatever the origin of the mischievous stories, the learning community can rest assure that in fact, a world famous university did exist in the city of Timbuktu (Timbuctoo) in present day Mali in West Africa. It was called Sankore University and was attended by scholars from the West African region as well as other, foreign countries. It taught Law, Medicine and Surgery, Letters, Grammar, Geography and Art (Chancellor Williams, 1991). At that time, Art encompassed manufacturing, construction and allied crafts. It was reputed for its exacting admission requirements. It reached its zenith during the Songhay Empire, but came into existence much earlier. The successive empires of Ghana, Mali and then Songhay occupied this territory. Here we are talking of the 15th and 16th centuries and earlier periods, before any European explorers stepped there.
Noteworthy is the fact that this great revival of learning arises almost simultaneously with the Renaissance of Europe to which Islamised Black North Africans (Moors) contributed fundamentally. In the same land of the Blacks (Western Sudan), there were other centres of learning at Jenne and Goa. The story of destruction of these universities and other landmarks of Black civilization deserve a whole coverage of their own in this column. Towards the onset of their demise, Black Moslems had taken over. Basil Davidson has written a complete book, among so many on African civilizations, entitled Lost Cities of Africa. The cities covered all the regions of the continent. There are many manuscripts current being recovered from the ruins of Timbuktu in Mali, and neighbouring Niger (Runoko Rashidi, 2007). President Thabo Mbeki of the Republic of South Africa has offered financial help for their preservation.
One of the greatest task of African scholars is to interrogate whether present day Africans are directly linked to the advanced systems of ancient Egypt – whether the science of medicine, mathematics, agriculture, animal husbandry, etc. of Egypt survive in one form or another among the present day Ugandans and other African communities. I will concentrate on arts, to which I am better acquainted with.
The Egyptian Ma’at (Goddness of Truth and Justice) survives in Luganda as Kummatiza (to prove or establish the truth). One of the Runyankole words for God, Kazoba (Sun) is evidently the same as Egyptian Sun God Ra - not the same words but surely the same idea.  Among the Banyarwanda/Bafumbira and kindred communities, there is a legend to the effect that God had 12 children and one of them - Cyrille Ruvugama - died in a tree. This legend could be related to the story of the 12 disciples, and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Recall that Christ is Greek rendering of African (Egyptian) Kher Sesheta.  My interviews with elders from Kisoro and Rwanda indicate that before initiation in traditional religion one underwent the ritual of bathing, which is equivalent to baptism.  A mentor of the initiate was a necessity - analogous to the requirements of a godfather/godmother in Christianity.
Before the advent of coffins and concrete graves Banyarwanda/Bafumbira used to bury a dead person after placing him/her in the position of an embryo in its mother’s womb, quite the same as ancient Egyptians did, for they believed the departed was beginning a new life, forming again as a foetus in the mother’s womb, reflecting a religious belief in life after death.
Evidence from other parts of Uganda and the rest of Africa is equally convincing. In fact the evidence from Northern Uganda is more certain and less controversial, precisely because they are nearer to Sudan and Egypt.  In present day Sudan, there was the Funj Kingdom inhabited by the Shilluk (Chancellor Williams). Arab writers, scholars and conquerors corrupted the name to Ashuli and eventually it became Acholi (Okot P. Bitek, The Religion of Central Luos). Consequently, Arab accounts about the Shillluk tell us a lot about the Acholi people and their kin, which constitute the Luos. In the Funj Kingdom as well as the other states of Makuria, Alwa and Nobadae people lived in planned cities, practiced cloth weaving, traded in cotton fabrics, and lived in permanent buildings. They practiced Christianity under the Patriarch of Alexandria, though later with the advancing Moslem Turks from Egypt, many converted to Islam. The Patriarch of Alexandria lead Christians (and still does) who trace their traditions to St. Mark as opposed to European Christians who trace their doctrines to St. Paul and St. Peter, of Rome. It is the Arab slavers that destroyed the states (Chancellor Williams).
The destruction was so thorough that when the British occupied Acholiland, their work was a foregone conclusion; any resistance was easily crushed (Prof. Webster and Onyango Odongo, Achonya).  Achonya is the period in Luo history before European colonization of Africa. By then, any trace of Christianity in Sudan had been virtually wiped out. Can anyone today believe that the African Christians of Sudan (Makuria) raised an army of 100,000 men and threatened to march upon Alexandria when the Patriarch of Alexandria was imprisoned by Moslem rulers in 745 A.D., more than 1000 years before European missionaries arrived in Uganda? The Patriarch of Alexandria was the head of all Christian churches in Africa (Chancellor Williams). Eventually the Patriarch was freed and freedom of worship was guaranteed to the Christians of the time.
The literacy and advance astrological knowledge of the Dogon of Mali has been touched. So has the literate priesthood of the Monomotapa Empire of Southern Africa. It might not be immediately obvious to link Southern African civilization to Ancient Black Egypt but we need to note that Azania was the region, which today constitutes parts of Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia. Some nationalists of South Africa had insisted on naming their Azania during the struggle to dislodge apartheid. But for Uganda, Sudan, West Africa, the direct link with ancient Egypt in the Arts and religion is evident from the observations made above. The Meru of Kenya have been traced to the Meroe Empire – one of the earliest centres of Black Egyptian civilization (Alfred Imanyara, in his quest to trace the proto-type Bantu).
Perhaps, because science is more prestigious, whenever any seemly scientific knowledge appears among Africans it attributed to “trial and error” or accident or some other fortuitous occurrence. It is not denied that trial and error or accident can lead to discovery and invention. However, some skills and practices in medicine appear rather too elaborate to be explained by mere trial and error or accident. In the 19th century a Scottish missionary doctor, Robert Felkin, witnessed a native Munyoro doctor perform a caesarean operation. The doctor removed the baby from its mother’s womb, sealed the surgical cuts and both the mother and the baby survived. The doctor reports that in similar complications in Britain at the time, the level of medicine/surgery could not have saved both the mother and the baby – only the mother possibly, but not both. (Ivan Sertima, Blacks in Science.)  Dr. Babugura and Dr. Muniini, both medical doctors, attributed the surgical skills to Baganda. However, the Baganda and the Banyoro are neighbours and both possessed the skill.
I was recently informed by interviewees from Ankole that Banyankole cattle keepers could perform veterinary surgery inside the womb of a cow, in a case of still calving with retained embryo, and remove the embryo, without harming the cow. It appears to me that some of the knowledge is a residue of the ancient, scientific practices of the Egyptians. Prof. Babugura in “Infusing Ethno-Mathematics/Ethno-Science in the Curriculum” (unpublished), has pointed out several scientific principles among the Madi, Bakiga, Bagisu, Bahima, Baganda and Batswana. There is a clear link with the Arts. Is it possible that some of the logical taboos of today’s African communities survive from the sciences that were practised in Ancient Egypt?
In herbal medicine, the native doctors used to spend years in the forest studying plants. Sometimes several herbs had to be combined to treat diseases. It is well known that the medicine men and other craftsmen kept their knowledge secret and continue to do so, not for selfish reasons, incidentally. In the case of medicine men, the primary reason is to safeguard society against misuse of the knowledge. Consequently, the knowledge/skills are kept a secret until a trusted relative is identified and knowledge is imparted to him/her; if none is available, then the practice is imparted or passed to a neighbor, who is given the privilege. Of course, this is done sometimes when the doctor has grown old, even senile, and some of the knowledge is lost.
In modern times, knowledge is disclosed in patent documents, but you can not use them without permission for an average of 20 years. In the Patent Office in the Justice Ministry in Uganda, there is not a single patent application, which will make Ugandans acquire technology enough to enable them to compete with Europe or North America or other advanced countries in the world.
Incidentally, when we talk about the decline of the black people from 1500 A.D., we are focusing on the Black people of African continent. Those in the Diaspora in America (North and South) made significant contributions in spite of enslavement. Their inventions are registered in the names of their masters because slaves (even scientists) were classified as property by law, and property cannot own property. Is this sound jurisprudence? That will be another chapter later.
It has been opined that before the world of scholarship can settle the question as to whether the theoretical knowledge of the Black Ancient Egyptians has been surpassed, judgment or verdict should be deferred until the Riddle of the Memphite Theology has been resolved, just to underline the advanced nature of African knowledge of the past.
So what went wrong?
The conquest of the world by whites after the European Renaissance, encompassing subjugation of the whole of North America, South America, Australia, the whole of Africa, apart from Ethiopia and Liberia (which was acquired for freed slaves, who had been captured by force) was accomplished largely through the use of firearms. Local factors also played a role.
The Ancient Egyptians, Chinese and Arabs knew the chemical composition of gunpowder (David Bernal, 1983). It is in Europe that gunpowder was harnessed to propel missiles, marking a turning point in human relations, for firearms made Europeans invincible against Africans. The ancients used gunpowder for ceremonial purposes only. To appreciate this fatal neglect on the part of the Black Africans, it is significant to realise that blacks and whites have had different attitudes towards violence and foreigners. According to Cheikh Anta Diop (The Cultural Unity of Blacks, 1959), white culture developed under harsh conditions on the steppes of the Eurasia landmass and aggression became a necessity. This was the Northern Cradle of Civilization.
In Africa, in the Nile Valley and elsewhere the conditions were congenial and peaceable pursuits, with insufficient attention to military processes developed. This was the Southern Cradle of Civilization, spreading from Egypt to the Middle East and parts of Europe where the two civilizations met and interacted, the area of confluence. Cheikh Anta Diop argues that the seemingly humane nature of European Civilization such as early Christianity (which obliges Christians to turn the other cheek if attacked?), developed as a result of the influence of African ideas on Europeans and Asians.
I intend to compare African atrocities and European/Asian atrocities in a separate article; not that we should resurrect and glorify “follies and misfortunes” of humankind, but to demonstrate that the much hyped barbarities, such as human sacrifice or infanticide practiced by Africans were nursery school drama compared to European and Asian atrocities. The article is essential to drive home the point that African upheavals of recent times could be a result of the type of education and culture acquired after colonization.
The use of Iron in technology, which is much more difficult than the harnessing of copper and gold, was known to Egypt at the dawn of civilization. The chariot as a war device was known to Egyptians. It is meaningless therefore to keep using the phrase “reinventing the wheel” in Africa. The African invented it long ago and in actual fact used the steam engine to pump water, (the Moors), long before James Watt (1736-1819) was born (The Golden Age of the Moors).
The pacificism of the Africans saw Asians and Europeans come to Egypt as traders, immigrants, settlers and refugees without much opposition. Espionage, which is one of the oldest professions in support of warfare and statecraft, was then, as of now, known. In 700 B.C., the Assyrians defeated Egypt, but it was not until 525 B.C. that Egypt came under prolonged occupation under the Persians. This date, 525 B.C., marks a landmark in the story of African people. That is when large scale migrations/flight of Africans began, to the south and other directions. The Assyrians, Persians were later followed by other conquerors such as Greeks, Romans, and some “Barbarian” tribes, the Arabs, Turks, French and the British. It is these diverse groups that impacted on the indigenous black population that resulted, through intermarriages, into Egypt’s peculiar character, reflecting European, African, Asian and Arab influences, both culturally and racially.
Although Egypt is now an Arab country, Southern Egypt still has a black population, such as the Nubians of Egypt. Occasionally you hear Egyptians emphasise their Egyptian character more than their “Arab-ness”. So Egypt is now brown, a source of confusion when racists try to portray ancient Egyptians as white or brown in character. But Egyptians do not make that mistake. In 2001 when I visited there, the guides in the Egyptian Museum were emphatic that the people behind the wonders of the Egyptian civilization were people of the interior, of the Upper Nile.
It has been pointed out that the Black people of Sudan whose descendants live right now in Uganda held on till recently. However, the most decisive single use of violence against the African was enslavement, by Arabs from the North, after the conquest of Egypt in 642 A.D., and Europeans in West Africa, by virtually all of the trading nations of Western Europe, in northwest and southwest Africa by the Portuguese and Spaniards, in South Africa by the Dutch/Boers, and the Portuguese, who met the Arabs in Mozambique. Both the Europeans and the Arabs ravaged the continent from all directions. To my knowledge, the account of hemming in all of the African people from all directions from the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean is best given by Chancellor Williams in The Destruction of Black Civilization.
Dr. Walter Rodney points out in “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”, that from the archives of the capitals of countries that engaged in enslavement of Africans and the slave trade, i.e. Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, and Holland (Netherlands), etc., valuable information about the level of development of Africa at the time of slavery and the slave trade can obtained from the diaries and reports of the slave traders. This was so because the slavers were acting on behalf of their countries and before attacking their victims they needed information which, they got through espionage, so as to establish whether their (African victims) were war-like or peaceful; how they were organized for resistance; the level of production for food and other necessities, etc.
The surest way to conquer a people is to eliminate its intelligentsia, the ruling class, artisans, in a word, the elite in society. After killing or capturing the intelligentsia into slavery, the rest of the masses became helpless, confused and desperate, easy prey for those armed with firearms and not arrows, bows and spears. The tactics of divide and rule, of playing one tribe against another are well covered in our school text books.   But, generally down played or omitted is that Africans generally were enslaved as victims rather than participants, including in some cases, kings, chiefs and their relatives (Hoschild, The Ghost of King Leopold). Let it be emphasized that once the elite had been eliminated, it required only one generation (25-30 years) of harassment for civilization to be totally wiped out.
This was the scenario – doctors, engineers, surveyors, priests, teachers, etc. are killed and survivors run for their dear lives. Because they are on the run they have no opportunity to practice their trades/professions. After they flee within a few years, because of the macabre/harassment leading to exhaustion, starvation and stress and therefore susceptibility to disease. They would not have been able to pass on their skills to the next generation, and hence a civilization which had lasted several thousand years could be brought to an end within one scarce generation.
This scenario, at the same time, explains why people ran away from those ravaging the continent for slaves. Basil Davidson, in Lost Cities of Africa, indicates that some of the latest communities to enter this region that is the Masai, Iteso, Akarimajong, Bahima, Batutsi, etc. were running away from European and Asian invaders from Northern Africa. To escape and hide from the invaders, many Africans including the elite took to areas that were generally inhospitable, the swamps, forests, and caves (Chancellor Williams). These are some of the “Savages”, the explorers wrote about; and the reason why eminent Eurocentric historians could afford to assert that the Africans lay in slumber for thousands of years until reawakened by foreigners. Enslavement ravages and subsequent colonization through conquest created a black-out in the history of Africa.
Sometimes it is debated among scholars, and the general public as to which form of enslavement was more devastating than the other, the Arab slave trade or European Atlantic slave trade. This is not immediately important, except that many Africans here and in the Diaspora have raised the question of reparations – compensations for the enslavement. Chancellor Williams, who did field work for 16 years in Africa, and made his conclusions from records, documents, oral history tested against archaeology and documentation, came to the conclusion that the population of Africa, through enslavement and wars of conquest, was reduced to 25% (1/4) of what it should have been. This is a process which began in 1440s for the Europeans and 7th century for Arab enslavers and stretched into the 20th century – a process of more than 1300 years.
Apologists state that some African chiefs participated in the slave trade - yes, and some were also later captured and sold – The Ghost of King Leopold. It has been rightly asked whether the participation of a handful of opportunistic Jews in the Holocaust/Genocide can absolve Nazis of their criminality. Not at all. So with Africans.
The humiliation of Africans by reducing them to the level of property led to low esteem on the part of Africans and the command by means of violence on part of Europeans to prestige and triumphalism. In addition, the Europeans have never lost the civilization they acquired from the Ancient Egyptians through the Greeks.
A corollary of this racial equation is that there are many African intellectuals who readily attribute African achievements to Europeans or Arabs. It is amply clear therefore, that through our education system, the self esteem of the African people must be restored. The need for reform is self evident.
I understand in the Faculty of Technology at Makerere University, Cheikh Anta Diop is taught. Post-graduate medical students in the same University recently informed me that Imhotep is compared and contrasted with Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.). Imhotep, (who lived thousands of years before Hippocrates was born) is the Father of Scientific Medicine and the Greeks were aware of this. The Hippocrates Oath, which medical graduates take to preserve life, etc. was not even authored by Hippocrates (Dr. Charles S. Finch, in Great Black Leaders- Ancient and Modern). (See also the Journal of  African Civilizations, December, 1987 Volume 9.) Imhotep is also credited with being the first engineer to be known by the name and achievement. He was the builder of the Stepped Pyramid at Saqqarah near Memphis about 2500 B.C. (History of the Engineering Profession – Encyclopaedia Britannia, 15th Edition – Volume 6).
In addition to being an engineer, he was a physician, an architect, astrologer and Vizier /chief minister, all in one. No wonder he was defied and worshipped as a god of medicine in Egypt and subsequently in Greece itself. Hippocrates studied medicine at the Library of the Temple of Imhotep in Egypt.