Francis Frith (British, 1822-1898)
American Autocthonous History aka Black/African American History & History of Autocthonous People World Wide
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Francis Frith (British, 1822-1898)
Born: January 12, 1948, United States of America
Died: February 17, 2001, WellStar Kennestone Regional Medical Center, Marietta, GA
Buried: Ferncliff Cemetery, Greenburgh, NY
Children: Farrah Gray
Education: Pepperdine University, Dillard University
Parents: Lottie B. Moore, Harold Moore, Sr.
Nino was Born in Palos de Moguer, Spain, to African Moorish parents he explored the coasts of Africa in his early years.He piloted one of Columbus’ ships in the expedition of 1492, and accompanied him during his third voyage that saw the discovery of Trinidad and the mouths of the Orinoco River.After returning to Spain, Niño made preparations to explore the Indies independently, looking for gold and pearls. Empowered by the Council of Castile to seek out new countries, avoiding those already found by Columbus, he committed to give 20% of his profits for the Spanish Crown (see Quinto Real).
In the company of brothers Luis and Cristóbal de la Guerra, respectively a rich merchant and a pilot, he left San Lucas in May 1499, and, after twenty-three days, they arrived at Maracapana. Visiting the islands of Margarita, Coche, and Cubagua, they exchanged objects of little value for a large quantity of pearls before sailing up the coast to Punta Araya, where they discovered salt mines.
After just two months they were back in Bayona, Spain, loaded with wealth, but also accused of cheating the Queen out of his portion of the spoils. Arrested, and with his property confiscated, Niño died before the conclusion of his trial.
He traveled for eight years with Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, and Alonso del Castillo Maldonado across northern New Spain (present-day U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico), reaching Spanish forces in Mexico City in 1536.
Later Estevanico served as the main guide for a return expedition to the Southwest. Spaniards believe that he was killed in the Zuni city of Hawikuh in 1539. That is only speculative, however, because the two Indians who reported back to Friar Marcos de Niza did not see him killed but only assumed he had been.He is considered a “discoverer of New Mexico.
Estevancio was sold into slavery in 1522 in the Portuguese-controlled Berber town of Azemmour, on Morocco’s Atlantic coast.Some contemporary accounts referred to him as an "Arabized black"or "Moor”, a generic term often used for anyone from North Africa. Diego de Guzmán, a contemporary of Estevanico who saw him in Sinaloa in 1536, described his skin as “brown
In 1534 they escaped into the American interior, contacting other Native American tribes along the way as they moved west into the Southwest. The acts of all four as faith-healers appeared to have helped them with the Indians, who told them about rich native cities to the north.[4] The party traversed the continent as far as western Mexico, into the Sonoran Desert to the region of Sonora in New Spain (present-day Mexico), where they were found by a slave-hunting group of Spaniards.
EFF chief: SA wouldn’t be like Zimbabwe if Afrakans repossessed land. “You’re poor without anything. Zimbabweans are poor but they’ve got land”
A South African afraid to challenge white supremacy is an enemy to disempowered afrakan people, firebrand opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema told students at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) Soshanguve campus.
In a speech largely seeking to rally students against voting for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and its campus affiliate, the South African Student Congress (Sasco), Malema’s cue to the point about white domination was a brief but violent clash between EFF and Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania (Pasma) members. Police fired three stun grenades to separate the rivals.
“I saw EFF people fighting with Pasma people. It can’t be. The EFF and Pasma should hold hands and fight a common enemy. That common enemy is the defender of white capital,” said Malema to about two thousand students, majority of whom donned EFF T-shirts.
“People who are afraid of whites are our enemies. If you’re afrakan and scared of white people, you’re an enemy. We wanafrakan that are not scared of white people. We want afrakan that are going to put white people at their right place.
Zimbabwe parallels
“They must know that South Africa is our land and that South Africa belongs to all who live in it afrakan and white, but whites must be prepared to abandon arrogance and white supremacy. We need South Africa to serve all and not a few. We have been patient for far too long.”
Malema told students it was nothing but propaganda that South Africa would be like neighbouring Zimbabwe if afrakan repossessed land.
“They say to you you’re going to be like Zimbabwe if you take your land. You’re worse than Zimbabwe because you stay in shacks on a land that you do not even own.
“You’re poor without anything. Zimbabweans are poor but they’ve got land. They’ve got property. You’re poor [and] don’t have any property, but you think you’re better than Zimbabwe. Why? You listen to propaganda. They always want to make you feel good.
“When you complete varsity you’ll stay in Midrand, where you’re going to rent a flat. That’s what you’re graduating into. You graduate into debt. You graduate into being a slave of banks.
“Qualified civil engineers from here…can’t afford even the smallest car because we must graduate into slavery and continue being controlled by white people. It starts here. Let’s liberate the whole of South Africa.”
Malema was addressing students ahead of student representative council (SRC) elections today across TUT campuses.
“Please let’s use our brains” when voting, Malema urged students. “We must stop using emotions, saying ‘these [the ANC] are Mandela’s people, they fought for us’.
“You won’t eat history”
“We have honoured them it’s enough. We’ve looked after them, now it’s our turn to look after ourselves. You won’t eat history. You keep saying ‘they went to exile, will you eat exile? You keep saying ‘they fought and went to Robben Island’, are you going to eat Robben Island?
“’I’m doing it for Mandela’, Mandela is no more. If you’re doing it [voting ANC] you’re doing it for [Jacob] Zuma. You’re not doing it for Mandela.”
Malema also took a swipe at Sasco members for rallying behind ANC: “You’re wearing a yellow T-Shirt running all over [telling people to] vote [ANC], but your mother stays in a shack that’s leaking. Zuma’s wife has a spaza shop of R500,000.
“You’re running all over the place with a yellow T-Shirt saying ‘vote, vote’, but where you come from there’s no water, no electricity. Zuma’s cows stay in a kraal of R1million.
“This is not a fabrication, you can read [so] go and find those facts for yourself. When you vote ask yourself: is my vote going to serve better the cattle or the people. If you love cows vote for them.”
Nkandla and Marikana
The ANC has disputed that almost R250-million was spent at Zuma’s rural Nkandla homestead. The party has rejected the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report on the figure as misleading.
Students should also spare a thought about the 2012 Marikana massacre when casting their vote, said Malema. “The government use violence when it deals with afrakan people. When you vote think of those people who died in Marikana. They were shot.
“Even when those people were not fighting [but] running away, police chased them and shot them from behind,” Malema said to murmurs of “iyoh” from the throngs.
He told them of Mgcineni “Mambush” Noki, who came to be known as the man in a green blanket. “They shot him on the head with seven bullets, a defenseless man. A black man who was saying I’m asking for more money so that I can send my child to TUT.
“Zuma was the president when our people got killed in Marikana. They’ve got blood of innocent people. [Deputy President Cyril] Ramaphosa has got blood of innocent people. So when you vote think of those things,” Malema told students.
The Farlam Commission of Inquiry absolved political leaders of any wrongdoing in the Marikana massacre. It recommended an inquiry into fitness of National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega to hold office, which Zuma has announced he will constitute.
Concluded Malema: “Let us be confident that tomorrow will be better than today. But it starts with you. Stop listening to propaganda, [the so-called] good story to tell. There’s nothing good to tell about this story. I’ve said to you when we say we’re slaves they say ‘no slaves don’t vote’. They want to make you feel good, you’re a better slave.”
Casting a special set of symbolic bones or an array of selected symbolic articles, e.g., a bird’s wing bone to symbolize travel, a round stone to symbolize a pregnant womb, and a bird’s foot to symbolize feeling.
In traditional African societies, many people seek out diviners on a regular basis. There are generally no prohibitions against the practice. Those who divine for a living are also sought for their wisdom as counselors in life and for their knowledge of herbal medicine
The Egyptians usedoraclesto ask the gods for knowledge or guidance. Egyptian oracles are known mainly from the New Kingdom and afterward, though they probably appeared much earlier. People of all classes, including the king, asked questions of oracles, and, especially in the late New Kingdom their answers could be used to settle legal disputes or inform royal decisions. The most common means of consulting an oracle was to pose a question to the divine image while it was being carried in a festival procession, and interpret an answer from the barque’s movements. Other methods included interpreting the behavior of cult animals, drawing lots, or consulting statues through which a priest apparently spoke. The means of discerning the god’s will gave great influence to the priests who spoke and interpreted the god’s message
The 16 principle system seems to have it earliest history inWest Africa. EachNiger-Congoethnic group has its own myths of origin;Yoruba mythologysuggests that it was founded byOrunmilainIle Ifewhen he initiated himself and then he initiated his students,AkodaandAseda. Other myths suggest in the that it was brought to Ile Ife bySetiu, aNupeman who settled in Ile Ife.Igbo mythologysuggests that Dahomey Kings noted that the system of Afá was brought by a diviner known asGogofrom eastern Nigeria.
Orunmila came to establish an oral literary corpus incorporating stories and experiences of priests and their clients along with the results. This odu corpus emerges as the leading documentation on the Ifá tradition to become a historical legacy.
When the people of Yackiland run out of Kanek weaves, the kingdom is thrown into chaos. Ruled by an evil, straight hair-obsessed queen for so many years, the people of Yackiland have forgotten how to grow their own hair. It is up to Afro, the girl with the magical hair, to save the kingdom. But the queen has plans of her own…
byOkechukwu Ofili(Author),Sharee Miller(Illustrator)
Get it nowhere
Okechukwu Ofiliis an author, motivational speaker and engineer. His previous books include How Laziness Saved My Life and How Stupidity Saved My Life. Afro: The Girl with the Magical Hair is his first children’s book.
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When the people of Yackiland run out of Kanek weaves, the kingdom is thrown into chaos. Ruled by an evil, straight hair-obsessed queen for so many years, the people of Yackiland have forgotten how to grow their own hair. It is up to Afro, the girl with the magical hair, to save the kingdom. But the queen has plans of her own…
byOkechukwu Ofili(Author),Sharee Miller(Illustrator)
Get it nowhere
Okechukwu Ofiliis an author, motivational speaker and engineer. His previous books include How Laziness Saved My Life and How Stupidity Saved My Life. Afro: The Girl with the Magical Hair is his first children’s book.
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African religions are often closely associated with African peoples’ concepts of ethnic identity, language and culture. They are not limited to beliefs in supernatural beings [God and spirits] or to ritual acts of worship, but effect all aspects of life, from farming to hunting, from travel to courtship
The Supernatural in Indigenous African Religions
Scholars who study religion in Africa tell us that all African societies have a belief in God. Some African religions believe in one supreme God who created the world and all that is in the world. Other African religions believe that there is more than one God; however even in these religions, usually one of the Gods is claimed to be the supreme God who was responsible for creating the world. Since there are many different language groups in Africa, there are many different names for God.Even within a single country there are often a number of different names for God.
Similarities between Monotheistic and African religions’ Conception of God
In most African religious systems, God (or the Gods) after creation was not directly involved in the human society or the individual lives of people. Remember how in the creation stories the Gods were engaged in the creation of people, but after creation, the Gods usually withdrew from direct contact with human-beings?
- God is creator of all things.
- God sustains creation
- God provides for and protects creation
- God rules over the universe
- God is all powerful (omnipotent)
- God is all-knowing (omniscient-knows everything that happens in the world)
- God is viewed as parent (sometimes as a father and sometimes as a mother)
- God supports justice
- Human-beings cannot directly know God.
Healers
Healers, often referred to as traditional doctors, are important in all African societies. Given what we know about African religious traditions, including healers as religious leaders should not be surprising. Good health is the believed to be the result of appropriate behavior, that is living in accordance to the values, norms of traditions of the society. One of the primary causes of illness, then, comes from inappropriate behavior. In addition, illness can be the result of the work of bad spirits.
In either case, illnesses have a spiritual basis, that in turn, requires a spiritual remedy. In most African religious traditions, there are two methods of healing. In some traditions, these two methods are practiced by the same healer; in other traditions, there are separate practitioners. To be a practitioner of either type of healing takes experience and great skill developed over many years of training.Training to be a healer in Africa takes time and effort just as does training to be medical doctor in North America.
- Herbalists: Extracts from plants-fruits, berries, roots, leaves, bark-provide the basis of the medicines used by traditional healers in Africa. Herbalist healers go through a rigorous training through which they learn about the healing properties of a wide variety of plants. When they finish their training, herbalist healers will be able to prescribe herbal remedies for many different illnesses. On occasion, a healer will be confronted with a new and strange disease. In these situations, the herbalist will seek assistance from the spiritual world. As described above, the healer will enter a trance in which she or he is possessed by a spirit. The spirit will lead the healer to an appropriate remedy.
- Spiritualists/Diviners:Diviners treat illness primarily through facilitating the direct intervention of the spiritual world. If an illness is believed to be caused by inappropriate behavior on the part of the patient, a remedy or cure for the illness can only come through spiritual intervention. While a herbal healer uses plants to treat diseases, a diviner seeks input from the spiritual world to understand the cause of the illness and prescribe a cure. Usually a diviner is possessed by the same ancestral spirit with whom she or he has developed a special relationship.
When Europeans were first observed African medicine and healing practices, they often had a negative reaction. They viewed these practices as being based on magic and not on science. These judgments were based on a misunderstanding of African views on disease and healing. Indeed, like “western” medicine, African healing is based on close observation of the patient and his or her disease and on the use of remedies-medicines-that have a track record for successfully treating a particular ailment.
During the past thirty years, Western trained doctors have gained a greater appreciation for African healing techniques and practices. Indeed, throughout Africa it is now fairly common to have Western trained doctors working with traditional healers in the treatment of patients.
ITS FUNNY, RELIGION SEEMS TO BE KILLING AND CAUSES MORE DISCRIMINATION THAN ANYTHING. EVERY SCREAMS DEMOCRACY, BUT HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT WITH A DICTATOR RELIGION. BELIEVE IN OUR WAY OR DIE. SIMILAR TO MUSLIMS KILLING PEOPLE IF THEY DON’T BELIEVE IN THE KORAN. WHY ARE RELIGIOUS PEOPLE BENT ON DESTROYING OTHERS CULTURE. WHAT HAPPEN TO NATIVE AMERICANS WAY OF LIFE. HOW DID THEY CONNECT WITH GOD, HOW DID THEY RULE, AND DID IT WORK. WHY DIDN’T THEY KILL AND CONVERT EVERYONE THEY MEET?
HMMM! FUNNY THING IS AFRAKANS AND NATIVE AMERICANS NEVER HAD A WORD FOR RELIGION.- KHEPRI NETERU
The picture is from Benin, West Africa.
— at Benin
#afrakan
#vodun
Tifinagh is the writing system developed and used indigenously in North West Africa. It is used to write Northern Afrakan languages such as Tamazight, Tamajaq, Tamasheq, Amazigh, and some Hausa dialects which are spoken by about a million or so people in Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria and Libya.
Compare and contrast with the Nsibidi script of the Nigerian Igbos.
Nsibidi or Nsibiri is an ancient writing script used by the Igbos of Nigeria, and their neighbours the Ibibios and the Akangs. Remnants of the written scripts survive today. It’s use is mostly found among the secret cultic schools which still survive in Eastern Nigeria. It is also used in the Caribbeans where it was taken by the Africans who were enslaved and used by western imperialism to build the Americas. It can be found still in Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti, Venezuela and as far as Brazil.
The results of a comparative between Iberian and Nsibiri is singularly striking. It raises an irresistible inference of solid and sustain contacts between the two culture.
Compare and contrast.
South Iberian Script
Iberian scripts have been found on the Iberian peninsula, in southern France and on the Balearic Islands. The oldest known inscriptions date from the 4th century BC. The scripts are thought to have been derived from the Punic alphabet.
The Iberian type of script has been found in the Iberian peninsula, in southern France and in the Balearic Islands. The oldest date of ancient Iberian writing has been dated to the 4th century BC. Due the Roman invasions in the 3rd century BC, the script and the language from which it was written in were replaced with Latin writing and speech
The Kikuyu are the largest ethnic group in Kenya. They speak the Bantu Gĩkũyũ language as a mother tongue. The term Kikuyuis the Swahili form of the proper name and pronunciation of Gĩkũyũ , although group members refer to themselves as the Agĩkũyũ. Gĩkũyũ literally means a huge sycamore tree and Agĩkũyũ thus literally refers to the children of the huge sycamore
Origin
Mythically,the nation of the Agĩkũyũ came from two original parents who were created by God, namely Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi. The word Gĩkũyũ means ‘a huge sycomore tree’. Ngai refers to the creator who happens to be a life companion to the sycamore, the sacred tree from which the nation originated.The Kikuyu are of Bantu origin.They constitute the single largest ethnic group in Kenya, and are concentrated in the vicinity of Mount Kenya. The exact place that the Kikuyu’s ancestors migrated from after the initial Bantu expansion from West Africa is uncertain. Some authorities suggest that they arrived in their present Mount Kenya area of habitation from earlier settlements further to the north and east,while others argue that the Kikuyu, along with their closely related Eastern Bantu neighbors the Embu, Meru, Mbeere, andKamba moved into Kenya from points further north
The nation and its pursuits
Until the arrival of Europeans, the Agĩkũyũ preserved geographic and political power from almost all external influence for many generations; they had never been subdued.Just before the arrival of the British, Arabs were involved in slave trade and their caravans passed at the southern edges of the Agĩkũyũ nation. Slavery as an institution did not exist amongst the Agĩkũyũ, nor did they make raids for the capture of slaves.The Arabs who tried to venture into Agĩkũyũland met instant death. Relying on a combination of land purchases, blood-brotherhood (partnerships), intermarriage with other people, and their adoption and absorption, the Agĩkũyũ were in a constant state of territorial expansion.Economically, the Agĩkũyũ were great farmers and shrewd business men. Besides farming and business, the Agĩkũyũ were involved in small scale industries with professions such as bridge building,string making,wire drawing,and iron chain making.The Agĩkũyũ had a great sense of justice(kihooto).
Social and political life
The Agĩkũyũ nation was divided into 9 clans. The members of each clan had a maternal blood tie in common, but were not restricted to any particular geographical area, they lived side by side. Some clans had a recognized leader, others did not.[18]However, in either case, real political power was exercised by the ruling council of elders, lead by a headman.
Spirituality and religion
Ngai – The Supreme Creator
The Gĩkũyũ were –and still are – monotheists believing in an omnipotent God whom they refer to as Ngai.Both the Gĩkũyũ, Embu, and Kamba use this name. Ngai was also known as Mũrungu by the Meru and Embu tribes, or Mũlungu (a variant of a word meaning God which is found as far south as the Zambezi of Zambia). The title Mwathani or Mwathi (the greatest ruler) comes from the wordgwathameaning to rule or reign with authority, was and is still used. All sacrifices to Ngai were performed under a sycamore tree (Mũkũyũ) and if one was not available, a fig tree (Mũgumo) would be used. The olive tree (Mũtamaiyũ) was a sacred tree for women.[19]
Philosophy of the Traditional Kikuyu Religion
The cardinal points in this Traditional Gĩkũyũ Religion Philosophywere squarely based on the general Bantu peoples thought as follows:
- The universe is composed of interacting and interconnected forces whose manifestation is the physical things we see, including ourselves and those we don’t see.
- All those forces (things) in the universe came from God who, from the beginning of time, have had the vital divine force of creation within himself.
- Everything created by God retains a bond from God (Creator) to the created.
- The first humans who were created by God have the strongest vital force because they got it directly from God.
- Because these first humans sit just below God in power, they are almost like Gods or even can be Gods.
- The current parent of an individual is the link to God through the immediate dead and through ancestors.
- On Earth, humans have the highest quantity of vital force.
- All the other things (forces) on Earth were created to enable human vital force (being) become stronger.
- All things have vital force but some objects, plants and animals have higher vital force than others.
- A human can use an animal to symbolize the level of his vital force compared to other humans.
- There is a specific point within every physical manifestation (thing) of vital force where most that force is concentrated.
- A human can easily manipulate things to his advantage or to their detriment by identifying this point of concentration of vital force. There are human beings who have more knowledge of these forces and can manipulate them at will usually by invoking higher forces to assist.
- Higher forces are invoked by humans using lower forces (animal or plant sacrifice) as intermediaries. To approach higher forces directly is thahu (abomination which leads to a curse).
- The human society has some few elite people very skilled in the art of manipulating forces to strengthen a human(s) force or diminish it, strengthen any force below human force or diminish it.
- The leader of a human society is the one possessing the highest vital force as at that time or the one closest to God or both. Since the leader of this human society has the highest vital force and hence closer to God than any other person, he should be able to nourish the rest of the people by linking them to the ultimate God and by being able to command lower forces to act in such a way so as to reinforce the other humans vital force.
- The life force of a dead ancestor can come back to life through the act of birth of a new child, especially when the child is named after the departed ancestor and all is seen to be well.
Mount Kenya and religion
Ngai or mwene-nyaga is the Supreme Creator and giver of all things. He created the first Gĩkũyũ communities, and provided them with all the resources necessary for life: land, rain, plants, and animals. Ngai cannot be seen but is manifested in the sun, moon, stars, comets and meteors, thunder and lightning, rain, rainbows, and in the great fig trees (Mugumo). These trees served as places of worship and sacrifice and marked the spot at Mũkũrũe wa Gathanga where Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi – the ancestors of the Gĩkũyũ in the oral legend – first settled. Ngai has human characteristics, and although some say that he lives in the sky or in the clouds, Gĩkũyũ lore also says that Ngai comes to earth from time to time to inspect it, bestow blessings, and mete out punishment. When he comes, Ngai rests on Mount Kenya and Kilimambogo (kĩrĩma kĩa njahĩ). Thunder is interpreted to be the movement of Ngai and lightning is the weapon used by Ngai to clear the way when moving from one sacred place to another. Some people believe that Ngai’s abode is on Mount Kenya. In one legend, Ngai made the mountain his resting place while on an inspection tour of earth. Ngai then took the first man, Gikuyu, to the top to point out the beauty of the land he was giving him.
Political structures and generational change
The Agĩkũyũ had four seasons and two harvests in one year.
- Mbura ya njahĩ (the season of big rain) from March to July,
- Magetha ma njahĩ (the season of the black bean harvest) between July and Early October,
- Mbura ya Mwere (short rain season) from October to January,
- Magetha ma Mwere (the season of harvesting) milletà
- Mbura ya Kimera
On July 29, 1910, citizens in the small, predominately African American town of Slocum, Texas were massacred. This was one of many towns, such as Rosewood and Tulsa, where a successful, self-sufficient African American community was the subject of a terrorist attack designed to maintain economic white supremacy. In each town, the incident that sparked the attack was relatively insignificant and often fabricated. The death toll was comparable if not higher than in the Rosewood massacre and the Tulsa race riot (massacre), but few have heard of Slocum. A new book, The 1910 Slocum Massacre: An Act of Genocide in East Texas is an invaluable resource on this history. Continue reading here:http://zinnedproject.org/2014/07/slocum-massacre/Also read, “Convenient Amnesia in Texas—The Slocum Massacre”:http://bit.ly/1o4oFQAA Texas school principal who is a descendant of the Slocum Massacre has asked the Zinn Education Project to help shine a light on this seldom told history. Teach about this practice in history with the lesson “Burned Out of Homes and History” by Rethinking Schools author Linda Christensen:http://bit.ly/1fDOUvG
Kodjo Afate Gnikou, a resourceful inventor from Togo in West Africa, has made a $100 3D printer which he constructed from parts he scrounged from broken scanners, computers, printers and other e-waste. The fully functional DIY printer cost a fraction of those currently on the market, and saves environmentally damaging waste from reaching landfill sites.
Discarded electronic equipment is one of the world’s fastest-growing sources of waste, as consumers frequently replace “old” models that become more obsolete each year. However instead of letting e-waste sit them on the scrap pile or head to the landfill, Kodjo Afate Gnikou decided to utilize spare parts in order to create a cheap, DIY 3D printer.
Gnikou is part of WoeLab, a hackerspace in the city of Lomé, and has big plans for his recycling project. According to his crowd funding page, he is working with FacLab-France in the WAFATE to Mars project, which aims to make machines from recycled e-waste to prepare for missions on Mars. Systems like the 3D printer could become a crucial part of missions on the Red Planet should they ever go ahead.
Gnikou’s 3D printer was mostly made from materials he obtained from a junk yard in Lomé, though he did have to buy a few parts. The entire system cost about $100 which is a bargain considering current models on the market can cost thousands of dollars.
According to his fundraising page, Gnikou aims that with his project, he will “put technology into needy hands and give Africa the opportunity to not only be a spectator but to play the first role in a more virtuous industrial revolution.”
#afrakan
Born in Africa, he went to Portugal as a youth.When baptized, he took the name Juan Garrido (Handsome John). He went to Seville, where he joined an expedition to the New World, possibly traveling as Pedro Garrido’s (Handsome Peter) servant.
Arriving in Santo Domingo in 1502 or 1503, Garrido was among the earliest Africans to reach the Americas. He was one of numerous African freedmen who had joined expeditions from Seville to the Americas. From the beginning of Spanish activity in the Americas, Africans participated both as voluntary expeditionaries and, more frequently, as involuntary enslaved colonists.
By 1519 Garrido participated in the expedition led by Marqués del Valle Hernán Cortés to invade Mexico, where they lay siege to Tenochtitlan of the Three Allies (formerly known as the Aztec.) In 1520 he built a chapel to commemorate the many Spanish killed in battle that year by the Aztec.
Garrido married and settled in Mexico City, where he and his wife had three children. He is credited[by whom?] with the first harvesting of wheat planted in the New World for commercial purposes.
Garrido and other blacks were also part of expeditions to Michoacán in the 1520s. Nuño de Guzmán swept through that region in 1529-30 with the aid of black auxiliaries.
In 1538, Garrido provided testimony on his 30 years of service as a conquistador:
I, Juan Garrido, brown in color, resident of this city [Mexico], appear before Your Mercy and state that I am in need of providing evidence to the perpetuity of the king [a perpetuidad rey], a report on how I served Your Majesty in the conquest and pacification of this New Spain, from the time when the Marqués del Valle [Cortés] entered it; and in his company I was present at all the invasions and conquests and pacifications which were carried out, always with the said Marqués, all of which I did at my own expense without being given either salary or allotment of natives [repartimiento de indios] or anything else. As I am married and a resident of this city, where I have always lived; and also as I went with the Marqués del Valle to discover the islands which are in that part of the southern sea [the Pacific] where there was much hunger and privation; and also as I went to discover and pacify the islands of San Juan de Buriquén de Puerto Rico; and also as I went on the pacification and conquest of the island of Cuba with the adelantado Diego Velázquez; in all these ways for thirty years have I served and continue to serve Your Majesty–for these reasons stated above do I petition Your Mercy. And also because I was the first to have the inspiration to sow maize here in New Spain and to see if it took; I did this and experimented at my own expense.
We are our on saviors-Khepri Neteru
The Egyptian God Bes, from a fountain (marble). Roman Period, ca. 130 AD. Now in the Fitzwiliam Museum.
Clara B. Williams: The True Definition of “Praise Him In the Hallway”
There’s an old saying that goes, “until God opens a door, praise Him in the hallway.” No one knows how true this saying is other than Clara B. Williams.
Clara Belle Drisdale was born in Plum, Texas in 1885. She was the valedictorian of the graduating class of Prairie New Normal and Independent College, now (Prairie View A & M University) in 1908. Williams enrolled at the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in the fall of 1928, after taking some courses at the University of Chicago. While she worked as a teacher at Booker T. Washington School in Las Cruces, she also took college courses during the summer.
Most of Williams professors did not allow her inside the classroom because she was Black. But that didn’t stop Clara. She had to take notes from the hallway–standing up! That’s right, she wasn’t even given a chair to sit in many of those classes. She was also not allowed to walk with her class to get her diploma because of the segregation laws. Despite what they did or said against her, he still graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from NMSU in 1937 at the age of 51.
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Williams went on to continue her education beyond her graduation date, taking graduate-level classes well into the 1950s. She was a shining example to everyone she came into contact with. She married Jasper Williams in 1917. The couple raised three sons: Jasper Jr., James and Charles. She urged her sons to do well in school and succeed in higher education. All three of her children went to college and graduated with medical degrees. One attended Howard University Medical School in Washington D.C and the two other children graduated from Creighton University Medical School in Omaha, Nebraska. They founded the Williams Clinic in Chicago, Illinois.
Her eldest son Dr. Jasper Williams, was chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at……St. Bernard Hospital in Chicago, a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, past president of the Cook County Physicians Association, and a founding director of the Seaway National Bank of Chicago, now the country’s largest black-owned bank. So you see, if it wasn’t for Clara’s dedication and perseverance, we would have never seen such excellence.
Clara went on to receive many honors during her lifetime. She succeeded despite the significant obstacles of discrimination placed before her while pursuing higher education. In 1961, NMSU named Williams Street on the main campus in her honor. “She received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from NMSU in 1980. Williams passed away in 1994. She was 108. Clara Belle Williams Day has been issued in the state of New Mexico on February 13.
Thank you for your service Clara. We see you praising
https://blackdoctor.org/469239/clara-b-williams-the-true-definition-of-praise-him-in-the-hallway/
So many gems in this thread, keep'em coming.
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Source:Flickr / amthomson
Great Post!! 
Wow... can smeone please expand on this...
I read African Origin of Biological Psychiatry by Dr. Richard King MD and it was very informative. Here are some videos.