The conquering nations throughout history have always
rewritten or destroyed the history of the conquered nations. Racism and the brutal and devastating effects
of slavery only intensified the need to change African history. It was argued that Africans were pagans,
savages, and heathens in need of salvation and that the best thing the slave
traders did for Black people was to have dragged our ancestors to the Americas
in chains, because we lacked the intellectual capacity to succeed. Nothing could be further from the truth! While the Moors were re-civilizing Europe,
great empires were thriving in Western Africa and frequently traded with the
Moors. These included the empires of
Ghana, Mali, and Songhay, which prospered between 700 AD and 1600 AD.
The founders of Ghana were known as the Soninkes, and they
are experts in making tools and weapons with iron. In fact, their iron weapons helped them to
conquer the neighboring tribes and to form their empire. They are also said to have had an
inexhaustible supply of gold. It was so
plentiful that the emperor passed a law, which said that all gold in nugget
form belonged to him and that the people could only use gold dust. It was said that without this precaution,
gold would have become so plentiful that it would have lost its value. One gold nugget was so large that it was used
as a hitching post for the ruler's favorite horse. Ghana was also famous as a trading center
where locally produced metal tools, jewelry, leather, and cotton clothes were
traded for imports from Moorish Spain and Morocco.
The Mali Empire began in 1230 AD with King Sundiata. He
gained control of all the trade that had been monopolized by Ghana. In 1342, Mansa Musa made a pilgrimage to
Mecca, which made the Mali Empire world famous. He took a caravan of 60,000 people to Mecca
and gave away so much gold as presents that the gold market in the world was
devalued for 12 years. When he was asked
in Cairo how he became emperor, he said that his brother, Emperor Abubakari II
took 2,000 ships in 1311 AD, sailed west, and never returned. Ivan Van Sertima in his book They Came Before
Columbus, acknowledges Abubakari II as one of the discovers of America who
preceded Columbus. The Mali Empire had a
standing army of 100,000 men and is said to have included an area the size of
Western Europe.
The Songhay Empire rose to supremacy approximately 1457 AD
and eventually became as large as the United States of America. The Songhay Empire was also a prosperous
trading center but became world famous as a center of advanced culture and
higher education. Famous universities
were established in the cities of Gao, Jenne, and Timbuktu, which employed
thousands of teachers who offered courses that included astronomy, mathematics,
medicine, hygiene, music, and many others.
Jenne also had a medical school that was especially famous for training
surgeons in difficult operations such as cataract surgery. Professor Ahmed Baba, who was chancellor of
the University of Sankore in Timbuktu, was the author of more than 40 books and
had a personal library of 1,600 volumes; which he said was small, compared to
the library of his colleagues. During
the slave trade, many of the slaves from the former Songhay Empire were highly
educated and were credited with teaching Caribbean and American farmers
successful agricultural techniques. They
also invented various tools and equipment to lessen the burden of their daily
work.
The Songhay Empire prospered until 1591 when it was finally
conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa.
THE MOORS
During the European Dark Ages, between the 7th and 14th
century AD, the Moorish Empire in Spain became one of the world's finest
civilizations. General Tarik and his
Black Moorish army from Morocco, conquered Spain after a week long battle with
King Roderick in 711 AD. (The word
tariff and the Rock of Gibraltar were named after him). They found that Europe, with the assistance
of the Catholic Church, had returned almost to complete barbarism. The population was 90% illiterate and had
lost all of the civilizing principles that were passed on by the ancient Greeks
and Romans.
The Moors reintroduced mathematics, medicine, agriculture,
and the physical sciences. The clumsy
Roman numerals were replaced by Arabic figures including the zero and the
decimal point. As Dr. Van Sertima says,
"You can't do higher mathematics with Roman numerals." The Moors introduced agriculture to Europe
including cotton, rice, sugar cane, dates, ginger, lemons, and
strawberries. They also taught them how
to store grain for up to 100 years and built underground grain silos. They established a world famous silk industry
in Spain. The Moorish achievement in
hydraulic engineering was outstanding.
They constructed an aqueduct, that conveyed water from the mountains to
the city through lead pipes from the mountains to the city. They taught them how to mine for minerals on
a large scale, including copper, gold, silver, tin, lead, and aluminum. Spain soon became the world center for high
quality sword blades and shields. Spain
was eventually manufacturing up to 12,000 blades and shields per year. Spanish craft and woolen became world
famous. The Moorish craftsman also
produced world class glass, pottery, vases, mosaics, and jewelry.
The Moors introduced to Europe paved, lighted streets with
raised sidewalks for pedestrians, flanked by uninterrupted rows of
buildings. Paved and lighted streets did
not appear in London or Paris for hundreds of years. They constructed thousands of public markets
and mills in each city. Cordova alone
had 5,000 of each. They also introduced
to Spain underwear and bathing with soap.
Their public baths numbered in the thousands when bathing in the rest of
Europe was frowned upon as a diabolical custom to be avoided by all good
Christians. Poor hygiene contributed to
the plagues in the rest of Europe.
Moorish monarchs dwelled in sumptuous palaces while the crowned heads of
England, France, and Germany lived in barns, lacking windows, toilets, and
chimneys, with only a hole in the roof as the exit for smoke. Human waste material was thrown in the
streets since no bathrooms were present.
Education was made mandatory by the Moors, while 90% of
Europe was illiterate, including the kings and queens. The Moors introduced public libraries to
Europe with 600,000 books housed in Cordova alone. They established 17 outstanding universities
in Spain. Since Africa is a matriarchal
society, women were also encouraged to devote themselves to serious study, and
it was only in Spain that one could find female doctors, lawyers, and
scientists.
Moorish schoolteachers knew that the world was round and
taught geography from a globe. They
produced expert maps with all sea and land routes accurately located with
respect to latitude and longitude; while also introducing compasses to
Europe. They were such expert
shipbuilders that they were able to use their geography expertise to import and
export as far away as India and China.
It was not by accident that a Moor named Pietro Olonzo Nino was the
chief navigator for Christopher Columbus on the flagship Santa Maria. He is said to have argued with Columbus as to
who really discovered America. One of
the worst mistakes the Moors made was to introduce gunpowder technology from
China into Europe, because their enemies adopted this weapon and used it to
drive them out of Spain. Europe then
took the 700 years of civilization and education re-taught to them by the Moors
and used this knowledge to attack Africa.
While the Moors were re-civilizing Europe, great empires
were thriving in Western Africa and frequently traded with the Moors. These included the empires of Ghana, Mali,
and Songhay, which prospered between 700 AD and 1600 AD. Africa was not a dark continent awaiting
European civilization. In fact, Black
African Egyptians and Black African Moors are credited with civilizing Europe.
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