AFRICAN HERITAGE UNIVERSE
We learn from our past to shape our future
Our Past
Our past informs our present and signals our future. Stated differently, we have to know where we are coming from to know where we are going. We must therefore, learn our history, understand it and select those aspects which are supportive of our present endeavors and future aspirations. Here is a selection of historical occurrences with which you may be familiar:
- 5000 BC Farming begins in Egypt
- 2667 BC Birth of Imhotep (approx.)
- 2648 BC Death of Imhotep (approx)
- 2500 BC Beginning or the Kerma Kingdom. Find out more
- 2500 BC Emergence of the Djenne-Djenno Civilization
- 2400 BC Beginning of the Punt Kingdom
- 1600 BC Emergence of the Dhar-Tichitt Civilitation
- 1500 BC End of the Kerma Kingdom
- 1400 BC High-grade steel was being manufactured in East Africa. (Ask the Haya elders nicely - they will show you how! Say please)
- 1070 BC Emergence of the Kush / Nubia Empire
- 1069 BC End of the Punt Kingdom
- 800 BC Emergence of Ethiopia
- 751 BC - 671 BC Kush / Nubia ruled Egypt See Kush Nubia
- 50 BC The Kingdom of Axum emerges
- 300 BC End of the Dhar-Tichitt Civiliztation
- 350 AD Decline of the Kush / Nubian Empire
- 650 AD Beginning of the enslavement of upwards of 14 million of our ancestors by the Arabs
- 700 AD Emergence of the Great Ghana Empire Check it out
- 1100 AD Heyday of the kingdom of Ife
- 1220 AD Advent of Zimbabwe Kingdom. Find out more
- 1235 AD Beginning of the Mali Empire. Here's your link
- 1240 AD The Great Ghana Empire comes to an end
- 1350 AD End of the Djenne-Djenno Civiliztation
- 1400 AD Termination of the Mali Empire
- 1450 AD End of Zimbabwe Kingdom
- 1468 AD Start of the Songhai Empire. Find out more
- 1518 AD The 1st of 12 million of our ancestors are enslaved and transported to the New World by Europeans
- 1562 AD England joins the trans-Atlantic slave trade
- 1575 AD Portugal begins to colonize Angola
- 1591 AD Songhai Empire ends
- 1621 AD Assassination of King Benkos Bioho San Basilio de Palenque. Long may he live! Click for Stature
- 1660 AD Start of the Rozwi Empire
- 1700 AD The Ashanti Kingdom emerges in West Africa. Details
- 1728 AD Beginning of the First Maroon War
- 1740 AD End of 1st Maroon war. Maroons victorious
- 1787 AD British anti-slavery abolitionists established a colony for freed slaves in Sierra Leone
- 1791 AD (21/08) Start of the Haitian Revolution
- 1792 AD Denmark bans trans-Atlantic slavery
- 1795 AD Start of the Second Maroon War
- 1795 AD Benjamin Banneker, scientific genius, produced the original survey for Washington DC, capital of the USA. Dig this
- 1796 AD End of 2nd Maroon war. Maroons victorious
- 1803 AD Death of Toussaint Louverture, the Great Haitian Revolutionary General.
- 1804 AD End of Haitian Revolution with victory for African freedom
- 1807 AD Britain bans the slave trade
- 1808 AD The USA bans the slave trade
- 1822 AD Birth of Harriet Tubman (29/01/1822 - 10/03/1913)
- 1822 AD US abolitionists established a colony in Liberia
- 1828 AD Shaka, King of the Zulus, is assassinated
- 1844 AD Death of Mirambo, brilliant military strategist and fierce opponent of the Arab Slave Trade. See Homage to Mirambo
- 1847 AD Liberia becomes independent
- 1860 AD Start of the Rozwi Empire. Look it up
- 1866 AD Our enslaved ancestors became "free" in the USA.
- 1881 AD Birth of Pixley Ka Isaka Seme (01/10/1881)
- 1882 The British army occupies Egypt and Sudan.
- 1884 Germany seized Namibia, Tanzania, Togo and Cameroon.
- 1884 Start of the so-called Berlin Conference at which Africa was scrambled: a program for her subjugation and enduring dysfunction.
- 1885 End of the so-called Berlin Conference & end of Africa as a viable entity.
- 1885 Italy captures Eritrea, Belgium takes the Kongo and Britain helps itself to Botswana.
- 1886 AD Kenya is colonized by the British. The Europeans found out about our gold in the Transvaal.
- 1887 Birth of Marcus Panafricanus Garvey (Died 10/06/1940). Go
- 1888 Britain establishes control over parts of south east Africa and names it Rhodesia, after Cecil, the blood diamond miner
- 1889 AD End of the Rozwi Empire
- 1894 The British take Uganda
- 1896 The Italians invade Ethiopia and are soundly defeated
- 1897 AD E. Sontonga pens "Nkosi Sikelel iAfrica" Lyrics
- 1900 AD James Weldon Johnson pens Black National Anthem Go
- 1918 AD Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan (31/12/1918 - 19/03/2015)
- 1928 Louis Latimer, genius behind many of Thomas Edison's patents, inductee of the National Inventors' Hall of Fame, dies
- 1940 AD Birth of Pele, the greatest footballer who ever lived
- 1942 AD Birth of Nana Molefe Kete Asante (14/08/1942)
- 1948 AD Apartheid is introduced in South Africa
- 1951 AD Death of Pixley Ka Isaka Seme (07/06/1951)
- 1952 Start of the Mau-Mau phenomenon in Kenya. Learn more
- 1957 AD Ghana is independent of Britain and the Gold Coast
- 1962 AD Birth of PLO Lumunba (17/07/1962)
- 1965 AD Malcolm X is assassinated
- 1965 AD Birth of Mia Amor Mottley (01/10/1965)
- 2002 AD Kunle Olukotun invented the Ultra SPARK T1 Processor
- 2008 Barack Obama elected President of the USA. Pictures
- FOR A COMPLETE AFRICAN HISTORY TIMELINE CLICK HERE
Obviously this is a tiny portion of our history. Clearly we have much to learn and much to teach our children. Here are a few leads:
1. The destruction of African Civilizations by Chancellor Williams
2. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney
3. They Came Before Columbus by Dr. Ivan Van Sertima
4. The Wretched of the Earth by Franz Fanon
5. Black Skins White Mask by Franz Fanon
6. Black Heroes in World History, Tuesday Magazine, Bantam Book
7. Everything by Molefi Asante, Starting with "The Afrocentric Idea"
8. All the works of Cheika Anta Diop
9. Vessels of Evil by Lawrence Thomas
10. Africa: Mother of Western Civilitation by Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan
11. Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome by Joy DeGruy Leary
12. African Americans & Africa by Nemata Amelia Ibitayo Blyden
Let us each give of our talents, our energy and our resources for the betterment of Africa and all her children.
Let us all commit to work together for our global prosperity and that of Africa, our ancestral homeland.
"Africa has her mysteries and even a wise man cannot understand them. But a wise man respects them!"
Miriam Makeba
"Third World is a state of mind and until we change our attitude as Africans, if there is a fourth, fifth or even sixth world, we will be in it."
PLO Lumumba
"Without you, African mothers, there would have been no us - African fathers, sons and daughters."
Yosef Ben-Jochannan
Never lose sight of an antelope for a dashing squirrel."
PLO
Lumumba
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PAGE EPILOGUE: Our History; the Rock that Rocks
"History is not everything but it is a starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass that they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are, but more importantly, what they must be." John Henrick Clarke
