― Jim Butcher, Dead Beat
In order to better understand the
formulation of kinships that existed between the indigenous inhabitants of the
New World with free and enslaved Africans of the Old World; it is critical
to first explore the relationships formed between Europe and Africa.
It is personally frustrating reading World history books to only find one chapter dedicated to the whole of the African Continent from ancient times to European Colonization while the remaining 99 chapter are filled with the glories of Europe. This is also true of the great civilizations of the America’s before European contact. It is equally annoying to see Ancient Egypt placed outside the sphere of Africa. History books used in the education system still infer that African civilization began with European Colonization and African American history began with slavery.
It is personally frustrating reading World history books to only find one chapter dedicated to the whole of the African Continent from ancient times to European Colonization while the remaining 99 chapter are filled with the glories of Europe. This is also true of the great civilizations of the America’s before European contact. It is equally annoying to see Ancient Egypt placed outside the sphere of Africa. History books used in the education system still infer that African civilization began with European Colonization and African American history began with slavery.
The African presence in Europe is both
ancient and evident. Ancient Greek and
Roman historians kept records about it. Classical
writers and poets wrote about it while European artist sculpted and painted
their co-existence. Here is a brief list of dates, names and events that barely
scratches a dent in the prolific surface of African presence and influence in continental Europe.
9th
Century BC – The ancient Greeks called the land
south of Kemet/Egpyt “Ethiopia” or land of the sun burnt faces where they
believed the god and goddess of ancient Olympia went to visit for twelve
days. http://www.meskot.com/Ethiopia_RP.htm
9th Century BC - In Greek mythology, Eurybates was the herald for the Greek armies during the Trojan War. He served as Odysseus's squire. He was described by Odysseus to Penelope as "round-shouldered, dark-skinned, and curly-haired." Odysseus is said to pay him greater regard than any other of his companions for his honesty and faithfulness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurybates
9th Century BC - In Greek mythology, Eurybates was the herald for the Greek armies during the Trojan War. He served as Odysseus's squire. He was described by Odysseus to Penelope as "round-shouldered, dark-skinned, and curly-haired." Odysseus is said to pay him greater regard than any other of his companions for his honesty and faithfulness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurybates
9th
Century BC
– Phoenicians settlers from the Eastern Mediterranean had established colonies
throughout North Africa as early as 800 BC.
The colony of Carthage soon gained control of the shipping lanes in the
Mediterranean and by 500 BC had become a kingdom unique in history in that its
armies were almost exclusively made up of mercenaries. Fabulously wealthy its armies were composed
of Libyan and Nubian mercenaries as well as anyone who were willing to fight
for money. Source; Mercenaries: Soldiers
of Fortune, from Ancient Greece to Today’s Private Military Companies. Col.
Michael Lee Lanning. Presidio
Press. September 27, 2005. Page 24
The Cushite, by Rufus Lewis Perry
Ethiopia and Ethiopians as Seen by Classical Writers, by William Leo Hansberry
569 BC – 475 BC - Pythagoras
There were,
among his teachers, three philosophers who were to influence Pythagoras while
he was a young man. One of the most important was Pherekydes (wrote
conclusively on the origin of Greek gods) who many describe as the teacher of
Pythagoras.
The other two philosophers, who were to influence Pythagoras, and to
introduce him to mathematical ideas, were Thales
and his pupil Anaximander
who both lived on Miletus. In it is said that Pythagoras visited Thales
in Miletus when he was between 18 and 20 years old. By this time Thales
was an old man and, although he created a strong impression on Pythagoras, he
probably did not teach him a great deal. However he did contribute to
Pythagoras's interest in mathematics and astronomy, and advised him to travel
to Egypt to learn more of these subjects.
In about 535 BC Pythagoras went to Egypt.
Thales laying stress on his advanced age
and the infirmities of his body, advised him to go to Egypt to get in touch
with the priests of Memphis and Zeus. Thales confessed that the instruction of
these priests was the source of his own reputation for wisdom, while neither
his own endowments nor achievements equaled those which were so evident in
Pythagoras. Thales insisted that, in
view of all this, if Pythagoras should study with those priests, he was certain
of becoming the wisest and most divine of men.
The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library. Kenneth Sylvan Gurthrie, trans.,
David Fideler, ed/ Phanes Press Grand Rapids Michigan 1987 pg 59
522 – 44. BC - Greek
Poet Pindar
Describes the Colchians as being dark
skinned when Jason and the Argonauts fought for the Golden Fleece.
484
BC - Herodotus
on Colchis:
There can
be no doubt that the Colchians are an Egyptian race. Before I heard any mention
of the fact from others, I had remarked it myself. After the thought had struck
me, I made inquiries on the subject both in Colchis and in Egypt, and I found
that the Colchians had a more distinct recollection of the Egyptians, than the
Egyptians had of them. Still the Egyptians said that they believed the
Colchians to be descended from the army of Sesostris. My own conjectures were
founded, first, on the fact that they are black-skinned and have woolly hair,
which certainly amounts to but little, since several other nations are so too;
but further and more especially, on the circumstance that the Colchians, the
Egyptians, and the Ethiopians (Nubians), are the only nations who have
practised circumcision from the earliest times. Herodotos, The History, Volumne II, Page
104
Side Note:
The opponents of Herodotus call him the Father of Lies because there was
no evidence of the Egyptian 12th dynasty having a military presence
in Asia. That is until 1974 when Archaeologist
Sami Farag discovered text from the 12 dynasty. Published in 1980 it states
that Senwosrets led a military campaign to the north and an invasion to STT- a
word that often refers to Asia general. It
lists three mystery countries, Ilsi, Iwli and Tmplw. Belgian Egyptologist Georges Posener
prescribes Ilsi to possibly to the island of Cyprus which the Egyptians in
later times call Alasia. Bronze daggers
were taken as war booty which Cyprus is rich in. Iwli , Posener strongly
resembles another Egyptian word for Troy – W’iwly. Tmplw implied Tubal or Tubal
Cain, Martin Bernal believes lay somewhere in central or northeastern
Anatolia/turkey home of the earliest metal working centers of the world.
Herodotos
tells the story of how the Egyptians gods found their way to Greece. The
original inhabitants of Greece, the Pelasgians consulted the oracle of Dodona.
She approved the new names. The story is told by the priestesses at Dodona who
according to Herodotos the oracle itself was founded by an Egyptian priestess. Herodotos
Volume II page 52
From the
three priestesses at Dodona told Herodotos that long ago two black doves had
flown from Thebes in Egypt. One to Libya and one to Greece. The dove that
landed had then spoken in a human voice to the dodonaeans instructing them to
build a shrine on the spot where she alighted. They obeyed and the oracle was
born.
Herodotos
interpreted the two stories as the fact that the two women were foreigners
whose language must have sounded like the tweeting of birds but once they
learned the local language they spoke in a human voice. As to the bird being
black, they merely signify by this that the woman was an Egyptian. Herodotus
Volumne II page 57
From the
priest of Amun in Thebes related how two of their priestesses had long ago been
kidnapped from Thebes by Phoenicians.
One was sold into slavery in Libya and the other in Greece. The
priestess in Libya founded the famous oracle of Ammon and the priestess in
Greece
founded
the oracle of Dodona.
645 B.C. –
Greek Historian Diodorus
Siculus wrote in his monumental universal history
book “Bibliotheca Historica.” describing
the “three Libyan tribes on the coast of Tunisia, the Micatani and Zufoni who
were nomads and the Asfodelodi, who by the color of their skin resembled the
Ethiopians.”
2 1 Now the Ethiopians, as historians relate, were the first of
all men and the proofs of this statement, they say, are manifest. For that they
did not come into their land as immigrants from abroad but were natives of it
and so justly bear the name of "autochthones"
is, they maintain, conceded by practically all men; furthermore, that those who
dwell beneath the noon-day sun were, in all likelihood, the first to be
generated by the earth, is clear to all; since, inasmuch as it was the warmth
of the sun which, at the generation of the universe, dried up the earth when it
was still wet and impregnated it with life, it is reasonable to suppose that
the region which was nearest the sun was the first to bring forth living
creatures. 2 And they say that they were the first to be
taught to honour the gods and to hold sacrifices and processions and festivals
and the other rites by which men honour the deity; and that in consequence
their piety has been published abroad among all men, and it is generally held
that the sacrifices practiced among the Ethiopians are those which are the most
pleasing to heaven. 3 As witness to this they call upon
the poet who is perhaps the oldest and certainly the most venerated among the
Greeks; for in the Iliad he
represents both Zeus and the rest of the gods with him as absent on a visit to
Ethiopia to share in the sacrifices and the banquet which were given annually
by the Ethiopians for all the gods together:
For Zeus had yesterday to Ocean's
bounds
Set forth to feast with Ethiop's
faultless men,
And he was followed there by all
the gods.
|
4 And they state that, by reason of their
piety towards the deity, they manifestly enjoy the favour of the gods, inasmuch
as they have never experienced the rule of an invader from abroad; for from all
time they have enjoyed a state of freedom and of peace one with another, and
although many and powerful rulers have made war upon them, not one of these has
succeeded in his undertaking.
3 1 Cambyses for instance,
they say, who made war upon them with a great force, both lost all his army and
was himself exposed to the greatest peril; Semiramis also, who through the
magnitude of her undertakings and achievements has become renowned, after
advancing a short distance into Ethiopia gave up her campaign against the whole
nation; and Heracles and Dionysus, although they visited all the inhabited earth,
failed to subdue the Ethiopians alone who dwell above Egypt, both because of
the piety of these men and because of the insurmountable difficulties involved
in the attempt.
They say also that
the Egyptians are colonists sent out by the Ethiopians, Osiris having been the
leader of the colony.
The artifacts, including hundreds of fragments of pottery, jewelry, stone vessels, and ceremonial objects such as incense burners, were initially recovered from the Qustul cemetery by Keith C. Seele, a professor at the University of Chicago. The cemetery, which contained 33 tombs that were heavily plundered in ancient times, was on the Nile near the modern boundary between Egypt and the Sudan. The ancient Egyptians called this land; Ta-Seti or the land of the bow.
The significance of the artifacts, which had been in storage at the university's oriental Institute, was not fully appreciated until last year, when Bruce Williams, a research associate, began to study them. Unfortunately, the discoveries were conducted in a rush due to the building of the Aswan dam in 1960’s. Today ancient Ta- Seti/Nubia/Kush lies under 250feet of water by the artificial Lake Nasser.
2 For, speaking generally, what is now
Egypt, they maintain, was not land but sea when in the beginning the universe
was being formed; afterwards, however, as the Nile during the times of its
inundation carried down the mud from Ethiopia, land was gradually built up from
the deposit. Also the statement that all the land of the Egyptians is alluvial
silt deposited by the river receives the clearest proof, in their opinion, from
what takes place at the outlets of the Nile; 3 for as each
year new mud is continually gathered together at the mouths of the river, the
sea is observed being thrust back by the deposited silt and the land receiving
the increase. And the larger part of the customs of the Egyptians are, they hold,
Ethiopian, the colonists still preserving their ancient manners. 4 For
instance, the belief that their kings are gods, the very special attention
which they pay to their burials, and many other matters of a similar nature are
Ethiopian practices, while the shapes of their statues and the forms of their
letters are Ethiopian; 5 for of the two kinds of writing
which the Egyptians have, that which is known as "popular" (demotic)
is learned by everyone, while that which is called "sacred" is
understood only by the priests of the Egyptians, who learn it from their
fathers as one of the things which are not divulged, but among the Ethiopians
everyone uses these forms of letters. 6 Furthermore, the
orders of the priests, they maintain, have much the same position among both
peoples; for all are clean7
who are engaged in the service of the gods, keeping themselves shaven, like the
Egyptian priests, and having the same dress and form of staff, which is shaped
like a plough and is carried by their kings, who wear high felt hats which end
in a knob at the top and are circled by the serpents which they call asps; and
this symbol appears to carry the thought that it will be the lot of those who
shall dare to attack the king to encounter death-carrying stings. 7 Many
other things are also told by them concerning their own antiquity and the
colony which they sent out that became the Egyptians, but about this there is
no special need of our writing anything.
101 – 177 AD - Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus
Tiberius Claudis Atticus Herodes was a
rich and cultured Greek aristocrat.
After the death of his children he adopted three of his pupils including
Memmon an Ethiopian. Portrait
of Ethiopian (Memnon, one of the favourite pupils of Herodes Atticus). White
marble. A.D. 150—160s. (Berlin, State Museums, Collection of Classical ...
250 AD - Heliodoros - Author
of Aithiopika
Alluded
to the Greek admiration for all things Egyptian. An Egyptian priest in the
story named Calasiris tells of a visit he made to Delphi, during which he was
besieged by Greek questioners.
287 AD - Egyptian
born Maurice is martyred by the Roman Emperor for refusing to kill
Christians. http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=368
347 – 420 AD – Saint Jerome
Referred
to Colchis as the second Ethiopia because of its black population
Black
Spark, White Fire: Did African Explorers Civilize Ancient Europe
Richard
Poe Prima Publishing pg56
4th
Century AD -
Skelton remains unearthed in ancient Roman York Britton called the Ivory Bangle
Lady establishes her from North Africa. http://www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/Page/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?ArticleId=30
7th
Century AD – Roman Byzantine writer Stephanus Placidus reiterated that the
Ethiopians were "loved by the gods because of their justice. http://www.meskot.com/Ethiopia_RP.htm
7th
Century AD
- Nicknamed the last scholar of the ancient world, Archbishop Isidore of
Seville wrote in his multivolume work, Etymologiae; “the word Maurus or ‘Moor’
had become an adjective in Latin, ‘for the Greeks call black, mauron’. In
Isidore’s day, Moors were black by definition…” (Staying Roman: Conquest and
identity in Africa and the Mediterranean, 439-700. Jonathan Conant, 2012
Cambridge University Press.)
12th Century AD –
Analysis of a 13th century skeleton found in Ipswich, England reveal the man to
be from Tunisia. http://news.discovery.com/history/medieval-african-england.htm
13th Century A.D. - is a 13th-century Arthurian
romance in Middle Dutch. The work tells the story
of Morien, the Moorish
son of Aglovale,
one of King
Arthur's Knights of the Round Table.
Before 1400: Slavery had existed in Europe from Classical times and did
not disappear with the collapse of the Roman Empire. Slaves remained common in
Europe throughout the early medieval period. However, slavery of the Classical
type became increasingly uncommon in Northern Europe and, by the 11th and 12th
centuries, had been effectively abolished in the North. Nevertheless, forms of
unfree labour, such as villeinage and serfdom, persisted in the north well into
the early modern period. In Southern and Eastern Europe, Classical-style
slavery remained a normal part of the society and economy and trade across the
Mediterranean and the Atlantic seaboard meant that African slaves began to
appear in Italy, Spain, Southern France, and Portugal well before the discovery
of the New World in 1492. From about the 8th century onwards, an Arab-run slave
trade also flourished, with much of this activity taking place in East Africa,
Arabia, and the Indian Ocean. In addition, many African societies themselves
had forms of slavery, although these differed considerably, both from each
other and from the European and Arabic forms. Although various forms of unfree
labour were prevalent in Europe throughout its history, historians refer to
'Chattel Slavery', in which slaves are commodities to be bought and sold,
rather than domestic servants or agricultural workers. Chattel Slavery is the
characteristic form of slavery in the modern world, and this chronology is
concerned primarily with this form.
1441
- 1441: Start of European slave trading in Africa. The Portuguese captains Antão Gonçalves and Nuno Tristão capture 12 Africans in Cabo Branco (modern Mauritania) and take them to Portugal as slaves.
1444
- 1444: Lançarote de Freitas, a tax-collector from the Portuguese town of Lagos, forms a company to trade with Africa.
- 8 August 1444: Lancarote de Freitas lands 235 kidnapped and enslaved Africans from The Bay of Arguin, on the Atlantic shore of Mauritania and returns to in Lagos, Portugal. This the first large group of African slaves brought to Europe.
- 1452: Start of the 'sugar-slave complex'. Sugar is first planted in the Portuguese island of Madeira and, for the first time, African slaves are put to work on the sugar plantations.
- 18 June 1452: Pope Nicholas V issues Dum Diversas, a bull authorising the Portuguese to reduce any non-Christians to the status of slaves.
1454
- 8 January 1454: Pope Nicholas V issues Romanus Pontifex, a bull granting the Portuguese a perpetual monopoly in trade with Africa. Nevertheless, Spanish traders begin to bring slaves from Africa to Spain.
1455
- 20 Mrach 1455, Andreu Catala, the Lieutenant of the Royal Treasury Crown of Aragon, Barcelona received money from an anonymous group of African Freedmen. They were granted a charter to establish a new brotherhood, located in the parish church of Saint Jaume de Barelona. They were in part sponsored by Prince John, heir to the throne and the King’s Lieutenant in Catalonia, Alfons V, his brother. This “confraternity” was called Cofraidia de San Jaime Apostol de Negros. Soon another brotherhood was established in Valencia. The first proto black sorority was established in Sevilla under the protection of Archbishop Gonzalo de Mena.
- Source-digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/65499/1/Armenteros-2011-De hermandades y procesiones. La cofradía de esclavos y libertos negros de Sant Jaume de Barcelona y la asimilación de la negritud en la Europa premoderna (siglos XV-XVI).pdf
1461 - 1461: The first of the Portuguese trading forts, the castle at Arguin (modern Mauritania), is completed. http://www.colonialvoyage.com/eng/africa/mauritania/arguin.html
1462
- 1462: The Portuguese colony on the Cape Verde Islands is founded, an important way-station in the slave trade.
- 1462: Portuguese slave traders start to operate in Seville (Spain)
1470
- 1470s: Despite Papal opposition, Spanish merchants begin to trade in large numbers of slaves in the 1470s.
- 1476: Carlos de Valera of Castille in Spain brings back 400 slaves from Africa.
1481
- 1481: A Portuguese embassy to the court of King Edward IV of England concludes with the English government agreeing not to enter the slave trade, against the wishes of many English traders.
- 1481-86: Diogo da Azambuja builds the castle at Elmina (modern Ghana) which was to become the most substantial and the most notorious of the slave-trading forts in West Africa.
1483
- 1483: Diogo Cão discovers the Congo river. The region is later a major source of slaves.
1485
- 1485: Diogo Cão makes contact with the nation of Kongo and visits its capital, Mbanza Kongo. He establishes relations between Portugal and Kongo.
1486 - 1486: João Afonso Aveiro makes contact with the kingdom and the city of Benin.
- 1486: Portuguese settle the West African island of São Tomé. This uninhabited West African island is planted with sugar and populated by African slaves by the Portuguese. The settlement thus extended and developed the sugar-slave complex that had been initiated in Madeira.
- 1487-88: Bartolomeo Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope and explores the Indian Ocean and the East African coast. http://www.brycchancarey.com/slavery/chrono2.htm
By the time the Old World made contact
with the New World, Africans had been, were and would continue to be a
significant part of World History! More
specifically during the 700 year long occupation of the Iberian Peninsula by
"Moors" Africans came as kings, nobles, warriors, servants and
slaves. Furthermore during the “Reconquista”, as early as 1441 the
Spanish and Portuguese began importing African slaves to
their homelands. By 1455 several all
“African Catholic Fraternities” existed to raise money to provide medical, food
and well being for their own. Therefore,
when the Nina, Pinta and Sante Marie set sail in 1492, there were among the
crew some of African blood.
Additional
Sources
The
History of Herodotus
The
History of Diodorus Siculus
People of
Color in European Art History
The Image
of the Black in Western Art Volumes I - IV
David
Bindman and Henry Louis Gates Jr.
The
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Cambridge
Massachusetts / London England 2010
“Misconceptions about African Blacks in
the Ancient Mediterranean World”. Arion Volume 4 No. 1 December 10, 1988
Mvto
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