AFRIKAN 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. May Sankofa always be our guiding principle in this vital imperative! Here is a selection of historical occurrences with which you may be familiar:
- 5000 BCE Farming begins in Egypt
- 2667 BCE Birth of Imhotep (approx.)
- 2648 BCE Death of Imhotep (approx)
- 2500 BCE Beginning or the Kerma Kingdom. Find out more
- 2500 BCE Emergence of the Djenne-Djenno Civilization
- 2400 BCE Beginning of the Punt Kingdom
- 1600 BCE Emergence of the Dhar-Tichitt Civilitation
- 1500 BCE End of the Kerma Kingdom
- 1400 BCE High-grade steel was being manufactured in East Afrika. (Ask the Haya elders nicely - they will show you how! Say please)
- 1070 BCE Emergence of the Kush / Nubia Empire
- 1069 BCE End of the Punt Kingdom
- 1053 BCE Birth of Makeda AKA Queen of Sheba: ruled Ethiopia from 1013 to 982 BCE. Mother of Menelik I, first imperial ruler of Ethiopia.
- 800 BCE Emergence of Ethiopia
- 751 BCE - 671 BC Kush / Nubia ruled Egypt See Kush Nubia
- 50 BCE The Kingdom of Axum emerges
- 300 BCE 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
- 1545 AD Birth of Prince Gaspar Yanga: freedom fighter, military & spiritual leader, national hero (14/05/1945 - 1618)
- 1562 AD England joins the trans-Atlantic slave trade
- 1575 AD Portugal begins to colonize Angola
- 1582 AD Birth of Nzingha, Queen of Ndongo & Matamba. Military strategist, fighter for Afrikan freedom, courageous ruler who set her subjects free.
- 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 Afrika. Details
- 1728 AD Beginning of the First Maroon War
- 1740 AD End of 1st Maroon war. Maroons victorious
- 1767 AD Birth of Dutty Boukman: Military & religious leader. Initiator of the Haitian Revolution.
- 1787 AD British anti-slavery abolitionists established a colony for freed slaves in Sierra Leone
- 1791 AD Death of Dutty Boukman
- 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 Afrikan 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
- 1845 AD Birth of Jose Antonio Maceo AKA The Bronze Titan: exceptional army commander, genius of military strategy, national hero (1845 - 1896)
- 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.
- 1871 AD Birth of James Weldon Johnson, aurtor of the Black National Anthem. (17/06/1871 - 26/06/1938)
- 1881 AD Birth of Pixley Ka Isaka Seme (01/10/1881 - 07/06/1951)
- 1882 AD The British army occupies Egypt and Sudan.
- 1884 AD Germany seized Namibia, Tanzania, Togo and Cameroon.
- 1884 AD Start of the so-called Berlin Conference at which Afrika was scrambled: a program for her subjugation and enduring dysfunction.
- 1885 AD End of the so-called Berlin Conference & end of Africa as a viable entity.
- 1885 AD 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 AD Birth of Marcus Panafrikanus Garvey (17/08/1887 - 10/06/1940).Go
- 1881 AD Birth of Pixley ka Isaka Seme (01/10/1881 - 07/06/1951)
- 1888 AD 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 AD The British take Uganda
- 1896 ADThe 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 Birth of Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan (31/12/1918 - 19/03/2015)
- 1924 AD Birth of Robert Mugabe (21/02/1924 - 06/09/2019)
- 1925 AD Birth of Malcolm X - Shabazz (19/05/1925 - 21/02/1965)
- 1928 AD Death of Louis Latimer, genius behind many of Thomas Edison's patents, inductee of the National Inventors' Hall of Fame. (04/09/1848 - 11/12/1928)
- 1934 AD Birth of Roberto Clemente; World-class athlete, humanitarian, national hero (18/08/1934 - 31/12/1972)
- 1937 AD Birth of Dr. Leonard Jeffries PanAfrikan Trailblazer (19/01/1937)
- 1938 AD Birth of Nana Camille Yarbrough, performance artist, author, committed cultural catalyst (08/01/ 1938)
- 1940 AD Birth of Pele, the greatest footballer who ever lived
- 1942 AD Birth of Nana Molefe Kete Asante (14/08/1942)
- 1942 AD Birth of Rocky Jones Canada's foremost civil rights reformer (26/08/1941 - 29/07/2013)
- 1945 AD Birth of Professor James Small, Arch PanAfrikanist
- 1946 AD Birth of Steve Biko A true son of Afrika (18/12/1946 - 12/09/1977)
- 1948 AD Apartheid is introduced in South Afrika
- 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 Lumumba (17/07/1962)
- 1965 AD Malcolm X is assassinated
- 1965 AD Birth of Nana 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 Afrika by Walter Rodney
3. They Came Before Columbus by Dr. Ivan Van Sertima
4. The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
5. Black Skins White Mask by Frantz Fanon
6. Toward the Afrikan Revolution by Frantz Fanon
7. Black Heroes in World History, Tuesday Magazine, Bantam Book
8. Everything by Molefi Asante, Starting with "The Afrocentric Idea"
9. All the works of Cheika Anta Diop
10. Vessels of Evil by Lawrence Thomas
11. Afrika: Mother of Western Civilization by Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan
12. Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome by Joy DeGruy Leary
13. African Americans & Afrika by Nemata Amelia Ibitayo Blyden
14. The Man Who Founded the ANC: A Biography of Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, by Bongani Ngqulunga
15. The Afrikan Americans' Search for Truth and Knowledge By Dr. Leonard Jeffries Jr.
16. The African Americans' Search for Truth and Knowledge By Dr. Leonard Jeffries Jr.
17. Africa Must Unite by Kwame Nkrumah
18. The Cultural Unity of Black Africa by Cheikh Anta Diop
19. Black Africa: The Economic and Cultural Basis for a Federated State by Cheika Anta Diop
20. We, the PanAfricans: Essays on the Global Black Experience by Kamuti Kiteme
21. The African Americans' Search for Truth and Knowledge by Dr. Leonard Jeffries Jr
22. The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, Or, Africa for the Africans, by Marcus Garvey
23. The Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
24. The Eagle That Would Fly by JEK Aggrey
25. An African Revolutionary by Samora Machel
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.
"Afrika 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 Afrikans, if there is a fourth, fifth or even sixth world, we will be in it."
PLO Lumumba
"Without you, Afrikan mothers, there would have been no us - Afrikan 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
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