I once believed most of the negative streotypes about Africa and Africans untill I picked up a book by Basil Davidson called Pre-Colonial Western Africa. After reading this book I was enlightened much more about the past history that Africans have.

On the other hand, I am not one to beat up on other ethnicities at the expense of truth. I am also not one to romanticize Africa,and I am willing to point out weaknesses within the continent and to accept improvement. This simple fact seems to hinder many people who study Africa. I can understand after all the negative press and information that Africans have recieved that one might chose this route.

This is why I feel that Diasporian Africans [African Americans,Brazilians,etc.] should also spend time reserching other areas in Africa beside Egypt. This is to say that I am not discouraging them from studying ancient Kmt,but that many myths would be shattered about other areas of Africa if they would take the time to study these areas. Many might also find a cultural connection between them and many areas in America.

We have oral traditions,customs, and cultures in Western Africa fading away. Right know libraries of Timbuktu and Kano are falling into obscuity and documents wasting away. These cultural treasures would be terrible to lose,and many would be non-replaceable.

Another benefit might come from studying the political systems,medicinal systems,and social systems of Western Africans. Already we have an entire corpus on the Yoruba people and also upon other groups like the Dogon.

The archaeological study of Western Africa is extremely lacking. Most scholars have neglected this area with the except of Susan Keech Mcintosh[supervised the archaeology at Djenne]. Archaeological sites in Mauritania and the Sahara exist with much potential to tell about the early history of Western Africa.

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Originally posted by ausar:
lamin, I found in my reserch that many people in America have wrong ideas about people living in Africa. Most view Africa either as an area with Tropical rain forest or a vast desert. I think that equal amounts of reserch should be given to other areas of Africa besides ancinet Kmt[ancient Egypt].

I once believed most of the negative streotypes about Africa and Africans untill I picked up a book by Basil Davidson called Pre-Colonial Western Africa. After reading this book I was enlightened much more about the past history that Africans have.

On the other hand, I am not one to beat up on other ethnicities at the expense of truth. I am also not one to romanticize Africa,and I am willing to point out weaknesses within the continent and to accept improvement. This simple fact seems to hinder many people who study Africa. I can understand after all the negative press and information that Africans have recieved that one might chose this route.

This is why I feel that Diasporian Africans [African Americans,Brazilians,etc.] should also spend time reserching other areas in Africa beside Egypt. This is to say that I am not discouraging them from studying ancient Kmt,but that many myths would be shattered about other areas of Africa if they would take the time to study these areas. Many might also find a cultural connection between them and many areas in America.

We have oral traditions,customs, and cultures in Western Africa fading away. Right know libraries of Timbuktu and Kano are falling into obscuity and documents wasting away. These cultural treasures would be terrible to lose,and many would be non-replaceable.

Another benefit might come from studying the political systems,medicinal systems,and social systems of Western Africans. Already we have an entire corpus on the Yoruba people and also upon other groups like the Dogon.

The archaeological study of Western Africa is extremely lacking. Most scholars have neglected this area with the except of Susan Keech Mcintosh[supervised the archaeology at Djenne]. Archaeological sites in Mauritania and the Sahara exist with much potential to tell about the early history of Western Africa.

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Very Interesting Ausar!

Would you happen to have any references or links pertaining to this particular subject, that we could check out for ourselves?

You are right. Maybe some photos of the "lost wax" sculptures of Benin and Nok of what is now called Nigeria would be helpful. I have noticed that some of the headpieces and head gear of the Benin figures are very much similar to those of Ancient Egypt. The same applies to the kinds of headrests--curved in parabolic fashion--found among the Akan of Ghana. There are many other kinds of visual examples from places like the Congo, etc.

The history of Kano with its interesting archictecture and literature(Kano Chronicles written in Hausa) may also be visually explored.

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Originally posted by lamin:
To: Ausar

You are right. Maybe some photos of the "lost wax" sculptures of Benin and Nok of what is now called Nigeria would be helpful.

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