CHAPTER 1

THE UNCIVILIZED MYTHS TOLD ABOUT AFRICA

To dispel the myths of Africa, we must first know what are myths, how
they came about, who is responsible for them and how can we uncover the myths
to learn the truth.

What are myths

A myth is a traditional story, sometimes it is written by an unknown

authorship it will be ostensible with a historical basis, sometimes it serve to
explain some phenomenon in nature. The origin of man or the customs,
institutions, religious rites of a people, usually, myths involve exploits of
ancient
gods, heroes and legends, myths are fictitious stories unscientific accounts,
theories and belief, myths can be any imaginary person or thing spoken of as
though they exist, than what is a mythology.
A mythology, is telling of fictional tales or about legends, fiction is
truth and
untruth mixed together. mythology is the science and study of myths. It could be a
book or a story about myths. Mythology means collectively, all the myths of a
specific people or about a specific being or legend, what are all the myths told
about people of Africa, to be honest hell, I don’t know - - all of them.
I do know at least four or five real important myths. I would like to
explain,
discuss and analyze at this time, let us examine, these tales I wrote about in
this
work concerning fictional legends who on one hand are real historic characters
and on the other, the tales are part true, keep in mind it was up to the people
responsible for writing history to explain the parts that were true and the parts
that were untrue, the truth is few men came along after these heroic figures time
in history and had greater influence on world history than the black historical
figures I wrote of in this work, many others have never been recorded these men
of African origin, decisions changed world history, they changed how history was
recorded, a freed African slave changed the fate of paganism in the world when
Islam was established Africans helped bring

The Uncivilized Myths told about Africa

Christianity into the world and enabled us to build a great western civilization,
based on the signs and symbols of the early Africans civilization in Egypt.
The turning point in history came and when the pages of history changed is
when white historians, sociologists, bourgeois anthropologists and scientists took
it on themselves to write their own personal opinions about Africa history, based
entirely on a white inferiority complex and feelings of whites wanting power over
blacks simply a case of white European descendants making themselves masters
over people of African origin.

I will say white meaning people of Caucasian origin, white anthropologists

called Zulu warriors headsmen to suggest they are headhunters and headhunters
are cannibals, the Zulu people were never cannibals, this is how the myths
started,
they mixed lies with truth and came up with the myths. All Africans are
cannibals, sound familiar.
White historians often refer to the ancient Ethiopians as Abyssinians
instead
of Africans, this mistake made learning about Africans in Ethiopia a myth
because of this sociologists refused to recognize Abraha as a great African
leader,
they ignored the fact emperor Elesbaan of Ethiopia was of African origin and
known in Europe as an African saint, historians teach about the life of Alexander
the great and says nothing of black Clitus, even his name was “Black” he was
Alexander top commander and a Black king, he saved Alexander life, scientists
rarely speak of Yusuf Ibn Tashfin, known as the black Sultan of Africa, a black
ruler who conquered Spain there isn’t a history class in the entire world teach
about the life of these two African leaders, Yusuf and Clitus, why.
Foreign invaders broke the nose off the Sphinx and king Akhenaten a Nehusi
king of African origin who reigned the eighteenth dynasty in Egypt, scientists say
the broken nose and damage on the face of two thirds of all the statues in Egypt
are due to erosion, the world will never know these original Egyptians true
identity were people of African origin. They write in history books how Hannibal
cross the Alps with a herd of elephants to go on to defeat the Roman army, the
greatest military power for that time in history. Historians write Hannibal was
Semitic of Phoenician (Syrian) origin and mention nothing of the fact Hannibal
father was black as coal and his army were African Numidians from Algeria.

The Uncivilized Myths told about Africa

sociologists refuse to teach that Hagar Abraham second wife was an African
woman and given a covenant by God. Its impossible to go back in time and
separate truth from falsehood, to uncover the lies and expose all the myths told
about Africans and black people throughout history, after reading this work at
least you will know who are the real culprits white bourgeois anthropologists who
refused to recognize Africans history in general.

Myths of Africa and the African people are fictitious statements and lies
told
by early European colonies and missionaries that first settled in Africa, during
the
fourteenth century AD, the myths were preconceived ideas and opinions without
real theory or scientific facts, these myths were nothing but traditional,
historical
and prejudice lies to explain the nature, culture, religious rites and life of
Africans.
These myths were accepted by the rest of the world as being the truth and
passed on from one generation to the next. Myths of “race” started in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries when the European explorers and missionaries
were spreading throughout the African continent. African people were being
kidnapped from the continent of Africa, to be sold and to work as slaves, it was
at
this time in the history of the world, the European physical scientists and the
biological scientists people who were not from Africa, disregarded the people of
Africa and treated them as specimens, why else would their documents show the
people of Africa were equal to goats, sheep or cattle in some cases an African
male who looked abnormal was worth less then a healthy looking bull, during
these trying times of African people, there was the flip side of the coin that
showed Africans in a somewhat positive light.
They were the European African studies Association and the African
international Institute in Europe who studied African cultures. These Institutes
knew for certain there was a bright side to Africa history, prior to the
fourteenth
century and before exploring Africa. Anthologists wrote of finding portraits of
Africans on Greek vases, they knew there were busts of Africans in Roman art
and statues, they definitely, knew of the legends and heroic Africans which will
be mentioned in the following chapters of this work such as Hannibal, Yusuf,
Ishmael, St. Elesbaan etc. yet historians and scholars neglected to review their
life and write of their daring accomplishments.

The Uncivilized Myths told about Africa

When the fourteenth century rolled around the only reasons Europeans went
onto the African continent was for its wealth and to enslave its people and the
world came to know Africa as having a web of twofold myths because of these
two separate points of view the true history of Africa was lost- forever over
powered by the myths. To give credit where credit is due, the small editorial
staffs, directors and librarians, five hundred years ago had the hard task of
taking
what news they heard coming from Africa and the negative reports, they got from
the writers of history or historians at that time and tried to clarify the truth
from
the myths.

The small editorial staffs at that time in history had the separate task of
examining
the facts to try in discover whatever reality was hidden behind it. As in all
phrase
of life, the negative images of Africans won out over the positive and the great
Africans that really did make a mark on history were forgotten, as time went on
the myths became harder and harder to be stripped away and the reality of what
Africa is really about became lost.
Another important point to make is when the missionaries, European
countries, scholars and other government officers spread throughout the African
continent. It was in the interest of these agents to say in their letters home and
in
their reports to their governments, Africa was an uncivilized dark continent, to
many reporters followed literature written by white agents sent to Africa and
newspaper headlines which always emphasized the Europeans victories against
the African savages.

Some read; Africans were born to be slaves and we all know the American
myth which says we were ( 3/5) three fifths human so they wrote what they heard
without learning any true facts to substantiate it the illusion of Africa was
imprinted into the consciousness of the rest of the world, as being profoundly,
ignorant the myth that Africa was as a uncivilized continent became a
philosophical necessity for European invaders.

If Africa was uncvilized than it would be their responsibility to civilize it

5

The Uncivilized Myths told about Africa

Let us take a moment to examine this logic, which is confusing, they will
enslave us, than they will civilize us it seems to me white Europeans inferiority
complex or superiority complex depends on how you see it was in full motion,
any high schooler can tell you, you can’t civilize a slave, one has to be free to
reap the benefits of civilization.
For the sake of being fair lets say this was true, they did intend to tame
the
savages in Africa. It quickly, turned into a lie, the minute they forgot and
started
selling Africans for profit. The truth is it was necessary for them to call the
Africans savages in the fourteenth and fifthteenth century for the emergence of
Europeans on the African continent, the missionaries more than any other group,
kept the uncivilized myths of savagery alive, their motto was the more savage a
place, the greater the missionaries will be.

Another myth is they went as far as to say all Africans practice

cannibalism,
this myth came about because of the way some African tribes hung the bones of
their enemies outside and inside their huts and in different places, for
protection
from the spirit of that enemy. It should be made absolutely clear that it was
customary for the Africans to display the skeletal remains of their enemies,
believing it would in turn give them power over the enemy. What really, started
the myth, that the Africans were cannibals, were the way in which some of the
tribes decapitated a body and cooked or boiled it to remove the flesh from the
bones. This way it was easier to strip the flesh from the bones.
The early explorers thought they eat the flesh, we all remember the forties
fifties and sixies cartoons showing characters inside a big pot with salt and
other
seasonings put on the characters to cook them alive, Africans used the skull bone
and thigh bones as relics for their place. The same as hunters in this society
hang
deer and other animals heads on the wall as trophies, sometime the king cast the
skull in gold and used the skull as a goblet and the thigh bones were hung in the
charm house as a trophy, but when the early explorers saw the king drinking from
a skull, it enforce preconceived ides of cannibalism.
I’ll not explain the foolish myth again that says an ostrich bury their head
in
sand to hide from danger, in the first place sand are found on the beach,
ostriches
do not roam the beaches, they live inland on the continent of Africa.

The Uncivilized Myths told about Africa

Even if you say no they bury their head in the ground, not the sand, its still a
lie.
An ostrich digs for roots and do not see the predator coming.

From my list of uncivilized myths about Africa this one in particular should
be mentioned, western historians made up the myths that Africans were heathens
therefore practiced a heathen religion before they were shifted to America as
slaves, what is a heathen, the dictionary describes a heathen as origin coming
from the Old Testament, it says they’re any member, nation or people that’s not
worshipping the God of Israel.
It says a heathen is not a Jew, Christian or Moslem and is a member of a
tribe,
nation that believe in and worship many gods, any person regarded as irreligious,
uncivilized, and unintelligent and of course a pagan is the same as a heathen, one
who does not have a religion or a tribe contrasted with Christians, Jews and
Moslems, someone who believes in many gods.
Another way to look at it is a Jew, Christian or Moslem are not heathens
because they are not members of a tribe or nation which practice paganism, again
we run into a stone wall trying to discover or uncover the truth from the myths
if
the latter is true, that “a heathen means a people that has no religion,” then the
myth is contradictory, because historians also said, the Africans practice a
heathen religion. As for the first half, the question is, are Hindu and the people
who practice Buddhism heathens too. They are not Christians, Jews or Moslems.
How can we dispel the myths of Africa if they are not only confusing but
extremely contradictory.
The myth Africans were heathens are misleading, because they said Africans
did not have a religion trying to cover all bases, and from another corner of
their
mouth they said, those that had a religion would worship trees and pray to rocks
the truth is when Africans used to bow down to the earth, when they were slaves,
as praying to rocks, whether the accusers believed this to be true or not some of
the African slaves were Muslims and prostrating themselves in prayer, much the
same as orthodox Muslims pray around the world today, as for the praying to
trees that can also be explained, easily the Ewe and other neiboring tribes on
the
west coast of Africa decorate the iroko tree as a symbol to represent the
reproduction of mother earth.

The Uncivilized Myths told about Africa

this was part of their culture, the Ewe and other tribes in Africa used the iroko
tree only as a sanctuary for the earth goddess, whom they called Aye Za.
Their using the tree is no different than the Roman catholic church, whose
members pray to statues called saints and Christians from all over the world, at
Christmas time decorate trees for Christmas in which they say is for Christ
birthday.
Since African religious rites were misunderstood by the same people enslaved
them and people that felt they were superior to Africans, its understandable why
the myths were created and there was not more of an afford put forth to learn
more about another people culture and society.
Before moving forward to the next myth, I would like to show how the
Africans religious rites or beliefs conflicted with our forefathers here in
America
as slaves and caused many of them to be flogged or killed, in Ghana, the earth
spirit is the second great revered by the Ashanti society and is sometimes
regarded as the consort of “ Nyame of the sky,” she is called Asase Yaa which
mean, Aberewa an old mother, the Fanti tribe call her Efua Yaa and in the Fanti
language it means old mother earth.

Yaa, at the end of a name is a widely used term for an old woman and can also
be the personal middle name for a woman born on a Thursday, the Ashanti deity
Asase Yaa has no temples built to her or priests to represent her nor is she
consulted for divination, the Ashanti say, Earth does not divine, yet she is a
philosophy with very powerful taboos.
The Ibo earth goddess is called Ala, Ale or Ane, Yaa, she is believe to be
goddess of the underworld, she is mother of the dead who the Ibo say lays buried
in her pockets some tribes believes that mankind emerged first from the bowels
of the earth mother thither the spirits of the departed return as to Hades, the
African tribe farmers will not till the ground without first asking permission
from
Asase Yaa, the earth mother and goddess.
The Africans Sabbath is on a Thursday. It is the day set apart for the earth
mother, the farmers will not till the ground on this day the penalty for breaking
the taboo is severe.

The Uncivilized Myths told about Africa

It was this conflict which caused a deadlock in the work force in America, when
many of the American slaves refused to work in the fields on a Thursday, when
they first came to America, the Christian farmers and their masters only had
them rest on a Sunday.
The Cuscasian slave drivers would beat them unmercifully every Thursday
they called them lazy good for nothings. Thinking they were to tired from the day
before or just too lazy most of them would lay their tools down and sit down
afraid to break tradition of their ancestors, they refuse to work every Thursday
their sacred day could not be explained in to the slave drivers in English because
the slaves did not speak English even if they were able to explain it in English,
still it would have been hard for them to break the tradition.
So their refusal to work on a Thursday continued on for years and for years
hundreds of slaves were flogged and killed. While others submitted and broke the
taboo, only time resolved the impasse, the slave owners never realized this always
happened on Thursday years later when the children of these slaves learned to
speak English and grew up, they were able to explain to the slave drivers that it
was against their parents religious beliefs to work on a Thursday when the
children were able to explain it to their masters it was to late, American slaves
had became accustom to working or forced to work on Thursday.
Unfortunately, the people of the world have yet to learn the importance of
respecting people of different cultures and ethnic groups religious beliefs, what
is
just as important as respecting others religious beliefs is to learn about other
people religion and to understand it, even if we do not appreciate it at least we
will understand it.
The most dominant myth of all was the myth that said, Africans did not have
a
history isn’t this ironic though because all other life on this planet has a
history.
as medieval times rolled into the seventeenth and eighteenth century, scientists
and sociologists boldly, stated they knew nothing of Africa history and said
Africans are pre-historic savages, meaning they were savages before history was
recorded. The book used at Oxford university for reference of the world’s history
is entitled History of the World.

The Uncivilized Myths told about Africa

It is a very thick book with a volume of over nine hundred pages written by
J.
M. Roberts and is used by students to illustrate the history of the world, yet it
do
not cover Africa history at all.
It starts with the Homo sapiens which are described as European cavemen, the
next chapter goes on to give account of ancient Egypt it skip to the dark Age
invaders, the people of white European descent who invaded Egypt, then the next
chapter reads about Egypt again, how hard it were to construct the pyramids, they
did not know who built the pyramids. No where in this chapter did they mention
Egypt is located on the African continent most importantly, ancient Egyptians
were Africans, the book contents includes the history of the far East. The
“Civilized life in Aegean,” which I had to look up in the dictionary it was the
first
time I had ever seen the word in my whole life. Aegean, simply means islands in
the Aegean sea, to be more specific, they meant cultures of the Bronze Age
people, again Europeans who lived on the Aegean Inland.
It read about Greece and Turkey, the Aegean islands are between Greece and
Turkey near the Mediterranean sea. It goes into the Age of Confucius which is
China’s history.
Cultures and history of India and Japan, history of the development of
Europe, it goes into the history of Germany, Russia, Canada and the Eskimos
culture, which we learned about in elementary school, the last chapters are on the
history of the Americas north and south America, a book with a volume of over
nine hundred pages and highly, recommended to students by qualified professors
and scholars, nowhere in this book the history of the tribes in Africa is
mentioned
nor the history of the tribes culture, in fact if Africa history were to be put
into
this book it would triple this book volume of nine hundred pages for example it
will take hundreds of volumes of books just to write of Africa and the tribes of
Africa.

Africa is a vast continent a total of 1,700,000 square miles today Egypt has
a
population of approximately, 100 million people. Nigeria has the highest
population on the continent of over 180 million people. The largest country on the
African continent is the Sudan with an area of 2,505,813 sq..
10

The Uncivilized Myths told about Africa

Its about two thirds the size of the United States, the United States is 3,717,796
sq. mi. If you fit America inside borders of Africa.
You would be able to fit it inside Africa four times and still have hundreds
of
squares miles to spare, from north to south Africa measures 44,000 miles and
from east to west its 37,500 miles, the African continent has a population
estimated at over 795 million with approximately, 177,000 various tribes, these
are all 1995 census, for the sake of time and space I’ll not go into languages,
dialects religious rites and cultural traits.
With a great degree of certainty, it can be said Africa has had three Golden
ages, the first two reached their climax and were in decline before Europe as a
functioning entity in human society was developed it began at the beginning,
starting with the creation of man, the development of organized societies.

First Golden Age of Africa.

It is believed and most scholars will agree humankind originated in Africa;

this makes the African man the father of civilization and African women the
mothers of the human family, its fair to say the Africans meteorological system
went on to become the same one used in the Nile Valley, the beginning of
civilization in Egypt 6,000 BC, the Africans method of measuring dimensions
made them the world first mathematicians. Ancient scrolls show Africans and
Egyptians used the same form of measurements. the palm, span and cubits.
A cubit is from the tip of the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. A span
is
equaled to the out stretched hand from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger.
A
palm measured approximately, a meter. The palm was three and one fourth feet
which they determined to be a yard. Africans south of the Sahara desert were
masters in astronomy and made precise studies of the stars rotations, they had
exact knowledge of the movement of the earth, planets and the four seasons. This
was thousands of years before Europe was even developed.

11

The Uncivilized Myths told about Africa

Even before they were cavemen. If scientists and sociologists would had wrote
the truth they would have wrote they were pre-historic the so-called white
Europeans of Europe. Africans history exist thousands of years before their
history was ever recorded,

The second Golden Age of Africa.

In the early development of man, the family was the most important unit in
existence. Through the years the importance of this unit has not changed. The
first
human societies were developed for reasons relating to the needs and survival of
the family. The early African had to make hooks to catch fish, spears to hunt
with,
and knives he searched for new ways to build shelter, gather and raise food, and
domesticate animals our use of fire today simply continues the process started by
the early Africans, the control of fire and the making of tools sets man apart
from
all living creatures. Africans invented how to make fire and started humans along
the tool-making path Africans were the first people on earth to discover precious
metals, gold, bronze, copper, iron and gems. Africans learned to cast and mold
them.
Africans were the first people on earth to trade and sell precious metals Africans
took a great leap forward when they learned how to take iron from the ground and
turn it into spears and tools. Iron cultures spread rapidly across Africa and
there
were very few countries in the world that were not influenced by the Iron Age
cultures which greatest development was in the city of Meroe what is now eastern
Sudan. the use of iron accelerated in every aspect of African development it was
Africans who first introduced the eventual use of iron weapons in warfare.

The third Golden Age of Africa came when her children became
Americans

12

The Uncivilized Myths told about Africa

The third Golden Age of Africa came when Africans were brought to
America, you probably think is he crazy, we were slaves. I’ll explain, the third
Golden Age of Africa came during and after the Civil war, when native Indians,
Black people and whites, Asians, people of Spanish speaking origin, Jews and
people of Semitic origin.
Protestants and Catholics, NOI and MGT, the Black power movements,
antiapartheid movement, Immigrants from different nations, the Civil-Rights
movement, entertainers and black politicians when all of these groups as one
people, one United States fought and died for freedom, liberty and justice to make
this country the greatest land on planet earth, we are now living in the third
Golden Age of Africa.
The truth is if these white educators, scientists and historians did not
tell the
truth concerning our history and even in this present day deny the fact how
Africans are the people who built the pyramids than why do we still look to them
today for an education to teach our children and future generations about Black
history, we should go out into the world and seek the truth for ourselves
historians
wrote fiction and made us think it was truth, as in a horror movie you sat there
wide eyed trying to figure out what formula they used to limit fiction, all our
life
we have been trying to figure out what parts of our history were true.
Since the writers of history was determine not to write key events
concerning
Black history the structure of our history became vague and the effect was
confusing, rather than enlightment we became puzzled, we could not examine any
story satisfactory and locate a key event or factual time frame, these key moments
would have put us in focus with key events or previous time lines, this would
have illuminated our whole history and would have been the germ for learning
about our lost history and glorious past.
You may ask, how can we find the truth, really I hardly know for sure but
just
look around you and ask yourself what is the truth and keep asking yourself this
question every day than when you are least expecting it the truth will come to you
uninvited, directly or indirectly.

13

The Uncivilized Myths told about Africa

You will almost be able to grasp it with your hands in open air, while you are at
work, while walking on the streets, while laying in bed in the stillness of the
night, early in the morning, sometime it will be called up by a mood the poet
translated into words or from listening to your favorite music, a song you like
the
truth will come to you when you seek it, it will ring, roar and swirl around in
your
head until one day you will say and for a surety, now I know the truth I am free
at
last.