1

THE PROTO-SAHARAN PRECURSOR OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATION

By Clyde A. Winters

Copyright 2012 Clyde Winters

THE PROTO-SAHARAN PRECURSOR OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATION

FOREWORD There is a wealth of archaeological evidence that over eight thousand years ago , the great culture bearers of civilization in Egypt, the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia formerly lived in the Saharan region of Africa before it became a desert. These people lived in the Highland areas of the Sahara. These mountain regions formed a Crescent shaped area. We call this region the Fertile African Crescent . In the archaeological literature these people were called Capsians, Negroid, Brown Race, Mediterraneans, Dravidians or Kushites. We call these people Proto-Saharans. In this book we will show how the Proto-Saharans began as a single linguistic community which shared cultural traits which were fashioned in their Saharan homeland. The Proto-Saharans took their ancient culture to Europe and Asia. Here they remained the dominant group until the conquest and expansion of these Africoid people after 1500 B.C., by the Indo-European speakers in Europe, and the Altaic, Tai and Sino-Tibetan speaking groups in Asia. The Proto- Saharan Precursor of ancient Civilization, is a comprehensive Africalogy work which charts the rise of early man in Africa, and the origination of civilization in the southern Sahara and its spread to other parts of the ancient World. The aim of this book as an instrument of Afrocentricism is to strengthen the cultural and historical awareness of scholars and laymen to the great past of African people. The goal of Afrocentricism is the creation of an ideational Code African Americans can use to conceptualize the Universe in which they live and interact. Culture can be defined as man's learned, accumulated social experience including man's art, belief, customs, knowledge,law ,and morals that are transmitted and shared by a social group. In general culture refers to a system of learned ideas, not what we do or make. The second aim of Afrocentricism is the unification of African Americans into a compact society. Society refers to a collection of people who share a 4

common culture and language that exist as a distinct unit. The awareness of African civilizations by African people should encourage racial self-esteem and help them to recognize their enlighten past, so they can know the depth of their own potential and work for a positive, productive future. In THE PROTO- SAHARA PRECURSOR OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATION, we will elaborate on Anta Diop's TRUTH that Africa, was the birthplace of mankind, and later world civilization and history. It provides the missing link between the origin of mankind, and Egypt's proud legacy. In this book we seek to discuss the influence of Africans in the rise of civilization in Saharan Africa, in general and also Asia in particular. It will show that the African/Asian Mode of Production (AMP), based on large hydraulic works are associated with the river valley civilizations of Egypt, the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia. In Civilization or Barbarism, Anta Diop (1991:129) noted that :" In our opinion, one of the distinctive traits of this category is weight of civilian power as compared to military power (in the AMP); military aristocracy is practically absent, and in normal times, the soldiers play an unobtrusive , if not nonexistent, political role....The entire ideological substructure is only apologetic for moral and human values, excluding the values of warfare". We give information in this book that spans the centuries and the world to illustrate the story of the spread of the Proto-Saharans: Egyptians, Dravidians, Elamites, Minoans, Manding , Sumerians and others. It also offers an in depth discussion of the autochthonous Black Populations that were the civilizers of mankind and their role in the development of architecture , philosophy, political institutions, religion and science thousands of years prior to world-wide expansion of the Indo-Europeans after A.D. 1492. In this book you will find the collective research of over 20 years of inquiry into the past of African people. It is hoped that this book will serve as a map to the past of African people , and a future source of models that can be used to create for mankind a positive future. Clyde A. Winters Chicago, June 2012.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FORWARD TABLE OF CONTENTS ABREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS CHAPTER ONE:THE FERTILE AFRICAN CRESCENT CHAPTER TWO:THE PROTO-SAHARAN RELIGIONS CHAPTER THREE : GENETIC UNITY OF BLACK AFRICAN, ELAMITE , DRAVIDIAN AND SUMERIAN LANGUAGES CHAPTER FOUR: THE PROTO-SAHARANS IN CRETE CHAPTER FIVE:FOUNDERS OF GREECE CAME FROM AFRICA CHAPTER SIX:THE HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION CHAPTER SEVEN: BLACKS IN ANCIENT CHINA

iii 1 2 5 24

43 66 79 84 91 102 145 168

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE OLMEC CIVILIZATION CHAPTER NINE: ANCIENT WRITING IN MIDDLE AFRICA CHAPTER TEN:KUSHITES IN WEST ASIA

ABBREVIATIONS & SYMBOLS S>Z/V________(V)R, S changes into Z followed by a verb before R.

s> 0#___________r, s changes into zero, word boundary before r. a< 0#______________e, a develops out of e. C consonant 0 zero V $ N vowel syllable boundary noun * indicates

# word boundary P Proto, a reconstructed language reconstructed form =/= indicates phonological contrast PA Paleo-African

I-E Indo- European PS Proto-Saharan

> (changes into) direction of phonological change < (develops out of) direction of phonological change.

CHAPTER ONE: THE FERTILE AFRICAN CRESCENT

The Homeland of the Proto-Saharans was that part of Middle Africa we call the Sahara. Although today the Saharan region is

presently arid, around 8000 years ago this area was a center for civilization, situated in a mediterranean climate. This area was the original home of the Black African, Egyptian, Elamite, Dravidian, Sumerian and Manding people. Here the Proto-Saharans began as a single linguistic community which shared cultural traits that were fashioned in their Saharan

homeland. The Egyptians referred to this area as God's land, the home of the Gods. The linguistic evidence furnishes an abundance of material which supports the hypothesis of a historical connection between the Dravidians , Elamites, Sumerian and Black African languages. The hypothetical proto-language of this group probably was spoken by a unified cultural group over a continuous part of middle Africa. The history of the Proto-Saharans begins in the Sahara, some seven to eight thousand years ago. The Proto-Saharan speakers remained in this area until the Sahara began to change from a mediterranean to an arid climate. It was after the migration of 3

4 the Proto-Saharan peoples into Asia and Europe that they came in

contact with the Altaic, Uralic and Indo-European speakers. Archaeological evidence indicates that there was unity between the Proto-Saharan populations in middle Africa. Since the climate was more wetter several thousand years ago, the major crops fonio. were ensete, rice, sorghum, B.C.,the This millet, Sahara is sesame, barley and a

Between

6000-5000 vegetation.

was

parkland the

with

mediterranean

period

called

AFRICAN

AQALITHIC. It is called the African Aqualithic because of the abundant streams, and rivers that dotted middle Africa at the time. Due to the wet environment the Proto-Saharans communicated mainly by boat. The original homeland of the Proto-Saharans was in the Saharan zone. The Saharan zone is bounded on the north by the Atlas mountains, the Atlantic Ocean in the West, the tropical rain forest in the south and the Red Sea in the East. It was here that the ancestors of the founders of the river valley civilizations developed their highly organized and technological societies. Ethnically the Proto-Saharans were round headed

mediterraneans of the ancient variety commonly called Negroes. For purposes of this book we will call this group Africoid. Around 7000 B.C. mediterraneans of a fairly tall stature not devoid of Negroid characteristics appears in the Sahara at Capsa (now Cafsa).(Desange 1981) These Mediterraneans are called 4

5 Capsians. This group flourished in an area extending from the western borders of North Africa into the southern Sahara. They lived on hillocks or slopes near water. But some Capsians lived on plains which featured lakes and marshes. Their way of life

continued from the Neolithic era up to the time of the Garamante. Ceramics spread from the central and eastern Sahara into North Africa. These ceramics were of Sudanese inspiration and date back to the seventh millennium B.C. This pottery was used from Ennedi to the Hoggar .The makers of this pottery were probably from the Sudan. (Desanges 1981) The Capsian pottery tradition also came from the Sudan, and first appeared at the valley of Saoura, and later at Fort Flatters. This type of pottery probably

originated at Elmenteita in Kenya. (Ki-Zerbo 1979) Skeletons throughout Middle of the Mediterranean Southwest type have been found

Africa,

Asia,

Mesopotamia,

Indo-Pakistan, Central Asia and China. It is no secret that the founders of ancient Egypt, Elam, Sumer and the Indus Valley were all of the Mediterranean type. These Mediterranean people called themselves: KUSHITES. The Kushites are known in history as bowmen and great sailors. These Kushites called Group-A by archaeologists founded the earliest empire in the World, in Nubia. The first recorded empire on earth was located at Qustul, Nubia around 3300 B.C.. This is over a hundred years earlier than the founding of the 5

6 Egyptian empire. As a result the term designating royalty in Egptian nsw < n y swt = "(the man) who comes from the south".

This empire was called Ta-Seti, or the Land of the Bow.It was clear that the government and writing usually associated with Egypt was first invented in Nubia, and later carried down the Nile into Egypt. The people of Ta-Seti, were called "Steu" or

"bowmen". The Egyptians called the area around Kush "God's land".

Tata-Neter

The Kushites took the name Kush to many regions they settled in Asia.The most important Kushite colony was ancient Elam, i.e., hatam (Khaltam). The capital city of Elam, was called Kussi by the Elamites. In Akkadian,Elam was called Giz-bam or "the land of the bow". The ancient Chinese tribes called the Elamites:Kashti.

Moreover, in the Bible in Jeremiah (xlxx,35) we find "bow of Elam".

Black-and-Red Ware (BRW)

These Kushites used a common red-and-black ware been found from the

that has

Sudan in Africa, across Southwest Asia and

the Indian subcontinent all the way into China. The earliest examples of the black-and-red ware of the Proto-Saharans date to the early Amratian period 4000-3500 BC. (Hoffman 1979) It was after 3500 B.C., and especially 2500 B.C. ,that the Proto 6

-Saharans began to deeply affect the activities of the Eurasian

7 peoples. The Amratian period of Middle Africa is the focal point for the spread of BRW. There is affinity between BRW found at Anau, in Russian Turkestan, and similar pottery from southeastern Europe. Dr. J.G. Andersson (l934) found a similarity between pottery

fragments found at Anau, and fragments discovered at Yangshao sites in Henan and Gansu province.

ORIGINS OF PROTO-SAHARAN CULTURE

Linguistic and archaeological evidence can help us to reconstruct the Proto-Saharan economy and social organization. The economy was diversified and shifted from hunter-gatherer to herder and later food producing as a result of the rise of consistent seasonal rains in Middle Africa after 7000 B.C. This regular rain led to the development of the mixed agriculture-herding bioarchaeological economy based on economy from of the of the Proto-Saharans. indicates and goats, a The mixed the

remains the

Sahara cattle

herding

and

cultivation of barley. Over time the shifting Saharan environment limited , rather than determined the Proto-Saharan sedentary types of food producing technology. The Pleistocene earliest pottery groups horizon and to of the Sahara during the used by Late by the 7

baskets collect

were grain,

probably as

hunter-gatherer

evidenced

8 abundance of millstones on early Saharan sites. Due to the

richness of the flora and fauna in the Sahara during this period ethnic groups in Middle who Africa in were the semi-sedentary exploitation of hunter their

-fisher-gatherers

engaged

habitat. These people may have had a limited interest in the domestication of plants and animals. But it was not until the return of an arid climate to the Sahara between 12,000 -7000 B.C. that the Saharans were forced to domesticate cattle and goats to ensure a reliable source of food. It was probably during this African Aqualithic that Proto-Saharans probably began to seriously domesticate/collect plants to supplement their diets. The Paleo-climate of Africa explains the south and eastern migration of Negroes from North Africa and the Sudan respectively, into West Africa.There were various climates in Africa. In the Sahelian zone there was a wet phase during the Holocene (7500-4400 B.C.) which led to the formation of large lakes and marshes in Mauritania, the Niger massifs and Chad.(Talbot 1980) In the Niger area, the west phase existed in the eight/seventh and fourth/third millennia B.C. (McIntosh and McIntosh 1986:417) There were very few habitable areas in West Africa during the holocene wet phase. According to McIntosh and McIntosh (1986) the only human occupation of the Sahara during the humid phase was situated in the Saharan massifs along wadis. By the 8th Millennia Saharan-Sudanese pottery was used in the Air region. (Roset 1983) Ceramics of this style have been found at 8

9 sites in the Hoggar. (McIntosh and McIntosh 1983b:230) Dotted wavy-line type pottery has also been discovered in the Libyan Sahara. The pastoral-sedentary tradition is a highly developed specialization exploiting food resources of the Savanna and

herding cattle throughout Middle Africa over 500 years ago. The bioarchaeological remains from the Sahara indicates a mixed

economy for the Proto-Saharans based on herding of cattle goats and sheep, and the collection of sorghum, millet, yam and rice along the marshes and lakes. The view that food production preceded pastoralism in the Proto-Saharan case--at this junction in archaeological

research--is untenable. It would seem more

reasonable to assume

that a hunter-gatherer group which clearly specialized in the hunting of animals (as evidenced by the abundance of would have moved from hunter-gathering to animal

arrowheads)

domestication, since they would be keenly aware of the habits of game, and therefore make the shift to animal husbandry rapidly when climatic conditions in the Sahara made it impossible to collect grains. The return of rains during the African Aqualithic probably led to renewed interest in plant collection and later

domestication. It was probably during this period that various groups began to specialize either in a pastoral or mixed-pastoral food producing economy. The fact that both of these economies held 9

10 the best benefit for a stable society, may have encouraged the diverse Saharan ethnic groups to form some sort of

"federal " relationship which encouraged trade and cooperation between the varying peoples practicing different economies. The contemporary nomadic pastoralist tradition in the Sahara was first introduced as a sedentary pastoral adaptation around 7000 years ago. At this time the Sahara was a mosaic of lakes and marshes united by permanent streams. The vegetation was

Mediterranean and grew abundantly in the Saharan highlands, in Hoggar and Tibesti. In addition to cattle, the archaeologist have found that the Proto-Saharans had abundant pottery and grinding stones. This

wavy line pottery was first discovered at Khartoum, and dates to 4000 B.C. The collection of plants also provided a reliable source of food during the formative stages of Proto-Saharan society. The discovery of large amounts of pottery and heavy grinding stones during this period at many sites suggest the possibility that pastoralist were more sedentary at this time. A comparative gives The study us a of the languages clear the spoken by the

Proto-Saharans(PS) cultural trait traits. be PS

very for

indication

of

their

proto-term an

Proto-Saharan

culture the

will

plus

asterisk

e.g.,*PS. For

example

Proto-Saharans had chiefs PS: *sar, and lived in cities/town PS:*uru. In these cities and between the several cities they built 10

11 roads PS:*sila.

Language DRAVIDIAN ELAMITE SUMERIAN MANDING

CHIEF CA,CIRA SUNKI,SALU SAR SA

WRITING CARRU TALU SAR, RU SEBE,SEWE

CITY UR UR(U) UR FURU

PLACE TA DA,TA

TA

The Proto-Saharans called people or humanity PS:*oku. The mother of the family was called PS: *amma or *ma ; and the father was called PS:*pa. The children both boys and girls were referred to as PS:*de/di/du. They lived in houses called PS:*lu/du. Due to the abundance of water during the African Aqualithic the Proto-Saharans used the suffix PS:*-ta, to indicate a place of habitation. They also used boats called PS:*kalam. LANGUAGE DRAVIDIAN SUMERIAN MANDING BOAT KALAM KALAM KULU TIN,MU TYE,MOKO MAN FATHER APPAN PAP AP HOUSE LON MU,U LU,NU PEOPLE UKAKU UKU MOKO 11

12 It would appear that at the time of the separation of the Proto-Saharans at the beginning of the 3rd Millennium B.C. they were familiar with mining and metal working techniques. As a result these people share the term for digging a hole: Dravidian (Dr.) tulai, Sumerian (S.) dul/tul and Manding (M.) du, tyolo,tuta =PS: *tul. The Proto-Saharans also knew about blacksmithing e.g., Tamil/Telugu (languages that belong to the Dravidian family)

irumbu/inumu, M. numu 'forge', umu 'blacksmith'.Another PS term for blacksmith was *kamara: Dr. Kamara,Wolof Kamara. It is

interesting to note that throughout Africa the term 'uma', is suffixed to the word for iron and iron working.

LANGUAGE DRAVIDIAN ALAVU,URUKKU SUMERIAN MANDING ELAMITE PROTO-SAHARAN *URUT *ANI URUDU KURA, KU GUSH-KIN SAANI TUUFA UFA *UFA COPPER URUTTIRAN GOLD STEEL KANI,KANAM,KANNE

PROTO-SAHARAN WRITING 12

13 The Proto-Saharans had writing. They either engraved their syllabic script in rocks, or used a stylus to engrave wet clay. This view is supported by the fact that the term for writing often has the long -uu, attached to various initial consonants

usually /l/, /r/, or /d/. For example writing in Sumerian is Ru and Shu, Elamite Talu, and in Dravidian carru. These terms agree with the Manding term for excavate or hollow out du/do, kulu, tura, etc. This shows that the Proto-Saharan term for writing denoted the creation of impressions on wet clay or hard rock.The Sumerian term for carving was du. The Proto-Saharan script was the model script for the ancient Mande script, Proto-Elamite, Indus Valley writing and Linear A. The Proto-Saharan writing was first used to write characters on

pottery, to give the ceramics a talismanic quality. Thus we find Proto-Saharans characters on ancient Chinese, Egyptian, Linear A and the Indus Valley.(Winters 1985)

The Proto-Saharans used water for communication purposes. Due to the abundance of water during the African Aqualithic the

leaders of the Proto-Saharans were men that could tame the waters by dams, or building boats and habitation mounds safe from the numerous floods. Over time the Proto-Saharans formed a

confederation of city states called the FISH CONFEDERATION.

MAA CONFEDERATION 13

14

The Fish or MAA Confederation had many culture features in common.For example they traced their roots back to the Sahara, especially Libya and Nubia. The principle god for these

Proto-Saharans was Amon or Amun. In the archaeological literature these people are called Ta-Seti (A-Group) and C-Group people of ancient Kush/Nubia. The ancient Libyans were called Temehu, by the Egyptians. These Temehu people are called by archaeologists C-Group people. The C-Group people settled much of the Sudan. The cylindrical tomb common to this area was also frequently built by other Proto-Saharans in Asia. The Temehu kept small live stock. In addition to worshiping Amon,this Libyan group of Proto-Saharans worshipped the goddess Neith. In Europe she was called Athena, to the Manding and Minoans she was known as Nia. The members of the Maa Confederation include the Egyptian founders of the New Kingdom, Elamites, Dravidians, Manding and the Sumerians.The God Amon of the Egyptians was taken to Egypt during

the New Kingdom.The generic term used by the Proto-Saharans to refer to themselves was KUSHITE.

BOAT TECHNOLOGY

During the Aqualithic period the Proto-Saharans maintained well developed trade links with the east African homelands by 14

15 boats which could travel across Africa along the numerous streams and rivers which dotted the more watered Middle African

environment 8000 years ago. The so-called Egyptian and Mesopotamian style boats are depicted in the Sahara at Tin Tazarift. These boats used by the Egyptians, Sumerians and Elamites are nothing more than the boats used by the Proto-Saharans. These boats were also used by the descendants of the Proto-Saharans in Mesopotamia and India. To navigate these boats the Proto-Saharans used celestial navigation. Boat building has been known in Africa for thousands of years. Reed boats and reed boat illustrations are found throughout Middle Africa. Apart from human and animal figures appearing in Nubian rock drawings the most dominant motif is the reed

boat.Other examples of reed boats have been found in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, both areas of early

Proto-Saharan settlement. The first use of the mast and sails on reed boats, along with cabins on the deck appear at Ta-Seti, in

Nubia over 3000 years ago. In the riverine cultures of the Proto-Saharans, each community had marine architects, ship builders and expert sailors. The presence of an elevated bow and stern on many boats depicted in the Saharan rock art and the peculiar "bowstring", astern and "fuse" for the rudder oar, indicate these ancient ships were used for navigation on the open seas. Reed or plank boats are still made by the Dravidians in India, and the Bozo of 15

16 West Africa along the Niger river. Plant Domestication

The earliest Neolithic farmers cultivated barley. They used a wavy line ceramic style of Middle Africa Saharan-Sudanese ware. The Proto-Saharans, once engaged in intensive agriculture began to build towns. Complex political organizations and craft specialization followed as certain ethnic groups, clans became more and more sedentary. The Proto-Saharans practiced a form of intensive agriculture characterized irrigation by use of the hoe, the related water of storage and referred to as the

techniques,

plus

application

fertilizers

(manure) to the land. The ability of the Proto-Saharans led to an increase in population to produce surplus food and changes in social

organization. Naturally population increases forced the ancestors of the Proto-Saharans to spill over into more marginal areas. This forced them to domesticate plants and animals to preserve

traditional levels of food production, that had resulted from plant collection. In Nubia the people long practiced agriculture. In 17000 B.C the people at Tushka were cultivating barley. The farmers at Tushka were the Anu people who first took civilization to Egypt and Mesopotamia. 16

17 At Kadero, a Proto-Saharan site in the Sudan we find that by 3310 B.C.,sorghum and millet was being cultivated.In Northwest Africa rice was being cultivated by 3000 B.C. Land of cultivation was called *ga(n), in Proto-Saharan. Barren land near water The that was cultivatable collected was by called the

PS:*de(n)/di(n).

mainstay

plant

Proto-Saharans was millet and or sorghum. They took this crop with them to Asia. The Proto-Saharans called their grain *se. The word for cultivate was PS:*be. They used the hoe PS:* pari, to cultivate the land. In addition they had dogs PS: *ur-, to help them hunt and watch over their domesticated stock.

Animal Domestication

The Proto-Saharans had a mobile life style and cattle was the mainstay domesticate. Much of the evidence relating to this

pastoral way of life comes from the discovery of cattle bones at excavated sites in the Sahara, found at many of these sites. Bones discovered at desert sites inhabited between 7000-2500 B.C.,indicate that residents here not only farmed but herded and the rock drawings of cattle

sheep, goats and cattle, when the Sahara blossomed. Animal domestication in much of the Saharan zone came in response to the decline in resources around lakes and river 17

valleys after 5000 BC when

the Sahara entered a dry phase.

18 (McIntosh 1980) The Proto-Saharans probably domesticated sheep and goats initially, and supplemented these animals with cattle. (Camps 1974) The Proto-Saharans called the sheep *kari. A major Proto-Saharan site was Tadrart Acacus (9500-8500 B.C.). Here the people were reliant on pastoralism by 4000 B.C. They herded goat/sheep.

LANGUAGE DRAVIDIAN SUMERIAN MANDING PROTO-SAHARAN SHEEP KURI,KORI ZAR,SAR SARA *SAR DOG ORI UR WURU *URCATTLE,COW,OX NAKU GUD GUNGA,KONGO *(N)GU HORSE PARI, IYULI PARU 'MULE' BARI,WOLO /WOLU *PAR-

The horse was known to the Proto-Saharans. This view is supported by the archaeological evidence which indicates the

remains of a small stature horse in North Africa, and its presence in Egyptian hieroglyph. In the hieroglyph the large Egyptian horse was called sesem, while the small Egyptian horse was called

nefer. The term nefer, is analogous to PS *par. The horse was just as common to Upper Egypt as in Nubia. This 18

19 is supported by the fact that in Thebes as early as the 18th Dynasty Thebans rode horses bareback. They could not have got the horse from the Hyksos,because this group of Asians never conquered Thebes. Moreover, the appearance of Egyptians on horseback on the paintings found in the tomb of Menena, and the horse and rider in painted wood, dating to the early 18th Dynasty testify to the horsemanship of the Egyptians. In addition horses are depicted in the rock art of Nubia. During the Neolithic Subpluvial (ca. 7000-6000 B.C.), farming and herding were practiced by the Proto-Saharans in the green savannas of the Sahara. Migrating Proto-Saharans probably remnants of the future Egyptians took domesticated cattle into the Nile Valley.(Hoffman 1979:102) These pastoral people moved from the South into the Nile Valley, not from the Southwestern part of Asia into the Nile Valley. The early Proto-Saharans made adequate uses of local game and plant life, and they established permanent and seasonal

settlements around well stocked fishing holes. The wanderings of this hearty folk were dictated by the varying climatic conditions found in Middle Africa. Hoffman(l979:218) commenting on the role of the Proto-Saharans in the founding of Egypt observed that," A exploration Desert, or of the Western Desert the (also known as the at Libyan ever

more

generally,

Sahara)

proceeds

an

quickening pace, it is now apparent that the despised foreigners of Egypt's desert frontiers comprised a major areal tradition 19

20 roughly comparable to those of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Paradoxically, it was this desert tradition and not those of the Nile Valley that contributed to pre-historic Egypt those critical innovations like farming, cattle pastoralism, and long-distance trade that led to groundwork for her precocious civilization". Variations in the weather patterns of Middle Africa forced the people to move from one area to the other depending on the

environmental conditions resulting from changes in the climate. The first major migration of the Proto-Saharans from the nuclear Southern Sahara region occurred around 5200 B.C., when they began

to move from the central Sahara,into the southern Sahara, and northwest Africa, back into Nubia. Beginning around 4200 B.C. the Sahara began to dry up. Many migrates fled the increasing harsh environment to settle much of West Africa,and Nubia , Equatorial Africa, and much of the Niger Valley at this time was probably still a forest zone. For much of the African Aqualithic the Nile Valley was a swampy area.After the end of the European glacial period there was a decrease in the rainfall of the Sahara. This made the Nile Valley an attractive area of settlement for many Proto-Saharans, because as the Sahara became more arid the Nile Valley changed from a swampy hostile environment to one quite pleasant and

habitable. Due the decreased habitability of the Sahara, and the 20

21 settlement of many Proto-Saharan populations in the choice areas of Middle Africa, which were not covered with forest or swampy areas where sickness was rampant, after 3500 B.C. many

Proto-Saharans began to migrate out of the Sahara into Europe, Asia, and after 2000 B.C. the Americas. To settle new areas the Proto-Saharans used their ability as navigators to transport entire tribes from Africa to Asia and Europe. The vessels of the Proto-Saharans were similar to the Egyptian style boats, as indicated by the boat depicted in the Sahara at Tin Tazarift. The advent of hyperaridity led to the collapse of the Saharan culture. High population density, and the resulting need for a reliable food supply forced the Proto-Saharans to migrate out of the Sahara into other parts of Africa, Asia and Europe. The first group to migrate out of the Proto-Sahara was the Elamites and Sumerians. The Nile Valley was already settled by the Proto-Egyptians and the A-Group people of Ta-Seti, so the Proto-Sumerians

migrated into Mesopotamia while the Iran.

Elamites made their way to

These groups arrived in these areas by sea. They commenced

to settle in Mesopotamia many cities formerly settled by the Anu people, who had fled these cities as a result of the great flood after 4000 B.C. The linguistic evidenced shows that the Elamites were basically a mixed group speaking Dravidian and Manding languages. 21

22 These Proto-Manding and Proto-Dravidian elements migrated across the Zagros Mountains into Central Asia and China after 3000 B.C. Remnants of these Kushites made their way into the Indus Valley. The Dravidian people of South India are the result of possibly two migrations from Africa into the Indus Valley and India. The Proto-Dravidians were probably remnants of the

Proto-Saharan herders who occupied the central and southern Sahara until 2400 B.C., when hyperaridity began to dry up lakes, and cattle herding was more difficult. (Winters

1985,1989,1990) Up until 2500 B.C., most of the Proto-Manding that had not made the migration to Iran were living in the Western Desert and the southern Sahara. This is supported by the archaeological

evidence that indicates that the Sahelian and Sudanic zones were uninhabited by herders before 2500 B.C.(McIntosh and McIntosh

1981) After 2400 BC remnants of the Manding lived in Libya and began to settle Crete. The other major Manding sites were at Karkarichinkat which was occupied until 2000 B.C. By 1500 BC the Proto-Manding lived in the Tichitt region. The cultural and ethnic affinities of the Proto-Saharans encouraged the development of well organized trade relations

between these groups in Africa and Asia. From the 4th Millennium through the 3rd Millennium B.C. an extensive trade network

connected the Kushites/Proto-Saharans from Egypt to the Indus Valley, Iran and West Asia. Homer alluded to the Kushite 22

23 diaspora when he wrote: "A race divided, whom the sloping rays, the rising and the setting sun surveys". Archaeologists have found vessels from IVBI workshop at Tepe Yahya, in West Asia that have a uniform shape and design. This style of vessel is distributed from Egypt to Soviet Uzbekistan and the Indus Valley. These intercultural style vessels show clear parallels between Egyptian,Iranian, Sumerian and the Indus valley civilization. The discovery of Intercultural style vessels from Susa (in Iran),Sumerian, Egyptian and Indus Valley sites suggest a shared ideological identity among these people. In fact the appearance of shared iconographic symbols and beliefs within diverse areas

suggest cultural and ethnic unity among the people practicing these cultures. The common naturalistic motifs shared by the major civilizations include, writing (symbols), combatant snakes, the scorpion, bull and etc. This evidence of cultural unity is explained by the origin of these people in the

Proto-Sahara.

23

24

CHAPTER TWO: THE PROTO-SAHARAN RELIGIONS

The historic gods of Africa and Asia were of Proto-Saharan origin.Concepts concerning these ancient gods or great ancestors were first developed around a gigantic lake that formerly existed in Middle Africa around 8000 years ago. This is supported by the fact that the Saharan cultures have resemblances to those of Nubia.(Hoffman 1979;Diop 1991) This lake was known in ancient times as Lake Tritonis. Lake Tritonis was situated in the Libyan desert. Here as early as 7000 B.C. there was a slow transition from hunting , to cattle pastoralism. The prehistoric appearance of a great lake in Libya has recently been supported by satellite pictures of the Eastern Desert which indicate that a lake was located in the Qattara depression of northwest Egypt. Around 10000 years ago pluvial conditions existed in the Sahara which led to the creation of numerous river beds now buried under tons of sand.( McCauley, 1982) Due to the abundance of streams, rivers and lakes in Proto-Saharan Africa men who were powerful, were men who could harness the powerful water of the numerous streams and rivers. Such men as these were recognized as demigods or great ancestors. For example in Sumer and Egypt 24

25 gods and demigods were described as "reed-boat navigators". In

Egypt some of these great men that became gods include Thoth, and Osiris. This is supported by Dravidian and Egyptian traditions. In ancient Egyptian tradition Ptah, came from the Sahara below Egypt in Kush. He found Egypt inundated , so he performed great works of dyking and land reclamation so the land was more habitable. The first 'avatar' or 'Tirumal of the Dravidians is regarded as a fish, who showed Manu, a boat to save himself from being drowned. Tirumal,is the same as Visnu of Sanskrit literature, another name for this god is Mayavon, Mayan and Mal. According to references in the Bhagavata Purana, a fish who is identified with the first avatar (sage), showed Manu a boat nearby to save himself from being drowned . In passing it is interesting to note that the emblem of the Pandya Kings of South India was the fish. Moreover in the Mesopotamian deluge story two Tamil words: nir 'water' and min 'fish'appear. Moreover, it is interesting to note that the Arivar or sages of the Dravidians were also called Vellalar "lords of the flood " or Karatar "lords of the clouds". These sages earned these titles because of their skill in controlling the floods and in storing water for agricultural purposes. According to the Olympian Creation Myth the earliest groups to appear on earth were the Libyco-Thracians. The Libyans were Proto-Saharans, as were the original Thracians, who were 25

26 descendants of the Kushite and Egyptian troops established at Trace , by Sesostris (Thutmose III or Ramses II),when he conquered Asia and Europe. Apollonius Rhodius tells us that the goddess Athene was born beside Lake Tritonis in Libya. The goddess Athene, was called Neith by the Egyptians and Nia, by the Manding and Eteo-Cretans of Minoan civilization. The early gods of these Proto-Saharans included a serpent, the sun: Hercules, Amon/Aman/Amma, and Kush or Khons. In Egypt and Kush, both Amon and Khons were depicted as coal-black in

accordance with tradition. The Kushites also worshipped a "lord of the mountains", which is analogous to Murugan, a Dravidian god in India. In India, Khrisna, Mal ,Vishnu, and Kali were depicted as black in color. Kali, was held to be a form of Paravati, consort of Siva. In addition the Dravidian god of the pastoral region: Mullai, was the black god Mayan, who was beloved by the milkmaids and cattle herders. The earliest gods associated with the great hidden all powerful god were associated with the Sky. They believed in an unseen universal force called "Ko" or "Ka". As a result the usually

Proto-Saharans offered prayers to "Ka", e.g., Egyptian Ka 'vital force', Dravidian Ka-n, Manding Kani, and Magyar/Hungarian Kaan. This Ka, is also often associated with snakes,rain and the sky. THE GOD MAA 26

27 Many of the Proto-Saharan beliefs originated during the wet African Aqualithic period. As a result their gods, who had once been great ancestors were referred to as "Fish" or "reed-boat navigators". This common god was called Maa , the man fish (of Eridu) in Mesopotamia and Syria and the ithyphallic forms, the prototype of Amon/Aman in Egypt ; and the goddess Minaksi, of Madura in South India the goddess of the fish eyes, the Malabar fish bearer of Mana and the sacred fishes of the Mapilla of the west coast of the Dekkan. In the languages of the Manding Maa, is used to refer to the ancient inhabitants of the African continent, and the invisible spirit who inhabits the water-courses .In Egypt Maat, meant divine truth and justice. Among the Proto-Saharans the name Maa, for their great

ancestor/god was joined to many ethnonyms. The descendants of the Maa clan, claim descent from Maa, as evident in the name Mande, for the parent group of the Manding of West Africa. Mande means, Ma-nde or "children of Ma". Some Dravidians of South India were also members of the Mande Superclan, as illustrated in the

Kannada, Telugu and Tulu, Dravidian tribes that use the terms Mande or Mandi to denote "people or persons". The Sumerians

called themselves Mah-Gar-ri "God's exalted children". The Proto-Saharans in honor of great Maa, use the term "ma", to denote greatness, for example Manding: Maga; Sumerian: Mag;

and Dravidian: Ma. The ma, element was also used in the names for their rulers e.g., Menes of Egypt; the Mannan of the Dravidians; 27

28 and the Mansa of the Manding. The Mal, of the Dravidians is just another form of Ma. Mal, is the Fish. He was the prototype of the Fish god among the Pandyan-Tamils. Ama, Uma, Ammon, Amon and etc. seems to either refer to Mal's consort. This goddess Amon is most ancient among the

Proto-Saharans.This goddess has many names including Athene or Neith, daughter of Poseidon god of the Sea (again reference to the great Fish-man); and Demeter, the mare headed patroness.

The Mother goddess Amma/Amon of Libya had her cult center at the Oasis of Siwa. In ancient Egypt Amon was depicted as a ram with spheres. Kingdom. The Proto-Saharans early used the oxen with sun disc between the horns as the symbol of their God, long before the Egyptians worshipped Hathor. This god represented Amon/Amma of the Dravidians, Egyptians and Manding speaking people. Engravings in the Sahara, dating back to Neolithic times show the solar disk with "uraei", which was associated with the worship of Ra/Re in Egypt, when worn by the ram it represented Amon of Thebes. There are depictions of this god from the Saharan sites such as Bou Alam and Zenoga. Archaeologists believe that these engravings date back to 4000 BC. This use of a ram god, with different names among the various groups indicate that the 28 The god Amon was taken to Egypt during the New

Proto-Saharans worshipped the same religion.For example among the

29 Dogon of West Africa, the god Amma is a ram. In Yoruba Amon, means concealed the same as in Egyptian." Amon/Athene

This worship

of the ram may have resulted from the important

part goat/sheep played in the Sahara as a source of food when the Sahara increasingly became more arid. It is interesting to note that Siwa (> Siva?), was recognized as the cult center of Amon/Amma, because in the Siwa depression archaeologists have found numerous conical and pyramidal sand

encrusted hills that resemble the monuments of ancient Egypt, including a sphinx which resembles a gigantic ram. Although and Farafra most scholars believe these monuments in the Siwa Oasis are natural erosional formations called

yardangs, they may really be the remains of monuments built by the Proto-Saharans now encrusted with sand harden by the wind. The mother goddess was either identified as Amon or Athene. Amon or Amen of the Egyptians was primarily a Theban god whose shrine was rebuilt around 2500 BC, when the Theban Kings defeated their northern foes. Amon became an important god in Egypt

beginning with the 12th Dynasty . The priests of Amon, called their god "the King of Gods". The Egyptians recognized Amon as a primeval god. Amon is identified with the ithyphalli god Men(< Maa ?). Amon was recognized as an unseen god, because he could 29

30 travel. He was also seen as an imperial god. Sesostris I, is credited with building the Temple of Amon at Karnak, near Thebes. Sesostris I, is also credited with conquering the whole sea coast of India, beyond the Ganges to the Eastern Ocean, he also

conquered Europe as far as Thrace. It is clear that Amon or Amen, was the ancient god of the Kushites/Proto-Saharans because Ammenemes I or Ameny I of the 11th Dynasty was from the southern state of Ta-Seti, the first Nome (city/state) of Egypt. Ammenemes means "Amon is in front". Sesostris I (Thutmose I), probably helped establish Amon worship in Europe and Asia , because as he expanded his Empire he left colonies in all the lands he conquered. Sesostrasen

Osiritasen of the 12th Dynasty, is suppose to have established colonies along the Danube river and the Black Sea. Strabo (Bk.3), said that Sesostris I, is suppose to have conquered Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Iberia and Colchis. Before the Egyptians conquered Greece the worship of Amon had already been established in the region. It was the Garamante Manding speaking tribe who took Amon worship to Greece. In

Appollonius Rhodius iv.1310, we discover that the goddess Athene was born beside Lake Tritonis in Libya. Plato, identified Athene of Athens with the Libyan god Neith. Athene was worshipped by the

Manding and other Western Saharans including the Linear A people of Minoan Crete. Athene is always associated with the god Amon. 30

Moreover the Manding concept of N'ama as a dynamic spirit among

31 the other Mande tribes point to an earlier worship of Amon, before the Mande accepted Islam. The Bambara call their ancestral god Gnia or Nia, this has affinity to the Greek term for the Libyan

god called Neith. It is interesting to note that in the Linear A inscriptions we find mention of the goddess Nia= Neith. Moreover, some South Indian worship Amma = Amon. The priest of this cult are called Chom or Khonrini, the Greeks called them Gymnosophists. This Chom, of the Dravidians has affinity to Khon, the leading Kushite god. The goddess Neith or Athene was known by many names. Some names related to Athene include Anaitis, Nanaia > Tanit of the Phoenicians; Nama in Albania; and the Sumero-Dravidian Ninni-Istar "the wild cow". The Proto-Dravidians and Sumerians had common religions. For example in the Sumer pantheon the emblem for Inanna, was the date palm, while Ninsun, Dumuzi, Anu and Ishkur were associated with bulls. The Dravidian equivalent to Anu, or bull worship was

Anu-Rupa or Siva. The name of this clan in India was called Anu. Many of these Dravidians were also established in Armenia. In India we find the "men with horns". This term was given to Dravidian dignitaries who had crowns made of animal horns. This type of horned figure appear on many Harappan seals, as do

serpents. The wearing of animal horns on crowns may date back to the time of Sesostris, because many Egyptian headdresses included horns. 31

32 In ancient Sumer, the goddess of the marriage rites was Ur. The goddess Ur, has analogies to the Dravidian cult of the goddess Paravati, in Siva temples. Dumuzi

The Sumerian god Dumuzi, may be a great ancestor of the Tamil. Prof. Muttarayan (1975) has suggested that the word Tamil, may be an evolute of Dumuzi, the name for the Sumerian moon-god. Originally Tammuz/Damuzi was supposedly a king of Uruk. According

to Sumerian tradition Dumuzi lived in the neither world. In the neither world there was a place called "lapis luzuli mountains". The Dravidian speakers founded the Harappan

civilization and wrote the Indus Valley seals. (Winters 1984, 1985) The miners from the Indus Valley controlled the lazurite ores of Badakhshan and Afghanistan.(Brentjes 1983). The Dravidians exported these metals to Mesopotamia. Lapis lazuli is found in metamorphic limestone or dolomite. This material was used to make many prestige items in the ancient world. The riches source of lapis lazuli was Badakhshan . Other lazurite deposits are found in the Himalayan region, and the southern end of lake Baikal in Soviet Union. These centers of lapis lazuli were the central factor in Dravidian colonization of Central Asia. (Winters 1990:127) The Sumerian story about Dumuzi,probably records the 32

expansion of the Proto-Saharan tribe from Mesopotamia into Central

33 Asia that later became the Tamil. Dumuzi, was suppose to have been exiled from the of either of Sumerian city of Erech or Uruk, by the "demons" these cities. The phonetic laws operative in

Dravidian offer no problem in deriving Tamil from Dumuzi. The marriage of the Dravidian cult goddess Paravati, in Siva temples to insure effectively the fecundity and prosperity of the Dravidian people is analogous to the holy marriage of Dumuzi and Inanna, the Sumerian mother-goddess. The Telugu, call the

Dravidians aravaalu "noise makers". This noise made by the Tamils, may have been ritual wailing , one of the major features of the Dumuzi cult in Sumer. The possible sites ancient would exile of the people genetic from Sumer of to the

Proto-Dravidian Sumerian and

explain

unity

Dravidian

languages. Interestingly, the Sumerians

called themselves proudly sag-gigga "the black headed people". In Tamil gig, means black. This points to analogy between Sumerian and Dravidian. During the reign of King Asoka, of India the

Dravidians were called Kalinka, which appears to be an evolute of Sumerian (sag) gigga . The Sumerians obtained lapis lazuli from the

Harappo-Dravidians. S.Kramer, in the Sumerians, claimed that the Indus Valley was called Tilmun/Dilmun by the Sumerians. This was the Sumerian paradise. The boats of Tilmun, or the Indus Valley were suppose to have taken gold, copper and lapis lazuli to the Sumerian. 33

34 Demeter

The God Demeter was introduced to Greece by the Manding. The descendants of the Manding were called Carians. The major Manding tribe responsible for the spread of this faith were the

Garamantes. They are associated with apiculture. Demeter came from Libya. He is suppose to have introduced poppy seeds to Greece. The Carians practiced matrilineal descent, they took the names of their mothers.

Hercules the Sun God

Hercules was an important god. His emblem was the sun. Megasthenes said that Hercules was the father of the Pandyan dynasty of the Dravidians. Arrian, on the authority of Megasthenes said that the Indian Hercules and the Theban Hercules, had the same habits. Homer described Hercules as follows: "Black he stood as night his bow uncased, his arrow strung for fight". The association of Hercules with arrows clearly indicate that he was related to the Kushites who used the bow. Thus Hercules is identified with Khrisna and Mal of the Dravidians.

Poseidon 34

35 According to Greek traditions the father of Athene or Neith was Poseidon or Potidan "he who gives drink, the wooden mountain". Poseidon was the god of the sea, his symbol was the trident. The identification of Poseidon, with a "wooden mountain" or

boat(i.e., a boat on the ocean is like a mountain on the sea) suggest that Poseidon, is another name for the Fish, that showed Manu or Maa the boat that saved mankind from the ancient great flood. The identification of the trident ( which also has affinity to the serekh sign of kingship in Egypt and Ta-Seti), and the Fish emblem of the Pandyan Kings show the spread of the Maa worship from Middle Africa to India. The agreement of Poseidon's name Potidan with Pandyan suggest that this god was popular among the Proto-Dravidians. The identification of the Fish, with Maa and Manu, suggest that while the Fish or Poseidon was the inventor of boats, Maa or Manu built dams that controlled the water levels in areas settled by the Proto-Saharans where they cultivated their crops. It is interesting to note that when Eudoxus of Cyzicus visited the coastal regions of Kush, Strabo reports that he called this area Posidonius. This is interesting because the ancient people of Abyssinia and Somalia, were said to be Icthyophagi, who worshipped the god Poseidon.

Siva 35

36 Siva, was probably introduced into India by the Kushana and Tamilitti Dravidian speaking tribes as they fled from Southeast Asia and China, through Tibet into South India. The symbol of Siva are three eyes (the all seeing), tiger skin, armed with a battle axe riding on a bullock. This indicates that Siva was the god of a people that had conquered the worshipers of Mal (as bullock and fish) and also Murugan (who was symbolized by the Tiger) the god of the mountains. Siva's riding of the bullock, suggest defeat of the mother goddess (worshipers) and rise of a patriarchal had clan to system fight as a result the of the many wars the

Dravidians

against

Indo-Europeans,

Altaic and

speakers and Sino-Tibetan speakers in China and Central Southeast Asia. Kanakasabhai (l966) believes that Siva worship,

came from

the Himalayan region. He said that "His [Siva's] abode was the snowcapped mount Kailas situated north of the Himalayas, near the sources of the great rivers Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra. His greatest feat was the destruction of Tripiura or the "three

castles" which were the strongholds of Asuras who had caused much annoyance to the celestials. He married Par[a]vati, the daughter of the king of the mountains" . Siva is also sometimes analogous to the fish god Mal. In South India, Siva is referred to as the "Great Fish", and is represented by Fish signs. Throughout Tamilnadu tridents are found in association with Siva temples. 36

37 Kumara Among the Dravidians the god of youth is called Kumara or Skanda in the Puranic literature. Kumara is said to be the son of Siva. This Kumara is analogous to the Egyptian god Horus, the son of Osiris. The above evidence indicates that just as theorized by Diop many of the Proto-Saharan gods were really great ancestors, e.g., Dumuzi, Mal and etc. This proves that except for these great ancestors the Proto-Saharans had a great god which they saw as being far away from them , but firmly in control of events on earth. Anta Diop (l991) has shown that the structure of kinship depends much on the material conditions of life. This rule/theorem can be tested by the Proto-Saharans. As outlined in Chapter One, the Proto-Saharans lived an idealized life where there was abundant food resources until at least 3500 B.C. This situational experience led to the development of a semi-sedentary lifestyle. After 4000 B.C., as outlined in the previous chapter the Proto-Saharans began to raise cattle in addition to collecting grasses for food.

Because of the successful use of first goats/sheep and later cattle, this animal began to represent their gods. This abundance of food led to a Proto-Saharan cosmology imbued with optimism.

37

38

EGYPTIAN COLONIES

The Egyptians established many colonies in ancient Europe. The Egyptians called themselves "MELAMPODES" or Blackfeet. The Egyptians were also called Danaans in Greek History. According to Hyainus in "Fabula" ,and Apollonius, when Danaans came to Greece they were a combination of diverse African tribes. One of the major goddesses during this period was Isis. She was worshipped from Austria to Italy. The name Paris, could also mean "Temple of Isis". When the Danaans came to Greece they took away part of the Argolis from the Canaanites. The Danaans took the Mysteries of Themoporia supported and by the the oracle of Dodona to Greece. Discovery of an inscribed This stone view in is the

Peloponnese that had Egyptian writing on it dating to the VTH Dynasty of Egypt. Greek traditions speak of Egyptian colonist in Greece: Cecrops settled Atica, Danaus brother of Aeyptus in Argolis taught the Greeks agriculture and metallurgy. Cadmus the Phoenician

taught the Greeks the alphabet. It was due to the common origin of the people of Troy and Egypt that 10,000 Nubians were sent there to fight the Greeks during the Trojan war. In fact the heroes of Homer's Iliad, were Blacks and mullatoes who 38

39 lived in Europe at this time. Due to the Egyptian influence in Greece much of the Greek culture is of Egyptian origin. Moreover many Greek words are also of Egyptian origin. MYCENEANS

The ancient Myceneans were Blacks. These ancient people came from Crete, and the Western Sahara. Alain Anselin, has shown how many of these Myceneans spoke Dravidian languages especially the Termils, of Asia Minor. The cities of Troy, Mycenae, Tiryns, Thebes and Orochomenos were founded by Eteocretans or Real Minoans, as opposed to the later Greco-Cretans. These Eteocretans spoke a Manding language.

THE PELASGIANS

The earliest inhabitants of Greece and the Aegean Islands were Blacks from ancient Libya , Palestine and Asia Minor. These Blacks founded Athens, Thebes and Attica. They occupied much of the mainland and all the Aegean Islands. The Greeks called the first inhabitants of Greece Pelasgians. According to the Greeks the first man was PELASGUS-- ancestor of the Pelasgians. tribes The Pelasgians included were a combination of diverse Leleges, 39

Blacks

which

the

Achaeans,

Cadmeans,

Carians or Garamantes.

40 GARAMANTES

The first colonists to arrive in Greece were the Cretans. These Cretans were called Garamantes. After the goddess KER or CAR, these people as came to in be the also unit known on as Carians. spoke These Mande

Garamantes languages.

discussed

Africa

There is frequent mention of the Garamantes of the Fezzan, in ancient literature. The Garamantes were recognized as a Black tribe. They were known to the Greeks and Romans as dark skinned (perusi,furvi and nigri). Archaeological evidence also supports the presence of Africoid tribes in the Fezzan during ancient times. The Garamantes are suppose to have fled the Fezzan during the first millennium A.D. and settle back among other Mande

speaking groups in the Niger Delta area of West Africa. Leo Frobenius linked the Garamante to the ancient empire of Ghana (c.300 BC to A.D. 1100).He claims that Garamante is the Greek plural for Garama or Garamas. He said that the present Jarama or Jarma are the descendants of the Garamante. The Jarama live near the Niger River. The "Fragment", Olympian and creation myth, as recorded by Pindar in Rhidius, makes it clear that the

Apollonius

Garamantes early colonized Greece. Their descendants were called Carians. The Carians practiced apiculture. As in Africa the 40

Carians practiced matrilineal descent. According to Herodotus,even

41 up until his time the Carians took the name of their mother. Many of the Greek myths are historical text which discuss the transition of Greece from an Matriarchal society to a

Patriarchal Aryan society. The term Amazon was often used by the Aryans to denote matriarchal societies living on the Black Sea. The Battle between Thesus and the Amazon, led by Queen Melanippe, records the conflicts between the ancient Aryan-Greeks and the Libyans settled around the Black Sea. The classical Carians and Egyptians were very close. Having originated in the Proto-Sahara, both the Egyptians and Libyans worshipped similar gods. The Carian counterpart of the Egyptians Thoth was Palamedes(ancient intelligence): cranes were sacred to him. The Garamantes founded Attica, where they worked the mines at Laureium. Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fruitfulness, came from the Fezzan (Libya) by way of Crete. It was Demeter who took poppy seeds and figs to Europe. Apollonius Rhidius tells us that the goddess Athene was born beside Lake Triton in Libya. The goddess Athene, was called Neith by the Egyptians and Nia by the Manding and Cretans in Linear A writing. This shows that the Garamantes also took this god to Europe in addition to Demeter and Ammon (=Amon, Amma , etc.) ODYSSEY AND ILIAD 41

42 The Nine Telchine, known as the Children of the Sea, founded the cities of Danaids, Camerira, Ialysa and Linda according to Professor Graves in "The Greek Myths". The poet Homer was a Carian. Homer's These books "Odyssey" and " Iliad".

are not myths they are history of the Pelasgian

Greeks not the Aryan. These Pelasgians were called Danaans and Achaeans. The heroes of his poems were his ancestors. The only Aryans in his poems were the Hellenes led by Achilles. After 1200 BC the Pelasgians were slowly absorbed by the Indo-European speaking Aryans. These Aryan tribesmen are known as Kurgans in the archeological literature. Between 1200 and 800 BC the Kurgan tribesmen were held in check by the various Africoid tribes of Europe and Asia. The statues of the Dedalic style and Kouros, style indicate that even after the Dorians took control of the mainland the Aegean islands were still controlled by Africoids. The wars of the Heraclids and various traditions about the returns of the Herakleidai to mainland Greece ,chronicles the attempt of the Black Greeks to recover their heritage from the invading Indo-Europeans. The

Heraclids

were descendants of Perseus a member of the Pelasgic

race, which along with the Argives, Danaans and Achaeans were all Black Greeks.

42

43 CHAPTER THREE:GENETIC UNITY OF BLACK AFRICAN ELAMITE, DRAVIDIAN AND SUMERIAN LANGUAGES

A genealogical relationship exist between the Black African, Dravidian, Elamite and Sumerian languages. This is not surprising because African languages were used by Rawlinson, to decipher the

cuneiform script. To illustrate this point and support Anta Diop's evidence of Black dynasties in Elam and Sumer, we will compare the Dravidian, Elamite, Sumerian and Manding languages. We must consider the historical link between languages

assumed to possess a genealogical relationship, although they are separated involved by in thousands determining of a miles. The anthropological relationship factors is the

genealogical

scientific study of the cognate origin, and the physical, social and cultural development and behavior of related groups. This has already been done in the earlier chapters in regards to the Proto-Saharans. We have already shown that there is a connection between the basic vocabularies and identical constituent

structures and grammatical categories. The Elamites, Dravidians, Sumerians and Manding are all of Proto-Saharan origin. In the history of mankind they were called the Kushites. Testimony of the great heritage of the Kushites, resulted from their boldness in trade and seafaring expeditions. 43

44 The authors of ancient Indian literature claimed that the

Kushites ruled the world for 7000 years. According to Epiphanius, the age of the Kushites extended from the Flood to the age of Terah, the father of Abraham, the prophet of the Jews and

Muslims. In the ancient inscriptions of Africa and Asia the Kushites were called many names including Kus, and Ethiopian by the Greeks and Romans. In Sumerian inscriptions the Kushites were called Meluha=Kasi<Kush. There is historical evidence that suggest that the name Meluha, was a geographical name for the Africans who lived in the area of Nubia and Northwest Africa. The people of Nubia associated most with the name Kushite were the C-Group culture group, worshipers of Amon and Neith. The Egyptian term for these people was k-'-sh and k-'-sh-i. The

Hebrews called them Kush. In the Sudanese were called Kushiya.

cuneiform inscriptions the

The Kushites belonged to the Maa confederation. As a result of this Kushite origin in Asia we find many place names with the term Kush, e.g.,the Kushana of Central Asia, Kashmere and Hindu Kush. According to the Matsya, an ancient book from India, the world belonged to the Kushites or Saka (as they are sometimes called) for 7000 years. In the Mahabharata, the Sakadvipa is the 'land of the [Kushites] Sakas. The seven mountains of Sakadvipa were named Meru, Malaya, Jaladhara, Raivata, Syama, Durgasaila and 44

45 Kesara. The Meru of Indian literature may be none other than the Meroe of the Sudan, or cataclysm. The four a primeval Meroe that was long ago lost to kingdoms of the Saka were Maga (Manga),

Masaka, Mansa and Mandaga.The Maga, reminds us of the Magians or the Maka of the Persian inscriptions. The Masakas, in the

Mahabharata, are called

Kastriyas. The Mandagas or Manda were

also probably Mada or the Medes. These Medians may have had a connection with the ancient Mande speakers of Africa, especially the Manding who often accompanied the Dravidians out of Middle Africa into Asia. This would explain the close relationship

between Elamite and the Manding languages. Place names offer testimony to the ancient inhabitants of an area. Because whereas languages and the people who spoke them may disappear from a region place names of important areas will remain constant. There are similar place names found in the Sudan and Asia. Prof. Bator Vamos Toth, an expert on the ancient Tamana culture has found 21 suffixes, and hundreds of place names that link the Sudan and Asia. For example , Dr. Vamos Toth has noted that

there is a Kar-nak in Egypt and Kar-nak in Central Asia. Other common place names affixes include -bura,-dan, -kara, -tal and -ur. Dr. Vamos Toth has illustrated how the inhabitants of the Carpathian Valley and other cultures around the world share a 45

46 similar culture.In all the countries sharing placenames Dr. Bator found a common toponym:Tamana.He therefore calls this ancestral culture/civilization Tamana. It is interesting to note that the Proto-Saharans formerly lived in these areas. The word Tamana means 'great place'. These ancient Tamana sites were probably forts established in areas occupied by hostile non Proto-Saharan speaking peoples. The Kushites when they migrated from Middle Africa to Asia

called themselves Kushites. This is most evident in placenames and the names of gods.The Kassites, chief rulers of Iran occupied the central part of the Zagros. The Kassite god was called Kashshu, which was also the name of the people. The K-S-H, name element is also found in India. For example Kishkinthai, was the name applied to an ancient Dravidian kingdom in South India. Also it should be

remembered that the Kings of Sumer, were often referred to as the " Kings of Kush". The major Kushite tribe in Central Asia was called Kushana. The Kushan of China were Ta Yueh-ti or "the Great Lunar Race".

Along the Salt Swamp, there was a state called Ku-Shih of Tibet. The city of K-san, was situated in the direction of Kushan, which was located in the Western part of the Gansu Province of China. COMPARATIVE METHOD

To determine man's past scientists use many research technics including archaeology, written documents and comparative and 46

47 historical linguistic methods. In the absence of written

documents, linguistics can be used to explain the past. Historical linguistics seeks to describe the way languages change their structure over a period of time. The present state of a language is its synchronic state, earlier state(s) of a language are its diachronic state. Comparative linguistics is that branch of linguistics which discloses and studies similarities between related languages. The comparative method is useful in the reconstruction of

protolanguages. To reconstruct a proto-language the anthropologist or

linguistic must look for patterns of correspondence. Patterns of correspondence is the examination of terms which show

uniformity. This uniformity leads to the inference that languages are related, since conformity of terms in two or more languages indicate they came from a common source. Ferdinand de Saussure, has stated two purposes of comparative linguistics : 1) to describe and record the history of languages and reconstructing the mother language of each family; and 2) determine the universal aspects of all languages and discover the general laws which govern them. There are two broad types of relatedness between

languages:genetic and typological. A genetic relationship means that a group of languages descended from a common ancestral 47

language--a MOTHER LANGUAGE. A typological relationship means that

48 languages have common structural features.

The third classifier of language is an areal classification. An areal classification groups languages into linguistic areas based on shared features acquired by a process of convergence arising from spatial proximity. GENEALOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS

A genealogical classification of languages is determined by the number of from a we shared the features retained or by languages since To

divergence illustrate languages

common

ancestor relationship four

proto-language. two a or

genealogical must discuss

between of

more

aspects

genealogical

linguistic hypothesis: geography, anthropology, linguistics and the historical link. We must consider the historical link between languages assumed to possess a genealogical relationship although they are separated involved by in thousands determining of a miles. The anthropological relationship factor is the

genealogical

scientific study of the cognate origin, and of the physical, social and cultural development and behavior of related groups. Geographical factors play an important role in determining a linguistic is relationship. easily For if example, the a genealogical of related

relationship

explained

speakers

languages are geographically adjacent in a nuclear area. Finally, linguistic evidence used to support a genealogical relationship 48

49 must show that there is a connection between the basic vocabularies and identical constituent structures and

grammatical categories. COMPARATIVE METHOD AND GENEALOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS

COMPARATIVE

Linguistics

is

interested

in

three

things

phonetic laws, analogy and loan words. The closeness of languages depends on the number of rules the languages have in common. When languages are genetically related, there is an ethnic relationship present, because a genetic relationship suggest a family relationship. The science of comparative linguistics is that branch of

linguistics which mainly developed to discover the Mother Language of European languages. Although this is the case, comparative linguistics can be applied to any number of the worlds languages. The basic tool of comparative linguistics is phonology. You must understand how sound laws operate to begin the reconstruction of the original sound laws of the Mother language. The comparative method must be based on proof of common linguistic origin of languages. To accomplish this goal the

linguist must look for correspondence would be

patterns of correspondence. Patterns of the examination of terms which show

uniformity. This uniformity leads to the inference that languages are related, since conformity of terms in pairs of languages show that they came from a common source--this can not be possible 49

50 by coincidence alone. Patterns of correspondence are discovered when the linguist isolates systematic location words with common or similar with meanings that for have the

consonantal of vowels.

agreement Consonantal

little

regard is the

agreement

regular

appearance of consonants at certain locations in words having similar meanings and representing systematic

correspondences in speech sounds. To determine the corresponding terms, and the time of separation of languages the linguist selects lexical items from the basic vocabulary which have similar meanings from the

languages which are being compared. These lexical items are then compared to determine correspondences on the grounds of phonetic or phonological similarity. Phonetic laws are the systematic formulation of the rules and principles behind sound shifts and other phonetic changes.

Analogy, is the agreement of a word with another word or other words in a sentence as to number, case, gender, person etc. The identification of corresponding terms within two or more languages suggest a family relationship. These terms are examined systematically so the original proto-form of the word can be reconstructed. As pointed out in previous chapters the Elamites,

Dravidians,Manding and Sumerian languages Paleo-African language.The ancient

diverged from a common from their 50

Proto-Saharans

51 literature and culture appear to have descended from a common

ancestor. This sociolinguistic reality of a number of related groups 5000 years ago is proven by a comparison of terms from Dravidian (D.), Elamite (E.) , Manding (M.), and Sumerians (S.), which show shared features retained during a process of divergence from a common ancestor. There is no area of linguistic structure which can totally resist change, but that area of language least accessible to foreign influence is the basic vocabulary. The basic vocabulary

of a language is that sector of the lexicon, which comprise the basic elements of one's culture the division of the body and biological activities such as eating, sleeping and etc. But the lexical comparisons are not enough to prove a genealogical relationship, because grammar and morphology holds precedence over phonology and syntax. As a result below I will

elucidate the interrelationships between Dravidian (Dr.), Elamite, Manding (M.) and Sumerian and the common retention rate within the members of the Proto-Saharan languages. The Proto-Saharan languages are agglutinative. In these languages subject (S), verb (V), object (O) is the order of the basic constituents. VOWELS There are numerous examples of phonetic, morphological, and lexical parallels between Elamite, Dravidian, Manding and 51

Sumerian. For example,there is a system of five basic vowels and

52 three-fold distinction of lip rounded and rounded.

i e a o

ii ee aa

uu oo

CONSONANTS

The Proto-Saharan consonants are:

p b f w m

t d s r n

l k g h y

n z kp gb

In the Proto-Saharan languages the initial /s/ and /k/ ;and /d/ and /t/ and are interchangeable e.g., *ka and *sa 'great',

*ta and *da 'place'. Among the Manding and other African stops /kp/ and /gb/ . In

languages there are doubly articulated

addition, in all these languages /l/ and /r/ does not occurs initially. 52

53 The Proto-Saharan consonants are the following: g k l d b p m n n d t remains unchanged or is replaced by " and and r t " " " " " k g

are interchangeable are interchangeable p b or f

remains unchanged or is replaced by " " " " " "

remains unchanged normal remains unchanged palatal is replaced by l remains unchanged of replaced by " " " " " t d

The Proto-Saharan consonantal system is the following:

kgdtpbszr-

-k-g-d-t-p-b-s-z-r-rr-tt-

-k

-d -t -p

-r 53

54 lnmywfgbkp-l-n-m-y-w-l -n -m -y

PRONOUNS

There is a similarity in pronouns: Language Singular 1st.Per.2nd Per. 3rd Per. Plural 1st Per. 2nd Per. 3rd Per.

Dravidian Manding Elamite Sumerian

an,naa na, n' u ga, gal

l i nu

a a, e ri ene

an

an,ani alu un

aru

nun zu,ne

r: ir ene-ne

za, au

men

DEMONSTRATIVE

Language Dravidian Manding

Proximate i i

Distant a a

Finite u u 54

55 Sumerian bi a

The Proto-Saharan languages share locative constructions. These directional elements can be simple or compound.

Common suffixial directional elements include:

Elamite -ak kuttu -hi ukku -ma itaka -na -lina

Sumerian

English and so,also,as this

Manding ka ka ni ku, kuna na la, ti -no -ti

ku -na da

on in,at with of

-ta

for

Common directional elements include: ma imma, ni no ikku (ikki) lina mar 'area,land' 55 -ra ta to for from a place koro ti ma -a in out,of na ma,

56 itaka ti da with la,

All the Proto-Saharan languages share certain grammatical features. Those grammatical elements shared by Dravidian, Elamite, Sumerian and Black African languages include 1) vowel harmony, 2) absence geminated of initial clusters of consonants, 3) abundance of

consonants,4)

distinction of inclusive and exclusive

pronouns in first person plural, 5) absence of degrees of comparison for adjectives 6) and adverbs as on distinct nominal of

morphological increments

categories, by

consonant

alteration

noticed

different

classes,7)

distinction

completed action among verbal paradigms as against specific tense distinction plural). AFFIXES and 9) use of reduplication for emphasis (and

In the Dravidian, Egyptian, Elamite, Manding and Dravidian languages words are formed by adding an affix to a radical. In this section we will discuss certain aspects of shared

Proto-Saharan morphology. In these languages suffixes are usually used to create words. These suffixes can be a single consonant (C) or vowel (V), or a monosyllabic form (CV). The most common suffix in Dravidian, 56

Egyptian, Elamite, Manding and Sumerian are the postfixes -ki, -ka

57 and -ta , which are used to denote clans, nationality, lands and countries . PLURAL

In the Proto-Saharan languages the plural is formed by adding -u,-w,-ba, -pa and -lu.In Egyptian, the -w suffix is used to form the plural. In the Dravidian (Dr.) . languages the plural if formed by -lu, especially in Telugu. In the Manding (M) group, and other African languages we find -lu or -u (-w), e.g., M. mogo 'husband,(pl.) mogo-lu 'husbands'; Telugu magaadu 'husband , man', (pl.) magaalu 'husbands'. In many Black African languages ba means 'abundance, many'. In Elamite pa or fa is used to make plural numbers, e.g., ko-fa inna 'of the Kings', Bapitu fa-pa "to the Babylonians". The use of -pa, by the Elamites corresponds to the Manding use of the -ba suffix , which is joined to nouns to denote the idea of greatness, physical or moral e.g., na-folo 'good,rich' , no-folo-ba 'great fortune'; and so-kalo 'piece', so-kala-ba

'considerable quarter of a village'. NEGATIVE

In Black African languages including Egyptian the -n, is used to show negation. In Egyptian we often find -nn, e.g., nn wn 'there is nothing'. In Elamite the negative is formed by an 57

uninflected nominal derivative in -n (active participle), e.g.,

58 ink 'I not", inr 'he not' and ani 'not'. This suffix is analogous to the M. negative suffix -na, employed as a suffix to -ka, e.g., ka na ku na tara so "I did not say I was going to the house" . In Tamil the negative verbal participle is formed by suffixing a-mal or a-mei, e.g., sey (y)-a-mal 'without stopping'. The Tamil suffix -mei is nouns. The negative suffix in Manding is -na, which is proceeded by ka and nt'i, e.g., kalu mba-nt'i. In Sumerian the negation of the verb is expressed by the prefixes nu- or la-, e.g., nu-zu "not to know", la-gin "not to fix" and nu-dug "not good. The optative mood are negatived by the element na,na-ma-pad "she may not". also used as a termination for abstract

PARTICLES

In Elamite personal nouns are formed by adding -ra, e.g., Kellira 'commander', kutira 'bearer'. This relates to the Manding suffix of the past and present participle -ra, this particle is used to make verbs passive or active, e.g., kyi 'send', kyi-ra 'messenger', gyi (ji) 'dry up', gyi-ra 'arid'. In Sumerian the dative is expressed by the suffix -ra, which may appear in the form of -ar, -ir , and -ur, e.g., ma-ra 'to

me', lugal-e-a-ra ' to the owner of the house'. This parallels the Manding locative suffix -ra, and -la , which can 'to,or, for, in ', e.g., tu-ra 'in the forest'. 58 represent

59 The Elamite indefinite article is -ra, e.g., Parsar-ra 'a Persian', Afartu-ra 'an Elamite'. This corresponds to the Manding

locative suffix -ra, e.g., Ton-ra 'land of Ton'. The Proto-Saharan languages share the present participle -tu/-to. In Telugu (Tel.),the suffix -tu , is used as the present participle function while in the Manding chestu languages M.tege -to 'to has the cut', same

e.g.,

Tel.

'made',

tege-to

'cutting'. The active participle in Elamite is -n, e.g., talu-n

'writing', or hali-n 'toiling'. This corresponds to the Manding -ni and -li elements e.g., sa 'buy', sanni 'buying', or du-mu 'eat', dumu-ni 'eating'. This -n, active participle is found in many other Black African languages including Egyptian. The use of the -ka element is frequently found in the formation of Dravidian, Elamite, Egyptian, Manding and Sumerian languages. In Egyptian as outlined by Cheikh Anta Diop, in

Nouvelles Recherches Sur l' Egyptien Ancien

et Langues Negro-

Africaines Modernes (pp.55-57), he outlines the use of /k/ and /t/ , to form agent nouns. In Parente genetique de l'Egyptien

Pharonique et des langues Negro-Africaines (p.18), Diop explains the evolution of the -ky, and -kt particles. In Elamite the passive participle is formed by -ka, e.g., hulta-ka 'done', turu-ka 'said'. This corresponds to the Manding -ka 'make, do',e.g., nyine 'see', nyini-ka 'interogate'. In the Dravidian and Manding languages -ka, is used to 59

60 represent the verb 'to be', as well as the subjunctive. For

example in Manding languages values, which corresponds to

ka, is a particle of different -kaa, the infinitive element in

Telugu of the verb ag-uta 'to become'. In Tamil this element appears as aaga. For example, in Manding we have a ka-nye 'it's good'; and in Telugu kaa valenu 'it is necessary'. The same radical -ka represents the optative form in Telugu, e.g., aapani mundara kani 'how is labor given first place?' In the Dravidian languages the suffixes -ke, -ge and -ka are used as the primitive verb 'to be' or 'to do'. They are usually used with abstract nouns e.g., ol 'to reign', ol-ka 'domination'. This corresponds to the Manding verb joined to 'to do' ke , which is often 'cultivate',

-la to form derived nouns e.g., sene

sene-li ke-la 'cultivator'. These languages also share many cognate terms. ENGLISH chief field eye(l) eye(2) arrow granary road father lord SUMERIAN kal,kala gan igi ini,en kak kur sila pap manus nya kala k'ur-k'ur sila pa mansa MANDING kele-tigi ga TAMIL gasa(n) kalan akki kan kakam kutir caalai appan mannan 60

61 male to recite to buy grain seed mu sid sa se gen moko siti sa se ge 'to sprout' cel maakkal

English top, summit one two four person fish(filet) skin house head tongue blacksmith foot liver mud give stone cloud Dravidian kona ondu pattu naal uki bale uri lon kuku na inumu karal karal burada idu kaly kaar Manding kun do ta nani moko bake wuru,guru lu ku ne numu koro kura boro, buru di kulu ka, kaba 61

62 fire mountain elder,grandfather ti kunru maama ta kuru maa-maa

ELAMITE -ak turna sahri murta -mar li tela Nap tus husu kuta lan,lani ki ta kik sari ufat tela khali dau ENGLISH and know, awaken death to erect from a place give to go God habitation ill-omened lance silver one place sky,heaven sculpter steel to go great help MANDING ka kuna, fori sa kura ma di tara Nala du dyugu keru dala killi ta ka se tuufa ta ka deema 62

63 ko na para king,lord say to watch ka na fere-ke

The lexical evidence above supports the hypothesis that a genetic relationship exist between Black African languages,

Dravidian, Elamite and Sumerian. This linguistic data illustrates that a common cultural macrostructure is shared by these speakers which subsequently evolved along separate lines. Given this

genetic unity of these languages we should call this group of Paleo-African languages situated in Africa and Asia B(lack)

Af(rican), S(umerian, Draa(vidian), (E)lam: or Bafsudraalam subset of the Proto-Saharan Superset of languages.(Winters 1989) The theory of borrowing in ancient time can not account for

these morphological, lexicological and phonetic correspondences between Dravidian , Elamite, Egyptian, Manding and Sumerian,

because of geographical discontinuity. This cognition illustrates a genetic relationship between the Bafsudraalam subset of the Proto-Saharan family of languages. Winters (l989) in a comparison of 100 lexical items from Manding and Dravidian indicated a cognate rate of 70 to 75 percent . The retention rate corresponds to a minimum separation of 1.18 millennia. Using the standard rates of retention for glottochronology, the rate for corresponding Manding, Sumerian and Tamil terms 63

64 together is 50 percent retention rate, and suggest a minimum length of separation of 2.29 millennia for the group as a whole. (Winters 1989) But when we compare Manding-Sumerian the retention rate is 70 percent or a minimum length of separation of 1.18 millennia. A comparison of Sumerian-Tamil corresponds to a 57 percent retention rate or a minimum separation of 1.50

millennia.

The theory of borrowing in ancient time can not account for these morphological, lexicological and phonetic correspondences between Dravidian , Elamite, Egyptian, Manding and Sumerian, because of geographical discontinuity. This cognition illustrates a genetic relationship between the Bafsudraalam subset of the Proto-Saharan family of languages.

Winters (l989) in a comparison of 100 lexical items from Manding and Dravidian indicated a cognate rate of 70 to 75 percent . The retention millennia. rate corresponds to a minimum separation of 1.18

Using the standard rates of retention for glottochronology, the rate for corresponding Manding, Sumerian and Tamil terms together is 50 percent retention rate, and suggest a minimum length of separation of 2.29 millennia for the group as a whole.(Winters 1989) But when we compare Manding-Sumerian 64

65

the retention rate is 70 percent or a minimum length of separation of 1.18 millennia. A comparison of Sumerian-Tamil corresponds to a 57 percent retention rate or a minimum separation of 1.50

millennia. The length of separations for these languages are far too recent. We know for example that Sumerian had been absorbed by the Akkadian language much earlier then 2.29 millennia ago. This was false. It appears that as late as 1000BC, Sumerian continued to be used by people in southern Mesopotamia (Jacobsen, 1988). This suggest that glottochronology may be useful in

determining the relationship between various languages. This lends support to this linguistic method. The conservative nature of these languages can be explained by socio-cultural factors. You see all languages do not change as rapidly as others. Dr. Diop, in The African Origins of

Civilization, observes that "understandably stable societies man's language has changed less with the passage of time". The linguistic evidence explains the appearance of similar artifacts Egyptian recovered from Iran (Elam) , the Indus Valley and and

archaeological

excavations. The cultural features

works of art are analogous because these people came from a common origin in the ancient Saharan region of Africa.

65

66 CHAPTER FOUR: THE PROTO-SAHARANS IN CRETE

The pharaoh of African history Cheikh Anta Diop, in chapter 3 of Civilization or Barbarism , provides factual evidence linking the myth of Atlantis to Crete, and the influence of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt on Cretan civilization. He also pointed out that Linear A, is related to Egyptian writing introduced into Egypt by the 12th Dynasty rulers. This syllabic script was especially used to inscribe pottery.

The Minoans or Eteocretans were Manding speaking Africans from Libya.The earliest Minoans are called Eteocretans or the "real Cretans". The Minoan civilization is periods: Minoan Ancient 3000-2200 B.C. Minoan Middle 2200-1550 B.C. Minoan Recent 1550-1180 B.C. divided into three

The Eteocretan civilization on Crete was destroyed by the eruption of a volcano on the Island of Santorim. Crete was called Caphtor in the Bible. The Egyptians called Minoan Crete Keftiu. The sarcophagus of Hagia Triada shows both the African ethnic religious influence of the Egyptians in Crete. The Keftiu and Egyptians of Kemit maintained close economic relations. For 66

67 example during the reign of Thutmose III, Cretan ceramics were imported into Egypt.(Diop 1991:78-79) GARAMANTES FOUNDERS OF CRETE

The Garamantes were Negroes. In Ptolemy I.8.5., p. 31, a Garamante slave was described as having a body the color of pitch or wholly black. Robert Graves, makes it clear that the Garamantes who occupied much of the Fezzan probably fused with ethnic groups in West Africa. The Garamantes were often referred to as Carians, after the goddess Ker or Car. They spoke a Manding language. The Garamantes also founded Attica, where they worked the mines at Laureium. They also introduced the worship of Amon in Europe. The term Minos for the Cretan kings agrees with the Manding term for king/chief Mansa. Here we find consonantal agreement M-N-S. The Keftiu came from the Fezzan of Libya. These Manding speaking people were the Garama or Garamantes" the first of

men",according to the ancient Greeks. These founders of Minoan civilization did not come from the Middle East. They spoke an African not a Semitic language. LIBYAN ORIGIN OF MINOANS

Every since Sir Arthur Evans, discovered the hieroglyphics and Linear A writing of Crete there has been a search for the 67

68 authors of this script. Evans (l921) suggested that the Minoan civilization found its impetus from Libya to Crete. Evans supported this hypothesis by discussing the affinities between Crete and Libya, e.g., l) the writing of Crete and the arrival of refugees from

Libyco-Berber (Manding) writing are similar (Winters 1985),2) both groups wore the cod piece, and 3) they share the identical custom of leaving a lock of hair hanging down in front of the ears. The protruding tuft of hair was associated with an initiatory rite dedicated to the goddess Neith.(Bruson 1985) The goddess Neith or Athene, was a Libyan goddess. Other scholars have also found a Libyan influence on Crete. A.B. Cook (1914), noted that the Libyan ram with horns curved downward occurs in Minoan art. The ram is associated with the goddess Athene (Neith). In addition Pendlebury (l965) postulated a Libyan immigration to southern Crete in the area of Messara

(c.3000-2200 B.C.) Hammond (l967), feels that the Libyans settled the plains of Phaestos between 1900-1700 B.C. In addition Dr. Alain Anselin (1984), has done a fine study of the Black Libyans of Crete. LINEAR A WRITING

Linear A writing is a variant of the Proto-Saharan writing, used by the Manding in the Sahara. The earliest Manding 68

inscriptions have been found at Oued Mertoutek. Wulsin (1940) has

69 dated the Oued Mertoutek inscription to 3000 B.C.

The Proto-Manding script has around 200-350 signs and around 40 different forms. It is a syllabic script. (Winters 1983,1985b) Due to the early date assigned to the Oued Mertoutek site, we can infer that the Proto-Saharan writing was invented sometime earlier than 3000 B.C. Up to this day the Manding writing is used by Manding secret societies. (Winters 1977) The hypothesis that the Eteocretans spoke a Manding dialect is supported by a comparison of Minoan Linear A signs and the Manding signs which were used in the Western Sahara. Many of these signs are clearly cognates. To further test this hypothesis that the Eteocretans probably spoke a Manding language we compared Manding and the Keftiu or Cretan names collected by the Egyptians. (Peet 1917) Crete is mentioned in Egyptian documents of the First Intermediate Period and 18th Dynasty. (Strange 1980 :71-73; Vercoutter 1956:43-45) The Ketiu personal names come from a schoolboy's writing board of the 18th Dynasty. The heading of the writing board now located in the British Museum was "How to Make Names of Keftiu". Although the Keftiu names have been compared to Semitic without success, a comparison of these names with Manding personal names provide startling agreement. In Manding /b/, /f/ and /p/ are often interchangeable. This suggest that the Minoans or Keftiu called themselves Kebe, the name of a leading Manding clan. Or this name may refer to the 69

70 Keita Mande, the royal family from which sprang the rulers of ancient Mali. Keftiu , is made up by the root kef-, plus the locative

suffix /-i/ used to give the affirmative sense, /-t/ the suffixial element used to denote place names, nationality and personal

names, and /-u/ the plural suffix. Thus Keftiu can be interpreted as "The land of the Kefs". The Egyptians probably pronounced the Minoan /b/ like /f/ . As a result the Eteocretans probably called themselves kebe (pl. Kebew) and Crete Kebeta. The term Caphor is probably based on the Egyptian word Keftiu. The rulers of Kebeta, were called Mansa (> Manos). On Egyptian writing board BM5647 there are eight Keftiu names.These names agree with Manding names: Keftiu (Kebetiw) 'shr nsy 'ks Pnrt 'dm Rs Manding sye nsye nkyi Pe,Be-ni,Fu-ne Demba Rsa

Of the Keftiu names compared above we find startling results four of these show full agreement, one name has partial agreement and only one name lacks full or partial agreement in both Manding and Keftiu. The personal name which shows partial agreement is Pnrt. The 70

71 root of the name Pnrt, is probably Pe. This name can be easily

explained by Manding grammar. If we break-down Pnrt into its segments we have Pe, plus /-n/ a suffixial element added to

Manding words when they are verbalized. The /-r/ (ra), is the suffix of the present participle ;and /-t/ (te) is the suffixial element used for form names. Thus Pnrt, was probably pronounced Penrate. LINEAR A INSCRIPTIONS

The Eteocretan inscriptions and tablets from the palaces of Crete indicate that these buildings were mortuaries or temples of the dead. The idea that the palaces of Minoan Crete are in reality mortuaries in not new. Oswald Spengler (l935) suggested that the Minoan "labyrinths" might be in reality temples of the dead. Georg Wunderlich (l974) had the same view. He wrote that "[T]he Minoans built genuine tombs for the preservation and care of the dead. Their tombs were allowed to decay when the old cult of the dead was superseded by the "New" heroic method of cremation [introduced by the Indo-Europeans] with its built in insurance against grave robbing". The Minoans practiced communal internment. the earliest clan tombs were developed near during the Neolithic; are sites examples such of as this 71

Chrysolakkas

Mallia,and

Arkhanes

practice of making communal graveyards.The collective graveyard at

72 Arkhanes was replaced by a temple for the dead. Hagia Triada and the sanctuaries such as Iouktas were probably also communal internment centers of the dead dedicated to Neith or Athene the goddess who protected the remains of the dead in their coffins or burial jars. In Greek mythology Athene or Neith took the first olive tree to be planted in Crete, after Libya became arid. (Graves 1980:45) She was a major god in Libya and Lower Egypt. This is significant because one of the pre-Islamic gods of the Manding was called Ni-ya/Nia . This Nia is probably the Neith goddess Neith came from Africa. (Bernal 1986) The goddess Neith is frequently mentioned in the funerary tablets of ancient Crete in the form of Nia. A comparison of the Vai (member of the Manding group) signs and Linear A signs, , i. . This sign Thus was of the Greeks. The

indicate that the sign for Nia/Neith is is formed by two symbols na and

Nia among the Manding. Ni-ya/ Nia was a mother goddess, protector of nature and manifestation of life. The association of many Minoan sites with the underworld is evident from the presence of "double shields" frescos, like the one at Knossos.In the ancient world ritual shields were placed in tombs to ward off evil spirits. (Wunderlich 1974:48-49) Among the ancient Egyptians the emblem of Neith the guardian of the coffins and canopic jars was a shuttle or crossed shields , 72

. The center of the Neith cult was Sais in the Delta. In Minoan

73 Crete the double shield motif in tombs and or sarcophagus may have been used to indicate the presence of Neith. H.R. Hall, observed that: "The characteristic Cretan figure-of-eight shield is the same as the shield of the goddess Neith of Sais, which probably goes back to early Neolithic days". (Hall 1927) In Libya and Crete young children wore the uraeus "serpent lock". This protruding tuft of hair was associated with the

initiatory rite dedicated to the goddess Neith. According to Cook (l914), this coiffure was associated with young Eteocretan

initiates as late as the fifth century B.C. Since many buildings of ancient Crete were temples of the dead, most Linear A tablets, are funerary tablets. The funerary tablets written in Linear A indicate that the people put into these mortuaries were high born. In addition, their character appears to have been morally sound because the documents speak of the deceased as "becoming an amulet/object effective for its virtue". Thus when these Cretans died they probably were deified as first suggested by the

remarkable scene discussed by Anta Diop (l991) preserved on the Hagia Triada sarcophagus. This indicates that people visited these tombs so they could obtain a blessing from the 'righteous dead'. Due to our decipherment of the Minoan script, it has become clear that the Minoans used Linear A to write religious text. The corpus of Linear A inscriptions on tablets and libation vessels 73

74 show considerable repetition. The sacred uses of the Linear A script is evident from the numerous votive inscriptions found on stone objects of art from the numerous Minoan sanctuaries

excavated in Crete, especially those found at 1985)

Iouktas.(Karetsou

LANGUAGE OF MINOAN INSCRIPTIONS

Since the Eteocretans were Manding speakers we can read the Minoan inscriptions by comparing the Vai and Minoan scripts to discover analogy in the shape and form of the Linear A characters and the Vai characters. Once this is done we give the Linear A sign its value in the Vai script, and then use Malinke-Bambara to read the signs. Each Linear A sign is monosyllabic. They are of the consonant (C) vowel (V) class. The key to the decipherment of Linear A were:1) the evidence of Manding migration to Crete; 2) repetition of certain signs on Cretan libation vessels; and 3) this regularity of inscriptions led to the assumption are votive that the inscriptions The found in the the

sanctuaries

prayers.

assumption

that

inscriptions on sacred objects from Crete were votive prayers made it possible to hypothesize that the wish or desire requested in the inscriptions would be addressed to a particular deity. This assumption proved to be the correct one. Because a study of Linear A text led to the discovery that a common sign in 74

75 many of the text was the sign of the double axe of the

votive vessels which in both text represent the name Nia. This sign usually appears once or twice in most Linear A documents and votive inscriptions. This implied that name of the major Eteocretan deity. In the funerary tablets from Hagia Triada and Arkhanes and votive prayers of Iouktas there is frequent mention of the dead inhabiting a place where they were "in the company of Nia Nia, was the

(Neith)" In an inscription from Iouktas published by Karelsou, Godart and Oliver (1985):

Ni po-tu i-fe

Yu-i

I-gyo Nia

("This soul / is obliged to the order/ (his) breath of life/ the vital spirit/(it is) thou in the company of the divinity of the cult/(the Great) Nia". See figure 18IOZa8) In another interesting inscription from Iouktas we read that:

Nia Yu tu-kpe fe-i po tu (Nia/ the life blood/ the Ruler of Moral sweetness/ (she) is the breath of life/ the Pure Ruler".See figure IOZa2 Godart, et al 1985) 75

76 Nia is also mentioned many times in the Haghia Triada documents published by Carralelli (l963). These tablets as all Linear A tablets are read from right to left. In these texts it

is made clear that the dead reside in the company of Nia, in a state of retreat. This is best illustrated in Carrotelli (l963) illustration no. 12:

Nia ita-pa ta bu ("[You] exist with Nia in a unique state of retreat".)

In

Carratelli

(l963)

illustration

no.7

side

B,

we

find

the

following:

I Nia ita-pa i-fe pa-i ("In the company of Nia, thou exist in you are very much empty".) It appears from the inscriptions that Haghia Triada was the home of Neith. In Carratelli (l963) illustration no. 13 we read the following: 76 a most unique state. Now

77

Se gyo ta Nia lu. (A [fine] Supporter of the Deity (lies) here in Nia's House".)

Our decipherment of the Linear A writing proves that the Eteocretans came from Africa not the Middle East. It also shows that even before rulers of the 18th Dynasty conquered Keftiu, the rulers of this land were from Libya. These Linear A tablets give us valuable information about the Minoans. Although the entire corpus of Linear A tablets are

concerned with statistics or flocks of sheep, harvests of wheat and olives, and etc.; the Linear A tablets provide us with a distinctive view of Eteocretan religion and devotion to the

goddess Neith.

77

78

78

79

79

80

80

81

The Harappan Civilization

Archaeological and linguistic evidence indicates that the Dravidians were the founders of the Harappan culture which extended from the Indus Valley through northeastern Afghanistan, on into Turkestan. The Harappan civilization existed from 2600-1700 BC. The Harappan civilization was twice the size the Old Kingdom of Egypt. In addition to trade relations with Mesopotamia and Iran, the Harappan city states also had active trade relations with the Central Asian peoples. To compensate for the adverse ecological conditions, the Harappans first settled sites along the Indus river. (Fairservis 1987:48) The Dravido-Harappans occupied over 1,000 sites in the riverine Indus Valley environments where they had soil and water reserves. The Harappan sites are spread from the Indus Valley to Ai Kharnoum in northeastern Afghanistan and southward into India. In Baluchistan and Afghanistan Dravidian languages are still spoken today. Other Harappan sites have been found scattered in the regions adjacent to the Arabian sea, the Derajat, Kashmir, and the Doab. The Indus region is an area of uncertain rains because it is located on the fringes of the monsoon. Settlers in the Indus Valley had to suffer frequent droughts and floods. Severe droughts frequently occurred in the Indus Valley so the people dug wells to insure for themselves a safe supply of water. To compensate for the adverse ecological conditions, the Harappans settled sites along the Indus river. The Mature Harappan civilization is divided into two variants the Sorath Harappan and the Sindhi Harappan. The Sindhi Harappan sites are sites characterized by elaborate architecture, fired brick construction, sewage systems and stamp seals. The Sindhi Harappan styles have been found in Gujarat, Kutch, the Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The major Sindhi cities include Mohenjodaro, Lothal, Rangpur, Harappa, Rangpur, Desalpur, Shirkotada, Manda, Ropar, Kalibangan and Chanhudaro. The Sindhi Harappans possessed writing, massive brick platforms, well-digging a system of weights-and-measures, black-and-red ware (BRW), metal work and beads. (Possehl 1990:268) The Harappans were masters of hydraulic engineering. They were a riverine people that practiced irrigation agriculture. They had both the shaduf and windmills.(Fairservis 1991) In the Harappan sites domestic quarters and industrial areas were isolated from each other.

81

82 The Sorath Harappan sites lack stamp seals, ornaments and elaborate architecture. Sorath is the ancient name for Saurashtra. The Sorath Harappan sites are located in Saurashtra, Kulli, and the Harappan style of Baluchistan and Gujarat . The Dravido-Harappans occupied over 1,000 sites in the riverine Indus Valley environments where they had soil and water reserves. The Harappan sites are spread from the Indus Valley to Ai Kharnoum in northeastern Afghanistan and southward into India. In Baluchistan and Afghanistan Dravidian languages are still spoken today. Other Harappan sites have been found scattered in the regions adjacent to the Arabian sea, the Derajat , Kashmir and the Doab.

Monhenjo Daro The Harappans were organized into chiefdoms, averaging between two and five acres. The Harappans were sedentary-pastoral people organized into various corporations such as sailorfishermen, smiths, merchants and farmers. The Harappans also possessed the social technology of writing seals. The Harappan sites are small and occupy only a few acres with little depth. This suggests that the Dravidian speaking colonists settled the Indus Valley over a period of a few decades. Fairservis has shown that the site of Mohenjodaro was occupied for around 200 years. Many archaeologists are beginning to accept the fact that the Harappan civilization was founded elsewhere and taken to the Indus Valley by the Harappan people. The Sumerians called the Indus Valley: Dilmun or Tilmun according to Sumerolo- gists S.N. Krammer in The Sumerians:Their History, Culture and Character. Other specialist have begun to popularize the idea that the Indus Valley was called Meluhh- a, because of the Aryan mention of Meluhhaites in India when they arrived. There were Meluhhaites in India living along the Ganges, but these Meluhhaites were settled in India after Sestrosis I, of Egypt conquered the Ganges 82

83 region. It was also around this time that the Egyptians established colonies in Colchis near the Black Sea.

Harappan Boat During the times of Sargon the Great of Sumer, Dravido-Harappan ships from Dilmun were anchored at Agade docks in Mesopotamia. The ships of Dilmun exported gold, copper utensils, lapis lazuli, ivory, beads and semiprecious stones. Today there are isolated pockets of Dravidian speaking groups surrounded by Indo-Aryan speakers. Dravidian languages are spoken by tribal groups in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal and Bihar.

Priest King The Harappans were organized into chiefdoms. Their towns were between two and five acres in diameter. The Harappans were a sedentary pastoral people orga nized into various corporations: smith,sailor, fisherman. The Harappans also pos- sessed a social technology of writing. The Harappans were find engineers and craftsmen. They built large cities with complex drain systems under the streets of some of their cities. 83

84 The Harappans cultivated wheat, barley and millet. They had domesticated sheep/- goats and cattle. Mainly sedentary pastoralist, the Harappans had a highly developed grain storage system. The main cities of the Harappan civilization were Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Chanhudaro, Kalibangan and Lothol. These cities, and the towns, were built on a regular plan of straight streets. The buildings were made of kiln-burned mud bricks.

Male Head From Mohenjo Daro Each house contained several rooms plus bathrooms and storage areas. A court yard was placed in the middle of most Harappan homes surrounded by the living quarters. In the center of each city there stood a citadel surround by a wall.This citadel appears to have been a religious center. The recent discovery of the site of Manda, in the Himalayan foothills points out the Harappan control of the Himalayan timber. Gumba, another Harappan site might have been the trade terminal for the export of metals, minerals and timber from Afghanistan and the former Soviet Central Asia. HARAPPAN CITIES The Dravidians built the first major port in Lothol. Lothal was situated at the head of the Gulf of Cambay in Gujarat. Here archaeologists have found large warehouses ready to hold goods for export. At Mohenjodaro, the streets were paved with bricks. The windows of the houses faced interior courtyards not the street. The site of Mohenjodaro was occupied for 200 years. 84

85 Kalibangan, situated on the southern bank of the Ghaggar, now a dry bed, in ancient times was a large river. The people here lived in multi-storied buildings, and had streets large enough to carry carts, similar to those that are used in the Sind today. There were also Proto-Dravidian/Harappan colonies in Central Asia, established in Eastern Bactria. The Harappans had trade relations with the Namazga V site. Masson has proposed that the Altyn-Depe people spoke Proto-Dravidian. The Proto-Dravidian of the Harappan civilization controlled the trade of Central Asia. The major Harappan colony in this area was Shortughai, situated at the conflu ence of the Amou Darya and the Kokcha river. Shortughai flourished between 2500 and 1800 B.C. Due to changes in the environment of the indus Valley much of the area became more arid. This led to many Harappans migrating out of the Indus Valley into India, to settle sites in Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and other parts of western Uttar Pradesh between 1700-1000 B.C. It was in Gujarat, that the Dravidians probably first came in contact with the Aryans. Here we find examples of the plain grey ware (PGW) used by the Indo-European speaking peoples of India. After 1700 B.C., with the end of the Harappan culture BRW spread southward into the Chalcolithic culture of Malwa and Central India, down to northern Deccan and eastward into the Gangetic Basin. The users of the BRW of Gujarat between 1700-100 B.C., were in communication with the Dravidians of the Malwa culture. The BRW people of the Malwa culture occu pied the Tapi Valley, Pravara Godavari and the Bhima Valleys. As a general rule the BRW horizon precedes the PGR periods. The PGR period is associated with the Indo- Aryan speakers. (Singh 1982) Here on the Gangetic plain we see the emergence of PGW. The presence of PGW points to the probable first contact between the Proto-Dravidians and Indo-Aryans. HARAPPAN RELIGION The Harappan religion was polytheistic. They used cattle, elephants and other animals to represent their gods. The Harappan seals are amulets addressed to the Harappan gods.

85

86

The gods of the Harappans depicted on their seals represented the gods of the various economic corporations in the Indus Valley. The unicorn god, probably repre sented Mal, while the cattle god probably represented Kali or Uma, Amma or Pravar- ti, the mother goddess.(Winters 1984,1987) Seals have been found in almost every room at Mohenjodaro. Many of Indus seals were found in a worn condition and show signs of repair. Archaeologists have found holes on the back of the seals that indicate that the Harappans wore them tied around their neck or ankles with a string.

Perforated boss on the back of Harappan seals 86

87 References Winters,Clyde Ahmad, "The Unity of African and Indian Agriculture", Journal of African Civilization 3, no1, (1981a),page 103. Winters,Clyde Ahmad, "Are Dravidians of African Origin", P.Second ISAS,1980,( Hong Kong:Asian Research Service, 1981b) pages 789- 807. Winters,Clyde Ahmad, "The Harappan script Deciphered:Proto- Dravidian Writing of the Indus Valley", P Third ISAS, 1981,(Hong Kong:Asian Research Service, 1982b) pages 925-936. Winters,Clyde Ahmad, "The Indus Valley Writing is Proto- Dravidian",Journal of Tamil Studies , no 25 (June 1984a), pp.50-64. Winters,Clyde Ahmad, "Further Notes on Japanese and Tamil" ,International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics 13, no2, (June 1984c) pages 347-353. Winters, Clyde Ahmad, "The Inspiration of the Harappan Talismanic Seals", Tamil Civilization 2, no1 (March 1984d), pages 1-8. Winters, Clyde Ahmad, "The Harappan Writing of the Copper Tablets", Journal of Indian History LXll, nos.1-3 (1984), pages 1-5. Winters, Clyde Ahmad, "The Proto-Culture of the Dravidians ,Manding and Sumerians", Tamil Civilization 3, no1 (March 1985a) ,pages 1-9. Winters, Clyde Ahmad, "The Indus Valley Writing and related Scripts of the 3rd Millennium BC", India Past and Present 2,no1 ( 1985b), pages 13-19. Winters,Clyde Ahmad Winters ,"The Dravidian Origin of the Mountain and Water Toponyms in central Asia", Journal of Central Asia 9, no2 (1986d), pages 144-148. Winters,Clyde Ahmad, "The Dravidian and Manding Substratum in Tokharian",- Central Asiatic Journal 32, nos1-2,(1988)pages 131-141. Winters,Clyde Ahmad,"Tamil,Sumerian and Manding and the Genetic Model",Int- ernational Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, 18,(1989) no.l. Winters, Clyde Ahmad, "The Dravido Harappan Colonization of Central Asia", Central Asiatic Journal 34, no1-2 (1990),pages 120-144.

87

88

BLACKS IN ANCIENT CHINA

In accordance with the oral traditions of China, the founders of Chinese civilization were Huangdi and Fu Xi. These legendary rulers like Dai Hao, were all buried in zhiu (burial mounds). The presence of this mound culture in China supports the traditions of burial of elects in mound tombs. The skeletal remains from southern China are predominately negroid. (Chang 1964, p.370) The people practiced single burials. In northern China the blacks founded many civilizations. The three major empires of China were the Xia Dynasty (c.2205-1766 B.C), Shang/ Yin Dynasty (c.1700-1050 B.C) and the Zhou Dynasty.The Zhou dynasty was the first dynasty founded by the Mongoloid people in China called Hua (Who-aa). The founders of Xia and Shang came from the Fertile African Crescent by way of Iran. According to Chinese legends the first man Pan Gu, used a hammer 18,000 years ago to make man. The Chinese legends designate various culture heroes as the inventors of various aspects of Chinese civilization. The Chinese term for emperor is Di. Huang Di (Yellow Emperor), is the Chinese culture hero credited with introducing boats, carts 'chariots, the bow and arrow, ceramics, wooded houses and writing. Chinese civilization began along the Yellow river . Here the soil was fertile and black Chinese farmers grew millet 4000 years ago, and later soybeans. They also raised pigs and cattle. By 3500 B.C., the blacks in China were raising silkworms and making silk. The culture hero Huang Di is a direct link of Africa. His name was pronounced in old Chinese Yuhai Huandi or Hu Nak Kunte. He was supposed to have arrived in China from the west in 2282 B.C., and settled along the banks of the Loh river in Shanxi. This transliteration of Huandgi, to Hu Nak Kunte is interesting because Kunte is a common clan name among the Manding speakers. The Africans or blacks that founded civilization in China were often called li min "black headed people" by the Zhou dynasts. This term has affinity to the Sumero-Akkadian term sag- gig-ga "black headed people". These li min are associated with the Chinese cultural hero Yao. In the Annals of the Bamboo Books, we learn that Yao devised a calendar to help regulate agrarian work through proper use of ritual and music and created a rudimentary government. The Annals of the Bamboo Books, makes it clear that Yao "he united and harmonized the myriad states [of his dominion], and the [li min] black headed people were reformed by his cordial agreement". We also read that Shun, the successor of Yao, distinguished by his reputation as an obedient devoted son, noted to : "Ki [that] the Black headed people are suffering the distress of hunger". To help relieve the people Shun gave his throne over to Yu, the founder of the Shang Dynasty. 88

89 Yu, in the Annals of the Bamboo Books, is reported to have noted that "...when a sovereign gives response to the people, he is kind, and the Black headed people cherish him in their heart". We know very little about the sounds of ancient Chinese because Ancient Chinese was different from Old Chinese and Middle Chinese and the modern Chinese dialects. (Ramsey 1987, pp.137138) This results from the fact that the Chinese dynasties were founded by diverse ethnic groups e.g., Xia and Shang li (i.e., Black Shang) were founded by Dravidian and Manding speakers. Shang-Yin was founded by classical mongoloids, and the Zhou by the contemporary Chinese. ) This explains the difference in pronunciation for Ancient Chinese spoken by the Xia and Shang peoples and Old and Middle Chinese or a variant there of, which was probably spoken by the Zhou people. The first dynasty of China was Xia (She-ya). The Xia civilization of ancient China. lasted from 2205 to 1766 B.C. According to the Guben zhu Shu zhi Nien, the Xia dynasty "from Yu to Zhieh had seventeen kings... and lasted 471 years". (Chang 1987) Archaeologists believe that the major Xia sites are located in Shanxi and Henan. According to Chang (1987) northern Henan towards the end of the Longshan period was the eastern part of the Xia culture. Xia was probably situated in the Yihe and Luohe river valleys, and along the Yinghe and Ruhe rivers. The capital of Xia was located in the Sangshan mountains. The origins of Xia go back to the Longshan period. During the Longshan period burial goods included a large number of weapons, including stone lanceheads and arrows. This suggests that intersocial conflict was at its height during the Longshan periods, and warfare may have played a role in the rise of Xia. The Longshan neolithic is characterized by wheel-made pottery, bronze working, ceramics, wheeled vehicles, writing, rich grave goods and furnishings. The Chinese histories tell us much about Xia. According to Chinese tradition the Xia built their settlements near rivers, lakes and streams. The Xia Dynasty is mentioned in the oracle bone records. The leaders of Xia were granted rule based on their Ssu (clan) membership. The Xia naming system employed the ten celestial stems the same as the Shang people. (Chang 1980,p.353) The national tree of the Xia li min was the pine. This tree was used in the earth ritual. Xia social organization, and life was based on the clan . The totems of the major Xia clans were aquatic animals: fish, tortoise, turtle and etc. This view is supported by the myth recorded in the Annals of the Bamboo Books, which claims that Yu's mother swallowed a spirits pearl before the birth of Di (Lord) Yu, founder of the Xia Dynasty. Moreover , the dragon motif is common at Xia sites. A pan vessel was found at Taosi, with a red painted dragon motif. The Chinese histories make it clear that the Xia had writing and tortoise books. This view can be supported by the pottery marks on the Longshan and Erlitou pottery. (Chang 1987, p.265) 89

90 Erlitou pottery is often inscribed with various signs and symbols. Fish were incised on a piece of bone, but up to now, oracle bone inscriptions have not been found. (Chang 1987, p.314) Today archaeologists believe that the Erlitou culture is the Xia Dynasty. This is supported by the fact that the historical text place Xia in Henan and southern Shanxi. These Chinese provinces are the main areas where Erlitou artifacts have been discovered. Chinese archaeologists have suggested that the Henan Lungshan culture and the Erlitou I-III periods are representative of the Xia Dynasty. (An 1986) Xia is considered the first dynasty of the sandai (three Dynasties) of ancient China: Xia, Shang and Zhou. There are many references to the Xia people. The Xia people were recognized as westerners, because they settled the middle Yellow river region of China. As a result they were called the Hua Xia "the middle states people". There are numerous textual references to Xia. Han Fei Tzu writing in the third century B.C., in his Shih Guo, observed that: "Yu made the ritual vessels painting the interior black and the exterior in red." The tradition recorded by Han, of the black-and-red ware for the Xia li min suggest some relationship of Xia to the Yangshao culture which also used BRW and analogous pottery signs. Chang (1987) believes that the legendary sages and heroes of China, probably lived during the Lungshan culture period. The Lungshan culture had walled cities and evidence of rank and rituals. This clearly illustrates how archaeology can compliment textual history. The artifacts of Erlitou include BRW, red,black and buff wares. These artifacts were made of stone, shell and bronze. The bronze instruments found by archaeologists at Erlitou sites correspond to the descriptions by Yuan Kang, in the Yueh Zhueh Shu, quoting the philosopher Feng Hu Tzu of the tools made by the Xia. Yuan Kang wrote that: "In the Age of Yu, weapons were made of bronze, for build -ing canals...and..houses...." The black-and-red ware (BRW) common to the Fertile African Crescent was also used in China. There is affinity between the BRW from Nubia, and the pottery from Yangshao sites in the Henan and Gansu sites of China. The textual history of Xia is synthesized in the Chinese book Shih Zhi. This evidence from the Shih Zhi, was used by Hsu Husheng , of the Chinese Institute of Archaeology, to find the xu (ruins) of Xia: the Xia xu. Hsu Husheng using this source hypothesized that the center for traditional Xia Dynasty towns was the Loyang plains and the Dengfeng river valley. This coincides with the Erlitou sites of this area which date to 2100- 1800 B.C. The Xia people were recognized as being different people from the mongoloid Chinese they politically dominate China today as a people that came from the west (i.e., Iran), before they settled the middle Yellow river. A Zhou saying observed that : "The rituals [or rules of] the Three Dynasties [sandai] are one". 90

91 The early Xia lived on mounds, in houses made of grass and mud. Pounded earth walls surrounded Xia villages to protect the li mim from attack. The Xia probably spoke a Manding language. This view is supported by the earlier discussion of the analogy between ancient Chinese and Manding. The major clan totem of the Xia as mentioned earlier was the dragon. The zu (clan) or tsu was the basic point of social organization for the li min. In China the dragon was regarded as the deified serpent. (Andersson 1973, p.7) It also denoted the symbol of perfect man, the son of Heaven, the Emperor. The clan emblem for the ancient Manding was the first lizard/dragon. A dragon is nothing more than a giant lizard. This dragon motif was also found in Iran and Babylonian Assyrian civilization and the Anau civilization in Russia, which had similar painted pottery to the pottery styles of Henan (Xia). (Winters 1983c) The Xia li min built their settlements near rivers, lakes and streams. They are mentioned in the Oracle bone writing. The sacred tree of the Xia was the pine. The Xia naming system was the same as that used by the Shang. The founder of the Xia Dynasty was Yu. His father was Gun. Myths about Gun are found throughout southwest Shanxi. Yu's son founded the Pa culture. The Pa culture was a megalithic culture. Great Yu was the regulator of the waters and builder of canals. He invented wetfield agriculture. Yu was born in Shihnew. His mother was Sewege (Seuge). She is alleged to have become pregnant and swallowed a spirit's pearl. Under the orders of Emperor Shun, Yu was to dredge the Yellow river. Yu traveled the empire for 10 years draining the land of water. One tradition claims that "but for Yu we should all have been fishes". Beginning with Xia the fundamental political unit of this dynasty and succeeding dynasties of China was the yi or walled town. These yi were organized into small and large guo (states). Each guo, was known as a shih. The administrator of the guo was a member of an agnati clan or xing. The xing, ruled over members of their own clan and non- related clans living in the various yi, forming the guo. Emperor Shun, appears to have given Egeu, his son, the princi -pality of Shang, and Yu the principality of Xia. After the death of Shun, Yu became the leader of the confederation of Seihshin: the large guos of Xia and Shang. According to Gu Tsu Yu, in the Du Shih fang yu Zihiyao, written in the 1600's: "It is traditionally stated that when Yu assembled the lords at Dushan there were ten thousand states [cities] that came carrying jades and silks". 91

92 The second great leader of the Xia Dynasty was Qi, the son of Di (Emperor) Yu. According to the Guben zhu Shu Zhi Nien, the Xia dynasty had seventeen kings and lasted 471 years. The Xia Dynasty remained strong until the tyrant , Zhieh, came to power. In 1766 B.C., Zhieh was deposed and exiled by Zheng Dang, ruler of Shang. There are thirty references to the capital of Xia in the Zo Zhuan, Guo Yu , and Guben zhu Shu Zhi Nien. Loyang plain in central Henan, especially the region of Dengfeng and Yuxien in the upper Ying river valley, and the area near the Fenhe river valley in southwestern Shanxi south of mount Ho are usually mentioned in these sources as the area where the Xia capital was established. The first capital of Xia was Yangcheng. This city was in southwestern Shanxi. Archaeologist believe that Taosi and Wangchenggang may be Xia cities. Taosi dates to 2500 to 1900 B.C. Here the people raised oxen, pigs and sheep. They grew millet. Their homes were built half-way below ground. They smelted copper . The coiled dragon motif is common at this site along with crocodile skin drums. The Taosi site is important because the artifacts excavated from the more than 1,000 tombs, indicate that a hereditary system of chiefs and class was already established. The dragon motif at Taos may have been the totem of the Xia dynasts at Taosi. This would correspond to Chinese legends of the Long (Dragon) ethnic group.Huan Long (Dragon Breeding Clan) and Yu Long (Defend the Dragon) clan. The dragon legends are associated with the Chinese sages Yan, Yao, Shun and Yu. The capital of Xia Yangcheng is believed to be the city of Wangshenggang. As mentioned earlier the yi, or 'walled city', was the basic political unit of Xia. These walls were built layer upon layer and called hangtu. Chinese traditions allege that Yu's father, Gun, built the first hangtu. Wangshenggang site is 10,000 sq. meters . It is situated near the Wudu river. This structure contains skeletons of all ages

The Shang characters compare favorably to the ancient Proto- Saharan script used by the Harappans in the Indus Valley and the Manding script used in the ancient Sahara and Crete . Winters (1985c) outlined the spread of the Proto-Saharan script to Harappa, and throughout Saharan Africa and Asia by the Dravidians and Manding. Evidence of Chinese writing first appears around 2000 B.C. as pottery marks. The shell-and-bone characters represented writing they were not pictures. The Shang symbols compare favorably with ancient Manding symbols. Although their are different contemporary pronunciations for these symbols they have the same meaning and shape. This suggest a genetic relationship between these scripts because we know that the present pronunciation of the Chinese symbols probably has little relationship to the ancient pronunciation of Chinese spoken in Xia and Shang times when these 92

93 characters were first used. This cognation of scripts supports the proposed Dravidian and Manding migration and settlement of ancient China during Xia times. The identification of the first hero of China, Hu Nak Kunte as a member of the Kunte clan of the Manding speakers of Africa is supported by the close relationship between the Manding languages and Chinese. Even though we do not know the ancient pronunciation of many Chinese signs many Chinese and Manding words share analogy and suggest a Manding substratum for Chinese. Chinese and Manding share many typological features. These features include reduplication for emphasis and the use of suffixes to form words. In Chinese the -zi suffix, is joined to many nouns e.g., 0 qizi # 'wife'; 0 tizi # 'ladder'; and 0 jinzi # 'gold'. This -zi, suffix corresponds to the Manding use of si 'that, that one,those' e.g., kye si 'that man'. The suffix -tou is used to form place words e.g., 0 litou # 'inside' and 0 qiantou # 'front'. In Manding the word for place was -ta. The Chinese -r suffix is used to form nouns e.g., 0 hua # 'to paint' and 0 huar # 'picture'. This corresponds to the Manding suffix -ra which transforms verbs into nouns, e.g., 0 kyi # 'to send' and 0 kyira # 'messenger'. There is also some analogy between Chinese and Manding pronouns: Language I You he,she Chinese wo ni ta Manding ne ni, i a These languages also share the interogative pronouns: Chinese English Manding 0 ho # who,which,what 0 o # In addition to cognate writing and grammatical features the Chinese and Manding share many lexical items. Below we compare Chinese and Manding terms. The Chinese terms are written in the Pinyin (phonetic alphabet) which is popular in China today. There are numerous examples of phonetic correspondence between Chinese and Manding. d=/=t Chinese English Manding di bend down ti 'negation suffix da to cut down,destroy te 'negative particle' 93

94 dai to alter ta 'to put in' du rot toli da hill, hillock te-mbo di Supreme Ruler tigi d=/=d da great,noble dya, da di child di da big dya,di 'several' b=/=b bu 'negative' bu 'to be in decrease bo to break bo, bu 'to give a blow ban great ba b=/=p bi to press,make impression pe bai white, clean po d=/=b do cut bo, bu h=/=o ho 'everywhere' o 'void' ho who,which,where o f=/=f fa 'kill' fe 'to be void' s=/=s shan 'mountain sande 'the sky region near water' sa loose sa 'to die' su 'to pound' --- su 'to mix' 94

95 su to suck susu k=/=k kan stem ka, kala ku to cut open,rip up kulo 'to soften' y=/=y yu abundant,excessive yo 'perfect' w=/=w wa hollow wo n=/=m nu women musu mu eye nya ma mother na o=/=o do cut bo bo 'break' ---- bo 'to five a blow' rou flesh soro a=/=a da big dya da great da sa 'to loose' --- sa 'to die' ban great ba ma mother ma o=/=u so to grind su yu 'abundant' --- yo 'perfect' du rot toli 95

96 do cut bu i=/=i niu cow ni xin 'heart' --- si 'breast' di child di iu give di a=/=e da 'to destroy' te 'negative particle' tien cultivated field de-n u=/=u bu 'negative' bu 'to be decreased' nu woman musu du earth dugu lu house lu Above we have compared forty-six cognate Chinese and Manding terms. These terms can be divided into three sets of cognate items, (1) words in both languages with equivalent meanings with full correspondence, (2) words with consonants showing assimilation and (3) words with equivalent meanings but lacking similar phonetic values. Using this criteria we find that the cognate rate for corresponding Chinese and Manding terms are the following percentages 54% of the terms show full correspondence; 30 % show cognate terms with alternating consonants e.g., d=/=t, p=/=b , and etc.; and 15 percent of these terms are unrelated. The analogy between the Manding and Chinese languages suggest that Manding is a substratum of Chinese. This also supports the view that some early rulers of China came from the Kunte clan and were Manding speakers. P> BIBLIOGRAPHY Allan, S , "Sons of Suns:Myth and Totemism in Early China", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (BSOAS) XLIV,(1981) pages 290-326. Allan, S , "Drought, Human Sacrifice and the Mandate of Heaven in a Lost Text from the Shang Shu", BSOAS XLVII, (1984) pages 523-535. An Jinhuai, "In Search of China's Oldest Capital", China Pictorial, (1986) pages 39-41. 96

97 An Jinhuai, "The Shang City at Cheng-chou and related Problems", In Studies of Shang Archaeology, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986) pages 15-48. Chang, K C , "Prehistory and Early Historic Culture Horizon and Traditions in South China", Current Anthropology 5, no5 Chang, K C , The Archaeology of Ancient China, New Haven:Yale (1964), pages 359-375. Chang, K C , Shang Civilization, New Haven:Yale University Press,1980. Chang, K.C. The Archaeology of Ancient China, New Haven:Yale University Press, 1987. Lacouperie, T de , The Languages of China before the Chinese, London:David Nutt, 1887. Lacouperie, T de, "Origin from Babylon and Elam of the Early Chinese Civilization:A summary of the Proofs", Babylonian and Oriental Record 3, no5 (1889), pages 97-110 Ling Shun-Sheng , A Study of the Raft, Outrigger, Double and Deck Canoes of ancient China, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, Taipei:Nankang, 1970. Winters, Clyde Ahmad, "A Note on the Unity of Black Civilizations in Africa, IndoChina, and China",PISAS 1979, Hong Kong :Asian Research Service,1980b. Winters,Clyde Ahmad, "Are Dravidians of African Origin", P.Second ISAS,1980,( Hong Kong:Asian Research Service, 1981b) pages 789- 807. Winters,Clyde Ahmad, "Further Thoughts on Japanese Dravidian Connection",Dravidian Language Association News 5, no9 (1981c) pages 1-4. Winters,Clyde Ahmad, "Blacks in Ancient China,Part 1:The Founders of Xia and Shang", Journal of Black Studies 1,no2 (1983c). Winters,Clyde Ahmad, "Possible Relationship between the Manding and Japanese", Papers in Japanese Linguistics 9, (1983d) pages 151-158. Winters,Clyde Ahmad, "Further Notes on Japanese and Tamil" ,International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics 13, no2 (June 1984c) pages 347-353. Winters, Clyde Ahmad, "The Indus Valley Writing and related Scripts of the 3rd Millennium BC", India Past and Present 2, no1 ( 1985b), pages 13-19. Winters,Clyde Ahmad, "The Far Eastern Origin of the Tamils", Journal of Tamil Studies , no27 (June 1985c), pages 65-92. Winters,Clyde Ahmad, "Dravidian Settlements in ancient Polynesia", India Past and Present 3, no2 (1986c)pages 225- 241. Winters,Clyde Ahmad Winters ,"The Dravidian Origin of the Mountain and Water Toponyms in central Asia", Journal of Central Asia 9, no2 (1986d), pages 144-148. 97

98 Winters,Clyde Ahmad, "Review of Dr. Asko Parpolas' "The Coming of the Aryans". International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics 18, no2 (1989) , pages 98-127. Winters, Clyde Ahmad, "The Dravido Harappan Colonization of Central Asia", Central Asiatic Journal 34, no1-2 (1990), pages 120-144.

The Olmec Civilization: Proto-Saharan Civilization in the New world

There were many Black civilizations in ancient Mexico. The greatest Black civilization was that of the Olmec. As a result we find that the Mexicans carry many African genes.

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Most Mexicans are Mestizos--mixed bloods.Maybe as many as 75% of Mexicans have African admixture. Underhill, et al (1996) noted that:" One Mayan male, previously [has been] shown to have an African Y chromosome." This is very interesting because the Maya language illustrates a Mande substratum, in addition to African genetic markers. James l. Gutherie (2000) in a study of the HLAs in indigenous American populations, found that the Vantigen of the Rhesus system, considered to be an indication of African ancestry, among Indians in Belize and Mexico centers of Mayan civilization. Dr. Gutherie also noted that A*28 common among Africans has high frequencies among Eastern Maya. It is interesting to note that the Otomi, a Mexican group identified as being of African origin and six Mayan groups show the B Allele of the ABO system that is considered to be of African origin.

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Some researchers claim that as many as seventy-five percent of the Mexicans have an African heritage (Green et al, 2000). Although this may be the case Cuevas (2004) says these Africans have been erased from history. The admixture of Africans and Mexicans make it impossible to compare pictures of contemporary Mexicans and the Olmec. Due to the fact that 75% of the contemporary Mexicans have African genes you find that many of them look similar to the Olmecs whereas the ancient Maya did not. In a discussion of the Mexican and African admixture in Mexico Lisker et al (1996) noted that the East Coast of Mexico had extensive admixture. The following percentages of African ancestry were found among East coast populations: Paraiso - 21.7%; El Carmen 28.4% ;Veracruz - 25.6%; Saladero - 30.2%; and Tamiahua - 40.5%. Among Indian groups, Lisker et al (1996) found among the Chontal have 5% and the Cora .8% African admixture. The Chontal speak a Mayan language. According to Crawford et al. (1974), the mestizo population of Saltillo has 15.8% African ancestry, while Tlaxcala has 8% and Cuanalan 18.1%. The Olmecs built their civilization in the region of the current states of Veracruz and Tabasco. Now here again are the percentages of African ancestry according to Lisker et al (1996): Paraiso - 21.7% ; El Carmen - 28.4% ; Veracruz - 25.6% ; Saladero - 30.2% ; Tamiahua - 40.5%. Paraiso is in Tabasco and Veracruz is, of course, in the state of Veracruz. Tamiahua is in northern Veracruz. These areas were the first places in Mexico settled by the Olmecs. I'm not sure about Saladero and El Carmen. But a comparison of Olmec figures with ancient Mayan figures , made before the importation of hundreds of thousands of slaves Mexico during the Atlantic Slave Trade show no resemblance at all to the Olmec figures. This does not mean that the Maya had no contact with the Africans. This results from the fact that we know the Maya obtained much of their culture, arts and writings from the Olmecs. And many of their gods, especially those associated with trade are of Africans. We also find some images of Blacks among Mayan art. African ancestry has been found among indigenous groups that have had no historical contact with African slaves and thus support an African presence in America, already indicated by African skeletons among the Olmec people. Lisker et al, noted that The variation of Indian ancestry among the studied Indians shows in general a higher proportion in the more isolated groups, except for the Cora, who are as isolated as the Huichol and have not only a lower frequency but also a certain degree of black admixture. The black admixture is difficult to explain because the Cora reside in a mountainous region away from the west coast. Green et al (2000) also found Indians with African genes in North Central Mexico, including the L1 and L2 clusters. Green et al (2000) observed that the discovery of a proportion of African haplotypes roughly equivalent to the proportion of European haplotypes [among

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North Central Mexican Indians] cannot be explained by recent admixture of African Americans for the United States. This is especially the case for the Ojinaga area, which presently is, and historically has been largely isolated from U.S. African Americans. In the Ojinaga sample set, the frequency of African haplotypes was higher that that of European hyplotypes. References Carolina Bonilla et al. (2005) Admixture analysis of a rural population in the state of Gurerrero , Mexico, Am. Jour Phys Anthropol 128(4):861-869. retrieved 2/9/2006 at : http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/111082577/ABSTRACT M.H. Crawford et al (1974).Human biology in Mexico II. A comparison of blood group, serum, and red cell enzyme frequencies and genetic distances of the Indian population of Mexico. Am. Phys. Anthropol, 41: 251-268. Marco P. Hernadez Cuevas.(2004). African Mexicans and the discourse on Modern Mexico.Oxford: University Press. James L. Guthrie, Human lymphocyte antigens:Apparent Afro-Asiatic, southern Asian and European HLAs in indigenous American populations. Retrieved 3/3/2006 at: http://www.neara.org/Guthrie/lymphocyteantigens02.htm R. Lisker et al.(1996). Genetic structure of autochthonous populations of Mesoamerica:Mexico. Am. J. Hum Biol 68:395-404. Angelica Gonzalez-Oliver et al. (2001). Founding Amerindian mitochondrial DNA lineages in ancient Maya from Xcaret, Quintana Roo. Am. Jour of Physical Anthropology, 116 (3):230-235. Retreived 2/9/2006 at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/85515362/ABSTRACT? CRETRY=1& Diehl, R. A., & Coe, M.D. (1995). "Olmec archaeology". In In Jill Guthrie (Ed.), Ritual and Rulership, (pp.11-25). The Art Museum: Princeton University Press. Underhill,P.A.,Jin,L., Zemans,R., Oefner,J and Cavalli-Sforza,L.L.(1996, January). A pre-Columbian Y chromosome-specific transition and its implications for human evolutionary history, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA,93, 196200.

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Africans founded many of the earliest civilizations in the New World. We do not know when these Blacks arrived in the Americas. Scientists theorize that over 5000 years ago a group of African settlers sailing along the West African coast, in their papyrus trading vessels were caught in a storm and drifted aimlessly out to sea. In the Atlantic ocean they were captured by the South Equatorial current and carried across the Atlantic towards the Americas.

We can assume that due to the ability of these explorers to navigate by the stars they were probably able to make a return trip to West Africa. Much of West Africa 5000 years ago was unoccupied. This means that the populations that later moved into West Africa were living in Middle Africa,and the Sahara. These people due to a different climate in the Sahara at this time traveled from community to community by sea. It seems logical to assume that one of these Paleo-African groups travelled down the long extinct rivers of Middle Africa and sailed out into the Atlantic Ocean and was carried to the Americas by the powerful currents found in the Atlantic Ocean.

Mexico and Central America were centers of African civilization 5000 years ago. In Belize , around 2500 B.C., we see evidence of agriculture. The iconography of this period depicts Africoids. And at Izapa in 1358 B.C., astronomer-priests invented the first American calendar. In addition numerous sculptures of blacks dating to the 2nd millennium B.C, have been found at La Venta, Chiapas, Teotihuacan and Tlatilco.

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ChiapasBlacks

The African voyagers to the New World came here in papyrus boats. A stone stela from Izapa, Chiapas in southern Mexico show the boats these Africans came in when they sailed to the Americas. These boats were carried across the Atlantic ocean to Mexico and Brazil, by the North Equatorial current which meets the Canaries Current off the Senegambian coast. It is interesting to note that papyrus boats are still being built in West Africa today.

The earliest culture founded by Blacks in Mexico was the Mokaya tradition. The Mokaya tradition was situated on the Pacific coast of Mexico in the Soconusco region. Sedentary village life began as early as 2000BC. By 1700-1500 BC we see many African communities in the Mazatan region. This is called the Barra phase or Ocos complex.

During the Barra phase these Blacks built villages amd made beautiful ceramic vessels often with three legs. They also made a large number of effigy vessels.

The figurines of the Ocos are the most significant evidence for Blacks living in the area

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during this period. The female figurine from Aquiles Serdan is clearly that of an African woman.

Ocos

Female

The Blacks of the Mokaya traditions were not Olmec. The civilization of the Mokaya traditions began 700 years before the Olmec arrived in Mexico.

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Cherla

The "mother civilization" of ancient America is called the Olmec civilization. The Olmec civilization was founded by Mande speaking people who presently in West Africa.

The Olmec of ancient America were a unique people. They came from Africa. In the Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership (1995), (ed.) by Carolyn Tate, on page 65, we find the following 105

106 statementOlmec culture as far as we know seems to have no antecedents; no material models remain for its monumental constructions and sculptures and the ritual acts captured in small objects.

M. Coe, writing in Regional Perspective on the Olmecs (1989), (ed.) by Sharer and Grove, observed that on the contrary, the evidence although negative, is that the Olmec style of art, and Olmec engineering ability suddenly appeared full fledged from about 1200 BC.

Mary E. Pye, writing in Olmec Archaeology in Mesoamerica (2000), (ed.) by J.E. Cark and M.E. Pye,makes it clear after a discussion of the pre-Olmec civilizations of the Mokaya tradition, that these cultures contributed nothing to the rise of the Olmec culture. Pye wrote The Mokaya appear to have gradually come under Olmec influence during Cherla times and to have adopted Olmec ways. We use the term olmecization to describe the processes whereby independent groups tried to become Olmecs, or to become like the Olmecs (p.234). Pye makes it clear that it was around 1200 BC that Olmec civilization rose in Mesoamerica. She continues Much of the current debate about the Olmecs concerns the traditional mother culture view. For us this is still a primary issue. Our data from the Pacific coast show that the mother culture idea is still viable in terms of cultural practices. The early Olmecs created the first civilization in Mesoamerica; they had no peers, only contemporaries (pp.245-46).

Richard A. Diehl The Olmecs:Americas first civilization (2005), wrote The identity of these first Olmecs remains a mystery. Some scholars believe they were Mokaya migrants from the Pacific coast of Chiapas who brought improved maize strains and incipient social stratification 106

107 with them. Others propose that Olmec culture evolved among the local indigenous populations without significant external stimulus. I prefer the latter position, but freely admit that we lack sufficient information on the period before 1500 BC to resolve the issue (p.25).

Pool (17-18), in Olmec Archaeology and early MesoAmerica (2007), argues that continuity exist between the Olmec and pre-Olmec cultures in Mexico [even]though Coe now appears to favor an autochthonous origin for Olmec culture (Diehl & Coe 1995:150), he long held that the Olmec traits appeared at San Lorenzo [b] rather suddenly during the Chicharras phase (ca 1450-1408 BC)[/b] (Coe 1970a:25,32; Coe and Diehl 1980a:150). Pool admits (p.95), that this conclusion contrasts markedly with that of the excavators of San Lorenzo, who reported dramatic change in ceramic type and [b] argued on this basis for a foreign incursion of Olmecs into Olman (Coe and Diehl 1980a, p.150).

Some researchers claim that I am wrongly ruling out an indigenous revolution for the origin of the Olmec civilization. This is their opinionthe archaeological evidence, not I, suggest that the founders of the Olmec civilization were not indigenous people.

The evidence presented by these authors make it clear that the Olmec introduced a unique culture to Mesoamerica that was adopted by the Mesoamericans. As these statements make it clear that was no continuity between pre-Olmec cultures and the Olmec culture.

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108 The Olmec civilization is characterized by giant heads of African kings.During the neolithic period the western Sahara had many rivers. Today what we call the Niger river was divided into two rivers in c.5000 B.C. One was called the Upper Niger and the other the Lower Niger. The Upper Niger rose in the mountains on the border of Sierra Leone and flowed northeastward into a closed basin in the Sahara; downstream the river there were many wide marshes and several large lakes. The Lower Niger rose in the Hoggar mountains of the Saharan zone. It was fed by streams from the Adrar massif. Winds from the Atlantic ocean took rains into North and West Africa which supported much vegetation in neolithic times.

In the Tichitt region of Mauritania, an area which is now desert there was a river now dried up which flowed into the Senegal river. Lake Chad was then much larger with a river from the Hoggar called the Tafassasset emptying in it. Rivers also flowed from the Moroccan Atlas mountains into the western Sahara. It would appear that the people who most influenced the history of North and West Africa after 4000 B.C. originally lived in the Fezzan region of Libya.

The history of West Africa is no secret all you have to do is research it.

Archaeology allows us to gain keen insight into the origin of the Mande speaking people and there migration to Mexico in ancient times.

Agricultural revolutions and the resulting increased food production has been the principal catalyst for the wide spread dispersal of populations speaking similar languages.

Recent archaeological research in Africa suggest that although agriculture played a role in the spread of some African linguistic groups such as the Bantu and Cushitic speakers, cattle domestication led 108

109 to the spread of other African groups across enormous parts of West Africa. This hypothesis suits the evidence we have regarding the spread of the Proto-Mande from the Saharan highlands in the east, to the shores of the Atlantic ocean in the west. (Winters 1986b)

Archaeological research from North Africa clearly illustrate the movement of semi-sedentary cattle herders from the Magreb and Saharan sites into West Africa. This agropastoral sedentary economy resulted in a growth in populations great enough to make it possible for the Mande speakers to expand across much of Northwest and West Africa between 5000 and 3000 years before the present (BP).

Archaeological evidence has increased in relation to prehistoric Africa in the past ten years. Linguistic material will be used to compliment the macrobotanical remains and evidence of material culture uncovered during archaeological excavation, so we can see clearly the subsistence and settlement patterns of the Proto-Mande.

The Mande speakers are often associated with the Niger-Congo family /superset of languages. Wm. Welmers (1971) has postulated an original homeland for the Niger-Congo Superset in the general vicinity of the Upper Nile. Ehret and Posnansky (1982) has suggested that the Mande diverged from the Kwa around 5000-4000 B.C. Dr. Welmers (1971) has hypothesized that around 3000 B.C. the Mande languages separated into Northern and Southeastern branches.

The Niger-Congo speakers probably inhabited the plateau and mountain regions of the Sahara: Air, Ennedi, Tibesti and Hoggar. These highland areas eight thousand years ago formed the "Saharan Fertile Crescent". The linguistic evidence suggest that the Nilo-Saharan, Chadic, Egyptian and other supersets and subsets of languages also lived in this highland paradise. 109

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Greenberg (1970) believes that during the neolithic the Niger-Congo speakers had domesticated ovicaprids (sheep/goats). Winters (1986b) has illustrated that the Niger-Congo people utilized selected plant food including millet and rice .

Much of this discussion of the Proto-Mande migrations will involve discussion of the Mandekan or Manding languages of the Mande group of languages. (Platiel 1978; Galtier 1980) Mann and Dalby (1987) give Mande a peripheral status in the Niger-Congo superset.

The Manding languages include the Malinke-Bambara subset of the Northwestern Mande subgroup of languages. The original Manding lived in the southern Saharan highlands. (Winters 1986b)

Now the Mande are dispersed from the Sahara to the Atlantic Ocean in the so-called fragmentation belt of Africa.

The Manding languages have a high frequency of disyllabic roots of the CVCV,CV and CVV kind. Monosyllabic roots of the CV kind often reflect the proto-form for many Manding words. (Winters 1986b)

The Manding languages are genetically related to the Dravidian and Sumerian languages. (Winters 1983a,1985,1989) It also has affinity to Japanese (Winters 1983b), Coptic , and Magyar (Winters 1987; Zoltan 1985). Recently Winters (1988) has shown that the Manding languages may be the substratum language of Tokharian. In addition, Manding shares many topological features with Amerind languages, including SOV/SVO sentence pattern, monosyllabic roots and agglutination (Welmers 1970). 110

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Controversy surrounds the classification of the Mande language family. Greenberg (1963) popularized the idea that the Mande subset was a member of the Niger-Congo Superset of African languages. The position of Mande in the Niger-Congo Superset has long been precarious and today it is given a peripheral status to the Niger-Congo Superset. (Bennett & Sterk 1977; Dalby 1988) Murkarovsky (1966) believes that the Mande group of languages do not belong in the Niger-Congo Superset, while Welmers (1971) has advanced the idea that Mande was the first group to break away from Niger-Congo.

The Mande languages are also closely related to Songhay ( Mukarovsky 1976/77; Zima 1989), NiloSaharan ( Boyd 1978; Creissels 1981; Bender 1981) and the Chadic group. Zima (1989) compared 25 Songhay and Mandekan terms from the cultural vocabulary to highlight the correspondence between these two language groups. Zima (1989:110) made it clear that "the lexical affinities between the Songhay and Mande languages are evident".

Mukarovsky (1987) has presented hundreds of analogous Mande and Cushitic terms. Due to the similarities between the Mande and Cushitic language families. Mukarovsky (1987) would place Mande into the Afro-Asiatic Superset of languages.

The traditional view of the dispersal of the Proto-Mande would place their original home in the woodland savanna zone of West Africa, in the area of the Niger Basin. (Ehret and Posnansky 1982:242) Bimson (1980) has proposed that the Mande migration waves originated from the Inland niger Delta around 2000 BC.

This is a most attractive theory but it does not conform with the archaeological data collected over 111

112 the past decade in Africa, that illustrates that until the second millennium B.C. the Inland Niger Delta was sparsely populated.(McIntosh & McIntosh 1981 ,1986)

The original homeland of the Proto-Mande was probably the Saharan highlands. (Winters 1986b) The archaeological data suggest that the Proto-Mande migrated first north (westward), and then southward to their present centers of habitation. (Winters 1981b:81)

By the late stone age (LAS) black Africans were well established in the Sahara.(Winters 1985b) These blacks were members of the Saharo-Sudanese tradition. (Camps 1974) These blacks lived in the highlands. The early Fezzanese and Sudanese were sedentary pastoralist.

We call these blacks Proto-Saharans. (Winters 1985b) Most of the Proto-Saharans lived on hillocks or slopes near water. But some Paleo-Africans lived on the plains which featured lakes and marshes. During much of the neolithic/epipaleolithic period the Sahara resembled the Mediterranean region in climate and ecology.

Ceramics spread from the Central and Eastern Sahara into North Africa. These ceramics were of Sudanese inspiration and date back to the 7th millennium B.C. This pottery was used from the Ennedi to Hoggar. The makers of this pottery were from the Sudan. (Andah 1981)

In the Sahelian zone there was a short wet phase during the Holocene (c. 7500-4400 B.C.), which led to the formation of large lakes and marshes in Mauritania, the Niger massifs and Chad. The Inland Niger Delta was unoccupied. In other parts of the Niger area the wet phase existed in the eight/seventh and fourth/third millennia B.C. (McIntosh & McIntosh 1986:417) 112

113 There were few habitable sites in West Africa during the Holocene wet phase. McIntosh and McIntosh (1986) have illustrated that the only human occupation of the Sahara during this period were the Saharan massifs along wadis. By the 8th millennium B.C.

Saharan-Sudanese pottery was used in the Air. (Roset 1983) Ceramics of this style have also been found at sites in the Hoggar (McIntosh & McIntosh 1983b:230). Dotted wavy-line pottery has also been discovered in the Libyan Sahara (Barich 1985).

The inhabitants of the Fezzan were roundheaded blacks .(Jelinek 1985:273) The cultural characteristics of the Fezzanese were analogous to C-Group culture items and people of Nubia. ( Quellec 1985; Jelinek 1985) The C-Group people occupied the Sudan and Fezzan regions between 3700-1300 B.C. (Close 1988)

These early Paleo-Africans of Libya were called the Temehu by the Egyptians.(Behrens 1984:30) Ethnically the Temehu had the same physical features of black African people. (Quellec 1985; Jelinek 1985; Diop 1984:72)

These C-Group people used a common black-and-red ware. B.B. Lal (1963) of the Indian Expedition in the Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia proved that the Dravidian people probably originally lived in middle Africa before they settled South India. A common origin for black Africans and Dravidians would explain the analogous cultural and linguistic features of these two groups. (Anselin 1982; Winters 1980,1981,1981b,1985a, 1985c)

The Proto-Mande speakers in the Saharan highlands were probably one of the numerous C-Group tribes settled in this area. If we accept this hypothesis the C-Group people would represent a 113

114 collection of ethnic groups that later became the Supersets we now find in the fragmentation belt, such as the Niger-Congo speakers Greenberg (1970) believes early domesticated ovicaprids. The origin of the Mande among the sedentary pastoral C-Group ethnic groups supports the linguistic data indicating an early Mande domestication of cattle.

In the Sahara pastoralism was the first form of food production. Augustin Holl (1989) a specialist on western Africa believes that pastoralism was the first form of food production developed by postpaleolithic groups in the Sahara.

In the eastern Sahara it would appear that ovicaprid husbandry preceded cattle domestication because cattle were maladaptive to rocky lands. This is in sharp contrast to the western Sahara where cattle was the mainstay domesticate for sedentary pastoral economies.

Much of the evidence relating to this pastoral way of life comes from the discovery of cattle bones at excavated sites in the Sahara dated between 7000-2000 BC, and the rock drawings of cattle. (McIntosh &McIntosh 1981) In the western Sahara, sites such as Erg In-Sakane region, and the Taoudenni basin of northern Mali, attest to cattle husbandry between 6000 and 5000 BP. The ovicaprid husbandry on the other hand began in this area between 5000 to 3000 BP. Cattle pastoral people began to settle Dar Tichitt and Karkarichinkat between 5000 to 3500 BP.

The first domesticated goats came from North Africa. This was the screw horn goat common to Algeria, where it may have been deposited in neolithic times. We certainly see goat/sheep domestication moving eastward: Tadrart Acacus (Camps 1974), Tassili-n-Ajjer , Mali (McIntosh & McIntosh 1988), Niger (Roset 1983) and the Sudan. Barker (1989) has argued that sheep and goats increased in importance over cattle because of their adaptation to desiccation. 114

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It would appear that all the Proto-Mande were familiar with the cultivation of rice, yams and millet. There are similarities in the Malinke-Bambara and Vai terms for plant domesticates. This suggest that these groups early adopted agriculture and made animal domestication secondary to the cultivation of millet, rice and yams. The analogy for the Malinke-Bambara and Dravidians terms for rice, millet and yams suggest a very early date for the domestication of these crops.

Most of the Soninke speakers , on the other hand, appear to have remained primarily pastoralist for a much longer time than the Malinke-Bambara. The Bozo specialized in fishing and the Marka were rice farmers.

The hypothesis that the ancestral homeland of the Proto-Mande was in the Saharan highlands best explains their migration routes into the Niger Basin, northwest and west Africa in general. (Winters 1986b.) This hypothetical migratory route for the Mande is supported by the diffusion of Saharan pottery styles dating from 2000-500 B.C., from the southern Sahara to the

Inland Niger Delta. (McIntosh & McIntosh 1979:246,1983)

The archaeological and linguistic evidence suggest that changes in the Mande subsistence economy resulted from a combination of factors including demographic stress and ecological change. It was ecological change which led to the Proto-Mande domestication of goats/sheep and cattle.

The Mande cultural lexicon makes it clear that animal husbandry, and not agriculture played a dominant role in the 115

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expansion of the Proto-Mande. The deep internal divisions for names for cultivated crops reflect the limited role of agriculture in the Mande dispersals.

The linguistic evidence suggest that the Malinke-Bambara early adopted agriculture after they migrated westward from the Fezzan and Hoggar regions.(Winters 1986b) The Soninke and South Eastern Mande speakers , on the other hand remained primarily pastoralist. As a result they adopted the names of cultivated plants used by the Malinke-Bambara or of agriculturalists they met in their travels.

Migration to America

These Proto-Saharans came to Mexico in papyrus boats. A stone stela from Izapa,Chiapas in southern Mexico show the boats these Proto-Saharans used to sail to America. The voyagers manning these boats probably sailed down TAFASSASSET, to Lake Chad and thence down the Lower Niger River which emptied into the Atlantic. This provided the Mande a river route from the Sahara to the coast . These rivers, long dried up, once emptied into the Atlantic. Once in the Atlantic Ocean to Mexico and Brazil, by the North Equatorial Current which meets the Canaries Current off the Senegambian coast.

There are oral traditions and documentary evidence which support the early migration of the Mande people to Mexico, called the Olmecs by the Amerindians. The Olmecs probably called themselves Xi or Shi people.

Friar Diego de Landa, in "Yucatan before and After the Conquest", wrote that "some old men of 116

117 Yucatan say that they heard from their ancestors that this country was peopled by a certain race who came from the East, whom God delivered by opening for them twelve roads through the sea".

This oral tradition of the Maya is supported by Stela 5, of Izapa. In Stela No. 5, we view a group of men on a boat riding the waves of an Ocean.At the right hand side of the boat we see a personage under a ceremonial umbrella. This umbrella was a symbol of princely status. Above his head is a jaguar glyph which according to Dr. Alexander von Wuthenau indicates that he was an Olmec. This personage has an African hairdo and a writing stylus in his left hand. This Olmec scribe proves that the Olmec had writing which was deciphered by Clyde Ahmad Winters in 1978.(Winters 1979;Wuthenau 1981)

In the center of the boat we find a large tree. This tree has seven branches and twelve roots. The seven branches probably indicates the seven major clans that form ed the Olmec nation. The twelve roots of the tree which extend into the waves of the ocean from the boat, probably signifies the "twelve roads through the sea" mentioned by Friar Diego de Landa.

Stela No.5, also illustrates the two principal Olmec cults. On the right hand side of the stela, we see the Jaguar Prince instructing a youth in the mysteries of the Jaguar cult. On the left hand side we see a number of birds.Here we also find a priest wearing a conical hat,also instructing a youth in the mysteries of the bird cult. It is clear that Stela No.5 from Izapa not only indicates the tree of life, it speaks to the origin of the Olmec from a nation across the sea. And that the Olmec people came to the New World during twelve migrations, as recorded by Friar de Landa.

In the Popol Vuh, the famous Mayan historian Ixtlixochtl, the Olmecs came to Mexico in "ships of barks"( probably a reference to papyrus boats or dug-out canoes used by the Proto-Saharans) and 117

118 landed in Potonchan,which they commenced to populate.Mexican traditions claim that these migrates from the east were led by Amoxaque or Bookmen. The term Amoxaque, is similar to the Manding 'a ma n'kye':"he (is) a teacher". These Blacks are frequently seen in Mayan writings as gods or merchants.

The Decipherment of the Olmec Writing

It is generally accepted that the decipherment of an unknown language/script requires 1) bilingual texts and/or 2) knowledge of the cognate language(s). It has long been felt by many MesoAmericanist that the Olmec writing met non of these criteria because, no one knew exactly what language was spoken by the Olmec that appear suddenly at San Lorenzo and La Venta in Veracruz, around 1200 B.C.

This was a false analogy. For over 50 years there has ben evidence that the Olmec people probably wrote their inscriptions in the Manding language (Winters, 1979,1997) and the Manding writing from North Africa called Libyco-Berber, was used to write the Olmec (Winters, 1979, 1997) and Mayan (Rafinesque, 1832) language.

To decipher an unknown script it is unnecessary to reconstruct the Proto-language of the authors of the target script. In both the major decipherments of ancient scripts, e.g., cuneiform and ancient Egyptian, contemporary languages in their synchronic states were used to gleam insight into the reading of dead languages. No one can deny, that it was Champolion's knowledge of Coptic, that led to his successful decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics.

The view that Africans originated writing in America is not new. Scholars early recognized the 118

119 affinity between Amerindian scripts and the Mande script(s).

By 1832, Rafinesque noted the similarities between the Mayan glyphs and the Libyco-Berber writing. And Leo Wiener (1922, v.3), was the first researcher to recognize the resemblances between the Manding writing and the symbols on the Tuxtla statuette. In addition, Harold Lawrence (1962) noted that the "petroglyphic" inscriptions found throughout much of the southern hemisphere compared identically with the writing system of the Manding.

Rafinesque (1832) published an important paper on the Mayan writing that helped in the decipherment of the Olmec Writing. In this paper he discussed the fact that when the Mayan glyphs were broken down into their constituent parts, they were analogous to the ancient Libyco-Berber writing . The Libyco-Berber writing can not be read in either Berber or Taurag, even though these people use an alphabetic script similar to the Libyco-Berber script which is syllabic CV and CVC in structure.

The second clue to the Manding origin of the Olmec writing was provided by Leo Wiener in Africa and the Discovery of America

(1922,v.3). Wiener presented evidence that the High Civilizations of Mexico (Maya and Aztecs) had acquired many of the cultural and religious traditions of the Malinke-Bambara (Manding people) of West Africa. In volume 3, of Africa and the Discovery of

America, Wiener discussed the analogy between the glyphs on the Tuxtla statuette and the Manding glyphs engraved on rocks in Mandeland. 119

120 In Table 1, we show a comparison of the Libyco-Berber, Vai syllabic signs, and Olmec signs from selected sites to test the hypothesis of Lawrence (1961), Wiener (1922) and Winters (1979, 1983), that the Olmec writing is of Manding origin .

In the inscribed celts found at La Venta in 1955, at offering No.4, the inscribed jadeite celt from near El Sitio, and the Black Stone Serpent Scepter of Cardenas, Tabasco are fine examples of Olmec writing. All the translations of Olmec artifacts are based on the Manding dictionary of Delafosse (1921).

La Venta Offering #4

The celts of La Venta offering no.4, were discovered by Drucker in 1955. These celts show both the plain and cursive forms of the Olmec script. These inscribed celts were part of a collection of 16 figurines and jade and serpentine found in offering no.4 (Soustelle, 1984).

120

121 In La Venta offering no.4, fifteen figurines were arranged around a central figure. According to the inscriptions on the celts in this collection, the personage buried in this tomb was P. The bold head of P suggest that he was their cult leader. Below the famous inscribed celts of offering no.4 LaVenta,

A pit had been dug over the incised celts and figurines, a hole leading from the earth's surface down to the burial cache suggest that this was used for pouring libations on the figurines. This view is 121

122 supported by the fact that the inscriptions written in the plain Olmec syllabic style ( Fig. 1), mentions the fact that P tomb was to act as a talisman or protective shrine for the faithful.

The six celts found in La Venta offering no.4, were arranged in a semi-circle. Four of the celts were engraved. The first and last celts in the semi-circle were not engraved.

Transliteration of Symbols on Figure 1

F f mi p po gb

without breath void consumed P pure/holy below (in)

lu b ma

the family habitation lay low the celebrity (the) Lord (in)

yu ka-p ba ko

the big hemisphere tomb Ka-P the Great (in) the back of

se yu we

(to) possess for posterity the big hemisphere tomb Hence

ta lu ba i 122

123

this place the family habitation great/strong thine

gba ky be po

fixed in the ground inheritance/estate here pure/holy

mbe be

lay low the celebrity lay low the celebrity.

Translation

" Without breath. Void. Consumed (lies) the Hole P, below the family habitation. Lay low the celebrity, the Lord, in the hemisphere tomb. The Great Ka-P, in the back of the big hemisphere tomb, possesses (this place) for posterity. Thine inheritance (is) fixed in this ground. Here the pure celebrity lays low. Lay low the celebrity".

The fourth engraved celt from left to right in La Venta offering no.4, is written in the plain Olmec script (Fig. 1). This inscription declares that the tomb of P is a talisman of great power.

Transliteration of Figure 1

Ky gyo d gb 123

124 A man the leader of the cult indeed virtue

le gyo we mb to

to be consecration hence here place of rest

he gyo

good talisman.

Translation

"The man (was) the leader of the cult. Indeed (a man of) virtue to be an object of consecration. Hence here a place of rest (a) good talisman (protective shrine for the faithful)".

Hieroglyphic Writing

There are two forms of Olmec hieroglyphic writing : the pure hieroglyphics ( or picture signs); and the phonetic hieroglyphics, which are a combination of syllabic and logographic signs.

The characters written on the incised jadeite celt from El Sitio (Fig. 4) , and the blue celt for Cardenas Mexico was written in the hieroglyphic script. 124

125 Cardenas Celt

This hieroglyphic writing represents compound syllabic Olmec characters in an ornate style, which probably evolved into the Mayan and Izapan hieroglyphic scripts. This ornate style of writing usually has two or more syllabic signs joined together as illustrated in Figure 4.

Transliteration of El Sitio Inscriptions Po ta tu b ta Purity here take refuge B sacred object/solitary tu to ta tu i Ruler sequestered here place of rest thou/you f b gb po in the company unite the pure purity po gba ta p ta purity plant propriety to spread over this place se ta a ta to possess for posterity sacred object he this place ma tu ancestor/lord rest. 125

126 Translation

"Purity, take refuge here. B is here. The Ruler is sequestered (he who was righteous). Here is (his) place of rest. You are in the company (of the Deity). Unite with the purest of the Pure. Plant purity and propriety to spread over this place (and) to possess for posterity. He (is ) a sacred object. This place the Lord rest".

The Olmec civilization lasted from 1500 to 100 B.C. These Olmecs spoke an aspect of the Manding language.

It appears that some of the Olmec that later settled in Mexico may have come from Tichitt in southern Mauritania or the Arawan. At Tichitt there was a fairly large population of Mande speakers before desiccation forced these Proto-Manding people to modify their economy or move southward to better watered country. This Tichitt valley is also an area where the western line of rock engravings depicting the horse-drawn vehicles of pre-cameline times are located. The Proto-Manding established chariot routes from Libya down to the Niger Valley. It is intersecting to note that the Manding term for maize is "Ka", this agrees with the Mayan term for maize Kan.

The appearance of Proto-Saharans in Mexico 3800 years ago resulted from paleoclimate changes in West Africa after 2000 B.P. This view is supported by climatic studies of the Dar(Dhar) Tichitt region which show increasing trends towards desertification. The trend towards more severe dry seasons made much of West Africa unsuitable for permanent human settlement.(Holl 1985:88) Competition for decreasing arable land probably stimulated African migration to new lands across the Atlantic and West Africa.

126

127 Due to the preoccupation of the Proto-Mande with rainmaking during this period of climate change, led to the importance of the rain maker in African society, and the snake who gave man the secrets to harness nature.This hypothesis is supported by the fact that in the Manding and Olmec languages sa means both rain and snake. Commenting on the association of the snake and rain making in ProtoMande culture Augustin Holl (l985:108) wrote that:

"In this regard the development of a symbolic mediator of stress in the form of rainmaking and its correlated snake cult seem a reasonable possibility. The general distribution of these features in Africa is strongly correlated with the distribution of the climatic pattern of two contrasting seasons"[ one long and dry the other short and wet]."

Mexican traditions recorded by Sahagun, claim that these Proto-Saharans landed in Mexico at Panotha, on the Mexican Gulf. Here they remained for a time until they moved "south in search of mountains". This traditions corresponds to the expansion of the Olmecs from the Gulf of Mexico to Chalcatzingo, in the Mexican Highlands.

The Olmec empire was spread from Yucatan in the East, to Guerrero and the Pacific coast on the west, through Guatemala, Salvador and Costa Rica on the Southwest. Here the Olmecs continued to use the Proto-Saharan script, which was later adopted by the Maya civilization.

INTRODUCTION The Stelae no.5 from Izapa, is an important historical document from Mexico. This monument has interesting iconographic representations that prove some of the migration traditions handed down from generation to generation by the Mexicans. The Izapa style art is characterized by upright stone stelae found at the site of Izapa, situated near Tapachula, Chiapas. Izapa is located on the Pacific coastal plain in an area known as Soconusco. This area in middle preclassic times was a center of Olmec civilization. (Morley,Brainerd & Sharer 1983: 64-66)

127

128 The research of the New World Archaeological Foundation indicate that this site has been continously occupied since 1500 B.C. Much of what we know about the art from Izapa comes from the work of Virginia Smith' Izapa Relief Carving (1984), Garth Norman's Izapa Sculpture (1976) and Jacinto Quirarte's Izapan-Style Art (1973). V. Garth Norman (1976) of the New World Archaeological Foundation has published many of the stone stalae and altars found at Izapa and discussed much of their probable religious significance. Most researchers including Norman believe that the Izapans were "Olmecoid". Smith (1984) disagrees with this hypothesis, but Michael D. Coe (1962: 99-100,1965:773-774, 1968:121), Ignacio Bernal (1969:172) support an Olmec origin for the Izapan style art. Quirarte (1973:32-33) recognized obvious Olmec cultural traits in the Izapa iconography. The Stelae no.5 from Izapa records many glyphic elements common to other preclassic artifacts including the jaguar, falling water, mountain, bird, dragon tree, serpent and fish motifs.(Smith 1984:28-29) This stelae also provides many elements that relate to Mexican and Maya traditions as accurately analyzed by Norman (1976:165-236). Some ideological factors not fully discussed in regards to this stelae is its discussion of elements of the Olmec religion, and the migration traditions of the Mexicans. ANCIENT MIGRATION STORIES OF MEXICO The Maya were not the first to occupy the Yucatan and Gulf regions of Mexico. It is evident from Maya traditions and the artifacts recovered from many ancient Mexican sites that a different race lived in Mayaland before the Mayan speakers settled this region. The Pacific area was early colonized by Olmec people in middle preclassic times.(Morley, Brainerd & Sharer 1984) The Olmec civilization was developed along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the states of Tabasco and Veracruz. (Pouligny 1988:34) The linguistic evidence suggest that around 1200 B.C., a new linguistic group arrived in the Gulf region of Mexico. M. Swadesh (1953) has presented evidence that at least 3200 years ago a non- Maya speaking group wedged itself between the Huastecs and the Maya. Soustelle (1984: 29) tells us that "We cannot help but think that the people that shattered the unity of the Proto-Mayas was also the people that brought Olmec civilization to the region". Traditions mentioned by Sahagun, record the settlement of Mexico by a different race from the present Amerindian population. Sahagun says that these "Eastern settlers of Mexico landed at Panotha, on the Mexican Gulf. Here they remained for a time until they moved south in search of mountains. Other migration to Mexico stories are mention in the Popol Vuh, the ancient religious and historical text compiled by the Quiche Mayan Indians. This new race may have come from Africa. Sertima (1976), and Weiner (1922) believe that some of these foriegn people may have come from West Africa. Dr. Wiercinski (1972) claims that the some of the Olmecs were of African origin. He supports this claim with skeletal evidence from several Olmec sites where he found skeletons that were analogous to the West African type black. Wiercinski discovered that 13.5 percent of the skeletons from Tlatilco and 4.5 percent of the skeletons from Cerro de las Mesas were Africoid (Wiercinski & Jairazbhoy 1975) (For information on African Olmecs see Clyde A Winters Homepage. 128

129 Friar Diego de Landa (1978:8,28) , in Yucatan Before and After the Conquest, wrote that "some old men of Yucatan say that they have heard from their ancestors that this country was peopled by a certain race who came from the East, whom God delivered by opening for them twelve roads through the sea". This tradition is most interesting because it probably refers to the twelve migrations of the Olmec people. This view is supported by the stone reliefs from Izapa, Chiapas , Mexico published by the New World Foundation. In Stela 5, from Izapa we see a group of men on a boat riding the waves.(Wuthenau 1980; Smith 1984 ; Norman 1976)

129

130 It is clear that Stela No.5, from Izapa not only indicates the tree of life, it also confirms the tradition recorded by Friar Diego de Landa that the Olmec people made twelve migrations to the New World. This stela also confirms the tradition recorded by the famous Mayan historian Ixtlixochitl, that the Olmec came to Mexico in "ships of barks " and landed at Pontochan, which they commenced to populate.(Winters 1984: 16) These Blacks are frequently depicted in the Mayan books/writings carrying trade goods. In the center of the boat on Stela No.5, we find a large tree. This tree has seven branches and twelve roots. The seven branches probably represent the seven major clans of the Olmec people. The twelve roots of the tree extending into the water from the boat probably signifies the "twelve roads through the sea", mentioned by Friar Diego Landa. The migration traditions and Stela No.5, probably relates to a segment of the Olmec, who landed in boats in Panotha or Pantla (the Huasteca) and moved along the coast as far as Guatemala. This would correspond to the non-Maya speaking group detected by Swadesh that separated the Maya and Huasteca speakers 2000 years ago.Bernardino de Sahagun (1946) a famous authority on Mexico also supports the extra-American origin of the Olmecs when he wrote that A"Eastern settlers of Mexico landed at Panotla on the Mexican Gulf. Here they remained for a time until they moved south in search of mountains".The reported route of the Panotha settlers recorded by Sahagun interestingly corresponds to the spread of the Olmecs in Meso-America which extended from the Gulf of Mexico to Chalcatzingo, in the Mexican highlands along the Pacific coast. (Morley, Brainerd & Sharer 1983, p.52) THE STELAE NUMBER 5 AND OLMEC RELIGION The Olmec people had their own writing. This writing system was deciphered by Winters(1977,1979; Wuthenau 1980) This decipherment of the Olmec writing allows us to discover much about the Olmec people and their culture. The Olmecs had two different religious associations (gya-fa):the jaguar-man or humano-feline cult and the humano-bird cult. The humano-feline cult was called the nama-tigi (see Illustration No.7 below) by the Olmecs, while the humano-feline cult was called the kuno-tigi(see Illustration No.6 below). The leadear of the Olmec cult was called the tigi or amatigi "head of the faith". The tigi of the Olmec secret societies or cults exerted considerable influence both dead and alive. Alive he could contact the spirits of the deceased, and serve as intermediaries between the gods and mankind. Upon his death his grave became a talisman bestowing good to all who visited his tomb.< a> Dr. Sertima (1976) and Wiener (1922) have both commented on the possible relationship between the amanteca of ancient Mexico and the amantigi of Africa and the Olmecs. It is interesting to note that tec / tecqui means "master, chief" in a number of Mexican languages including Nahuatl (Wiener 1922). Many Meso-Americanists have suggested that the Maya inherited many aspects of their civilization from thew Olmec.(Soustelle 1984) This is interesting because in the Maya Book of Chumayel, the three main cult associations which are suppose to have existed in ancient times 130

131 were (1) the stone (cutters) cult, (2) the jaguar cult and (3) the bird cult. In lines 4-6 of the Book of Chumayel , we read that "Those with their sign in the bird, those with their sign in the stone, flat worked stone, those with their sign in the Jaguar-three emblems-".(Brotherston 1979) The Book of Chumayel, corresponds to the gylphs depicted on Monument 13 at La Venta

. On Monument 13, at La Venta a personage in profile, he has a headress on his head and wears a breechcloth, jewels and sandals, along with four glyphs listed one above the other. The glyphs included the stone, the jaguar, and the bird emblems. Monument 13, at La Venta also has a fourth sign to the left of the personage a foot gylphs. This monument has been described as an altar or a low column. The foot in Olmec is called "se", this symbols means to "lead or advance toward knowledge, or success". The "se" (foot) sign of the komow (cults) represent the beginning of the Olmec initiates pursuit of knowledge. The meaning of Monument 13, reading from top to bottom, are a circle kulu/ kaba (the stone), nama (jaguar) and the kuno (bird). The interpretation of this column reading from left to right is "The advance toward success--power--for the initiate is obedience to the stone cutters cult, jaguar cult and the bird cult". The Jaguar mask association dominated the Olmec Gulf region. In the central and southern Olmec regions we find the bird mask association predominate as typified by the Xoc bas relief of Chiapas, and the Bas Relief No.2, of Chalcatzingo. Another bird mask cult association was located in the state of Guerrero as evidenced by the humano-bird figure of the Stelae from San Miguel Amuco. The iconographic representation of the Olmec priest-kings, found at Chalchapa, La Venta, Xoc and Chalcatzing indicate that usually the Olmec priest wore a wide belt and girdle. He was usually clean shaven, with an elogated bold head often topped by a round helmet or elaborate composite mask. During religious ceremonies the Olmec religious leader, depending on his cult would wear the sacre jaguar or sacre bird mask. Often as illustrated by the glyphs on the shoulders and knees of the babe-in-arms figurine of Las Limas element the mask would include a combination of the associated with the bird, jaguar and serpent. The cult leaders of the bird mask cult usually wore claws on their feet. The jaguar cult leaders usually wore the jaguar mask. Stelae No.5 also discusses in detail the two major Olmec religions: the nama (jaguar) komo (cult) and the kuno (bird) komo. At the top of Stela No.5 , we recognize two lines of Olmec writing across the top of the artifact. On the first line we read from right to left :I ba i. Lu tu lu. I ba i, which means "Thou art powerful Now! Hold Upright (those) obedient to the[ir] Order. Thou art Powerful Now!" On the second line we read the following I lu be. I lu , which means "Thou hold upright Unity. Thou [it] upright" (see Table of Olmec signs 1,and 2 ).

131

132 The religious orders spoken of in this stela are the Bird and Jaguar cults. These Olmec cults were Nama or the Humano-Jaguar cult; and Kuno or Bird cult. The leader of the Nama cult was called the Nama-tigi (see Nama chief Illustration 7 Stela No.5 Izapa) , or Amatigi (head of the faith). The leader of the Kuno cult was the Kuno-tigi (Kuno chief see Illustration 6 Stela No.5). These cult leaders initiated the Olmec into the mysteries of the cult. On the Stela No. 5, we see both the Kuno-tigi and Nama-tigi instruction youth in the mysteries of their respective cults. On Stela No.5, we see two priests and members of each cult society sitting in a boat with a tree in the center.(Wuthenau 1980;Sitchin 1990,p.178) On the righthand side of the boat we see the Nama-tigi, and on the left hand side we see the Kuno-tigi.

Illustrations of the Nama-Tigi (No.7)and Kuno-Tigi(No.6)

132

133

The personage on the right side of the boat under a ceremonial umbrella is the Nama-tigi (see Illustration No.7). In Mexico, this umbrella was a symbol of princely status. Above his head is a jaguar glyph which, according to Dr. Alexander von Wuthenau (1980) indicates that he was an Olmec. This personage has an African style hairdo and a writing stylus in his left hand. This indicates the knowledge of writing among the Olmecs which is also evident in the Olmec inscriptions deciphered by Winters (1977a,1977b,1979, 1980) . 133

134 On the sides of the boat we see two Olmec signs they read: "In the company of Purity". This statement signifies that the Olmec believed that worship of the Kuno or Nama cults led to spiritual purity among the believers.

Izapa Stela No.5

134

135 On the left hand side of the boat we see a number of birds. Here we also find a priest wearing a conical hat instructing another youth, in the mysteries of the Kuno cult around a flame.

Among the Olmecs this flame signified the luminous character of knowledge. The Kuno priest wears a conical hat(see Illustration No.6). The evidence of the conical hat on the Kuno priest is important evidence of the Manding in ancient America. The conical hat in Meso-America is 135

136 associated with Amerindian priesthood and as a symbol of political and religious authority . Leo Wiener (1922, v.II: p.321) wrote that: "That the kingly and priestly cap of the Magi should have been preserved in America in the iden -tical form, with the identical decoration,and should, besides, have kept the name current for it among the Mandingo [Malinke-Bambara/Manding] people , makes it impossible to admit any other solution than the one that the Mandingoes established the royal offices in Mexico".

136

137 Stelea no.21 ,from Izapa also record the decline of the Olmec nama and kuno religions and probable raise of the Maya speakers and the sa (serpent) cult which called forhuman sacrifice. On Stelae no.21, we see a decapitated individual lieing on the ground. An elite carries the decapitaed head. This elite may be an early Maya personage because he wears a new style headdress which resembles the Maya style headdresses. In the background we see an elite personage being borne in an elaborate sedan chair. Above this chair we see the serpent . This depiction of a serpent as a background but dominate figure in Olmec religion/rule corresponds to Monument 19 of La Venta. On Monument 19, from La Venta we see an Olmec personage which has a serpent behind his back and above his head. This serpent indicates hidden knowledge or powers from the serpent that the cult leader used to lead the followers of their cult. In conclusion , Stela No.5 Izapa provides the story behind the African migration to America. It also gives us a detailed account of the separation of the Olmec religion and people into two major groups. Stela No.5 of Izapa is therefore an important historical document.

References
Brown, C.H. (1991). Hieroglyphic literacy in ancient Mayaland: Inferences from linguistics data. Current Anthropology, 32(4), 489-495. Coe, M. (1989). The Olmec Heartland: evolution of ideology . In R.J. Sharer and D. C. Grove (Eds.), Regional Perspectives on the Olmecs (pp.68-82). New York: Cambridge University Press. Delafosse,M. "Vai leur langue et leur systeme d'ecriture", L'Anthrpologie 10, 1899. Gutherie, J. (ed.).(1995). The Olmec World: Ritual and rulership , Princeton University: The Art Museum. Hau, K. (1973). Pre-Islamic writing in West Africa. Bulletin de l'Institut Fondamental Afrique Noire (IFAN), t 35, Ser. B number 1, 1-45. Hau, K. (1978). African writing in the New World. Bull. de l'IFAN, t 40, Ser. B , number 1, 2848. 137

138 Morley, S.G., Brainered, G.W. & Sharer, R.J. (1983). The Ancient Maya. Stanford: Standford University Press. Landa, D. de. (1978). Yucatan before and after the Conquest. (Trans. by) William Gates. New York: Dover Publications. Norman, G. (1976). Izapa Sculpture. Navarrete, C. (1976). The Olmec rock carving at Pijijipan Chiapas, Mexico and other Olmec Pieces, from Chiapas and Guatemala. New World Archaeological Foundation, No. 35. Provo, Utah : Brigham Young University Press. Pouligny, D. (1988). Les Olmeques. Archeologie, 12, p.194. Rafineque, C. (1832). "Second letter to Mr. Champollion on the Graphic systems of America and the glyphs of Ololum [Mayan] of Palenque in central America-elements of the glyphs", Atlantic Journal 1, (2) :44-45. Sahagun, R. de. (1946). Historia General de las Casas de la Nueva Espana. Mexico City: Editoria Nueva Espana. Schele, L. & Freidel, D. (1990). A Forest ofKings. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc. Smith, V.G. (1984). Izapa Relief Carving. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. Stross, B. (1973). Maya Hieroglyphic writing and Mixe-Zoquean. Anthropological Linguistics, 24 (1), 73-134. Tate, C. E. (1995). Art in Olmec Culture. In J Gutherie (ed.), The Olmec World: Ritual and rulership (pp.45-67) The Art Museum, Princeton University. Tozzer, A.M. (ed).(1941). Relacion de las Casa de Yucatan. Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology ,1941. Wiercinski, A. (1972). Inter-and-Intrapopulational racial differentiation of Tlatilco, Cerro de Las Mesas, Teothuacan, Monte Alban and Yucatan Maya. XXX1X Congreso International de Americanistas, Lima 1970, Vol. 1, pp.231-252. Wiercinski, A. & Jairazbhoy, R.A. (1975). The New Diffusionist, 5 (18), 5. Winters, C.A. (1977). The influence of the Mnade scripts on American ancient writing systems. Bulletin de l'IFAN, t.39, Ser.B ,Number 2, 405-431. Winters, C.A.(1979). Manding writing in the New World--Part 1, Journal of African Civilization, 1 (1), 81-97. 138

139 Winters, C.A. (1980). Appendix B: The Jade Celts of LaVenta. In A. von Wuthenau, Unexpected faces in Ancient America (pp. 235-237). 2nd Edition. Mexico. Winters, C.A. (December 1981/ January 1982). Mexico's Black heritage,The Black Collegian,7682. Winters,C.A. (1983). "The ancient Manding script". I. Sertima (Ed.), Blacks in Science:ancient and modern, (ed.) by I. Sertima, (pp. 208-214), London: Transaction Books. Winters, C.A. (1984a). Blacks in ancient America.Colorlines, 3(2), 27-28. Winters, C.A. (1984b). Africans found first American Civilization, African Monitor, 1, 16-18. Winters, C.A. (1986)."The Migration routes of the Proto-Mande",The Mankind Quarterly 27 (1), 77-96. Winters, C.A. (1997, April). The decipherment of Olmec Writing. Paper presented at the 74th meeting of the Central States Anthropological Society, Milwaukee, Wis. Wuthenau, A. von. (1980). Unexpected Faces in Ancient America. 2nd Edition. Mexico.

Ancient Writing In Middle Africa

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140 ABSTRACT In this paper we review the archaeological, historical and linguistic evidence that indicates that Africans have a long tradition of literacy from ancient to modern times using their own writing systems. Examples of the African inscriptions will be discussed, and their possible contemporary use by members of African secret societies will be explained.

Ancient Writing Systems

Since the rise of worldwide Western European supremacy it has been argued that Africans, due to a strong oral tradition, failed to invent writing. As a result, opposition to Afrocentrism has been the unfounded belief that only Egypt had writing in Africa (Appiah 1983). Although it is alleged that Africans were always illiterate, archaeological, historical, and epigraphic evidence indicate that Africans invented many writing systems. And that these writing systems were used from ancient times all the way up to the present (Bekerie 1994).

The archaeological evidence indicates that African literacy began in the Sahara over 5000 years ago (Winters 1971, 1981a,1983). This earliest form of writing was a syllabic system that included hundreds of phonetic signs, which over time was shorten to between 22 and 30 key signs, and used as an alphabet by the Egyptians, Meroites, Phonesians and Ethiopians. The original inhabitants of the Sahara where the Egyptian or Kemitic civilization originated were not Berbers or Indo-Europeans (Winters 1985b). This was the ancient homeland of the Dravidians, Egyptians, Sumerians, Niger-Kordofanian-Mande and Elamite speakers is called the Fertile African Crescent (Anselin 1989, p.16, 1992; Winters 1981,1985b,1989, 1991,1994). The inhabitants of this area lived in the highland regions of the Fezzan in modern Libya and Hoggar until after 4000 B.C. We call these people the Proto-Saharans (Winters 1985b, 1991). The generic term for this group is Kushite. The Proto-Saharans were called Ta-Seti and Tehunu by the Egyptians. In the archaeological literature they were called A-Group and C-Group respectively. Farid (1985, p.82) noted that: We can notice that at the beginning of the neolithic stage in Egypt on the edge of the Western Desert corresponds with expansion of the Saharian Neolithic culture and the growth of its population . The Fertile Saharan Crescent is an arc shaped series of highland regions in the Saharan zone of Africa. The Saharan zone is bounded on the north by the Atlas mountains, the Atlantic Ocean in the West, the tropical rain forest in the south and the Red Sea in the East. It was here that the ancestors of the founders of the river valley civilizations in Africa, the Middle East, China and Indus Valley developed their highly organized and technological societies (Winters 1983a, 1985b).

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The discovery of Intercultural style vessels from Susa (in Iran),Sumerian, Egyptian and Indus Valley sites suggest a shared ideological identity among these people (Kohl 1978). In fact the appearance of shared iconographic symbols and beliefs within diverse areas suggest cultural and ethnic unity among the people practicing these cultures. The common naturalistic motifs shared by the major civilizations include, writing (symbols), combatant snakes , the scorpion, bull and etc. This evidence of cultural unity is explained by the origin of these people in the Proto-Sahara (Winters 1985a, 1989). The Proto-Saharans or Kushites used similar terms for writing. In general the term for writing was formed by the labial stops /p/ and /b/. For example:

Dravidian par 'write' Manding bo, bu 'make a stroke', sebe 'write' Elamite tipu 'to write'

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142 Galla tafa 'to write' There are also other corresponding terms for 'mark', or 'draw' that begin with velar stops: Dravidian kiri, kuri 'write, draw, mark' Egyptian hti 'carve' Manding kiri, kiti 'mark' In Egyptian we have several terms for write ss #, zs # , and ssw #. During the Old Kingdom writing was referred to as iht # . The Egyptian term for writing ssw # is analogous to the Mande terms sewe # or sebe # 'writing, trace, design'. In Dravidian among other terms we have rasu 'write', and shu 'writing' in Sumerian. The Egyptian term zs # is also closely related to Sumerian shu #. Writing systems among African people were mainly devised for two purposes. Firstly, to help merchants keep records on the business venture they made. Secondly, the Proto-Saharan script was also used to preserve religious doctrines or write obituaries. The scarcity of documents, written for historical preservation among ancient African groups resulted from the fact that the keeping of history, was usually left in the hands of traditional (oral) historians. These historians memorized the histories of their nation and people for future recitation before members of their respective communities. This oral history was often accompanied by music or delivered in poetic verse and remains the premier source for the history of most African nations even today.

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It is obvious that the first inscriptions were engraved in stone by the Proto-Saharans , or a stylus was used to engrave wet clay (Winters 1985b). The use of the stylus or stick to engrave clay is most evident in the pottery marks found on the pottery excavated at many ancient sites which possess similar symbols impressed on the pottery. This view is supported by the fact that the term for writing in Dravidian and Egyptian include the consonants /l/, /r/ or /d/. 143

144 A "u", is usually attached to the initial consonants (Winters 1985b). For example: Sumerian ru, shu Elamite talu Dravidian carru Egyptian drf

These terms agree with the Manding terms for excavate or hollow out 0 du #, 0 do #, 0 kulu #, 0 tura #, etc. The Sumerian term for writing was 0 du #. This show that the Proto-Saharan term for writing denoted the creation of impressions on wet clay and hard rock. The origin of writing among the Proto-Saharans as an activity involving the engraving of stone is most evident in the Egyptian language. This hypothesis is supported by the Egyptian words m(w)dt #. The term md t # means both '(sculptor's) chisel' and 'papyrus-roll, book'. The multiple meanings of md t # makes it clear that the Egyptian, and probably other descendants of the Proto-Saharans saw a relationship between engraving stone and the creation of books. Other Egyptian lexical items also support the important role Proto-Saharans saw in engraving rocks, and writing. In addition to md t we have, hti # 'carve, sculpture' and iht # 'writing'. The fact that iht is an Old Kingdom term for writing, almost identical to hti, is further evidence that writing involved the engraving of stone. POTTERY INSCRIPTIONS The Proto-Saharan writing was first used to write characters on pottery (Winters 1980), to give the ceramics a talismanic quality . Similar signs appear on Chinese, Harappan, South Indian Megalithic, Libyan and Cretan pottery (see figure 1). These signs were invented by the ProtoSaharans for purposes of communication. These pottery signs agree with the so-called linear Egyptian signs mentioned by Petrie (1921, p.83). They frequently appear on Egyptian pottery .

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146 The Egyptian pot marks in Upper and Lower Egypt. Petrie (1900) was the first to record the Egyptian potmarks. These potmarks are found on pottery dated to Dynasties O to I (van den Brink 1992). These Thinite potmarks published by van den Brink (1992) agree almost totally with the Oued Mertoutek, Gebel Sheikh Suleiman, Harappan, Proto-Elamite and Proto-Sumerian (see figure 3). SYLLABIC WRITING It is clear that a common system of record keeping was used by people in the 4th and 3rd millennium B.C. from Saharan Africa, to Iran, China and the Indus Valley. Although the Elamites and Sumerians abandoned the Proto-Elamite writing and the Uruk script respectively, in favor f cuneiform writing, the Dravidians, Minoans (EteoCretans) and Manding continued to use the Proto-Saharan script (see figure 2) (Winters 1985c).

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The pottery signs were symbols from the Proto-Saharan syllabic writing. David (1955) was sure that the Dravidian and Cretan writings were analogous to the Egyptian pottery script. Moreover Dr. J.T. Cornelius (1956-57) used epigraphic evidence to show that the graffiti marks on the South Indian Megalithic pottery has affinity to other ancient scripts including the Libyan, Egyptian and Cretan signs. The languages of the Dravidians, Elamites, Sumerians and Manding are genetically related (Winters 1985d, 1989b, 1994). N. Lahovary (1957) noted structural and grammatical analogies of Dravidian, Sumerian and Elamites. K.L. Muttarayan (1975) provides hundreds of lexical correspondences and other linguistic data supporting the family relationship between Sumerian and Dravidian. C. A. Winters (1980, 1985d, 1989b, 1994) and L. Homburger (1951) have provided evidence of a genetic relationship between the Dravidian languages and the Manding Superset of languages. Dr. Homburger has also proven that the Manding and Coptic languages are closely related. The pottery signs evolved into the Thinite writing. The first writing system of Africans was the
Thinite script. This writing was used first by Blacks in Nubia, like the Niger-Congo people who migrated out of this region into the rest of Africa.

The Thinite script provides many of the signs that are included in later scripts used by Africans. In Nubia, Black Africans were using Thinite symbols before the rise of Egypt to record their ideas and report on important events.

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148 The oldest Proto-Saharan inscriptions come from Oued Mertoutek and Gebel Sheikh Suleiman. These inscriptions are over 5000 years old (Wulsin 1941; Winters 1983a ). The Oued Mertoutek inscription was found in the Western Sahara (see figure 4). This inscription was found on the lower level of Oued Mertoutek and dated to 3000 B.C. by Wulsin (1941). The Oued Mertoutek inscription like other Libyco-Berber writing is in the Manding (MalinkeBambara) languages. It was made up of Thinite signs. In ancient time a major Manding group was the Garamantes, they lived in the Fezzan. Graves (1980) claimed that the Garamantes who primarily lived in the Fezzan region of Libya, founded Attica, and worked the mines at Laureuim and Trace in Asia Minor. The Oued Mertoutek inscription is of a ram with syllabic characters written above the ram, and within the outline of the ram's body (see figure 4). This inscription written in an aspect of Manding was deciphered in 1981 (Winters 1983a).

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We were able to decipher the Oued Mertoutek inscription, and the Minoan Linear A, Harappan writing and the Olmec script because of the Vai script (Winters 1984a,1984b,1984c). Winters (1977,1979) discovered that the Vai syllabary of 200 characters matched all the signs in the syllabaries of Crete, Olmec America, Oracle Bone writing of China and the Harappan script (Winters 1979,1983b,1983c). And that due to the genetic linguistic unity of the people who made these signs, when you gave the signs in these diverse areas, the phonetic values of the Vai signs, but read them in the Dravidian or Manding language you could read the ancient literature of Crete and the Indus Valley (Winters 1985b). Thus the syllables which retain constant phonetic values can be used by different groups to write their own languages. Many would-be decipherers have assumed that it is almost impossible to prove a genetic linguistic relationship using data of comparatively recent time-depth. But this view of archaeological decipherment is untenable. In fact, in the well known decipherments of Egyptian and Cuneiform, linguistic data of a comparatively recent time-depth was used to interpret the inscriptions. For 149

150 example, Jean Champollion used Coptic to read the ancient Egyptian writing. And Sir Henry Rawlinson, the decipherer of the cuneiform script used Galla (a Cushitic language spoken in Africa) and Mahra ( a south Semitic language) to interpret the cuneiform writing. This meant that we could read the Proto-Saharan writing using recent Manding and Dravidian linguistic data. This view is supported by the use of cuneiform writing by different groups in West Asia and Asia Minor. The cuneiform script was used to write many distinct languages including Akkadian, Elamite, Hurrian, Hittite and Sumerian. The key to deciphering the world of cuneiform writing was the fact that each sign had only one value. As a result, to read a particular cuneiform script took only the discovery of the language written in the cuneiform script. Therefore the decipherment of the Persian cuneiform script provided the key to the cuneiform cognate scripts. The decipherment of the ancient Manding inscriptions using the Vai sounds, was the key to the decipherment of the Proto-Saharan scripts: Linear A, the Oracle Bone writing, the Olmec and the Harappan writing (Winters 1979, 1983b,1984). The second oldest inscription in the Proto-Saharan script comes from Gebel Sheikh Suleiman in Nubia. The Gebel Sheikh Suleiman relief has been discussed by many scholars such as Williams (1987) and Trigger (1980). The Gebel Sheikh Suleiman inscription is found near Buhen, Nubia. It is carved on a sandstone rock (see figure 5). This inscription was probably written by the A-Group people who helped found ancient Egypt. The ancestors of the Egyptians or Kemites originally lived in Nubia. The Nubian origin of Egyptian civilization is supported by the discovery of artifacts by archaeologists from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, at Qustul (William 1987; Winters 1994). On a stone incense burner found at Qustul we find a palace facade, a crowned King sitting on a throne in a boat, with a royal standard placed before the King and hovering above him, the falcon god Horus. The white crown on this Qustul king was later worn by the rulers of Upper Egypt. Many Egyptologists were shocked to learn in 1979, that the A-Group of Nubia at Qustul used Egyptian type writing two hundred years before the Egyptians (Williams 1987). This fact had already been recognized much earlier by Anta Diop (1974) when he wrote that it was in Nubia "where we find the animals and plants represented in hieroglyphic writing". The Qustul site was situated in a country called Ta-Seti. The name Ta-Seti means "Land of the Bow". Ta-Seti was the name given to Nubia by the Egyptians. The Qustul incense burner indicates that the unification of Nubia preceded that of Egypt. The TaSeti had a rich culture at Qustul. Qustul Cemetery L had tombs that equaled or exceeded Kemite tombs of the First Dynasty of Egypt. The A-Group people were called Steu 'bowmen'. This shows that the Steu people used symbols that later became Egyptian writing.

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151 The Steu had the same funeral customs, pottery, musical instruments and related artifacts of the Egyptians. Williams (1987, p.173,182) believes that the Qustul Pharaohs are the Egyptian Rulers referred to as the Red Crown rulers in ancient Egyptian documents. Dr. Williams (1987) gave six reasons why he believes that the Steu of Qustul founded Egyptian or Kemite civilization: 1. Direct progression of royal complex designs from Qustul to Hierakonpolis to Abydos. 2. Egyptian objects in Naqada III a-b tombs 3. No royal tombs in Lower and Upper Egypt. 4. Pharoanic monuments that refer to conflict in Upper Egypt. 5. Inscriptions of the ruler Pe-Hor, are older than Iry-Hor of Abydos. 6. The ten rulers of Qustul, one at Hierakonpolis and three at Abydos corresponds to the "historical" kings of late Naqada period. The findings of Williams (1987), support the findings of Diop (1991,p.108) that "we also understand better now why the Egyptian term designating royalty etymologically means: (the man) who comes from the South= nsw< n y swt = who belongs to the South= who is a native of the South= the King of Lower Egypt, and has never meant just King, in other words king of Lower and Upper Egypt, King of all Egypt". Williams (1987) and Trigger (1980) have failed to discuss the entire inscription on the Gebel Sheikh Suleiman relief. These scholars ignore the Proto-Saharan inscription, and describe only, the relief from left to right as follows: a serekh topped by a falcon looking over a victorious battlefield, sacred bark and a bound prisoner (see figure 5).

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But in reality we find more than these figures on the Gebel Sheikh Suleiman inscription which appears to date back to the A-Group period of Nubia over 5000 years ago. This is obvious when we examine the photograph of the Gebel Sheikh Suleiman relief. From left to right on this relief we see a falcon on a serekh sign surmounting a house/ palace. In front of this village/ palace scene we see a prisoner bound by Stj bow ( the sign for the Steu). Facing the prisoner bound by Stj bow ( the sign for the Steu). Facing the prisoner bound by the stj sign we see a bird over a circle with the letter X inside. Besides this scene we have another bird setting a top the letter X within the circle sign facing a victorious battle scene which includes a man bound to a sacred bark. Over the sacred bark we find 21 Proto-Saharan signs. These signs agree with the Egyptian pottery symbols (see figure 3). The Gebel Sheikh Suleiman inscription is an obituary written about a king called Fe .

As noted above Homburger found that the Manding languages are closely related to the Coptic language. Using the Manding language we can read the Gebel Sheikh Suleiman inscription. Reading from right to left we read: 152

153 1. i gba lu 2. fe kye nde 2 1/2. ka i lu 3. fe fe tu 4. be yu su (su su) tu 5. su se lu gbe 6. po gbe tu Below is the translation of the Gebel Sheikh Suleiman inscription: "1. Thou family habitation, hold (it) upright. 2. Fe's estate (is on) the shore (of the watercourse). 2 1/2. Cut thou (sepulchre) habitation for the family (here). 3. Fe preferred to be obedient to the order. 4. Lay low the (celebrity) in the large hemisphere tomb (and) offer up libations that merit upright virtue.6. Pure righteousness (is) King (Fe)." This King Fe, of Gebel Sheikh Suleiman, may relate to Pharoah Pe-Hor (Throne of Horus) since in African languages /f/ and /p/ are often interchangeable. It is interesting to note that there is an inscription on a storage jar from Cemetery L of Qustul, Nubia that reads Pe-Hor (Williams 1987, p. 164). This Pe-Hor may be the Fe, of the Gebel Sheikh Suleiman inscription. EGYPTIAN WRITING Ancient Egypt was a Pan-African civilization. It was a Pan-African civilization because the separate Nomes of Egypt usually represented city-states occupied by selected African tribes that after the fall of Egypt migrated into East and West Africa. This is why Egypt shares numerous cultural features with other African civilizations. The Egyptian language was a lingua franca. This lingua franca included many vocabulary items and features common to languages spoken in East and West Africa, especially the Niger-Congo group due to the diverse origins of the Egyptian people living in the various nomes of ancient Egypt.

The Egyptians invented three scripts: hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic. These scripts were used by the Egyptians for thousands of years. The Egyptian hieroglyphic script was confined mainly to monuments. The hieratic writing was a simplified form of the hieroglyphics, used for day-to-day business for almost three millennia. The Egyptian scripts were borrowed by other people in the Middle East, especially in the Sinai. The Protosinaitic script, was derived from Egyptian prototypes. It was this writing which was used by the Phoenicians and Greeks to form the alphabet we presently used. 153

154 Many Egyptian pottery signs agree with the Demotic script (see figure 6). The demotic script is the only Egyptian script that was used by just about every Egyptian. This writing was confined to ostraca and papyri. The demotic script was used from the Seventh century B.C. to the Fifth century A.D. The demotic records were used by commercial, legal and administrative sectors of the Egyptian society. Demotic signs were borrowed by other scripts. Six of the Coptic signs were derived from demotic, and many of the Meroitic signs are of demotic origin. THE MEROITIC SCRIPT The people of Meroe, the Kushites had their own alphabet of 23 signs.For many years we could read Meroitic phonetically but we could not read the words. In 1974, Anta Diop at the UNESCO Symposium on the Decipherment of the Meroitic script proposed a methodological procedure based on the comparative method of linguistics and the Ancient Model to decipher the Meroitic script.The Ancient Model, simply means that the Greeks and Romans were right when they claimed that Civilization began in Africa/Egypt and that the ancient scholars knew much about African history scholars. The ancient scholars believed that some of the people of Meroe came from India. One of the groups to formerly rule India were the Kushana people the language of the Kushana is called Tokharian today.

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155 Using the comparative methods outlined by Diop, Clyde Ahmad Winters compared Tokharian (which has as its substratum languages Manding and Dravidian), to the Meroitic language as outlined by I. Hoffman and F. Hintze, in their grammars of Meroitic. This comparison showed that Kushana or Tokharian and Meroitic shared many affixes and words. This comparison of Kushana and Meroitic suffixes led to the assumption that we could read the Meroitic script using the Kushana language. The fact that Kushana and the Dravidian and Manding languages are cognate meant the we might also be able to use terms from the these languages to help read Meroitic. This discovery proved valid and supported the methodological techniques outlined by Diop in 1974. Meroitic is basically a suffixing language. The funerary tablets are written in the third person. We have already deciphered many funerary tablets (Winters 1984b,1989b). The Meroitic inscriptions have the following order: 1) Invocation to Isis (Wosi) and Osiris (Sere) the gods of the dead; 2) Name of the deceased person; and 3) the obituary. In the early Meroitic script the deceased requested passage to a revitalized Napata. In the later inscriptions the deceased asked to be sent to Khenel, Khenepi and or Bane, the place(s) where the spirits dwell. It appears that Woshi, was responsible for giving the dead person's Kha , the right to leave for paradise. Sere , was the god who guides the deceased person's Kha , to the afterworld(s). There is also mention of Amon. Amon was recognized as the Supreme god of many people of the Meroitic Sudan (Winters 1995a, 1995b, n.d.). In figure 7, we see a stelae from Karanog (Winters, n.d.). The funerary stelae from Karanog (fig.7) published by MacIver and Wooley , provides us with a good picture of the Meroitic religion and style of writing. On the front of the funerary stelae of Karanog we find the depiction of a woman with her hair tied in a top-knot, necklace around her neck and bangles on her arms. Above the head of this female figure we find wings. This stelae has fourteen (14) lines. The stelae is dedicated to a woman named Tqewine/ Tqowine.

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Below we will first give the transliteration of the Karanog stelae and then a translation of Meroitic into English. At the end of the translation we will provide a vocabulary of the text. Line 1. Woshi ne Shore yi-ne t-po m-i d. Line 2. Tqowine s li-ne t si d e-ne te o d he. Line 3. Lo wi-ne sl h m-ne...s-ne qo. Qo li-ne Line 4. Terike lo wi-ne...i l pe rine si b lo. Line 5. Tel-o wi-ne pq r ne ye mtetl...e ne ye. Line 6. Lq-ne lo win-ne yet sn net e i ol ye e-ne. Line 7. M ne lo wi-ne... ot p kr-ne yet ne-ne e-o wi-ne. 156

157 Line 8. Pe sto lt-ne yet m n e e-o wi-ne qo re. Line 9. St s t lete-ne s-ne tq lo wi-ne hle mr. Line 10. S-ne q lo-t to lo wi-ne mte h ne s-n pe. Line 11. Sto li h wi-ne t e lo lo-a en-ne ye. Line 12. Tb h re lo wi-ne ato mh enep si se-a. Line 13. Te-ne ato mh enep wi h r ke te-ne h ml-o l-ne. Line 14. P-Sin ote m-i ke te-ne Wosi ne. Shore o-i ine. TRANSLATION "l. Isis the Good, and Osiris the Eternal (are) commanding the measure (of) the bequeathal. (2) Tqowine, the patron to transmit her satisfying bequeathal. She commands the beginning of the bequeathal of the He. (3) The solitary honorable patron (is) to behold the He-ne's (the abstract personality of man)...to prop up the renewal. Act to (make) the conveyance. (4) (Its) the Fashion to dispatch Awe...[h]i to remain to reproduce within satisfaction from a distance. (5) The solitary object of respect to make indeed a good voyage to Mtetl...[here] to be give(n) a good existence.(6) She is to witness solitary reverence capable of cleverly bowing in reverence (to the gods)--give leave to the /a grand journey (Oh) Commander. (7) Measure the good (of the ) lonely object of Honor [lying in the grave]...esteem and dignity. Adorn (her with) goodness, give opening to honor.(8) Your nonexistent patron goes to measure goodness. Give (its) beginning Now! The Object of Respect (Tqowine, to be) renewed indeed. (9) Endorse the embarkation of the (good) Supporter. Set in Motion the dispatch of this object of respect (Tqowine) to reverberate 157

158 luck. (10) The patron, she is present (in) the grave. Send the Object of Respect to unlock H-ne [the place where the H, is kept] --the Patron begs you. (11) Protect her conveyance of the H. This honorable woman give (her) isolated departure. The Teacher (to take) a journey. (12) Announce in a lofty voice indeed, the dispatch of this Object of Respect (on the) path (of) the grand bestowal (of) atonement (and ) favor. (13) Rebirth is the path to grand bestowal of honor to the H , indeed give permission for the rebirth of the H, and the soul to exit. (14) Much satisfaction (and) wonder (to come) measure it. The permission (for its bestowal ) is arranged by Isis,( and) Osiris (is) the Opener of the Way."

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161 Winters, C.A.(1984c). "The Inspiration of the Harappan Talismanic Seals", Tamil Civilization 2, no1 (March ), pages 1-8. Winters, C.A.(1984d). "The Harappan Writing of the Copper Tablets", Journal of Indian History LXll, nos.1-3 ,1-5. Winters, C.A.(1985a). "The Proto-Culture of the Dravidians ,Manding and Sumerians", Tamil Civilization 3, no1 (March 1985a) ,pages 1-9. Winters, C.A. (1985b). "The Indus Valley Writing and related Scripts of the 3rd Millennium BC", India Past and Present 2, no1 , pages 13-19. Winters,C.A.(1985c). "The genetic Unity between the Dravidian ,Elamite, Manding and Sumerian Languages", P Sixth ISAS ,1984, (Hong Kong:Asian Research Service) 1413-1425. Winters, C.A.(1986a) "The Migration Routes of the Proto-Mande", The Mankind Quarterly 27, no1 , pages 77-96. Winters,C.A.(1988). "The Dravidian and Manding Substratum in Tokharian",Central Asiatic Journal 32, nos1-2,131-141. Winters,C.A.(1989a)"Tamil,Sumerian and Manding and the Genetic Model",International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics 18,nol. Winters,C.A.(1989b)."Cheikh Anta Diop et le dechiffrement de l'ecriture meroitique",Cabet:Revue Martinique de Sciences Humaines et de Litterature 8, 149-152. Winters, C.A. (1991). The Proto-Sahara. In The Dravidian encyclopaedia (Vol.1, 553-556). Trivandrum, India: International School of Dravidian Linguistics. Winters, C.A. (1994). Afrocentrism: A valid frame of reference, Journal of Black Studies,25, (2) 170-190. Winters, C.A. (1995a). The Inscriptions of Tanyidamani, forthcoming Nubica, Iv or V. Winters, C. A. (1995b).The Meroitic Chamber of Philae, forthcoming Nubica, Iv or V. Winters, C.A. (n.d.). Meroitic inscriptions from Karanog. forthcoming Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities. Wulsin,F.R.(1941)The Prehistoric Archaeology of Northwest Africa, Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol 19.

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Kushites in West Asia

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Henry Rawlinson used the Book of Genesis to find the identity of the Mesopotamians. He made it clear that the original inhabitants of Babylonia were represented by the name Nimrod and were represented by the family of Ham: Kushites, Egyptians and etc. This name came from the popularity among these people of hunting the leopard (Nimri). And as noted in earlier post the Egyptian and Nubian rulers always associated leopard spots with royalty, just as Siva is associated with the feline. As a result, Rawlinson used an African language Galla, to decipher the cuneiform writing. The Sumerians and Elamites came from Africa, like the founders of the Indus Valley civilization. This is why the Elamite and Sumerian languages are closely related to African and Dravidian languages. The Kushites when they migrated from Middle Africa to Asia continued to call themselves Kushites. This is most evident in place names and the names of gods. The Kassites, chief rulers of Iran occupied the central part of the Zagros. The Kassite god was called Kashshu, which was also the name of the people. The K-S-H, name element is also found in India. For example Kishkinthai, was the name applied to an ancient Dravidian kingdom in South India. Also it should be remembered that the Kings of Sumer, were often referred to as the " Kings of Kush".

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The major Kushite tribe in Central Asia was called Kushana. The Kushan of China were styled Ta Yueh-ti or "the Great Lunar Race". Along the Salt Swamp, there was a state called Ku-Shih of Tibet. The city of K-san, was situated in the direction of Kushan, which was located in the Western part of the Gansu Province of China.

The Elamites later conquered Sumer. They called this line of Kings,he "King of Kish'. This term has affinity to the term Kush,that was given to the Kerma dynasty, founded by the C-Group people of Kush. It is interesting to note that the Elamite language, is closely related to the African languages including Egyptian and the Dravidian languages of India. The most important Kushite colony in Iran was ancient Elam. The Elamites called their country KHATAM or KHALTAM (Ka-taam). The capital of Khaltam which we call Susa, was called KHUZ (Ka-u-uz) by the Aryans, NIME (Ni-may) by the people of Sumer, and KUSHSHI (Cush-she) by the Elamites.In the Akkadian inscriptions the Elamites were called GIZ-BAM (the land of the bow). The ancient Chinese or Bak tribesmen which dominate China today called the Elamites KASHTI. Moreover, in the Bible the Book of Jeremiah (xlxx,35), we read "bow of Elam". It is interesting to note that both Khaltam-ti and Kashti as the name for Elam, agrees with Ta-Seti, the ancient name for Nubia located in the Meroitic Sudan.

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There is textual evidence supporting a relationship between the founders of Sumer, Elam and Dilmun. Col. Henry Rawlinson , used textual evidence to determine that a link existed between the Mesopotamians to their ancestors in Africa . Rawlinson called these people Kushites. There is a positive relationship between crania from Africa and Eurasia. The archaeologist Marcel-Auguste Dieulafoy (Dieulafoy,2004) and Hanberry (1981) maintains that their was a Sub-Saharan strain in Persia . These researchers maintain that it was evident that an Ethiopian dynasty ruled Elam from a perusal of its statuary of the royal family and members of the army ( Dieulafoy, 2004; Dieulafoy, 2010;Hansberry,1981). Dieulafoy (2010 ) noted that the textual evidence and iconography make it clear that the Elamites were Africans, and part of the Kushite confederation .Dieulafoy (2010) made it clear that the Elamites at Susa were Sub-Saharan Africans.

Marcel Dieulafoy and M. de Quatrefages observed that the craniometrics of the ancient Elamites of Susa indicate that they were Sub-Saharan Africans or Negroes (Dieulafoy,2010). Ancient Sub-Saharan African skeletons have also been found in Mesopotamia (Tomczyk et al, 2010). The craniometric data indicates that continuity existed between ancient and medieval Sub-Saharan Africans in Mesopotamia (Ricault & Waelkens,2008).

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The ancients were sure the Kushites had founded the Elamite civilization. According to Strabo, the Roman geographer the first Elamite colony of Susa, was founded by Tithonus, a King of Kush, and father of Memnon. Strabo in Book 15,chapter 3,728, wrote that "In fact, it is claimed that Susa was founded by Tithonus Memnon's father, and that his citadel bore the name Memnonium. The Susians are also called Cissians; and Aeschylus, calls Memnon's mother Cissia. The most important Kushite colony in Iran was Elam. The Elamites like other Africans practiced the custom of matrilineal descent.

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The history of Elam is usually divided into three periods the Kings of Awan, Kings of Simashki and the Sukkalmah period. For over 300 years the Elamite Kings of Awan ruled Elam, and much of Mesopotamia.Much of this period is unknown. During the 3rd Millennium B.C., the Elamites and Su people (a term used for mountain people in the Western Zagros) sacked Ur. The King of the Dynasty of Simaskhi, led to Elamite rule in Sumer. The first king of the Simashki Dynasty was Girnamme. In Sumer, the Elamites contributed nuch to Sumerian civilization. The Elamite Kings of Sumer were called the Kings of Kish. After a Sumerian King of Kish pushed the Elamites out of Mesopotamia, Elam went into a period of chaos until around 2500 B.C., when King Peli became the ruler of Elam. After Peli, there were six other Elamite Kings until Elam was conquered by Sargon of Akkad.

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Before the Sukkalmah period (c.1900-1500 B.C.) much of what we know about Elam comes from the Akkadian sources. This period is called the Sukkalmah period, because the rulers of Elam were called Sukkalmah grand regent. The Elamite title for king ws sunkir. During the Sukkahmah Dynasty there was a tripartite system of rule. The Susa text indicate that there was a senior ruler called sukkalmah grand regent of Elam and Shimashki, he was usually the brother of the sukkahmah, and a junior co-regent, entitled sukkal of Susa. This nephew was usually from the maternal side of the Kings family. Thus the sukkal of Susa was often called the ruhusak sisters son The first rulers of the Sukkamah period was Eabarat (=Eparti). He was followed by the ruhusak Addahushu, the sukkal and magustrate of the people of Susa. He is known mostly for his building of several temples and the erection of his justic stele outlining the laws of Elam . The Elamites/Old Persians were probably descendants of the Mande people. This is obvious in the language and names of the Elamite Kings. I hope you remember the book Roots, the main character Kunte Kinte. His name is interesting because we have the following ruler during the Sukkalmah Dynasty: Kutur-Nahhunte I (c. 1752) who conquered southern Babylonia The name Kutur Nahhunte, would correspond to a popular Mande name Kunte among the Mande speaking people. The Elamite name Peli, is also popular among the Mande, in the form of Pe, this name was also common among the Olmec people of ancient Mexico. It should also be noted that the Mande term for people is Si, this corresponds to the word Su, used to designate the mountain people of Elam. The Elamite term Su would correspond to the Mande termSi-u (the /u/ is the plural suffix in the Mande language). By the 2nd Millennium B.C., a new more aggressive dynasty appeared in Elam. The Kings of this Dynasty called themselves divine messenger, father and king of Susa and Anzan. One of the rulers of this Dynasty was Shutruk-Nahhunte. Shutruk-Nahhunte, like Kutur invaded Mesopotamia and took Babylon around 1160B.C. After Kutur took Babylon, the Elamites ruled Babylon until Hammurabi defeated the Elamite King Rin-Sin. Later the Elamites were driven from Larsa and other Sumerian cities back to the Susiana plains.

References
Dieulafoy, J. 2004. The Project Gutenberg EBook of Perzi, Chaldea en Susiane, by Jane Dieulafoy. Retrieved 04/04/10 http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13901/13901-h/13901-h.htm

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Dieulafoy, M.A.2010.. L' Acropole de Suse d'aprs les fouilles excutes en 1884, 1885, 1886, sous les auspices du Muse du Louvre. Retrieved 04/04/10 from : http://www.archive.org/stream/lacropoledesused01dieu#page/2/mode/2up Rawlinson,H. Letter read at the meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society on February 5, 1853, The Athenaeum, (No. 1321) ,p.228. Rawlinson,H. Note on the early History of Babylonia, Journal Royal Asiatic Soc., 15, 215259. Ricaut,F.X. and Waelkens.2008. Cranial Discrete Traits in a Byzatine Population and Eastern Mediterranean Population Movements, Hum Biol, 80(5):535-564. Tomczyk,J., Jedrychowska-Danska, K., Ploszaj,T & Witas H.W. (2010). Anthropological analysis of the osteological material from an ancient tomb (Early Bronze Age) from the middle Euphrates valley, Terqa (Syria) , International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, Retrieved 04/04/10 from (www.interscience.wiley.com)DOI:10.1002/oa.1150.

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