Black History 365 I

From http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/notes.html


A N E W C O L U M N

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

It has been said that "History is a light that illuminates the past and a key that unlocks the door to the future." This column is designed to help redirect the history of the Global African Community from the periphery of our imagination to the center of our attention. It is devoted to a review of what Ivan Van Sertima calls, "That other African."
"That other African" is not the stereotypical African savage so graphically depicted in Hollywood movies, but the African that first peopled the earth, and gave birth to (and significantly influenced) the world's oldest and most magnificent civilivations. This is the African that first entered Asia, Europe, Australia, the islands of the South Pacific and the early Americas, not as slave, but as master, in control of his and her own destiny. We believe that this African, whom many wish to remain invisible, is to be found wherever one truthfully seeks the origins of nations and religions.

We now know, based on recent scientific studies of DNA, that modern humanity originated in Africa, that Black people are the world's original people, and that all modern humans can ultimately trace their ancestral roots back to Africa. If not for the primordial migrations of early African people, humanity would have remained physically Africoid, and the rest of the world outside of the African continent absent of human life. It is with this perspective that we introduce this column to our readers.

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