One of the most important parts of black African history deals with the Mali Empire. It has a long important history that should be researched, analyzed, and learn lessons from. The empire lasted by ca. 1226 to 1670 A.D. It was founded by Sundiata Keita (ca. 1214-ca. 1255 A.D.). Many people know about the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa (Musa Keita). It was the largest empire in West Africa at its zenith. It influenced Western Africa in its language, laws, and customs. The Mali Empire started a small Mandinka kingdom at the upper reaches of the Niger River, around the Manding region. It grew during the 11th and 12th centuries as the Ghana Empire or Wagadu. Wagadu declined and trade routes shifted southward. The first ruler for which there is accurate written information is Sundiata Keita, a warrior-prince of the Keita dynasty who was called upon to free the local people from the rule of the king of the Sosso Empire, Soumaoro Kanté. The conquest of Sosso in c. 1235 marked the emergence of Mali as a major power. After the death of Sundiata Keita in ca. 1255, the kings ruling Mali had the title of mansa. In c. 1285 Sakoura, a former royal court slave, became emperor and was one of Mali's most powerful rulers, greatly expanding the empire's territory. He made a pilgrimage to Mecca during the reign of Mamluk Sultan An-Nasir Muhammad (r. 1298–1308) but died on his voyage home. Mansa Musa took the throne in c. 1312. He made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca from 1324 to 1326, where his generous gifts and his expenditure of gold caused significant inflation in Egypt. The languages spoken in the Mali Empire were Mandinka, Fulani, Wolof, and Bambara.
Maghan I succeeded him as mansa in 1337 but was deposed by his uncle Suleyman in 1341. It was during Suleyman's 19-year reign that Ibn Battuta visited Mali. Suleyman's death marked the end of Mali's Golden Age and the beginning of a slow decline. The Tarikh al-Sudan records that Mali was still a sizeable state in the 15th century. At that time, the Venetian explorer Alvise Cadamosto and Portuguese traders confirmed that the peoples who settled within Gambia River were still subject to the mansa of Mali. Upon Leo Africanus's visit at the beginning of the 16th century, his descriptions of the territorial domains of Mali showed that it was still a kingdom of considerable size. However, from 1507 onwards neighboring states such as Diarra, Great Fulo, and the Songhai Empire chipped away at Mali's borders. In 1542, the Songhai invaded the capital but were unsuccessful in conquering the empire. During the 17th century, the Mali Empire faced incursions from the Bamana Empire, who ultimately sacked and burned the capital in 1670. The Mali Empire rapidly disintegrated, being replaced by independent chiefdoms. The Keitas retreated to the town of Kangaba, where they became provincial chiefs.
African culture is very diverse. Africa is made up of dozens of nations and hundreds of languages spoken. There are numerous ethnic groups in Africa from the Xhosa people, the Igbo people, and the Mandinka people. The African Diaspora is global too. The laws, morals, beliefs, knowledge, art, customs, and other cultural attributes are different in many African cultures. Yet, African people are certainly unified in the love of family, the promotion of excellence, the love of integrity, and the belief in justice for all. In African culture, the honor of the elders remains paramount, the dances are different in numerous regions, the dishes are delicious across the continent, and political values are certainly strongly found in African existence. Africa has influenced the world, across continents. That is proven by history. The African drumbeats have been found in American genres of music including R&B and hip-hop music. African art has influenced European and American artistic icons like Picasso and Lois Mailou. The governments of most African nations encourage national dance and music groups, museums, artists, and writers. It is important to note that African culture is never monolithic. It differs from tribe to tribe, ethnic group to ethnic group, and from nation to nation. We have a linkage between us African Americans and Africans. We both share African genetic ancestry, we have the motivation to desire liberty, we have worked together in social movements (like the Civil Rights Movement in America and in the anti-apartheid movement), and we honor the concepts of family and culture. Also, we have differences as we black Americans have formed unique staples of culture like soul food, jazz, hip hop, rock R&B, and political movements that stood up against slavery, for civil rights, and for reparations. These distinctions of culture are found throughout the African Diaspora like in the Caribbean and in Brazil. Likewise, we have unity as being people of black African heritage with a grandiose amount of wisdom to share. After the end of overt European colonialism in Africa, Africans still have to fight imperialism and neo-colonialism in the 21st century. One large part of African culture is African art and crafts. Africans are known to make woodcarvings, brass, leather artworks, sculptures, paintings pottery, religious headgear, dress, and ceremonial clothing. The Yoruba and other West African people are known to make terracotta head sculptures. Clothing is diverse in African and African cuisine (filled with fruits, cereal grains vegetables, milk, and meat products).
The cooking of Southern Africa is sometimes called 'rainbow cuisine', as the food in this region is a blend of many culinary traditions, including those of the Khoisan, Bantu, European, and Asian populations. Basic ingredients include seafood, meat products (including wild game), poultry, as well as grains, fresh fruits, and vegetables. Fruits include apples, grapes, mangoes, bananas and papayas, avocados, oranges, peaches, and apricots. Desserts may simply be fruit. However, there are some more Western-style puddings, such as the Angolan Cocada amarela, which was inspired by Portuguese cuisine. Meat products include lamb, as well as game like venison, ostrich, and impala. The seafood includes a wide variety such as crayfish, prawns, tuna, mussels, oysters, calamari, mackerel, and lobster. A typical West African meal is heavy with starchy items, meat, spices, and flavors. A wide array of staples is eaten across the region, including of Fufu, Banku and Kenkey (originating from Ghana), Foutou, Couscous, Tô, and Garri, which are served alongside soups and stews. Fufu is often made from starchy root vegetables such as yams, cocoyams, or cassava, but also from cereal grains like millet, sorghum, or plantains. The staple grain or starch varies from region to region and ethnic group to ethnic group. However, corn has gained significant ground as it is cheap, swells to greater volumes, and creates a beautiful white final product that is greatly desired. Banku and Kenkey are maize dough staples, and Gari is made from dried grated cassavas. Rice dishes are also widely eaten in the region, especially in the dry Sahel belt inland. Examples of these include Benachin from The Gambia and Jollof rice, a pan-West African rice dish similar to Arabic kabsah. Much of modern sub-Saharan African music has been influenced by jazz, salsa, and R&B music from the Americas.
Solutions are very important. We live in a new decade of the 2020s, and we're very powerful people. One major solution is to look within ourselves to realize that your human dignity matters. At the end of the day, nothing changes unless we change. Even God allows us to have a mind and a body for the reason to make solutions, honor our heritage, and respect what we are made to be. We are thankful to have melanin (and appreciative of our nose, lips, face, and features that God made us to be as black human beings), to have a family, and to have this opportunity of life to achieve great accomplishments. Also, we ought to solve problems in our communities using constructive actions. It is not enough to criticize problems, though that is important. At the end of the day, we have to form a code of conduct, invest in mentors, support black men and black women who are doing the work, and be the real change that makes our community stronger globally. Also, it is important to reject blaming all black women (the most disrespected woman on Earth) and reject all blaming black men (the most disrespected man on Earth) for all evils in the human race. This blame game has nothing to do with promoting accountability (as all human beings must have accountability). This blaming people collectively has to do with causing tensions and escaping the responsibility to be in the purpose of the building. Those, who make a living disparaging black women especially are lower than low as misogynoir is very much an epidemic worldwide, not just in America. Only a traitor obsesses with disparaging a black woman in offensive ways as the black woman is the Mother of all in the human race. Also, the black man should be treated with dignity and respect too. The common lie is that we are human islands who can just live isolated lives and things for the better can occur. The truth is that no human is a complete island, and we must establish networks of power where single people, married people, and all people can form more unity. Many people talking about growing generational wealth are right. There ought to be plans to grow relationships, and marriages, and form wealth passed down from generation to generation. This requires not only financial literacy. There must be an active program to confront poverty and economic inequality in the black community because the status quo remains if nothing is done to help the black poor human beings among us. If a person refuses to fight for the eradication of poverty in America, that person is not a true revolutionary. Massive housing costs, high inflation of groceries, and homelessness are unacceptable in the 21st century especially. These evils must end. We are entitled to full reparations as many Jewish people, many Native Americans, and many Japanese Americans have received reparations historically. Our ancestors were enslaved, raped, and terrorized without just compensation to this very day in America. Pan black African Unity is important to promote because our cultural differences as black people don't deny our unified common origin. When other ethnic groups like Jewish people, Arabic people, Irish people, Italian people, Latino people, Scottish people, Indian people, Native American people, etc. unify to form schools, universities, museums, and other institutions (which these ethnic groups have every right to do), there is little to no criticism by the mainstream public. When black people decide to legitimately unify, then lawyers and others sue in claiming the lie of discrimination. That tells me that pan-African black unity among the black African Diaspora makes perfect sense to develop culture, the arts, STEM, and political plus economic power among black people internationally. We must always oppose colonialism, imperialism, sexism, and any form of oppression as our people (black then and today) are victims of those same evils. We are not barbarians. We are human beings entitled to liberty, justice, equality, and the pursuit of happiness just like everyone else. Health and fitness must be promoted more in our community. This means exercising and confronting racial inequalities that persist in the health care system. When I recently found out that excessive alcohol usage can contribute to dementia, brain cognition damage, and Alzheimer's disease, then I have to encourage all human beings worldwide to never drink alcohol excessively. That is common sense. Self-defense is a God-given right. There is no victory without fighting evil. Good and evil exist in the Universe and using self-defense is a keyway in ensuring human survival. You have to sacrifice to have true freedom. That sacrifice requires morals and ethics. We fight evil by doing good. We reject unjust violence, we reject abuse, we reject racism, and we reject dehumanizing of other human beings of any background. We believe in righteous actions, including legitimate self-defense if necessary, in solving problems. Developing future generations of powerful black descendants is legitimate. That is the way it is. Even our enemies show a measure of respect for us in using self-defense, standing on our principles unapologetically, and being firm in our views in instances. Life is about building, establishing institutions, forming legacies, growing intellectual, developing spiritual strength, and desiring that prize of justice that we all deserve.
For thousands of years, African people have existed on this Earth as the first humans in world history. Today, we face many challenges. People are fighting for voting rights when the 1965 Voting Rights has been stripped of many of its provisions by the Supreme Court plus many state governments (not just in the South but nationwide). We also have climate change, economic inequality, poverty, and other problems that must be solved or rectified. Internationally, the black African Diaspora has been vibrant with diverse cultures and contributions to the human race in general. That is why it is important in our generation to get up and be part of the activism process. Standing around complaining without action doesn't make any sense. We have to speak up for our rights and stand up and be active in promoting our rights too. We do this for our ancestors who suffered the most vicious forms of slavery, rape, and other forms of oppression in human history. It is literally a miracle that we are here, and that shows the resiliency of the human spirit and the power of the Most High God.
There are tons of power sources used in machines. Early machines used human and animal resources. Today, we have tons of energy sources. Waterwheels appeared around the world around 300 B.C. to use flowing water to generate rotary motion, which was applied to milling grain, and powering lumber, machining, and textile operations. Modern water turbines use water flowing through a dam to drive an electric generator. Early windmills captured wind power to generate rotary motion for milling operations. Modern wind turbines also drive a generator. This electricity in turn is used to drive motors forming the actuators of mechanical systems. The word engine derives from "ingenuity" and originally referred to contrivances that may or may not be physical devices. A steam engine uses heat to boil water contained in a pressure vessel; the expanding steam drives a piston or a turbine. This principle can be seen in the aeolipile of Hero of Alexandria. This is called an external combustion engine. An automobile engine is called an internal combustion engine because it burns fuel (an exothermic chemical reaction) inside a cylinder and uses the expanding gases to drive a piston. A jet engine uses a turbine to compress air which is burned with fuel so that it expands through a nozzle to provide thrust to an aircraft, and so is also an "internal combustion engine."
The heat from coal and natural gas combustion in a boiler generates steam that drives a steam turbine to rotate an electric generator. A nuclear power plant uses heat from a nuclear reactor to generate steam and electric power. This power is distributed through a network of transmission lines for industrial and individual use. Electric motors use either AC or DC electric current to generate rotational movement. Electric servomotors are the actuators for mechanical systems ranging from robotic systems to modern aircraft. Hydraulic and pneumatic systems use electrically driven pumps to drive water or air respectively into cylinders to power linear movement. Chemicals and materials can also be sources of power. They may chemically deplete or need re-charging, as is the case with batteries, or they may produce power without changing their state, which is the case for solar cells and thermoelectric generators. All of these, however, still require their energy to come from elsewhere. With batteries, it is the already existing chemical potential energy inside. In solar cells and thermoelectrics, the energy source is light and heat respectively. There is nuclear power used as an energy resource too.
Vice President Kamala Harris recently gave an impassionate speech at Selma, Alabama in a historic speech. She was near the Edmund Pettus Bridge where Bloody Sunday took place 59 years ago. This was when innocent men, women, and children were brutally assaulted unjustly by crooked police officers, many of them were on horseback. John Lewis almost died in the incident, and he was assaulted during the Freedom Rides era, which was years prior. Selma was the place where people wanted to fight for voting rights as it is the birthright of Americans. Kamala Harris made it explicitly clear that the suffering of the Palestinian people must be recognized, and an immediate ceasefire for six weeks must happen. She also said that the tragedy of Palestinians dying and the massive number of people in Gaza starving is not a path that we should take. She reaffirmed Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas (which is a terrorist organization), but she wanted Israel to do more to send humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in Gaza, including opening up for route for food to go into areas. Some of her statements in public went far and beyond what President Biden has said in public about the Middle Eastern crisis. At the end of the day, either Biden or Trump will be President. Vice President Kamala Harris condemned the suppression of voting rights in America now in 2024, the agenda of whitewashing black history, and the harm done to the rights of other human beings in America. In November 2024 after the Paris Olympics, I will vote for democracy.
Recently, I found out information about my paternal 3rd cousin named Robert E. Jones. He lived from December 16, 1961, to August. 6, 2019. We share the same ancestor of Adam D. and Georgianna Tillery (1868-1954). It starts with Adam D. and Georgianna Tillery having a daughter named Leatte D. (b. 1897). My great-grandaunt Leatte D. married Robert Floyd Williams (1898-1976) on December 23, 1917 at Martin, North Carolina. One of their numerous children was Beatrice Latrice Williams (1918-2010). Beatrice Latrice Williams married Suvalu Jones (1918-1992). The family moved from North Carolina into the city of Waterbury, Connecticut via the Great Migration. One of their daughters was Betty Leatrice Jones Warren (1939-1999) and she married Robert L. Warren (1937-1966). She had a child with Robert Collins named Robert E. Jones (1961-2019). Robert E. Jones married Sharon L. Roberts-Jones in January 2016. Robert detailed cars, laughed, and honored his children plus his grandchildren. Robert E. Jones's four brothers are Edward, Ronnie Warren (b. 1961), Joseph Sr, and Steven Warren (b. 1966). His sister is Veronica. Robert E. Jones has six daughters whose names are Aishia Nl Jones (b. 1980), Tamara Jones (b. 1981), Latoya Jones (b. 1981), Akia Jones (b. 1982), Rotia Traniece Jones (b. 1984), and Quashant C. Roberts (b. 1991).
By Timothy
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