THE STRUCTURE OF AFRICALOGICAL SOCIAL SCIENCE REVOLUTIONS:THE CASE OF ANCIENT AFROCENTRIC HISTORICAL STUDIES
Abstract
In this post we examine the structure of the africalogical ancient history scientific methods, paradigms and heroes. We also explain and discuss the major empirical generalizations associated with the africalogical study of ancient history and the "Ancient Model" and how they predicted the immense role Africans played in not only in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece, but also the rise of civilization in ancient China and the Americas.
The African -American is a product of his cultural and historical experience in the United States and the legacy of his African heritage. This cultural and historical dichotomy has greatly influenced the africalogical study of early history.
Due to the African heritage of African Americans, scholars from this group have used africalogy to study their history for almost two hundred years. Africalogy is the "afrocentric study of phenomena, events, ideas and personalities related to Africa" (Asante, 1990, 4). The "africalogical enterprise" include any geographical region where Africans exist today or formerly inhabited in ancient times.
In the africalogical social sciences, researchers look at the history and society of African people from an African centered or afrocentric perspective. The Afrocentrist connects Africans in America and elsewhere to thousands of years of history and civilization.
The Afrocentric study of early history (ASEH) is a mature science . Ancient afrocentric historical studies is a human science which seeks to explain historical, social and cultural experiences of Black\African people in ancient times.
The role of mature Afrocentric human\social science research is to detail the "Ancient Model" of history (Winters, 1994; Bernal, 1987, 1991). It is the "Ancient Model" of history which provides the essential directions and map-making of the africalogical study of early history. Kuhn (1996) noted that:
Normal science consists in the actualization of that
promise, an actualization achieved by extending the knowledge of those facts that the paradigm displays as particularly revealing, by increasing the extent of the match between those facts and the paradigm's predictions, and by further articulation of the paradigm itself (p.24).
The "Ancient Model" of history practiced by Afrocentric researchers of history is based on the classical literature and the Old Testament. The classical scholars: Herodutus, Homer and Strabo made it clear that Egypt and civilizations in Europe and Asia were founded by Black\African people.
Herodutus made it clear from his comparison of the black Colchis and Egyptians that both of these peoples were ethnically Black Africans (Rawlinson, 1928, 88). Herodutus also made it clear that the Egyptians founded colonies in Greece (Rawlinson, 1928).
Strabo in his Geography (Book 1, Chap.3, par.10), inspite of his chauvisim maintained that "Egyptians settled Ethiopia and Colchis". In addition, Diodorus of Sicily wrote that:
The Ethiopians say that the Egyptians are one of their colonies which was brought in[to] Egypt by Osiris. They even allege that this country was originally under water....(Diop, 1974, 1-2).
In addition to the works of Homer, Diodorus and Herodutus, other classical writers made it clear that the Egyptians (Graves, 1980, 27-30) and Libyans (Graves, 1980, 31-35, 44-45) settled Greece and parts of the Aegean.
The Old Testament literature also implied that the early civilizations of the world were all founded by Black\Africans. In the Book of Genesis (x, 6-16) we discover that Black people, the children of Ham, founded civilization in Egypt, Kush, Phoenicia, and Mesopotamia.
As a result of the "Ancient Model" developed by the classical and Biblical writers we find that Blacks were early civilizers of the world. The paradigm or empirical generalization for the "Ancient Model" of ancient history stated simply is:Egypt, Ethiopia, Greece and Mesopotamia was first inhabited and civilized by Blacks\Africans in early times.
Moreover, the archaeological evidence makes it clear that the ancient people of Egypt, Greece and Mesopotamia possessed a highly developed science. They also possessed writing: Libyco-Berber (or the Manding writing), Proto-Sumerian/ Proto-Elamite writing, Egyptian hieroglyphics and demotic, and the cuneiform writing of the Sumerians, Elamites and Akkadians/Babylonians (Winters, 1985a).
This model of history was normal social science until the beginning of the Atlantic Slave trade. During the Atlantic Slave trade, Africans were sold into bondage in Europe and of Americas. To justify this inhuman, vile and mean trade in human beings European philosophers in the 18th century created and "Aryan Model" of history to explain their domination of the Amerindians , and African slaves in the Western Hemisphere.
The "Aryan Model" of history, contrary to the "Ancient Model" of the classical and Biblical writers, maintains that Greek civilization was founded by Indo-European speaking Greeks, and that each ancient civilization was founded autonomously by the people who presently live in modern Asia, Europe and Egypt.
A "typical" example of the proponents the "Aryan Model"is David Hume. The Scottish philosopher David Hume (1875) attempted to prove the inferiority of African Americans, and Blacks in general in 1753, when he observed that there was a "lack of learning among them" (Vol. 1, 252). In other words, the alleged "universal illiteracy" among African slaves was evidence of their inferiority. In addition, Hume cited other alleged deficits of Blacks including 1) the absence of kingdoms among them; 2) the lack of literacy; 3) the dark complexion evidenced inferiority; and 4) the Blacks\Africans possessed no arts, no science and no letters (Hume, 1875).
Hume (1875) and later European philosophers abandoned the "Ancient Model" of history and created the "Aryan Model" due to their European centeredness. this Eurocentric view of history, culture and society placed Europe and Europeans at the center of social and cultural universal.
At the base of Eurocentricism is the doctrine of white supremacy. This ideological foundation aims to thwart the African-Americans search for manhood and self-assertion, when ever they encounter intensified prejudice by white Americans.
A major component of Eurocentricism is the notion of African-American intellectual inferiority. As a result, European scholars can write and research the history of any people on earth. African-Americans on the otherhand, are believed to lack the intellectual capacity to conduct research, let alone write history.
Due to the alleged intellectual inferiority of Africans it is believed that they are unsuited to write ancient history, international affairs, or archaeology. This may result from several factors especially racial bias and social position. These factors are important ,because of the fact that formerly persons writing on these topics usually came from well-to-do families that could provide them with the capital to undertake research activities abroad. This belief by many researchers has ghettoized many African American scholars and authors , to writing only about slavery, the slave trade and/or the cycle of poverty typified by life in the urban centers of the United States.
In the 19th century, many African American freemen knew how to read and write. They were also expert in Latin and Greek, and were intimately familiar with the classical and Old Testament literature. These African American scholars, contrary to many contemporary scholars began to conduct their own research and revive the "Ancient Model" of history in the 19th century and founded the africalogical study of ancient history (ASAH).
Philosophical Basis for the
Africalogical study of ancient history
There are four philosophical schools associated with the afrocentric study of ancient history: perennialist, essentialist, existentialist, and progressivist. The taxonomic system we use to classify the various afrocentric philosophical positions and related values affecting afrocentrism are modeled on philo-sophical developments associated with education.
We can use taxonomies of educational philosophies to discuss any proposed afrocentric curriculum because both education and philosophy are "cultural experiences". Moreover, because afrocentrism seeks to explain and delineate the story of African people, it clearly is a field of study which encompasses all aspects of the culture of Black and African people (Asante, 1990, 1991; Winters, 1994).
The perennialist afrocentrists study the great works. The adherents of this school include Martin Delaney (1978), Cornish and Russwurm (1827), Frederick Douglas (1966), and Edward Blyden (1869). These Afrocentrists see knowledge as truth, which is eternal.
The essentialist afrocentric school emphasize in their writing data that is well established through scientific research. Afrocentrists of this philosophical school include W. E. B. DuBois (1965, 1970), John Jackson (1974), C.A. Winters (1985, 1989, 1991, 1994) and Leo Hansberry (1981). They believe that as new research is published, it should be analyzed to discover how it relates to the ancient history of African and Black people to enrich our understanding of the past.
The existentialist afrocentrists believe that africalogical studies should thrive to teach African people to know more about themselves so we can have a better world. The afrocentric existentialists include J.A. Rogers, Anta Diop (1974, 1991), G.M. James (1954), Marcus Garvey (1966) and A.A. Schomburg (1979).
Dr. Winters has written extensively on the ancient history of the African diaspora. He has numerous sites on the web were explains the ancient history of African people. His major work is
The final afrocentric philosophical school is the progressivist. The afrocentric school of progressivism believes that we should have knowledge of the process and futuristic focus on afrocentric studies. The major exponent of this frame of reference is Molefi K. Asante (1991).
In regards to the afrocentric view that the Egyptians were Black Africans we must look to the afrocentric perennialists. The perennialists founded the afrocentric ancient history curriculum. The perennialist school is associated with Frederick Douglas (1966) and Martin Delaney (1978). These Afrocentrists writing in the 19th century placed the great works of the past center stage in the formulation of their afrocentric ancient history knowledge base.
The perennialists postulated that you should use the Bible and the writings of the classical scholars who recognized the "Ancient Model" of history (i.e., Blacks played a major role in ancient history) in deciding on what to teach people about the ancient history of African Americans. The Old Testament provides annals of the ancient Empires of Africa and Mesopotamia.
In the Old Testament the Blacks are recognized as the sons of Ham. According to the Old Testament narrative found in the Book of Genesis (10:6), the children of Ham, are alleged to be the founders of all the ancient civilizations including Kush (the Ta Seti, and C-Group cultures of Nubia and the Sudan; the Sumerians of Mesopotamia and the Elamites of Iran), Mizraim (the founder of the Egyptians), Phut (the civilizations of ancient Ethiopia/ South Arabia), and Canaan (the early Canaanites and Hatians of ancient Palestine). The Old Testament narrative and the classical literature was important to the perennialists because it already recognized the division of Black people of Africa into two groups: the Semitic (Canaan and Phut) speakers and Black African (Egypt, Sumer and Elam) speakers (Winters 1985, 1989, 1991).
Africalogical Paradigms of ancient history
As a result of the "Ancient Model" scientific efforts of africalogical ancient history researchers of the diverse philosophical schools discussed above is organized around two theoretical or empirical generalizations\paradigms. An empirical generalization is 'an isolated proposition summarizing observed uniformities of relationships between two or more variables" (Merton, 1957, 95), a "scientific law" is "a statement of invariance derivable from a theory" (Merton, 1957, 96).
The two paradigms associated with ASAH developed by the perennialist afrocentric scholars are:
(1) Black\African people are the children of Ham;
(2) Blacks founded the first civilizations in Asia
(Sumer, Babylon and Elam), Africa (Egypt, Ethiopia
and Libya\ North Africa) and Europe (Greece and
Crete).
The normal scientific research in africalogical ancient historical studies is directed toward the articulation of those phenomena and theories supplied by the ASAH to deduce new paradigms.
Due to the foundation of africalogical ancient research by the afrocentric perennialists, ASAH research is paradigm based. As a result, africalogical ancient historical fact-gathering, that is the historical, linguistic and anthropological data through which afrocentric scientists inform their colleagues ( and the public at large) is based on these paradigms.
The theoretical paradigms of the ASAH provide africalogical researchers with the criterion for choosing the problems and solutions to social science phenomena including:
(1) the design of research phenomena;
(2) the maps or areas of research; and
(3) the interpretation of research results.
The paradigms for ASAH predicted four hypothesis that were unknown at the time the "Ancient Model" of history was developed, to guide the development of scientific knowledge for the africalogical study of early history. These propositions based on the "Ancient Model" are:
(1) If Blacks founded civilization in Asia and Africa , they may have influenced civilization in the Americas.
(2) If Blacks founded civilization in West Asia, Africa and Europe, archaeological data will support their earlier presence in these regions of the world.
(3) If Blacks founded the first civilizations, they also invented writing and other elements of social and scientific technology.
(4) If Blacks founded civilization they probably founded civilization throughout Asia and Europe.
Given the two empirical paradigms and four predicted hypothesis related to the "Ancient Model", africalogical ancient history research should increase the precision of the application of afrocentric research methods and scope of research in this area so as to answer three questions in the mature afrocentric social science. Research in the afrocentric social sciences seeks to answer three classes of questions based on the ASAH paradigms:
(1) the determination of significant ASAH facts;
(2) the match of ASAH facts with theory; and
(3) the articulation of ASAH theory.
The normative function of the ASAH paradigms provides the afrocentric ancient history researchers with shared paradigms, or points of view that help define how s/he will research ancient history. These paradigms insure that africalogical researchers use the "Ancient Model" of research, as opposed to the "Aryan Model" of research to illuminate the early history of Black/African people.
The Africalogical ancient history paradigms developed by Delany (1978), Douglas (1966), Edward Blyden (1869) and Cornish and Russwurm (1827) form the theoretical base for ASAH research. In normal afrocentric social science research new paradigms have to 1) be related to the older theories; and 2) they must be compatible with already established rules for research modeled by the afrocentric perennialists.
The study of Africans in ancient America has been fruitful. Dr. Leo Wiener, in Africa and the Discovery of America was the first to recognize that the ancient civilizations of Mexico had been incluenced by Africans. He was especially sure that the Mande speaking people influenced the religion and civilization of the Aztec and Maya people; and that the writing on the Tuxtla statuette was written in the Mande writing system.Later Ivan van Sertima wrote an important book which highlighted the influence of Africans in Mexico. In They Came before Columbus, van Sertima discussed the African influence on the Olmec civilization, and the discovery of America by Abubakari, a ruler of the Mali empire in the 1300's A.D.
Dr. Clyde Winters has written extensively on the African origins of the Olmec. He deciphered the Olmec language and since then he has published numerous websites where he discussed the Olmec Kings and their civilization. The most important work of Dr. Winters is
Verification in Ancient Africalogical Research
Afrocentric social scientists use confirmation to verify the africalogical paradigm rather than falsification. Confirmatory knowledge is based on generalizing as a result of observation. Whereas confirmation is based on observation of observable facts, the aim of falsification is the rejection of an established theory.
The afrocentric scientific community seeks to obtain from their research one of three outcomes 1) confirmed (or corroborated) predictions based on the ASAH paradigm; 2) mixed outcomes, or 3) disconfirmed predictions based on the "Ancient Model".
New paradigms resulting from africalogical ancient history research must have internal and external validity. Internal validity is the logical relationship between "facts" and reality, while external validity needs "empirical studies" or test to support any hypothesis.
After the end of slavery in the United States, the africalogical scientific community began to conduct research to support the work done by the perennialists. The heroes in the founding of the africalogical ancient social science were usually professionally trained at Eastern Universities such as Harvard and Yale. Although, afrocentric researchers received training at prestigious Universities their research was usually conducted outside of the "established" academy.
Vehicles for Dissemination of Research
Afrocentric researchers of the ASAH have presented the evidence to follow afrocentric science and the public in various ways. As mentioned earlier, afrocentric researchers have rarely been professionally affiliated with institutions of higher learning. As a result, the Dissemination of africalogical research has usually been presented in a public forum.
Newspapers and magazines have been the major media africalogical researchers use to inform the public and their colleagues about the ancient history of African Americans. In the 19th century the Freedom Journal, and religious publications like the Methodist Quarterly Review, published articles on africalogical ancient history.
In the early 20th century as more African Americans became literate, we see the founding of numerous organizations that brought afrocentric scientists together to discuss and teach ancient history from an afrocentric perspective including the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) founded by Marcus Garvey; and the Hamitic League of the World.
The UNIA's Negro World, edited by William Ferres, published many afrocentric articles. During its lengthy period of publication many afrocentric social scientists wrote for this popular African American newspaper including Carter G. Woodson, J.A. Rogers and George W. Parker.
Some afrocentric articles were also published in the Journal of Negro History (JNH). Carter G. Woodson founded not only JNH, but also the Negro History Bulletin, and Associated Publishers.
Up until World War II, many African American newspapers carried stories about Blacks in ancient times. Some of the popular African American dailies which published afrocentric articles during this period were the Chicago Daily Defender, and Amsterdam News.
In the 1970's we see a number of publications that included africalogical material among the articles they published. These seminal publications for archaelogical research in the 1970's include the Black World, The Black Scholar, Journal of Black Studies (San Francisco State University), Journal of African Civilization, Return to the Source (Chicago), and the black books bulletin (Chicago).
Scholarly Language of the Afrocentric
Scientific Community
To study ancient afrocentric studies the africalogical researcher has had to become skilled in understanding and reading non-English languages. DuBois (1970) noted that: The time has not yet come for a complete history of the Negro peoples. Archaeological research in Africa has
just begun, and many sources of information in Arabian,Portuguese, and other tongues are not fully at our command....(p.3).
For the heroes of africalogical research such as Delany, Blyden, DuBois, Parker, Perry and Williams, a knowledge of Latin and \or Greek were a requirement for normal scientific study of the classical and Old Testament literature which served as the basis for the creation of the theoretical paradigms associated with ASAH.
In addition to possessing a reading knowledge of these Eurocentric classical languages for Western thought, africalogical researchers have also had to have a knowledge of modern European languages. This has been necessary because of the fact that much of the research supporting the ASAH paradigms has usually been published in French and German. One of the reasons that many of the contemporary africalogical researchers interested in early history use outdated references in their work, is due to their ignorance of French and German.
Proficiency in a language other than English, helped africalogical researchers conduct the normal africalogical social science. It was DuBois' (1965, 1970) and Hansberry's knowledge of German that allowed these afrocentrists to conduct research into the role of Blacks in Egypt and Ethiopia. J.A. Rogers mastered many languages including French and German to prove that Blacks inhabited almost every continent on the globe. Dr. C. A. Winters (1977,1981\1982, 1985, 1991, 1994) had to learn Arabic, Chinese, Malinke, Portuguese, Otomi, Mayan, Swahili, Tamil and Tokharian (Kushana) to conduct his africalogical studies of Blacks in Asia and the Americas.
In the 1960's due to the rise of independence in the east African country of Tanzania, Swahili became a language used by africalogical scientists. Swahili terms were used to explain and define the phenomena associated with africalogy. This is one of the reasons that the terms used in the Kwanza ceremonies practiced by blacks are Swahili lexical items (Coleman, 1971).
Swahili is still among africalogical researchers but today Egyptian is recognized as the classical language for africalogical research (Wimby, 1980). Diop (1974,1991) popularized the idea that Egyptian should be used as the classical language for the study of ancient africalogical language and historical studies. As a result, most of the africalogical researchers today concentrate on Egypt and use Egyptian terms to explain the culture and Proto-African language of Africa people (Carruthers, 1977,1980).
The Africalogical Textbooks
The foundation of any mature science is its articulation in an authoritive text (Kuhn, 1996, 136). The africalogical textbooks published by Hopkins (1905), Perry (1893) and Williams (1883) provided the vocabulary themes for further afrocentric social science research.
The pedagogy for ancient africalogical research was well established by the end of the 19th century by African American researchers well versed in the classical languages and knowledge of Greek and Latin. Cornish and Russwurm (1827) in the Freedom Journal, were the first African Americans to discuss and explain the "Ancient Model" of history. These afrocentric social scientists used the classics to prove that the Blacks founded civilization in Egypt, Ethiopia, Babylon and Ninevah. Cornish and Russwurm (1827) made it clear that archaeological research supported the classical, or "Ancient Model" of history.
Edward Blyden (1869) also used classical sources to discuss the ancient history of African people. In his work he not only discussed the evidence for Blacks in West Asia and Egypt, he also discussed the role of Blacks in ancient America (Blyden, 1869, 78).
By 1883, africalogical researchers began to publish book on African American history. W. Williams (1883) wrote the first textbook on African American history. In the History of the Negro Race in America, Dr. Williams provided the schema for all future africalogical history text.
Dr. Williams (1883) confirmed the classical traditions for Blacks founding civilization in both Africa (Egypt, Ethiopia) and West Asia. In addition, to confirming the "Ancient Model" of history, Dr. Williams (1883) also mentioned the presence of Blacks in Indo-China and the Malay Peninsula.
A decade later R.L. Perry (1893) also presented evidence to confirm the classical traditions of Blacks founding Egypt, Greece and the Mesopotamian civilization. He also provided empirical evidence for the role of Blacks in Phoenicia, thus increasing the scope of the ASAH paradigms.
Pauline E. Hopkins (1905) added further articulation of the ASAH paradigms of the application of these paradigms in understanding the role of Blacks in West Asia and Africa. Hopkins (1905) provided further confirmation of the role of Blacks in Southeast Asia, and expanded the scope of africalogical research to China (1905).
This review of the 19th century africalogical social scientific research indicate confirmation of the "Ancient Model" for the early history of Blacks. We also see a movement away from self-published africalogical research, and publication of research, and the publication of research articles on afrocentric themes, to the publication of textbooks.
It was in these books that the paradigms associated with the "Ancient Model" and ASAH were confirmed, and given reliability by empirical research. It was these texts which provided the pedagogic vehicles for the perpetuation of the africalogical normal social science.
The afrocentric textbooks of Hopkins (1905), Perry (1893) and Williams (1883) proved the reliability and validity of the ASAH paradigms. The discussion in these text of contemporary scientific research findings proving the existence of ancient civilizations in Egypt, Nubia-Sudan (Kush), Mesopotamia, Palestine and North Africa lent congruency to the classical literature which pointed to the existence of these civilizations and these African origins ( i.e., the children of Ham= Khem =Kush?).
Dr. Winters in
The authors of the africalogical textbooks reported the latest archaeological and anthropological findings. The archaeological findings reported in these textbooks added precision to their analysis of the classical and Old Testament literature. This along with the discovery of artifacts on the ancient sites depicting Black\African people proved that the classical and Old Testament literature, as opposed to the "Aryan Model", objectively identified the Black\African role in ancient history. And finally, these textbooks confirmed that any examination of references in the classical literature to Blacks in Egypt, Kush, Mesopotamia and Greece\Crete exhibited constancy to the evidence recovered from archaeological excavations in the Middle East and the Aegean. They in turn disconfirmed the "Aryan Model", which proved to be a falsification of the authentic history of Blacks in early times.
The creation of africalogical textbooks provided us with a number of facts revealing the nature of the afrocentric ancient history paradigms. They include a discussion of:
1) the artifacts depicting Blacks found at ancient sites
recovered through archaeological excavation;
2) the confirmation of the validity of the classical and Old
Testament references to Blacks as founders of civilization in Africa and Asia;
3) the presence of isolated pockets of Blacks existing outside Africa; and
4) that the contemporary Arab people in modern Egypt are
not the descendants of the ancient Egyptians.
The early africalogical textbooks also outlined the africalogical themes research should endeavor to study. A result, of the data collected by the africalogical ancient history research pioneers led to the development of three facts by the end of the 19th century, which needed to be solved by the afrocentric paradigms:
(1) What is the exact relationship of ancient Egypt, to Blacks in other parts of Africa;
(2) How and when did Blacks settle America, Asia and Europe;
(3) What are the contributions of the Blacks to the rise, and cultural expression ancient Black\African civilizations;
(4) Did Africans settle parts of America in ancient times.
These paradigms provided the foundation for africalogical research in the 20th century.
Afrocentric Social Science Revolutions that Changed the Africalogical World View
Considerable progress has been made in the africalogical research of ancient history (DuBois, 1965, 1970; Diop, 1974,1991; Winters 1981\1982, 1991, 1994), classical studies (Parker, 1917, 1918) and the role of Blacks in ancient Indo-China and China (Winters, 1985) over the past 90 years. Marcus Garvey (1966) and DuBois (1965,1970) had a tremendous influence in the study of ancient Black history.
Marcus Garvey with the founding of the UNIA attracted many africalogical researchers to his organization. Some of these researchers wrote articles for the Negro World newspaper. These scholars formed the foundation for the africalogical scientific community including C.G Woodson, J. A. Rogers, William Ferris, Gerge W. Parker and Arthur A. Schomberg.
In addition to members of the UNIA playing a prominent role in the precision of prediction of the africalogical paradigm we find that afrocentric researchers belonging to the Hamitic League of the World (HLW), also contributed greatly to the enhancement of the "Ancient Model" and the ASAH paradigms at the turn of the 20th century. John Albert Williams founded the HLW. Two its most prominent members include G. W. Parker (1917,1918) and A.A. Schomberg (1925).
G.W. Parker greatly expanded the ASAH paradigm for classical study by providing a focused study of the role of blacks in Greece. Parker (1917) identified these ancient Afro-Greeks as Pelasgians. He also used linguistics to illustrate that the names of many Greek heroes betrayed there African, not Indo-European origin. In addition, Parker gave us the most detailed discussion of Blacks in India up to his time (Parker, 1918).
The second major confirmation for the "Ancient Model" of history was made by DuBois (1965,1970). In the Negro published in 1915, DuBois explained the African presence in Egypt and ancient Kush and a comprehensive analysis of the West African empires.
W.E.B. DuBois (1924) also firmly placed the presence of Blacks in America as a legitimate research area for africalogical researchers. In The Gift of Black Folks, discussed the Black presence in ancient America, including European references to Pre-Columbian Blacks, and the influence of Africans on the Amerindian religions (DuBois,1924). The confirmation of this paradigm was made by ( Clegg, 1975; Lawrence, 1962; Thompson, 1975; Winters, 1981\1982)
In The World and Africa, DuBois (1965) provides a full explanation of the role of Blacks in the early world. He explains the history of Blacks in China and India (pp.176-200); Blacks in Europe(the Pre-Indo-European Greeks and during the Dark Age of Greece), and Asia Minor (pp. 115-127), and the Egyptian foundation of Grecian thought (pp. 125-126).
The major revolution in the ASAH was the research of Diop (1974, 1991). Diop, a Senegalese expert on Egyptian and African history made important contributions to the ASAH paradigms, including:
1) clarification of the African role in Egypt;
2) proved positively that the West African people formerly
lived in close proximity to the Egyptians who were in many cases their ancestors;
3) made Mdu Neter the Egyptian language the classical language for ancient africalogical research; and
4) developed the genetic model as the major paradigm in
in the ASAH (Diop, 1991).
In general Diop (1974, 1991) caused an africalogical social scientific revolution because he was able to prove that Egypt was the archetypical civilization for many West Africans. This was an important discovery because almost all of the slaves that were sold in the United States had originally came from West Africa. Verification of the Egyptian origin of West Africans provided African Americans with relationship to the ancient Egyptians.
Moreover, Diop's use of linguistics, and anthropological evidence to confirm the African origin of Egypt eliminated the need for africalogical researchers to use the classical writers to prove the African origin of Egypt (Diop, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1986, 1987, 1988). This finding by Diop has led africalogical researchers to seek a better understanding of African philosophy through an interpretation of Egyptian philosophy. Moreover, africalogical researchers have also began the reconstruction of the Paleo-African language used by Blacks in prehistoric times (Anselin, 1982, 1982b, 1989; Winters, 1994) so that we will know more about the culture and civilization of the Proto-Africans.
The last major confirmation of the ASAH paradigms was made by Clyde Ahmad Winters (1977, 1979, 1981, 1983a, 1983c, 1983d, 1984,
1985) when he expanded our understanding of the role of Blacks\Africans in Indo-China, India and China; and the ancient literacy of Blacks (1979, 1983d, 1985c, 1986b). Using linguistic, anthropological and historical evidence, he proved that the earliest cultures of China and Indo-China were founded by Blacks from West Africa and modern Ethiopia (Winters, 1979, 1983d, 1985c, 1986b).
Winters also made it clear that the earliest Japanese were Blacks and that Japanese is related to African languages (Winters, 1979, 1981, 1983a, 1983c, 1984). In addition he was able to prove that the founders of Xia and Shang were of African and Dravidian origin (1983c,1985c).
Using the findings of Wiener in regards to the writing of the Olmecs Winters discovered that the Blacks from West Africa left numerous inscriptions written in the Manding language (Winters, 1977, 1979, 1983a, 1985b) . Winters later discovered that due to the cognition between the Mande writing and ancient scripts used by the Minoans and Indus Valley he could read the Indus Valley Writing and the Linear A inscriptions (1985b).
This africalogical research by Winters (1981/1982, 1983b, 1983d, 1989a, 1991, 1994) made it clear that the first civilizations in Indo-China and China were founded by Blacks. He has also proved the lie to Hume's (1875) claim that Blacks have "No literacy" and "No letters".
Conclusion
In conclusion, the africalogical study of ancient history is an empirical area of social science research founded by africalogical perennialists in the 19th century. This review of the structure of scientific revolutions in the africalogical study of ancient history has illustrated how afrocentric researchers took the theoretical paradigms of the "Ancient Model" and through verifiable research were transformed into new observations and related new africalogical ancient history paradigms. For example, the evidence of Blacks in West Asia, led to the generalization that blacks may have also inhabited early China and Japan. These hypothesis formulated in the 19th century (Hopkins, 1905; Perry, 1893), were confirmed in the 2oth century (Winters, 1980, 1981c,1983c,1985c).
The structure of africalogical social science over the past 100 years, signifies that afrocentric researchers have used the "Ancient Model" of history to deduce new paradigms supporting the African origin of ancient civilizations around the world. These new paradigms have proved to be compatible with the "Ancient Model" that the africalogical perennialists used to make their first study of the ancient history of African Americans. Moreover, the ability of Diop (1991) and Parker (1917) to expand our knowledge of the Blacks in ancient Crete and Greece are clear indications of how scientific novelty in africalogical research often emerge simultaneously from different areas.
REFERENCES
Anselin, A. (1982). Le mythe d' Europe. Paris: Editions Anthropos.
_______.(1982b). "Zeus, Ethiopien Minos Tamoul", Carbet Revue
Martinique de Sciences Humaines,no. 2:31-50.
_______.(1989). "Le Lecon Dravidienne",Carbet Revue Martinique
de Sciences Humaines, no.9:7-58.
Asante,M.A. (July-August, 1996). "Ancient Truths", Emerge , 66-70.
Asante,M.K. (1990) Kemet,Afrocentricity,and Knowledge. Trenton
,NJ:Africa World Press.
_________ (1991). "The Afrocentric idea in Education",Journal
of Negro Education,60(2):170-180.
__________.(December 1991/January 1992). "Afrocentric Curri-
culum".Educational Leadership, pp.28-31.
Bernal, M. (1996, Spring). The Afrocentric interpretation of history: Bernal replies to Lefkowitz. Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 86-95.
Bernal,M. (1987). Black Athena. New York: Free Association Press. Volume 1.
________. (1991). Black Athena. New York: Free Association Press. Volume 2.
Blyden, E.W. ( January, 1869). The Negro in ancient history.
Methodist Quarterly Review, 71-93.
Blyden, E.W. (1887). Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
_____________. (1890). The African Problem and the method for
its solution. Washington, D.C.: Gibson Brothers.
_______________.(1905). West Africa before Europe. London:
C.M. Phillips.
Clegg, L.H. (1975). Who were the first Americans? The Black
Scholar, 7(1), 32-41.
Coleman, B.E. (1971). A history of Swahili, The Black Scholar,
2 (6), 13-25.
Cornish, S. & Russwurm, J.B. (1827). European colonies in America, Freedom Journal, 1.
Carruthers, J. (1977). Writing for Eternity, black book bulletin,
5 (2), 32-35.
Carruthers, J. (1980). Reflections on the history of afrocentric
worldview, black book bulletin, 7(1), 4-13, 25.
Delany, M.R. (1978). The origin of races and color. Baltimore, M.D.: Black Classic Press.
Diop,C.A. (1974). The African Origin of Civilization. (ed. & Trans) by Mercer Cook, Westport:Lawrence Hill & Company.
_________.(1977). Parente genetique de l'Egyptien Pharaonique et
des Languaes Negro-Africaines. Dakar: IFAN ,Les Nouvelles
Editions Africaines.
__________.(1978) The Cultural Unity of Black Africa. Chicago: Third World Press.
__________. (1981). A Methodology for the study of migration.
UNESCO (Ed.), African Ethnonyms and Toponyms, (pp.87-110).
Paris: UNESCO.
___________.(1986). "Formation of the Berber Branch". In Libya
Antiqua. (ed.) by Unesco,(Paris: UNESCO) pp.69-73.
____________.(1987). Precolonial Black Africa. (trans. ) by
Harold Salemson, Westport: Lawrence Hill & Company.
____________.(1988). Nouvelles recherches sur l'Egyptien ancient
et les langues Negro-Africaines Modernes. Paris: Presence
Africaine.
_____________(1991). Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology. (trans.) by Yaa-Lengi Meema Ngemi and (ed.) by
H.J. Salemson and Marjoliiw de Jager, Westport:Lawrence
Hill and Company.
Douglas, F. (1966). The claims of the Negro ethnologically considered. In H. Brotz (Ed.), Negro social and political
thought (pp. 226-244). New York: Basic Books, Inc., Pub.
DuBois, W.E.B. (1924). The Gift of Black Folks. Boston.
DuBois, W.E.B. (1970). The Negro. New York: Oxford University
Press.
DuBois, W.E.B. (1965). The world and Africa. New York :
International Publishers Co., Inc.
Ferris, W.H. (1913). The African abroad. 2 vols. New Haven,CT
:Tuttle, Morehouse and Taylor.
Garvey, M. (1966). Who and What is a Negro. In H. Brotz (Ed.), Negro social and political thought (pp. 560-562).New York: Basic Books, Inc. Publishers.
Graves, Robert. (1980). The Greek Myths. Middlesex:Peguin Books
Ltd. 2 volumes.
Hansberry, L.H. (1981). Africa and Africans: As seen by classical
writers (Vol. 2). Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press.
Hopkins, P.E. (1905). A Primer of Facts pertaining to the early greatness of the african race and the possibility of restoration by its descendants-with epilogue. Cambridge: P.E. Hopkins & Com.
Hume, D. (1875). Essays: Moral political and literary. T.H. Green
and T.H. Grose. 2 Vols. London.
Jackson, J. (1974). Introduction to African civilization.
Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press.
James, G.M. (1954). Stolen legacy. New York: Philosophical Library.
Kuhn, T.S. (1996). The structure of scientific revolution.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lacouperie, Terrien de. (1891). The black heads of Babylonia and ancient China, The Babylonian and Oriental Record, 5 (11), 233-246.
Lawrence, H.G. (1962). African explorers of the New World,
The Crisis, 321-332.
Merton, R.K. (1957). Social theory aand social structure.
Glencoe, Ill. : The Free Press.
Moitt,B. (1989). "Chiekh Anta Diop and the African Diaspora:
Historical Continuity and Socio-Cultural Symbolism".
Presence Africaine, no. 149-150:347-360.
Parker,G.W. (1917) . "The African Origin of Grecian Civilization
".Journal of Negro History, 2(3):334-344.
___________. (1981). The Children of the Sun. Baltimore,Md.:
Black Classic Press.
Perry, R.L. (1893). The Cushite. Brooklyn: The Literary Union.
Rawlinson, George. (1928).The History of Herodutus. New York
: Tudor.
Schomburg, A.A. (March, 1925).The Negro digs up his past.
Survey Graphic, 670-672.
Schomburg, A.A. (1979). Racial integrity. Baltimore, M.D.:
Black Classic Press.
Thompson, Jr. A.A. (1975). Pre-Columbian [African] presence
in the Western Hemisphere,Negro History Bulletin, 38 (7), 452-456.
Williams, G.W. (1869). History of the Negro Race in America. New York: G.P. Putnam.
Wimby, D. (1980). The Greco-Roman Tradition concerning Ethiopia and Egypt, black books bulletin, 7(1), 14-19, 25.
Winters, C.A. (1977). The influence of the Mande scripts on ancient American writing systems", Bulletin l'de IFAN, T39, serie B, no. 2 (1977), pp.941-967.
Winters, C.A. (1979). Manding Scripts in the New World", Journal of African Civilizations, l(1), 80-97.
Winters,C.A. (December 1981/ January 1982). Mexico's Black Heritage. The Black Collegian, 76-84.
Winters, C.A. (1983a). "The Ancient Manding Script". In Blacks
in Science:Ancient and Modern. (ed.) by Ivan van Sertima, (New Brunswick: Transaction Books) pp.208-215.
__________. (1983b). "Les Fondateurs de la Grece venaient d'Afrique en passant par la Crete". Afrique Histoire (Dakar), no.8:13-18.
_________. (1983c) "Famous Black Greeks Important in the development of Greek Culture". Return to the Source,2(1):8.
________.(1983d). "Blacks in Ancient China, Part 1, The Founders
of Xia and Shang", Journal of Black Studies 1 (2), 8-13.
________. (1984a). "Blacks in Europe before the Europeans".
Return to the Source, 3(1):26-33.
Winters, C.A. (1984b). Blacks in Ancient America, Colorlines, 3(2), 27-28.
Winters, C.A. (1984c). Africans found first American Civilization , African Monitor, l , pp.16-18.
_________.(1985a). "The Indus Valley Writing and related
Scripts of the 3rd Millennium BC". India Past and
Present, 2(1):13-19.
__________. (1985b). "The Proto-Culture of the Dravidians,
Manding and Sumerians". Tamil Civilization,3(1):1-9.
__________. (1985c). "The Far Eastern Origin of the Tamils",
Journal of Tamil Studies , no.27, pp.65-92.
__________.(1986). The Migration Routes of the Proto-Mande.
The Mankind Quarterly,27 (1), 77-96.
_________.(1986b). Dravidian Settlements in Ancient Polynesia.
India Past and Present, 3 (2), 225-241.
__________. (1988). "Common African and Dravidian Place Name
Elements". South Asian Anthropologist, 9(1):33-36.
__________. (1989a). "Tamil, Sumerian, Manding and the Genetic
Model". International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics,18(1):98-127.
__________. (1989b). "Review of Dr. Asko Parpola's 'The Coming of the Aryans'",International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, 18(2):98-127.
__________. (1990). "The Dravido-Harappan Colonization of Central Asia". Central Asiatic Journal, 34(1/2):120-144.
___________. (1991). "The Proto-Sahara". The Dravidian Encyclopaedia, (Trivandrum: International School of Dravidian Linguistics) pp.553-556. Volume l.
----------.(1994). Afrocentrism: A valid frame of reference, Journal of Black Studies, 25 (2), 170-190.
_________.(1994b). The Dravidian and African laguages, International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, 23 (1), 34-52.
Woodson, C.G. & Wesley, C.H. (1972). The Negro in Our History. Washington, D.C. Associated Publisher.
