Pyramid Building in Africa

Pyramid building was not only restricted to Egypt.  There is a line of Saharan pyramid cultures stretching from Sudan to the Atlantic coast.


Sudan




Garamente tombs




Tomb of Askia - Songhai Empire



This pyramid building expertise was later taken to Meso-America

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African religious / political tradition transferred from Africa to Mexico

There was a transfer of African religious traditions to Mexico. 



Given the discovery of numerous Olmec artifacts depicting Blacks begs a number of questions: “Were there Black or African people in ancient America? Do the African heads of the Olmec confirm an African presence in Mexico or do they show present-day Mayan people? What is the relation between contemporary Black Costa Chicas (negrocostachicanos) and Blacks depicted in Olmec artifacts?







The God Ekchuah



Note how the Mayan chief painted himself Black to welcome Ekchuah. Also look at how the leading personage before the Black travler kneels.



Vase from Chama Guatemala

The idea of mestizaje was developed by Jose Vascoucelos. Mr. Vascouselos became Minister of Education in 1921. During his tenure Black heroes of Mexican history were whitened as Vascoucelos pursued a policy of homogenization of Mexicans (Cuevas, 2004).

In 1946, Black Mexicans were rediscovered by Aguirre Beltran (1972) when he found the Blacks in Costa Chica. This was a rediscovery because the idea of mestizaje stressed the idea that there were only Mexicans, and not Amerindians, Whites or Blacks. The only problem with this idea was that Black Mexicans became associated with poverty and ignorance. These Blacks also experience much discrimination throughout Mexico, and much hostility in Costa Chica (Vaugh, 2005a, 2005b).

The Negrocostachicanos claim that they have never been slaves and are indigenous to Guererro and Oaxaca on the Pacific coast of Mexico. The 1990 Mexican census recorded 66,000 Negrocostachicanos. These Mexicans live in African style huts and practice rituals which may be of African origin (Vaugh,2005a).

Most researchers believe that the Negrocostachicanos are decendants of marrons or runaway slaves (Aguirre Beltran, 1972; Vaugh,2005a). But none of the Blacks of Costa Chica have songs about slavery and its hardships (Baja.com.2005).The Negrocostachicanos say “they are not they insist, the descendants of African slaves. There was never slavery here, even in ancient times” (Baja.com,2005). Bobby Vaugh (2005b) noted that he found “no consciousness of slavery among people in Costa Chica” (p.5). Another researcher, noted that “Housewives in San Jose Estancia Grande and Santiago Tapextla [in Costa Chica] say their ancestors did not come from Africa, that their families have always lived right here” (Baja.com, 2005, p.6).
The fact that the Negrocostachicanos claim that they were never slaves has troubled some researchers who believe that the only Blacks in Mexico came to the New World with the Spanish. Although this is the popular view concerning the origin of Blacks in Mexico, this view may be Eurocentric because the archaeological and historical evidence indicate that Blacks were already in Mexico when the Spanish made there way to Mexico.

Leo Wiener in the African Discovery of America (1922), provides a detailed account of the Black gods of Mexico in the third volume in this series of books. Wiener outlined that the Blacks were traveling merchants in Mexico selling cocao, feathers and other products.
The major Black gods of the Mexicans was Quetzalcoalt, and the Mayan gods L and M, Xaman and Ekchuah these gods are depicted in the Codex Troano(Wiener, 1921, [vol.3] p.258). Sahagun tells us that Ekchuah was also the god of the Amanteca. The Nahuatl term Amanteca, was probably the name of the Mandinka or Mandinga people who were the foundation of the Olmec people (Winters, 2005).


Ekchuah and the Mayan God M, was the god of merchants and warriors. He is also depicted in the Codex Cortesianus and 17 times in the Madrid Codex.

Ten elements from Olmec Culture of Mande/African Origin

There is no evidence that the Olmec existed in Mexico before 1200-1100 BC.

The archaeological evidence suggest that the Olmec "miraculously appear on American soil".

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


In the Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership (1995), (ed.) by Carolyn Tate, on page 65, we find the following statement”Olmec 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:America’s 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 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 rather suddenly during the Chicharras phase (ca 1450-1408 BC) (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 argued on this basis for a foreign incursion of Olmecs into Olman (Coe and Diehl 1980a, p.150).”


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.

The Olmec came from Saharan Africa. They spoke a Mande language. Evidence of this connection comes from the fact:

1) both groups used jade (Amazonite) to make their tools. Amazonite was used in Saharan Africa


It was found at many sites in the ancient Sahara by archaeologists from the University of Chicago led by Soreno See:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2515196/pdf/pone.0002995.pdf

They made adzes and pendants to name a few items in amazonite.


2) both groups made large stone heads. Here is an African head dating back to the same period.



3) The Mande came to Mexico in boats from the Sahara down the ancient Niger River that formerly emptied in the Sahara or they could have made their way to the Atlantic Ocean down the Senegal River.



4) The Olmec writing points back to a Mande origin in Africa.



.


5) Olmec skeletons that are African.

6) Similar white, and red-and-black pottery.



7) Introduction to Meso-America of the 13 month 20 day calendar.

8) Mayan adoption of the Mande term for writing.

9)Mande religious and culture terms adopted by Mayan people.

10) The Olmec called themselves :Xi (Shi) 

Check out my video on the name for the Olmecs: Xi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EbtykVTwPg

African Origin American Mounds

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Ivan van Sertima also discussed the Mali expedition to the Americas.

In A.D. 1312, Emperor Abubakari Muhammad , of Mali gave his throne to Mansa Musa and embarked with his fleet into the Atlantic Ocean in search of the continent opposite Africa. Archaeological and epigraphic evidence indicates that Abubakari, and or members of his expedition settled in pre-Columbian Brazil.

The Indians have a tradition that Mansar Akban was the leader of another tribe which discovered the Cunan people.This Mansar Akban, may be a reference to Mansa Abubakari, who led the Malian voyagers to the Americas.

The Manding lived in mounds along the Niger rivers. The mound cultures of ancient America were built by Africans primarily Manding. The people of the Niger Delta formed river riverine communities which were partly vegetation with some aquatic animals were eaten.

The ancient Manding built several types of homes. In ancient times they built masonry houses and cliff dwellings identical to those found in the American Southwest. In Medieval times they lived on mounds in the most watery areas in their circular huts made a stone and wood on the top and their fields in front of the mounds tilled each day.

The Malian people introduced their technology to the Americas. The Manding built dwellings depending on the topography . Near rivers they lived on mounds. In semi-arid regions they lived in cliff houses, like
those found in the Southwest. Today the Dogon who trace their descent to the Mande live in identical dwellings as those found in Colorado ,where Manding inscriptions dating to the A.D. 1000 's have been found related to the
Pueblo culture.




Tellem Cliff Dwellings from West Africa

The most common signs found in Mandeland and the American southwest
are habitation signs painted in red at Anasazi. These signs agree with Mande signs along the Niger river in Africa.




Cliff Dwellings from Anasazi

The Malian ships or canoes plowing down the NIger were operated by the Bozo
and Sorko fishermen. The Bozo lived along the western arm of the Niger bend. The Sorko people, who spoke Songhay language submitted to Manding
rule. The Bozo and Sorko, were the masters of the Niger river transport.

[IMG] http://www.olmec98.net/SewnMalinkeboat.jpg[/IMG]

Mande Sewn Boat


Many of the ships of the NIger could carry burdens of 60-80 tons. These
canoes were ninety to one hundred feet long. The men usually sat three
abreast with ease. Around forty men paddled.

Other canoes were joined together. These canoes were forty feet long and five feet across. These jointed boats were mainly navigated by the Bozo. In addition to canoes the fishermen along the Niger built rope sewn
plank boats ninety to one hundred feet long.

Around A.D. 1310, thousands of Manding speakers arrived in the Americas
from ancient Mali. Ibn Fadlullah al- Umari, in his encyclopedia "Masalik al Absar", said the mariners from Mali during the reign of Abubakari made transatlantic voyages. Al-Umari, obtained his information from Mansa Musa,
who was handed the kingship of Mali by Abubakari when he set out to colonize the Americas.

Mansa Musa, said that Mansa Abubakari would not believe that it was impossible to discover the limits of the neighboring sea (the Atlantic). Musa, told al-Umari that:"so he sent out 200 ships equipped and filled with
men and the same number filled with gold, water and enough food to last them for years. Muhammad Abubakari, commanded that the captain not return
until the supplies were exhausted".

After sometime, according to Mansa Musa, a single ship returned and the captain was ordered to report his findings. "Prince", he replied
"we sailed for a long time up to the moment when we encountered in mid-Ocean
something like a river with a violent current. My ship was last. The others sailed on...they disappeared and did not come back".

"But the Emperor[Abubakari] did not believe him", continued Musa,"He equipped two thousand vessels, a thousand for himself, and a thousand for water and supplies. He conferred power on me [Mansa Musa] and left with his companions on the ocean".

The expeditionary force of Mansa Abubakari, must have been immense, because the average boat on the Niger, in the 1500's A.D., could carry 80 men. This means that anywhere between 25,000 to 80,000 men may have sailed
from Mali along with Mansa Abubakari.

The mention of a violent current in mid-ocean by Abubakari's captain
may refer to the Atlantic ocean currents which can carry a boat from Africa to the Americas.

We can hypothesize that Abubakari and his expeditionary force probably
left the city of Niani, by canoe and traveled down the NIger to the Gulf of
Guinea. From here the expeditionary force was probably carried by the Guinea
Current out into the Atlantic where it met the South Equatorial Current. The
South Equatorial Current carried the Mali explorers to Brazil.

Abubakari's ships would not be the last vessels to be carried to
Brazil. For example, in 1500 , Alvares Cabral's ship was captured by the
North Equatorial Current and swiftly taken to Brazil.

In Mexico the Malian wanders are depicted in the Mixtec Codex Dorenberg
(fourtenth century). These migrates are bearded, they have large noses and
lips, and are represented with black skins. In addition,to the Codex
Dorenberg they are also seen in the Codex Tro, with staff or spear in hand,
feathered headdresses, polished earrings, cloaks and loincloths made of the
finest woven cotton. They wore arm and wrist bands, and small white shells
on their ankles which rattled as they walked , usually in groups of two's or
three's.

In Mexico, due to previous cultural development the Manding found
large heavily populated Indian communities. Therefore the Malian colonists
did not establish any large communities in Mexico, but they were active
traders and are remembered for their merchandise.

The are Mexican traditions of groups of foreigners moving northward
throughout the early 14th century. These men probably formed the vanguard of
a larger body of Malians which probably entered Mexico in 1325, and fought
the Mexicans around this time for land to settle. The battle of these
Africans and Amerindians, is seen in the legend of a battle between an eagle
and a serpent and the choice of the site of the battle as the place to build
Mexico's Tenochititlan. The serpent is the totem of the Manding, it
therefore probably represents the Malian forces, and the eagles the
Amerindians. Among these foreign migratory groups it is reported in
Amerindian traditions that they took the practice of agriculture and pottery
making to the Chichimecs, and helped design and build the houses around
Lake Texcoco in 1327.

ANASAZI

The Manding mentioned in the Mexican traditions of 1325, may represent
the founders of Anasazi civilization of Four Corners section of the United
States. Anasazi, is a Navajo word which means "Ancient Ones" for the
founders of the spectacular cliff dwellings and great multistoried pueblos
erected on open plains near the San Juan, Salt and Little Colorado rivers.
Although American anthropologists accept the theory that the Amerindians
entered North America across the Bering Strait about 20000-15000 years ago
, the Hopis, on the contrary say their ancestors crossed the sea during
their emergence to this present Fourth World, arriving somewhere along the
coast of Mexico or Central America, then gradually worked their way
northward to settle in their present homes in the Four Corners region.

They call the original inhabitants of the cliff dwellings "Ancient
Ones". These Anasazi were probably Manding speakers. The ruins of their
great stone cities are crouched low on the Mesa tops or nestled in caves
along the sheer canyon walls of this high desert region. These stone cities
are exact replicas of stone cities cliff dwellings found in West African
areas that formerly formed part of the Mali empire, especially the Dogon
towns.

In what is now known as Four Corners region where the states of Utah,
Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona come together at a common point the Anasazi
tilled the earth and even irrigated their crops, and stored some of the
harvest for later use.





The Manding mentioned in the Mexican traditions of 1325, may represent the founders of Anasazi civilization of Four Corners section of the United States. Anasazi, is a Navajo word which means "Ancient Ones" for the founders of the spectacular cliff dwellings and great multistoried pueblos erected on open plains near the San Juan, Salt and Little Colorado rivers.



Although American anthropologists accept the theory that the Amerindians entered North America across the Bering Strait about 20000-15000 years ago , the Hopis, on the contrary say their ancestors crossed the sea during their emergence to this present Fourth World, arriving somewhere along the coast of Mexico or Central America, then gradually worked their way northward to settle in their present homes in the Four Corners region.



They call the original inhabitants of the cliff dwellings "Ancient Ones". These Anasazi were probably Manding speakers. The ruins of their great stone cities are crouched low on the Mesa tops or nestled in caves along the sheer canyon walls of this high desert region. These stone cities are exact replicas of stone cities cliff dwellings found in West African areas that formerly formed part of the Mali empire, especially the Dogon towns. These Ancient Ones, may have been members of the mande speaking group.

• Four Corner Cliff Dwellings West African Cliff Dwellings

Anasazi is a Navajo word which means “Ancient Ones” for the founders of the spectacular cliff dwellings and great multistoried pueblos erected on open plains near San Juan, and the Salt and Little Colorado rivers. The Anasazi or manding tilled the earth and even irrigated their crops, and stored some of the harvest for later use.



There were many African communities found by the Spainish in the Southern part of the United Staes and Florida [1].



Quatrefages speaks of black men who penetrated to the American southwest while other Africans migrated into Southern California [2]. And as late as 1775, Father Francisco Garces discovered a race of Black men, clearly African, residing in a community beside the Zuni Indians in New Mexico. According to Quatrefages the two races spoke different languages.



In 1528, the Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca and Estevanico the Moor (Blackman) from Azamor discovered numerous people living in the American Southwest as they sought to discover the Seven Cities of Cibola. The Seven Cities of Cibola were suppose to be centers where fantastic amounts of gold could be found.



In what is now known as Four Corners region where the states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona come together at a common point the Anasazi tilled the earth and even irrigated their crops, and stored some of the harvest for later use.



The presence of Manding in Four Corners, is supported by the appearance of Dogon and Bambara ideograms, called petroglyphs, on rocks in the Anasazi area. Moreover, there are several tablets found in Four Corners which have been deciphered that were written in an aspect of Malinke.



In the Four Corners region de Vaca, found various ethnic groups speaking a multiplicity of languages. Due to the pluralistic nature of these societies the people could only communicate using sign language . Ceram noted that:



“In reality the inhabitants of the pueblos, as we now know, were members of extraordinarily varied tribes. They spoke widely differentlanguages and had different historical backgrounds”[3].



De Vaca said that one of these ethnic groups was named Mendica[4]. This name is almost identical to the word Mandinka (Malinke), the name of one of the Manding speaking people.



In the Anasazi area we find many depictions of the Malinke- Bambara habitation sign and Kangaba sign in the American southwest. This sign is frequently found in West Africa, in areas settled by the Mande speaking people. The Kangaba sign, is clearly depicted among the glyphs found in the Guijus range of southern Arizona.




Southwest Petroglyph






The ruins of the Anasazi stone cities are crouched low on the Mesa tops or nestled in caves along the sheer canyon walls of this high desert region. These stone cities are the exact replica of stone cliff dwellings found in West African areas that formerly formed part of the Mali empire, especially the Dogon towns.

Dogon Cliff Dwelling



Due to the spread of nomadic Amerindians from the northwest,the Anasazi were forced from their stone cities and cliff dwellings by the invaders. There was probably some intermarriage between Africans and Amerindians and today we see a negroid strain among the southwestern Amerindian populations[5]. In addition many African communities were found in the Southwest when Europeans arrived in this part of the United States.


Mesa Verde Mande Habitation Sign


In summary the archaeological and historical evidence from Africa and the Americas coupled with the decipherment of ancient scripts used in the New World illustrates that people from ancient Mali, probably led by Mansa Abubakari, colonized many parts of the Americas during the first quarter of the 14th Century A.D. These Mande speaking people, like the Olmecs before them had a tremendous influence on American civilizations especially in the development of trade in Mexico .




The Inscription from Palatki is written in the Manding language. It was found near the ruins of cliff dwellings.




Palatki Cliff Dwellings.

The Palatki cliff dwellings are similar to the Tellem Cliff Houses.

Malian Cliff Dwellings from Tellem

The Malians left many inscriptions in the Southwestern part of the United States. The presence of Manding in Four Corners, is supported by the appearance of Dogon and Bambara ideograms, called petroglyphs, on rocks in the Anasazi area. Moreover, there are several tablets found in Four Corners which have been deciphered that were written in an aspect of Malinke.

The Pilatki inscriptions is also written in Manding not Sanskrit. Below we see the following signs.

The Malinke inscriptions were read from right to left. Top to bottom. There are five Malinke or Mande signs on the Palatki inscriptions. The inscription says:

Be

su i se

Se Gyo/Jo

The English translation is as follows:
“Exist here a superior place
Of habitation. Make (this) place
a success, consecrated to the
Divinity”

In conclusion, in 1310 thousands of Malians arrived in the Americas. Many of these Malians settled throughout South America and the American Southwest where they left numerous inscriptions written in the Malinke Bambara language that was spoken by the Malian court.

The Palatki inscription is written in the Mande language not Sanskrit. This inscription describes the picturesque setting where the Palatki inscription and cave dwellings were found.

Due to the spread of nomadic Amerindians from the northwest,the
Anasazi were forced from their stone cities and cliff dwellings by the
invaders. There was probably some intermarriage between Africans and
Amerindians and today we see a negroid strain among the southwestern
Amerindian populations. In addition many African communities were found in the Southwest when Europeans arrived in this part of the United States.


Footnotes:







1 M.O. y Berra, Historia antique y de Conquista de Mexico, Mexico, 1960.



2 L.H. Clegg, “The Black origin of American civilization”, A Current Biblioraphy on African Affairs, No.1 (1976),pp.2-22.





3 C.W. Ceram, The First Americans, (New York,1971) p.70.



4. Ibid.,



5 P.S. Martin, G.I. Quimby and D. Collier, Indians Before Columbus, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970) p.19. 

Historical Linguistics and African Languages

Linguistic resemblances denote a historical relationship. This suggest that resemblances in fundamental vocabulary and culture terms can help one reconstruct the culture of the speakers of related languages. We use historical linguistic methods to document the history of a language in both vocabulary and grammar.


The historical linguist looks at language across languages and uses the knowledge he learns to reconstruct the Proto (hypothetical)-language form of a present language traced back to ancient times. Each lexical item traced back to the Proto-language is called a cognate.

This makes it clear that a person's language provides us with evidence of the elements of a group's culture. Using semantic anthropology we can reconstruct Paleo-terms. Paleo-terms can help us make inferences about a culture going backwards in time to an impenetrable past undocumented by written records. This is semantic anthropology, a linguistic approach which seeks to discover aspects of man's culture from his language. Thusly, linguistic resemblances can help the anthropologist make precise inferences about a groups culture elements.

Phonology is the study of changes, transformations, modifications, etc., of phonemes or speech sounds during the history and development of a language. To denote these changes the linguist considers each phoneme in the light of the part it plays in the structure of speech forms.

There are no clearly established linguistic markers that can measure language change. Languages are not constrained by a preprogrammed reproductive cycle. This means that language can undergo extensive and radical changes over a either a short, or long time span.

This makes it very difficult for historical and comparative linguist to chart linguistic changes based solely or archaeologi
-cal data. Thusly, borrowing and convergence are important factors which must be accounted for in any discussion of language change. Linguists therefore, can not examine language change in isolation from the social and historical factors affecting the speaker of the language(s) being examined and discussed.

The socioderme is the transitional unit in language change. This view is especially true, given the fact that language is communal property, i.e. the property of the social or ethnic group which speaks it.

It is the group that identifies aspects of a language and legitimize its proper usage in society. Group membership not only produces variations across gender and ethnic groups, it also helps establish the norms of language spoken by that particular group.

In Historical linguistics, you reconstruct the Proto-Language of the the Super-Language Family and the proto-language of the subgroups or branches in the family tree.

In Historical linguistics the goals of comparative and internal reconstruction differ. Comparative reconstruction seeks to recover the prehistoric linguistics elements of a language or group of languages and establish a genetic relationship between or among language speakers. Linguistic reconstruction is used to establish specific relationships between and among language speakers.

Internal Reconstruction is used to compare languages with corresponding forms--that must be attested by a review of earlier stages of a language documented in text. Having text of earlier stages of a language for comparative purposes provides credibility to the methods used in internal reconstructions. Thisn is why many of the reconstruction proposed by Saussure of Proto-Indo European were not empirically confirmed until the discovery of Hittite.

To confirm a genetic relationship you must reconstruct the proto-language. A proto-language is a term used to refer to the earliest form of a language established by means of the comparative method of reconstruction.





Reconstruction of the proto-language allows us to discover the superordinate proto-language (SPL) which represents the 'mother language'of a Super Family of languages. It can also lead to the establishment of reconstructed descendant languages closely related to one-another that form a subgroup in the Super Family of languages like Proto-Indo-European, which would represent a intermediate proto-language (IPL).




As a result, we can reconstruct the Proto-language of the Super Family: Negro/Black African-Egyptian (BAE) the SPL, while reconstructing the proto-language of the the languages in each subgroup, e.g., Mande, which includes a variety of dialects and represent the IPLs. But neither Proto-Bantu or Proto-Mande forms any sort of hierarchy for BAE, the Mande and Bantu language families are simply sub-groups in the much larger BAE Super Family of African languages.


HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS

A person's language provides us with evidence of the elements of a group's culture. Diop has noted that reconstruction of Paleo-African terms can help us make inferences about a group's culture going backwards in time to an impenetrable past undocumented by written records. This is semantic anthropology, a linguistic approach which seeks to discover aspects of man's culture from his language. Thusly, linguistic resemblances can help the anthropologist make precise inferences about a groups culture elements.

Linguistic resemblances denote a historical relationship. This suggest that resemblances in fundamental vocabulary and culture terms can help one reconstruct the culture of the speakers of genetically related languages.

LINGUISTIC CONSTANCY

The rate at which languages change is variable. It appears that linguistic change is culture specific. Consequently, the social organization and political culture of a particular speech community can influence the speed at which languages change.

Based on the history of language change in Europe most linguists believe that the rate of change for all languages is both rapid and constant.(Diagne, 1981,p.238) The idea that all languages change rapidly is not valid for all the World's languages.

African languages change much slower than European languages. (Armstrong, 1962) For example, African vocabulary items collected by Arab explorers over a thousand years ago are analogous to contemporary lexical items.(Diagne,1981, p.239) In addition there are striking resemblances between the ancient Egyptian language and Coptic, and Pharonic Egyptian and African languages.(Diagne, 1981; Diop, 1977; Obenga, 1993)

The political stability of African political institutions has caused languages to change very slowly in Africa. Pawley and Ross (1993) argue that a sedentary life style may account for the conservative nature of a language.

African oral traditions and the eye witness accounts of travelers to Africa, make it clear that African empires although made up of diverse nationalities illustrated continuity. To accomodate the plural nature of African empires Africans developed a Federal system of government. (Niane , 1984) In fact we can not really describe ancient African state systems as empires, since this implies absolute rule or authority in a single individual. This political state of affairs rarely existed in ancient Africa, because in each African speech community local leadership was elected by the people within the community. (Diop, 1987) For example the Egyptians often appointed administrators over the conquered territories from among the conquered people. (Diop ,1991)

The continuity of many African languages may result from the steady state nature of African political systems, and long standing cultural stability since neolithic times. (Diop, 1991 ; Winters 1985) This cultural stability has affected the speed at which African languages change.

In Africa due to the relative stability of socio-political structures and settled life, there has not been enough pressure exerted on African societies as a whole and African speech communities in particular, to cause radical internal linguistic changes within most African languages. Permanent settlements led to a clearly defined system of inheritance and royal succession. These traits led to stability on both the social and political levels.

This leads to the hypothesis that linguistic continuity exist in Africa due to the stability of African socio-political structures and cultural systems. This relative cultural stability has led African languages to change more slowly then European and

Asian languages. Diop (1974) observed that:

First the evolution of languages, instead of moving everywhere at the same rate of speed seems linked to other factors; such as , the stability of social organizations or the opposite, social upheavals. Understandably in relatively stable societies man's language has changed less with the passage of time.(pp.153-154)

There is considerable evidence which supports the African continuity concept. Dr. Armstrong (1962) noted the linguistic continuity of African languages when he used glottochronology to test the rate of change in Yoruba. Comparing modern Yoruba words with a list of identical terms collected 130 years ago by Koelle , Dr. Armstrong found little if any internal or external changes in the terms. He concluded that:

I would have said that on this evidence African languages are changing with glacial slowness, but it seems to me that in a century a glacier would have changed a lot more than that. Perhaps it would be more in order to say that these languages are changing with geological slowness. (Armstrong, 1962, p.285).

Diop's theory of linguistic constancy recognizes the social role language plays in African language change. Language being a variable phenomena has as much to do with a speaker's society as with the language itself. Thus social organization can influence the rate of change within languages. Meillet (1926, 17) wrote that:

Since language is a social institution it follows that linguistics is a social science, and the only variable element to which one may appeal in order to account for a linguistic change is social change, of which language variations are but the consequences.

THE BLACK AFRICAN ORIGIN OF EGYPT

Diop has contributed much to African linguistics. He was a major proponent of the Dravidian-African relationship (Diop 1974, 116), and the African substratum in Indo-European languages in relationship to cacuminal sounds and terms for social organiza-tion and culture (1974, 115). Diop (1978, 113) also recognized that in relation to Arabic words, after the suppression of the first consonant, there is often an African root.

Diop's major linguistic effort has been the classification of Black African and Egyptian languages . Up until 1977 Diop'smajor area of interest were morphological and phonological similarities between Egyptian and Black African languages. Diop (1977, 77-84) explains many of his sound laws for the Egyptian-Black African connection.

In Parènte Génétique de l'Egyptien pharraonique et des Langues Négro Africaines (PGEPLNA), Diop explains in some detail his linguistic views in the introduction of this book. In PGEPLNA , Diop demonstrates the genetic relationship between ancient Egyptian and the languages of Black Africa. Diop provides thousands of cognate Wolof and Egyptian terms in support of his Black African-Egyptian linguistic relationship. 

PALEO-AFRICAN

African languages are divided into Supersets (i.e., a family of genetically related languages, e.g., Niger-Congo) sets, and subsets. In the sets of African languages there are many parallels between phonological terms, eventhough there may be an arbitrary use of consonants which may have a similar sound. The reason for these changes is that when the speakers of Paleo-African languages separated, the various sets of languages underwent separate developments. As a result a /b/ sound in one language may be /p/ or /f/ in a sister language. For example, in African languages the word for father may be baba , pa or fa, while in the Dravidian languages we have appan to denote father.

Diop has noted that reconstruction of Paleo-African terms can help us make inferences about an ethnic group's culture going backwards in time to an impenetrable past undocumented by written records. This is semantic anthropology, a linguistic approach which seeks to discover aspects of man's culture from his language. Thusly, linguistic resemblances can help the anthropologists make precise inferences about a linguistic group's cultural elements.

BLACKS IN WEST ASIA

In PGEPLNA Diop makes clear his views on the role of African languages in the rise of other languages. Using archaeological evidence Diop makes it clear that the original West Asians: Elamites and Sumerians were of Black origin (1974, 1977, xxix-xxxvii).

Diop (1974, 1991) advocates the unity of Black Africans

and Blacks in West Asia. Winters (1985,1989,1994) has elaborated on the linguistic affinity of African and West Asian languages.

This view is supported by linguistic evidence. For example these languages share demonstrative bases:

Proximate Distant Finite

Dravidian i a u

Manding i a u

Sumerian bi a

Wolof i a u

The speakers of West Asian and Black African languages also share basic culture items:

Chief city,village black,burnt

Dravidian cira, ca uru kam

Elamite Salu

Sumerian Sar ur

Manding Sa furu kami,"charcoal'

Nubia sirgi mar

Egyptian Sr mer kemit

Paleo-African *sar *uru *kam

OBENGA

Obenga (1978) gives a phonetic analysis of Black African and Egyptian. He illustrates the genetic affinity of consonants within the Black African (BA) and Egyptian languages especially the occlusive bilateral sonorous, the occlusive nasal apico-dental /n/ and /m/ , the apico-alveolar /r/ and the radical

proto-form sa: 'man, female, posterity' in Black Africa.

Language

Agaw asau, aso 'masculine

Sidama asu 'man'

Oromo asa id.

Caffino aso id.

Yoruba so 'produce'

Meroitic s' man

Fonge sunu id.

Bini eso 'someone'

Kikongo sa,se,si 'father'

Swahili (m)zee 'old person'

Egyptian sa 'man'

Manding si,se 'descendant,posterity,family'

Azer se 'individual, person'

Obenga (1978) also illustrated the unity between the verbs 'to come, to be, to arrive':

Language

Egyptian ii, ey Samo, Loma dye

Mbosi yaa Bisa gye

Sidama/Omo wa Wolof nyeu

Caffino wa Peul yah, yade

Yoruba wa Fonge wa

Bini ya Mpongwe bya

Manding ya,dya Swahili (Ku)ya

between t =/= d, highlight the alternation patterns of many Paleo-African consonants including b =/= p, l =/= r ,and

g =/= k.

The Egyptian term for grain is 0 sa #. This corresponds to many African terms for seed,grain:

Galla senyi

Malinke se , si

Sumerian se

Egyptian sen 'granary'

Kannanda cigur

Bozo sii

Bambara sii

Daba sisin

Somali sinni

Loma sii

Susu sansi

Oromo sanyi

Dime siimu

Egyptian ssr 'corn'

id. ssn 'lotus plant'

id. sm 'herb, plant'

id. isw 'weeds'



In conclusion, Diop has done much to encourage the African recovery of their history. His theories on linguistics has inspired many African scholars to explain and elaborate the African role in the history of Africa and the world. This has made his work important to our understanding of the role of Black people in History.



In summary, Historical linguistics, you reconstruct the Proto-Language of the the Super-Language Family and the proto-language of the subgroups or branches in the family tree. As you can see, historical linguistics is not used to explain the use of a specific term, in a specific language it is used to determine term proto-terms used in a family of languages. This means tha you can not use terms from cognate languages to explain the meaning of: ‘Ba”. The meaning of Ba has already been determined by the Egyptians themselves.



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Baines, J. (1991, August 11). Was civilization made in Africa? The New York Times Review of Books, 12-13.

Bynon,T. (1978). Historical linguistics. London: Cambridge University Press.

Crawley,T. 1992. An Introduction to Historical Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Delafosse,M. (1901). La Langue Mandigue. Paris.

Diagne,P. (1981). In J. Ki-Zerbo (Ed.), General history of Africa I: Methodology and African prehistory (233-260). London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd.

Diop, C.A. (1974). The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality. Westport, Conn.:Lawrence Hill and Company.

Diop,C.A. (1977). Parentè gènètique de l'Egyptien Pharaonique et des languues Negro-Africaines. Dakar: Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire.

Diop, C.A. (1978). Precolonial Black Africa. Wesport, Conn. :Lawrence Hill and Company.

Diop, C.A. 1981. A methodology for the study of migrations. In African Ethnonyms and Toponyms, by UNESCO. (Unesco: Paris) 86--110.

Diop, C.A. (1991). Civilization or Barbarism. Brooklyn,N.Y.:

Lawrence Hill Books.

Dweyer, D.J. (1989). 2. Mande. In John Bendor-Samuel (Ed.), The Niger-Congo Languages (47-65). New York: University Press of America.

Ehret,C. (1988). Language change and the material correlates of language and ethnic shift. Antiquity, 62, 564-574.

Ehret,C. & Posnansky (Eds.). (1982). The Archaeological and linguistic reconstruction of African history. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Hock,H.H. (1988). Principles of historical linguistics. Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter.

Labov,W.(1965). The social motivation of a sound change. Word, 19, 273-309.

Labov.,W. (1972). The internal evolution of linguistic rules. In Stokwell,R.P. and Macaulay, R.K.S. (eds.) Linguistic change and generative theory (101-171). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Lefkowitz, M. (1992, February 10). Not out of Africa. The New Republic, 29-36.

Mbiti, J. S. 1970. African religions and Philosophy. Garden City: Anchor Press.

Meillet, A. 1926. Introduction à l'etude comparatif des languages Indo-Europeennes. Paris.

Moitt,B. (1989) Chiekh Anta Diop and the African diaspora: Historical continuity and socio-cultural symbolism. Presence Africaine, 149/150, 347-360.

Pawley,A. & Ross,M. (1993). Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history. Annual Review of Anthropology, 22, 425-459.

McIntosh, S. K. & McIntosh, R. (1983). Forgotten Tells of Mali. Expedition, 35-47.

Niane,D.T.(Ed.). (1984). Introduction. General History of Africa IV (1-14). London: Heinemann Educational Books.

Obenga,T. (1978). The genetic relationship between Egyptian (ancient Egyptian and Coptic) and modern African languages. In

UNESCO (Ed.), The peopling of ancient Egypt and the deciphering of the Meroitic script (65-72). Paris: UNESCO.

Obenga, T. (1993). Origine commune de l'Egyptien Ancien du Copte et des langues Negro-Africaines Modernes. Paris: Editions L'Harmattan.

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Ruhlen, M. 1994. The origin of language. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Welmers, W. (1968). Niger Congo-Mande. In T.A. Sebeok (Ed.), Current Trends in Linguistics, 7,113-140.

Williams, B. (1987). The A-Group Royal Cemetery at Qustul:Cemetery L. Chicago: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago Press.

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Winters,C.A. (1986). The Migration routes of the Proto-Mande. The Mankind Quarterly,27(1), 77-96.

Winters, C.A. 1989. Tamil, Sumerian, Manding and the genetic model. International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, 18 (1), 98-127.

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Yurco,F. 1989. Were the ancient Egyptians Black? Biblical Archaeology.

Modern Negro-Eggyptian Speakers originated in the Sahara Not East Africa

These maps indicate the movement of people from the highlands into the western Sahara and Sahel 8kya. not expansion of people from the Nile Valley westward and eastward.







The Ounanian culture associated with the Niger-Congo speakers, and the earlier Aqualithic culture associated with the Nilo-Saharan speakers predate 10kya.Neither the Ounanian or African Aqualithic began along the Nile. These cultures originated west of the Nile Valley.


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There are similarities between Egyptian and Saharan motifs (Farid,1985). This show that the founders of Egyptian civilization migrated westward to settle the Nile Valley. It was in the Sahara that we find the first evidence of agriculture, animal domestication and weaving (Farid , 1985, p.82). This highland region is the Kemites "Mountain of the Moons " region, the area from which the civilization and goods of Kem, originated (Winters,2012).

The rock art of the Saharan Highlands support the Egyptian traditions that in ancient times they lived in the Mountains of the Moon. The Predynastic Egyptian mobiliar art and the Saharan rock art share many common themes including, characteristic boats(Farid 1985,p. 82), men with feathers on their head (Petrie ,1921,pl. xvlll,fig.74; Raphael, 1947, pl.xxiv, fig.10; Vandier, 1952, p.285, fig. 192), false tail hanging from the waist (Vandier, 1952, p.353; Farid, 1985,p.83; Winkler 1938,I, pl.xxlll) and the phallic sheath (Vandier, 1952, p.353; Winkler , 1938,I , pl.xvlll,xx, xxlll). 


The first domesticated animals, plants and religious ideas are found in the Sahara not East Africa. Moreover, the majority of elements in Egyptian society are found first in the Sahara. None of these elements can be found in East Africa.





Look at the map, the sites for the earliest ceramics are all West of East Africa. The same is true for the first evidence of animal and plant domestication.





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 it is in the Saharan where plant and animal domestication was first achieved and since speakers of Negro-Egyptian share these terms their origin had to have been where the animals and plants were first domesticated.


The Negro-Egyptians speakers probably first domesticated millet. They probably learned to cultivate barley and wheat from the Anu people who early dominated the Nile Valley.





Millet was early collected by hunter gather groups in Africa . Millet has been found at various sites in Africa dating back to: 7000 BC at Fayum; 4500-3300 BC at Tenerean and 3310 BC at Kadero (Winters, 2000). McIntosh and McIntosh (1988) has shown that the principal domesticate in the southern Sahara was bulrush millet (pennisetum). Millet impressions have been found on Mande ceramics from both Karkarchinkat in the Tilemsi Valley of Mali, and Dar Tichitt in Mauritania between 4000 and 3000 BP. (McIntosh & McIntosh 1983a,1988; Winters 2000,2007; Andah 1981)




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, and the rock drawings of cattle 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 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 valleys after 5000 BC when the Sahara entered a dry phase.(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.

All of these sites are outside East Africa.


Because the speakers of Negro-Egyptian share the names for most plants and animals indicate that before they separated they had already invented pottery and domesticated most plants and animals.

There is no evidence of animal and plant domestication in East Africa, only the Sahara.
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As a result, the origin of Negro-Egyptian probably took place west of the Nile Valley. It was in the Sahara that the first African civilization originated: the Maa Confederation. It was after the fall of this civilization that they people began to migrate into the Nile Valley. 

Methods for the Reconstruction of Proto-Negro-Egyptian

Mboli does not present an accurate description of Negro-Egyptian. The aim of his work is to make Negro-Egyptian agree with Proto-Indo-European vocabulary items. A good example is Mboli's reconstruction of the Negro-Egyptian term for horse.

Most researchers believe that the horse was introduced to Africa/Egypt by the Hysos after 1700BC. This is an interesting date, and far to late for the introduction of the horse given the archaeological evidence for horses at Maadi and the Sahel-Sahara zone.

In this region we find many horses depicted in the rock art. Some researchers have dated the rock art to after 1000 BC,based on the association of the camel with horses in the rock art.

Although the horse and camel are depicted in the rcok art of Nubia, the Sahel-Sahara and Upper Egypt they are considered to be related to the Graeco-Roman period . This date is far to late for the camel and horse to be used for domesticated purposes. During the Old Kingdom camel hair cord was used by the Egyptians .

Moreover camel figurines are found in Gerzean (3500 BC) and archaic Egyptian context .

In the Sahelian-Saharan rock art the horse frequently depicted. The horse is often associated with being rode by the personages depicted in the rock art . In the same area we find engravings of men capturing horses probably to be rode or harnessed to a chariot . There are numerous pictures of blacks riding in chariots. Some researchers have dated this art to 600 BC. This date is probably far to late given the fact that the horse is attested too early in the archaeological history of Saharan Africa as discussed above.



At Buhen, one of the major fortresses of Nubia, which served as the headquarters of the Egyptian Viceroy of Kush a skeleton of a horse was found lying on the pavement of a Middle Kingdom rampart (W.B. Emery, A master-work of Egyptian military architecture 3900 years ago" Illustrated London News, 12 September, pp.250-251). This was only 25 years after the Hysos had conquered Egypt.The Kushites appear to have rode the horses on horseback instead of a chariot.




This suggest that the Kushites had been riding horses for an extended period of time for them to be able to attack Buhen on horseback. This supports supports the early habit of Africans riding horses as depicted in the rock art.This tradition was continued throughout the history of Kush.

The Kushites and upper Egyptians were great horsemen, whereas the Lower Egyptians usually rode the chariot, the Kushite calvary of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty usually rode on horseback (W.A. Fairservis, The ancient kingdoms of the Nile (London,1962) p.129).



The Nubians and Upper Egyptians were great horsemen whereas the Lower Egyptians usually rode the chariot, the Nubian warriors of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty rode on horseback . The appearance of the horse laying on a Buhen rampart may indicate it was used by Kushite warriors attacking Buhen. No matter what the use of the horse was, the linguistic evidence makes it clear that the horse was part of Saharan culture before the advent of the Indo-Europeans.

Below we compare the Malinke(M.)-Bambara (B.), Nubia (N), Wolof (W.) Hausa, Tamil (Ta), Malayam (Mal) Somali (Som.) Kanarese (Ka.) Telugu (Tel.) Kordofan Nubian (KN) languages. The African languages belong either to the Niger–Congo Family or the Cushitic Family of languages.

• Horse
  M. wolu, Bam. b’lu, wolo, N. unde Ta. Iyuli, Brahui hulli
  
  Other Dravidian-African terms for horse:
  Mande wolu Bam. B’lu, wolo
  Mande bara ‘grey horse’,
  Hausa baraba ‘swift horse’
  Wolof fas
  Somali fara-ka
  Egyptian nefer
  Serere pis
  Tamil , Mal. Pari
  Tamil payyeru,
  Fulani puucu
  Mande bari
  Ge’ez faras
  Galla or Oromo farda, ferda
  Ka. Karte
  Tamil kartai
  Hausa doki
  Tel. gadide
  Kanuri Nile koś
  Hausa godiya

The linguistic evidenc indicates that *par- / * far-., was probably the proto-Negro-Egpyptian term for horse not Mboli’s so-called M-E *hi-kĭphuř-u . For Mboli to claim that the proto- ME term for horse was *hi-kĭphuř-u for horse, when nefer was the Egyptian term for horse demonstrates how Mboli was trying to make Negro-Egyptian conform to Proto-Indo-European.

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1.
Granted, the base of the new PIE terms relating to a agro-pastoral and mining lifestyle for the Indo-European (IE) speakers are probably the result of IE people making African terms confrom to IE languages, the majority of proto-African terms will usually be CVC or CVCV in structure, not CCVC which is a characteristic of IE languages.

I will admit that I misread *h2gʰʷno- ou *h3gʰʷno-, as Negro-Egyptian, when they are really Proto-Indo-European (PIE). But I will not retract my contention that Mboli is trying to make African proto-words agree with PIE culture terms.

Mboli spends most of his time trying to make Proto-African/Negro-Egyptian terms agree with PIE constructions for the same word. A good example is the alledged proto-term 'cattle,cow': *ŋʷ-keŋʷe, which he says “corresponds to the Bantu word nguni "cattle," for which the Amazulu and kin are named (the nguni tribes)”. In historical linguistics and the reconstruction of proto-terms we apply the rule of Occam's Razor , the preference for simplicity in the scientific method of constructing proto-languages. If we apply Occam’s Razor to Mboli’s reconstruction of the proto-term *ŋʷ-keŋʷe « cattle », we find that it does not truly reflect the probable Proto-Bantu word for ‘cattle,cow’. Below are terms for ‘cow,cattle’.

• Word.......Language
• ‘engombe’ Shiyeyi
  ‘ŋombe’ Bemba
  ‘ngombo’ Bobangi
  ‘ngombo’ Bobangi (Congo)
  ‘ngombe’ Kikuyu (Kenya)
  ‘ng'ombe’ Swahili (Kenya & East Africa)
  ‘xaafu’ Bukusu (Kenya)
  ‘inkomazi’ Zulu (South Africa)
  ‘ongombe’ Kwanyama
  ‘ngombo’ Lingala
  ‘omgombe’ Mbundu
  ‘nkomo’ Ndebele
  ‘nbogoma’ Nyamwezi
  ‘inombe’ Xhosa
  ‘mombe’ Shona
  ‘ngoomba’ Yaka

In eyeballing the Bantu word for ‘cow,cattle’ notice they are CVC(C)V in structure. The initial nasal consonant is followed by vowel consonant and vowel again: CVC. Thus we have ŋ+omb+ e/a/ó=*ŋomb-

In the Bantu languages we often find an initial nasal consonant / ŋ /. This syllabic nasal consonant in Bantu languages is usually attached to human and animal animate classes. This means that the actual root word for ‘cow,cattle’ in the Bantu languages is *-omb -( + e/a/ó). Even though Mboli recognizes that / ŋ- / is the nasal affix, in his reconstruction of *ŋʷ-keŋʷe, this word has nothing to do with either nguni , and definitely not ngombe. In fact the addition of element /keŋʷe/ to / ŋ / is not supported by the words nguni , or ngombe. If you apply the rule of Occam's Razor, any researcher would see that the proto-Bantu term for ‘cattle,cow’ was / *ŋ-omb-/ (VCCV in structure) not *ŋʷ-keŋʷe. It is this need for Mboli, to find correspondence(s) between Proto-African terms and PIE that make me suspect the reliability and validity of his research.

Mboli should not care about making his reconstructions of proto-Negro-Egyptian conform to PIE. They should be made pursuant to African sound laws.


2

Another case of Mboli trying to make Negro-Egyptian conform to Proto-Indo-European terms is his reconstruction of the term for ‘ram’. Mboli claims that the PIE term for "lamb" *h2gʰʷno- ou *h3gʰʷno-, is also easily explained starting from Negro-Egyptian *(w.)xiŋʷ ‘ram’ .

The Paleo-African hunters quickly learned the habits of wild sheep and goats. As a result of this hunting experience and the shock of the short arid period after 8500 BC, Paleo-Africans began to domesticate goat/sheep to insure a reliable source of food. By 6000 BP the inhabitants of Tadrart Acacus were reliant on sheep and goats (Barich 1985).

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.

The linguistic evidence indicates that ovicaprids were domesticated before the Proto-Saharan people migrated out of the Sahara into the Nile Valley, Europe and Asia. As a result we have proto-terms for sheep going back to Proto-Saharan times.

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The Egyptian terms for sheep,ram are ø zr #, or ø sr # . In the terms for sheep we find either the consonant /s/ or /z/ before the consonant /r/, e.g., s>øa/e/i#________r. This corresponds to many other African terms for sheep, ram:

• Language….Sheep, Ram
  Egyptian sr, zr
  Wolof xar
  Coptic sro
  Bisa sir
  Kouy siri
  Lebir sir
  Amo zara
  Bobofing se-ge,sege
  Toma seree
  Malinke sara
  Busa sa
  Bambara sarha,saga
  Koro isor
  Boko sa
  Bir sir
  Azer sege 'goat'
  Diola sarha

There is phonological contrast between s =/= z. We find both ø sr # and ø zr # for sheep. Here we have s>z/V_______(V)r. The proto- Niger-Congo term for ram,sheep was probably *sär / *zär.

As a result, I can not explain how Mboli was able to reconstruct the Negro-Egyptian term *(w.)xiŋʷ ‘ram’. The vocabulary items above make it evident that there was no aspirated /ŋʷ/ in Egyptian sr and Coptic sro terms for ‘ram’. It appears to me that Mboli said the NE term for ‘ram’ was *(w.)xiŋʷ to make it conform to PIE *h2gʰʷno- , or *h3gʰʷno-. The interesting fact about the antiquity of the term for ‘ram’ among NE speakers is the fact the same term appears in Dravidian and Sumerian.
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It is interesting to note that the Bantu probably did not domesticate sheep goats as early as the Egyptians, Mande and Atlantic speakers. The Bantu term for ram,sheep was -buzi and -budi> mbuzi and mbudi.

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