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Africans in Asia

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Mfundishi	Africans in Asia	Lead	[-]
Posts: 232 (03/12/04 10:22:32) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None Clyde A. Winters and Blacks in China The skeletal remains from Southern China are predominately Negroid. The people of that era practiced single burials which is an African ritual. In northern China Blacks founded many civilizations. The three major empires of China were the Xia Dynasty (c.2205-1766 BC), Shang Yin Dynasty (c.1700-1050 BC) and the Zhou Dynasty. The Zhou dynasty was the first dynasty founded by the Mongoloid people in China called Hua (Who-aa). The founders of Xia and Shang came from the Fertile African Crescent by way of Iran. Chinese civilization began along the Yellow River. By 3500 BC. Blacks in China were raising silkworms and making silk. The culture hero Huang Di is a direct link of Africa. His name was pronounced in old Chinese Yuhai Huandi or "Hu Nak Kunte." He arrived in China from the west in 2282 BC and settled along the banks of the Loh River in Shanxi. This transliteration of Huandgi, to Hu Nak Kunte is interesting because Kunte is a common clan name among the Manding speakers. The Africans or Blacks that founded civilization in China were often called Li Min "black headed people" by the Zhou dynasts. This term has affinity to the Sumero-Akkadian term Sag- Gig-Ga "black headed people. Taiwan's aboriginal clan China was occupied predominately by Blacks from West Asia to China. Blacks were forced from East and Southeast Asia by the expansion of the Thai, Annamite, Bak and Hua Mongoloids. Blacks ruled China until around 1000-700 BC. Blacks of China were known in historical literature by many names, including Negro, Austroloid, Oceanean, etc. by the Europeans. The East Indians and Mongoloid groups had other names like Dara, Yneh-chih, Yaksha, Suka, K'un-lun, Lushana and Seythians. The original Black population who lived in China was the Negritos and Austroloid groups. After 5000 BC, Africoid people from Kush in Africa began to enter China and Central Asia from Iran, while another groups reached China by sea. This two-route migration of Blacks to China led to the development of southern and northern Chinese branches of Africoids. The Northern Chino-Africans were called Kui-shuang (Kushana) or Yueh-chih, while the southern tribes were called Yi and li-man Yueh and Man. In addition to the Yueh Tribes along the north east coastal region, Blacks also lived in Turkestand, Mongolia, Transoxiana, the Ili region and Xinjiang Province. Fifty thousand (50,000) years ago, the earliest forms of man were believed to have migrated from the Asian Subcontinent to the Philippine Islands via land bridges formed during the Ice Age. People of the Negrito Race came to the Philippines. Negritos can be described as a generally under five feet tall, flat nosed, dark skinned with curly brown hair. A number of factors lend support to the out-of-Africa hypothesis. The Negrito look African. Their skin color is light by African standards (though pygmy skin color is also lighter than their Bantu neighbors), but the rest of their physiology appears African. An interesting detail is the fact that the Negrito sit like pygmies, with their legs stretched out straight in front of them; I know of no other people who sit that way. The socio-economic relationship between the Negrito and their neighbors is strikingly analogous to that found in Africa. The relic populations of Vedda peoples found in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Arabia. The logical explanation for the presence of Blacks worldwide is part of a great migration. In Southeast Asia and southern China, ancient skeletal remains represented the earliest inhabitants to be Austroloids and Negrillo/Negrito. By the beginning of the Present (Holocene) Period the population in China could be differentiate, and placed into categories designating Mongoloid in the north, and Oceanic on Black Races in the south. Below is an excerpt from Nsaka Sesepkekiu -Student of African and Asian Studies - University of the West Indies -Trinidad and Tobago who validates what is being said: The original, first, native, primitive inhabitants of China were black Africans who arrived there about 100,000 years ago and dominated the region until a few thousand years ago when the Mongol advance into that region began. These Africans who fled the Mongol onslaught can still be found in South East Asia and the Pacific Islands misnomered Nigritos or "small black men." The Agta of the Philippines is one such example. Indeed archeology, forensic and otherwise confirm that China's first two dynasties, the Xia and the Ch'ang/Sh'ang, were largely Black African with an Australoid, called "Madras Indian" or "Chamar" in Trinidad, present in small percentages. These Africans would carry an art of fighting developed in the Horn of Africa into China which today we call martial arts: Tai Chi, Kung fu and Tae Kwon Do. Even the oracle of the I-Ching came with a later African group, the Akkadians of Babylon. Around 500 BCE an African living in India called Gautama would establish a religion called Buddhism which would come to dominate Chinese thought. Any one who is in doubt should consult Geoffrey Higgins's Anacalypsis, Albert Churchward's Origin and development of Religions, Gerald Massey's Egypt the Light of the World, Riunoko Rashidi's African Presence in Early Asia and J A Roger's Sex and Race Vol. 1. Many Africans survived the Mongol invasion into the twentieth century only to be exterminated by Chairman Mao's program of Cultural cleansing. Under this program millions of Africans and Afro-Asians were killed from 1951-1956. Contribute we still did, giving the People's Republic of China its first Chief Minister in the name of Eugene Chen, a Trinidadian of George Street, Port-of-Spain, who was of an African mother and a Chinese father. The facts are well recorded in African, East Indian and African-American history books. China also has a series of pyramids and groups of people "minorities" in the South such as the Moi of Vietnam and the Nakhis of Southern China. Cheikh Diop's points are well made when he stressed that the Yellow Race has racial characteristics of both Negroid and Caucasian Races. The mixture of the two races created the Yellow Race. Below are pictures of Black Chinese from: community-2.webtv.net/BAR...index.html This picture below of Buddha portrays him as a Negroid individual with kinky, coiled hair, flat nose, full lips. According to sources from India (M. Gopinath, "Nagaloka: The Fractured History and Forgotten Glory of the Bahujan Indians," published by Dalit Sahitya Sanghatane, No. 8, North Street, Neelasandra, Bangalore, India - 560 047 India ) Buddha was, "an Enlightened Master from the Sakya clan of Naga Race, he was the first man on earth to preach the great principles off equality, liberty and fraternity. He made the Nagas to realize their own "mind power" as against the "mantra power" (P 13). Indo-Europeans Several years ago a major television network covering President Clinton's trip to sub-Saharan Africa captured him being greeted by dignitaries. A young girl dressed in a traditional skirt made from reeds was doing a dance with movements reminiscent of the Hawaiian Hula Dance. The dance focused on shaking of the belly. This dance was once common in southern Africa countries and once widespread on the continent before the influences of fundamentalist Islam and Christianity. The dancing was once common among Nilotic people. In Egypt the category of traditional dances is called balladi, meaning simply "dances from the land". The dance has been preserved in Africa from the days of the Pharaohs. Could this same belly dance be reminiscent of Northern Africa and Hawaii--since the traveling of Africans "FROM AFRICA--NOT TO AFRICA!" Now with that said let's tackle the once scarce history of the Indo-Europeans and their ploy to capture and claim what is Black African. Indo-European means the following: A family of languages consisting of most of the languages of Europe as well as those of Iran, the Indian subcontinent, and other parts of Asia. Proto-Indo-European also called Indo-Germanic. Aryan-- applied to the languages of India and Europe which are derived from the prehistoric Aryan language; also, pertaining to the people or nations who speak these languages; as, the Indo-European or Aryan family. A member of any of the peoples speaking an Indo-European language. A member of one of the Caucasian Races of Europe or India speaking an Indo-European language. And I quote from the Encyclopedia: "There is little known of the Indo-European homeland, but what is known comes from the words that can be reconstructed from their variants in the Indo-European Languages." As with the continental Old European civilizations, the Indo-European tribes started arriving in the Middle East only very shortly after the first Old European society had been established in that region, in the so-called fertile river valley between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in present day Iraq. The dialects or branches of Indo-European still represented today by one or more languages are Indic and Iranian, Greek, Armenian, Slavic, Baltic, Albanian, Celtic, Italic, and Germanic. The present century has seen the addition of two branches to the family, both of which are extinct: Hittite and other Anatolian languages, the earliest attested in the Indo-European family, spoken in what is now Turkey in the second and first millennia B.C.; and the two Tocharian languages, the easternmost of Indo-European dialects, spoken in Chinese Turkistan (modern Xinjiang Uygur) in the first millennium A.D. THE HAMITO-SEMITIC, ETHIOPIAN-ARAMAIC IS AFRICAN--NOT INDO-EUROPEAN! IT SHOULD BE questioned WHEN the word EUROPEAN is grouped and hyphenated with an ancient Canaanite or Hittite Nation. Insular British Celtic tongues, especially colloquial Welsh, show certain peculiarities which are reminiscent of Hamitic and Semitic tongues. Irish has as many features in common with non-Indo-European languages, especially with Hamito-Semitic languages, as with other Indo-European languages. Certain features of Old Irish verb forms can be understood only in the light of Hittite, Vedic, Sanskrit, and Mycenean Greek. (Hittites were a Canaanite nation.) The pre-Aryan idioms which still live in Welsh and Irish were derived from a language allied to Egyptian tongues. The natives of Ireland and Wales used a Hamitic and/or Semitic tongue before they came into contact with Continental Indo-European ones. This is a proof, then, to the objective reader, that the Celtic peoples of Europe originally spoke Hebrew. Hittites were a Canaanite nation. Both Egyptian and Berber are Hamitic tongues. They have a close affinity with Semitic languages, and local dialects in various parts of the Middle East. Aspects of Hamitic speech are found also in Biblical Hebrew but not emphasized. Most of the ancient Canaanite peoples adopted a language similar to Hebrew. There is Phoenician use of Hebrew. There are Arabic dialects that are Hamitic or reveal a Hamitic substratum. The difference between Hamitic and Semitic is more one of emphasis than of substance. Dialects of Hebrew within the land of Israel could well have absorbed Hamitic elements. 1. Biblical References: The words "Semites," "Semitic," do not occur in the Bible, but are derived from the name of Noah's oldest son, Shem (Genesis 5:32; Genesis 6:10; Genesis 9:18, Genesis 9:23 ff.; Genesis 10:1, Genesis 10:21 f.; Genesis 11:10 f.; 1Ch. 1). Formerly the designation was limited to those who are mentioned in Gen. 10; 11 as Shem's descendants, most of whom can be traced historically and geographically; but more recently the title has been expanded to apply to others who are not specified in the Bible as Semites, and indeed are plainly called Hamitic, e.g. the Babylonians (Genesis 10:10) and the Phoenicians and Canaanites (Genesis 10:15-19). The grounds for the inclusion of these Biblical Hamites among the Semites are chiefly linguistic, although political, commercial and religious affinities are also considered. The nation of Iraq has only existed since 1932. Prior to that, the land of the two rivers was a British colony. Before that, it belonged to the Ottoman Empire. Heading backwards through time beyond that, it belonged to the White Sheep Turks, Black Sheep Turks, Timurids, Mongols, Abassids, Seljuks, Buwayhids, the Abbasids again, the Umayyads, the Sassanids (Persian), the Arsacids (Parthian), the Seleucids (Macedonian-Greek), the Persians again, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Aramaeans, the Elamites, the Kassites, the Amorites, the Akkadians, and the Sumerians. Aramaic The language which Jesus spoke was the ancient Semitic language of Aramaic. Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were written in Aramaic. Aramaic was also the official language of the Assyrians. Aramaic is one of the Semitic languages, an important group of languages known almost from the beginning of human history and including also Arabic, Hebrew, Ethiopic, and Akkadian (ancient Babylonian and Assyrian). It is particularly closely related to Hebrew, and was written in a variety of alphabetic scripts. (What is usually called "Hebrew" script is actually an Aramaic script.) Aramaic as an Imperial Language Aramaic was used by the conquering Assyrians as a language of administration communication, and following them by the Babylonian and Persian empires, which ruled from India to Ethiopia, and employed Aramaic as the official language. For this period, then (about 700320 B.C.E.), Aramaic held a position similar to that occupied by English today. The most important documents of this period are numerous papyri from Egypt and Palestine. Biblical Aramaic Aramaic displaced Hebrew for many purposes among the Jews, a fact reflected in the Bible, where portions of Ezra and Daniel are in Aramaic. Some of the best known stories in biblical literature, including that of Belshazzars feast with the famous "handwriting on the wall" are in Aramaic. Aramaic survives as a spoken language in small communities in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon will not attempt to be a full dictionary for this Modern Aramaic, which is best undertaken as a separate task, but where an ancient word has a modern continuation, the Modern Aramaic use will be recorded. The original people of Arabia were the descendants of Ad or the Adites. These were Black descendants of Ham and they created the very first civilization in South Arabia (Arabia Felix) about 1800 B.C. They are also known as Cushite-Arabians to distinguish them from the Bedouin Semitic Arabians who lived in the part of Arabia called Arabia Deserta, or the desert regions. Blacks are the first people to inhabit Arabia (the Adites and Cushites), Iraq (Cushites, Elamites), Iran (Elamites, Susians, Cushites). The first whites to enter the Black regions of Mesopotamia were the Gutis who swept from the Zagros Mountains and attempted to Destroy Black Mesopotamia. After many centuries, these invaders and some of the Blacks mixed to create the Assyrians, Babylonians and the present population of the region. Yet, Black features and faces are still present in parts of Iran and Iraq and South Arabia. Pictures below were taken in 1894. Once the world was "Colored." All of the people pictured below are currently classified as Caucasian except the Oceanic Negroes in the last picture. memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/qu...mem_mVfw:: North Africa - 1894 India - 1894 North Africa - Pyramids 1894 Oceania - 1894 stewartsynopsis@yahoo.com Marsha Stewart. Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 - All rights reserved. Revised: January 25, 2004 11:22 AM -0500 Home \| Site Index \| New White Race \| Synopsis #1 \| Synopsis #2 \| Synopsis #3 \| Synopsis #4 \| Synopsis #5 \| Synopsis #6 \| 8% Epitaph \| US President #29 \| Beheaded \| White W &BW \| Links \| Feedback Form \| Published Books \| Author's Notes So the question is, why do these self appointed authourities on our race, politics and culture wish to supress/deny this part of our history and culture. Years from now there may be groups of Africans who say that Africans in America as well as our culture expressions is invalid also (Actually some are sying that right now). Mfundishi
Mfundishi	Re: Africans in Asia	#1	[-]
Posts: 232 (03/12/04 10:26:30) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Black Chinese Africans mix with Chinese How exactly did the Africans and the Chinese mix to produce the Red Indian and were there Blacks in China as well? Yes there were indeed Blacks in ancient China. The skeletal remains from southern China are predominately Negroid. The people practiced single burials which is an African ritual. In northern China the blacks founded many civilizations. The three major empires of China were the Xia Dynasty (c.2205-1766 B.C), Shang/ Yin Dynasty (c.1700-1050 B.C) and the Zhou Dynasty. The Zhou dynasty was the first dynasty founded by the Mongoloid people in China called Hua (Who-aa). The founders of Xia and Shang came from the Fertile African Crescent by way of Iran. Chinese civilization began along the Yellow river . Here the soil was fertile and black Chinese farmers grew millet 4000 years ago, and later soybeans. They also raised pigs and cattle. By 3500 B.C., the blacks in China were raising silkworms and making silk. The culture hero Huang Di is a direct link of Africa. His name was pronounced in old Chinese Yuhai Huandi or "Hu Nak Kunte." He was supposed to have arrived in China from the west in 2282 B.C., and settled along the banks of the Loh River in Shanxi. This transliteration of Huandgi, to Hu Nak Kunte is interesting because Kunte is a common clan name among the Manding speakers. The Africans or blacks that founded civilization in China were often called Li Min "black headed people" by the Zhou dynasts. This term has affinity to the Sumero-Akkadian term Sag- Gig-Ga "Black Headed People". These Li Min are associated with the Chinese cultural hero Yao. We know very little about the sounds of ancient Chinese because Ancient Chinese was different from Old Chinese and Middle Chinese and the modern Chinese dialects. This results from the fact that the Chinese dynasties were founded by diverse ethnic groups e.g., Xia and Shang Li (i.e., Black Shang) were founded by Dravidian and Manding speakers. Shang-Yin was founded by classical Mongoloids, and the Zhou by the contemporary Chinese. ) This explains the difference in pronunciation for Ancient Chinese spoken by the Xia and Shang peoples and Old and Middle Chinese or a variant there of, which was spoken by the Zhou people. The Shang characters compare favorably to the ancient Proto- Saharan script used by the Harappans in the Indus Valley and the Manding script used in the ancient Sahara and Crete . Clyde Winters outlined the spread of the Proto-Saharan script to Harappa, and throughout Saharan Africa and Asia by the Dravidians and Manding. Evidence of Chinese writing first appears around 2000 B.C. as pottery marks. The shell-and-bone characters represented writing they were not pictures but wedges similar to African Cuneiform. The Shang symbols compare favorably with ancient Manding symbols as well. Although their are different contemporary pronunciations for these symbols they have the same meaning and shape. This suggest a genetic relationship between these scripts because we know that the present pronunciation of the Chinese symbols probably has little relationship to the ancient pronunciation of Chinese spoken in Xia and Shang times when these characters were first used. This cognation of scripts supports the proposed Dravidian and Manding migration and settlement of ancient China during Xia times. The identification of the first hero of China, Hu Nak Kunte as a member of the Kunte clan of the Manding speakers of Africa is supported by the close relationship between the Manding languages and Chinese. Even though we do not know the ancient pronunciation of many Chinese signs many Chinese and Manding words share analogy and suggest a Manding substratum for Chinese. You mentioned the Black Shang, can you explain that further? There were two Shang empires. The first Shang Dynasty was the Shang-Li (Black Shang) it was ruled by the Li-Qiang "Black Qiang". For the last 273 years of the Shang empire the capital was situated at Anyang. The Shang empire based at Anyang was founded by the Yin nationality. We call this empire Shang-Yin. Thus we have the Shang-Li empire and the Shang-Yin empire. The Yin were classical Mongoloid people related to the Thai and other small Mongoloid Austronesian speaking peoples situated in Southeast Asia. The use of the "black bird", as the father of Xieh, relates to the "black bird" as a popular totem of black ethnic groups in China. This passage indicates that the founders of Shang were of mixed origin. The fact that the bird myths such as the one above are mainly centered on the east coast of China also suggest a black origin for the Shang since this area was the heartland of ancient China. Both the ancient Chinese and Africans had similar naming practices. As in Africa the Shang child had both a day name and regular name. The Shang child was named according to the days of the sun, on which he was born. There were ten days in each sun. These days are called the ten celestial signs. In the Mulberry Tree tradition one day ten suns rose from a mulberry and the Archer Yi, shot down nine of them. These suns in reality were birds. This bird myth refers to the "black birds" that founded the Shang Dynasty. The fact that only one of the ten birds survived the arrows of the Archer Yi, may relate to the unification of the ten clans into the Shang dynasty. The references to "black birds" in the Chinese literature relate to the African origin of the Shang rulers. The use of the term "Black Bird" relates to the fact that these blacks had a bird as their totem. There is a similar account in Native American history where the black bird rescues the red bird from the white bird which retreats back into the caves. This analogy is reference to the Negroid releasing the Red Indian from the clutches of the European colonialism. We know that birds do not live in caves. The cave is in reference to the mountains of Europe "Caucas Mountains." Cuneiform - Ancient African Writing - Chinese Oracle Bone You mentioned that the Shangs spoke Dravidian? The Dravidian speakers originally came from Nubia. They were related to the C-Group people. The Shang culture was founded by the Kushites thus the name Yi "Great Bowmen", thus corresponding to Steu, the name for the founders of Ta-Seti the first monarchy in history. The Yi seem to have lived in both north and south China. Fu Ssu-nien, in Yi Hsis Tunghsi Shuo, makes it clear that the Shang culture bearers remained allied to the rest of the Yi people who lived in southern China. The founders of Xia are usually referred to as Yueh, as opposed to Yi. It would appear that most of Yi were Dravidian speakers while the Yueh were Manding speakers. The first Shang king was Xuan Wang, 'Black King' (Xuan means black). He was also called the Xuan Di ,"Black Emperor". The founder of the Shang Dynasty was called Xuan Niao "Black Bird"; another Shang king was called Xuan Mu "Black Oxen". Are there Black Chinese in Asia today? Yes, many Africans and Chinese mixed and moved far north into Tibet where they became known as "Nomads," and lived a life very similar to the Africans of Kenya. Tibetan Chinese Nomad and African Zulu Tibetan Chinese Nomads Chinese Shang Dynasty Vessel art (Jade) - Jade Olmec Jaguar Olmec mask depicting Chinese involvement - Chinese mask The Hopi Indians Kachina doll "Ka-China" holding Coup stick - Egyptian God Osiris holding Crook
Mfundishi	Re: Africans in Asia	#2	[-]
Posts: 232 (03/12/04 10:28:24) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	THIS IS A RESPONSE I SENT TO AN E-GROUP DURING A DISCUSSION OF BODIHARMA'S RACE To wear out my favorite Boondocks quote, Bodiharma was "as black as Richard Roundtree in 'Shaft In Africa'". Why else would there be so many depictions of him as a black person. If the existence of black Chinese don't convince you that there were some Africans in that part of the world, then I don't know what will. We didn't make up the "one drop" rule, did we? Also, there are and have been blacks in India and other parts of Asia. Blacks as in Negros. I saw a photo of a yogi in India--who was from India--who sported a nice afro. Had he been born in the USA instead of India he'd get the same looks I get whenever I tell people that I am part Indian. Granted, I would say that they are rare, but they exist, and are probably born from people with wavier hair. It's called genetics. You could have put that yogi in a Dirty South rap video and no one would have known the difference. Well, he'd probably have to lose the robes, but you get my point. If my daughter can come out from a jet-black mamma and a dark brown father looking like Pocahantas for the first few months of her life due to the fact that we both have distant Algonkin roots in our family trees, then anything is possible. I hate to sound like a bigot, but I swore to God that they referred us to the wrong baby when she was born, since the other black babies in there were already brown, save the one by a lighter-skinned couple. Then, my sister held up my baby picture to me and my nephew's baby picture and reminded me that in every set of children, one of us comes out looking like the stereo-typical Native American until the Blackness kicks in. Sorry for the politically incorrect examples, but my point is that this Negroid/Africoid thing is just a ruse, people. Lots of those folk overseas are black. THEY BLACK. I'd say that yeah, people like the Ainu and many Polynesians are dark Asians, but when the hair starts to curl a little too tightly and the skin is a bit dark, well.... Here are some good litmus tests: 1) if they look like someone in your family who "gots Good Hair", they'd probably feel right at home eating curry chicken, goat, chittlins, watermelon or barbecue--assuming it didn't conflict with their religous beliefs. 2) if they could pass for octoroon, quadroon or any of those other antiquated labels, they are black. 3) if they are offended by the n-word, they are black. Of course, you probably won't be able to tell them that, and they may not have your back "When The Revolution Comes" but hey, it's the truth. There are all kinds of foul terms for "n***" in the world: sand n*, prairie n***, are two that come to mind. Of course, I don't think that the Africoids of Asiatic stock don't have people in their midst who think it's cool to call each other by those words. Then again, who knows? Maybe they are kickin' some hard-core Gangsta Native Rap on some of the reservations and we just haven't heard about it yet. Are there any Arab kids who "throw them bows" behind a Mosque? Authour unknown
Mfundishi	One of your ancestors.	#3	[-]
Posts: 232 (03/21/04 17:51:18) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	THE GLOBAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY T R A V E L N O T E S BLACK SHOGUN: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN EARLY JAPAN By RUNOKO RASHIDI DEDICATED TO WAYNE B. CHANDLER ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "For a Samurai to be brave, he must have a bit of Black blood." --Japanese Proverb In 1994 I was invited to Japan to lecture at two United States military bases. It was to be my initial trip to east Asia and my second travel experience in Asia overall. I visited India for the first time in 1987. Japan turned out to be an exceptionally important trip for me and the lectures themselves went very well. I gained a great deal of information and for the first time I had the opportunity to interact with the Ainu--some of Japan's most ancient residents. I also attended a really excellent exhibit on women in ancient Egypt while it was on tour in Tokyo. Now I have always thought of Japan as a fascinating country and felt extremely fortunate to be able to travel there. But I felt like I knew quite a bit about the Black presence in early Japan even before I first touched down on Japanese soil. THE BLACK PRESENCE IN EARLY JAPAN Although the island nation of Japan, occupying the extreme eastern extensions of Asia, is assumed by many to have been historically composed of an essentially homogeneous population and culture, the accumulated evidence (much of which has been quietly ignored) places the matter in a vastly different light, and though far more study needs to be doneon the subject, it seems indisputable that Black people in Japan played an important role from the most remote phases of antiquity into at least the ninth century. Meaningful indications of an African presence in ancient Japan have been unearthed from the most remote ages of the Japanese past. To begin with, and as a significant example, a February 15, 1986 report carried by the Associated Press, chronicled that: "The oldest Stone Age hut in Japan has been unearthed near Osaka....Archeologists date the hut to about 22,000 years ago and say it resembles the dugouts of African bushmen, according to Wazuo Hirose of Osaka Prefectural of Education's cultural division. `Other homes, almost as old, have been found before, but this discovery is significant because the shape is cleaner, better preserved' and is similar to the Africans'dugouts." In 1923, anthropologist Roland B. Dixon wrote that "this earliest population of Japan were in the main a blend of Proto-Australoid and Proto-Negroid types, and thus similar in the ancient underlying stratum of the population, southward along the whole coast and throughout Indo-China, and beyond to India itself." Dixon pointed out that, "In Japan, the ancient Negrito element may still be discerned by characteristics which are at the same time exterior and osteologic." In his last major text, Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology (published posthumously in English in 1991), the brilliant Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-1986) pointed out that: "In the first edition of the Nations negres et culture (1954), I posited the hypothesis that the Yellow race must be the result of an interbreeding of Black and White in a cold climate, perhaps around the end of he Upper Paleolithic period. This idea is widely shared today by Japanese scholars and researchers. One Japanese scientist, Nobuo Takano, M.D., chief of dermatology at the Hammatsu Red Cross Hospital, has just developed this idea in Japanese that appeared in 1977, of which he was kind enough to give me a copy in 1979, when, passing through Dakar, he visited my laboratory with a group of Japanese scientists. Takano maintains, in substance, that the first human being was Black; then Blacks gave birth to Whites, and the interbreeding of these two gave rise to the Yellow race; these three stages are in fact the title of his book in Japanese, as he explained it to me." As to linguistics, in 1987 former Senegalese president Leopold Sedar Senghor noted that, "The people who populate the island of Japan today are descendants from Blacks....Let us not forget that the first population of Japan was Black...and gave to Japan their first language." SAKANOUYE NO TAMURAMARO: SEI-I TAI-SHOGUN OF EARLY JAPAN Of the Black people of early Japan, the most picturesque single figure was Sakanouye no Tamuramaro, a warrior symbolized in Japanese history as a "paragon of military virtues," and a man who has captured the attention of some of the most distinguished scholars of twentieth century America. Perhaps the first such scholar to make note of Tamuramaro was Alexander Francis Chamberlain (1865-1914). An anthropologist, Chamberlain was born in Kenninghall, Norfolk, England, and was brought to America as a child. In April 1911 the Journal of Race Development published an essay by Chamberlain entitled "The Contribution of the Negro to Human Civilization." While discussing the African presence in early Asia, Chamberlain stated in an exceptionally frank and matter of fact manner: "And we can cross the whole of Asia and find the Negro again, for when, in far-off Japan, the ancestors of the modern Japanese were making their way northward against the Ainu, the aborigines of that country, the leader of their armies was Sakanouye Tamuramaro, a famous general and a Negro." Dr. W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963), perhaps the greatest scholar in American history, in his book, The Negro (first published in 1915), placed Sakanouye Tamuramaro within a list of some of the most distinguished Black rulers and warriors in antiquity. In 1922, Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) and Charles Harris Wesley (1891-?) in a chapter called "Africans in History with Others," in their book The Negro in Our History, quoted Chamberlain on Tamuramaro verbatim. In the November 1940 issue of the Negro History Bulletin (founded by Dr. Woodson), artist and illustrator Lois Maillou Jones (1905-199 contributed a brief article entitled "Sakanouye Tamura Maro." In the article Jones pointed out that: "The probable number of Negroes who reached the shores of Asia my be estimated somewhat by the wide area over which they were found on that continent. Historians tell us that at one time Negroes were found in all of the countries of southern Asia bordering the Indian Ocean and along the east coast as far as Japan. There are many interesting stories told by those who reached that distant land which at that time they called `Cipango.' One of the most prominent characters in Japanese history was a Negro warrior called Sakanouye Tamura Maro." Very similar themes were expressed in 1946 "In the Orient," the first section in Distinguished Negroes Abroad, a book by Beatrice J. Fleming and Marion J. Pryde in which was contained a small chapter dedicated to "The Negro General of Japan--Sakanouye Tamurarmaro." In 1940 the great Joel Augustus Rogers (1883-1966), who probably did more to popularize African history than any scholar of the twentieth century, devoted several pages of the first volume of his Sex and Race to the Black presence in early Japan. He cites the studies of a number of accomplished scholars and anthropologists, and even goes as far as to raise the question of "were the first Japanese Negroes?" In the words of Rogers: "There is a very evident Negro strain in a certain element of the Japanese population, particularly those in the south. Imbert says, "The Negro element in Japan is recognizable by the Negroid aspect of certain inhabitants with dark and often blackish skin, frizzly or curly hair....The Negritos are the oldest race of the Far East. It has been proved that they once lived in Eastern and Southern China as well as in Japan where the Negrito element is recognizable still in the population." Rogers mentioned Tamuramaro briefly in the first volume of World's Great Men of Color, also published in 1946. Regrettably, Rogers was forced to confess that "I have come across certain names in China and Japan such as Sakonouye Tamuramaro, the first shogun of Japan but I did not follow them up." Sakanouye Tamuramaro was a warrior symbolized in early Japanese history as a "paragon of military virtues." Could it be that this was what Dr. Diop was alluding to in his first major book, Nations negres et culture, when he directed our attention to the tantalizing and yet profound Japanese proverb: "For a Samurai to be brave he must have a bit of Black blood." Adwoa Asantewaa B. Munroe referenced Tamuramaro in the 1981 publication What We Should Know About African Religion, History and Culture, and wrote that "He was an African warrior. He was prominent during the rule of the Japanese Emperor Kwammu, who reigned from 782- 806 A.D." In 1989 Dr. Mark Hyman authored a booklet entitled Black Shogun of Japan in which he stated that "The fact remains that Sakanouye Tamuramaro was an African. He was Japanese. He was a great fighting general. He was a Japanese Shogun." However the most comprehensive assessment to date of the Black presence in early Japan and the life of Sakanouye no Tamuramaro is the work of art historian and long-time friend and colleague Dr. James E. Brunson. Brunson is the author of Black Jade: The African Presence in the Ancient East and several other important texts. In a 1991 publication entitled The World of Sakanouye No Tamuramaro Brunson accurately noted that "In order to fully understand the world of Sakanouye Tamuramaro we must focus on all aspects of the African presence in the Far East." Sakanouye no Tamuramaro is regarded as an outstanding military commander of the early Heian royal court. The Heian Period (794-1185 C.E.) derives its name from Heian-Kyo, which means "the Capital of Peace and Tranquility," and was the original name for Japan's early capital city--Kyoto. It was during the Heian Period that the term Samurai was first used. According to Papinot, the "word comes from the very word samuaru, or better saburau, which signifies: to be on one's guard, to guard; it applied especially to the soldiers who were on guard at the Imperial palace." The samurai have been called the knights or warrior class of Medieval Japan and the history of the samurai is very much the history of Japan itself. For hundreds of years, to the restoration of the Meiji emperor in 1868, the samurai were the flower of Japan and are still idolized by many Japanese. The samurai received a pension from their feudal lord, and had the privilege of wearing two swords. They intermarried in their own caste and the privilege of samurai was transmitted to all the children, although the heir alone received a pension. The "paragon of military virtues," Sakanouye no Tamuramaro (758-811) was, in the words of James Murdoch: "In as sense the originator of what was subsequently to develop into the renowned samurai class, he provided in his own person a worthy model for the professional warrior on which to fashion himself and his character. In battle, a veritable war-god; in peace the gentlest of manly gentlemen, and the simplest and unassuming of men." Throughout his career, Tamuramaro was rewarded for his services with high civil as well as military positions. In 797 he was named "barbarian-subduing generalissimo" (Sei-i Tai-Shogun), and in 801-802 he again campaigned in northern Japan, establishing fortresses at Izawa and Shiwa and effectively subjugating the Ainu. In 810 he helped to suppress an attempt to restore the retired emperor Heizei to the throne. In 811, the year of his death, he was appointed great counselor (dainagon) and minister of war (hyobukyo). Sakanouye no Tamuramaro "was buried in the village of Kurisu, near Kyoto and it is believed that it is his tomb which is known under the name of Shogun-zuka. Tamuramaro is the founder of the famous temple Kiyomizu-dera. He is the ancestor of the Tamura daimyo of Mutsu." Tamuramaro "was not only the first to bear the title of Sei-i-tai-Shogun, but he was also the first of the warrior statesmen of Japan." In later ages he was revered by military men as a model commander and as the first recipient of the title shogun--the highest rank to which a warrior could aspire." Source: African Presence in Early Asia, edited by Runoko Rashidi and Ivan Van Sertima ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Return to the GLOBAL AFRICAN PRESENCE Home Page ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright © 1998 Runoko Rashidi. All rights reserved. Revised: November 15, 2002. Webpage design: Kenneth Ritchards
Mfundishi	And another...........	#4	[-]
Posts: 232 (03/23/04 13:27:29) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	African military genius in Asia comparable to Shaka, Nzinghi, Hannibal. How did his ideas, tactics and implementations influence Indias warrior culture as well as overall history? Read on. Mfundishi Malik Ambar -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHEN MOHAMMEDAN RULE was at the height of its spendor in India there was a considerable influx of Ethiopians, some coming as traders, but the majority as mercenaries and slaves. In time they emerged from the mass to become prime ministers, great military and naval commanders, hereditary admirals, and in several instances, sultans. As late as 1833 three of the ruling princes of India were Negroes. These Ethiopians, or Sidis, as they are better known, first appeared in India about 1300, when a force of them seized the island-fort of Janjira, the site of Bombay. Legend has it that one of their number, disguised as a merchant, obtained permission to land 300 boxes supposed to contain imported wares but in which armed soldiers were actually concealed. Once ashore, the soldiers took the garrison by surprise and captured the island. Finding commerce unprofitable, the Ethiopians engaged themselves as soldiers in the armies of the Brahmans. They brought tens of thousands of their women and their slaves to settle there, and in time they became the backbone of the armies. Under their own commander, they eventually became the source of central power, as did the Mazois under the Pharaohs, the Zenghs under the caliphs, and the Bokkharas in Morrocco. Ethiopian industry, skill, and statesmanship helped greatly in making India the rich and prosperous country which the Portuguese, English, and French later found it. The principal regions in which they settled were Bombay, Gujarat, and the Deccan to the west and Bengal to the east. The most distinguished of the Negro rulers of western India was Malik Ambar, who, beginning as a slave under Queen Chand Bibi, the Queen Elizabeth of India, rose to the top, becoming commander-in-chief of the armies of the Bombay empire. When Queen Chand was slain by rebels in her palace in July, 1600, Malik Ambar remained loyal to the ruling dynasty. By a brilliant coup he captured Ahmadnagar, the principal fort, from the rebels, and proceeding to the city of Aurangabad, which he himself had built, he proclaimed Mustaza II, grandson of Nizan Shah, ruler with himself as regent. Seven years later, however, Malik Ambar deposed the king and seized the throne. Malik Ambar's kingdom lay in the vast tableland of the Deccan, which lies to the east of Bombay. His nominal overlord was Jahangir, the great Mogul emperor. Soon after he took the throne, however, there was an outburst of dissension among the Moguls, and Malik Ambar, taking advantage of it, took much of their territory and even threatened Jahangir's power. In a long war between Malik Ambar and Jahangir, fortunes shifted. Now one was victorious, then the other. Jahangir's wrath was not confined to military operations--he even took up the pen against Malik Ambar. In his writings he calls Malik Ambar many hard names, among them "black-faced wretch." Sometimes Malik Ambar, beaten, was forced to pay large sums in tribute; at other times Jahangir's throne hung by a thread. His Ethiopian compatriots stood behind Malik Ambar to a man. On one occasion he defeated, by sheer strategy, Jahangir's force of 40,000 against which he moved with only 10,000 men. Invading the coast, Malik Ambar seized the ships of the emperor and forced the city of Bijapur, in which he started his career as a slave, to pay him tribute. Golconda, a city whose name was once synonymous all over the world with wealth, was similarly dealt with. When in 1628 the English came to India their first contact was with Malik Ambar. He was then master of the island of Janjira, which the English, like the Ethiopians of three centuries before, wanted as a base for commerce with the interior. With gifts, promises, and flattery they tried to gain a foothold on the island, but Malik Ambar would not succumb to their blandishments. When they tried to oust him by a conspiracy, Malik Ambar retaliated by seizing one of their caravans valued at 200,000 rupees. The English took one of his ships and demanded the return of their money. With characteristic humor, Malik Ambar sent word to the British asking if they were so absentminded as to have forgotten that they had his ship. With rockets, cannon, and armed elephants Malik Ambar defeated Abdullah, an ally of Jahangir's, in a decisive battle in 1628, and it seemed as if Jahangir were doomed. But then Malik Ambar died, at the age of eighty. Motamid Khan, an Indian historian, says of Malik Ambar: This Ambar was a slave, but an able man. In warfare, in command, in sound judgment, in administration, he had no rival or equal. He well understood that predatory warfare which in the language of the Deccan, is called bargi-giru. He kept down the turbulent tribes and maintained his exalted position to the end of his life and closed his career in honor. History records no other instance of an Abyssinian slave at such eminence." Relics of this great ruler are still to be found in his city of Aurungabad. Ferishta, another Mohammedan, historian, says of him: Such is the esteem in which his character is held that notwithstanding the lands dedicated to the support of the attendants of his tomb, are yet left incorporated for that purpose. He was the first general, politician, and financier of his age, and his country was the best cultivated and his subjects the happiest of any in the Deccan. He founded Ghurkeh, now called Aurungabad, and ornamented it with a magnificent palace, gardens, and noble bodies of water, lined with stones, which yet remain. His charities and his justice are yet celebrated, and he was also eminent for pieties. Nawaz Khan, another Arab historian, says similarly, "In military acts and in statesmanship and right judgment, Malik Ambar was unique." A poet of the times compared him with Bilal, another Negro, who was Mohammed's companion and inspiration. He said: There was Bilal, the servant of the Apostle of God After one thousand years, there came Malik Ambar To join the Malik Ambar Research team, send an email to join@ijebu.org clearly stating the role you'll like to play. Click here for a description of the roles available. Copyright © 2002 Ijebu.org. All rights reserved

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