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Original Glory not out of Greece
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
October 22, 2004
In a 1994 interview on Gill Noble's ABC TV programme "Like It Is", New York, deceased African-American renowned historian, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, stated that the most potent phenomenon in the armory of Euro-centric scholarship or Eurocentrism is: "European colonialisation of history;(Europeans) not only colonialised history but (most importantly) they colonialised information about history." As a result, the world has been under the sway of His-Story or the Euro-centric interpretation of world history. Guyanese historian and anthropologist, Dr. Ivan van Sertima, labels sway the European "five hundred year curtain."
According to The State of Black South Carolina: An Action Agenda for the Future (1991), this Euro-centric thought-process reached its zenith in the 18th century when a German scholar, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, "helped to create Eurocentrism based on racism, while he was on the faculty of the University of Gottingen in Germany." Winckelmann, "who loved Greece and hated Africa, was helped in his creation of Eurocentrism --- at the expense of African contributions to the world--- by other 18th century racist scholars."
In this ethnocentric endeavor, these scholars produced Great Books of the Western World - "a 37,000 page, 60-volume collection of 'classics' that includes no author of African ancestry." These "racist scholars" then "went on to influence universities in Britain and America with what is called the 'classics', a course of study we now see was born in an atmosphere of racism" and xenophobia.
The primary aim of these Euro-centric 'classics' is to completely expunge Africa from the "map of human geography" and world history. Its cornerstone notion is that nothing came out of Africa but powerless, defenceless, uncivilised, barbaric, primitive, nothing slaves. However, an Afro-centric analysis/interpretation of Our-Story suggests that nothing is further from the truth.
In his magnum opus A Lost Tradition: African Philosophy in World History (1975), Thoephile Obenga documents the confessions of 'famous' revered Greeks (the world's first Europeans) in their own Greek Hellenic language that they all received their education at the Temple of Waset in ancient Kemet (Egypt) and that their teachers were the master-thinkers or High priests in the Nile Valley. The Temple of Waset is the world's first university and was built during the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep 111 in the XV111 Dynasty, 1405-1370 B.C. For example, "it is generally taught that Thales of Miletus (624-547 B.C.) was the first Greek philosopher and the founder of the Presocratic Ionian school in Asia Minor (and) is traditionally the first (protos) to have revealed the investigation of nature." The truism is that Thales "received his training from Egyptian priests in the Nile Valley. This is clearly recorded by the Greeks themselves." According to "the corpus of ancient Greek testimonia with regard to the fruitful instruction received by Thales in Egypt: "Thales, one of the so-called 'Seven Sages', had no regular teacher in his life save for the priests of Egypt, under whom he studied." (p.28). "Thales of Miletus had never been taught by a master in Greece. Thales' pursuit of instruction saw him go by sea to Egypt, where he spent time with the Egyptian priests." Plato records that Thales was educated in Egypt under the priests: "Thales was well and truly indebted to Egypt for his education." According to Aetius, "Thales studied philosophy in Egypt for a long enough period to be considered an elder when he returned."(p.29). "The science of geometry was invented in Egypt. Thales transferred the speculative science of geometry to Greece. There was no method of intellectual inquiry such as geometry in Greece before Thales' departure for Egypt. Upon his return, however, Thales introduced geometry (geometrein) in Greece." (p.31).
Indeed, "more than 1,000 years before Thales' birth, Egyptians had correctly calculated the areas of rectangles, triangles and isosceles trapeziums. The area of a circle had also been obtained accurately." (p.32). The Greek Hellenic record shows that Pythagoras (born circa 572 B.C.) like another ancient philosopher (he) Pythagoras journeyed in his youth to Egypt where, for an indefinite number of years, he pursued studies in astronomy, geometry, and theology under the tutelage of Egyptian priests."(p.34). It was Thales who "had recommended that above all, Pythagoras should meet the clergy of Memphis and Thebes (old capitals of Kemet) in order to gain a higher level of knowledge."9.p.37). Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) "ranked the country of the Pharaohs as the most ancient archaeological reserve in the world."(.p.45). In his Greek Hellenic confession, he wrote: "That is how the Egyptians, whom we considered as the most ancient of the human race."The "Greeks traced almost all human inventions to the Egyptians, from Calculus, Geometry, astronomy and Dice Games to Writing."(p.37). Aristotle also confesses: "Thus, the mathematical sciences first originated in Egypt, the cradle of Mathematics--- that is, the country of origin for Greek mathematics."(pp.47-48). Moreover, after evaluating "the astronomical knowledge acquired by the Egyptians, Aristotle was compelled to conclude: "we owe many incontrovertible facts about each of the stars' to the Egyptians". (p.51). The fact of the matter is that these confessions are prima facie evidence that the original glory is not out of Greece. The original glory belongs to the Africans/Kemites of ancient Kemet/Egypt; "Herodotus said it, Plato confirmed it and Aristotle never denied it." (.9.45). In addition, all the other 'famous' Greeks received their education from the African Highpriests including Socrates, Euclid, Hypocrates, Diodorus, Solon, Archmides and Euripides.
The Greek, St. Clement of Alexandria , stated that if you were to write a book of 1,000 pages, you could not put down the names of all the Greeks who went to the Nile Valley in Kemet/Egypt, Africa, to be educated and even those who did not go claim they went because it was prestigious. In his book titled, Egypt & Afrocentric Geopolitics: Essays on European Supremacy (1996), this writer exposes the fact that Western philosophical scholarship suggests that the words "Man know thyself" (in Greek Hellenic language, qnothi seauton) were said by the Greek 'Father of Philosophy' Socrates. The truth is that the original glory of these words were already written by the ancient Africans/Kemites on the outside walls of Temples and addressed to the neophytes (students). Socrates only copied/derived this philosophical concept from Egyptian Temples during his matriculation there.
Plato also copied/derived his so-called four virtues: wisdom, justice, courage and temperance from the original Egyptian spiritual belief system which contained ten virtues.(p.8). The Greeks re-named this belief system the Mystery System. In his Nile Valley Contribution to Civilizations (1992), Anthony T. Browder points out that "Homer, the Greek poet, praised the glory of this great (Egyptian) city ("Thebes") in The Illiad (circa 750 B.C.)" and "Rome's classical literature of religious and moral teachings" was written in 1 B.C. by poet Virgil. This "great work"" called the Aeneid consisted of 12 books---"Virgil based the first six books on the Odyssey and the last six books were modeled after the Illiad." The truism is that "Virgil wrote the Aeneid to establish the divinity of the Roman empire, which he closely associated with that of Greece" which in turn, was closely associated with and derived from, the original Kemetic ennead of Gods and Goddesses as follows (p.169):
Original African/Kemetic
| Greek Derivative | Roman Derivative |
| Amon | Jupiter | Zeus |
| Djhuiti/Thoth | Mercury | Hermes |
| Hathor | Venus | Aphrodite |
| Heru | Apollo | Apollo |
| Imhotep | Aesculapius | Asclepius |
| Neith | Minerva | Athena |
In the area of medicine, the ancient Africans/Kemites wrote such medical books as the Hearst Papyrus, 7th Dynasty 2000 B.C., the Kahun Papyrus, 12th and 13th Dynasty 2133-1766 B.C., which contain gynecological treatments and the Ebers Papyrus, 18th Dynasty 1500 B.C.
On the walls of the Temple of Kom Ombo, the Kemites have left records of the original medical tools they used in their operations. These tools consist of forceps, aircups, knives, sponge, scissors, triceps, a balance to weigh portions of medicine, retractor to separate skin, birthing or delivery chair and the origin of the modern-day RX prescription symbol. These tools are chiseled into the stone walls. In 47 B.C., the medical doctors in ancient Kemet, delivered Cleopatra V11's son named Caesarion ("Little Caesar"). The medical procedure performed by these African doctors in the B.C. era to deliver this boy-child is called the Caesarean Section in our A.D. era. And to confirm the medical originality of the Africans/Kemites, The Plain Dealer reported on 9 January 2004 as follows: "the physicians of ancient Egypt not only performed orthopedic surgery; they also outfitted some of their patients with prosthetic devices--- German physicians described "the body of a (mummified) woman probably in her 50s, whose foot had a prosthetic big toe. Carved from wood and attached to two small woven plates, the device was tied to the forefoot with a string."
Now, while the Africans/Kemites were writing these medical texts and performing all these medical operations, the Greek Hypocrates, was not born yet, until 333 B.C.----almost 2,000 years after the African originality in medicine. Imhotep,the world's "first recorded multi-genius" is regarded as the real Father of Medicine. He was born in 2800 B.C. So instead of taking the derived European-Greek Hypocratic Oath, (which contains two African/Kemetic Gods Heru and Imhotep), medical students today should take the true, original Imhotep Oath. Hypocrates only spent 20 years studying medicine at the Temple of Waset (renamed Thebes by the Greeks and Luxor by the Arabs). As such, he is a student/child of medicine, not the 'Father'. Imhotep also built the Step Pyramid-the world's first stone monument-at Saqqara, 111rd Dynasty circa 2730 B.C.; this proves that Africans/Kemites invented architecture – a genre of architecture that was later copied and duplicated in Greece. As a philosopher, Imhotep is credited with having written the slogan: "Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we shall die."
In the arena of city planning, the Africans/Kemites invented the concept of a province or district which they called a Nome; there were 42 Nomes in ancient Kemet. The Greeks would later call these original Nomes, "City States."
"The Greeks were not the authors of Greek Philosophy, but the people of North Africa, commonly called the Egyptians. the so-called Greek philosophy is stolen Egyptian philosophy," so asserts George G. M. James in his treatise Stolen Legacy (1954). James goes on to contend that "after the death of Aristotle, his Athenian pupils undertook to compile a history of philosophy, recognized at that time as the Sophia or Wisdom of the Egyptians, which had become current and traditional in the ancient world"; this history was later "erroneously called Greek philosophy." (p.10).
Let us recall that when the Greek from Macedonia, Alexander 'the great', invaded Egypt in 332 B.C., Aristotle was among his invading forces; this then gave Aristotle "free access" to the library of Waset whereby he had the unbridled opportunity to put his name down as the original author of Kemetic philosophical papyri(manuscripts) that were written thousands of years before he was even born. And the list goes on and on and on in almost every field/area of human endeavor/ development/ advancement to provide valid testimony as to the original glory that is African/Kemetic, not Greece.
In fact, the mathematical system that is the spinal cord of the computer in our A.D. era was invented by the Kemites in the B.C. era, that is, the Binary mathematical system. These facts, therefore, prove that we cannot have a world of today and even a Europe of today, if we did not have a Kemet (Egypt) of yesterday in Africa. Ergo, the salient question that must be asked is: since the Greeks themselves confess in their own Hellenic language that they derived/received their glory from the original Africans/Kemites, why Euro-centrism or the "Curriculum of Exclusion" still continues to deny Africa and African peoples any sense of originality?
Dr. John Henrik Clarke is correct to surmise that : "Civilisation did not start in European countries and the rest of the world did not wait in darkness for the Europeans to bring the light. Most of the history books in the last five hundred years have been written to glorify Europeans at the expense of other peoples. Most Western historians have not been willing to admit that there is an African history to be written about and that this history predates the emergence of Europe by thousands of years. It is not possible for the world to have waited in darkness for Europeans to bring the light because, for most of the early history of man, the Europeans themselves were in darkness. When the light of culture came for the first time to the who would later call themselves Europeans, it came from Africa and Middle Eastern Asia. It is too often forgotten that, when the Europeans emerged and began to extend themselves in the broader world of Africa and Asia during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, they went on to colonise most of mankind. later , they would colonise world scholarship, mainly to show or imply that Europeans were the only creators of what could be called a civilization. In order to accomplish this, the Europeans had to forget or pretend to forget, all they previously knew about Africa."
Such a conclusion is corroborated by European scholars/historians R.R. Palmer and Joel Colton in their book A History of the Modern World (1984) as follows: "Europeans were by no means the pioneers of human civilization. Half of man's recorded history had passed before anyone in Europe could read or write. The priests of Egypt began to keep written records between 4000 and 3000 B.C., but more than two thousand years later, the poems of Homer were still being circulated in Greek city-states by word of mouth. Shortly after 3000B.C., while the Pharaohs were building the first Pyramids (in Kemet/Egypt), Europeans were creating nothing more distinguished than huge garbage heaps."
In The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality (1974), Cheikh Anta Diop (modern-day Imhotep), speaks to the original glorification of ancient Kemet thus: "Universal knowledge runs from the Nile Valley towards the rest of the world, in particular Greece, which (only) served as an intermediary. As a result, no thought, no ideology is foreign to Africa, which was the land of their birth." And British Egyptologist Gerald Massey sums up all the evidence as to the originality of the Africans/Kemites in his seminal work Ancient Egypt: Light of the World (1988).
In the final analysis, Africans are the people of yesterday and the people of tomorrow; Europeans are only the people of today. Africans are the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. And African people must continue to live in the hope that in the process of time, they will once again occupy a prominent position in world history (A.D.) as their ancestors once did in the B.C. era.
Dr. Kwame Nantambu is a part-time lecturer at Cipriani Labour College.
www.trinicenter.com/kwame
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