I speak of Africa and golden joys.
The line above opens the first chapter in your reader, The African Past. This chapter, along with The Founding of Black America, is assigned in order to re-brand our collective understanding and historical knowledge base on the contribution of black people around the world. This relates directly to the social, economic and political relationships black people have today with themselves and others - including state based institutions. Answer the following questions after you have read The African Past and The Founding of Black America:
16 Comments
Andre Mouton
1/15/2015 10:03:30 pm
Some new aspects I have learned from reading The African Past and The Founding of Black America are I never knew that according to the Founding of Black America reader during the Boston Massacre a black man named Attucks lead the fight against the British and stood their ground. also I did not know that George Washington ordered that blacks were not to fight as soldiers anymore. In the reader The African Past I learned that long before anybody else on earth Blacks had the first civilization and Woman played very important roles as queens also was respected by men and esteemed very highly.
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Jessica Jaime
1/18/2015 12:14:27 pm
I really liked how you talked about your experience's growing up in the 60's and experienced first hand how your high school did not teach the great accomplishments of African's and African-Americans. Its a shame that the truth is lost in the education system and I do agree that if the truth was taught about black America and black world history the negative stereotype images would no longer capture young minds.
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amal pujol
1/18/2015 01:17:33 pm
Hey Andre,
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Marcos Guzman
3/24/2015 06:15:58 am
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Jessica Jaime
1/16/2015 07:14:34 am
Some new aspects that I learned after reading “The African Past” and the “Founding of Black America” was that when African and African-American scholars who primarily worked in the United States and Mexico, found new archeological evidence that was a carbon 14-dated sculpture , which suggested that African marines explored the New World before Columbus. I also learned that Blacks, or people who would be considered blacks today, were among the first to paint pictures, use tools, plant seeds and worship gods. After reading the real history of where we and everyone came from I have come to understand the evolution of “blackness” has changed so much throughout history. During the time of the ancient world blacks of Ethiopia were honored and praised by many classical writers such as Homer, Herodotus, Pliny and Diodorus describing them as the most powerful, most just, and the most beautiful of the human race. This brings me to question everything that I have learned in high school. How can we talk about world history and skip over the most important part of it. Yes, I understand that this world we live in and what is taught is controlled by Eurocentrism way but wouldn’t you want your future generations to be well rounded and fully educated on the African Past. I still think and always have thought that Ethic Studies should be taught in high school requiring students to take at least 2 or 3 classes to learn a greater understanding of how many steps we have taken forward but also backwards. Nothing is more important that knowledge and truth and this is what we are missing!
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Makamae (Davina) Heinz
1/18/2015 02:18:37 pm
You and me both are on the same level with what new things we learned. I was so in shock of how I have not learned none of the things we are reading in school. It is like it is hidden where you learn a little but not from my days of school back in the late 90s. Most of what I have learned of History was lies. African marines explored before Columbus is so shocking and I am glad to hear the truth. Yes, I agree that Ethnic Studies should be taught in High School. I think we should learn about the real truth and not just a quick glance at some history with people of color. It should be more.
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amal pujol
1/16/2015 01:25:21 pm
There were several new aspects of history that I learned after reading “The African Past” and the “Founding of Black America”. The first striking thing that I read in “The African Past” there were rock paintings discovered in the Sahara that show that Blacks in this area were painting beautiful and realist portraits prior to 3000 B.C. This shows that naturalistic portraits originated in Africa. Another new aspect I learned was that Timbuktu during the reign of Askia was a flourishing city where youths came from all over the world to study law and medicine at the University of Sankore. After reading “Founding of Black America", I found the story of Phillis Wheatley to be very astonishing. Phillis was a black woman who was brought on a slave ship at the age of eight and was bought by john Wheatley and raised by him and his wife. She was taught how to read and went on to become a published author. Her book " Poems on Various Subject, Religious and Moral, was an important milestone as it marked the first book by a black woman and only the second by an American woman.
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Andre Mouton
1/18/2015 07:11:38 am
I like how you remembered to state about Africans creation of tools because this reality is important because in the past Anthropologist have either ignored the past or have not had the technology to discovered the truth. It shows that Africans were the first humans to use their minds intelligently.
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Marcos Guzman
1/16/2015 01:44:15 pm
Part 1 of 2
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Marcos Guzman
1/16/2015 01:46:51 pm
Part 2 of 2
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Jordan Leopold
1/19/2015 11:34:25 am
Marcos, that's a great yet very loaded question. I think as long as there is difference in culture, religion, and even nationalities there will always be a huge possibility for one demographic to oppress or feel oppressed.
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Jordan Leopold
1/16/2015 02:37:12 pm
*Preface: I didn’t fully complete my reading of “the Founding of Black America. Thus I won’t refer to it*
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marie brown
1/17/2015 02:23:54 am
Taking the words from The African Past ".For an academic breakthrough, which is as challenging on its own level" ,we must guide our people who are coming up in our homes, communities, and on the bus stop about the real deal of their History.
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Corissa R.
1/16/2015 03:56:39 pm
From reading “The African Past’’ I learned so much about the influences the African and black culture had all over. I also learned about a very different kind of slavery. I didn’t know that the dynamics of slavery during those times were different from slavery in the United States. The slaves were treated with value, and their opinion mattered just as much as someone else that came from a higher class did. I also learned that just because you mother was a slave did not necessary mean that you would become one as well, and that was illustrated in the case of Anter the famous poet that died in A.D. 615. Also within the same reading I never knew the extent of the distaste for whites in particularly in Sudan, so much so that Ibn-Batuta refuse to speak in the language that the whites use. The reading was very eye-opening in the sense that we are not taught exactly how much Africans/ black greatly impacted culture across continents. The most interesting and most important piece of information that I learned came from “The Founding of Black America.” I was never taught in any of my history classes (and I took APUSH and a history class here at CSUEB) about the impactful role that the founders of Black America played in not just in black history but history period. I find it interesting that the only topics that were covered regarding black history were slavery and the civil rights movement. It seems to me almost as if, when black history is written about and taught in school it is very minimalistic and in some sense inaccurate, for example the Stamp Riot Acts in Boston, history as it was told to me did not include blacks as a part of the patriots fighting with the British. I think that we need people like the writers of these two reading that are helping to educate not only black people but everybody about the influences of Africans/black people had in shaping the world today.
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marie brown
1/17/2015 02:11:57 am
Africa Past
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Makamae (Davina) Heinz
1/21/2015 11:35:00 am
There is a lot of new aspects that I learned from both of the readings. In reading the African Past one of the parts that interested me was about the Greek Historian named Herodotus. When he visited th country before Bethlehem and said that the Egyptians were black and curly haired. I remember watching movies like Cleopatra and thinking so they are blue eyes and not brown. I was confused because they do not tell us the truth about a lot of history. I learned how there is evidence that Egyptians were black. I also enjoyed learning about the best known Arabic's blacks named Antar who was a poet. I did not learn nothing like this in history. It was also interesting about reading about the women of Sudanese. How they committed suicide because they were too proud to allow themselves to fall into the hands of white men when the state was overthrown.
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