HomepageHowcomyoucomRaceandHistoryRootsWomenTrinicenter
Homepage
Rastafari Speaks Archive
Buy Books
ARCHIVE HOMEMESSAGE BOARDREASONING FORUMARTICLESNEWS WEBLOG

Read Only : Rastafari Speaks Reasoning Archives

Rastafari Speaks Archive

Knowing Black History And Culture

by Paul Barton

Some of the most powerful and culturally rich nations and peoples on this earth have one thing in common. They think of themselves and their cultures as being of the unmost importance. One will find this attitude among Anglo-Americans, Latins, Chinese, Arabs, Japanese, Europeans, Jews, Nigerians, Zulus, Afro-Brazilians, Caribbeans, East Indians and many others.

The desire to know one's history and preserve one's culture is strong among many nationalities and peoples. In fact, people around the world have gone to war in order to preserve their language, culture and identity.

Knowing this fact, we must remind ouselves of the importance as Blacks in America to continue the cultural renaissance began in the sixties by returning to the good aspects of Black culture, learning the history of Black cultures and civilizations in the Americas, Africa and around the world and using the preservation and application of cultural assets as a way to iinstill pride and continuity into Black people.

As we approach Black History Month in February (October in England), we must begin to look at these aspects of Black/African culture that needs to be revived or constantly improved. These areas include the glorious history of Blacks all over the world, the preservation of Black cultural traditions and using Black culture to build a strong and much better Black America and Black world.

STUDYING AND KNOWING BLACK HISTORY

The knowledge of a people of their history is of crucial importance to a variety of aspects of their being. It reminds them of their accomplishments and contributions that occurred in ages past. It helps them maintain good cultural traditions when a tragedy or historical amnesia pushes them into a period of regression, and it helps build in them a feeling of pride, of who they are and of where they are going.

One of the most devastating policies used on Blacks by religious colonialists and slave masters whether in India, North Africa, North America or Latin America, was the deliberate mythologizing of Black history in India, the keeping out of Black accomplishments in parts of North Africa and the Middle East, and the outright refusal to educate Blacks in the slave system of the Americas. All these policies were geared to keep Blacks from knowing that they were once people who made great contributions to humanity. In fact, slavemasters used the very same techniques to miseducate Blacks in slave era (and even today's) America, that the British used against the Irish, in order to remove any knowledge among the oppressed of who they are and who they were.

THE HISTORY OF BLACKS INCLUDES PREHISTORIC AMERICA

Here is one of the primary reasons why Blacks and Irish were deliberately miseducated or not educated and continue to be miseducated to this day. IT IS A MATTER OF LAND, WHO WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE ON LANDS TAKEN OVER BY THE BRITISH AND WHO HAS CALIMS TO THESE LANDS STILL.

Slavery was not the only catalyst that led to the settlment of Blacks in the Americas. Blacks were in the United States, Mexico, South America and the Caribbean for thousands of years before Columbus. In fact, according to some sources, Black slaves were being kidnapped on the coast of South America as well as in the Southern United States before and after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. They were also being kidnapped and enslaved in California and in the Mississippi Valley.



FAIR USE NOTICE:
This site may at times contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml


Copyright © 2003-2014 RastafariSpeaks.com & AfricaSpeaks.com