One isolated clade (or clades) of Y chromosomes that appear to belong to Haplogroup R1* (M173-derived) is found at high frequency among the native populations of northern Cameroon in west-central Africa, which is believed to reflect a prehistoric back-migration of an ancient proto-Eurasian population into Africa; some researchers have reported having also detected Haplogroup K2 Y-chromosomes at a low frequency among some of these Cameroonian populations, which also suggests a Eurasian affinity.[1] Some Y-chromosomes that appear to be closely related to the northern Cameroonian R1b1* are found at a substantial frequency among the modern population of Egypt. Many modern populations of northern Cameroon speak Chadic languages, which are classified as an ancient branch of the Afro-Asiatic superfamily of languages; the now extinct language of the Ancient Egyptians also belonged to the same superfamily.
Isolates in a corridor of migrations: a high-resolution analysis of Y-chromosome variation in Jordan
A high-resolution, Y-chromosome analysis using 46 binary markers has been carried out in two Jordan populations, one from the metropolitan area of Amman and the other from the Dead Sea, an area geographically isolated. Comparisons with neighboring populations showed that whereas the sample from Amman did not significantly differ from their Levantine neighbors, the Dead Sea sample clearly behaved as a genetic outlier in the region. Its high R1*-M173 frequency (40%) has until now only been found in northern Cameroonian samples. This contrasts with the comparatively low presence of J representatives (9%), which is the modal clade in Middle Eastern populations, including Amman. The Dead Sea sample also showed a high presence of E3b3a-M34 lineages (31%), which is only comparable to that found in Ethiopians. Although ancient and recent ties with sub-Saharan and eastern Africans cannot be discarded, it seems that isolation, strong drift, and/or founder effects are responsible for the anomalous Y-chromosome pool of this population. These results demonstrate that, at a fine scale, the smooth, continental clines detected for several Y-chromosome markers are often disrupted by genetically divergent populations.
posted
Chris Rock was found to have 45% Senegambian ancestery.
These DNA results continue to reveal a complex Senegambian/Sahelian ancestry for African Americans which include Nilo-Saharan and AfroAsiatic speakers as ancestors. Therefore, interest in things AE are not so out of the question. Moreover, the Senegambian ancesty includes those who traveled west in the far distant past from the Nile River Valley.
from Songhai area...
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Red,White, and Blue + Christian: These DNA results continue to reveal a complex Senegambian/Sahelian ancestry for African Americans which include Nilo-Saharan and AfroAsiatic speakers as ancestors. Therefore, interest in things AE are not so out of the question. Moreover, the Senegambian ancesty includes those who traveled west in the far distant past from the Nile River Valley.
Evergreen Writes:
Red,White, and Blue + Christian, your point is well taken. The Eurocentric view is that prior to European or at least "Arab" colonialism Africans were isolated from one another and unsophisticated enough to travel and trade across the continent.
Posts: 2007 | From: Washington State | Registered: Oct 2006
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The Nilo-Saharan languages are a group of African languages spoken mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers (whence the term "Nilo-"), including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of Nile meet. Its member languages extend, however, through 17 nations in the northern half of Africa: from Algeria and Mali in the northwest; to Benin, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the south; and Egypt to Tanzania in the east (excluding Somalia). The largest part of its major subfamilies are found in the modern nation of Sudan, through which the Nile River flows in all its incarnations: the White and Blue Nile, which join to form the main Nile at Khartoum. As seen in the hyphenated name (compare map at right), Nilo-Saharan is primarily a family of the African interior, including the greater Nile basin and its tributaries as well as the central Sahara desert.
Roughly 11 million people spoke Nilo-Saharan languages as of 1987, according to Merritt Ruhlen's estimate. The family is internally extremely diverse - far more so than Indo-European, or even Niger-Congo - and is rather controversial; few historical linguists have attempted work on the family as a whole, and several have denied its validity. Particularly controversial is the inclusion of Songhay, the language of Timbuktu and its empire.
The Ethnologue by SIL, following Anbessa Tefera and Peter Unseth, considers the Shabo language to be Nilo-Saharan, but otherwise unclassified. It is sometimes considered a language isolate, following Christopher Ehret.
Some linguists, including Roger Blench, consider the Kadu languages (also called Kadugli languages or Tumtum) to be Nilo-Saharan, while others follow Greenberg in classing them as Kordofanian languages, or Ehret in considering them a small isolated family. Proposals have sometimes been made to add Mande (usually classed as Niger-Congo) to Nilo-Saharan, largely due to its many noteworthy similarities with Songhay.
The extinct Meroitic language of ancient Kush has sometimes been suggested as a probable member of Nilo-Saharan; however, too little is known of the language to classify it with any confidence. The same may reasonably be said of the rather more recently extinct Oropom language in Uganda (if it ever existed), for whom connections with Kuliak or Nilotic have been suggested.
Proposals for the external relationships of Nilo-Saharan typically center on Niger-Congo: Gregersen (1972) grouped the two together to form Kongo-Saharan, whereas Blench (1995) actually proposed that Niger-Congo may simply be a member of Nilo-Saharan (coordinate with Central Sudanic.) However, such theories are treated with reserve by most historical linguists.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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posted
This is connected to Ancient Egypt by language and culture. Kanuri which has been found in African American DNA is Nilo-Saharan as well as Songhay. Meroitic is Nilo-Saharan. What is the relationship liguistically between Ancient Nubian and Songhay and Kanuri (from Kanem Bornu) since they belong to the same language family?
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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posted
I want to bring up another issue which I could have turned into another thread. There were many Egyptians in West Africa during Medieval Times. Egypt was a major source for West African silk. I wonder if there are many texts written by Egyptians in Timbuktu ?!?!?
Despite the change in political control of West Africa due to the fall of the Ghana Empire and the rise of the Islamic Mali Empire in 1235, control of the gold-salt trade remained the economic lifeline of the region. Merchants established a second major gold-salt trade route northeast across the Sahara that passed through Tunis, and Cairo, and ended in Egypt's interior. This route complimented the traditional Western Sudan--Maghreb--Europe trade route. As the second trade route grew in popularity, Egypt's influence on the Western Sudan grew as well.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Red,White, and Blue + Christian: Last, but not least. The wondeful comedian Chris Rock was found to be paternally derived from the Uldeme of Cameroon.
Actor Don Cheadle's ancestors were enslaved by the Choctaw. But, he has no Indian ancestry! Don's ancestors also came from Cameroon. But, which tribe?
One isolated clade (or clades) of Y chromosomes that appear to belong to Haplogroup R1* (M173-derived) is found at high frequency among the native populations of northern Cameroon in west-central Africa, which is believed to reflect a prehistoric back-migration of an ancient proto-Eurasian population into Africa; some researchers have reported having also detected Haplogroup K2 Y-chromosomes at a low frequency among some of these Cameroonian populations, which also suggests a Eurasian affinity.[1] Some Y-chromosomes that appear to be closely related to the northern Cameroonian R1b1* are found at a substantial frequency among the modern population of Egypt. Many modern populations of northern Cameroon speak Chadic languages, which are classified as an ancient branch of the Afro-Asiatic superfamily of languages; the now extinct language of the Ancient Egyptians also belonged to the same superfamily.
Isolates in a corridor of migrations: a high-resolution analysis of Y-chromosome variation in Jordan
A high-resolution, Y-chromosome analysis using 46 binary markers has been carried out in two Jordan populations, one from the metropolitan area of Amman and the other from the Dead Sea, an area geographically isolated. Comparisons with neighboring populations showed that whereas the sample from Amman did not significantly differ from their Levantine neighbors, the Dead Sea sample clearly behaved as a genetic outlier in the region. Its high R1*-M173 frequency (40%) has until now only been found in northern Cameroonian samples. This contrasts with the comparatively low presence of J representatives (9%), which is the modal clade in Middle Eastern populations, including Amman. The Dead Sea sample also showed a high presence of E3b3a-M34 lineages (31%), which is only comparable to that found in Ethiopians. Although ancient and recent ties with sub-Saharan and eastern Africans cannot be discarded, it seems that isolation, strong drift, and/or founder effects are responsible for the anomalous Y-chromosome pool of this population. These results demonstrate that, at a fine scale, the smooth, continental clines detected for several Y-chromosome markers are often disrupted by genetically divergent populations.
So that means Chris Rock is a black Cro-magnid, because haplogroup R has been found in Cro-magnons too.
Posts: 1106 | From: Puerto Rico | Registered: Aug 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Red,White, and Blue + Christian: This is connected to Ancient Egypt by language and culture. Kanuri which has been found in African American DNA is Nilo-Saharan as well as Songhay. Meroitic is Nilo-Saharan. What is the relationship liguistically between Ancient Nubian and Songhay and Kanuri (from Kanem Bornu) since they belong to the same language family?
Evergreen Writes:
I'm not sure about this. What are the Kanuri specific genetic lineages discovered in AA's? As far as I am aware the lineages of the Chad Basin are infrequent within AA populations.
Posts: 2007 | From: Washington State | Registered: Oct 2006
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posted
Population genetics shows haplogroups prominent in a region. Hgs are exclusive to ethnicity or language. Hence these tests on individuals cannot reveal what ethno-linguistic group an individual belongs to. The hgs are are also inherited either matrilineally or patrilineally. That means a whole host of ancestors go undetected by an individual's test.
A very limited number of SNPs are checked for by these companies who then assign an ethnic group based only on the which has the highest percentage of matched SNPs. This ignores other ethnies in the region who have the same or nearly the same SNP match but at a lower frequency.
Since the tests only show mother's mother's mother or father's father's father the predominant ancestry could very well be missed. Only two people are revealed by the test no matter how far back in time or how many generations ago.
So from the above we can see for a male whose tests can show NRY and mtDNA that only two of his remote ancestors are shown by testing. The tests only reveal a small component of his ancestry. The test cannot rule out other ethnic ancestry different from the region it reveals.
The only way an individual can be somewhat assured as to their ethnicity/ethnicities by these tests is to have each and every member of their legitimate cousin kin also take the test and then pool the results.
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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They dealt with this on "African American Lives 2" showing a chart and everything. The geneticists developed a new test showing which regions African Americans come from by region.
25% of all Nigerians are Chadic Speakers! Kanuri (from Kanem Bornu) is found in Easter Nigeria.
Kanouri women in Nigeria
more Kanuri
Kanuri slaves in South Carolina helped introduce techniques in INDIGO production.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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Look at the men with white head coverings. They were wearing White Turbans in South Carolina during slavery. Why? Because, the white turban was the standard head covering of the Mali Empire into Songhay!
Uh Oh!
Jesus help!
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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But never mind the "Tee Vee" tells you what to think. Has it ever occured to you that its a scam to bilk you out of your 300, 400, 500 dollars? LOL.
Look dude you need to just hand me that money that you are giving away to a scam. I have a porn site that I want to start.
hahahahahaahahaahah!!
Due to the massive amount of stupidity that you display, you strike me as the type of person who needs to be on some type of vitamins. : )
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I just went over your profile and last posts you did on Egyptsearch where you've place these same links over and over again and have insulted everyone with the exact same taunts.
This means I am on the right track. I am doing the right thing and I should definitely continue.
Are you the Chilean or are you the Kabyle?
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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Let me clarify a bit. I mean to say every African American is a composite of all three regions. So, an individual can claim descent from each area if you want to be complete.
Hence, One can claim Shango and the Clan of the Red Cow, and many other groups at the same time.
The African Americans are the first truly physical Pan-African people according to Prof. Gates.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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posted
Interesting how you can't refute the facts, so you attempt to dodge and weave in a backpeddling fashion out of the ring.
Which is logical since you get your facts from "TEE VEE" programs meant to procure money through using celebrities in an obvious scam.
And I get my facts from historical documented facts which you can't refute. Because if you could you would have done it. But you haven't because you can't. You can't win against historical facts you just can't.
So close your eyes and continue the racial pseudohistory dogma that your White Owners have instructed you to repeat. They have even placed a collar around your neck with your name:
Red,White, and Dunce - a Brain
It's also interesting how you backtracked in retreat once you were called out by alTakruri. Like I said that outside of refutation, refutation and now I will add "even ridicule" your braindead posts are worthy only of ignoring.
Posts: 3085 | Registered: Jan 2008
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quote:Originally posted by argyle104: Interesting how you can't refute the facts, so you attempt to dodge and weave in a backpeddling fashion out of the ring.
Which is logical since you get your facts from "TEE VEE" programs meant to procure money through using celebrities in an obvious scam.
And I get my facts from historical documented facts which you can't refute. Because if you could you would have done it. But you haven't because you can't. You can't win against historical facts you just can't.
So close your eyes and continue the racial pseudohistory dogma that your White Owners have instructed you to repeat. They have even placed a collar around your neck with your name:
Red,White, and Dunce - a Brain
It's also interesting how you backtracked in retreat once you were called out by alTakruri. Like I said that outside of refutation, refutation and now I will add "even ridicule" your braindead posts are worthy only of ignoring.
Incoherent babble. You sound like a rehearsed soldier.
Posts: 105 | From: Japan | Registered: Jan 2008
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posted
The third row's first symbol from the left is a swastika and the second symbol from the right on top is a one that the Nazis used. But, these are African symbols!
Ron Claiborne Visits His Ashanti Heritage He Learned of Ashanti Ancestors From DNA TestRon Claiborne holds a copy of the Accra Daily Mail. The exclusive front page story is actually a reprint of the article Ron wrote for ABCNEWS.com about learning that a DNA test linked him to the Ashanti. (
Share In a sense, my journey to Ghana began last fall, months before I actually traveled to the tiny West African nation. It began in my mind and heart when "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts disclosed the results of a DNA test tracing my maternal ancestry.
"Ashanti people in Ghana," Robin said. I was overwhelmed with emotion, only dimly aware that I was on live television. I felt exhilarated.
"I felt like a door that has been closed all my life has been open," I said, and as I said it I had that literal image in my mind: an enormous door creaking open slowly to reveal an ancestry that all my life had been unknown and, I thought, unknowable. I want to note here that the accuracy of this kind of DNA test, which can cost hundreds of dollars, has been challenged by some geneticists. They say that it is possible to generally locate where one's ancestors came from, but that databases are insufficiently large to give 100 percent pinpoint results of a specific tribe or people. Having reported on this subject, I was aware of the controversies behind the science. And yet none of that mattered to me at that moment. It was something, where before I'd had nothing.
The next day, I used my British Airways frequent flier miles to get a ticket from New York to London to Accra, the capital of Ghana.
Landing in Ghana's Capital Months later -- on March 6 -- the BA flight descended in the darkness. Out the window, I could see a scattering of lights. With a touch of nervousness that I had not expected, I thought, "This is it."
On my first day in Accra, the sprawling, congested capital of 2 million, I was taken to lunch by the daughter of Harruna Atta, editor of the Accra Daily Mail. I had met his older daughter, a grad student at the Columbia University School of Journalism, by chance and she had urged me to look up her family.
We grabbed a cab. The driver was a man named Isaac, an Ashanti. I told him about my DNA test result. He'd never heard of such a thing.
He Learned of Ashanti Ancestors From DNA
Share "I took the test," I explained. "On my mother's side, it said Ashanti."
He glanced over at me. "Is that right?"
"Do I look like I could be Ashanti?"
He took a second look, smiling. "Well, because of your color."
I prompted him: "Many, many years ago?"
"Many, many years ago," he said thoughtfully, still concentrating on the road. "Mixed brown. I think it's OK. So far as you're about to discover, I think it's right."
"So Ashantis are very proud?"
"Yes, because Ashantis are very great people."
In the coming days I would hear variations of that boast, but it always seemed prideful, not arrogant.
I spent two days under the wing of Harruna Atta. he patiently explained the politics, social customs and culture of Ghana and Ghanaians. He took me to meet the tourism minister who told me -- to my shock -- that many Ghanaians are only dimly aware of the slave trade that thrived on their shores centuries ago. He said some might not even connect visiting black Americans to Africa. They would assume that there were indigenous dark-skinned people in America just as there are in Africa. I was told that when "Roots" was broadcast on national television, some people learned for the first time that black Americans originally came from Africa. Ghanaians were stunned and outraged, he said, by the depicted cruelty of the slave traders and slave masters.
Experiencing Ashanti History I took a night bus to Kumasi, the major city in the Ashanti region. It is a bustling, modern city of about 1 million people. For hours, I walked around the packed streets. I found myself looking into people's faces looking for a resemblance to myself. Did I see it? Or did I imagine it? I wandered and wandered, imagining my distant relative here or somewhere near here. I wondered: What had happened to her that she ended up a slave, deported to the Americas? What had she thought when she was taken into bondage? Surely she was afraid. And as I peered into the faces, I thought: This person or maybe this person could be my relative.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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As of Monday the 17th of March, David Paterson will be the Governor of New York State. Lt. Gov. Paterson recently sat down with Susan Arbetter of WHMT’s NYNOW to discuss the results of his genetic genealogy test results. Paterson is probably the first governor in the United States to have undergone genetic genealogy testing, and might be the highest government official to do so and then speak openly about it. These videos are very enjoyable, and it’s interesting to learn more about the future Governor.
In the first segment, Arbetter and Paterson discuss some of Paterson’s genealogy. They also discuss Paterson’s Y-DNA, which is of European origin. Arbetter writes on her blog: "On the Lt. Governor’s paternal side, like almost 25% of all African Americans, he’s got white progenitors from England, Ireland and Scotland."
In the second segment, Paterson starts out discussing his maternal ancestry and the West African origin of his mtDNA. Arbetter writes on her blog: "On his maternal side he has eastern European Jewish ancestry, as well as strong ties to what’s known as the Guinea Bissou region of West Africa which is now divided among Cameroon, Sierra Leone and Gambia."
GOD BLESS NEW YORK!!!!!
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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quote:I spent two days under the wing of Harruna Atta. he patiently explained the politics, social customs and culture of Ghana and Ghanaians. He took me to meet the tourism minister who told me -- to my shock -- that many [quote]Ghanaians are only dimly aware of the slave trade that thrived on their shores centuries ago. He said some might not even connect visiting black Americans to Africa. They would assume that there were indigenous dark-skinned people in America just as there are in Africa. I was told that when "Roots" was broadcast on national television, some people learned for the first time that black Americans originally came from Africa. Ghanaians were stunned and outraged, he said, by the depicted cruelty of the slave traders and slave masters.
All this has to do with the educational systems in some African countries. The less educated--in the modern sense--a person is the less likely that they would have some coherent knowledge of the Atlantic trade.
Further, the role of the Ashanti kingdoms in the warfare that produced the captives that were then bartered across the Atlantic is an historical fact that is kept under wraps. The point is that the less that something is spoken about the less it becomes known or acknowledged.
But the same thing happens across the Atlantic too: millions of blacks in the Americas have never really pondered on how they came to be in the Western hemisphere. And many blacks even deny that their ancestors came from Africa--if they ever give such a thought.
On the contrary individuals of Jewish ancestry are psychologically conditioned from infancy to recognise a crucial connection with Israel. That sense of being Jewish with a connection to Israel--hotly contested by some--is developed by the commemorative feast and holy days in the Jewish calendar such as in the case of Passover, the Jewish New Year, the Jewish Day of Atonement. And then there's Bar Mitzvar, etc.
But even so, one must consider the fact that the Atlantic trade lasted 350 years approximately with 15 million shipped to the Americas. When one factors in the mortality figures from the point of capture as a war prisoner or kidnapee to the arduous march to the coast plus the numbers that died during the crossings--revolts, illness, suicide, etc. the total number would probably climb 60 million.
Thus yearly there were some 150,000 to 200,000 persons caught up in the wars and trade spread over a vast area--from West Africa and Central Africa down to Angola then over to Mozambique and Madagascar. The population of that vast area was probably some 50 million at the time.
So make of these observations whatever as you see fit.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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-------------------------- Thus yearly there were some 150,000 to 200,000 persons caught up in the wars and trade spread over a vast area--from West Africa and Central Africa down to Angola then over to Mozambique and Madagascar. --------------------------
You're not very good at thinking are you? So you say that 150 to 200k people were taken a year (Notice people that he doesn't provide any substantiation, even those that are weak).
Do you realize the amount of manpower that would be needed to undergo such a task?
The amount of people that would die in the process?
The amount of wounded that would occur? Using the current war as an example multiply the number that die times 5 to get the wounded.
Then add deaths that occur normally, the high infant mortality, and the people that become chronically ill.
No one, two, or three areas or populations even the so called raider(s) could sustain such losses. And yet you stupidly post your race fantasies as if people cannot see how moronic they are.
-------------------------- The population of that vast area was probably some 50 million at the time. --------------------------
Notice people he said "probably". This guy really chose the right screen name.
Posts: 3085 | Registered: Jan 2008
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quote:Originally posted by argyle104: layman wrote:
quote: And many blacks even deny that their ancestors came from Africa--if they ever give such a thought.
Well are those AAs right? Afterall they said it was so? So it must be true. Correct?
Folks his answer should be interesting.
I've seen some on the internet claim all slaves sold to America originally have their lineage going back to Israel, thus they say they are not African but refugees in Africa. Hamites are the ones still living in Africa
Go to stormfront.org and some will tell you the entire white race are the Israelites, an idea going to back to the first pilgrims in America.
Both groups I tend to want to avoid
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Everyone is still waiting for you to address the historical evidence that was presented that proves that what you are saying makes no sense.
It's also interesting how you backtracked in retreat once you were called out by alTakruri.
Also for those that have the intelligence to understand. Notice how according to Red, White and Dunce, everyone is suppose to be % one African ethnic group and the rest is % white. Just how idiotic can this boy be? Well I'm sure its limitless. LOL
Just think about it 70% black/ 30% white. Does that even make sense. What items are they using to quantify 70% and 30%. Again ask yourself how are they quantifying these foolish assertions? Again notice that Red, White, and Dunce doesn't provide details, just like the other fools who say the same things. Probably because they don't know what they are talking about, so they fall prey to the parlor tricks that smart people don't.
Notice how they only do it with celebrities. Again its just like they do with Africa, if anyone high achieves, is politcally active, invents something, is intelligent, looks good, etc then they have to have white in them.
Ask yourself why don't they go and do these so called tests on people in prison? LOL : )
Posts: 3085 | Registered: Jan 2008
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posted
Historians claim that some 15 million Africans were landed in the Americas during the approximately 350 years of the Atlantic trade.
Historians range in their estimates of what percentage of the total number of those caught up in the captive traffic that the 15 million represents. Estimates range from 16% to 30%. I settled on a middle number of 60 million--i.e. 1 in 4 captives survived.
I say this because above all the Triangular Trade was a business that involved heavy investments in terms of ships, sailors, weaponry to protect against pitates,insurance(Lloyd's of London became a large international insurance company on account of the Triangular Trade) and other expenditures. So if the human losses were too prohibitive the profitability of the enterprise would have been called into question.
Thus to determine how many captives were shipped out every year just divide 60 million[or whatever number you think is apt]by 350.
However, if one inquires only about the numbers that survived the journey--from capture to port in the Americas--the annual number drops to some 40,000 to 50,000.
But again, all this assumes that the historians' consensus number of 15 million is correct
Incidentally, in all of this the following important question arises. If the human toll and mortality incidence in this wicked kind of business ranged from 85% to 75% then does that put the descendants of the survivors in a kind of moral bind?
If the whole enterprise was a wicked and immoral then how should the living survivors of the trade--when fully cognizant of such--respond to their fortuitous--most captives died--existence in the places to which they were taken?
Racists--both black and white--claim that the Atlantic Trade was a good thing in the final analysis because "it brought Africans from barbarism into enlightenment and civilization". The American journalist Keith Richburg(black) gained notoriety a few years ago with his book "Not Out of Africa"[greatly applauded in some quarters]in which he thanked his ancestors for being kidnapped and bartered off to the Americas.
The same question applies too to blacks on the African side of the Atlantic--for after all every African lost to the Trade--at whatever point on the route--was necessarily a member of a very large extended family of average size of 100-150 known relatives. Mountains of grief!
So what kinds of expiations? What kinds of offerings to appease and settle the souls of those who succumbed to the cruel trade--some in the depths of the Atlantic?[see the recently published book "The Slave Ship"]
Would there always be a curse hurled against the Atlantic Trade and those who survived it to subsequently and opportunistically embrace Western civilization in the lands of their captivity--by those who died as they resisted the Atlantic crossing?
Something similar happened in the Congo during Leopold of Belgium's reign. Yet the official Congo in particular and Africa in general has never posed a serious question to present-day Belgium the way that the Jews have posed and continue to pose serious questions to Germany and Europe in general.
But back to the question: Captive Haitians fought a valiantand brave war against their oppressors and killed many of them as they sought their freedom. But for those who resisted the crossing in those slave ships and even before the crossing--would that be enough?
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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The mortality toll for the Atlantic crossing ranged from 75% to 85%.
For blacks/Africans on both sides of the Atlantic were there ever feelings of "survivors's guilt"?
For blacks whose ancestors survived the terror of Atlantic crossings and the cruelties of captivity the goal has mostly been to seek equality with Europeans who hold power in those societies.
The Atlantic crossers were always looking East while their survivors are bent on looking West. The same for the historically important Haiti now reduced to abject penury by the cruel punishments from France and the U.S. The goal of the average Haitian still dominated by French creole metis and a Syrian business class is to escape to the U.S.
Given the history, is this the noble thing to do? What would the spirits of those swallowed by the Atlantic say?
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I did not know of the Swatstikas on Ethiopian Coptic churches.
Argyle,
Leave my thread. You can even understand English. The different percentages I was speaking about was % from regions. An African American may have African DNA which is
40% Senegambian 40% Nigeria area 20% Angola area.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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posted
question red white and blue Im assuming from your past posts and what is prevalent on the net is that virginian blacks were multi-ethnic. What i see from their focus group is that the majority were of teh nigerian and neighboring groups. This would alsoo consitute the same for tennesseans and kentuckians since the all were virginians
-------------------- لا اله الا الله و محمد الرسول الله Posts: 495 | From: anchorage, alaska | Registered: Feb 2007
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quote:Originally posted by abdulkarem3: question red white and blue Im assuming from your past posts and what is prevalent on the net is that virginian blacks were multi-ethnic. What i see from their focus group is that the majority were of teh nigerian and neighboring groups. This would alsoo consitute the same for tennesseans and kentuckians since the all were virginians
Prof. Skip Gates family was found to be maternally Yoruba. So, you are right.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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posted
question to rwb is it possible by looking into the benue-congo languages and the dna of these speakers that they are a cross between bantu-mande groups
-------------------- لا اله الا الله و محمد الرسول الله Posts: 495 | From: anchorage, alaska | Registered: Feb 2007
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The African American population is an admixed population of great interest to anthropologists, epidemiologists, and historians. We were specifically interested in today's relatively isolated population of Gullah-speaking African Americans that inhabits the coastal Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. The Gullah, as they are commonly known, have specific and traceable historical, social, linguistic, and cultural ties with ethnic groups currently and historically living in Sierra Leone, Africa (Opala 1987; Pollitzer 1999). In addition to these cultural ties, the Gullah have been shown to have lower levels of European American admixture than any other subpopulation of African Americans studied, though most such findings are based upon autosomal markers (Chakraborty 1986; Parra et al. 1998). We were thus specifically interested in discovering polymorphisms that would allow maternal lineage distinctions to be made among the Gullah and their putative parental populations of Sierra Leoneans and European Americans. As a means of polymorphism discovery, we sequenced the HVS I and HVS II of the noncoding D-loop portion of the mitochondrial DNA from 96 Sierra Leoneans; Gullahs; urban African Americans living in Charleston, South Carolina; Jamaicans; and European Americans.
Welcome to Sierra Leone Gullah Heritage Association Online
The Gullah of coastal Georgia and South Carolina The re-connection story begins in the early 1930s with Lorenzo Turner, an African American linguist who cataloged more than 3000 names and words of African origin among the Gullah of coastal Georgia and South Carolina. He discovered that some Gullah could recite texts in African languages, including almost certainly the longest, a five-line song he learned from a woman living in a remote Georgia fishing village, Amelia Dawley. Although Amelia did not know the meaning of the syllables in the song, a Sierra Leonean graduate student in the U.S. recognized it as Mende, his native tongue.
These dramatic clues were taken up again in the l980s by Joseph Opala, an American anthropologist at Sierra Leone's Fourah Bay College. Studying Bunce Island, an 18th century British slave castle, Opala discovered that it sent many of its captives to Georgia and South Carolina where American rice planters paid a premium for experienced slaves from Africa's "Rice Coast.
Opala joined with ethnomusicologist Cynthia Schmidt and Sierra Leonean linguist Tazieff Koroma in an arduous search to see if Amelia Dawley's song was still remembered anywhere in Sierra Leone. After a long search they found Senehun Gullah were the song was known.
Today, descendants of Amelia Dawley, the Moran family of Harris Neck, Georgia have form storing ties with Bendu Jabati, who remembered the song, and the little village of Senehun.
A group of Sierra Leoneans after two of their members visited Hilton Head Island, SC, in January of 2006. Moved by their experiences and especially the similarity to the culture and tradition of their native Sierra Leone, these two embarked on the formation of the Sierra Leone-Gullah Heritage Association (SLGHA). The primary focus of the newly formed organization is to educate the world about the rich history between the United States and Sierra Leone via this unique group of African-Americans, who have kept more of their African heritage and culture than any other group. And then to turn it into
The Gullah (Geechee) largely from South Carolina and Georgia are intimately related to their kinfolk of the Rice Coast / Windward Coast of West Africa (largely from Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, and Senegal). However, the Sierra Leone connection has through historical evidence, by far illustrated stronger ties than the other countries to date, largely due to the work of an American Anthropologist and Public Historian, Joseph Opala.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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The portrait of Captain Seixas, unsigned and undated, pictures him in a patriot’s blue coat with the fringed epaulets of an officer, a white waistcoat, and white breeches. Holding his sword on his left hip, his round face and portly dimensions suggest the passage of time. The painting itself has disappeared, preserved only in the photographic plate made by Barnett A. Elzas for his 1905 publication, The Jews of South Carolina.
No one expresses the contradictions of his age more clearly than Abraham Mendes Seixas. He was, on the one hand, a patriot in the American Revolution, a city magistrate, president of Charleston’s congregation Beth Elohim, and brother of America’s most prominent Jewish religious leader, Gershom Mendes Seixas. On the other hand, Seixas was a merchant who dealt in slaves and a warden of the workhouse, where criminals and runaways were punished.
New York-born Abraham Seixas had come south in June 1774. Banished from Charleston for refusing to sign a loyalty oath to the British crown, he sailed to Philadelphia in May 1782.
Carolina’s first Jewish families included people of both Sephardic and Ashkenazic origin. The roots of the Sephardim lay in Spain and Portugal, the Ashkenasim in the German-speaking lands of central Europe.
The day in August 1492 that Columbus planned to lift anchor in the Spanish port of Palos, the harbor was clogged with ships taking Jews to exile. Driven out by the Inquisition, Sephardic families gravitated toward commercial centers in the Ottoman Empire, the Mediterranean states, central and western Europe, and the West Indies. The DeLeons, for example, came to America via Holland and Jamaica, the D’Anconas via Venice and Amsterdam.
By the time the first Sephardim arrived in Carolina, their culture was a blend of languages, rituals, folkways, cuisines, philosophies, and arts. Wherever they settled the Iberian Jews engaged in a rigorous exchange with the societies that gave them refuge.
Charleston’s Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim followed the Sephardic custom. Prayers were read in Spanish or Portuguese, and in Hebrew. Among the earliest prayer books used in Charleston is this volume, published in Holland in 1717, with prayers for the High Holy Days in Spanish.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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posted
KK Beth Elohim officially banned Jews of any inner African lineage from being members (starting around 1820 -- as they turned to Ashkenazi Reform Judaism). Only Old Billy from Madagascar escaped the ban and was buried with full honors in the congregational cemetery. The other black and black hybrid Jews for the most part assimilated into the non-Jewish black population.
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote:Originally posted by alTakruri: KK Beth Elohim officially banned Jews of any inner African lineage from being members (starting around 1820 -- as they turned to Ashkenazi Reform Judaism). Only Old Billy from Madagascar escaped the ban and was buried with full honors in the congregational cemetery. The other black and black hybrid Jews for the most part assimilated into the non-Jewish black population.
That's the history of the US. Blacks were banned from many things.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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posted
Last year, I was reading in a French article about how there were Jews living along the Senegal River in the 1400's. I immediately thought that those Jews were Berber Jews from Mauretania/Morocco. I was wrong.
Portugal was the first Euro-nation to reach West Africa. They reached Senegal first. Portuguese merchants were living up and down the West African coast from Senegal to Sierra Leone. Many were New Christians. Actually most were hidden Jews!
The Portuguese occupied the land from Senegal to Sierra Leone. They married and slept with many many Black women fathering many children who were brought up Jewish and practicing trading. They liked to trade with the Mandingo pagans and other West African speakers. The Fulani are West African speakers. The tribes along the coast are West Atlantic speakers who are essential the same as the Fulani in language and root culture. These groups' women married those Jews.
The Marrano Jews lived openly as Jews all along West Africa's coast. They built synagogues, etc.
The Fulani live in Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea-Conakry, Sierra Leone all the way to Cameroon. The DNA report speaks of conditions today.
The Portuguese are a foundational ethnic group in West Africa. They built the first slave castles in Ghana. They lost power and land to France(Senegal, Guinea-Conakry), England(Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia). They kept Guinea Bissau aka Guinea Portuguesa.
Guinea Bissau was a region which had Ngaabu (Mandingo/Fula kingdom) in the east and many West Atlantic speaking acephalous villages on the west coast.
While neither the European nor Arabic sources described the trans-Saharan silk traders, all noted the renown of resident Jewish silk traders and weavers in the urban centers from which the silks were being imported--suggesting the virtual monopoly that they exercised over its trade and production. Known as Alhambra silks or striped Alhambra cloth, they were produced in great quantity in the southern Iberian centers such as Granada and Almeria and used extensively in trade and for gift exchange among rulers of various persuasions (Fig. 24). The North African Arabic chronicler al-Makkari (1591-1632) voiced praise for the woven sashes of Andalusia as "famous all over the world for brilliancy of colors and fineness of texture" and made frequent references to medieval Jewish silk weavers there. (85) His account strikes a poignant note in light of the fate of these weavers, many of whom fled to Morocco following the diasporas of 1391 and 1492. Nonetheless the thriving silk textile industry of Almeria persisted long after the fall of the Nasrid dynasty in Granada.
Of particular interest were the Portuguese-held urban Moroccan enclaves of Azemour, Fes, and Safi, from where tapestries (hanbels, or lambens) like those from Alentejo in Portugal were being exported and traded directly to Portuguese strongholds along the West African coast, including Arguin, Mauritania, and Cape Verde, Senegal. In the early sixteenth century, these textiles were actively commissioned by the Portuguese crown from resident heads of North African Jewish weaving guilds such as Meir Levi of Safi. Various members of his family subsequently performed roles as traders, moneylenders, interpreters, viziers, ambassadors, and spies for both Portuguese and Moroccan rulers, adding a fascinating narrative, surely integral to the complexity of Jewish involvement in the textiles saga. (86)
Now, centuries later, the indigo-dyed strip-woven cotton cloths (pano de obra bicho) of the Cape Verde Islands--once a haven for expelled Portuguese Jews and New Christians--bear a striking resemblance to the silk "Alentejo" textiles (Fig. 25). Their design geometry lends itself easily to the narrow weft strip-weaving technologies inherited from Saharan nomadic cultures: almost identical weaving patterns were replicated by ingeniously introducing additional single heddles to create supplementary weft-float patterns in indigo. (87)
In the wake of the earlier diasporas from the Iberian Peninsula to Morocco, Spanish-held Tetouan, like Portuguese-ruled Safi, had grown into a concentrated refuge for a multitude of Sephardi artisans, among whom silk weavers and embroiderers were equally preeminent. Although executed in silk brocade, the patternwork on the multicolored textile from seventeenth-century Tetouan reflected an already well-established weaving technology (Fig. 26). Undoubtedly, some of these woven as well as embroidered products would have found their way across the Sahara, as had those commissioned in Meir Levi's Moroccan workshop for Portuguese export to the Guinea coast. As a design concept, they introduce yet another strand in the genesis of West African weaving traditions. The overall checkerboard pattern on the Tetouan textile, which lent itself admirably to indigenous sub-Saharan nomadic strip-weaving technologies, still prevails in the apotropaic magic-square configurations that distinguish strip-woven, indigo-dyed textile design in Guinea-Bissau (Fig. 27).
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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The embarkation of the Portuguese into the Atlantic in the fourteenth century led to social and ecological transformations that brought sub-Saharan Africa within the orbit of European navigation. With the discovery of the Canary Islands in 1336, just one hundred kilometers from Morocco off the West African coast, the Portuguese found an Atlantic island archipelago inhabited by a people they called the Guanche. The Guanche, whose ancestors left the African mainland in repeated migrations between the second millennium B.C. and the first centuries A.D., were farmers and herders. They tended crops and animals originally domesticated in the Near East, which included wheat, barley, peas, and sheep and goats. But contact with Renaissance Europeans brought military defeat and enslavement. By 1496 the Guanche had ceased to exist, the first indigenous people to become extinct as a consequence of European maritime expansion. Heralding the fate that would await other peoples over the next 350 years, the islands of the Guanche became stepping stones for the diffusion of sugarcane plantations and African slavery throughout the Atlantic, a process that radically recast the relationship between Africa, Europe, and the Americas.
With the seizure in 1415 of Ceuta, located on the African side of the Straits of Gibraltar, the Portuguese established a foothold on the mainland, from where they launched reconnaissance voyages, sponsored by Prince Henry the Navigator. Over the next five years Portuguese mariners established two navigational routes for exploring West Africa, one along the coast from the mainland outpost at Ceuta, the other following the chain of Atlantic islands south from the Madeiras and the Canary Islands to the Cape Verdes, São Tomé, and Príncipe. The discovery of the Madeira Islands in 1420, named for their abundant forests, provided the fuelwood necessary to carry the expansion of sugarcane into the Atlantic, while the enclave established at Ceuta contributed to the growing familiarity of Portuguese mariners with the African coastline south from Morocco.
This was a barren coast that provided few terrestrial resources, albeit one whose offshore currents abounded in fisheries. Progress southward along this parched coastline over the next two decades as a consequence proved especially slow, but advanced rapidly when two Portuguese, Nuno Tristão and Dinis Dias, independently reached the Senegal and Gambia Rivers in the years 1444 and 1446. After hundreds of kilometers of barren coastline, the Senegal River presented a striking ecological divide, for at this point rainfall becomes just sufficient to support agriculture. One fifteenth-century Venetian chronicler, Cadamosto, memorialized the dramatic social and ecological transformation wrought by the Senegal River on the crews of Portuguese caravels: "It appears to me a very marvellous thing that beyond the [Senegal] river all men are very black, tall and big, their bodies well formed; and the whole country green, full of trees, and fertile; while on this side [Mauritania], the men are brownish, small, lean, ill-nourished, and small in stature; the country sterile and arid."
Talking advantage of abundant marine resources for food supplies, the Portuguese established a trading fort north of the Senegal River on Arguim Island off the coast of Mauritania in 1448. The location served to provision the quickening number of Portuguese forays southward along the coast. This resulted in the discovery of the uninhabited Cape Verde archipelago, fourteen small volcanic islands some five hundred kilometers west of Senegal, on one return voyage in 1455. By 1460 the Portuguese had completed reconnaissance of the Upper Guinea Coast, the densely populated region from Senegal to Liberia that would serve as a major focus for the Atlantic slave trade.
continues with much more.....
Early Descriptions of Rice Culture
Senegambia, the name given to the region encompassed between the Senegal and Gambia Rivers, was the first section of the Grain or Rice Coast reached by Europeans (Figure 1.1). South of the Senegal River along the Upper Guinea Coast, precipitation increases steadily. The dominant cereals adapted to semiarid conditions, sorghum and millet, grade into rice over the broad region extending down the Atlantic coast from the Gambia River to Liberia, the area that would become known as the Grain or Rice Coast. Decades before ships would reach India, the Portuguese chronicler Gomes Eanes de Azurara recorded the first European mention of rice in West Africa. In 1446 Stevam Alfonso reached the mouth of a large river—possibly the Gambia—where he encountered the cultivation of wetland rice on floodplains: "They arrived sixty leagues beyond Cape Verde, where they met with a river which was of good width, and into it they entered with their caravels ... they found much of the land sown, and many fields sown with rice ... And he said that land ... seemed like marsh."
Alvise da Cadamosto, who visited the Gambia River in 1455 and again the following year, remarked upon the significance of rice as a dietary staple: "In this way of life they conduct themselves in almost all respects similarly to the negroes of the kingdom of Senega [Senegal]; they eat the same foods except they have more varieties of rice than grow in the country of Senega."
By 1460, less than twenty years after the first caravel sailed past the Senegal River, Portuguese ships had completed reconnaissance of the one thousand kilometers spanning the Upper Guinea Coast as well as the Cape Verde Islands. From this period commentaries on rice become even more abundant. Journeying along the West African coast in 1479-80, Eustache de la Fosse observed the cultivation of rice along coastal estuaries as well as the active purchase of surpluses by Portuguese vessels. Duarte Pacheco Pereira similarly noted during travels in 1505-1508 that rice and meat were in great abundance in the region of Guinea-Bissau. Valentim Fernandes, a German of Moravian birth who worked in Lisbon with early Portuguese mariner accounts, recorded in the period 1506-1510 the active trade in rice, millet, milk, and meat among the Gambian Mandinka: "They eat rice, milk, and millet ... Poor people who don't have sweet potatoes, have rice ... Their food is like that of the Wolof [of Senegal] except that they eat more rice and they have so much that they take it to sell and exchange, also [palm] wine, oil, and meat and other foodstuffs. Because this Mandinka land is very rich in food like rice and millet, etc."
For most of the fifteenth century trading was confined to ships, but by the end of the century Portuguese and Cape Verdean traders were being admitted to some West African communities. Subsequent European scholarship assumed these same Portuguese navigators and traders introduced irrigated rice cultivation to Africans along the Upper Guinea Coast. Yet in this early period, the Portuguese were attempting to understand this form of rice cultivation. Attributing the sophisticated irrigated system to Portuguese tutelage in later centuries failed to question how they came by this presumed knowledge, nor did it accord with mariner accounts.
Along the coast south of the Gambia River to Sierra Leone, a distance of about five hundred miles, rice proved so abundant that Portuguese ships routinely purchased it for provisions, often from the non-stratified rice-growing ethnic groups like the Baga, with whom they initiated an early trade in indigo. When English privateer, buccaneer, and slaver John Hawkins raided an island offshore Sierra Leone in 1562 and 1564, one chronicler recounted: "The Samboses had inhabited there 3 yeeres before our coming thither, and in so short space have so planted the ground, that they had great plentie of mill [millet], rise [sic], rootes, pompions, pullin, goates ... In addition to seizing all the captives they could, the English stole all the inhabitants' grains and fruits they could conveniently transport."
The trade in rice along the African coast was extensive; ships increasingly depended on African cereal surpluses for their voyages. Rice sales were frequently brokered with female traders, as the Portuguese-African (Luso-African) trader André Donelha observed around 1625 in Guinea-Bissau, "and here the black women hold a market when ships are in port; they bring for sale rice."
Settlement of the Cape Verde Islands involved the import of slaves amid an active trade with the mainland that included a diverse array of commodities: gold, ivory, kola nut, melegueta pepper, cowhides, animal pelts, cotton, iron, dye wood, beeswax, and food staples. The Cape Verdes were a crucial trading entrepôt for the expanding commerce with Portugal; ships bound for long Atlantic voyages in the fall and winter headed there with the prevailing northeast winds and followed the southward flow of the Canary Current before continuing on to Brazil, the West African coast, or India.
As the slave population on the islands grew, African agricultural staples became the basis for subsistence, with surpluses often sold to ships. By the early 1500s rice was being planted on the Cape Verde island most propitious for agriculture, Santiago, along with other key African domesticates such as yams, sorghum, and millet. In 1514 rice appears on cargo lists of ships departing the Cape Verde Islands, and one record from 1530 mentions the deliberate export of rice seed to Brazil. Portuguese vessels carried nearly all the slaves that made the trip to the Cape Verde Islands and the Americas prior to the 1620s, and they left the region with provisions on board. After crossing the Middle Passage, these vessels routinely stopped in Spanish Jamaica and Portuguese Maranhão to replenish victuals before continuing on to slave markets elsewhere. With the arrival in Cape Verde of ships from other European nations in the last decades of the sixteenth century and the growing number of trading forts established along the coast, references to rice increase; both settlement and trade relied upon African cereals for food.
Because of their proximity to navigation routes, the first African rice systems to receive mention were the ones located in coastal estuaries as well as upstream along the river floodplains of Senegambia. These rivers are low-lying and affected by marine water in the lower seventy to one hundred kilometers. Venturing upstream in search of potable water and safe anchorage, the Portuguese came across tidal floodplain cultivation. Valentim Fernandes (c. 1506-1510) recorded the first description of rice cultivation along tidal floodplains: "From Cape Vert until here there are two rainy seasons and two rains each year. Twice they sow and twice they harvest rice and millet etc., knowing they will harvest in April and in September, and when they gather in the rice then they sow yams and these they cultivate year round."
Here rice was submerged by tidal flow. Fernandes's account confuses the presence of two harvests with two rainy seasons; the climatological and historical record shows that this part of Senegal, then as now, only experiences a single rainy season in the months from May/June to September/October. What his description alludes to, however, is the practice of flood-recession agriculture, sometimes known by its French name, décrue, which likely accounts for the two harvests he mentions. Flood-recession cultivation is a system of planting on the floodplain after the onset of the dry season, when the reduced volume in river water has caused available fresh water to retreat. As the account of Fernandes indicates, décrue planting on soils with stored moisture reserves occurred in late fall or early winter, with harvesting taking place at the height of the dry season in April or May. Flood-recession agriculture remains to this day extremely important in the Sahel, the region south of the Sahara Desert, and especially along the Senegal and Niger Rivers.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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In Iberia the Reconquista movement was growing in its mission to recover their lands from the Muslim Moors who had first arrived in the 8th century. Jews may have first arrived far earlier during the time of the Phonecians and Roman. Nevertheless, Maghrebi Jews were key allies of the Moors and centuries-long residents of Iberia. Probably as early as 1480 one may find the beginnings of the Spanish Inquistion and expulsion of Jews. It was however in 1492 the the Spanish Inquisition emerged in its fullest expression of intolerance, anti-Semitism. This social pathology quickly spread to neighboring Portugal where Portuguese Kings Joao II and especially Manuel I in 1496, determined to exile thousands of Jews to Sao Tome, Principe, and Cape Verde. The numbers expelled at this time were so great that the term Portuguese" almost implied those of Jewish origin. Those who were not expelled were converted by force or were even executed.
Despite the important role of Portuguese Jews in commerce, navigational sciences, and in the cartography of Africa, they faced riots, pogroms, and profound oppression during the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions when they became termed Narannos (Moorish Jews) or Judeus Segredos (Secret Jews). This led to forced conversions and to Jews becoming known as Novos Cristaos (New Christians). It was not until 1768 that Portugal officially abolished the distinction between "Old" and "New" (i.e. Jewish) Christians.
Meanwhile, in order to begin to develop the Cape Verde Islands which had been discovered between 1455 and 1462 the Portuguese king granted a Royal Charter in 1466 to have the right" to trade in slaves for Portuguese residing in Cape Verde. This lucrative offer was soon to be rescinded and in 1472 slave trading rights were restricted to an exclusive royal monopoly. Thus from the very beginning of its history Cape Verde, and its diverse multi-cultural peoples were situated within the context of a slave society and the slave trade.
JEWS ON THE WEST AFRICAN COAST AND ISLANDS
Despite their despised, exile, or degredado (convict) status, the small number of Europeans and Jews residing in Cape Verde were allowed to engage in trade, as long as they did not compete severely with the Portuguese trading monopolies. On the other hand if trading polices of the king were not sufficiently liberal then there was little incentive or reward to trade at all. Such was the eternal tension in Cape Verde between free Judeo-European traders in the islands and on the coast and the monopolistic tendancies of the Crown. To a certain extent, this structural rivalry remains right to the present. Some Cape Verdean commercial interests are focused on economic and political links to Portugal while others have made their ties to the politics and economies of coastal West Africa. Those who formally served the Portuguese ruling class came to be known as capitaos who were almost never Jews, and those free-lance traders were usually termed lançados who were often but not completely, of part Jewish origin.
At least by the early or mid 1600's Cape Verdean lançados had trading centers all along the Senegambian coast as especially at such places as Goree (famed for the Crioula female slave traders or Senhoras) Joal, Portuguese Town in Gambia, and Ziguinchor in the Casamance as well as in Cacheu, Bissau, Bolama and further down the Upper Guinea coast including the Portuguese role in the construction of Al-Mina castle in modern Ghana, which also included a visit by the famed navigator Christopher Columbus.
The excellent research of Jean Boulegue has brought to light many fascinating details of the Portuguese Jewish presence in Senegambia and Guinea. For example, in 1517 Portuguese King Manuel I made reference to a group of lançados on the Senegambian coast; most of these were Portuguese Jews who had been deported. The term lançados, derived from the Portuguese verb "to throw out," is related to their outcaste or fugitive role in Luso-African coastal commerce. Figuratively the term lançados means "outcastes." They were usually fugitive Portuguese settlers including those exiled degredados following their conviction for some politial "crime" as was the case for Jews following the full-scale Portuguese Inquisition in 1536, but Christian lançados were also known.
Jews from Cape Verde and Portugal were already known in Joal as early as 1591 and a synagogue was noted there in 1641. In 1606, in Portudal, also on the Senegalese coast there were 100 Portuguese following the "Laws of Moses." Boulegue notes that in 1614 the Governor of Cape Verde recorded that the greatest number of lançados were Jews. In 1622 the Cape Verdean Governor, Dom Francisco de Mourra, reported to the Portuguese King that the Guinea coastal rivers were "full of Jews who were masters of the local regions and were quite independent of the Crown." No doubt such information relating to "the Jewish danger" gave "justification" to the Portuguese to punish two wealthy members of the Jewish comunity around the synagogue in Rufisque, Senegal, for economic excesses in 1629. When a branch of the Portuguese Inquisition was established in Cape Verde in 1672, one result was the seizure of Jewish-owned merchandise. As the 17th century evolved, the Portuguese were steadily displaced from Senegambia, but they retained their bases in the Cape Verde islands and in Guinea at Cacheu, Bolama, Bissau, Buba, Geba, Mansoa. In the 16th and 17th centuries the term ganagoga was also used in the Upper Guinea/Cape Verde region to imply Jewish lançados, but in practice ganagoga also meant people who were able to speak many local African languages. Allied with them were the tangomaos who represented a still deeper connection to the African interior for the lançados. It seems most likely that the term tangomao is a corrupted form of targuman, which means "translator" in Arabic. Muslims and Arabic-speakers were and are widespread in this area, especially the northern and interior regions where the tangomaos or lançados traded.
Lançados were reputed for being resourceful and courageous, and having initiative. The term also connotes the mixed-race traders living in the trading communities in the islands or on the coast where they conducted trade. They often had African wives from the local groups and, as such, their children can be said to be the nucleus of the future Crioulo population. They were economic intermediaries or middlemen for the Portuguese regional trade.
Other references to Portuguese or Iberian Jews sometimes use the term Ladino to note this social group which constituted a portion of early migrants to the Cape Verde Islands. Some references use this term for the people and language of 16th and 17th century Sephardic Jews. from the Iberian peninsula. The term ladinos could also refer to baptized African slaves. In either case, the reference was often racist, and derogatory, and implied a lying, wandering, sneaky, and thieving group which was particularly untrustworthy. In certain social contexts it could be used affectionately to mean a scamp.
While seeking to convert or expel Jews from Portugal, the Crown in the 16th and 17th century allowed, or even encouraged, the lançados to settle along the Senegambian and Upper Guinea coast to trade for ivory, hides, slaves, gold, gum, wax, and amber while based in Cape Verde. Within the islands Jews would receive these same items for later resale to those traders who wanted to avoid the risks of coastal trade even if it meant higher costs in the islands. Jews in Cape Verde were also active in the trade of hides, urzella, and coffee.
Restrictions for the lançados prohibited them from selling iron bars, firearms, and navigational instruments, yet the lançados were clearly critical in the economic network which linked the Crown trade monopolies to the coast. Spanish and English smugglers using ties to the lançados were frequent violaters of these rather schizophrenic Portuguese prohibitions. Evidentally such trading enterprises were "too effective" so in 1687 the King of Portugal ruled that Cape Verdean Jews and lançados were officially forbidden to sell cloth currency or panos to foreigners. By producing panos with slave labor in farming and weaving, the Cape Verdean merchants undermined the royal economy. Yet this rivalry continued for centuries. Another short chapter of the history of Cape Verdean Jews appears in the 1820s when some of the very few Jews of Portugal were involved in the ULiberal Wars" in Portugal. These Jewish UMiguelistas" fled Santo Antao for refuge and exile. A final chapter of Jewish history in Cape Verde takes place in the 1850's when Moroccan Jews arrived, especially in Boa Vista and Maio for the hide trade. In short, Jewish history plays a role in Cape Verde and Guinea that is far greater than expected or recognized.
Thus, as early as the later 15th century and through the 16th and even 17th centuries, a Jewish coastal presence was deeply established. This brought on an important synthesis which was responsible for playing a central role in the creation of Crioulo culture. These Jews, both in the Cape Verde Islands and on the coast, were at the heart of the Afro-Portuguese merging which became Crioulo culture. The anti-Semitism of Spain and Portugal and the financial goals of the Portuguese Crown were constantly trying to restrict their success. The more successful, the more restrictions, but also the more deeply struck were the commerical and cultural roots of these people.
The lançados were themselves undergoing a transformation because of their intermediary and collaborative relation with African cultures. This contradictory nature at once set them apart, while embedding them in a multi-racial and multi-cultural identity that was being concurrently synthesized. In Cape Verde this was to become the essence of Crioulo culture. This process has its close parallels in East Africa with the commercial presence of Omani and Shirazi Muslims who were trading for ivory and slaves from the African interior. A trade language and an entire cultural group, now known as KiSwahili evolved in this other regional context. In the Senegambian case, French and British expansion finally reduced the presence of the lançados and their military body guard associates, the grumettas, to only Portuguese Guinea and to urban and coastal entrepots. Until the war of national liberation (1963-1974) in Guinea-Bissau, Crioulo people, culture, and language were still mainly in urban areas. During the war the use of Crioulo spread throughout the countryside and the former commercial lingua franca has become the national folk language for both Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau.
Clearly the Jewish and African slaver trader alliance was already of very great historical depth. This relationship was based upon several factors. On the one hand, the Portuguese Crown and its feitors and capitaos gained tremendous wealth from the slave trade and they did little to oppose it, however, they were pleased to have a social pariah group, like the lançados, be responsible for the front line operation of the trade. Meanwhile, the commercial skills, and higher level of literacy put the Jews in a strong position to have a critical role in an economy and society which otherwise shunned them. It should be made very clear that, by no means, were all Portuguese slavers Jewish, nor were all Portuguese involved in the slave trade; likewise the slave trade in the interior necessitated strategic African collaboration.
A reference to a lançado expedition to the goldfields of Bambuk in 1785-88 refered to a Jewish ganagoga who married a daughter of the Muslim Imam of Futa Toro. In their heyday, the lançados owned and operated their own ships, river craft and canoes, as well as carrying firearms, daggers, and swords. Above all they were traders in wax, gold, hides, cloths, ivory, and cotton. However, by the late 18th century, a clearly defined lançado community in Senegambia was gone, but not really departed. Virtually all lançados had African wives and consorts and their subsequent generations continued to play a central and substantial role in the culturo-linguistic melange which consitutes Cape Verdean Crioulo culture. This was formed in the context of the merging and blending of Iberian, Moorish, Jewish, and African peoples.
Although there is no formal Jewish synagogue in Cape Verde today and there is no official rabbi, an elder named David Cohen was reported to lead other Jews in prayer in the 20th century. Historically there was a very definite Jewish presence amongst early Cape Verdeans. Jews first came to the island of Sao Tiago as refugees from religious persecution during the Inquisition. They were shunned by the wider society of the islands at that time and they were confined to a separate ghetto-like community in Praia. During the early nineteenth century, Jews also came to settle in Santo Antao where there are still traces of their influx in the name of the village of Sinagoga, located on the north coast between Riberia Grande and Janela, and in the Jewish cemetary at the town of Ponta da Sol. The family names of Cohn (priest) and Wahnon are prominent in Santo Antao. Other Jewish settlers such as the Ben Oliel family migrated to Boa Vista (q.v.), trading in salt, hides, and slaves. Jewish-derived surnames can be found amongst the inhabitants of the islands. Such names can include Auday, Benros, Ben David, Cohn, DaGama, and Seruya.
The family of Salomao Ben Oliel is still active today in trading activities of the Sociedade Luso-Africana, Ltd. This hyphenated company name suggests the long historical roots between two cultural regions. Jewish cemetaries or graves are in Brava (at Cova da Judeu), Boa Vista, Sao Tiago (in Praia and Cidade Velha), Santo Antao (especially at Sinagoga), Sao Nicolau (at Mindelo), Fogo, and probably in other islands as well. In the l9th and 20th century Praia cemetary, for example, there are about eight grave markers still extant with Hebrew inscriptions. These were originally outside of the cemetary walls, but as it expanded, the walls were relocated and thereby integrated these deceased Jews with their Crioulo cousins.
The Atlantic slave trade has also been known as the Triangle trade as it described a vast triangular shape linking West Africa with the Caribbean and then to New England and Europe and thence back to Africa. As a result, in the Caribbean, in Curacao, Surinam, and Jamaica, there were Jewish populations similar to, and linked with, those in West Africa. The case of Jamaica parallels that of the lançados since it was in its period of growth from the 1630s to 1670s. Eighteenth century Portuguese Jews in Jamaica include names such as Alvarez, Cardoso, Coreia, DaCosta, Gomes, Gonsalis, Gutteres, Lamego, Quisano, and Torres. In Newport, Rhode Island leading Yankee families gained great wealth from the slave trade including key members of the ruling class, however for the Rhode Island Jews who were also involved they were exclusively of Portuguese origins.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion it is apparent the the Jewish history of Cape Verde is both long and complex. Cape Verdean Jews have ceased their community of religious believers, but the dimension of Jewish cultural identity unquestionably survives. With several Jewish cemetaries still extant with Hebrew inscriptions it seems that this might be an ideal project of historic preservation for those concerned with Cape Verdean or Jewish history.
The role of Jews in the slave trade is confirmed in Cape Verde, but it is essential to realize that they were only brokers within a system fully endorsed by the Portuguese kings who made the greatest fortunes of all. Moreover for those who engaged in finger-pointing in their analysis of the slave trade we must not forget that the was also active African participation and coordination as they sought to control this economy in Africa's interior. The celebrated ancient African empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai were all built upon the slave export business as much as the plantation south in the USA is intimately linked to slave imports and as much as Samuel Slater's famous industrial textile mill wove cheap cotton which had been cultivated, picked, and transported by slaves. This business has few heroes. For those who single out Jews in this sorry traffice in humans, it must also be recalled that African Muslims were earlier into the trade across the Sahara, down the Nile and in the Indian ocean; it is in those regions of Muslim Africa that this cruel trade still contines to the very present.
As is said, when you point your finger of blame you may have three other fingers aimed in your own direction. So, we've just seen, the racial, ethnic, and religious diversity found deep within Cape Verdean Crioulo culture has been so tightly interwoven at this point that the time for recriminations is long gone. This must be replaced with a celebration of these complex roots and relationships, but all in the context of building a new sense of national unity and co
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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Other Names: Boenca or Boyenca (Guinea-Bissau), Fouta Jallon, Fouta Longhorn, Fouta Malinke, Futa, Malinke, Mandingo (Liberia), N'Dama Petite (Senegal). Incorrect names that are sometimes used: Dama and Ndama.
The N'Dama breed is the most representative "Bos Taurus" breed in West Africa. The origin of this breed is located in the Fouta-Djallon highlands of Guinea (Conakry). From there the N'Dama has spread in the sudanian and guinean regions.
Being , it has been used for large scale dissemination for grazing savannah in Congo, Central Africa, Gabon, Nigeria and Zaire, especially in the regions infested by the tse-tse fly.
The N'Dama is a hardy breed, medium size type (100 cm at shoulder height for cows; 120 cm for bulls) with a large and strong head and with lyre-shaped horns. Its skin,with short and thin hair, is fawn colored but varies from sand to black color, sometimes spotted.
Cows produce only 2 to 3 liters milk per day during 7 to 8 months. The N'Dama breed is used for meat and the ratio carcass/liveweight is around 50%. The meat has a very good flavor without much fat.
Average liveweight for a mature steer varies between 250 to 300 kg.
[img]http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle/ndama/Ndama3web.jpg[img]
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
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posted
I don't get it. KK Beth Elohim has no relevancy to your thread's subject header. I introduce a bit about it's late ousting of blacks and you respond with a quip that I paraphrase thusly: That's the history of the US, synagogues were founded in many cities.
In Philadelphia, KK Mikveh Israel remain Sepharade and never banned blacks be they African or Indian. During his stint an Indian rabbi (Ezekiel Musleah) appointed an inner African sh*liahh ssibur who still holds the position decades later. And immediately flanking the teba is his inscribed banca honoring his mother's nahhalah.
But this too bears no relevancy on Gullah Roots back to West Africa.
quote:Originally posted by Red,White, and Blue + Christian:
quote:Originally posted by alTakruri: KK Beth Elohim officially banned Jews of any inner African lineage from being members (starting around 1820 -- as they turned to Ashkenazi Reform Judaism). Only Old Billy from Madagascar escaped the ban and was buried with full honors in the congregational cemetery. The other black and black hybrid Jews for the most part assimilated into the non-Jewish black population.
That's the history of the US. Blacks were banned from many things.
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On October 29, 2007, the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor took a giant step forward in its effort to preserve the rich Sea Island culture and history. The National Park Service officially announced the 15-member Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission in Charleston, South Carolina charged with overseeing the implementation of this federally-designated corridor that stretches from Jacksonville, Florida to Wilmington, North Carolina.
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The Gullah are African Americans who live in the Low Country region of South Carolina and Georgia, which includes both the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Historically, the Gullah region once extended north to the Cape Fear area on the coast of North Carolina and south to the vicinity of Jacksonville on the coast of Florida; but today the Gullah area is confined to the South Carolina and Georgia Low Country. The Gullah people are also called Geechee, especially in Georgia.
I'm using the braodest sense of any body from these 4 states.
It’s Hoppin’ John, and Fried Green Tomatoes. It’s Shrimp & Grits, Red Rice, She Crab Soup, Limpini Susan and Frogmore Stew. It’s Scuppernong Jam, Dilled Green Beans, Fig Conserve, and Pear Chutney. In a word it’s “Lowcountry Cuisine”.
The bucolic Lowcountry of South Carolina, rich in cultural diversity and geography, is home to a uniquely Southern culinary style. Stretching from Savannah to Charleston a network of fresh water rivers meet the marshes and the sea. This land of pristine tidal estuaries and maritime forests offers a bountiful natural abundance.
The Lowcountry, originally the home of the Powhattan Indians, was settled by English Barbadian planters at Charles Town (now Charleston) in 1670. Rice and indigo plantations proliferated in the surrounding coastal lowcountry worked by slaves from the Caribbean and Africa. Germans, French Huguenots and the Sephardic Jews from Portugal and Spain soon migrated to the developing seacoast. This melting pot of cultural inspiration and local bounty eventually produced the renown Southern classic “Lowcountry Cuisine”.
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