Protus Chege took a journey to Kitale and found out how Scot's research has revealed the mysterious linguistic ties between East Africa's Karamojong and Euro-Asian speakers.
The epithet 'Dark Continent' was routinely used by the colonialists to refer to Africa as a continent of a people with inherently inferior cultural roots and intellectual fiber.
Of course, the notion has long been dispelled by Africans’ spectacular advancements in all fields of human endeavor, including the arts, science and literature.
And one man’s efforts at putting the notion to bed have produced startling revelations that suggest a linguistic relationship between the Karamojong of Uganda and European and Asian speakers, hinting at a common language between mankind, which contradicts archaeologists and anthropologists’ inquiry and findings of the 20th century as of mere Stone Age.
John Wilson, a Scot, reveals from his research that the language of the Karamojong contains words that are similar to or identical with and have identical or related meanings with Scots Gaelic, Spanish and the Tibetan of the Indian sub-continent, among others.
“There is no doubt that mankind spoke a common language at a certain time. The research I have done proves beyond any doubt that through language Africa shared the same cultural beginning as the rest of the world,” Wilson says.
Wilson says Karimojong, the language of the Karamojong, a Nilotic people that live in North-East Uganda and have close cultural and linguistic ties with the Turkana of Kenya, Topossa of Southern Sudan and the Dongiro of South-West Ethiopia, has the same linguistic connection with those of other languages.
He says lack of research on Africa by the whites had created a wrong perception that an otherwise rich African culture was unworthy of consideration let alone scientific inquiry.
“Throughout Africa during the colonial era, no notice had ever been taken of extant cultural patterns; it simply translated not only as indifference but contempt…”
“We whites did no research on Africa. The Karamojong culture was not primitive and we made no attempt to preserve it.”
Posted in 1952 as an agriculture officer to Karamoja district in north-east border of Uganda which borders Kenya for 200 miles, Wilson was awe-struck by the unique ways of the Karamojong.
Until the 1960s, the Karamojong, a fiercely proud people who regarded outsiders as fleeting interlopers, were semi-nomadic cattle herders and peasant farmers whose measure of wealth was cattle.
They walked naked; the man with a pair of long spears for defensive purposes, a splendid carved wooden stool or neck-rest and a snuffbox on a chain around the neck or shoulder. In pierced earlobes would hang curiously assorted objects while on their heads they wore beautifully constructed headdresses of human hair, painted and decorated with feathers. Wilson discovered that all the paraphernalia was an historical throwback to ancient civilizations, especially Egypt.
And it was not until Dictator Idi Amin Dada came to power that they started wearing clothes. “This brought their whole culture to an end.” Or at least, until Wilson came around to resuscitate it out of his research.
Being a naturalist, he started collecting plants and getting them scientifically named. As recognition of his efforts, he was sent for a post-graduate course in Tropical Ecology and later co-authored The Vegetation of Uganda (1964).
In fact, four species of plants are named after him, two of which, Aloe Wilson, and Caralluma wilsonii, can be found within the museum garden.
He retired from government service in 1968 and embarked on research on that community’s culture the results of which he has preserved in The Treasures of Africa Museum in Kenya’s Western Province township of Kitale. The museum preserves artifacts that arguably cannot be found elsewhere in the world. Therein is preserved in excess of 130 examples of Karamojong pottery, many of which bear a single or pair of handles, polished stone axes, emblematic and decorative objects, among others.
Wilson discovered that words denoting human atmosphere, dwelling and lifestyle, livestock, agriculture, context of cultivation and pastoralism had a striking similarity with those describing similar concepts in European and Asian languages.
This, Wilson argues, points at the possibility of a ‘common ancestral “Mother Tongue” and shared elements of a common material culture between people from the continents.
This pervasive linguistic connection suggests that particular lifestyles and lexicon are based on shared experience rather diffusion of words from one language to another out of cultural interaction.
“There is no doubt that mankind spoke a common language at a certain time. The research I have done proves beyond any doubt that through language Africa shared the same cultural beginning as the rest of the world. It was not primitive.”
For instance, he compared the form of Karamojong pottery with those dating back to ancient Europe and the Middle East and notes a striking similarity in the lexicon.
“It occurred to me that the names of specific parts of African pottery had a resemblance to the corresponding words in ancient Asia and Europe,” he says.
The corresponding similarity, he says, can be found between Karimojong, on the one hand, and Asian languages like Hebrew and Sumerian and European ones like Spanish and Gaelic, on the other.
For example, such Spanish words as ‘jarro’ (a pitcher, jug); tacho (earthen pot); tibor (a chamber pot), corresponds with Akarimojong’s a-jarosior, (to empty a (ceramic) jug); a-jarapiar (to drink noisily (from a jug)); and atibo (a distinctive small pot or jug) respectively. Similarly, Karimojong words such as abaal (a wide-mouthed beer pot), abichir (kind of small pot), and atako (vessel for storing ghee) respectively correspond with Gaelic words Ballan (a drinking vessel), Biceir (beaker) and Tacar (kitchen).
Also, the researcher says Karimojong words related to pastoralism have similar linguistic features with those of the Tibetan language of the Indian sub-continent. For instance, the Akarimojong word a-karijij, which means to curdle milk, has a relationship with dkar-kro, which is Tibetan for milk and curds. Also, Tibetan tshir (squeeze forth) dovetails with aki-chirit, which is ‘milk cows’ in Akarimojong.
Indeed, Wilson’s assertions are borne out by the fact that these modern languages are so geographically spread but with distinct thematic commonalities between their word lists that the conclusion that the various languages formed a single entity some time in the past becomes inescapable.
Indeed, conclusions that fly in the face of archaeological inquiry and findings.
“Instead of digging up remains all we need to do is take words of an African language with corresponding ones in a European language. Nobody in the world has compared the words of an African language with those of a European language.”
Wilson faults archaeologists accuracy on the exact historical time frame of the Iron Age, which they put at 1100 BC. “One of the most important discoveries I have made in my thirty years of research is that the Iron Age probably began as far back as a million years before the time archaeologists say it did,” Wilson says.
Wilson says that there is therefore need to evaluate Africa’s cultural heritage of hundreds of thousands of years as opposed to archaeologists’ definition of it as primitive Stone Age.
It is in recognition of Wilson’s accomplishments that Kesarine and Associates, a regional rural development consultancy, has volunteered to link up local and regional universities and research institutions with Wilson’s work.
“We would like to see more public investment in what Wilson is doing,” said Michael Wekesa, a senior partner at the firm.
The Treasures of African Museum could also come in handy for the country’s tourism, especially now that the Western circuit is of particular interest. “The museum can be a powerful tool for enhancing the development of communities in the neighborhood and beyond,” added Kesarine’s Irene Karani. -- source
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Posts: 1549 | From: California, USA | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:There is no doubt that mankind spoke a common language at a certain time. The research I have done proves beyond any doubt that through language Africa shared the same cultural beginning as the rest of the world
the quran 2:213 "mankind were one community"
-------------------- لا اله الا الله و محمد الرسول الله Posts: 495 | From: anchorage, alaska | Registered: Feb 2007
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quote:There is no doubt that mankind spoke a common language at a certain time. The research I have done proves beyond any doubt that through language Africa shared the same cultural beginning as the rest of the world
the quran 2:213 "mankind were one community"
Quran is myth, this is science!
Posts: 343 | Registered: Feb 2008
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posted
There is no doubt that mankind spoke a common language at a certain time. The research I have done proves beyond any doubt that through language Africa shared the same cultural beginning as the rest of the world
In the Vernacular, this is called "White Boy Dreaming" The dumb bast*rd doesn't even seem to know that Africa IS the beginning.
Posts: 22721 | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
Another great article doomed to be lost in the abyss of Egyptsearch without the "search" function.
Posts: 105 | From: Japan | Registered: Jan 2008
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Doug M - Doug are you there? In the now extinct Polynesian thread you posted some really great excerpts from studies - Hawaii included. I foolishly didn't save them, (how was I to know that we would step on some sensitive toes). Anyway, if you still have them, would you please repost or mail them to me. Thanks.
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