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Just wanted to start a thread,dedicated to African participation in science and technology,please feel free to contribute. The following was plagerized from Wiki. According to A D Buckley, Yoruba medicine is similar to European medicine in that its main thrust is to kill or expel from the body tiny, invisible "germs" or insects (kokoro) and also worms (aron) which inhabit small bags within the body. For the Yoruba, however, these germs and worms perform useful functions in the healthy body, aiding digestion, fertility etc. However, if they become too powerful in the body, they must be controlled, killed or driven out with bitter-tasting plants contained in medicines. Yoruba medicine is quite different from homeopathy, which uses medicinal ingredients that imitates pathological symptoms. Rather, in a similar manner to mainstream European medicine, it strives to destroy the agencies that cause disease[2].
Buckley claims that traditional Yoruba ideas of the human body are derived from the image of a cooking pot, susceptible to overflowing. The female body overflows dangerously but necessarily once a month; germs and worms in the body can overflow their "bags" in the body if they are given too much “sweet” (tasty) food. The household is understood in a similar way. As germs overflow their bag, menstrual blood the female body, and palm oil the cooking pot, so women in the marital household tend to overflow and return to their natal homes[3].
As well as using bitter plants to kill germs and worms, Yoruba herbalists also use incantation (ofo) in medicines to bring good luck (awure), for example, to bring money or love and for other purposes too. Medicinal incantations are in some ways like the praise songs addressed to human beings or gods: their purpose is to awaken the power of the ingredients hidden in the medicine. Most medicinal incantations use a form of word-play, similar to punning, to evoke the properties of the plants implied by the name of the plant[4].
Some early writers believed that the Yoruba people are actually an East African tribe who moved from the Nile River to the Niger area. For example, Olumide J. Lucas claims that "the Yoruba, during antiquity, lived in ancient Egypt before migrating to the Atlantic coast."
“With Egypt at its roots, it is therefore inevitable that African herbal medicine became associated with magic. Amulets and charms were more common than pills as preventions or curatives of diseases. Priests, who were from the earliest days the forefathers of science and medicine, considered diseases as possession by evil demons and could be treated using incantations along with extracts from the roots of certain plants. The psychosomatic method of healing disorders used primarily by psychiatrists today is based loosely on this ancient custom.”[5]
This being said, to modern westerners the medicine practices of the Yoruba may seem to be too magical/mystical, in fact the word medicine and magic are the same. But it must be recognized that to the Yorubas it is a system; Yorubic medicine is not merely medicine, such as it is in modern times, it is a medicine, the magic of a religion and a science.
[edit] Orishas in Yoruba Medicine The Yoruba religion has a multitude of deities, the major of which are called Orisha. Osain is one of the most important Orishas. Osain rules over all wild herbs, and he is considered the greatest herbalist who knows the powers of all plants. In the Yoruba tribe a sort of staff is given to the herb gatherer of the community, to make clear their position. In Africa there are so many herbs and plants that are used in healing, that only someone trained for life can competently perform the function. The plants and herbs of Osain have their purely medicinal value as well as their magical value. The Osainista knows how to correctly gather the herbs and plants. Some plants have to be gathered at certain times of the day or night. Certain plants have to have certain prayers said to them and certain offerings made in order to correctly work. As said before there are a multitude of Orisha’s. In diagnosing illness each one of the orisha’s has physical qualities and herbal attributes, each affecting one another. See the diagrams below[6]:
Orishas Attributes Physical Correspondences Herbs (Ewe) Obatala Deity of Creation and custodian of the Ifa Oracle, source of knowledge. Creator of Human Form, Purity, Cures illness and deformities. His priests are the Babalawo Brain, Bones, White fluids of the body Skullcap, Sage, Kola Nut, Basil, Hyssop, Blue Vervain, White Willow, Valerian Èsù or Elegbara Gateman of the Heavens. Messenger of the Orisha, he is prime negotiator between negative and positive forces in body, enforces the "law of being". Helps to enhance the power of herbs sympathetic nervous system All Herbs Ogun Orisha of Iron, he is divinity of clearing paths, specifically in respect to blockages or interruption of the flow vital energy at various points in the body, and he is the liberator. heart, kidney (adrenal glands), tendons, and sinews Eucalyptus, Alfalfa, Hawthorn, Bloodroot, Parsley, Motherwort, Garlic Yemoja Mother of Waters, Primal Waters, Nurturer. She is the amniotic fluid in the womb of the pregnant woman, as well as, the breasts which nurture. She is the protective energies of the feminine force. womb, liver, breasts, buttocks Kelp, Squawvine, Cohosh, Dandelion, Yarrow, Aloe, Spirulina, Mints, Passion Plower, Wild Yam Root Oshun Sensuality, Beauty, Gracefulness, she symbolizes clarity and flowing motion, she has power to heal with cool water, she is also the divinity of fertility and feminine essence, Women appeal to her for child-bearing and for the alleviation of female disorders, she is fond of babies and is sought if a baby becomes ill, she is known for her love of honey. circulatory system, digestive organs, elimination system, pubic area (female) Yellow Dock, Burdock, Cinnamon, Damiana, Anis, Raspberry, Yarrow, Chamomile, Lotus, Uva-Ursi, Buchu, Myrrh, Echinacea Shango Kingly, Virility, Masculinity, Fire, Lightning, Stones, Protector/Warrior, Magnetism, he possesses the ability to transform base substance into that which is pure and valuable reproductive system (male), bone marrow, life force or chi Plantain, Saw Palmetto, Hibiscus, Fo-ti, Sarsaparilla, Nettles, Cayenne Oya Tempest, Guardian of the Cemetery, Winds of Change, Storms, Progression, she is usually in the company of her counterpart Shango, she is the deity of rebirth as things must die so that new beginnings arise lungs, bronchial passages, mucous membranes Mullein, Comfrey, Cherrybark, Pleurisy Root, Elecampane, Horehound, Chickweed
[edit] Titles and Processes An Onisegun is an herbalist, Oloogun is one of several terms for a medical practitioner, and a Babalawo is a ceremony priest/priestess. An Oloogun practitioner in Yoruba, in addition to analyzing symptoms of the patient, look for the emotional and spiritual causes of the disease to placate the negative forces (ajogun) and only then will propose treatment that he/she deems appropriate. This may include herbs in the form of an infusion, enema, etc. In Yoruban medicine they also use dances, spiritual baths, symbolic sacrifice, song/prayer, and a change of diet to help cure the sick. They also believe that the only true and complete cure can be a change of “consciousness” where the individual can recognize the root of the problem themselves and seek to eliminate it. Disease to the Yoruba is seen as a disruption of our connection with the Earth. “Physicians are often priests, priestesses, or high priests, or belong to a guild-like society hidden within tribal boundaries, completely secret to the outside world. In their communities, even obtaining an education in medicine may require becoming an initiate of one of these societies. The world view of a priest involves training and discipline to interpret events that are indicative of the nature of the patient's alignment internally with their own conscious and unrecognized issues, as well as with a variety of external forces and beings which inhabit our realm and require the inner vision and wisdom of the priest to interpret.”[7] The Yoruba tribe are large believers is preventative medicine. They are obvious criticizers of modern western medicine where we try to mask problems with drugs, rather than cure the whole of the person. According to the medicine men of Yoruba, if we listen to our bodies they will provide us with the preparation and appropriate knowledge we need to regain our balance with the Earth.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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AS the above shows Africa's traditional healers did not just beat drums utter prayers to the gods and hope for the best,they were sure to give deep thought to what was happening inside and outside the body,for if they didn't proved themselves effective,the people would have shown them the door.I on perpose did not showcased ancient Kemet so we can take a look at other civilizations.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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Ancient African Math taken from Omyma's blog: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 Ancient African Math/Science Shatters Stereotypes Finally, more physical proof against the racist notion that Africans are culturally not all that science/math oriented, the old "dark Africa", "song-&-dance" routine. Thousands of books and manuscripts uncovered in what is now Mali, especially around Timbuktu, are just being studied, with stunning results: African scholars in an unfathomably wealthy civilization independently developing sophisticated math, astronomy, and other sciences, even while Europe was still crawling out of the Middle Ages...
From the world's oldest astronomical observatory to Timbuktu scholar Abul Abbas, who commented in 1723 on much earlier scholars' work in the same city - thus showing they were building an independent body of work (and whose conclusions show his lack of contact with, hence independence from, Europe), African mathematical and science achievements have heretofore been largely kept in the dark. All this, and so far only 14 out of more than 18,000 manuscripts have been translated and examined. Let the racists read it and weep...
An article in the New Scientist (unless you subscribe, you can't get the full article though) reports the discovery and recent restoration and study projects of thousands of ancient manuscripts, called the Timbuktu or Mali Manuscripts, in/around Timbuktu, the site of an unfathomably wealthy, sophisticated civilization.
"In just a handful of the documents translated so far they have overturned the received wisdom about early African science and astronomy. The scholars of Timbuktu, they have discovered, were way ahead of their time."
In 1591, Moroccan invaders destroyed many documents and raided schools and universities in the city, mainly after their wealth. Much was lost, but there are still thousands of documents, many of them hidden in walls and tombs, which are only recently being restored and studied, in large part thanks to the renowned astrophysicist from S. Africa, Thebe Medupe.
In the 2003 documentary film Cosmic Africa, Medupe travels throughout Africa, visiting various indigenous societies seeking to find out their knowledge and understanding in the field of Astronomy. More recently, he has been working on the Timbuctu Manuscript project, teaming with other scientists to study the texts for knowledge of science and math. The results are astounding.
"We can now say with confidence that sub-Saharan Africans were studying math and science over 300 years ago," says Dr. Medupe.
Medupe himself is the motivating power behind what has become a rather sudden and stunning revelation of African intellectual achievement and advanced civilization, long buried under what he calls "Eurocentric" history. As he said in an interview,
"...when I was 15, I started to question why everything was Eurocentric. Textbooks were using European things and so on. So I used to ask myself whether it was because there was nothing Africa can offer. I refused to believe that. It remained a very big question for me for a long time, until I came across a review on African ethnoastronomy. I was very excited." In making the film Cosmic Africa, he says:
We decided to select remote communities, where contact with the outside world was minimal, but also living communities where you could clearly and graphically show that astronomy was an important part of their lives. That's why we selected the Bushmen, who live on the border of Botswana and Namibia, and the Dogon people of Mali, West Africa. The Dogons still live the way they did 500 years ago. They were dignified, and very hospitable. At the beginning, it was not easy to get information from them — that's how they protect their culture from being eroded. But once we won their trust, it was very pleasant to live among them. We also read about a stone observatory—stone structures in the Sahara desert in southern Egypt that were erected more than 6000 years ago; that's more than a thousand years before the Pyramids. The stones were erected to mark the directions of north and of the summer solstice sunrise.
One evening with the Dogons, I went with two old people to look at the stars. I asked them what was the most important constellation for them. They said the Pleiades, a star cluster, which is very important throughout the whole of Africa, actually. The stars are used for planting and agriculture. I asked this guy [for] positions of the stars, and he gave me the rising times and positions at different times of the year. I checked with my laptop, and he was very much correct. To me that proved he knew what he was talking about.
The Egyptian stones apparently contain alignments similar to those done a thousand or so years later at Stonehenge in Great Britain, but they are smaller in size. The Bushmen made out constellations just like the ancient Greeks and other peoples. To me, it shows the commonality between Africa and the rest of the world.
Medupe just discovered the tip of the great civilizations that were Africa, full and rich civilizations with original advancements in such fields as astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, medicine and climatology.
Timbuktu ... was one of the major cities of West Africa from 800 until just over 400 years ago. It was very prosperous, and had many learning centers, with people collecting and writing books on law, poetry, astronomy, optics, mathematics. This history of scholarship in Africa extended over large parts of the continent. Ancient manuscripts are found all over West Africa and even in East Africa. They are written in Arabic and in local African languages. ...In Mali alone, there are around 200 private libraries, and literally hundreds of thousands of books.
One of the sites featured in the film, Nabta Playa, is believed to be the world's earliest astronomical site.
The potential significance of Nabta as a ceremonial site was further strengthened by the discovery of an arrangement of stone megaliths (large free standing stones) on the western edge of the Nabta basin. Some of these stones had been carefully shaped, and weighed up to one and a half tons. They appeared to radiate out from a central point.
It is estimated that the Nabta site was built and used around 4800 B.C., and scientists say it shows evidence of having been used for astronomical purposes as well.
But most powerful in their refutation of the Eurocentric view of scientific development perhaps are the Mali manuscripts, some dating back 600 years, including beautifully drawn diagrams of the orbits of the planets in a geocentric universe, which demonstrate complex mathematical calculations and algorithms that were as accurate in some cases as anything we have today. And when as Muslims they needed to accurately determine the location of Timbuktu and Mecca, they surpassed the Greeks by inventing the functions of trigonometry.
This should be food for thought for the far right and racists, now apparently on the rise again, who try to delude the world into believing black intellectual and scientific accomplishment never existed or even cannot exist. But then, thought is something they avoid at all costs. And how can we expect non-thinking people to recognize higher intelligence? Posted by Omyma at 3:18 AM Labels: African astronomy, African civilization, Black Science and Math, Cosmic Africa, racial stereotypes, Thebe Medupe. Also i remember reading Claudia Zaslavsky's Africa counts,in Van Sertma's book Blacks In Science Ancient And Modern.If anyone has excerpts from the book please post.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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Also, I was wondering what people thought of Hunter Adams? He was derided by mainstream Eurocentrists for his 140 page essay as submitted to the Portland School District. I found some of it far-fetched but a lot of it is verifiable. Of course they harp on the more speculative aspects to characterize the entire work (composition fallacy)..
quote:Originally posted by ackee: For the Yoruba, however, these germs and worms perform useful functions in the healthy body, aiding digestion, fertility etc. However, if they become too powerful in the body, they must be controlled, killed or driven out with bitter-tasting plants contained in medicines.
Posts: 3423 | From: the jungle - when y'all stop playing games, call me. | Registered: Jul 2006
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quote:Originally posted by ackee: Some plants have to be gathered at certain times of the day or night.
The lady at the rock (a pic I posted a couple months ago) told me a story about one of the trees planted in the vicinity where we were standing. She had a sore sometime ago or something (maybe some worm) on her leg that was getting bad and a herbalist told her to go pluck the leaf of that tree (not at the rock neccessarily, but anywhere she could find it) and make some mixture with it. The thing is...she had to pluck the leaf before 6pm or it wouldn't work. There's got to be science/kemistry behind that. I know for sure when I was a kid in Nigeria I used to just sit outside gazing at the stars, clouds and plants going to sleep closing their petals or whatever. Some wake up when the others are going to sleep.
Posts: 3423 | From: the jungle - when y'all stop playing games, call me. | Registered: Jul 2006
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Sundjata,thanks for the links,and i didn't know Hunter Adams got in trouble with the system. Herukhuti,that's what iam talking about the world seems to be rushing into so called western health care that they sometimes forot the about the little gray bearded man who lives right on the edge of the town or village,who may have the ans to their ill both spritual and physical.After all what is science but the carefull observation of nature and experimentation.And many traditional healers have got to becarefull,because while the are often derided they are just as often ripped off by those who deride them,taking their knownlage and going off to make millions or even billions,without even receiving a public thank you.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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The Ishango Bone – Is This The World’s Oldest Mathematical Artefact?
Most people think that the study of mathematics has its origins in Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, but this view was dramatically challenged in the 1950’s with the discovery of a small animal bone, inscribed with markings that appear to represent numbers.
This artefact was discovered in the small African fishing village of Ishango, on the border of Zaire and Uganda by the Belgian geologist Jean de Heinzelin.
The Ishango Bone now lies at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Brussels, and has been dated to around 20,000 BC. It is thought to be the oldest mathematical artefact ever discovered.
The Bone
At first glance the bone appears to be a simple writing tool. It is 10 cm long, and at one end is embedded with a piece of quartz thought to be for engraving and tattooing. Closer examination reveals a series of notches running up the side of the bone, in three columns.
The notches are clustered together as shown below:
The middle column begins with 3 notches, and then doubles to 6 notches. The process is repeated for the number 4, which doubles to 8 notches, and then reversed for the number 10, which is halved to 5 notches. This suggests that the layout of numbers is not purely random and instead suggests some understanding of the principle of multiplication and division by 2. The bone may therefore have been used as a counting tool for simple mathematical procedures.
This view is further supported by looking at the number of notches on either side of the central column. The numbers on both the left and right column are all odd numbers (9, 11, 13, 17, 19 and 21). Furthermore, the numbers on the left column are all prime numbers, suggesting some mathematical knowledge. The numbers on each side column add up to 60, with the numbers in the central column adding up to 48. Both of these numbers are multiples of 12, again suggesting an understanding of multiplication and division.
Is this proof of mathematical insight?
There are several critics who feel that the mathematical claims for the Ishango bone are exaggerated. They suggest that, as there are only 4 numbers on the left hand column of the bone, it may be just a simple coincidence that all of these are prime numbers. The most compelling aspect of their argument is the fact that there is no evidence of the knowledge of prime numbers before the Classical Greek period, at least 10,000 years later.
It was suggested that the Ishango bone, instead of being a counting device, may instead be some sort of calendar, and there is some circumstantial evidence to suggest this may be the case.
One of the oldest known calendars was discovered in 1940 in caves in Lascaux, France, and are consists of drawings representing the various phases of the moon. They indicate the awareness of the 29 day cycle of the moon and are the earliest known examples of a lunar calendar. These drawings were painted at around 18,000 BC, making them of a similar age to the Ishango Bone.
Lunar calendars represent one of the earliest uses of numbers by mankind, and both the Isturitz Baton (an antler bone found in Isturitz, France engraved with markings) and the Blanchard Bone shown below (found in Abri Blanchard, France) provide examples of the use of bones as possible lunar calendars. Both of these findings can be dated to around the time of the Ishango Bone. They contain markings that coincide with 2, 4 and 5 month lunar phases, and suggestions have been made that the notches on the Ishango Bone correlate to a 6-month lunar calendar.
The suggestion is further substantiated by the present day use of bones, strings and other objects as lunar calendars in African civilizations. If the Ishango Bone is indeed a lunar calendar, it would be one of the earliest examples to be unearthed outside of Europe. But most scholars do not consider recording dates to be proper mathematics. Calendar or Calculator?
The Ishango Bone is clearly open to interpretation and there is evidence both for and against it being a calendar or some kind of mathematical device. The puzzle will only be solved if other similar items can be unearthed. Only then will we know if these notches represent dates, calculations or coincidences. # www.simonsingh.net/The_Ishango_Bone.html - Cached - Similar #
NAMORATUNGA
In 1983 Laurance Doyle and Eddie Frank led their first expedition to NAMORATUNGA (click for photos). Namoratunga is an extremely remote site in northern Kenya. Their findings on this notable trip earned them a footnote in Archaeo-astronomy history.
They discovered that around 300 B.C. an unknown African people had built a stone "observatory" with their sophisticated understanding of the motions of the Stars and the Moon. With their astronomical knowledge, these people created a very accurate lunar calendar.
In 1989 Doyle and Frank ventured further south on another expedition to the GREAT ZIMBABWE RUINS (click for photos). This vast complex dates back as far as 400 A.D and extends well over an acre. Built within it are significant astronomical alignments Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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Imhotep is famous above all as a master builder; he was a pioneer in the field of stone construction and the architect of the Step Pyramid. He is one of the best known figures from the Old Kingdom, even though he held no high state position and was not a member of the royal family. In the New Kingdom, Imhotep became the patron of scribes and the personification of the concept of 'wisdom' as incorporated in the so-called 'wisdom texts'. He was depicted as a seated figure, beardless, with a headdress like Ptah's on his head and an unrolled papyrus on his knees. In the Turin Royal Canon, Imhotep is already referred to as 'the son of Ptah', and this development culminated in full divine status in the 26th Dynasty, complete with temple, priests and a cult. The Imhotep cult was originally popular in the area around Memphis, and during the Ptolemaic Period his temple near the Serapeum attracted many pilgrims. During this period his popularity began to grow in other religious centres in Egypt. Although he appears in many places in temple reliefs, he does not seem to have had any significance for religious life. It was a different story in Thebes - his worship there penetrated many layers of the population. He and Amenhotep, son of Hapu, with whom he is linked, were worshipped as a divine pair and in the Ptah temple in Karnak he functioned through oracles and dreams. He played the role of intermediary and assistant in times of distress due to illness or childlessness. The inscriptions left by visitors to his cult centres and the remains of domestic altars demonstrate how popular Imhotep was here in circles beyond the temple. Unlike in Memphis or elsewhere, in Thebes Imhotep's divine status completely overwhelmed his historical existence. The end of pharaonic culture did not mean the end of Imhotep's popularity. In the hermetic texts of later date he is still a beloved figure and he continued to be revered as a saint in the Arab tradition until deep into the 19th century. www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/glossary.aspx?id=197Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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Bothf of youz guyz can't read... the title of the thread is African science and technology...But of course youz guys like projecting...And really what do you know of the mataphysics of Vodun..having never studied the religion...but feel free to pass judgement. and black man..i-am still waiting for that positve...post on black folks.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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quote:Originally posted by Brada-Anansi: Bothf of youz guyz can't read... the title of the thread is African science and technology...But of course youz guys like projecting...And really what do you know of the mataphysics of Vodun..having never studied the religion...but feel free to pass judgement. and black man..i-am still waiting for that positve...post on black folks.
The Haitians such as Toussaient and Dessaline are among my my favorite historicial figures...Why don't you post something positive about them?...Or even Boukman...who is reported to be a Jamaican..who jump started the whole Hatian revolution with his "Voodoo".....come on blackman produce. I my-self being part Maroon ancestory Is intreasted of what went on in Haiti during the revolution...hook a brother up Blackman.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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In the haitian annals it is said that the haitian children used to run up to the french soldiers and yell "francais tombe!" which is to say - Frenchmen fall dead!
Most Haitians believe the death of the frenchmen and the eventual victory was a result of the potent voodoune power of the loa, commonly refered to as "L'esprit" (spirit force), channeled by the Hougans (priest).
So today you have Haitians believing in the gobbledeegook voodoo magick. Unfortunately what these textbooks do not tell you is while these Haitian children were running up to the french soldiers and pronouncing those [supposed] words of power, they were also BLOWING into the faces of the soldiers poisonous herbal concoctions.
It was poison that helped Haitians defeat many of the french soldiers. It had nothing to do with voodoo magick power. The voodoo only served for the smoke and mirrors theatrics.
-------------------- A recovering Afronut Posts: 604 | Registered: May 2009
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So you are saying that there was a certain amount of science in what you would called Vodoo hocus pocus...see whaｔ you can produce with even a light perlimetary...examination?
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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if you want to call "science," the fact the Haitians had an idea of the adverse effects from certain herbal extracts, well then I will have to disagree with that. Knowing the effects or properties does not necessarily entail "science". Science is the "Study of..."
quote:Originally posted by Brada-Anansi: So you are saying that there was a certain amount of science in what you would called Vodoo hocus pocus...see whaｔ you can produce with even a light perlimetary...examination?
quote:Originally posted by Afronut Slayer: if you want to call "science," the fact the Haitians had an idea of the adverse effects from certain herbal extracts, well then I will have to disagree with that. Knowing the effects or properties does not necessarily entail "science". Science is the "Study of..."
Well how did they know the adverse effects of the said herbal extracts in the first place if they had not "studied" them in some way?
Posts: 189 | From: Texas | Registered: Aug 2009
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That's it these guys think if it was done by black folks then there has to be something negative about it..But let some Euro/Asians..put the same thing in a bottle using the same methods in a lab and walaa..you have science and a new multi-millionair.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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I think the power in voodoo is the secrecy behind its magic. That said, if you travelled back 500 years and gave a mobile phone to your average European, and got him to speak to his bro who lives 500 miles away, he might think you're doing voodoo.
It's all about knowledge.
Posts: 368 | From: Oxford | Registered: Jan 2008
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little haitian priest dabbles w/ an herb and dies from it. Get it?
quote:Originally posted by Chrome-Soul:
quote:Originally posted by Afronut Slayer: if you want to call "science," the fact the Haitians had an idea of the adverse effects from certain herbal extracts, well then I will have to disagree with that. Knowing the effects or properties does not necessarily entail "science". Science is the "Study of..."
Well how did they know the adverse effects of the said herbal extracts in the first place if they had not "studied" them in some way?
quote:little haitian priest dabbles w/ an herb and dies from it. Get it?
The dabbling is called... experimentation..knowing or witnessing the cause of death is called observation...testing and proving the results over and over again plus fine tuning is called...science.
So is this science? Use of penicillin did not begin until the 1940s when Howard Florey and Ernst Chain isolated the active ingredient and developed a powdery form of the medicine. == == Penicillin wasn't invented. It was discovered by accident by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928 that penicillin killed bacteria. wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_took_Penicillin_first wiki.
Traditional African Medicine
Someone once told me that traditional African medicine is pure superstition, without scientific base, that is rapidly disappearing from Africa.
Certainly George Washington University in the USA would not agree with that statement, and neither would over 600 institutions, physicians, researchers and health care workers who held the first major event on Traditional African Medicine this July. And I don’t suppose that the 2/3 of the central African population who still use traditional medicine as primary health care would agree with it.
To tell the truth, African Medicine is far from just superstition: it is a complex system of medicinal plant usage and holistic therapies, combined with culture, arts and spirituality in healing.
Western medicine, though no one doubts its obvious contributions to health, is still failing in several areas. It is too usually expensive to reach many in need, it often
brings serious side effects and becomes less effective with time. Most importantly, it addresses the illness without regarding the person as a whole, where body, mind and cultural heritage all play their part in physical and mental wellbeing.
So, what is the solution to address health needs of millions of people? According to the World Health Organization, traditional medicine has a central role to play in the 21st century. It can be an invaluable tool for delivering safe, inexpensive and effective health care. African medicine, especially when properly combined with western medicine, can easily and effectively be used for a large variety of conditions. AIDS related symptoms, several infectious and chronic diseases, TB, malaria, children's health and mental illnesses can all be managed by traditional means.
It is certainly not difficult to find a traditional health practitioner. They are virtually in any corner of Africa, often people who learned all their medical art orally from their parents. Any remote area of Uganda will have a traditional doctor and, surprisingly, even in Kampala you can find them very easily. Just ask and someone will show you where to go.
Many of the practitioners use herbs in a sort of western way: they will ask you about your condition and prepare a mix of herbs. However, few of them - generally the most skilled and close to traditional African healing - will employ much more “exotic” techniques. My favorite practitioner is the doctor of Ssezabwa Falls between Kampala and Jinja. The doctor here cures only with water. He talks to the patient, listens to the problem and “feels” what is needed. He then collects some water from the river by the falls and performs a ritual consisting mostly of meditation and prayer. The water is then used on the body or drunk by the patient. He is very successful in curing people and very well known and respected by the locals.
It surprised me that this way of curing with water is similar to two fashionable therapies used in Western society: Water Therapy and Floral Therapy (Bach Flower Remedies, mostly Rock Water, if you know it). Both Water and Bach Flower therapies are based on the use of water and are effective in addressing emotional and physical distress. In particular, Bach Flower Remedies have been used by hundreds of thousands of people for seventy years and now the Rescue Remedy (a mix of Bach Flower Remedies) is the most used non-pharmacological remedy against stress.
A different destiny is in store for the traditional doctor of Ssezabwa Falls, who does not have an international exposure. No matter how brilliant his art can be, at the edge of healing, prayer and magic, he will not easily achieve notoriety and fame. But, if you have the chance to go there and talk to him, challenge him with questions such as “what is the origin of illness?” or “why do we suffer?” and even deeper questions like “what is life?” You will be shocked and touched to listen to him and his clear, logical and profound explanations.
Traditional African Medicine is not just pure magic and certainly is not dying. It is at the very base of our roots and it is a vibrant mixture of real medical knowledge, great understanding of the human nature, and an ancient culture full of complex spirituality. You may not ever use their mix of herbs or follow their rituals, but never forget about the power and importance of the magic healing art of the traditional African doctors. For more information you can email ivan@africadventure.net
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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posted
And why exactly would that priest be "dabbling" with herbs if not to learn more about them ie study them?
You know it would be better for you if you got someone else to argue your points for you.Since your own words undermine you argument.
quote:Originally posted by Afronut Slayer: little haitian priest dabbles w/ an herb and dies from it. Get it?
quote:Originally posted by Chrome-Soul:
quote:Originally posted by Afronut Slayer: if you want to call "science," the fact the Haitians had an idea of the adverse effects from certain herbal extracts, well then I will have to disagree with that. Knowing the effects or properties does not necessarily entail "science". Science is the "Study of..."
Well how did they know the adverse effects of the said herbal extracts in the first place if they had not "studied" them in some way?
posted
okay so then why hasnt the "science" advanced? The haitian hougans still use the same bloody hocuspocus rites. Yet the western alchemy has evolved into a legitimate science [chemistry] today. What gives?
quote:Originally posted by Brada-Anansi: Afronut Slaying nothing
quote:little haitian priest dabbles w/ an herb and dies from it. Get it?
The dabbling is called... experimentation..knowing or witnessing the cause of death is called observation...testing and proving the results over and over again plus fine tuning is called...science.
So is this science? Use of penicillin did not begin until the 1940s when Howard Florey and Ernst Chain isolated the active ingredient and developed a powdery form of the medicine. == == Penicillin wasn't invented. It was discovered by accident by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928 that penicillin killed bacteria. wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_took_Penicillin_first wiki.
Traditional African Medicine
Someone once told me that traditional African medicine is pure superstition, without scientific base, that is rapidly disappearing from Africa.
Certainly George Washington University in the USA would not agree with that statement, and neither would over 600 institutions, physicians, researchers and health care workers who held the first major event on Traditional African Medicine this July. And I don’t suppose that the 2/3 of the central African population who still use traditional medicine as primary health care would agree with it.
To tell the truth, African Medicine is far from just superstition: it is a complex system of medicinal plant usage and holistic therapies, combined with culture, arts and spirituality in healing.
Western medicine, though no one doubts its obvious contributions to health, is still failing in several areas. It is too usually expensive to reach many in need, it often
brings serious side effects and becomes less effective with time. Most importantly, it addresses the illness without regarding the person as a whole, where body, mind and cultural heritage all play their part in physical and mental wellbeing.
So, what is the solution to address health needs of millions of people? According to the World Health Organization, traditional medicine has a central role to play in the 21st century. It can be an invaluable tool for delivering safe, inexpensive and effective health care. African medicine, especially when properly combined with western medicine, can easily and effectively be used for a large variety of conditions. AIDS related symptoms, several infectious and chronic diseases, TB, malaria, children's health and mental illnesses can all be managed by traditional means.
It is certainly not difficult to find a traditional health practitioner. They are virtually in any corner of Africa, often people who learned all their medical art orally from their parents. Any remote area of Uganda will have a traditional doctor and, surprisingly, even in Kampala you can find them very easily. Just ask and someone will show you where to go.
Many of the practitioners use herbs in a sort of western way: they will ask you about your condition and prepare a mix of herbs. However, few of them - generally the most skilled and close to traditional African healing - will employ much more “exotic” techniques. My favorite practitioner is the doctor of Ssezabwa Falls between Kampala and Jinja. The doctor here cures only with water. He talks to the patient, listens to the problem and “feels” what is needed. He then collects some water from the river by the falls and performs a ritual consisting mostly of meditation and prayer. The water is then used on the body or drunk by the patient. He is very successful in curing people and very well known and respected by the locals.
It surprised me that this way of curing with water is similar to two fashionable therapies used in Western society: Water Therapy and Floral Therapy (Bach Flower Remedies, mostly Rock Water, if you know it). Both Water and Bach Flower therapies are based on the use of water and are effective in addressing emotional and physical distress. In particular, Bach Flower Remedies have been used by hundreds of thousands of people for seventy years and now the Rescue Remedy (a mix of Bach Flower Remedies) is the most used non-pharmacological remedy against stress.
A different destiny is in store for the traditional doctor of Ssezabwa Falls, who does not have an international exposure. No matter how brilliant his art can be, at the edge of healing, prayer and magic, he will not easily achieve notoriety and fame. But, if you have the chance to go there and talk to him, challenge him with questions such as “what is the origin of illness?” or “why do we suffer?” and even deeper questions like “what is life?” You will be shocked and touched to listen to him and his clear, logical and profound explanations.
Traditional African Medicine is not just pure magic and certainly is not dying. It is at the very base of our roots and it is a vibrant mixture of real medical knowledge, great understanding of the human nature, and an ancient culture full of complex spirituality. You may not ever use their mix of herbs or follow their rituals, but never forget about the power and importance of the magic healing art of the traditional African doctors. For more information you can email ivan@africadventure.net
posted
Who says "voodoo" is not science? Like I said, it's all about knowledge. If you can prove that water isn't wet, then it isn't. But I bet you you can't. It's all about proof/evidence.
posted
voodoo is a science just like warcraft and dungeons & dragons are "sciences". You're fucking pathetic.
quote:Originally posted by Shady Aftermath: Who says "voodoo" is not science? Like I said, it's all about knowledge. If you can prove that water isn't wet, then it isn't. But I bet you you can't. It's all about proof/evidence.
posted
You're not serious. How are you going to say something isn't science simply because you don't like it? Look, if there is a method to doing something, and it works and it's repeatable then that's science. 4 + 4 =8..... can't disprove that now can you?
posted
first off (4 + 4 = 8) is a convention that represents actual science. The notation is a conveniency for men to conceptualize the science. Math is an applied science. Can you say the same for voodoo? NO! Thats why I compared it to warcraft and dungeons & dragons, because it takes more than creating rules in a paradigm to make something into a legitimate science.
Tell me what in the world can a veve (sigils) do for the Black man. According to the Hougans, they open up doorways for the loa (spirits) to walk into our world. Do you believe that gobbledeegook?
quote:Originally posted by Shady Aftermath: You're not serious. How are you going to say something isn't science simply because you don't like it? Look, if there is a method to doing something, and it works and it's repeatable then that's science. 4 + 4 =8..... can't disprove that now can you?
quote:Originally posted by Afronut Slayer: first off (4 + 4 = 8) is a convention that represents actual science. The notation is a conveniency for men to conceptualize the science. Math is an applied science. Can you say the same for voodoo? NO! Thats why I compared it to warcraft and dungeons & dragons, because it takes more than creating rules in a paradigm to make something into a legitimate science.
Tell me what in the world can a veve (sigils) do for the Black man. According to the Hougans, they open up doorways for the loa (spirits) to walk into our world. Do you believe that gobbledeegook?
quote:Originally posted by Shady Aftermath: You're not serious. How are you going to say something isn't science simply because you don't like it? Look, if there is a method to doing something, and it works and it's repeatable then that's science. 4 + 4 =8..... can't disprove that now can you?
You underestimate my intelligence friend. There is such a thing as symbolic language, the idea is to hide info you don't want to share for whatever reason good or bad. So if a voodoo practitioner says he/she's "opening up doorways for the loa (spirits)", it may not have a literal interpretation.
Posts: 368 | From: Oxford | Registered: Jan 2008
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posted
This is frank talk... I studied voodoune in my early twenties. I can assure you the function of the veve is as literal as it gets - doorway for the spirits. There is no hiding of secret knowledge in any symbols. Those insignias are designed with a specific pupose to channel spirits.
The only symbol in voodoo that was used to masquerade or conceal knowledge were [certain] the patrons (saints). Some of the Haitian patrons are european. Each european patron conceals its afrikan counterpart.
It was forbidden for Haitian slaves to perform their voodoo worship. So when the french colonialists saw the the slaves giving adulation and adoration to european saints, they assumed the catholic indoctrination had worked. Yet the slaves were really performing voodoo worship, under the guise of catholocism.
quote:Originally posted by Shady Aftermath:
quote:Originally posted by Afronut Slayer: first off (4 + 4 = 8) is a convention that represents actual science. The notation is a conveniency for men to conceptualize the science. Math is an applied science. Can you say the same for voodoo? NO! Thats why I compared it to warcraft and dungeons & dragons, because it takes more than creating rules in a paradigm to make something into a legitimate science.
Tell me what in the world can a veve (sigils) do for the Black man. According to the Hougans, they open up doorways for the loa (spirits) to walk into our world. Do you believe that gobbledeegook?
quote:Originally posted by Shady Aftermath: You're not serious. How are you going to say something isn't science simply because you don't like it? Look, if there is a method to doing something, and it works and it's repeatable then that's science. 4 + 4 =8..... can't disprove that now can you?
You underestimate my intelligence friend. There is such a thing as symbolic language, the idea is to hide info you don't want to share for whatever reason good or bad. So if a voodoo practitioner says he/she's "opening up doorways for the loa (spirits)", it may not have a literal interpretation.
quote:Originally posted by Afronut Slayer: okay so then why hasnt the "science" advanced? The haitian hougans still use the same bloody hocuspocus rites. Yet the western alchemy has evolved into a legitimate science [chemistry] today. What gives?
quote:Originally posted by Brada-Anansi: Afronut Slaying nothing
quote:little haitian priest dabbles w/ an herb and dies from it. Get it?
The dabbling is called... experimentation..knowing or witnessing the cause of death is called observation...testing and proving the results over and over again plus fine tuning is called...science.
So is this science? Use of penicillin did not begin until the 1940s when Howard Florey and Ernst Chain isolated the active ingredient and developed a powdery form of the medicine. == == Penicillin wasn't invented. It was discovered by accident by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928 that penicillin killed bacteria. wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_took_Penicillin_first wiki.
Traditional African Medicine
Someone once told me that traditional African medicine is pure superstition, without scientific base, that is rapidly disappearing from Africa.
Certainly George Washington University in the USA would not agree with that statement, and neither would over 600 institutions, physicians, researchers and health care workers who held the first major event on Traditional African Medicine this July. And I don’t suppose that the 2/3 of the central African population who still use traditional medicine as primary health care would agree with it.
To tell the truth, African Medicine is far from just superstition: it is a complex system of medicinal plant usage and holistic therapies, combined with culture, arts and spirituality in healing.
Western medicine, though no one doubts its obvious contributions to health, is still failing in several areas. It is too usually expensive to reach many in need, it often
brings serious side effects and becomes less effective with time. Most importantly, it addresses the illness without regarding the person as a whole, where body, mind and cultural heritage all play their part in physical and mental wellbeing.
So, what is the solution to address health needs of millions of people? According to the World Health Organization, traditional medicine has a central role to play in the 21st century. It can be an invaluable tool for delivering safe, inexpensive and effective health care. African medicine, especially when properly combined with western medicine, can easily and effectively be used for a large variety of conditions. AIDS related symptoms, several infectious and chronic diseases, TB, malaria, children's health and mental illnesses can all be managed by traditional means.
It is certainly not difficult to find a traditional health practitioner. They are virtually in any corner of Africa, often people who learned all their medical art orally from their parents. Any remote area of Uganda will have a traditional doctor and, surprisingly, even in Kampala you can find them very easily. Just ask and someone will show you where to go.
Many of the practitioners use herbs in a sort of western way: they will ask you about your condition and prepare a mix of herbs. However, few of them - generally the most skilled and close to traditional African healing - will employ much more “exotic” techniques. My favorite practitioner is the doctor of Ssezabwa Falls between Kampala and Jinja. The doctor here cures only with water. He talks to the patient, listens to the problem and “feels” what is needed. He then collects some water from the river by the falls and performs a ritual consisting mostly of meditation and prayer. The water is then used on the body or drunk by the patient. He is very successful in curing people and very well known and respected by the locals.
It surprised me that this way of curing with water is similar to two fashionable therapies used in Western society: Water Therapy and Floral Therapy (Bach Flower Remedies, mostly Rock Water, if you know it). Both Water and Bach Flower therapies are based on the use of water and are effective in addressing emotional and physical distress. In particular, Bach Flower Remedies have been used by hundreds of thousands of people for seventy years and now the Rescue Remedy (a mix of Bach Flower Remedies) is the most used non-pharmacological remedy against stress.
A different destiny is in store for the traditional doctor of Ssezabwa Falls, who does not have an international exposure. No matter how brilliant his art can be, at the edge of healing, prayer and magic, he will not easily achieve notoriety and fame. But, if you have the chance to go there and talk to him, challenge him with questions such as “what is the origin of illness?” or “why do we suffer?” and even deeper questions like “what is life?” You will be shocked and touched to listen to him and his clear, logical and profound explanations.
Traditional African Medicine is not just pure magic and certainly is not dying. It is at the very base of our roots and it is a vibrant mixture of real medical knowledge, great understanding of the human nature, and an ancient culture full of complex spirituality. You may not ever use their mix of herbs or follow their rituals, but never forget about the power and importance of the magic healing art of the traditional African doctors. For more information you can email ivan@africadventure.net
Im curious...care to explain how and what led to the development of Western medicine...as in the history behing European medicine and surgery??
Posts: 8806 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
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posted
Well that has a lot to with the Moors who brought certain techniques with them they they intern...got many things from Kemities by way of the Greeks:
Muslim physicians from Al-Andalus contributed significantly to the field of medicine, including the subjects of anatomy and physiology. Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis), regarded as the "father of modern surgery",[67] contributed greatly to the discipline of medical surgery with his Kitab al-Tasrif ("Book of Concessions"), a 30-volume medical encyclopedia which was later translated to Latin and used in European and Muslim medical schools for centuries. He helped lay the foudations for modern surgery,[67] with his Kitab al-Tasrif, in which he invented numerous surgical instruments, including the first instruments unique to women,[68] as well as the surgical uses of catgut and forceps, the ligature, surgical needle, scalpel, curette, retractor, surgical spoon, sound, surgical hook, surgical rod, and specula,[69] and bone saw.[70]
From the 10th century, Muslim physicians and surgeons were applying purified alcohol to wounds as an antiseptic agent. Surgeons in Islamic Spain utilized special methods for maintaining antisepsis prior to and during surgery. They also originated specific protocols for maintaining hygiene during the post-operative period. Their success rate was so high that dignitaries throughout Europe came to Córdoba, Spain, to be treated at what was comparably the "Mayo Clinic" of the Middle Ages.[71]
Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) was the earliest known experimental surgeon.[72] In the 12th century, he was responsible for introducing the experimental scientific method into surgery, as he was the first to employ animal testing in order to experiment with surgical procedures before applying them to human patients.[73] He also performed the first dissections and postmortem autopsies on humans as well as animals.[74] He also established surgery as an independent discipline of medicine, by introducing a training course designed specifically for future surgeons, in order that they be qualified before being allowed to perform operations independently, and for defining the roles of a general practitioner and a surgeon in the treatment of a surgical condition.[73]
In Islamic Spain, Abu al-Qasim and Ibn Zuhr, among other Muslim surgeons, performed hundreds of surgeries under inhalant anesthesia with the use of narcotic-soaked sponges which were placed over the face. Muslim physicians also introduced the anesthetic value of opium derivatives during the Middle Ages. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) wrote about its medical uses in The Canon of Medicine, which later influenced the works of Paracelsus. Sigrid Hunke wrote:wiki
Ancient Kemetic Surgical kit: Islamic era Surgical kit:
Turn of the century surgical kit:
Notice on your medicine bottle or box this symbol
And at your hospitial this symbol the Caduceus said to be of Thoth.also found in Babylon and Phoenicia..transmitted to Greeks..then to us. Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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Brook Abdu a and Robert Gordon Corresponding Author Contact Information, E-mail The Corresponding Author, b
a Council on Archaeological Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
b Department of Geology and Geophysics, and Council on Archaeological Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
Received 20 August 2003; Revised 10 December 2003; accepted 17 December 2003. Available online 12 February 2004.
Iron artifacts excavated at Arminna and Toshka West in Lower Nubia by the Pennsylvania–Yale Expedition to Egypt fall into two classes representing separate metallurgical styles. Artifacts from the Early through Late Meroitic periods (300 BC–AD 370), many of which are arrow, lance, or harpoon points, have high contents of phosphorus and arsenic; sophisticated, high-quality forge work; placement of steel at working edges; and the frequent use of piling. Artifacts from the X-Group and Christian periods (AD 370–1100) are of less distinguished metal quality, and lack features that define a distinct metallurgical style. Available evidence indicates that the Meroitic-period artifacts are products of the large-scale smelting of iron revealed by the furnace remains and massive slag piles found at Meroe, and represent a metallurgical tradition distinct from those of either sub-Saharan Africa or the Mediterranean basin. Martensite is absent in all of the artifacts. Steel was placed at the cutting edge of an Early Meroitic chisel.
______________________________________
History of science and technology in Africa
Science and technology in Africa has unfolded since the dawn of human history; the first evidence of tool use by our hominid ancestors is interred in valleys across Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, forty percent of African-born scientists live in OECD countries, predominantly NATO and EU countries. This has been described as an African brain drain.
Sub-Saharan African countries spent on average 0.3% of their GDP on S&T (Science and Technology) in 2007. This represents a combined increase from US$1.8bn in 2002 to US$2.8bn in 2007. North African countries spend a comparative 0.4% of GDP on research, an increase from US$2.6bn in 2002 to US$3.3bn in 2007. Exempting South Africa, the continent has augmented its collective science funding by about 50% in the last decade. Notably outstripping its neighbor states, South Africa spends 0.87% of GDP on science and technology research. Although technology parks have a long history in the US and Europe, their presence across Africa is still limited, as the continent currently lags behind other regions of the world in terms of funding technological development and innovation.Only six countries (Morocco, Egypt, Senegal, Madagascar, Tunisia and South Africa) have made technology park construction an integral piece of their development goals.
In recent years, a greater volume of African countries have embraced technology as a driver of development, e.g. Kenya's Vision 2030 and Rwanda's rapid ICT growth. Telecom innovation in particular has broadly improved quality of life across sub-Saharan Africa.Also, continent-wide membership in social networking sites such as Facebook and Tokea! has risen to over 100,000 by 2012.
Early humans As modern man first developed in the Great Rift Valley of Africa, the first development of tools is found there as well: Homo habilis, residing in East Africa, developed the first toolmaking industry, the Olduwan, around 2.3 million BCE. Homo ergaster developed the Acheulean stone tool industry, specifically hand-axes, in Africa, 1.5 million BCE. This tool industry spread to the Middle East and Europe around 800,000 to 600,000 BCE. Homo erectus begins using fire. Homo sapiens sapiens or modern man created bone tools and the back blade around 90,000 to 60,000 BCE, in Southern and East Africa. The use of bone tools and back blades became characteristic of later stone tool industries. The appearance of abstract art is during this period. The oldest abstract art in the world is a shell necklace dated 82,000 years in the Cave of Pigeons in Taforalt, eastern Morocco.The second oldest abstract art and the oldest rock art is found in the Blombos Cave at the cape in South Africa, dated 77,000 years.
Learning systems In 295 BC, the Library of Alexandria was founded in Egypt. It was considered the largest library in the classical world.
Al-Azhar University, founded in 970~972 as a madrasa, is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Sunni Islamic learning in the world. The oldest degree-granting university in Egypt after the Cairo University, its establishment date may be considered 1961 when non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.
Sahelian
Three philosophical schools in Mali existed during her golden age (12th–16th centuries) University of Sankore, Sidi Yahya University, and Djinguereber University. By the end of Mansa Musa's reign, the Sankoré University had been converted into a fully staffed University with the largest collections of books in Africa since the Library of Alexandria . The Sankoré University was capable of housing 25,000 students and had one of the largest libraries in the world with roughly 1000,000 manuscripts.
Timbuktu was a major center of book copying, religious groups, the sciences, and arts. Scholars and students came throughout world to study in its university. It attracted more foreign students than New York University.
Astronomy One of the world's oldest known archeoastronomical devices is located in the Nabta Playa basin. About 1000 years older than Stonehenge, the device may have been a prehistoric calendar which accurately marked the summer solstice.
Nile Valley Since the first modern measurements of the precise cardinal orientations of the pyramids by Flinders Petrie, various astronomical methods have been proposed for the original establishment of these orientations. It was recently proposed that this was done by observing the positions of two stars in the Plough / Big Dipper which was known to Egyptians as the thigh. It is thought that a vertical alignment between these two stars checked with a plumb bob was used to ascertain where North lay. The deviations from true North using this model reflect the accepted dates of construction.
Egyptians were the first to develop a 365 day, 12 month calendar. It was a stellar calendar, created by observing the stars. During the 12th century, the astrolabic quadrant is invented in Egypt.
Sahelian Based on the translation of 14 Timbuktu manuscripts, the following points can be made about Timbuktu astronomical science: 1. They made use of the Julian Calendar 2. Generally speaking, they had an helio-centric view of the solar system 3. Diagrams of planets and orbits made use of complex mathematical calculations 4. Developed algorithm that accurately orient Timbuktu to Mecca. 5. They recorded astronomical events, including a meteor shower in August 1583. During the golden age, It had a flourishing of astronomers including emperor and scientist Askia Mohammad I
Other African traditions Namoratunga a group of megaliths, dated 300 BCE, was used by Cushitic speaking people as an alignment with star systems tuned to a lunar calendar of 354 days. This discovery was made by B. N. Lynch and L. H. Robins of Michigan State University.
Great Zimbabwe could have been an astronomical observatory contends Richard Wade, of the Nkwe Ridge Observatory, South Africa after 30 years of researching the site. In southern Zimbabwe the shadow of the Moon appears between 0610 and 0620 near the site. Megaliths east of the Great Enclosure align with the Moon, the Sun, and stars during important astronomical events of the year. One Megaliths could be an eclipse predictor. The conical structure aligns with a supernova in the Vela, 700–800 years ago.
Three types of calendars can be found in Africa: 1. Lunar 2. Solar 3. Stellar. Most African calendar are a combination of the three.African Calendars: Akan Calendar, Egyptian calendar, Berber calendar, Ethiopian Calendar, Igbo calendar, Yoruba Calendar, Shona calendar, Swahili calendar, Xhosa calendar, Borana calendar, Luba calendar
Mathematics The Lebombo bone is the oldest known mathematical artifact. It dates from 35,000 BCE and consists of 29 distinct notches that were deliberately cut into a baboon's fibula.
The Ishango bone is a bone tool, dated to the Upper Paleolithic era, about 18,000 to 20,000 BCE. It is a dark brown length of bone, the fibula of a baboon, with a sharp piece of quartz affixed to one end, perhaps for engraving or writing. It was first thought to be a tally stick, as it has a series of tally marks carved in three columns running the length of the tool, but some scientists have suggested that the groupings of notches indicate a mathematical understanding that goes beyond counting. These are the function postulated about the Ishango bones: 1. A tool for multiplication, division, and simple mathematical calculation; 2. A six-month lunar calendar; 3. a construct of a woman, keeping track of her menstrual cycle;
In the book How Mathematics Happened: the First 50,000 Years, Peter Rudman argues that the development of the concept of prime numbers could only have come about after the concept of division, which he dates to after 10,000 BC, with prime numbers probably not being understood until about 500 BC. He also writes that "no attempt has been made to explain why a tally of something should exhibit multiples of two, prime numbers between 10 and 20, and some numbers that are almost multiples of 10." see History of mathematics
Nile Valley The earliest attested examples of mathematical calculations date to the predynastic Naqada period, and show a fully developed numeral system. The importance of mathematics to an educated Egyptian is suggested by a New Kingdom fictional letter in which the writer proposes a scholarly competition between himself and another scribe regarding everyday calculation tasks such as accounting of land, labor and grain. Texts such as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus and the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus show that the ancient Egyptians could perform the four basic mathematical operations—addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division—use fractions, compute the volumes of boxes and pyramids, and calculate the surface areas of rectangles, triangles, circles and even spheres.They understood basic concepts of algebra and geometry, and could solve simple sets of simultaneous equations.
Mathematical notation was decimal, and based on hieroglyphic signs for each power of ten up to one million. Each of these could be written as many times as necessary to add up to the desired number; so to write the number eighty or eight hundred, the symbol for ten or one hundred was written eight times respectively. Because their methods of calculation could not handle most fractions with a numerator greater than one, ancient Egyptian fractions had to be written as the sum of several fractions. For example, the fraction two-fifths was resolved into the sum of one-third + one-fifteenth; this was facilitated by standard tables of values. Some common fractions, however, were written with a special glyph; the equivalent of the modern two-thirds is shown on the right.
Ancient Egyptian mathematicians had a grasp of the principles underlying the Pythagorean theorem, knowing, for example, that a triangle had a right angle opposite the hypotenuse when its sides were in a 3–4–5 ratio. They were able to estimate the area of a circle by subtracting one-ninth from its diameter and squaring the result:
Area ≈ [(8⁄9)D]2 = (256⁄81)r2 ≈ 3.16r2,
a reasonable approximation of the formula πr2.
The golden ratio seems to be reflected in many Egyptian constructions, including the pyramids, but its use may have been an unintended consequence of the ancient Egyptian practice of combining the use of knotted ropes with an intuitive sense of proportion and harmony.
Based on engraved plans of Meroitic King Amanikhabali's pyramids, Nubians had a sophisticated understanding of mathematics and an appreciation of the harmonic ratio. The engraved plans is indicative of much to be revealed about Nubian mathematics.
Sahelian
All of the mathematical learning of the Islamic world during the medieval period was available and advanced by Timbuktu scholars: arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry.
Other African traditions
One of the major achievements found in Africa was the advance knowledge of fractal geometry and mathematics. The knowledge of fractal geometry can be found in a wide aspect of African life from art, social design structures, architecture, to games, trade, and divination systems.With the discovery of fractal mathematics in widespread use in Africa, Ron Eglash had this to say,
"We used to think of mathematics as a kind of ladder that you climb, and we would think of counting systems – one plus one equals two – as the first step and simple shapes as the second step. Recent mathematical developments like fractal geometry represented the top of the ladder in most Western thinking. But it's much more useful to think about the development of mathematics as a kind of branching structure and that what blossomed very late on European branches might have bloomed much earlier on the limbs of others. When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganized and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn't even discovered yet."
The binary numeral system was also widely known through africa before much of the world. It has been theorized that it could have influence western geomancy which would lead to the development of the digital computer.
Metallurgy
Most of Sub-Saharan Africa moved from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. The Iron Age and Bronze Age occurred simultaneously. North Africa and the Nile Valley imported its iron technology from the Near East and followed Near Eastern course of Bronze Age and Iron Age development.
Many Africanists accept an independent development of the use of iron in Sub-Saharan Africa. Among archaeologists, it is a debatable issue. The earliest dating of iron in Sub-Saharan Africa is 2500 BCE at Egaro, west of Termit, making it contemporary to the Middle East. The Egaro date is debatable with archaeologists, due to the method used to attain it. The Termit date of 1500 BCE is widely accepted. Iron use, in smelting and forging for tools, appears in West Africa by 1200 BCE, making it one of the first places for the birth of the Iron Age. Before the 19th century, African methods of extracting iron were employed in Brazil, until more advanced European methods were instituted.
In the Aïr Mountains region of Niger, copper smelting was independently developed between 3000 and 2500 BCE. The undeveloped nature of the process indicates that it was not of foreign origin. Smelting in the region became mature around 1500 BCE.
Nile Valley
Nubia was a major source of gold in the ancient world. Gold was a major source of Kushitic wealth and power. Gold was mined East of the Nile in Wadi Allaqi and Wadi Cabgaba.
Around 500 BCE, Nubia, in her Meroitic phase, became a major manufacturer and exporter of iron. This was after being expelled from Egypt by Assyrians, who used iron weapons.
The Aksumites produced coins around 270 CE, under the rule of King Endubis. Aksumite coins were issued in gold, silver, and bronze.
Sahelian
Africa was a major supplier of gold in world trade during the Medieval Age. The Sahelian empires became powerful by controlling the Trans-Saharan trade routes. They provided 2/3 of the gold in Europe and North Africa. The Almoravid dinar and the Fatimid dinar were printed on gold from the Sahelian empires. The ducat of Genoa and Venice and the florine of Florence were also printed on gold from the Sahelian empires. When gold sources were depleted in the Sahel, the empires turned to trade with the Ashante Kingdom.
The Swahili traders in East Africa, were major suppliers of gold to Asia in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean trade routes. The trading port cities and city-states of the Swahili East African coast were among the first African cities to come into contact with European explorers and sailors during the European Age of Discovery. Many were documented and praised in the recordings of North African explorer Abu Muhammad ibn Battuta.
Other African traditions
Besides being masters in iron, Africans were masters in brass and bronze. Ife produced lifelike statues in brass, an artistic tradition beginning in the 13th century. Benin mastered bronze during the 16th century, produced portraiture and reliefs in the metal using the lost wax process. Benin also was a manufacturer of glass, glass beads.
Anthropologist Peter Schmidt discovered through the communication of oral tradition that the Haya have been forging steel for nearly 2000 years. This discovery was made accidentally while Schmidt was learning about the history of the Haya via their oral tradition. He was led to a tree which was said to rest on the spot of an ancestral furnace used to forge steel. When later tasked with the challenge of recreating the forges, a group of elders who at this time were the only ones to remember the practice, due to the disuse of the practice due in part to the abundance of steel flowing into the country from foreign sources. In spite of their lack of practice, the elders were able to create a furnace using mud and grass which when burnt provided the carbon needed to transform the iron into steel. Later investigation of the area yielded 13 other furnaces similar in design to the recreation set up by the elders. These furnaces were carbon dated and were found to be as old as 2000 years, whereas steel of this caliber did not appear in Europe until several centuries later.
Two types of iron furnaces were used in Sub-Saharan Africa: the trench dug below ground and circular clay structures built above ground. Iron ores were crushed and placed in furnaces layered with the right proportion of hardwood. A flux such as lime sometimes from seashells was added to aid in smelting. Bellows on the side would be used to add oxygen. Clay pipes on the sides called tuyères would be used to control oxygen flow.
Medicine
Ancient Egyptian physicians were renowned in the ancient Near East for their healing skills, and some, like Imhotep, remained famous long after their deaths.Herodotus remarked that there was a high degree of specialization among Egyptian physicians, with some treating only the head or the stomach, while others were eye-doctors and dentists. Training of physicians took place at the Per Ankh or "House of Life" institution, most notably those headquartered in Per-Bastet during the New Kingdom and at Abydos and Saïs in the Late period. Medical papyri show empirical knowledge of anatomy, injuries, and practical treatments. Wounds were treated by bandaging with raw meat, white linen, sutures, nets, pads and swabs soaked with honey to prevent infection, while opium was used to relieve pain. Garlic and onions were used regularly to promote good health and were thought to relieve asthma symptoms. Ancient Egyptian surgeons stitched wounds, set broken bones, and amputated diseased limbs, but they recognized that some injuries were so serious that they could only make the patient comfortable until he died.
Around 800, the first psychiatric hospital and insane asylum in Egypt was built by Muslim physicians in Cairo.
Around 1100, the ventilator is invented in Egypt.
In 1285, the largest hospital of the Middle Ages and pre-modern era was built in Cairo, Egypt, by Sultan Qalaun al-Mansur. Treatment was given for free to patients of all backgrounds, regardless of gender, ethnicity or income.
Tetracycline was being used by Nubians, based on bone remains between 350 AD and 550 AD. The antibiotic was in wide commercial use only in the mid 20th century. The theory is earthen jars containing grain used for making beer contained the bacterium streptomycedes, which produced tetracycline. Although Nubians were not aware of tetracycline, they could have noticed people fared better by drinking beer. According to Charlie Bamforth, a professor of biochemistry and brewing science at the University of California, Davis, said "They must have consumed it because it was rather tastier than the grain from which it was derived. They would have noticed people fared better by consuming this product than they were just consuming the grain itself."
Sahelian
In Djenné the mosquito was identified to be the cause of malaria, and the removal of cataracts was a common surgical procedure.
The dangers of tobacco smoking were known to African Muslim scholars, based on Timbuktu manuscripts.
Other African traditions The knowledge of inoculating oneself against smallpox seems to have been known to West Africans, more specifically the Akan. A slave named Onesimus explained the inoculation procedure to Cotton Mather during the 18th century, he reported to have gotten the knowledge from Africa.
European travelers in the Great Lakes region of Africa (Uganda and Rwanda) during the 19th century observed Caeserean sections being performed on a regular basis. The expectant mother was normally anesthetized with banana wine, and herbal mixtures were used to encourage healing. From the well-developed nature of the procedures employed, European observers concluded that they had been employed for some time.
A South African, Max Theiler, developed a vaccine against Yellow Fever in 1937.
The first human-to-human heart transplant was performed by South African cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital in December 1967.
During the 1960s, South African Aaron Klug developed crystallographic electron microscopy techniques, in which a sequence of two-dimensional images of crystals taken from different angles are combined to produce three-dimensional images of the target.
South African, Allan McLeod Cormack developed the theoretical underpinnings of CT scanning and co-invented the CT-scanner.
Agriculture
Africa may have been the third region of independent cattle domestication and also the first. The first location of cattle domestication in Africa agreed upon is Capeletti, Algeria, about 6500 BP, but Bos cattle remains have been found in Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba as far back as 9000 BP, making it the first location of domestication. Scholars are divided as to independent and earliest domestication of cattle.
Between 13,000 and 11,0000 BCE wild grains began to be collected as source of food in the cataract region of the nile, south of Egypt. The collecting of wild grains as source of food spread to Syria, parts of Turkey and Iran by the eleventh millennium BCE. By the tenth and ninth millennia southwest Asians domesticated their wild grains, wheat and barley after the notion of collecting wild grains was spread from the nile.
The donkey was domesticated in the Red Sea Hill and the Horn of Africa in 4000 BCE and spread to southwest Asia.
Ethiopians, particularly the Oromo people, were the first to have discovered and recognized the energizing effect of the coffee bean plant.
Cotton(Gossypium herbaceum Linnaeus) was domesticated 5000 BCE in eastern Sudan near the Middle Nile Basin region, and cotton cloth was being produced.
Teff is believed to have originated in Ethiopia between 4000 and 1000 BCE. Genetic evidence points to E. pilosa as the most likely wild ancestor. Noog(Guizotia abyssinica) and ensete(E. ventricosum) are two other plants domesticated in Ethiopia.
Sahelian
Agriculture was developed independently in the Sahel.
The first instances of domestication of plants for agricultural purposes in Africa occurred in the Sahel region c. 5000 BCE, when sorghum and african rice (Oryza glaberrima) began to be cultivated. Around this time, and in the same region, the small Guineafowl was domesticated. Other African domesticated plants were oil palm, raffia palm, black-eyed peas, groundnuts, and kola nuts.
African method of cultivating rice was used in North Carolina introduced by enslaved African. african rice cultivation was a factor in the prosperity of the North Carolina colony.
Yam was domesticated 8000 BCE in West Africa. Between 7000 and 5000 BCE, pearl millet, gourds, watermelons, and beans, and farming and herding practices were spread westward across the southern Sahara.
West Africans were probably the first people to start using the method of fish lines and hook in fishing. The hooks were made of bone, hard wood, or shell between 16,000 to 9000 BCE.
Between 6500 and 3500 BCE knowledge of domesticated sorghum, castor beans, and two species of gourd spread from Africa to Asia, later pearl millet, black-eyed peas, watermellon and okra to the rest of the world.
Pottery was first made in the Sahel around 9000 to 8000 BCE, making it one of the earliest region of independent pottery development.
Other African tradition
Engaruka is a ruined settlement on the slopes of Mount Ngorongoro in northern Tanzania. Seven stone terraced villages along the mountainside comprised the settlement. A complex structure of stone channel irrigation was used to dike, dam, and level surrounding river waters. The stone channels run along the mountainside and base. Some of these channels were several kilometers long channelling and feeding individual plots of land. The irrigation channels fed a total area of 5,000 acres (20 km2).
Textile
Egyptians wore linen from the flax plant, which were beaten and combed. The priest and pharaohs wore leopard skin. The ancient Egyptians used looms as early as 4000 BCE.
Nubians mainly wore cotton, beaded leather, and linen. Nubia was also a center of cotton manufacturing. Cotton was domesticated 5000 BCE in eastern Sudan near the Middle Nile Basin region, and cotton cloth was being produced.
Shemma, shama, and kuta are all cotton base cloth used for making Ethiopian clothing.
Sahelian The textile of choice in the sahel is cotton. It is widely used in making the boubou (male) and kaftan (female), a style of West African clothing.
Bògòlanfini(mudcloth) is cotton textile dyed with fermented mud of tree sap and teas, hand made by the Bambara people of the Beledougou region of central Mali.
By the 12th century, so-called Moroccan leather, which actually came from the Hausa area of northern Nigeria, was supplied to Mediterranean markets and found their way to the fairs and markets of such places as Normandy and Britain.
Other African traditions
Other African indigenous textile traditions included djellaba, kente cloth, raffia cloth, barkcloth, kanga, kitenge, and lamba mpanjaka. The Djellaba was made typically of wool and worn in the Maghreb. Kente used silk from the Anaphe moth and was produced by the Akan people (Ashante, Fante, Enzema) in the countries of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Raffia cloth was the innovation of the Kuba people, present day Democratic Republic of Congo. It used the fibers of the leaves on the raffia palm tree. Barkcloth was used by the Baganda in Uganda from the Mutuba tree (Ficus natalensis). Kanga are Swahili cloth that comes in rectangular shapes, made of pure cotton, and put together to make clothing. It is as long as ones outstretch hand and wide to cover the length of ones neck. Kitenges are similar to kangas and kikoy, but are of a thicker cloth, and have an edging only on a long side. Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Sudan are some of the African countries where kitenge is worn. In Malawi, Namibia and Zambia, kitenge is known as Chitenge. Lamba Mpanjaka was cloth made of multicolored silk, worn like a toga on the island of Madagascar.
Camel hair was also used to make cloth in the Sahel and North Africa.
In Southern Africa one finds numerous use of animal hide and skins for clothing. The Ndau in central Mozambique and the Shona mixed hide with barkcloth, cotton cloth. Cotton weaving was practiced by the Ndau and Shona. Cotton cloth was referred to as machira. The Venda, Swazi, Basotho, Zulu, Ndebele, and Xhosa also made extensive use of hides. Hides came from cattle, sheep, goat, elephant, and from jangwa( part of the mongoose family). Leopard skins were coveted and was a symbol of kingship in Zulu society. Skins were tanned to form leather, dyed, and embedded with beads.
Three types of looms are used in Africa: the double heddle loom for narrow strips of cloth, the single heddle loom for wider spans of cloth, and the ground or pit loom. The double heddle loom and single heddle loom might be of indigenous origin. The ground or pit loom is used in the Horn of Africa, Madagascar, and North Africa and is of Middle Eastern origins.
Maritime
In 1987 the third oldest canoe in the world and the oldest in Africa was discovered in Nigeria by fulani herdsmen, near the Yobe river, in the village of Dufuna. It was dated 8000 years, cut out of African mahogany. Based on "stylistic sophistication", the tradition of canoe building must have gone further back in time, noted one archaeologist.
Egypt's earliest known boat goes back 5000 years. Early Egyptians knew how to assemble planks of wood into a ship hull as early as 3000 BC. The Archaeological Institute of America reports that the oldest ships yet unearthed, a group of 14 discovered in Abydos, were constructed of wooden planks which were "sewn" together. Discovered by Egyptologist David O'Connor of New York University. woven straps were found to have been used to lash the planks together, and reeds or grass stuffed between the planks helped to seal the seams. Because the ships are all buried together and near a mortuary belonging to Pharaoh Khasekhemwy, originally they were all thought to have belonged to him, but one of the 14 ships dates to 3000 BC, and the associated pottery jars buried with the vesse The ship dating to 3000 BC was 75 feet (23 m) long and is now thought to perhaps have belonged to an earlier pharaoh. Professor O'Connor, the 5,000-year-old ship may have even belonged to Pharaoh Aha.
Early Egyptians also knew how to assemble planks of wood with treenails to fasten them together, using pitch for caulking the seams. The "Khufu ship", a 43.6-meter vessel sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza in the Fourth Dynasty around 2500 BCE, is a full-size surviving example which may have fulfilled the symbolic function of a solar barque. Early Egyptians also knew how to fasten the planks of this ship together with mortise and tenon joints.
It is known that ancient Axum traded with India, and there is evidence that ships from Northeast Africa may have sailed back and forth between India/Sri Lanka and Nubia trading goods and even to Persia, Himyar and Rome.Aksum was known by the Greeks for having seaports for ships from Greece and Yemen. Elsewhere in Northeast Africa, the Periplus of the Red Sea reports that Somalis, through their northern ports such as Zeila and Berbera, were trading frankincense and other items with the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula well before the arrival of Islam as well as with then Roman-controlled Egypt.
Sahelian
In the 14th century CE King Abubakari II, the brother of King Mansa Musa of the Mali Empire is thought to have had a great armada of ships sitting on the coast of West Africa. This is corroborated by ibn Battuta himself who recalls several hundred Malian ships off the coast. The ships would communicate with each other by drums. This has led to great speculation, that Malian sailors may have reached the coast of Pre-Columbian America under the rule of Abubakari II, nearly two hundred years before Christopher Columbus.
Numerous sources attest that the inland waterways of West Africa saw extensive use of war-canoes and vessels used for war transport where permitted by the environment. Most West African canoes were of single log construction, carved and dug-out from one massive tree trunk. The primary method of propulsion was by paddle and in shallow water, poles. Sails were also used to a lesser extent, particularly on trading vessels. The silk cotton tree provided many of thesui most table logs for massive canoe building, and launching was via wooden rollers to the water. Boat building specialists were to emerge among certain tribes, particularly in the Niger Delta.
Some canoes were 80 feet (24 m) in length, carrying 100 men or more. Documents from 1506 for example, refer to war-canoes on the Sierra Leone river, carrying 120 men. Others refer to Guinea coast peoples using canoes of varying sizes – some 70 feet (21 m) in length, 7–8 ft broad, with sharp pointed ends, rowing benches on the side, and quarter decks or focastles build of reeds, and miscellaneous facilities such as cooking hearths, and storage spaces for crew sleeping mats.
Other African traditions
Carthage's fleet included large numbers of quadriremes and quinqueremes, warships with four and five ranks of rowers. Its ships dominated the Mediterranean. The Romans however were masters at copying and adapting the technology of other peoples. According to Polybius, the Romans seized a shipwrecked Carthaginian warship, and used it as a blueprint for a massive naval build-up, adding their own refinement – the corvus – which allowed an enemy vessel to be "gripped" and boarded for hand-to-hand fighting. This negated initially superior Carthaginian seamanship and ships.
Middle Age Swahili kingdoms are known to have had trade port islands and trade routes with the Islamic world and Asia and were described by Greek historians are "metropolises". Famous African trade ports such as Mombasa, Zanzibar, Mogadishu and Kilwa were known to Chinese sailors such as Zheng He and medieval Islamic historians such as the Berber Islamic voyager Abu Abdullah ibn Battuta. The dhow was the ship of trade used by the Swahili. They could be massive. It was a dhow that transported a giraffe to Chinese Emperor Yong Le's court, in 1414. Although the dhow is often associated with Arabs, it is of Indian roots.
Architecture
Nile Valley
The Egyptian step pyramid built at Saqqara is the oldest major stone building in the world.
The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years.
The earliest style of Nubian architecture included the speos, structures carved out of solid rock, an A-Group (3700–3250 BCE) achievement. Egyptians made extensive use of the process at Speos Artemidos and Abu Simbel.
Sudan, site of ancient Nubia, has more pyramids than anywhere in the world, even more than Egypt, a total of 223 pyramids exist.
Aksumites built in stone. Monolithic stelae on top of the graves of kings like King Ezana's Stele. Later, during the Zagwe Dynasty Churches carved out of solid rocks like Church of Saint George at Lalibela.
Sahelian
Tichit is the oldest surviving archaeological settlements in West Africa and the oldest all-stone settlement south of the Sahara. It is thought to have been built by Soninke people and is thought to be the precursor of the Ghana empire.
Adobe, mudbrick, and earth were the medium of West African and Sahelian architecture. Some notable structures are as follows:
The Great Mosque of Djenné is the largest mud brick or adobe building in the world and is considered by many architects to be the greatest achievement of the Sudano-Sahelian architectural style, albeit with definite Islamic influences.
The Walls of Benin City are collectively the world's largest man-made structure and were semi-destroyed by the British in 1897. Fred Pearce wrote in New scientist:
"They extend for some 16,000 kilometres in all, in a mosaic of more than 500 interconnected settlement boundaries. They cover 6500 square kilometres and were all dug by the Edo people. In all, they are four times longer than the Great Wall of China, and consumed a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Cheops. They took an estimated 150 million hours of digging to construct, and are perhaps the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet."
Sungbo's Eredo is the second largest pre-colonial monument in Africa, larger than the Great Pyramids or Great Zimbabwe. Built by the Yoruba people in honour of one of their titled personages, an aristocratic widow known as the Oloye Bilikisu Sungbo, it is made up of sprawling mud walls and the valleys that surrounded the town of Ijebu-Ode in Ogun state, Nigeria.
Other African traditions
One common theme in much traditional African architecture is the use of fractal scaling: small parts of the structure tend to look similar to larger parts, such as a circular village made of circular houses.[109]
Around 1000 AD, cob (tabya) first appears in the Maghreb and al-Andalus.
In Southern Africa one finds ancient and widespread traditions of building in stone. Two broad categories of these traditions have been noted: 1. Zimbabwean style 2. Transvaal Free State style. North of the Zambezi one finds very little stone ruins. Great Zimbabwe, Khami, Thulamela uses the Zimbabwean style. Tsotho/Tswana architecture represents the Transvaal Free State style. ||Khauxa!nas stone settlement in Namibia represents both traditions. The Kingdom of Mapungubwe (1075–1220) was a pre-colonial Southern African state located at the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers which marked the center of a pre-Shona kingdom which preceded the culmination of southeast African urban civilization in Great Zimbabwe.
Communication systems
Africa's first writing system and the beginning of the alphabet was Egyptian hieroglyphs. Two scripts have been the direct offspring of Egyptian hieroglyphs, the Proto-Sinaitic script and the Meroitic alphabet. Out of Proto-Sinaitic came the South Arabian alphabet and Phoenician alphabet, out of which the Aramaic alphabet, Greek alphabet, the Brāhmī script, Arabic alphabet were directly or indirectly derived.
Out of the South Arabian alphabet came the Ge'ez alphabet which is used to write Blin(cushitic), Amharic, Tigre, and Tigrinya in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Out the Phoenician Alphabet came tifinagh, the berber alphabet mainly used by the Tuaregs.
The other direct offspring of Egyptian hieroglyphs was the Meroitic alphabet. It began in the Napatan phase of Nubian history, Kush (700–300 BCE). It came into full fruition in the 2nd century, under the successor Nubian kingdom of Meroë. The script can be read but not understood, with the discovery at el-Hassa, Sudan of ram statues bearing meroitic inscriptions might assist in its translation.
Sahelian With the arrival of Islam, came the Arabic alphabet in the Sahel. Arabic writing is widespread in the Sahel. The Arabic script was also used to write native African languages called Ajami. The Ajami languages include Hausa, Mandinka, Fulani, Wolofal, Tamazight, Nubian, Yoruba, Songhai, and Kanuri. In East Africa Swahili and Somali were also written in Arabic script. So too was the Malagasy language in Madagascar.
N'Ko a script developed by Solomana Kante in 1949 as a writing system for the Mande languages of West Africa. It is used in Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, and actively used by the Bambara in Mali.
Other African Traditions
Nsibidi is ideographic set of symbols developed by the Ekpe people of Southeastern coastal Nigeria for communication. A complex implementation of Nsibidi is only known to initiates of Ekpe secret society.
Adinkra is a set of symbols developed by the Akan(Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire), used to represent concepts and aphorisms.
Vai is syllabic script invented by Mɔmɔlu Duwalu Bukɛlɛ in Liberia during the 1830s.
Niger-Congo Languages are tonal in nature. Talking drums exploit the tonal aspect of Niger-Congo languages to convey very complicated messages. Talking drums can send messages 15 to 25 miles (40 km). Bulu, a bantu language, can be drummed as well as spoken. In a Bulu village, each individual had a unique drum signature. A message could be sent to an individual by drumming his drum signature. It has been noted that a message can be sent 100 miles (160 km) from village to village within two hours or less using a talking drum.
Griots are repositories of African history, especially in African societies with no written language. Griots can recite genealogies going back centuries. They recite epics that reveal historical occurrences and events. Griots can go for hours and even days reciting the histories and genealogies of societies. They have been described as living history books.
Adamorobe Sign Language is an indigenous sign language developed in the Adamorobe Akan village in Eastern Ghana. The village has a high incident of genetic deafness.
Warfare
Ancient Egyptian weaponry include bows and arrow, maces, clubs, swords, scimitars, battle axe, spears, shields, and scabbard. Body armor was made of bands of leathers and sometimes laid with scales and sleeves. Horse drawn chariots were used to deliver archers into the battle field. Weapons would be made initially with stone, wood, and copper, later bronze, and later iron.
In 1260, the first portable hand cannons (midfa) loaded with explosive gunpowder, the first example of a handgun and portable firearm, were used by the Egyptians to repel the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut. The cannons had an explosive gunpowder composition almost identical to the ideal compositions for modern explosive gunpowder. They were also the first to use dissolved talc for fire protection, and they wore fireproof clothing, to which Gunpowder cartridges were attached.
Aksumite weapons were mainly made of iron: iron spears, iron swords, and iron knives called poniards. Shields were made of buffalo hide. In the latter part of the 19th century, Ethiopia made a concerted effort to modernize her army. She acquired repeating rifles, artillery, and machine guns. This modernization facilitated the Ethiopian victory over the Italians at the Tigray town of Adwa in the 1896 Battle of Adwa. Ethiopia was one of the few African countries to use artillery in colonial wars.
Sahelian
The Sahelian military consisted of cavalry and infantry. Cavalry consisted of shielded, mounted soldiers. Body armor was chain mail or heavy quilted cotton. Helmets were made of leather, elephant, or hippo hide. Imported horses were shielded. Horse armor consisted of quilted cotton packed with kapok fiber and copper face plate. The stirrups could be used as weapon to disembowel enemy infantry or mounted soldiers at close range. Weapons included the sword, lance, battle-axe, and broad-bladed spear.The infantry were armed with bow and iron tipped arrows. Iron tips were usually laced with poison, from the West African plant Strophantus hispidus. Quivers of 40–50 arrows would be carried into battle. Later, muskets were introduced.
Other African traditions
The first use of cannons as siege machine at the siege of Sijilmasa in 1274, according to 14th-century historian Ibn Khaldun.
Most of tropical Africa did not have a cavalry. Horses would be wiped out by tse-tse fly. The zebra was never domesticated. The army of tropical Africa consisted of mainly infantry. Weapons included bows and arrows with low bow strength that compensated with poison tipped arrows. Throwing knives were made use of in central Africa, spears that could double as thrusting cutting weapons, and swords were also in use. Heavy clubs when thrown could break bones,battle axe, and shields of various sizes were in widespread use. Later guns, muskets such as flintlock, wheelock, and matchlock. Against popular perception guns were in widespread use in Africa. They typically were of poor quality, a policy of European nations to provide poor quality merchandise. One reason the slave trade was so successful was the widespread use of guns in Africa.
Fortification was a major part of defense, integral to warfare. Massive earthworks were built around cities and settlements in West Africa, typically defended by soldiers with bow and poison tipped arrows. The earthworks are some of the largest man made structures in Africa and the world such as the wall of Benin and Sungbo's Eredo. In Central Africa, the Angola region, one find preference for ditches, which were more successful for defense against wars with Europeans.
African infantry did not just include men. The state of Dahomey included all female units, who were personal body guards of the king. The Queen Mother of Benin had her own personal army,'Queens Own'.
Battle of Isandhlawana, Zulu army defeats British invading troops, on 22 January 1879.
Commerce Ancient Egypt imported ivory, gold, incense, hardwood, and ostrich feather.
Aksum exported ivory, glass crystal, brass, copper, myrrh, and frinkincense. She imported silver, gold, olive oil, and wine. The Aksumites produced coins around 270 CE, under the rule of king Endubis. Aksumite coins were issued in gold, silver, and bronze.
Sahelian
The Ghana Empire, Mali Empire, and Songhay Empire were major exporters of gold, iron, tin, slaves, spears, javelin, arrows, bows, whips of hippo hide. They imported salt, horses, wheat, raisins, cowries, dates, copper, henna, olives, tanned hides, silk, cloth, brocade, Venetian pearls, mirrors, and tobacco.
Some of the currencies used in the Sahel are as follows: 1. Paper debt or IOU's were used for long distance trade. 2. Gold coins were also in use. 3. The mitkal(gold dust) currency was in use. It was gold dust that weighed 4.6 grams equivalent to 500 or 3,000 cowries. 4. Square cloth, four spans on each side, called chigguiya was used around the Senegal River.
In Kanem cloth was the major currency. A cloth currency called dandi was in widespread use.
Other African traditions Carthage imported gold, copper, ivory, and slaves from tropical Africa. Carthage exported salt, cloth, metal goods. Before camels were used in the trans-Saharan trade pack animals, oxen, donkeys, mules, and horses were utilized. Extensive use of camels began in the 1st century CE. Carthage minted gold, silver, bronze, and electrum(mix gold and silver) coins mainly for fighting wars with Greeks and Romans. Most of their fighting force were mercenaries, who had to be paid.
Islamic North Africa made use of the Almoravid dinar and Fatimid dinar, gold coins. The Almoravid dinar and the Fatimid dinar were printed on gold from the Sahelian empires. The ducat of Genoa and Venice and the florine of Florence were also printed on gold from the Sahelian empires.
The Swahilis served as middlemen. They connected African goods to Asian markets and Asian goods to African markets. Their most in demand export was Ivory. They exported ambergris, gold, leopard skins, slave, and tortoise shell. They imported from Asia oriental pottery and glassware. They also manufactured items such as cotton, glass and shell beads. Imports and locally manufactured goods were used as trade to acquire African goods. Trade links included the Arabian Peninsula, Persia, India, and China. The Swahili also minted silver and copper coins.
Numerous metal objects and other items were used as currency in Africa. They are as follows: cowrie shells, salt, gold(dust or solid), copper, ingots, iron chains, tips of iron spears, iron knives, cloth in various shapes(square, rolled)etc. Copper was as valuable as gold in Africa. Copper was not as widespread and more difficult to acquire, except in Central Africa, than gold. Other valuable metals included lead and tin. Salt was also as valuable as gold. Because of its scarcity, it was used as currency.
Cowries have been used as currency in West Africa since the 11th century when their use was first recorded near Old Ghana. Its use may have been much older. Sijilmasa in present day Morocco seems to be a major source of cowries in the trans-Saharan trade. In western Africa, shell money was usual tender up until the middle of the 19th century. Before the abolition of the slave trade there were large shipments of cowry shells to some of the English ports for reshipment to the slave coast. It was also common in West Central Africa as the currency of the Kingdom of Kongo called locally nzimbu. As the value of the cowry was much greater in West Africa than in the regions from which the supply was obtained, the trade was extremely lucrative. In some cases the gains are said to have been 500%. The use of the cowry currency gradually spread inland in Africa. By about 1850 Heinrich Barth found it fairly widespread in Kano, Kuka, Gando, and even Timbuktu. Barth relates that in Muniyoma, one of the ancient divisions of Bornu, the king's revenue was estimated at 30,000,000 shells, with every adult male being required to pay annually 1000 shells for himself, 1000 for every pack-ox, and 2000 for every slave in his possession. In the countries on the coast, the shells were fastened together in strings of 40 or 100 each, so that fifty or twenty strings represented a dollar; but in the interior they were laboriously counted one by one, or, if the trader were expert, five by five. The districts mentioned above received their supply of kurdi, as they were called, from the west coast; but the regions to the north of Unyamwezi, where they were in use under the name of simbi, were dependent on Muslem traders from Zanzibar. The shells were used in the remoter parts of Africa until the early 20th century, but gave way to modern currencies. The shell of the land snail, Achatina monetaria, cut into circles with an open center was also used as coin in Benguella, Portuguese West Africa.
Miscellaneous
Nile Valley
Around 650 Calid, an Umayyad prince, translated the literature of Egyptian alchemy into the Arabic language.[citation needed]
In 953, the earliest historical record of a reservoir pen dates back to 953, when Ma'ad al-Mu'izz, the caliph of Egypt, demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes, and was provided with a pen which held ink in a reservoir and delivered it to the nib, as recorded by Qadi al-Nu'man al-Tamimi (d. 974) in his Kitdb al-Majalis wa'l-musayardt.
Ahmed Zewail, in 1999 won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work in femtochemistry, methods that allow the description of change states in femtoseconds or very short seconds.
Sahelian
Other African traditions
African art was highly influential on the Modernist art movement. African art was very influential on the works of Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Jacques Lipchitz. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has a rocketry program called Troposphere.
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G. Ochała, Chronological Systems of Christian Nubia
It has long been known that Christian Nubia used several dating methods, yet only one of them, the lunar calendar, drew scholars’ more detailed attention. The present book is the first comprehensive analysis of all attestations of counting time in medieval Nubia known to date. It discusses nine different aspects of keeping track of time, divided into two parts: ‘Annual dating methods’ and ‘Calendars’. The author on the one hand concentrates on indicating possible directions of influence that governed the use of particular dating methods in Nubia and on the other tries to prove the Nubians’ own inventiveness in this field. Each chapter is supplied with a set of tables and maps faciliating the comprehension of the collected material. The book should be used together with an on-line resource for textual sources from Christian Nubia, ‘The Database of Medieval Nubian Texts’, to be launched in October/November 2011 at http://www.dbmnt.uw.edu.pl/
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^^ Fartheadbonkers rebuttal: All of these achievements you listed are not the work of true kneegrows but that of cockasians or cockasian admixed blacks! whaaa! whaa!
But on a serious note. I read that Africans were the ones who actually invented the procedure of vaccinations many centuries before Edward Jenner. The practice was used by shamans who believed that while diseases were caused by diseases of the blood, certain people who recovered from the illness or who were unaffected could confer protection to others. The shamans would use special needles to transfer this immunity.
Posts: 26307 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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Inspired by George Ayittey's book 'Africa Unchained'.
MSNBC reports:
While the modern age of antibiotics began in 1928 with the discovery of penicillin, the new findings suggest that people knew how to fight infections much earlier than that — even if they didn't actually know what bacteria were. Some of the first people to use antibiotics, according to the research, may have lived along the shores of the Nile in Sudanese Nubia, which spans the border of modern Egypt and Sudan. "Given the amount of tetracycline there, they had to know what they were doing," said lead author George Armelagos, a biological anthropologist at Emory University in Atlanta. "They may not have known what tetracycline was, but they certainly knew something was making them feel better."
Ancient Nubians drank beer laced with antibiotics Tetracycline found in bones of 2,000-year-old mummies
Image: Tetracycline residue Emory The yellow film in the laboratory flask represents tetracycline residue extracted from dissolved bones. Scientists say the analysis shows that ancient Nubians regularly consumed tetracycline, most likely in their beer. By Emily Sohn updated 9/3/2010 12:36:02 PM ET 2010-09-03T16:36:02
People have been using antibiotics for nearly 2,000 years, suggests a new study, which found large doses of tetracycline embedded in the bones of ancient African mummies.
What's more, they probably got it through beer, and just about everyone appears to have drank it consistently throughout their lifetimes, beginning early in childhood.
While the modern age of antibiotics began in 1928 with the discovery of penicillin, the new findings suggest that people knew how to fight infections much earlier than that — even if they didn't actually know what bacteria were.
Some of the first people to use antibiotics, according to the research, may have lived along the shores of the Nile in Sudanese Nubia, which spans the border of modern Egypt and Sudan.
"Given the amount of tetracycline there, they had to know what they were doing," said lead author George Armelagos, a biological anthropologist at Emory University in Atlanta. "They may not have known what tetracycline was, but they certainly knew something was making them feel better."
Armelagos was part of a group of anthropologists that excavated the mummies in 1963. His original goal was to study osteoporosis in the Nubians, who lived between about 350 and 550 A.D. But while looking through a microscope at samples of the ancient bone under ultraviolet light, he saw what looked like tetracycline — an antibiotic that was not officially patented in modern times until 1950.
At first, he assumed that some kind of contamination had occurred.
"Imagine if you're unwrapping a mummy, and all of a sudden, you see a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses on it," Armelagos said. "Initially, we thought it was a product of modern technology."
His team's first report about the finding, bolstered by even more evidence and published in Science in 1980, was met with lots of skepticism. For the new study, he got help dissolving bone samples and extracting tetracycline from them, clearly showing that the antibiotic was deposited into and embedded within the bone, not a result of contamination from the environment.
The analyses also showed that ancient Nubians were consuming large doses of tetracycline -- more than is commonly prescribed today as a daily dose for controlling infections from bad acne. The team reported their results in theAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology.
They were also able to trace the antibiotic to its source: Grain that was contaminated with a type of mold-like bacteria called Streptomyces. Common in soil, Strep bacteria produce tetracycline antibiotics to kill off other, competing bacteria.
Grains that are stored underground can easily become moldy with Streptomyces contamination, though these bacteria would only produce small amounts of tetracycline on their own when left to sit or baked into bread. Only when people fermented the grain would tetracycline production explode. Nubians both ate the fermented grains as gruel and used it to make beer.
The scientists are working now to figure out exactly how much tetracycline Nubians were getting, but it appears that doses were high that consumption was consistent, and that drinking started early. Analyses of the bones showed that babies got some tetracycline through their mother's milk.
Then, between ages two and six, there was a big spike in antibiotics deposited in the bone, Armelagos said, suggesting that fermented grains were used as a weaning food.
Today, most beer is pasteurized to kill Strep and other bacteria, so there should be no antibiotics in the ale you order at a bar, said Dennis Vangerven, an anthropologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
But Armelagos has challenged his students to home-brew beer like the Nubians did, including the addition of Strep bacteria. The resulting brew contains tetracycline, tastes sour but drinkable, and gives off a greenish hue.
There's still a possibility that ancient antibiotic use was an accident that the Nubians never knew about, though Armelagos has also found tetracycline in the bones of another population that lived in Jordan. And VanGerven has found the antibiotic in a group that lived further south in Egypt during the same period.
Finding tetracycline in these mummies, said VanGerven, was "surprising and unexpected. And at the very least, it gives us a very different time frame in which to understand the dynamic interaction between the bacterial world and the world of antibiotics."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38990966/ _______________________ Ancient Nubians, Antibiotics and Beer You may have heard that among the many talents of ancient peoples was the art of brewing beer. What you might not know is that an ancient Nubian brew appears to have the ability to fight off bacterial infections. That's right, antibiotics in beer.
Courtesy of Meganhassler
Bioanthropologist George Armelagos made his way to this discovery by first noting the presence of the antibiotic tetracycline in Nubian skeletons from 350-550 A.D. Collaboration with the medical chemist Mark Nelson led to the conclusion that tetracycline was not merely present in Nubian bones, but their bones were chock-full of tetracycline.
Tetracycline is produced by bacteria in the Streptomyces genus. It is an antibiotic, which means that Streptomyces produces it for defense from its more pathogenic compatriots. Antibiotics in humans have the same role as they're used to kill pathogenic bacteria. About two-thirds of the naturally-derived antibiotics used in medicine today come from Streptomyces, including tetracycline which is currently used as a treatment for skin, genitial, urinary and digestive infections. Assumedly it would have prevented against similar infections in ancient times.
Armelagos and his colleagues traced the high presence of tetracycline in Nubian bones back to their practice of drinking beer. Streptomyces primarily grows in soil so it is possible that the grain they used eat and brew beer had accidental colonies on it, which carried into the finished product. However, accidental contamination of bread or beer with Streptomyces would not produce the high levels they found in the skeletons; Armelagos and company inferred that Nubians consciously added Streptomyces colonies to their beer.
(As an interesting side-note, the antibiotic properties of Streptomycetes are still being investigated as we did a lab on them in Microbiology here at Allegheny)
Conscious addition implies that Nubians recognized the benefits of tetracycline and capitalized on them. This recognition would require some solid ancient science but it could be helped along by the fact that many strands of Streptomyces form golden colonies, a color and substance that was (and still is) much adored. In fact when tetracycline was discovered in the US in 1948 it was named "auereomycin", where the word aerous is Latin for 'containing gold'. Ancient Nubians may have seen golden colonies, associated them with good fortune and added them to their beer (which at this time was a thick, nutritious drink that all ages enjoyed). When stomach pain and other aliments decreased after drinking beer supplemented with these golden colonies, the colonies would have been considered miraculous and their addition would have become standard.
Every time I learn more about ancient peoples I am more impressed. To think, people 1500 years before us used antibiotics in nearly the same way we do now- it's remarkable! Ancient Nubians may deserve a footnote on all of those pages of thanks to Alexander Fleming.
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The Lost Civilizations That Pioneered Skull Surgery
People have been punching holes in each other's skulls, for medicinal purposes or magic, since at least the middle part of the Stone Age. Now, researchers have found what may be the first evidence this complex surgical operation took place in the lost civilizations in the Sahara and Nubia, too.
The surgical procedure known as trepanation is arguably the oldest known medical operation in history, with the earliest known evidence for it found dating to about 12,000 BC in Morocco. A portion of the skull was removed for therapy or thaumaturgy — for instance, to reduce pressure within the skull, or to release evil spirits.
Scientists now reveal the Garamantians — a lost civilization in what is now southwest Libya — apparently practiced trepanation, the first time the operation has been seen in the Sahara. The Garamantians, named after their capital, Garama, flourished in the harsh central Sahara for nearly 1,500 years between 1,000 BC and 700 AD. They introduced key innovations to the region, including cities, irrigated farming, trade across the Sahara and a hierarchical, probably slave-owning society.
Archaeologists digging near Garama found three male skulls with signs of trepanning, dating from approximately 1 to 700 AD. The regular shape of all these holes suggests they were made intentionally, as do scrape marks seen in certain cases. The location of most of these marks on the left side suggest they might have been caused as the result of violence with right-handed opponents.
All these patients appeared to have survived the surgery, given the presence of newly formed bone in these holes. This suggests the Garamantians had "knowledge of complex surgical procedures," researchers said in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.
Archaeologists have also discovered trepanation in the ancient Nubian kingdom of Kerma. The ancient Nubians have long been thought of as rivals to the more prominent Egyptians who lay to the north of their ever changing borders. The close proximity and interaction of these two civilizations have led to the notion that Nubians copied the traditions of the ancient Egyptians, but this new find suggests the Nubians may have surpassed the Egyptians in some areas of technology and medicine.
The Kerma civilization, which dated between 2,500 and 1,500 BC, was located in what is considered to be the most fertile area along the Nile River south of Thebes. It served as the major middleman for trade between Nubian lands and the Egyptian empire.
One skull from Kerma, probably dating to between 1750 and 1550 BC, had a dime-sized circular hole with clear evidence of healing along its inside edge, the first confirmed Nubian case of trepanation to date. Similar holes have been seen on pyramids from the Egyptian Old Kingdom, suggesting a drill was used here, of the kind to hollow out stone sarcophagi.
"If this is true, it would mean that the Nubians had taken an architectural tool, which was probably introduced to them by the Egyptians years before, and adapted it for a much more sophisticated purpose. This would then imply extremely innovative capabilities and an outstanding intellect on the part of the Nubians," the researchers wrote in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.
Image: D. C. Martin, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.
Note- Civilizations in both libya and nubia are not lost,the basic cultures still existed today,but the were changes over time like anywhere else.
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That's why I keep posting regardless of immediate or lack of response,once posted information can be retrieved and be updated by others doing their own quest for knowledge years later..lov that about the internet.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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quote:Originally edited by Djehuti: ^^ Fartheadbonkers rebuttal: All of these achievements you listed are not the work of true kneegrows but that of cockasians or cockasian admixed blacks! whaaa! whaa!
But on a serious note. I read that Africans were the ones who actually invented the procedure of vaccinations many centuries before Edward Jenner. The practice was used by shamans who believed that while diseases were caused by *demons* (evil spirits) of the body, certain people who recovered from the illness or who were unaffected could confer protection to others. The shamans would use special needles to transfer this immunity.
Posts: 26307 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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