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Author Topic: Sahelian Supergrain Found in Ancient Egyptian Burials & West Africa
Yatunde Lisa Bey
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FONIO Digitaria exilis

History and location
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Then again, the "next quinoa" might just be fonio, a hardy cereal that's been grown for thousands of years in West Africa. Yet the translucent, gluten-free grain—which has been found in ancient Egyptian tombs and is considered "the seed of the universe" in Mali's mythology—can survive drought and needs no fertilizers. Fonio has been grown for over 7,000 years and is possibly the oldest cultivated cereal in Africa. Fonio has been found entombed in Egyptian pyramids


Since ancient Egypt the fonio was appreciated and used for the ritual divinatory. Africans cultivated and preserved it particularly in arid savannas of the sahel. This cereal is one of most usually cultivated from Cap Verde to the Lake Chad. In certain areas of Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Senegal and Nigeria, it remains an integral part of people’s diet. Some fonio varieties reach maturity quickly - from 6 to 8 weeks; they can therefore be consumed before the maturation of other cereals cultivated in the Sahel.


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A History of Atmospheric CO2 and Its Effects on Plants, Animals, and Ecosystems

https://books.google.com/books?id=q7O7tycPzBgC&pg=PA305&lpg=PA305&dq=fonio+egypt&source=bl&ots=3J2WsmXKCO&sig=ouJFWXx0FopIe18Q79XgzQhenWs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi6y8jotOrZAhWOzlkKHf DpBHo4ChDoAQhRMAg#v=onepage&q=fonio%20egypt&f=false

http://www.fonio-bio.com/english%20version/fonio.html

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Ish Geber
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Nice post. This may refer to the "MAA".
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Yatunde Lisa Bey
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quote:
Originally posted by Ish Gebor:
Nice post. This may refer to the Maafa.

Maafa? Do you mean Manna?

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According to the book of Exodus, manna is like a coriander seed in size but which is white (this is explained by ancient commentaries as a comparison to the round shape of the coriander seed

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Wow never thought of that but it fits the description. White fonio, D. exilis, also called "hungry rice,"



The Gathering of the Manna

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harvesting of Fonio in Senegal

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mmm.... Black Hebrew Israelites?

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Ish Geber
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^ I meant to say MAA, A uniform pan-African confederation, linking sub-Sahara and the North of Africa, as well as East Africa. Going back thousands of years, prior to the Mesolithic expansion.

"Maa Civilization"(Confederation) a term coined by Bernd Heine in 1982

http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=009196;p=1#000000

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Yatunde Lisa Bey
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quote:
Originally posted by Ish Gebor:
^ I meant to say MAA, A uniform pan-African confederation, linking sub-Sahara and the North of Africa, as well as East Africa. Going back thousands, prior to the Mesolithic expansion.

"Maa Civilization"(Confederation) a term coined by Bernd Heine in 1982

http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=009196;p=1#000000

lol, yes that is what I was thought when I came across this grain.

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Tukuler
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Oh don't give my fonyo away. This cereal
is far west 7k savannah in origin and is
still only grown there. Mafa (stew) is
served over fonyo. Some spell it maafe.

THE Maafa is a kiSwahili word adopted by
Blacks in the Struggle as the name for the
forced transAtlantic passage of Africans.

Afrikans use of the Maafa is like
Ashkenazi use of Sho'ah (incorrectly
translated as holocaust). Both terms
translate to 'a great tragedy'.

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capra
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was it actually found in ancient Egypt or is that just some marketing bullshit?
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Tukuler
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Precisely!

Unless somebody can put a detailed source
our fonyo remains a local savannah W Afr
food crop and agricultural discovery. It
shows the so-called one time only 'SWA'
Neolithic Agricultural Revolution is a
piece of Eurocentricism.

[Eurocentric simply means perception via
Euro standards, norms, and mores. It doesn't
mean assigning Euro origins to whatever. It
includes using Semitic speakers in particular
or Eurasians in general as substitutes for
Europeans.]


]

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I'm just another point of view. What's yours? Unpublished work © 2004 - 2023 YYT al~Takruri
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Ish Geber
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quote:
History of Science in Non-Western Traditions: Africa

Introduction

The history of the sciences in Africa is rich and diverse. In ancient northeast Africa, those regions such as Egypt, Nubia and Aksum that had evolved large, complex state systems, also supported a division of labor which allowed for the growth of science and the more practical technologies involved with the engineering of public works. In other parts of Africa, in the various city states, kingdoms, and empires that dominated the political landscape, science and technology also developed in various ways. The applied sciences of agronomy, metallurgy, engineering and textile production, as well as medicine, dominated the field of activity across Africa. So advanced was the culture of farming within West Africa, that ‘New World‘ agricultural growth was spawned by the use of captives from these African societies that had already made enormous strides in the field of agronomy. In her work Black Rice, Judith Carnoy demonstrates the legacy of enslaved Africans to the Americas in the sphere of rice cultivation. We know also that a variety of African plants were adopted in Asia, including coffee, the oil palm, fonio or acha (digitaria exilis), African rice (oryza glabberima), and sorghum (sorghum bicolor). Plants, whether in terms of legumes, grain, vegetables, tubers, or, wild or cultivated fruits, also had medicinal implications for Africans and were used as anesthetics or pain killers, analgesics for the control of fever, antidotes to counter poisons, and anthelmints aimed at deworming. They were used also in cardiovascular, gastro-intestinal, and dermatological contexts. Some of these such as hoodia gordonii and combrettum caffrum are being integrated within contemporary pharmaceutical systems.

[…]


https://hssonline.org/resources/teaching/teaching_nonwestern/teaching_nonwestern_africa/
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Ish Geber
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quote:
The best-studied areas with detailed archaeological sequences and ample data on plant and animal exploitation are the eastern Sahara and southwestern Libya. The eastern Sahara was repopulated when the monsoon rains suddenly resumed around 8500 bce. One of the earliest signs of reoccupation comes from the Egyptian Great Sand Sea, which is today one of the most arid and barren areas of the Sahara.15 Exploited plants of the archaeological site of Nabta Playa display a high diversity and include Paniceae grasses, wild sorghum, various small seeded plants, tree fruits, and (though rarely found) tuber plants such as water lily (Nymphaea) and cattail (Typha).16
—Katharina Neumann

Development of Plant Food Production in the West African Savannas: Archaeobotanical Perspectives


Subject: Archaeology, Economic History, West Africa Online Publication Date: Jan 2018 DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.138

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History


http://africanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-138

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the lioness,
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 -

Fonio is a smaller grained variety of millet

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Ish Geber
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quote:
Originally posted by Tukuler:
Precisely!

Unless somebody can put a detailed source
our fonyo remains a local savannah W Afr
food crop and agricultural discovery. It
shows the so-called one time only 'SWA'
Neolithic Agricultural Revolution is a
piece of Eurocentricism.

[Eurocentric simply means perception via
Euro standards, norms, and mores. It doesn't
mean assigning Euro origins to whatever. It
includes using Semitic speakers in particular
or Eurasians in general as substitutes for
Europeans.]



Millets and Their Role in Early Agriculture


Steven A. Weber1 & Dorian Q Fuller2
1. Department of Anthropology, University of Washington at Vancouver,
Vancouver, Washington, U.S.A.
2. Institute of Archaeology, University College London,
London WC1H 0PY, U. K.

http://anthro.vancouver.wsu.edu/media/PDF/Millets.pdf

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Tukuler
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@ Ish
Gimme a quote to work on.

@ Board
There're four indigenous W Afr
grasses grains cereal crops.

• Fonyo
• Pearl millet
• Sorghum
• African rice/orzo

Each is its own separate species.

I was introduced to West African indigenous
agriculture invention in 1984 but sure would
like to know more. W Afr responsibly gave the
world one legume, six tubers/root crops, one
leaf/stalk vegetable, four vine/ground fruits,
two tree fruits, two condiments/indulgents, two
textile plants, and three oil plants.

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Authentic Africana over race-serving ethnocentricisms, Afro, Euro, or whatever.

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Ish Geber
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quote:
Originally posted by capra:
was it actually found in ancient Egypt or is that just some marketing bullshit?

Ph.D James R. Ehleringer
University of Utah | UOU · Department of Biology

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/James_Ehleringer


Ph.D Thure Cerling
Chair Department of Geology and Geophysics
Distinguished Professor, Biology
Distinguished Professor, Geology & Geophysics

https://faculty.utah.edu/u0029442-THURE_E_CERLING/research/index.hml

M. Denise Dearing
Chair and Distinguished Professor
Ph.D. University of Utah

https://www.biology.utah.edu/people/details.php?id=90


Authors: James R. Ehleringer, Thure Cerling, M. Denise Dearing

A History of Atmospheric CO2 and Its Effects on Plants, Animals, and Ecosystems

https://books.google.com/books?id=q7O7tycPzBgC&pg=PA305&lpg=PA305&dq=fonio+egypt&source=bl&ots=3J2WsmXKCO&sig=ouJFWXx0FopIe18Q79XgzQhenWs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi6y8jotOrZAhWOzlkKHf DpBHo4ChDoAQhRMAg#v=onepage&q=fonio%20egypt&f=false

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capra
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Ish, why are you linking me to a book which doesn't say anything about fonio in ancient Egypt?

an extensive up-to-date review of West African prehistoric agriculture is here:
http://africanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-138


PS Tukuler - sorghum is looking to be Sudanese last i heard, taking off relatively late in West Africa.

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Yatunde Lisa Bey
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quote:
Originally posted by capra:
Ish, why are you linking me to a book which doesn't say anything about fonio in ancient Egypt?

an extensive up-to-date review of West African prehistoric agriculture is here:
http://africanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-138

PS Tukuler - sorghum is looking to be Sudanese last i heard, taking off relatively late in West Africa.

Digitara was found in Nabta Playa 9000BP

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capra
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Digitaria is a very common and widespread genus of grasses containing hundreds of species and found across the world.
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Tukuler
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@ Yatunde Lisa
There are many crabgrasses.
Which Digitaria was it?


@ Capra
I hate doing rapid fire replies.
I prefer taking time to research
and analyze but the Wiki has the
below. People can post and say
anything so you gotta gimme
something more substantial
than hearsay.

But Sudanese can be ambiguous.
When does it mean Sudani?
When does it mean 'the western sudan'?
When does it mean the entire swath of
Sahel and Savannah from Atlantic to Nile?



Did you know: Grain Sorghum is one of the oldest known grains originating in Africa and India. ksgrainsorghum.org


Wiki is just a jumping point useful for those
who already have some background to weed out
garbage and can follow references. Will see
what's out there unless you source Sorghum
vulgare pread from west to east.


outgarbage

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I'm just another point of view. What's yours? Unpublished work © 2004 - 2023 YYT al~Takruri
Authentic Africana over race-serving ethnocentricisms, Afro, Euro, or whatever.

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capra
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Tukuler: see the paper i posted the link to.

ah sorry i meant the modern country Sudan not the Sudan. the paper was on this forum a little while ago - the earliest domestication evidence so far from Kassala region.

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Tukuler
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Can you jist gimme a quote
and clarify your use of sudanese.


Ok I see your edit now. You mean Sudan
as in the nation north of South Sudan.

And thanks for the quote in your post below.
Same source suggests earlier cultivation
quote:
... domesticated chaff remains in pottery 2nd millennium bce suggest cultivation of sorghum from 3500 bce in the Kasala region of eastern Sudan.
Domestication suggest a parially new genome.
Cultivation implies human intervention not
necessarily affecting notable genetic changes.

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I'm just another point of view. What's yours? Unpublished work © 2004 - 2023 YYT al~Takruri
Authentic Africana over race-serving ethnocentricisms, Afro, Euro, or whatever.

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capra
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"Although sorghum is today widely grown in West Africa, its archaeobotanical evidence in the 1st and early 2nd millennia ce is patchy. The domestication area of sorghum is suggested to have been located between Lake Chad, the Nile Valley, and the Red Sea, but because of political instability in the recent decades, very few data are available. The oldest fully domesticated sorghum is reported from the Sudanese Nile Valley in the 1st millennium bce. Recent studies on impressions of wild and domesticated chaff remains in pottery 2nd millennium bce suggest cultivation of sorghum from 3500 bce in the Kasala region of eastern Sudan. Harlan included the Chad Basin in the potential domestication area, because wild sorghum is very common in the inundated clay plains. In spite of careful archaeobotanical studies in the Chad Basin, no domesticated sorghum older than 400 ce has been recovered. West of the Chad Basin, occasional finds of sorghum demonstrate that the crop was known in the 1st millennium ce, but it never played a significant role."
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Swenet
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Might be a good idea to organize your information better. Nabta Playa is not in ancient Egypt. And it's not clear to me from your post what the exact connections with Egypt are and what the Egyptian tombs are. Some Sahelian crops turn up in regions as far away as India before turning up in Egypt. Do we know the crops supposedly found in Egyptian tombs came directly from the Sahel, and not indirectly via the Middle East or some other place?

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Some specifics would be nice.

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Yatunde Lisa Bey
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JOURNAL ARTICLE
Grasses in Ancient Egypt
Loutfy Boulos and Ahmed Gamal-El-Din Fahmy
Kew Bulletin
Vol. 62, No. 3 (2007), pp. 507-511
Published by: Springer on behalf of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20443376
Page Count: 5


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https://www.jstor.org/stable/20443376?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

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Ish Geber
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quote:
Originally posted by capra:
Ish, why are you linking me to a book which doesn't say anything about fonio in ancient Egypt?

an extensive up-to-date review of West African prehistoric agriculture is here:
http://africanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-138


PS Tukuler - sorghum is looking to be Sudanese last i heard, taking off relatively late in West Africa.

I posted the source and the authors, because you doubted the credibility of the source, by arguing that it might be a "marketing stunt".
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Ish Geber
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quote:
Originally posted by Swenet:
Might be a good idea to organize your information better. Nabta Playa is not in ancient Egypt. And it's not clear to me from your post what the exact connections with Egypt are and what the Egyptian tombs are. Some Sahelian crops turn up in regions as far away as India before turning up in Egypt. Do we know the crops supposedly found in Egyptian tombs came directly from the Sahel, and not indirectly via the Middle East or some other place?

 -

Some specifics would be nice.

Technically Nabta Playa would make up part of the MAA confederation.

I have posted two sources in probable support of this.

1) Millets and Their Role in Early Agriculture

2) Development of Plant Food Production in the West African Savannas: Archaeobotanical Perspectives

I post this following for those who are new to this.

 -

quote:
Nabta Playa is a remarkable site composed of hundreds of prehistoric tumuli, stelae, and megalithic structures located in the Nubian Desert, approximately 100 kilometers west of Abu Simbel in southern Egypt.

http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-africa/nabta-playa-and-ancient-astronomers-nubian-desert-002954


Ps, if these crops and seeds left Africa, but not via Egypt. The question becomes, how? Because, according to paper by Luca Pagan et al.“Tracing the Route of Modern Humans out of Africa by Using 225 Human Genome Sequences from Ethiopians and Egyptians”, out-migration was only possible via the Egyptian route. "Keeping in mind this potential confounder, the Ethiopian′ and Egyptian′ genomes showed different patterns. In particular, the Egyptian′ genomes displayed a more recent split from both the West African (21,000 years ago) and the non-African (55,000 years ago) genomes than did the Ethiopian′ genomes (37,000 and 65,000 years ago, respectively)."

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Ish Geber
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quote:
Originally posted by Yatunde Lisa:
quote:
Originally posted by capra:
Ish, why are you linking me to a book which doesn't say anything about fonio in ancient Egypt?

an extensive up-to-date review of West African prehistoric agriculture is here:
http://africanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-138

PS Tukuler - sorghum is looking to be Sudanese last i heard, taking off relatively late in West Africa.

Digitara was found in Nabta Playa 9000BP
Found this article, and I will need to look up the source references they’ve used.


quote:

Could this 'miracle' grain from Africa become the next quinoa?


His study led him further down a rabbit hole of discovery.

Natives of Dogon in Mali believe it is "the seed of the universe" where the Earth sprouted, while in ancient Egypt the grain was found in the pyramids' burial grounds.

"I became more interested in this grain that was deemed worth taking to the afterlife by early Egyptians," he said.

https://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/29/africa/pierre-thiam-fonio/index.html


Same goes for this source. I have to verify the credibility of the main sources.


quote:

Pierre Thiam: A forgotten ancient grain that could help Africa prosper


https://www.ted.com/talks/pierre_thiam_a_forgotten_ancient_grain_that_could_help_africa_prosper

Once a popular grain on much of the continent, fonio was grown all the way to ancient Egypt, where archaeologists found grains inside pyramids' burial grounds. Today it is mostly cultivated in the western part of the Sahel region, from Senegal to Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Nigeria. The Sahel region is that semiarid area south of the Sahara desert that extends from the Atlantic in the west to the Red Sea in the east. I became more interested in this grain that was deemed worth taking to the afterlife by early Egyptians.

https://en.tiny.ted.com/talks/pierre_thiam_a_forgotten_ancient_grain_that_could_help_africa_prosper
Posts: 22234 | From: האם אינכם כילדי הכרית אלי בני ישראל | Registered: Nov 2010  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Ish Geber
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quote:
Originally posted by Tukuler:
@ Yatunde Lisa
There are many crabgrasses.
Which Digitaria was it?


@ Capra
I hate doing rapid fire replies.
I prefer taking time to research
and analyze but the Wiki has the
below. People can post and say
anything so you gotta gimme
something more substantial
than hearsay.

But Sudanese can be ambiguous.
When does it mean Sudani?
When does it mean 'the western sudan'?
When does it mean the entire swath of
Sahel and Savannah from Atlantic to Nile?



Did you know: Grain Sorghum is one of the oldest known grains originating in Africa and India. ksgrainsorghum.org


Wiki is just a jumping point useful for those
who already have some background to weed out
garbage and can follow references. Will see
what's out there unless you source Sorghum
vulgare pread from west to east.


outgarbage

Technically 'the western Sudan' is West Africa.

quote:
The Empires of the Western Sudan

The medieval empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai that controlled the western Sudan had no fixed geopolitical boundaries or singular ethnic or national identities. Although each empire possessed important political and economic centers, such as Ghana’s Kumbi Saleh and Songhai’s Gao, it is not certain that these were permanent capitals.

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wsem/hd_wsem.htm
Posts: 22234 | From: האם אינכם כילדי הכרית אלי בני ישראל | Registered: Nov 2010  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Tukuler
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I missed any admissible documentary evidence
• precise locations
• carbon or stratification dating
• botanist paleoarchaeologist etc who reported it

Capra agrees, so far fonyo in AE is a marketing
ploy useful to Thiam in capitalizing his products
even if NewAger types already invented the hype.

It's an incredible piece of African history.
We need credible Africana. Self-serving myths
impinge acceptance of verifiable Africana.

Young kids'll eat up MythoAfrica as if factual.
When they grow up they may give up on African
Studies as a fraud after finding out 'myth' was
not presented as myth or at best remote
possibility requiring more investigation.

But Africa is no myth and deserves a myth
ridden study free from the old colonizer
myths or modern misguided replacements.


And yes it's true without the wonder of
MythoAfrica in my youth I probably never
would have been attracted to go on and
learn about my continent and my peoples
human achievements, at home and abroad.

But to each his own purpose.

quote:
Originally posted by Ish Gebor:
[QB,]
quote:
Originally posted by Yatunde Lisa:
quote:
Originally posted by capra:
Ish, why are you linking me to a book which doesn't say anything about fonio in ancient Egypt?

an extensive up-to-date review of West African prehistoric agriculture is here:
http://africanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-138

PS Tukuler - sorghum is looking to be Sudanese last i heard, taking off relatively late in West Africa.

Digitara was found in Nabta Playa 9000BP
Found this article, and I will need to look up the source references they’ve used.


quote:

Could this 'miracle' grain from Africa become the next quinoa?


His study led him further down a rabbit hole of discovery.

Natives of Dogon in Mali believe it is "the seed of the universe" where the Earth sprouted, while in ancient Egypt the grain was found in the pyramids' burial grounds.

"I became more interested in this grain that was deemed worth taking to the afterlife by early Egyptians," he said.

https://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/29/africa/pierre-thiam-fonio/index.html


Same goes for this source. I have to verify the credibility of the main sources.


quote:

Pierre Thiam: A forgotten ancient grain that could help Africa prosper


https://www.ted.com/talks/pierre_thiam_a_forgotten_ancient_grain_that_could_help_africa_prosper

Once a popular grain on much of the continent, fonio was grown all the way to ancient Egypt, where archaeologists found grains inside pyramids' burial grounds. Today it is mostly cultivated in the western part of the Sahel region, from Senegal to Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Nigeria. The Sahel region is that semiarid area south of the Sahara desert that extends from the Atlantic in the west to the Red Sea in the east. I became more interested in this grain that was deemed worth taking to the afterlife by early Egyptians.

https://en.tiny.ted.com/talks/pierre_thiam_a_forgotten_ancient_grain_that_could_help_africa_prosper [/QB]


--------------------
I'm just another point of view. What's yours? Unpublished work © 2004 - 2023 YYT al~Takruri
Authentic Africana over race-serving ethnocentricisms, Afro, Euro, or whatever.

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the lioness,
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quote:
Originally posted by Yatunde Lisa:
[QB] FONIO Digitaria exilis

History and location
 -

Then again, the "next quinoa" might just be fonio, a hardy cereal that's been grown for thousands of years in West Africa. Yet the translucent, gluten-free grain—which has been found in ancient Egyptian tombs and is considered "the seed of the universe" in Mali's mythology—can survive drought and needs no fertilizers. Fonio has been grown for over 7,000 years and is possibly the oldest cultivated cereal in Africa. Fonio has been found entombed in Egyptian pyramids



By Andrea Stone, for National Geographic
PUBLISHED JULY 8, 2014


source article should have been listed

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140708-ancient-grains-quinoa-fonio-food-africa/

What's the Next Quinoa? Farmers, Foodies Revive Heritage Grains
Ancient grains and "orphan crops" like fonio and amaranth have advantages for farmers and consumers.

__________________________________________


maybe confused fonio for Teff

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Ish Geber
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^ I saw that article also, but on the phone it was hard to select paragraphs.

quote:
Though cultivated for more than 5,000 years, fonio is rarely eaten by city dwellers, who prefer wheat or rice. Yet the translucent, gluten-free grain—which has been found in ancient Egyptian tombs and is considered "the seed of the universe" in Mali's mythology—can survive drought and needs no fertilizers.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140708-ancient-grains-quinoa-fonio-food-africa/


quote:
The dating of the tombs of officials of the Old Kingdom of Egypt

This work offers a system for dating the tombs of officials of the Old Kingdom. The system depends on a typological study of the iconography of 106 tomb chapels, which are capable of being dated by evidence that does not derive from wall scenes. From this typological study, 114 features have been identified as having a 'life span' that is dated within the Old Kingdom.

https://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:10037


quote:
Experts have used scientific dating techniques to verify the historical chronology of ancient Egypt.

Radiocarbon dating was used to show that the chronology of Egypt's Old, Middle and New Kingdoms is indeed accurate.
The researchers dated seeds found in pharaohs' tombs, including some from the tomb of the King Tutankhamun.

They write in the journal Science that some of the samples are more than 4,500 years old.

[...]

"The museums were all very helpful in providing material we were interested in—especially important since export of samples from Egypt is currently prohibited," said Christopher Ramsey, the lead author of the study, from the school of archaeology at the University of Oxford.

[...]

The step pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara is believed to be the oldest stone pyramid in Egypt.
Dr Ramsey's team was able to determine the exact period when this king reigned Egypt - from about 2691 to roughly 2625 BC, said the scientist.
The team found that this particular event took place earlier than some scholars previously thought.


http://www.bbc.com/news/10345875
Posts: 22234 | From: האם אינכם כילדי הכרית אלי בני ישראל | Registered: Nov 2010  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Ish Geber
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Bump let’s follow the Teff crumb.

http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/Forum8/HTML/001785.html

quote:
Teff is thought to have originated circa 4000 BC. Its seeds were found in an Egyptian pyramid that dates to approximately 3300 BC. In fact, teff was so revered 55 centuries ago, they placed with pharaoh's in pyramids as their "last food."

Supposedly, the name Teff is derived from the Amhraic word "Teffa", which means "lost", to show that it is something difficult to trace. Again, Teff is the tiniest known grain in the world.

Teff remained an East African secret for centuries, and became a staple in the Ethiopian diet. Teff is very picky about its growing habitat. In fact, Teff only grows well in the highlands of East Africa. Most attempts to grow Teff elsewhere have failed miserably, and as such, it has not been widely available to the International marketplace. Only recently has agricultural science progressed enough that we can grow Teff in selected other climates. In fact, is has only been a few years since an appropriate European cultivation climate was first discovered, and Teff is being produced successfully in Spain for the first time.

According to Perdue University: "Teff is an annual grass crop and harvested for grain in Ethiopia. Teff flour is preferred in the production of enjera, a major food staple in Ethiopia. Teff is also grown on a limited basis for livestock forage in other parts of Africa, India, Australia and South America. In the U.S. small acreages of teff are grown for grain production and sold to Ethiopian restaurants (Carlson, Idaho) or utilized as a late planted livestock forage." (Please see our Availability Section for more information on current supplies.)

Teff continues to form the base of the East African diet to this day. It is revered for its taste, its shelf life, and its nutritional value. It contains 11% protein, 80% complex carbohydrates, and 3% fat. It's also an excellent source of essential amino acids, including lysine, an amino acid often missing in whole grains. Teff is a fantastic source of fiber iron, calcium, potassium, and other essential minerals.

Through a new partnership, Teff is finally becoming available in other parts of the world. Thanks to European cultivation, we can now introduce Teff to the Western world. We have managed to source a consistent supply so that Westerners can start taking advantage of all this superfood has to offer. Finally, the rest of the world can begin discovering the best of the ancient grains.

http://www.teff-international.com/history-teff.htm
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Yatunde Lisa Bey
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Good catch

--------------------
It's not my burden to disabuse the ignorant of their wrong opinions

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Ish Geber
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quote:
Originally posted by Yatunde Lisa:
Good catch

I think that this Teff is the real matzah.
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Clyde Winters
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quote:
Originally posted by Ish Gebor:
^ I meant to say MAA, A uniform pan-African confederation, linking sub-Sahara and the North of Africa, as well as East Africa. Going back thousands of years, prior to the Mesolithic expansion.

"Maa Civilization"(Confederation) a term coined by Bernd Heine in 1982

http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=009196;p=1#000000

This was not the Great Maa Confederation which exited in the Sahara-Sahel. Maa Civilization
Ancient Middle African civilization inhabited by the founders of the Sumerian, Egyptian, Elamite and Garamantian civilizations. The ancestors of these people belonged to the Ounanian culture.
This population hunted animals with the bow-and –arrow; they are associated with the Ounanian culture. The Ounanian culture existed 12kya [2].


 -

The Ounanians were members of the Capsian population.There was continuity between the populations in the Maghreb and southern Sahara referred to as Capsians, Iberomaurusians, and Mechtoids [3]. The Niger-Congo speakers are decendants of the Capsian population.

Capsian people did not only live in Afrca, they were also present in South Asia. Using craniometric data researchers have made it clear that the Dravidian speakers of South India and the Indus valley were primarily related to the ancient Capsian or Mediterranean population [4-9].
Lahovary [7] and Sastri [8] maintains that the Capsian population was unified over an extensive zone from Africa, across Eurasia into South India. Some researchers maintain that the Capsian civilization originated in East Africa [7].

The Ounanian culture is associated with sites in central Egypt, Algeria, Mali, Mauretania and Niger [10]. The Ounanian tradition is probably associated with the Niger-Congo phyla. This would explain the close relationship between the Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan languages.

The original homeland of the Niger-Congo speakers was probably situated in the Saharan Highlands during the Ounanian period. From here NC populations migrated into the Fezzan, Nile Valley and Sudan as their original homeland became more and more arid.


In summary, the Niger-Congo speakers formerly lived in the highland regions of the Fezzan and Hoggar until after 4000 BC. Originally hunter-gatherers the Proto-Niger- Congo people developed an agro-pastoral economy which included the cultivation of millet, and domestication of cattle (and sheep).

See: https://www.webmedcentral.com/wmcpdf/Article_WMC003149.pdf

Among the Proto-Saharans the name Maa, for their great ancestor/god was joined to many ethnonyms. The descendants of the Maa clan, claim descent from Maa, as evident in the name Mande, for the parent group of the Manding of West Africa. Mande means, Ma-nde or "children of Ma". Some Dravidians of South India were also members of the Mande Superclan, as illustrated in the Kannada, Telugu and Tulu, Dravidian tribes that use the terms Mande or Mandi to denote "people or persons". The Sumerians called themselves Mah-Gar-ri "God's exalted children".

The Proto-Saharans in honor of great Maa, use the term "ma", to denote greatness, for example Manding: Maga; Sumerian: Mag; and Dravidian: Ma.The ma, element was also used in the names for their rulers e.g., Menes of Egypt; the Mannan of the Dravidians; and the Mansa of the Manding.
Maaites cultivated millets, possessed domesticated cattle, sheep and goats.
Civilization founded by Maa.
The Maaites built pyramids and other large monuments. AND THEY HAD WRITING WHICH IS CALLED THINITE.

I believe the Proto-Saharans who created the Maa Confederation built many pyramids in addition to the Niger Pyramid.

 -
In the picture above we see yardangs. Geologist believe that these are geographical features created in the desert as a result of winds eroding rock formations. I believe that these yardangs may really represent monuments built by the Proto-Saharans when these regions were fertile. This view is supported by the fact that these yardangs resemble monuments made in later years by the Kushites to represent Amon.

These yardangs may represent a pyramid field.

 -


 -


 -

The principal female gods were Amma/Ammon, Nia
 -

The major gods of the Maaites also include Seth and Anubis. The most ancient depictions of these gods are found in the Sahara.
It appears that in ancient times before the rise of Egypt, Seth was worshiped by people in the Sahara. Recently a very interesting inscription has been found that relate to this worship.

The symbols on the engraving are written in the so-called Libyco-Berber writing which is really made up of Mande signs. Using the Vai signs we are able to read the inscriptions in the Malinke-Bambara language.

 -


On the left side we see a figure of a cannine and on the right we have a figure of Seth. Reading the inscriptions from right to left I will decipher the writing.


Under the cannine figure we have: Be tu a ka na or "To exist obedient to the order in joy [with the] Mother".


Reading the inscriptions under the Seth figure we have reading the inscription from right to left: i lu i gyo fa yo gyo, or " Thou hold upright this divinity of the cult, [our] Father, the vital spirit of the society consecrated to (Seth's) cult".


This figure is important in relation to the Western Sahara and the Seth cult. Michael Rice, in Egypt's Making: The Origin of Ancient Egypt 5000-2000 BC, makes it clear that Seth was the god of the Southern people and that Anubis (the canine god) was the protector of the people of the South.

You can find out more in my book:

 -

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