Black History Africa: Where Man Began by Charlotte Ruth~rford -------' Mankind began in Africa. Important discoveries in Sudan and in the Nile Valley clearly prove that these people had features similar to today's black man. Egypt built up the first great and complex society about 2,000 years ago. Contrary to popular beliefs, Egyptians invented mathematics, the idea of one government for a whole country, how to keep and write records, and how to measure time. The leading race of the Western world was the black race. The Egyptians were not Caucasians. As Lerone Bennette said in "Before the Mayflower," noted black scholars such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson and Wm. Leo Hansberry, insist that the ancient Egyptians, from Menes to Cleopatra, were a mixed race which presented the same physical types and color ranges as the American black man. Most of the ruling personages had black ancestry. Ethiopians (another black race of people) eventually over-powered the Egyptians. They promoted international trade. A thousand years ago, the Moslem religion was already 300 years old. This religion, begun by a teacher called Mohammed, born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, teaches belief in one god, Allah. lt became an important and powerful influence on life in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Algeria and Southern Spain. The religion is unusually effective in cutting across racial lines. All Moslems were brothers in faith. During the powerful Moslem era, two great states evolved, Ghana and Kilwa. Ghana developed a complex government of religiously linked kings and an important import-export system. They collected taxes and had almost a monopoly on salt and gold. Ghana succeeded in organizing law and order in a large part of Africa. Kilwa, although muchly underrated, was also a great and beautiful city. History books often omit Kilwa. and when the city is described, it is said to be not black African but Persian or Arabian. The city was destroyed by Portuguese captains who followed Vasco de Gama. Many of the monumental achievements of Africa were not credited to Africans, black in color. It was erroneously believed that outsiders had built forts, drawn pictures, written scrolls, used complex tools and established great cities. Africa was not a dark and unknown continent. There were many contacts between Africa and Europe and Asia before the Portuguese started sailing down the Atlantic Ocean along the African Coast. Until Vasco de Gama reached East Africa in 1498, Europe had known nothing about East Africa. As the explorations grew, the Pope took it upon himself to divide the unknown world into two halves: Africa was "given" to Portugal and the Americas to Spain. Eventually the Dutch, Danes, Prussians, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish all fought each other over the rape of Africa. By the 1800's, both Spain and Portugal were capturing and selling African men, women and children for use as slaves in the Americas. Africa had long used domestic slaves. These were criminals or captives of other tribes. Butthese slaves were treated decently and had the opportunity to free themselves and climb as highly as they were capable. When the Portuguese first started buying slaves, the African chiefs thought these slaves would be treated the same in the Americas as they had been treated in Africa. As the truth became known, some chiefs tried to stop slave trading, but to no avail. Africa needed the gold in trade and there was always a chief ready to sell his captives. Little by little, through selling of slaves, the growing clash between Islam and Christianity, the grow in g "good life" and inferior armaments, Africa began to demoralize and weaken. This weakening made the invasion by European powers easy. As Europe and the Americas prospered (1600-1850), Africa faltered and failed. Power was still balanced between European and African Kings, but by the end of this era, the power had greatly gone into the hands of the Europeans. European armies treated Africa as they pleased. At this time, Christopher EVERS & Sons GENERAL CONTRACTORS • NEW BUILDING • REMODELING • CONCRETE • ASPHALT • EXCAVATING PHONE 282-6188 PORTLAND, OREGON State Jobs Getting Study A special committee to develop ways of putting more Negroes on state payrolls is to report in February to Gov. Tom McCall. The governor named the committee late in November. He said that lack of jobs was one of the reasons for riots in the cities and that the state Civil Service must provide more jobs than ithas. McCall suggested that perhaps a new classification would have to be set up so that people without training or experience would be able to qualify. He said that perhaps an apprentice program would be possible. He named Marko Haggard as chairman of the committee which he named the Governor's Committee on Broadening State Employment Opportunities. Others on the committee are all heads of various state agencies. C o1u m bu s opened North America, which brought an even greater demand for slaves. This is how Africa got caught in a terrible trap of slave trading which was to last more than 300 years. Each king had to sell slaves to survive. Africa's escape of the slave trade began in 1807. By this time, England had lost a great deal of interest in the New World and stopped its own slave trade. Then France soon did the same, but America and Portugal continued slave trading until the mid1800's. By this time, Europe had started ways of exploiting Africa other than through their flesh in slaves. And so the foreign domination of Africa began. Talk Planned By Missionary February l, 1968 Oregon Advance/TIMES Page 7 Park Bureau Has 88 Jobs Eighty-eight jobs will be available this summer with the Bureau of Parks and Recreation in all parts of Portland. Dorothea Lensch, director of Bureau of Parks Recreation, said the P~rks Bureau employs 40 lifeguards and 48 playground activity directors during the summer months. Miss Lensch said that the employment terminates at the end of each summer. "We like to hire college juniors for these jobs. However, we cannot always find pie other than college juniors," she said. Commissioner Francis Ivancie said the main qualifications needed to work for the Bureau of Parks was a certain amount of ability to generate activity, and if possible, two years of college. Applications for I if e - guards and playground activity directors throughout the various city parks may be obtained at the Bureau of Parks and Recreation at city hall. i_'. those who meet this quali- ! fication, and we do hire peoIf your wife no longercares whether you get home late, it's later than you think! The Rev. Dwight Douglin, a Conservative Baptist missionary who was a school supervisor in Eastern Congo, will speak at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11, at Berean Baptist Church, 109 N. Wygant St. The Rev. Mr. Douglin will tell of his experiences during the last seven years in the Congo. He was supervisor of teacher training schools in Singa, a village in the interior jungles, and in Goma, a village on the Rwanda border. He fled Eastern Congo in 1964-65 because of the Simba revolution and lived in Rwanda. He commuted to Goma until it was safe to return to the Congo. The Rev. Mr. Douglin was forced to leave Eastern Congo in July, 1967, and returned to the United States. He later returned to Eastern Congo to continue his work in the schools. He presenting is serving with the Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society in Wheaton, Ill. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • PAUL'S SOUL FOOD CAFE We we are now serving the best in town at 19 N. Russell ' 1 PHONE AHEAD / • 282-9677 * PAUL'S SOUL FOOD CAFE Lampus Says Greetings to the OREGON ADVANCE Lampus -the store where You find all the top Brands and all at a Discount! (C!4'~1~•fi "Raleigh Hills" 6908 S.W. BEAVERTON HY.• 292-6606 "Mid-town" 2600 N. E. UNION • 288-5321
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