ROOTS AFRICAN OR AMERICAN? II
Monday, June 15, 2009 at 08:19PM 
For most of my life I had been taught that the reason so many Black people had “Indian blood” or that one family member or the other was full blood Cherokee, was because the Black African slaves ran away from the plantation to live amongst the Indians. I remember a bitter argument I had with my previous wife when she told me her father’s mother (her paternal grandmother) was full blooded Blackfoot Indian. I argued her down that there was no such Indian “tribe” as Blackfoot. I argued that she must have meant Blackfeet, because there was no such people as Blackfoot. I came to learn she was in fact correct in speaking of a Blackfoot nation of people and that I was dead wrong!
Rev. Amen Ra elucidated ,that history documents the primary Trans Atlantic slave trade began when, Columbus, over a short period of years, shipped over 1500 “Indians” from the island of Ayiti to Spain and eventually other parts of Europe before one African was ever shipped as chattel property to the west. She theorized that since, no where on the planet Earth, the aboriginal people were ever non Black, that the same had to hold true for the Americas.
She opened another lane of thought in my mind about the reality of slavery in the Americas and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Upon her suggestions we should all study and not just take her word as the gospel truth on the subject.
Of course the person that I am, I went for it. I studied the slave trade and began to analyze the most often told stories, dissected them , reassembled them to gain an understanding about what was being told to us. I wondered how could people walk for more than 500 miles (as from the Congo to Ghana), be placed in a dungeon, packed onto a slaving ship, to be transported on a 2-3 month voyage across the Atlantic.?
Sacagawea. Photo Michael Haynes
I reasoned that people were dying, vomiting, defecating, menstruating and urinating within these packed compartments on board the heavily loaded ship. This would result in the deaths of many, but for different reasons than we had been taught. But, I also considered the fact that those that did make it would probably be emaciated, ill and I’m sure many died upon arrival or shortly there after. Senseless if one is attempting to sell these humans for a profit.
The huge Trans-Atlantic slave trade became more and more unreal to me. You see ,we still have to consider insurance cost, and transportation cost factored into a slave shipped from Africa, where as there were ample Black people here in the Americas. I do believe there were Africans transported to the Americas to become slaves, but not to the magnitude that has been taught to us. One hundred million, I disagree.
With my new found belief pattern I had to re-arrange how I pictured the so called Indian of the Americas. This was a tough process since television, books, television news shows and movies reinforce the image of the “noble Indian” as someone that looks like Lou Diamond Phillips, or Leonard Peltier rather than Godfather of Soul James Brown or Jimi Hendrix. I had to teach myself that Black people that looked like the latter rather than the former two Americans were the actual Native Americans. For so long I believed that the often portrayed Pochahontas was the real American Indian and not my great grandfather “Papa.”
In the essay All my slaves whether Negroes, Indians, Mustees or Molattoes… Patrick Neal Minges quotes Andrew Bryan, Pioneer Baptist, speaking of Henry Francis in a letter to authorities speaks of Henry Francis, who, according to Minges was often known as the “black pastor” who is reported to have no known African ancestry
“…Henry Francis, lately a slave to the widow of the late Colonel Leroy Hammond, of Augusta, has been purchased by a few humane gentlemen of this place, and liberated to exercise the handsome ministerial gifts he possesses amongst us, and teach our youth to read and write. He is a strong man about forty-nine years of age, whose mother was white and whose father was an Indian.”
I began to read, and I began by reading Black Indians; A hidden heritage William Lorenz Katz. Mr. Katz stayed with the previously held belief of runaway slaves intermarrying with the commonly accepted looking Indian (Pochahontas) making this his reasoning for the Natives with heavier melanin. But, it was a good read and opened my eyes to things I hadn’t studied or read before. Another interesting read is The Only Land They Knew Indians in the Old South by J Leitch Wright and most of all the book On Sex and Race Vol. 3 by Joel Augustus Rogers. Mr. Rogers one of the greatest archeologist and historians of our time. This search has opened my world to much much more. Bob Marley once sang “…half that story has never been told…” I now believe that ¾’s of that story has never been told.
Once I ingested this new thought pattern, let it digest I was then able to manifest visual images of Rosa Parks when I hear the words Native American and not Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce. Learning to accept the fact that the Nez Perce, Crow, Seminole, Tuscarora, Taino or Arawak of today only represents one phenotype of the Americas not all. This is the most crucial point. To begin to imagine “We people who are darker than blue…” when we hear the words Native American. The Dawes Rolls did much to change who was classified as Native American versus Black/Negro. Next time my take on why this is a hidden heritage and how it can be used as a tool for our uplift.
Photo 1-Yuisa Aldea Cacique (chief) of Borinken/Puerto Rico
Photo 2 Sacagawea and son Jean Baptiste a Shoshone woman
Photo 3 A Wampanoag woman of Massachusetts
Links for further reading;
http://www.fiaah.org/content/view/106/91/
http://www.stewartsynopsis.com/washitaw.htm
Reader Comments (11)
(1) Why must we always seek some tenuous claim to being somebody else in order to feel good about ourselves? Even the Nation of Islam is not totally immune from this, and promotes this notion. They do so by defining us as "Asiatic" Black men/women with origins in places other than Africa. Which is contradictory to some of their more self-respect-enhancing ideas such as "Accept your own and be yourself." Why can't we find dignity in being ourselves?
(2) Many of these secret origins materials/theories smack of wrongfully doing to others (appropriating their history and accomplishments for ourselves) what others have done to us (erasing us from our own history). It's one thing to acknowledge the points of historical interaction between our people and others. But to try to seize other people's very identities is something else.
To me, this is the mirror image of Europeans insisting that the ancient pharoahs were White instead of a phenotype that is commonly recognized as Black. It's the mirror image of Arabs insisting that the Moors (also known as Blackamoors) were all Arabs instead of Black Africans.
I suppose that this is an "agree to disagree" point. In any event, this was an interesting post. Thanks for raising these issues.
Peace, blessings and solidarity.
I don't think the Americas are any different than all the other places mentioned before. In addition to the aboriginal people of the Americas being "Black" people, Dr. Barry Fell (a white man) is of the opinion that the Ancient Egyptians sailed to, and became permanent residents of what is now the northeast U.S adding to an already large Black population. Others like Dr. Jose Pimienta Bey and Ivan Van Sertima both show the Blackamoor traveled to and remained in the Americas as early as 900 BCE, not to mention Mansa Abu Bakari II. Amir Hajib says of his ascendence to the throne of Mali (speaking of Mansa Abu Bakari "The ruler who preceded me did not believe that it was impossible to reach the extremity of the ocean that encircles the earth (meaning the Atlantic): he wanted to reach that (end) and was determined to pursue his plan. So he equipped two hundred boats full of men, and many others full of gold, water and provisions sufficient for several years. He ordered the captain not to return until they had reached the other end of the ocean, or until he had exhausted the provisions and water. So they set out on their journey. They were absent for a long period, and, at last just one boat returned. When questioned the captain replied: 'O Prince, we navigated for a long period, until we saw in the midst of the ocean a great river which flowing massively. My boat was the last one; others were ahead of me, and they were drowned in the great whirlpool and never came out again. I sailed back to escape this current.' But the Sultan would not believe him. He ordered two thousand boats to be equipped for him and his men, and one thousand more for water and provisions. Then he conferred the regency on me for the term of his absence, and departed with his men, never to return nor to give a sign of life.[
This is to say that, we Blacks specifically, and non-Blacks in general of the Americas are truly a mixed nation of people. This is not to deny Africa, but to show that all Black people did not come over as chattlel slaves but we were here whether Blackamoor, Olmecs (Mende) of the Yucatan peninsula, or indigenous to the land.
It is not to take away someting from a people, but to be properly included. This is not to find dignity in being something else but to show our (Black people) expanse across the globe. I think that rearranging the thought that the only reason Black people are in the Americas is because of the sea power of the European keeps us in bondage without ever considering that we had the power to propel ourselves across the Atlantic long before the European could speak properly. This could potentially be give more dignity to a people that believe they were only slaves for hundreds of years.
I wasn't really sure where you were going with this. Your comment really made it crystal clear though and I do agree . . . it's about Black people realizing the truth: that the history of Black people in the Western Hemisphere didn't start with the Europeans. That is indeed an empowering concept that doesn't have to take away from anyone else.
Burning Spear sang "Christopher Columbus" and I've always loved that song. There was one line though that used to get me . . .I wasn't clear about it. The Spear says of Columbus' "discovery" of the West Indies, "What about the Arawak Indians and the few Black man who were around here, before him?" I guess The Spear knows something about what you're talking about here. And now I do too. Give thanks. :)
Your piece raises mor questions than it answers. I do not understand how you can fixate on a number that three centuries of the Transatlantic African Captivity could not have resulted in, boiling our Maafa down to a comparative statistical guesswork. The Maafa just doesn't simply involve transport of people across the waters, it includes the massacre of villagers, the flight of Africans into the bush, and stripping of their ecology. Walter Rodney and Eric Williams discussed how the Captivity drained Africa of so many people that the ecology was changed, opening up access to Europe (Berlin Conference 1884-5) fifty years after the British began enforcing a stop to the human trafficking.
When you mention the insurance companies, is that because perhaps they were trying to help slavers figure out more humane ways to ship Africans? Like so few people really ask how did Lloyds possibly underwrite these ships, and investigate the crazy, irrational ratiocinations the agents arrived at for covering a cargo ship of people who have been uprooted from their homes. A ship took three months to arrive at its destination. A ship may have a mutiny (see L'Amistad), run into a hurricane, get attacked by pirates or foreign navies, experience haemmoragic fever, etc. WTF! Unless your analysis of the Maafa can address some of these issues, you really cannot have a grasp of how many people the Europens raped, murdered and enslaved.
You said "The Maafa just doesn't simply involve transport of people across the waters, it includes the massacre of villagers, the flight of Africans into the bush, and stripping of their ecology."
What you describe here is the belief that the European came into Ghana, Gambia, Congo or Benin and was not faced with a battle but Africans that laid down to be massacred or ran off into the forest. I don't believe the African was subdued so easily as evidenced by the battles the Boors and British fought with the Zulu in what is now South Africa in which the Zulu fought them tooth and nail and didn't simply run off into the forest like little children.
You said "When you mention the insurance companies, is that because perhaps they were trying to help slavers figure out more humane ways to ship Africans?"
Actually, I mentioned insurance companies to put into play part of the cost of shipping an African to the Americas versus taking captive a Black person already here. To bring humans across the Atlantic was not as simple as just snatching people forcing them on a boat and taking them to America. In the book Souther Frontier 1670-1732 the author quotes John Norris' cost for his slaves as this "Imprimis; Fifteen good Negro Men at 45 lb each 675 lb.
Item: Fifteen Indian Women to work in the Field
at 18 lb each..."
You said "A ship took three months to arrive at its destination.
Agreed. What we don't agree on, is the belief that human beings could be so ill treated, hardly fed not to mention those that refused to eat, unable to move about freely, lying in their own waste for three months, no sanitation facilities on board. But, be fit to be sold on the auction block once they reached Charleston, New York, Kingston or Port of Spain. Now, I will reiterate, I am not saying Africans weren't brought here to become slaves, just not the amount that has been taught to us.
I think we, Black people, need to begin to analyze this Maafa with a much more logical mindset and less emotional one.
Excellent work you've done here!
I have linked to this post! As you know, I have encountered NUMEROUS instances of culturally-ignorant black folks coming to my think tank attempting to justify why it's okay to cling to their erroneous beliefs about the history of our people.
I can't allow that ignorance to have any validation in my forum because there are blacks who don't understand that those folks are perpetuating slave thinking under the GUISE of being "black progessives" and "pro black".
There's nothing "pro black" about being ignorant of the TRUE history of Africans in this country.
Thanks for taking the time to deliver this important discussion!
Peace, blessings and DUNAMIS!
Lisa
When the Spaniard Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crossed the isthmus of Panama in 1513,he came across both indigenous and black skinned people. He was so surprised when he saw tall black people that he asked the indigenous people who the blacks were or where they were from.
The indigenous people in Quarequa, did not respond to Balboa's question. There was a large African settlement in that region. The indigenous people and Africans in Quarequa, today Darien, a province of Panama were always at war.
There were Africans in Central and South America long before the arrival of Colombus.
Mandingo traders, Ethiopians and other ethnic Africans sailed the seas and ended up in places off Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and other places.
There was a regal Mandingo chief in charge of a large settlement of blacks and indigenous people in what is today Ecuador.
Chinese traders also sailed the seas.
Balboa went down in history as the discoverer of the Pacific Ocean(the South Sea.) He was the first European to visualize the Pacific.
We all know that the ancient people of the Pacific, the ancestors of the Maoris,Tahitians,Hawaiians and the bulk of the people today scattered across the Pacific roamed this mighty ocean as if it was their own.
Easter Island is no real mystery.
Anyone who has sailed the mighty oceans can attest to the fact that the oceans with their currents, are real highways.
Christopher Columbus who did not really know where he was going, ended up in the new world because ocean currents brought him here.
Any type of boat could take a mariner to distant places, as long as he/she is aware of the currents located off certain areas.
African presence n the Americas predated Colombus and the Antlantic Slave Trade.
There are relics and artifacts in museums in Mexico, Central and South America that attest to early African influence before the Atlantic Slave Trade.
Saludos,
Ana
The Moors while ruling Al Andaluz (Spain) taught geography with the aide of globes of the world. In addition to that, Columbus contracted the Pinzon brothers who were in fact Moors, related to Abuzayan Muhammad III of the Marinid Dynasty (1196-1465CE) in Morocco.
This dispells the falsehood that Columbus didn't know where he was going, but was in full knowledge of his distination, this is the reason for contracting the, Moors, the Pinzon brothers in the first place.
Peace and Guidance!
It is a fact that Africans had visited and settled in the so-called "New World" long before Colombus and other Spanish conquistadors "discovered" anything.
In my pilgrimmage to West Africa, I discovered that although Europeans carved up Africa into colonies by lines on a map, they primarily controlled the coastal regions and their power and influence as you preceeded inland was less and less. I visited slave castles and slave fields and spoke to village griots and there is no doubt that massive population extraction was perpetrated against the people by both the West... and the East!!!
Your series of articles has stirred my interest in this topic from a different perspective. It is always beneficial to question what you believe and/or learnt and drill deeper to a greater understanding and clarity. Interestingly, I am currently reading "The African Diaspora: A History Through Culture" by Patrick Manning. He discusses the multiple routes that brought Africans and people of African descent into contact with one another and with Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Manning also discusses how the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Indian Ocean fueled dynamic interactions among black communities and cultures and how these patterns resembled those of a number of connected diasporas concurrently taking shaping across the globe. I will be doing a post on the book once I'm done reading it.
Much luv and respect!