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By LAURA ANN PHILLIPS
June 1, 2000
IN the fifth century, women in Europe were dying because doctors there did not
know how to perform caesarean sections. The European doctors had to turn to
their African counterparts to learn the proper method.
This was what Prof Ivan van Sertima, professor of African Studies at Rutgers
University, USA, told an audience at the Caribbean Historical Society evening
held on May 26. The evening marked the 37th anniversary of African Liberation
Day, celebrated on May 25, and was held at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya.
“They didn’t know [about] antiseptic,” he said of doctors in Europe at the time.
Eventually, European doctors visited African practitioners to see where they
were going wrong.
“They found that Africans washed their hands in palm wine,” said the
anthropologist. “Palm wine was antiseptic.”
Ancient Africans also developed anaesthetics, a vaccine for small pox and
medicine for hypertension, and could treat diarrhoea and psychotic disorders.
They were producing iron and steel more than 2,000 years ago, said Van Sertima,
and their quality far surpassed anything produced in the world.
“Machines were discovered in Tanzania in east Africa from the fifth century,
which could reach temperatures up to 3, 275Ð Celsius,” said the Guyana-born
professor.
“No other machine in the world reached those temperatures. The highest Europe
had produced went up to 2, 642 degrees.
“The finest swords in Europe were produced from African steel,” he said. “It was
called ‘blue steel’.”
But there was a problem. |
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They used wood for fuel in their production furnaces, and the growing demand for
steel was depleting their forests.
They could ill afford that.
Contrary to traditional teachings, said Van Sertima, Africa is not all jungle.
“Africa has less jungle than any other continent compared with its land space,”
he said. “Africa has been mis-measured—it is larger than we thought and has less
jungle space.”
Africans lived closely with nature, often adapting some of creation’s ideas to
improve on their own infrastructure.
“They studied ants,” said Van Sertima. “They knew how ants dealt with water
coming into their nest.” This information was used to improve their drainage
systems.
African people were also accomplished astronomers.
“They knew that the universe was expanding,” said the scientist. “They expressed
it poetically: ‘The stars are running away from us ...’
“They knew that matter was made up of infinitely small spinning particles –
atoms! They knew that the world turned on its own axis.
“Nobody knew that!
“The most advanced astronomical observatory found dates back to 300 years BC”
said the professor.
“There were seven stones pointing at seven stars.”
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The ancients saw that the number seven featured prominently in creation, he
said, and so concluded that the number was somehow important to God.
“God seemed to express himself in sevens,” said Van Sertima. “There are seven
parts of the eye, seven layers of skin, seven holes in the body.
“Seven was significant to the Africans and the Egyptians. Jesus knew that – he
grew up in Egypt. Remember, ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son’?
“And Jesus was not ‘Jesus Christ’,” he said. “He was Jesus, the Christ, or
‘Krist’ [which], in Egyptian, means ‘anointed one’.”
Ancient Africans were also skilled sailors and boatbuilders.
“They were shipping elephants to China!” said Van Sertima. |
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Nigeria: Outside by the front door
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“They could not have done that in those silly little canoes you would see Tarzan
overturn in the movies.”
When people now hear about the achievements of ancient Africa, Van Sertima said,
they try to explain them away, attributing Africa’s successes to everyone else.
Except Africa.
“Somebody came from outer space and told them about it!” he exclaimed. “Just
like they say that people from outer space built the pyramids!”
African accomplishments in technology continue today, the professor pointed out,
speaking of the African-American presence in the US space programme.
Van Sertima told the gathering that the education system in his country failed
to teach him about the accomplishments of his ancestors.
He had to wait until his own research taught him otherwise.
“I was made to think that Africa was dark and ignorant,” he said.
“I never knew it was the beginning of advanced civilisation.” |