How Europeans Control History !

[nebsen]

I have deep respect for historian Robin Walker who explains how Europeans control history (African).

[mellomusings]

Interesting video nice to actually see the face of the author Robin Walker I own one of his books "Blacks and Science Volume Two West and East African Contributions to Science and Technology & Intellectual Life and Legacy of Timbuktu", pretty good read wish it were more lengthy but still pretty informal. Although I agree with what's being said, I do however take issue of constantly feeling victimized as a people. Yes during the time of colonization concerning the Western Soudan books were removed from the area and destroyed by colonial administrators, but a great deal of manuscripts survived as well but we also have to take into account during the age of the Three Great Sahelian Empires of West Africa specifically concerning the era of Mali and Songhay they were subject to raids from the Mossi (as well as other groups) that bordered their south who at one time burned Timbuktu possibly destroying valuable manuscripts in the process as well as playing a key role in the collapse of the Malian Empire before colonization took place. There were a number of educational hubs that existed throughout the region that tend to get overshadowed by Timbuktu like Futa Djallon, Kong, Kano, Djenne,and a number of other important places as well who may have a host of manuscripts yet revealed and untranslated. Not only that we do have some avaible manuscripts that have been translated although a great number being translated in French such as the Tarikh-al-Fattash, The Kano Chronicles, The Bornu Book of Wars, as well as a host of other bodies of work by intellectuals from the region. With all that being said I do agree that before there was a more open and deliberate effort to hide and discredit our history but with the advent of the internet as well as a few noble scholars who helped recapture our history we literally have vass amounts of information at our finger tips people just have to be willing to find out for themselves. People only have as much power/influence over you than what you allow.

[clydewin98]

Aug 4, 2017 17:52:54 GMT -5 mellomusings said:

Interesting video nice to actually see the face of the author Robin Walker I own one of his books "Blacks and Science Volume Two West and East African Contributions to Science and Technology & Intellectual Life and Legacy of Timbuktu", pretty good read wish it were more lengthy but still pretty informal. Although I agree with what's being said, I do however take issue of constantly feeling victimized as a people. Yes during the time of colonization concerning the Western Soudan books were removed from the area and destroyed by colonial administrators, but a great deal of manuscripts survived as well but we also have to take into account during the age of the Three Great Sahelian Empires of West Africa specifically concerning the era of Mali and Songhay they were subject to raids from the Mossi (as well as other groups) that bordered their south who at one time burned Timbuktu possibly destroying valuable manuscripts in the process as well as playing a key role in the collapse of the Malian Empire before colonization took place. There were a number of educational hubs that existed throughout the region that tend to get overshadowed by Timbuktu like Futa Djallon, Kong, Kano, Djenne,and a number of other important places as well who may have a host of manuscripts yet revealed and untranslated. Not only that we do have some avaible manuscripts that have been translated although a great number being translated in French such as the Tarikh-al-Fattash, The Kano Chronicles, The Bornu Book of Wars, as well as a host of other bodies of work by intellectuals from the region. With all that being said I do agree that before there was a more open and deliberate effort to hide and discredit our history but with the advent of the internet as well as a few noble scholars who helped recapture our history we literally have vass amounts of information at our finger tips people just have to be willing to find out for themselves. People only have as much power/influence over you than what you allow.

Thanks for bringing up the Timbuktu literature. When I was at the University of Illinois-Urbana in the early 1970's I had hoped to translate these books, but alas no money and white control of access , to the material, back then made my dream impossible to bring into being. Back then there was no interest in translating Arabic and French works into English because it allowed whites to control the field.

Using African, French, English and Brazilian sources I was able to publish work on the African Muslim slaves in the U.S., Caribbean and Brazil--but I could never get a publisher to publish a book length manuscript on the topic, even though, C. Eric Lincoln , tried to get my work published in the series he edited on Black Religion. This taught me that just because an Afro-American was editor of a book series, they lacked power over what books could be published in the series.

But after whites took over Afro-American historical studies there was interest in publishing work in this area, and they allowed whites to publish my work. After repackaging my articles A.D. Austin, at the University of Chicago, made a name for himself using my original research, from then on only whites could get stuff published in African Islamic studies.

As long as we can not get well-to-do Afro-Americans support Black history with their pocket books we will never really be able to tell our history --unless the individual researcher has the funds to support their research.

See:

Clyde Winters, Muslims in Pluralistic Societies : The Case of the West Indies, www.academia.edu/8492681/Muslims_in_Pluralistic_Societies_The_Case_of_the_West_Indies

Clyde Winters, The Muslims of Rio de Janeiro, www.academia.edu/8492553/The_Muslims_of_Rio_de_Janeiro

Clyde Winters, The Afro-Brazilian Concept of Jihad and the 1835 Slave Revolt, www.academia.edu/8491185/The_Afro-Brazilian_Concept_of_Jihad_and_the_1835_Slave_Revolt

You can find more of my work at : olmec98.academia.edu/CWinters . Here I have posted 215 of my articles, other articles I have wriiten can be found at www.researchgate.net/profile/Clyde_Winters .