Stele of Amanishakheto (center) from the temple of Amun in Wad ban Naqa (Wikipedia)
Amanishakheto was a great queen of Nubia and is known as a great warrior and pyramid builder; she built numerous pyramids and temples at Meroë. She is also the daughter of Amanirenas, the fearless and one-eyed queen who defeated the Romans, and the mother of Amanitore, another great queen. Today, vestiges of her palace which had been destroyed and plundered by the Italian explorer Giuseppe Ferlini can still be seen at Wad ban Naqa, and her jewelry (looted by the same Italian), are now on display at the Egyptian Museum of Berlin, and at the Egyptian Museum of Munich.
Great women are often left out of history. Rarely do we hear or read about African queens. It is already hard enough to read about great African men and leaders in history books, but as for African women… it is more like impossible. How many have heard of the great warrior queen of Nubia, Amanishakheto, who defeated a Roman army? Who has heard of this great queen whose pyramid/tomb was leveled to the ground by an Italian treasure hunter, Giuseppe Ferlini, in 1832? Who has heard of this woman who led her people with a strong arm, and built pyramids in Meroë? Who has heard of this great candace, whose daughter Amanitore, also queen of Nubia, is mentioned in the Bible (Acts 8:27) … yeah the Queen of Sheba is not the only African…
To celebrate our 10-years anniversary, one of our contributors is offering you this amazing book on Amazon . A king, a beautiful princess, and a pot of hot chili sauce… the combination is bound to make you laugh. Enjoy this book, an African Children’s book, for young and young at heart! It is on kindle e-book in both French and English.
Village school in French West Africa (AOF) 1900s – French assimilationism (Louis Sonolet, Source: http://exhibitions.nypl.org)
The poem ‘My Name‘ by Magoleng wa Selepe has touched many strong chords. It is the truth, and still rings true today. During colonial times, our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were stripped of their names and identity: to go to school, they had to have a European name, and very often their own names were distorted because the European colonizer could not spell it properly. Depending on the origin of the colonizer, whether it was France, Great Britain, Germany, or Portugal, one ended up with a French, British, German, or Portuguese name. Enjoy !!!
I just thought about what happened to our fathers, mothers, grandmothers, and grandfathers during colonial times: to go to school African children were forced by European missionaries to adopt a christian name such as John, Peter (Jean, Pierre), etc… as opposed to their good old African name Nomzimo, Makeba, Ndoumbe, Keïta, etc. Thus many Africans who would have just worn the name ‘Ndoumbe Mpondo‘ or ‘Binlin Dadié‘ or ‘Um Nyobé‘ had to adopt a European name such as John + their own name, such that they became: John Ndoumbe Mpondo or Bernard Binlin Dadié or Ruben Um Nyobé. To this day, the tradition has remained… most Africans would have three or four names: their family name, and their given name, plus the European first name and in some cases a European middle name as well. The poem below entitled…
Tetela woman with intricate ritual scarification designs ca 1905, Lualaba – Kasai
Today, we will reblog our article on scarification, an ‘ancient’ African tattoo culture. Not too long ago, scarification, as practiced in Africa, was much more than art work on skin. For many, it was a way of identification (the ethnic group you belonged to), a right of passage (boyhood to manhood, girlhood to womanhood, …), symbols of beauty and status, protection against evil spirits, and a rich tradition passed on from generations to generations. So next time you think about tattooing yourself, remember the ancient ways and designs of yore.
Image of a young woman’s face (agnautacouture.com)
These days, many of my fellow African brothers and sisters sport tattoos of some European or foreign symbols on their skins. These symbols are usually alien to our cultures, traditions, thinking, and history. So I thought about talking about scarification, which could be called an “ancient” African culture of tattoos.
For starters, Africa has a rich culture of scarification. Many cite HIV, and ugliness as being the reason why they would not do scarification and why the practice has been abandoned. I neither agree nor disagree with them, but I would like to give a history of scarification and why, this is something to be cherished as part of our history, even if it is no longer practiced and/or needed today.
Sculpture of a Mangbetu person, in Congo (exposed at the MET)
In the past, a woman or man would have scarification marks that…
Very often, Africans are depicted on old pictures as naked people, walking around without any clothing. This seems to be quite at odd with the fact that the Dutch textile company VLISCO has been installed in Africa, more precisely in Togo, since 1846. So how could pictures from the 1800s and early 1900s only show naked Africans? The BBC recently ran a story on VLISCO and African textile tradition actually being European. The New York Times claimed that Africa’s fabric was entirely Dutch. I find this quite appalling, and I call this a falsification of history.
For starters, before VLISCO, Africa had a very rich textile industry as noted by Kankan Moussa‘s entire delegation being clothed from cotton woven with golden threads in 1300s during his pilgrimage to the Mecca (this will be a story for another day), or the Kanembu clothing tradition which dates as far…
This is yet another favorite on the African Heritage blog.
Please take a moment to reflect on this colonial tax African countries have been made to pay for the past 70+ years, particularly in view of the new West African money ECO which is trying to come to life. We applaud the idea of a common currency in West Africa, and in Africa as a whole… remember that this was Kwame Nkrumah‘s dream and the forefathers of the African Union, but when we hear France’s puppet Alassane Ouattara of Côted’Ivoire say that the ECO will be just another name for the FCFA, we can only scream against it, or rather against France’s scheming yet again to impoverish African countries. What France is doing to African countries, by getting over 500 billion dollars every year for free (Africa is funding Europe!), is the same thing that Nazi Germany did to France with their currency at the time of World War II: the FCFA was inspired from it. Yet… after pillaging Africa yearly and raping her daily, they do not seem to hold their economy down, dealing with unemployment, and the Yellow Vests! Free money is always like that: because you did not work for it, it always seems to run out quickly! It’s about time they think of a partnership… but then it is France, so that will probably never happen!
African countries continue to pay colonial tax to France 50 years after their independence. This system is an abomination destined to keep African countries poor forever! Here are some excerpts from the article by Mawuna R. Koutonin. For the full article, go to France Colonial Tax , and do not forget to check out the article I wrote a while back on the Franc CFA: slave currency! Also, please read the book by Pr. Nicolas Agbohou on the subject: ‘Le Franc CFA et l’Euro contre l’Afrique.’
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Did you know that many African countries continue to pay colonial tax to France since their independence till today?
Sekou Toure, Cover Time Magazine, Feb. 16, 1959
Sékou Touré of Guinea decided in 1958 to get out of french colonial empire, and opted for the country’s independence, the french colonial elite in Paris got so…
Reblogging this all-time favorite poem on the African Heritage Blog.
A few questions for the readers: what do you like the most about this poem by Sandile Dikeni? What is special? And what made you connect to it? What in this poem describes your country or is there something in it which describes your country?
In the past I have always wished that we, Africans, could be patriotic. I came across this beautiful poem ‘Love poem for my country‘ by South African writer Sandile Dikeni. I really enjoy the way the author describes his country, the valleys, the birds, the ancient rivers, and its beauty. He feels the peace, the wealth, and the health his country brings. He is one with hiscountry.He is at home! His country is not just words or food, or friends, or family, it is more, it is his essence! That is true patriotism, the bond that links us to the bone to our motherland. Enjoy!
My country is for love so say its valleys where ancient rivers flow the full circle of life under the proud eye of birds adorning the…
This is another all-time favorite… The second-most popular post on Afrolegends.com: the history of Adinkra symbols and the Rich Akan culture of the Akan people of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. Enjoy!
As we revisit this favorite, please let us know if there are other things you would like to learn on the topic, and we will try to add more.
The Adinkra symbols are believed to originate in Gyaman, a former kingdom in modern day Côte d’Ivoire. According to an Ashanti (Asante) legend, Adinkra was the name of a king of the Gyaman kingdom, Nana Kofi Adinkra. King Adinkra was defeated and captured in a battle. According to the legend, Nana Adinkra wore patterned cloth, which was interpreted as a way of expressing his sorrow on being taken to Kumasi, the capital of Asante. He was finally killed and his territory was annexed to the kingdom of Asante. The Asante people, around the 19th century, took to painting of traditional symbols of the Gyamans onto cloth, a tradition which has remained to this day.
Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Toni Morrison, the first Black woman to win a Nobel prize in literature, has passed away at the age of 88. I have read some of her books: “The Bluest Eye” which was part of my Dad’s collection and which I devoured, “Beloved” (I saw the movie, and was left with a ‘What just happened?’ feeling at the end of it), “Song of Solomon,” and “Sula“… I have to admit that I started “Jazz” but never finished it for lack of time. To be honest, Toni Morrison and I did not jive… I read the books, but I always felt like I needed to read them more than once to actually understand them. I believe that was her signature: her books were no cookie-cutter type-literature, but profound, heartbreaking, and conscience shakers; they had this earth-shattering effect, where you really walked a mile in the protagonist’s shoes. They also always had this musical and poetic feel to them, … maybe that’s why I kept coming for more?
‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison had an outstanding career. She started late as a writer at age 39 and was editor of textbooks at Random House before fiction: she was the first African American editor there. She then became one of the world acclaimed writer, and professor at some of the best universities in the world: Cornell University and Princeton University. She won the Nobel laureate in Literature in 1993, thereby becoming the first and only Black woman to win it to date. She was even on the cover of Time Magazine in 1998, only the second female writer of fiction and second black writer of fiction to appear on one of the most significant U.S. magazine covers of the era. And … she of course, benefited from the Oprah effect!
“Her writing was not just beautiful but meaningful — a challenge to our conscience and a call to greater empathy,” President Obama wrote Tuesday on his Facebook page. “She was as good a storyteller, as captivating, in person as she was on the page.”
“Narrative has never been merely entertainment for me,” she said in her Nobel lecture. “It is, I believe, one of the principal ways in which we absorb knowledge.”
She also said, “If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.” So get ready… it’s your turn to carry Toni Morrison’s torch!
This post on Samori Touré has been an all-time favorite post on Afrolegends.com . I am reblogging it here, because on this 10-year anniversary of the African Heritage Blog, it has been the most viewed and loved article. As you know, Samori Touré, grandfather to the African president Sekou Touré (another resistant to French imperialism – Guinea: the country who dared say ‘NO’ to France), was a leader and ruled over a vast empire which spanned big areas of West Africa from Guinea all the way to modern-day Côte d’Ivoire. He was a strong fighter to France imperialism in Africa, and opposed a great resistance to the French several times. This is to one of Africa’s great kings, warriors, and resistant.
One of the great kings, and fighters of African freedom was the great Samori Touré. Over 100 years ago, Samori Touré was captured by the French and deported to Gabon where he died of pneumonia.
But who was Samori Touré?
Well, Samori Touré was born in 1830 in Manyambaladugu (some texts mentionSanankoro instead), a village southeast of Kankan in present-day Guinea. Samori was a great warrior who fought imperialism in the 19th century such as many leaders today. He refused to submit to French colonization and thus chose the path of confrontation using warfare and diplomacy.
Until the age of 20, Samori was a trader. After his mother was captured in a slave raid by the king Sori Birama, he offered to serve in his army and excelled by his military prowess and skills.
Samori Touré had a vision of unity for the Malinké people, and…
Candace Amanishakheto on a mural 
Carte des pays de la zone CFA 
Sekou Toure, Cover Time Magazine, Feb. 16, 1959 
African Heritage 