Serena Williams Open Letter to All Women

On By Dr. Y.In Great People11 Comments
serena2_forbes
Serena Williams (Forbes)

Serena Williams wrote a powerful open letter “to all incredible women who strive for excellence” about gender and sexism for the December issue of Porter magazine. The letter was part of the Incredible Women of 2016 issue reprinted by the Guardian.

==============

To all incredible women who strive for excellence,

When I was growing up, I had a dream. I’m sure you did, too. My dream wasn’t like that of an average kid, my dream was to be the best tennis player in the world. Not the best “female” tennis player in the world.

I was fortunate to have a family that supported my dream and encouraged me to follow it. I learned not to be afraid. I learned how important it is to fight for a dream and, most importantly, to dream big. My fight began when I was three and I haven’t taken a break since.

But as we know, too often women are not supported enough or are discouraged from choosing their path. I hope together we can change that. For me, it was a question of resilience. What others marked as flaws or disadvantages about myself – my race, my gender – I embraced as fuel for my success. I never let anything or anyone define me or my potential. I controlled my future.

So when the subject of equal pay comes up, it frustrates me because I know firsthand that I, like you, have done the same work and made the same sacrifices as our male counterparts. I would never want my daughter to be paid less than my son for the same work. Nor would you.

As we know, women have to break down many barriers on the road to success. One of those barriers is the way we are constantly reminded we are not men, as if it is a flaw. People call me one of the “world’s greatest female athletes”. Do they say LeBron is one of the world’s best male athletes? Is Tiger? Federer? Why not? They are certainly not female. We should never let this go unchallenged. We should always be judged by our achievements, not by our gender.

For everything I’ve achieved in my life, I am profoundly grateful to have experienced the highs and lows that come with success. It is my hope that my story, and yours, will inspire all young women out there to push for greatness and follow their dreams with steadfast resilience. We must continue to dream big, and in doing so, we empower the next generation of women to be just as bold in their pursuits.

Serena Williams

 

Fidel Castro: Ideas cannot be Killed!

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments, Great PeopleLeave a comment

 fidel-castro_4« ¡ Las ideas no se matan ! » « Ideas cannot be killed ! »

This is the sentence shouted out to the killing squad which was about to execute Fidel Castro on 26 July 1953, and this saved him. Indeed, El Commandante stood for ideas and above all for love: love of humanity, and planet earth. He understood that imperialism was nullifying the human being, and crushing people under its hands. He worked for the freedom of mankind. Fidel showed us that the size of a country or its people does not matter when fighting for great ideas and principles. Cuba is a small country, but its actions, its help, has been immense to Africa for the past 50 years. Even to this day, doctors across Africa are trained in Cuba, and Cuban doctors have vastly supported the health-care services of many countries including Ghana.

Nelson Mandela wrote from Robben Island, about Cuba: “It was the first time that a country had come from another continent not to take something away, but to help Africans to achieve their freedom.” Indeed, Cuba’s help to Africa has been selfless, and loving, and that of true brotherhood.

fidel-castro_2As a towering figure who stayed true to his Marxist-Leninist ideology even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Fidel Castro has empowered countless Africans. The struggle for liberation from colonial powers by Africans benefited vastly from help from this little country in the western hemisphere.

When Africa cried, Cuba was there. When Portuguese were killing, subjugating, imprisoning Angolans, Bissau-Guineans, Cape Verdians, Mozambicans, Cuba was there. When Apartheid and the South African regime was oppressing (with support of the Western world) Black South Africans cried, and Fidel heed their calls. When Lumumba was killed, and Congo at lost, they called and Fidel answered. When Namibia was crushed, Fidel and Cuba helped free them from the Apartheid regime. When Ethiopians needed help, Fidel provided troops and expertise. When France was perpetrating a genocide in Algeria, Cuba helped free them.

Castro’s support for Africa’s liberation led him to meet with some of the continent’s leaders including Patrice Lumumba of Congo, Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, Sam Nujoma of Namibia, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

Amilcar Cabral
Amilcar Cabral

Responding to calls for help from the Angolan leader
Agostinho Neto who was trying to liberate his country from the Portuguese, Castro sent troops to Angola. Today, Angola is free of civil war thanks to the unfailing support of Fidel. Cuban soldiers are documented to have fought alongside Namibians and South Africans to prevent the apartheid regime from spreading all over southern Africa. They have also helped in Mozambique, and Guinea Bissau & Cape Verde supporting Amilcar Cabral. Between 1966 and 1974 a small Cuban force proved pivotal in the Guineans’ victory over the Portuguese. This time Cuba’s involvement also stretched to medical support (Cuban doctors) and technical know-how. Ultimately, Cuba’s successful battle against South Africa in Angola also hastened the Apartheid regime’s withdrawal from Namibia after 70 years of occupation, and led to that country’s subsequent independence.

Cuban troops have since the 1960s, served in Algeria, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone and Libya. Cuba was a thorn for the imperialists in Africa, France in Algeria, Portugal, Great Britain, South Africa, etc.

Agostinho Neto
Agostinho Neto

In a 1998 speech, Fidel Castro told the South African Parliament (it was his first visit to the country) that by the end of the Cold War at least 381,432 Cuban soldiers and officers had been on duty or “fought hand-in-hand with African soldiers and officers in this continent for national independence or against foreign aggression.”

Given this history, it was no surprise that one of Mandela’s first trips outside South Africa – after he was freed – was to Havana. There, in July 1991, Mandela, referred to Castro as “a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people,” adding that Cuba, under Castro’s leadership “helped us in training our people, gave us resources to keep current with our struggle, trained our people as doctors.”  At the end of his Cuban trip, Mandela responded to American criticism about his loyalty to Castro and Cuba: “We are now being advised about Cuba by people who have supported the Apartheid regime these last 40 years. No honorable man or woman could ever accept advice from people who never cared for us at the most difficult times.”

fidel-castro_5Altogether fitting was Cuban President Raul Castro’s address at Nelson Mandela’s funeral in 2013. In Johannesburg, Raul reminded his audience: “We shall never forget Mandela’s moving homage to our common struggle when on the occasion of his visit to our country on July 26, 1991, he said, and I quote, ‘the Cuban people have a special place in the hearts of the peoples of Africa’.”

Upon arrival in Havana, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe said, “Fidel was not just your leader. He was our leader and the leader of all revolutionaries.”

So in essence, many countries in Africa became independent thanks to Cuba and Fidel Castro, thanks to his ideals and his love of freedom. I am not sure that there is a single African country which has not benefited in some way shape or form from Cuba. We all owe Fidel our love, our lives, our freedom, and we salute him: So long El Commandante, thanks to you, we are free! Thanks to you, we fought a long battle and won! thanks to you, we started new chapters and became ‘free’ countries! Africa owes you so much!

 

Ancient City unearthed in Egypt

On By Dr. Y.In Great CivilizationsLeave a comment
pyramid-of-giza
Pyramid of Giza in the 19th Century

An ancient city has been unearthed in Egypt and dates back more than 5,000 years and contains houses, tools, pottery, and huge graves. The city lies by the River Nile, close to the temple of Seti I in Abydos. It is said to have been the city of tomb builders and architects. The rest below is from the BBC:

=================

It is believed the city was home to important officials and tomb builders and would have flourished during early-era ancient Egyptian times.

Archaeologists have made a range of finds in the newly-discovered city including buildings, shards of pottery and tools.

It is believed that this location was home to important officials and tomb builders who may have been engaged in the construction of royal graves in the nearby sacred city of Abydos – a place of many temples, and a capital in an early period of ancient Egyptian history.

The area is in the southern province of Sohag, in Upper Egypt, home also to the city of Luxor, one of the country’s most popular tourist sites.

“About a mile behind where this material is said to be we have the necropolis with royal tombs going from before history to the period where we start getting royal names, we start getting identifiable kings,” Prof Chris Eyre, an Egyptologist based at the University of Liverpool, told the BBC.

“So, this appears to be the town, the capital at the very beginning of Egyptian history.”

The discovery was made by an archaeological mission that belongs to the country’s Antiquities Ministry, and not a foreign group, officials quoted in Egypt Independent website said.

Proverbe sur le Discernement / Proverb on Discernment

On By Dr. Y.In Great Wisdom1 Comment
Leopard_6
Leopard

A la cour où règne le léopard, le bouc ne vient pas poursuivre la chèvre (Proverbe Ntomba – RDC). – Ne faites pas le grand devant vos supérieurs.

In the court where the leopard reigns, the ram does not follow the goat (Ntomba proverb – DRC). – Don’t act big in front of your superiors.

The Rhind Papyrus or Advanced Ancient Egyptian Mathematics

On By Dr. Y.In Great Art, Great Science2 Comments
papyrus-rhind_mathematical
Rhind Papyrus

1300 years before Thalès was born, Ancient Egyptians solved the famous theorem which now bears his name, Theorème de Thales in French, or Intercept theorem in English. Back then, it was called problem Number 53, and was part of the Rhind Papyrus. The value for π was already approximated as 3.16 (a 0.6% margin error, extremely good even by modern standards), 4000 years before that value was fixed at 3.14. So why are these theorems called after Pythagoras or Thales, when they had already existed thousands of years prior to their living?

papyrus-rhind-scribe
A scribe in Ancient Egypt

The Rhind Papyrus is a famous papyrus written by the scribe Ahmes (Ahmose) around 1650 BC. It was copied from a now lost text from the reign of king Amenemhat III (12th dynasty) 1500 years prior to Ahmose’s birth. His papyrus is one of the best known examples of advanced Egyptian mathematics; mathematician-priests of the Nile valley knew no peers. It was found during illegal excavations in or near the Ramesseum. It has been housed in the British Museum since 1865 along with the Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll. Originally, this papyrus was 5 m long and 33 cm high. This is the most famous mathematical papyrus to have survived from Ancient Egypt.

pyramid-of-giza
Pyramid of Giza in the 19th century

This papyrus shows that Ancient Egyptians were very advanced mathematicians and were familiar with both roots and square roots. They could plot an arch by using offsets that were measured at regular intervals from a base line, and they could also find out areas. To find the area of a circle, the Egyptians used an area of a square on an 8/9 of the diameter, or (7/8) squared. They could also figure out the area of a triangle. They knew that the volume of a frustum of a square pyramid equaled (1/3) h (a2 + ab + b2) – modern mathematicians, 4000 years later, have still not found a better approximation. They also knew that to make right angled triangles, they had to use the ratio of 3:4:5. The Great Pyramid of Khufu, Great Pyramid of Giza, from the 4th Dynasty is a mathematical wonder: It is laid out with geometric precision – a near-perfect square base, with sides of 230 m that differ from each other by less than 20 cm, and faces that sloped upwards at an angle of 51 to reach an apex nearly 150 m above the desert floor. Khufu’s pyramid was built long before the Ahmose papyrus was written, indicating the beginning of this mathematical theory was about 1,000 years old by the year 1650 B.C.E.

The Rhind Papyrus is divided in 3 books. Book 1 includes problems 1 – 40, and is about algebra and arithmetics. Book 2 focuses on Geometry and spans problems 41 – 59, while Book 3 focuses on miscellaneous problems from number 60 – 87.

The first part of the Rhind papyrus, book 1, consists of reference tables and a collection of 21 arithmetic and 20 algebraic problems. The first part of the papyrus is taken up by the 2/n table. The fractions 2/n for odd n ranging from 3 to 101 are expressed as sums of unit fractions.

papyrus-rhind1_areaProblems 41 – 46 show how to find the volume of both cylindrical and rectangular granaries. In problem 41, Ahmose computes the volume of a cylindrical granary. In modern mathematical notation (and using d = 2r) this gives V = (8/9)2 d2h = (256/81)r2h. The fractional term 256/81 approximates the value of π as being 3.1605.

Problem 47 is a table with fractional equalities which represent the ten situations where the physical volume quantity of “100 quadruple heqats” is divided by each of the multiples of ten, from ten through one hundred. The quotients are expressed in terms of Horus eye fractions, sometimes also using a much smaller unit of volume known as a “quadruple ro”. Egyptian numerals were based on 10, a precursor to our decimal system.

papyrus-rhind_numerals
Egyptian numerals

Problems 48–55 show how to compute an assortment of areas. Problem 48 is notable in that it succinctly computes the area of a circle by approximating π. Specifically, problem 48 explicitly reinforces the convention (used throughout the geometry section) that “a circle’s area stands to that of its circumscribing square in the ratio 64/81.” Problem number 53 is the famous Thales’s theorem, 1300 years before he was born!

Other problems show how to find the area of rectangles, triangles and trapezoids. The final six problems are related to the slopes of pyramids.

The third part of the Rhind papyrus consists of the remainder of the 91 problems, being 61, 61B, 62-82, 82B, 83-84, and “numbers” 85-87, which are items that are not mathematical in nature. This final section contains more complicated tables of data, several pefsu problems which are algebraic problems concerning food preparation, and even an amusing problem (number 79) which is suggestive of geometric progressions, geometric series, and certain later problems and riddles in history.

papyrus-rhind3
Thales theorem or problem number 53

So, it is truly no surprise that over several thousand years later, modern-day architects still cannot reproduce the great pyramids of Egypt… well, simply because these were quite advanced mathematicians and scientists. In all ancient Egyptian mathematics, there is not a single mathematical error, not in trigonometry, algebra, geometry, arithmetic, or mechanics. No wonder we still are in awe at the Egyptian Pharaonic era. It is a pity that some of their work was “stolen” by the likes of Thales and Pythagoras and renamed after them. It is a pity that so many of us have lived in ignorance of such great science on our continent. It is sad that most African kids have been taught in their classrooms the Thales theorem or Pythagorean one or Archimede (problem 10 of the Moscow Papyrus solves Archimede’s at least 1700 years earlier) without ever being told about their famous intelligent ancestors who had the answers to all these over 3000 years earlier. So today, after looking at the Rhind Papyrus and at problem number 53, I no longer call this the Theorem of Thales or Intercept Theorem, but rather the Egyptian theorem, and Pythagoras triangle, the Egyptian triangle.

For more information, check out the works of Cheikh Anta Diop (Apport de l’Afrique à la Civilisation Universelle, 1985 – published in Presence Africaine 1987), Beatrice Lumpkin (African and African-American contributions to mathematics, PPS Geocultural Essaysbseries, 1987), Ivan van Sertima, and Elikia M’Bokolo.

Interprétation Guinéenne de Matthieu 7:6 / Guinean Rendition of Matthew 7:6

On By Dr. Y.In Great WisdomLeave a comment

gold3On ne montre de l’or qu’à celui qui le connaît: autrement il en ferait une hache (Proverbe Toma – Guinée Conakry).- Ne pas jeter les perles aux pourceaux.

Only show gold to someone who knows it: otherwise, he will make it into an axe (Toma Proverb – Guinea). – Do not throw pearls to piglets.

‘A ma Mère / To my Mother’ by Camara Laye

On By Dr. Y.In Great Literature8 Comments
isis-horus1
Isis and Horus, an African mother

I am sure every African child has read either the entire book or excerpts of ‘L’Enfant Noir‘, ‘African Child‘ by the Guinean author Camara Laye . It is a school classic. When we were in school, the teacher will often give us dictations from this book. The book focuses mostly about Camara Laye ‘s childhood and was written in the 1950s at a time when most African writers were talking about independence, negritude, panafricanism, etc. This earned Laye’s some tough remarks from Cameroonian author Mongo Beti and others about his lack of interest in panafricanism and African independences. Today, I present to you this poem, ‘A ma mère / To my mother‘ of Camara Laye to his mother (published in Coup de Pillon), which is in reality an ode to all African women, and all mothers around the globe. Good to note his mentioning of blacksmiths in this poem, especially given that Camara Laye’s family was Malinke and he was born into a caste that traditionally worked as blacksmiths and goldsmiths. The English translation is by Deborah Weagel. Enjoy!

A ma Mère

Femme noire, femme africaine,
Ô toi ma mère, je pense à toi…
Ô Daman, ô ma Mère,
Toi qui me portas sur le dos,
Toi qui m’allaitas, toi qui gouvernas mes premiers pas,
Toi qui la première m’ouvris les yeux aux prodiges de la terre,
Je pense à toi…

Femme des champs, femme des rivières
femme du grand fleuve, ô toi, ma mère je
pense à toi…

Ô toi Daman, Ô ma mère,
Toi qui essuyas mes larmes,
Toi qui me réjouissais le cœur,
Toi qui, patiemment, supportais mes caprices,
Comme j’aimerais encore être près de toi,
Etre enfant près de toi !

Femme simple, femme de la résignation,
Ô toi ma mère, je pense à toi.
Ô Daman, Daman de la grande famille des forgerons,
Ma pensée toujours se tourne vers toi,
La tienne à chaque pas m’accompagne,
Ô Daman, ma mère,
Comme j’aimerais encore être dans ta chaleur,
Etre enfant près de toi…

Femme noire, femme africaine,
Ô toi ma mère,
Merci, merci pour tout ce que tu fis pour moi,
Ton fils si loin, si près de toi.

 To my Mother

Black woman, African woman, O mother, I think of you …
O Dâman, O mother,
who carried me on your back, who nursed me,
who governed by first steps,
who opened my eyes to the beauties of the world, I think of you …

Woman of the fields, woman of the rivers, woman of the great river, O
mother, I think of you …

O Dâman, O mother, who wiped my tears,
who cheered up my heart,
who patiently dealt with my caprices,
how I would love to still be near you.

Simple woman, woman of resignation, O mother, I think of you.
O Dâman, Dâman of the great family of blacksmiths, my thoughts are
always of you, they accompany me with every step,
O Dâman, my mother, how I would love to still feel your warmth,
to be your child that is close to you …
Black woman, African woman, O mother, thank you; thank you for all
that you have done for me, your son, so far away yet so close to you!

 

Maku Mawu and Maku Fia; or “I will die God’s death” and “I will die the King’s death”

On By Dr. Y.In Great Legends & Tales2 Comments
Yams
Yams

ONCE upon a time there were two men who were such great friends that they were almost always together. If one was seen the other was sure to be near. They had given one another special names, which were to be used only by themselves. One name, Maku Mawu, meant, “I will die God’s death,” and the other, Maku Fia, “I will die the King’s death.”

By and by, however, the other villagers heard these names and gradually everyone got into the habit of calling the two friends by the nicknames in preference to the real ones. Finally, the King of the country heard of them and wished to see the men who had chosen such strange titles. He sent for them to Court, and they came together. He was much pleased with the one who had chosen the name of “Maku Fia,” but he was annoyed at the other man’s choice and sought a chance of punishing him.

stone1When he had talked to them a little while, he invited both to a great feast which he was to give in three days’ time. As they went away he gave a fine large yam to Maku Mawu and only a small round stone to his own favourite. The latter felt somewhat aggrieved at getting only a stone, while his friend got such a fine yam. Very soon he said, “Oh, dear! I do not think it is any use carrying this stone home. How I wish it were a yam! Then I could cook it for dinner.” Maku Mawu being very generous— immediately replied, “Then change with me, for I am quite tired of carrying my great yam.” They exchanged, and each went off to his own home. Maku Fia cut up his yam and cooked it. Maku Mawu broke his stone in half and found inside some beautiful ornaments which the King had hidden there. He thought that he would play a trick on the King, so told nobody what had been in the stone.

Yellow Yam
mmmhhhhhh tasty!!!

On the third day they dressed to go to the King’s feast. Maku Mawu put on all the beautiful ornaments out of the stone. Maku Fia dressed himself just as usual.

When they reached the palace the King was amazed to see the wrong man wearing his ornaments, and determined to punish him more effectually next time. He asked Maku Fia what he had done with the stone, and the man told him he had exchanged it for his friend’s yam.

At first the King could not think of any way to punish Maku Mawu, as, of course, the latter had not done anything wrong. He soon had an idea, however. He pretended to be very pleased with the poor man and presented him with a beautiful ring from his own finger. He then made him promise to come back in seven days and show the ring to the King again, to let the latter see that it was not lost. If by any chance he could not produce the ring—he would lose his head. This the King did, meaning to get hold of the ring in some way and, so get the young man killed.

ring1Maku Mawu saw what the King’s design was, so determined to hide the ring. He made a small hole in the wall of his room, put the ring in it, and carefully plastered over the place again. No one could see that the wall had been touched.

After two days the King sent for the wife of Maku Mawu and asked her to find the ring. He promised her a large sum of money for it not telling her, of course, what would happen to her husband if the ring were lost. The woman went home and searched diligently but found nothing. Next day she tried again with no better success. Then she asked her husband what he had done with it. He innocently told her it was in the wall. Next day, when he was absent, she searched so carefully that at last she found it.

Delighted, she ran off to the King’s palace and gave the ring to him. She got the promised money and returned home, never dreaming that she had really sold her husband’s life.

On the sixth day the King sent a message to Maku Mawu, telling him to prepare for the next day. The poor man bethought himself of the ring and went to look if it were still safe. To his despair the hole was empty. He asked his wife and his neighbours. All denied having seen it. He made up his mind that he must die.

In the meantime the King had laid the ring in one of the dishes in his palace and promptly forgot about it. When the seventh morning had arrived he sent messengers far and wide, to summon the people to come and see a man punished for disobeying the King’s orders. Then he commanded his servants to set the palace in order, and to take the dishes out of his room and wash them.

The careless servants—never looking-to see if the dishes were empty or not took them all to a pool near by. Among them was the dish containing the ring. Of course, when the dish was being washed, out fell the ring into the water—without being noticed by the servants.

PirogueThe palace being all in readiness, the King went to fetch the ring. It was nowhere to be found and he was obliged to go to the Assembly without it.

When every one was ready the poor man, Maku Mawu, was called to come forward and show the ring. He walked boldly up to the King and knelt down before him, saying. “The ring is lost and I am prepared to die. Only grant me a few hours to put my house in order.” At first the king was unwilling to grant even that small favour, but finally he said, “Very well, you may have four hours. Then you must return here and be beheaded before the people.” The innocent man returned to his home and put everything in order. Then, feeling hungry, he thought, “I may as well have some food before I die. I will go and catch a fish in the pool.”

He accordingly took his fish-net and bait, and started off to the very pool where the King’s dishes had been washed. Very soon he caught a fine large fish. Cutting it open, to clean it, his delight may be imagined at finding the lost ring inside it.

At once he ran off to the palace crying: “I have found the ring! I have found the ring!” When the people heard him, they all shouted in joy: “He named himself rightly ‘Maku Mawu,’ for see—the death God has chosen for him, that only will he die.” So the King had no excuse to harm him, and he went free.

Source: Barker, W. H. and Sinclair, C. West African Folk-tales. Lagos, Africa: Bookshop, 1917.

Proverbe Ethiopien pour le besoin d’un seul Chef / Ethiopian Proverb on the Need for One Chief

On By Dr. Y.In Great Wisdom2 Comments
Fagot_5
Fagot / bundle

Pour lier mille morceaux de bois, une écorce suffit (Proverbe Amhara – Ethiopie). – Un bon chef suffit pour tout un people.

To tie one thousand pieces of wood, one rope is enough (Amhara proverb – Ethiopia). – A good king is enough for an entire people.

The Treaty of Wuchale: African Victory over European Expansionism

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments2 Comments

In March 1896, a well-disciplined and massive Ethiopian army did the unthinkable—it routed an invading Italian force and brought Italy’s war of conquest in Africa to an end. In an age of relentless European expansion, Ethiopia had successfully defended its independence and cast doubt upon an unshakable certainty of the age—that sooner or later all Africans would fall under the rule of Europeans. The battle of Adwa marked Ethiopia’s victory against Italian colonization. It all started with the treaty of Wuchale. The short documentary below gives you an idea about it. This indeed was the biggest, the only, African defeat of European expansionism and ugly scramble for Africa. Enjoy!