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Published 7/1/2004
(First Published in City Press, July, 2004)
There is a common belief among whites that philosophy originates with the Greeks. The idea is so common that almost all of the books on philosophy start with the Greeks as if the Greeks pre-dated all other people when it came to discussion of concepts of beauty, art, numbers, sculpture, medicine of social organization. In fact, this dogma occupies the principal position in the academies of the Western world, including the universities and academies of Africa. It goes something like this:
Philosophy is the highest discipline.
All other disciplines are derived from philosophy.
Philosophy is the creation of the Greeks.
The Greeks are white,
Therefore, whites are the creators of philosophy.
In the view of this dogma, other people and cultures may contribute thoughts, like the Chinese, Confucius, but thoughts are not philosophy; only the Greeks can contribute philosophy. The African people may have religion and myths, but not philosophy, according to this reasoning. Thus, this notion privileges the Greeks as the originators of philosophy, the highest of the sciences.
Obviously many Greeks who learned philosophy ventured to Africa to study. They came for many intellectual reasons. One can see that the Greeks appreciated the fact that in Egypt were men and women of great skill and knowledge just as the Egyptians appreciated the fact that there were men and women of greater knowledge in Ethiopia.
There was no Germany, France, England, Italy, United States, or Spain to speak of when the Greeks started to travel to Africa for their studies. Indeed, they went to Africa and after they went back to Greece created the Greek Golden Era. It was not before, but after they had studied in Egypt that these people got some advanced training. What I am saying is that they had to come to Africa and study with the wise men of ancient Egypt, who were black, in order to be able to learn medicine, mathematics, geometry, art, and so forth. This was long before there was any European civilization.
Not only is the word philosophy not Greek, the practice of philosophy existed long before the Greeks. Imhotep, Ptahhotep, Amenemhat, Merikare, Duauf, Amenhotep, son of Hapu, Akhenaten, and the sage of Khunanup, are just a few of the African philosophers who lived long before there was a Greece or a Greek philosopher.
When the Africans finished building the pyramids in 2500 BC it would be one thousand seven hundred years before Homer, the first Greek writer, appears!
And when he appears and begins to write The Iliad he does not spend much time before he is writing about what happened in Africa or what was happening in Africa. The Greek gods were meeting in Ethiopia. Homer is said to have spent seven years in Africa. What could he have learned in those classes with those wise teachers? He could have learned Law, philosophy, religion, astronomy, literature, politics, and medicine.
Africans did not wait for the Greeks to figure out how to construct the pyramids. Can you see the Egyptians standing around at the stone quarries or on the banks of the Nile in 2500 BC speculating on when some European would come alone and help them measure the earth, calculate width, breadth, and depth, determine the exact helical rising of Serpet (Sirius) and the inundation of the Nile, or diagnose the diseases of the human body.
Led by the Pharaoh of African History, Cheikh Anta Diop, a new cadre of scholars has emerged to challenge all of the lies that were told about Africa and about Africans. They are the ones who, as the poet Haki Madhubuti says, walk toward fear, not away from it. They are the real standards for courage and commitment.
It is so interesting to me that the ancient Greeks knew much better than the current crop of Europeans who pontificate on the subject that the ancient Egyptians, long before the coming of the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Turks to Egypt, were Africans, indeed, black-skinned Africans.
The color of the ancient Egyptians should not matter; it only comes up because one always finds some white person who is dedicated to the proposition that Africans could not have built the pyramids, and especially not black Africans. Of course, everyone should know that the Egyptians were Africans, but the fact is that they were not just Africans, these particular Egyptians were black skinned with woolly hair.
Philosophy begins first with the black skinned people of the Nile Valley around 2800 BC, that is, 2200 years before the appearance of Thales of Miletus, considered the first Western philosophy. 30,000 years ago our ancestors were separating red ochre from iron in a Swaziland cave. They had to have some idea about what they were doing. There had to be some reflection, some process by which the elders determined what was to be used for what and on what occasion. Thus, even before writing, we have evidence that Africans were engaging in meaningful discussions about the nature of their environment.
Molefi Kete Asante is one of the most published contemporary scholars, having written more than sixty books and three hundred articles.
by Dr. Molefi Kete Asante
(First Published in City Press, July, 2004)
There is a common belief among whites that philosophy originates with the Greeks. The idea is so common that almost all of the books on philosophy start with the Greeks as if the Greeks pre-dated all other people when it came to discussion of concepts of beauty, art, numbers, sculpture, medicine of social organization. In fact, this dogma occupies the principal position in the academies of the Western world, including the universities and academies of Africa. It goes something like this:
Philosophy is the highest discipline.
All other disciplines are derived from philosophy.
Philosophy is the creation of the Greeks.
The Greeks are white,
Therefore, whites are the creators of philosophy.
In the view of this dogma, other people and cultures may contribute thoughts, like the Chinese, Confucius, but thoughts are not philosophy; only the Greeks can contribute philosophy. The African people may have religion and myths, but not philosophy, according to this reasoning. Thus, this notion privileges the Greeks as the originators of philosophy, the highest of the sciences.
Obviously many Greeks who learned philosophy ventured to Africa to study. They came for many intellectual reasons. One can see that the Greeks appreciated the fact that in Egypt were men and women of great skill and knowledge just as the Egyptians appreciated the fact that there were men and women of greater knowledge in Ethiopia.
There was no Germany, France, England, Italy, United States, or Spain to speak of when the Greeks started to travel to Africa for their studies. Indeed, they went to Africa and after they went back to Greece created the Greek Golden Era. It was not before, but after they had studied in Egypt that these people got some advanced training. What I am saying is that they had to come to Africa and study with the wise men of ancient Egypt, who were black, in order to be able to learn medicine, mathematics, geometry, art, and so forth. This was long before there was any European civilization.
Not only is the word philosophy not Greek, the practice of philosophy existed long before the Greeks. Imhotep, Ptahhotep, Amenemhat, Merikare, Duauf, Amenhotep, son of Hapu, Akhenaten, and the sage of Khunanup, are just a few of the African philosophers who lived long before there was a Greece or a Greek philosopher.
When the Africans finished building the pyramids in 2500 BC it would be one thousand seven hundred years before Homer, the first Greek writer, appears!
And when he appears and begins to write The Iliad he does not spend much time before he is writing about what happened in Africa or what was happening in Africa. The Greek gods were meeting in Ethiopia. Homer is said to have spent seven years in Africa. What could he have learned in those classes with those wise teachers? He could have learned Law, philosophy, religion, astronomy, literature, politics, and medicine.
Africans did not wait for the Greeks to figure out how to construct the pyramids. Can you see the Egyptians standing around at the stone quarries or on the banks of the Nile in 2500 BC speculating on when some European would come alone and help them measure the earth, calculate width, breadth, and depth, determine the exact helical rising of Serpet (Sirius) and the inundation of the Nile, or diagnose the diseases of the human body.
Led by the Pharaoh of African History, Cheikh Anta Diop, a new cadre of scholars has emerged to challenge all of the lies that were told about Africa and about Africans. They are the ones who, as the poet Haki Madhubuti says, walk toward fear, not away from it. They are the real standards for courage and commitment.
It is so interesting to me that the ancient Greeks knew much better than the current crop of Europeans who pontificate on the subject that the ancient Egyptians, long before the coming of the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Turks to Egypt, were Africans, indeed, black-skinned Africans.
The color of the ancient Egyptians should not matter; it only comes up because one always finds some white person who is dedicated to the proposition that Africans could not have built the pyramids, and especially not black Africans. Of course, everyone should know that the Egyptians were Africans, but the fact is that they were not just Africans, these particular Egyptians were black skinned with woolly hair.
Philosophy begins first with the black skinned people of the Nile Valley around 2800 BC, that is, 2200 years before the appearance of Thales of Miletus, considered the first Western philosophy. 30,000 years ago our ancestors were separating red ochre from iron in a Swaziland cave. They had to have some idea about what they were doing. There had to be some reflection, some process by which the elders determined what was to be used for what and on what occasion. Thus, even before writing, we have evidence that Africans were engaging in meaningful discussions about the nature of their environment.
Molefi Kete Asante is one of the most published contemporary scholars, having written more than sixty books and three hundred articles.
by Dr. Molefi Kete Asante
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