12 Great African Inventions That Changed The World



1 Speech

The first words by humans were spoken by Africans.

''Using statistical methods to estimate the time required to achieve the current spread and diversity in modern languages today, Johanna Nichols — a linguist at the University of California, Berkeley — argues that vocal language must have arisen in our species at least 100,000 years ago. Using phonemic diversity, a more recent analysis offers directly linguistic support for a similar date. Estimates of this kind are independently supported by genetic, archaeological, palaeontological and much other evidence suggesting that language probably emerged somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa during the Middle Stone Age, roughly contemporaneous with the speciation of Homo sapiens.''


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language




2 Writing


In 1999, Archaeology Magazine reported that the earliest Egyptian hieroglyphs date back to 3400 BCE which "...challenge the commonly held belief that early logographs, pictographic symbols representing a specific place, object, or quantity, first evolved into more complex phonetic symbols in Mesopotamia."

Who were these original Egyptians?


The Greek historian Herodotus.. described the Colchians of the Black Sea shores as "Egyptians by race" and pointed out they had "black skins and kinky hair."

Apollodorus, the Greek philosopher, described Egypt as "the country of the black-footed ones" and the Latin historian Ammianus Marcellinus said "the men of Egypt are mostly brown or black with a skinny desiccated look."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1624_story_of_africa/page88.shtml

In his book 'Egypt', British scholar Sir E.A. Wallis Budge says: "The prehistoric native of Egypt, both in the old and in the new Stone Ages, was African and there is every reason for saying that the earliest settlers came from the South." He further states: "There are many things in the manners and customs and religions of the historic Egyptians that suggests that the original home of their prehistoric ancestors was in a country in the neighborhood of Uganda and Punt [present day Somalia]."

''Greek historian Diodorus Siculus devoted an entire chapter of his world history, the Bibliotheke Historica, or Library of History (Book 3), to the Kushites ["Aithiopians"] of Meroe. Here he repeats the story of their great piety, their high favor with the gods, and adds the fascinating legend that they were.. the founders of Egyptian civilization, invented writing, and had given the Egyptians their religion and culture.''

(1st century B.C., Diodorus Siculus of Sicily, Greek historian and contemporary of Caesar Augustus, Universal History Book III. 2. 4-3. 3)

http://wysinger.homestead.com/blackegypt101.html

To summarise:

"Ancient Egypt was a Negro civilisation. The history of Black Africa will remain suspended in the air and cannot be written correctly until African historians connect it with the history of Egypt. The African historian who evades the problem of Egypt is neither modest nor objective nor unruffled. He is ignorant, cowardly and neurotic. The ancient Egyptians were Negroes. The moral fruit of their civilisation is to be counted among the assets of the Black world."

- Cheikh Anta Diop, The African Origin of Civilisation.


The Papyrus of Maihepri, Circa 3,400 BC



Maiherpri was buried in a Royal Tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the royal necropolis. The mummy was unwrapped in March 1901, revealing a very dark skin with woolly hair. In Maiherperi's tomb, a papyrus was found depicting him with literally "blackish" skin. The papyrus in question was the Egyptian Book of the Dead.



3 Medicine

''The earliest known surgery was performed in Egypt around 2750 BC.... The Ebers papyrus (1550 BC) is full of incantations and foul applications meant to turn away disease-causing demons, and also includes 877 prescriptions. It may also contain the earliest documented awareness of tumors..

Homer (800 BC) remarked in the Odyssey: "In Egypt, the men are more skilled in medicine than any of human kind" and "the Egyptians were skilled in medicine more than any other art". The Greek historian Herodotus visited Egypt around 440 BC and wrote extensively of his observations of their medicinal practices. Pliny the Elder also wrote favourably of them in historical review. Hippocrates (the 'father of medicine'), Herophilos, Erasistratus and later Galen studied at the temple of Amenhotep, and acknowledged the contribution of ancient Egyptian medicine to Greek medicine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_medicine



4 Architecture

The African empire of Egypt developed a vast array of diverse structures and great architectural monuments along the Nile, among the largest and most famous of which are the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Great Sphinx of Giza

The pyramids, which were built in the Fourth Dynasty, testify to the power of the pharaonic religion and state. They were built to serve both as grave sites and also as a way to make their names last forever. The size and simple design show the high skill level of Egyptian design and engineering on a large scale. The Great Pyramid of Giza, which was probably completed c. 2580 BC, is the oldest and largest of the pyramids, and is the only surviving monument of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The pyramid of Khafre is believed to have been completed around 2532 BC, at the end of Khafre's reign.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_architecture

THE GREAT SPHINX OF EGYPT

ESTIMATED DATE OF CONSTRUCTION: 10,500 BC




As this New York Times article describes the statue, ''This is an anatomical condition of forward development in both jaws, more frequently found in people of African ancestry than in those from Asian or Indo-European stock.....Thus, the Sphinx is likely a facial representation of a black African..... facial soft-tissue analysis of this fabled man-lion would support a much earlier origin for the Sphinx, when Africans may have dominated the region.''

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/18/opinion/l-sphinx-may-really-be-a-black-african-408692.html



5 Mathematics

The invention of mathematics is placed firmly in African PRE-HISTORY.

''The oldest known possibly mathematical object is the Lebombo bone, discovered in the Lebombo mountains of Swaziland and dated to approximately 35,000 BC. It consists of 29 distinct notches cut into a baboon's fibula. Also prehistoric artifacts discovered in Africa and France, dated between 35,000 and 20,000 years old [respectively], suggest early attempts to quantify time.

The Ishango bone, found near the headwaters of the Nile river (northeastern Congo), may be as much as 20,000 years old and consists of a series of tally marks carved in three columns running the length of the bone. Common interpretations are that the Ishango bone shows either the earliest known demonstration of sequences of prime numbers or a six month lunar calendar.

Also, Predynastic Egyptians of the 5th millennium BC pictorially represented geometric designs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mathematics#Prehistoric_mathematics

''Numeral systems have been many and diverse, with the first known written numerals created by Egyptians in Middle Kingdom texts such as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus.

The earliest uses of mathematics were in trading, land measurement, painting and weaving patterns and the recording of time. More complex mathematics did not appear until around 3000 BC, when the Egyptians and Babylonians began using arithmetic, algebra and geometry for taxation and other financial calculations, for building and construction, and for astronomy''

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics



6 Mining of minerals

The oldest known mine on archaeological record is the "Lion Cave" in Swaziland, which radiocarbon dating shows to be about 43,000 years old. Much later on, the Africans of Egypt mined malachite....Quarries for turquoise and copper were also found at "Wadi Hamamat, Tura, Aswan and various other Nubian sites"..The gold mines of Nubia were among the largest and most extensive in the world, and are described by the Greek author Diodorus Siculus. He mentions that fire-setting was one method used to break down the hard rock holding the gold. One of the complexes is shown in one of earliest known maps. They crushed the ore and ground it to a fine powder before washing the powder for the gold dust.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining#Prehistoric_mining



7 Iron Smelting

Iron smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes production of silver, iron, copper and other base metals from their ores. Smelting uses heat and a chemical reducing agent to decompose the ore, driving off other elements as gasses or slag and leaving just the metal behind.

Early iron smelting:

''Where and how iron smelting was discovered is widely debated, and remains uncertain due to the significant lack of production finds.. [but] there is a further possibility of iron smelting and working in West Africa by 1200 BC. In addition, very early instances of carbon steel were found to be in production around 2000 years before the present in northwest Tanzania, based on complex preheating principles. These discoveries are significant for the history of metallurgy.''

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smelting


8 Religion

Greek historian Diodorus Siculus. From his own statements we learn that he traveled in Egypt around 60 BC. His travels in Egypt probably took him as far south as the first Cataract. He wrote about the ''Ethiopians'' south of Egypt.

"They further write that it was among them that people were first taught to honor the gods and offer sacrifices and arrange processions and festivals and perform other things by which people honor the divine. For this reason their piety is famous among all men, and the sacrifices among the Aithiopians are believed to be particularly pleasing to the divinity,"


9 Laws

Stephanus of Byzantium, who is said to represent the opinions of the most ancient Greeks, says:

"Ethiopia was the first established country on the earth, and the Ethiopians were the first who introduced the worship of the Gods and who established laws."
Quoted by John D. Baldwin, Prehistoric Nations, p. 62.



10 International Trade


In 1825, Arnold Hermann Heeren (1760-1842), Professor of History and Politics in the University of Gottengen and one of the ablest of the early exponents of the economic interpretation of history, published, in the fourth and revised edition of his great work Ideen Uber Die Politik, Den Verkehr Und Den Handel Der Vornehmsten Volker Der Alten Weld, a lengthy essay on the history, culture, and commerce of the ancient Ethiopians, which had profound influence on contemporary writers in the conclusion that it was among these ancient Black people of Africa and Asia that international trade was first developed. He thinks that as a by-product of these international contacts there was an exchange of ideas and cultural practices that laid the foundations of the earliest civilizations of the ancient world. Heeren in his researches says: "From the remotest times to the present, the Ethiopians [ancient name for blacks south of the Sahara] have been one of the most celebrated, and yet the most mysterious of nations. In the earliest traditions of nearly all the..civilized nations of antiquity, the name of this distant people is found. The annals of the Egyptian priests are full of them, and the nations of inner Asia, on the Euphrates and Tigris, have interwoven the fictions of the Ethiopians with their traditions of the wars and conquests of their heroes; and, at a period equally remote, they glimmer in Greek mythology. When the Greeks scarcely knew Italy and Sicily by name, the Ethiopians were celebrated in the verses of their poets, and when the faint gleam of tradition and fable gives way to the clear light of history, the lustre of the Ethiopians is not diminished."

http://wysinger.homestead.com/blackegypt101.html


11 Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy#Ancient_philosophy

Philosophy in Africa has a rich and varied history, dating from pre-dynastic Egypt, continuing through the birth of Christianity and Islam. Arguably central to the ancients was the conception of "ma'at", which roughly translated refers to "justice", "truth", or simply "that which is right". One of the earliest works of political philosophy was the Maxims of Ptah-Hotep, which were taught to Egyptian schoolboys for centuries...Ancient Egyptian philosophers made extremely important contributions to Hellenistic philosophy, Christian philosophy, and Islamic philosophy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_philosophy

''Ancient Egyptian philosophy has been credited by the ancient Greeks as being the beginning of philosophy''.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_philosophy


12 Art

The oldest art objects in the world—a series of tiny, drilled snail shells about 75,000 years old—were discovered in a South African cave.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art

Naija no dey carry last naa

Finally corruption

If this is true THEN when, why did the whites (Europeans & Americans) overtake us!


What went wrong?

tukdi:
If this is true THEN when, why did the whites (Europeans & Americans) overtake us!


What went wrong?

There is nothing like permanence in history. Human civilization is over 40,000 years old. What makes you imagine that one race or group can just be ahead of everyone for that long with no challenge from any quarters? It's impossible. Even the fallibility of man will ensure that you will eventually succumb to human frailties such as complacency, greed, in-fighting, cultural decadence, recklessness etc etc.

You will reach your peak and then start to decline, as some other group takes your place. Eventually that other group too will start to decline, and will get replaced by others. That's just life. It's happening today already. Asia is slowly taking over from Europe and the US. Africa is now the fastest growing continent economically, approximating 6% per annum. Europe and the US on the other hand, are seeing 1% or 2% annual economic growth. So the tide is shifting, however slowly. Nothing ever stays the same in history. Come back to this world in say 300 years time, and it will be an entirely different configuration. You could have Europeans seeking a better life, storming their embassies for visas to Nigeria.

KUDOS @ OP.

how then did we fall thousands of years behind our initial followers?

Everything Egypt, Ethiopia bla bla bla, Abeg Naija and Ghana nko?.....moreover Africans need to grow out of this sh*t they console themselves with. The world has moved on....

Onwardvic:
how then did we fall thousands of years behind our initial followers?

We are not ''thousands of years behind'' anybody. China was an underdeveloped region in the 1970s. Most folks rode around in bicycles. It took them less than 30 years to become an industrial giant. If we execute the right policies, we can be an advanced region in under 30 years.

SonOfAfonja:
Everything Egypt, Ethiopia bla bla bla, Abeg Naija and Ghana nko?.....moreover Africans need to grow out of this sh*t they console themselves with. The world has moved on....

Who stopped YOU from doing something major?

I bet you don't buy Aba made shoes. Or Innoson cars. Those are the real African heroes. Trying to resurrect African manufacturing.

People like you, who criticize the loudest, are the ones who will buy even 2nd hand from Italy and Germany before they buy Nigerian made.

Lesson: Put your money where your mouth is.

Rosskii:

Who stopped YOU from doing something major?

What are you saying....what have you done yourself?

SonOfAfonja:



What are you saying....what have you done yourself?

Is it not you complaining and shouting and pointing fingers at others for not making Africa an Eldorado for you, while you sit in your backyard playing Ludo?

[quote author=tukdi post=55598839]If this is true THEN when, why did the whites (Europeans & Americans) overtake us!


What went wrong? [/quote. Actually blacks lost the confident they had at first and the white took over ; it all started when Egypt lost her word power to Babylon.

Rosskii:


Is it not you complaining and shouting and pointing fingers at others for not making Africa an Eldorado for you, while you sit in your backyard playing Ludo?

Use your brains when reading, especially on public forums such as this....Who's condemning here anyone here? You don't even know me and you're spewing trash....Please get off my mentions you're too demented to exchange words with...

SonOfAfonja:



Use your brains when reading, especially on public forums such as this....Who's condemning here anyone here? You don't even know me and you're spewing trash....Please get off my mentions you're too demented to exchange words with...

Thanks.. you can now move on to the Entertainment/Celebrity/Sports section where you belong...... This thread is for adults.

What went wrong, I will tell u, look at your extended family, today it is that family members doing well, in 10 years time suddenly it is a forgotten part of another family making waves.


I have seen slaves turned to master, I have seen princes become outcast.

Today Arabs are living in Egypt, and not a single original Egyptian are alive today except there outstanding works.

Rosskii:


We are not ''thousands of years behind'' anybody. China was an underdeveloped region in the 1970s. Most folks rode around in bicycles. It took them less than 30 years to become an industrial giant. If we execute the right policies, we can be an advanced region in under 30 years.

If you don't know where and when rain started beating you, where and when it stops you won't equally know. What happened that made the leader to become the led? I understand the point you are trying to make but we have to accept the fact that we messed and are still messing up and that's when we will be able to retrace our steps and retake our position.

Rossik and his Afrocentrism. .

[quote author=viyon02 post=55599963][/quote]
Exactly!!!

Rosskii:


There is nothing like permanence in history. Human civilization is over 40,000 years old. What makes you imagine that one race or group can just be ahead of everyone for that long with no challenge from any quarters? It's impossible. Even the fallibility of man will ensure that you will eventually succumb to human frailties such as complacency, greed, in-fighting, recklessness etc etc.

You will reach your peak and then start to decline, as some other group takes your place. Eventually that other group too will start to decline, and will get replaced by others. That's just life. It's happening today already. Asia is slowly taking over from Europe and the US. Africa is now the fastest growing continent economically, approximating 6% per annum. Europe and the US on the other hand, are seeing 1% or 2% annual economic growth. So the tide is shifting, however slowly. Nothing ever stays the same in history. Come back to this world in say 500 years time, and it will be an entirely different configuration. You could have Europeans seeking a better life, storming their embassies for visas to Nigeria.

I feel blessed reading your write up!!!

I'm satisfied!!!

tukdi:


I feel blessed reading your write up!!!

I'm satisfied!!!

Thanks bro.

Rosskii:

Thanks bro.

You're highly welcome!

tukdi:
If this is true THEN when, why did the whites (Europeans & Americans) overtake us!


What went wrong?

foreign invasion and foreign religion.

Onwardvic:



If you don't know where and when rain started beating you, where and when it stops you won't equally know. What happened that made the leader to become the led? I understand the point you are trying to make but we have to accept the fact that we messed and are still messing up and that's when we will be able to retrace our steps and retake our position.

At some point we were bound to ''mess up'' as you put it. Just human nature. I read a book called the Destruction of Black Civilization in which the author, Dr Chancellor Williams traced the decline of black civilization to Africans losing possession of the Mediterranean coasts, which they had dominated from Egypt, roughly 2,000 years ago.

Infighting among the ancient Egyptian elite led to foreign invasions, and the eventual overthrow of African Egypt. This led to dispersal of blacks southwards, and then the desertification of the once fertile Sahara added to growing black African geographic isolation from the Mediterranean coast - the 'information highway' the Africans once dominated.

Africans got cut off to the point that Mali and Songhai emperors had to pay northern Arabs tribute, and even convert to Islam, in order to continue international trade on the trans Saharan - Mediterranean trade routes. This was the beginning of African isolation and dependency.

Africa fell behind technologically, as those at the northern coasts partook of the Mediterranean information exchange involving China, India, Europe, the Levant etc, that eventually culminated in the industrial revolution of the 1780s.

That's the main reason we're playing catch up. Historical displacement and isolation.

Informative and innovating

[img]https://3.bp..com/-RnsgEKPbbgc/V3q0D2cm8_I/AAAAAAAADmc/YeDrA6L5PEoaDwma36xeM4HnZtuL1ZhgACKgB/s1600/batteries%2Bdendera%2Bbulb%2Begypt%2B2.jpg[/img]



Hieroglyphs depict the ancient Egyptians using electricity with a light bulb

In Egypt, several hieroglyphics depict what could only be light bulbs, called the Dendera light.

It is believe these bulbs where powered by batteries.

Scientists have duplicated both the batteries and the bulb and were able to produce light.




Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendera_light

Horus:


Hieroglyphs depict the ancient Egyptians using electricity with a light bulb

In Egypt, several hieroglyphics depict what could only be light bulbs, called the dendera light.

It is believe these bulbs where powered by batteries.

Scientists have duplicated both the batteries and the bulb and were able to produce light.



Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendera_light

Horus, I've seen many of these astonishing images myself. I've even seen images that resemble aeroplanes and helicopters from ancient Egyptian art dated over 3000 years ago!

Are you sure that a lot of these things we see today are not stolen African knowledge repackaged as white inventions?

Who knows what the Europeans found when they raided the Library of Alexandria in Egypt, in 30 BC, via Alexander ''the Great''?

It must have a been a treasure trove of information on African technologies from probably the previous 20,000 years!!