Posts Tagged ‘African history’
This a photo essay showing connections between Africans both on the continent and the diaspora.
Africa’s Warrior Queens
Gender Roles, Political Leadership and Societal Development
by Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor
Pan-African News Wire
One major recurrent feature of African history is the existence of women rulers throughout various regions of the continent. Since the period of ancient dynastic Egypt, there have been notable women who have led monarchical societies and exercised political, economic as well as military power.
It is also of great significance that there were women rulers of highly developed African societies who led anti-slavery and anti-colonial resistance to the onslaught of European imperialism. Questions related to whether the women may have only represented the ruling groups within the society or whether they were more compassionate and egalitarian in their style of leadership, does not necessarily distract from their important place in history that distinguishes this social phenomena from other societies in Europe and Asia.
According to the web site “African Women Warriors” located at http://www.geocities.com/jywanza1/AfrikanWarriors.html
“Matriarchal warrior tribes and matrilineal tribal descent are a continuing theme in African history and in some cases survived into modern times. One of the great African warrior queens of the ancient world was Majaji, who led the Lovedu tribe which was part of the Kushite Empire during the Kushite’s centuries long war with Rome. The empire ended in 350 AD when the Kushite stronghold of Meroe fell to repeated Roman assaults. Majaji led her warriors in battle armed with a shield and spear and is believed to have died on the walls of Meroe.
“The Egyptian warrior queens included Ahotep, the 7 Cleopatras and Arsinoe II & III, all of who descended from the royal house of Kush. They ruled Egypt and led her army and navy through Roman times. A succession of Ethiopian Queens and military leaders known as Candace were also descended from the Kush. The first Candace, leading an army mounted on war elephants, turned back Alexander’s invasion of Ethiopia in 332 BC. In 30 BC Candace Amanirenas defeated an invasion by Patronius, the Roman governor of Egypt and sacked the city of Cyrene.
“In 937 AD Judith, Queen of the Falash, attacked Axum, sacred capital of Ethiopia, killing all the inhabitants including the descendants of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.”
In this essay five women will be noted for their leadership roles in African history during very important periods of social transformation within the societies they came out of and took over either through inheritance or political struggle.
Hatshepsut: A Ruler in Ancient Egypt
Hatshepsut is often considered the first woman ruler of ancient Egypt. She was born during the 15th century BC, the daughter of Tuthmose I and Ashmes, who were of royal lineage. She was one of three children who survived the childhood deaths of her brothers.
Even though her father Tuthmose I had a son by a commoner Moutnofrit, Tuthmose II, Hatshepsut ruled as a result of her political acumen and personal capability. Tuthmose II died early of cancer after claiming authority for three or four years. Hatshepsut was able to garner enough support among the key elements within Eygptian society to take control as pharaoh. Her rule lasted approximately 15 years. Her death is reported to have occurred in 1458 BC.
In an article by David Bediz entitled “The Story of Hatshepsut” he states that:
“Although there were no wars during her reign, she proved her sovereignty by ordering expeditions to the land of Punt, in present-day Somalia, in search of the ivory, animals, spices, gold and aromatic trees that Egyptians coveted. These expeditions are well documented in the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the walls of her temple. With these inscriptions are included incised representations of the journey, including humorous images of the Puntites and their queen, at whom the Egyptians no doubt looked while restraining a giggle; the queen has folds of fat hanging over her knees and elbows, her back is crooked and she has an acquiline nose. To the short, thin Egyptians she was probably quite a sight.”
During Hatshepsut’s rule she constructed many monuments and works of art unrivaled by any other queen to come in Egypt. She erected an enormous temple in the Valley of the Kings near a large plateau at Deir-el-Bahri just adjacent to the Nile River from Thebes.
http://www.bediz.com/hatshep/story.html
Queen Mantatisi (1781-1836): Commander of the Batlokoa (The Wild Cat People) of Southern Africa
Perhaps one of the most well-known and feared women military leaders during the early 19th century was Mantatisi who was born the daughter of Chief Mothaba of the Basia in the Harrismith District of the later Orange Free State. She became the wife of Mokotjo, the chief of the neighboring Batlokoa. Mokotjo died while their son Sekonyela was still to young to take over control of the chieftiancy. As a result Mantatisi assumed control and acted as regent for Sekonyela.
Reports claim that Mantatisi was a tall attractive woman who bore her husband four sons altogether. After her husband’s death a series of military encroachments by the AmaHlubi clans who were fleeing their homes in neighboring Natal. According to historians of the region, Mantatisi commanded the Batlokoa into the Caledon Valley where they drove out the more peaceful Sotho clans living in the area. Her troops seized the crops and cattle of the people they attacked leaving a trail of destruction and devastation.
Her reign of military conquest extended as far as central modern day Botswana. At the height of her military and political power her army was estimated to contain forty thousand fighters. However, she eventually suffered a series of defeats beginning in Bechuanaland in January of 1823. Peter Becker describes the developments during this period when he states that:
“Meanwhile Mantatisi was approaching with forty thousand men, women and children. It was January 1823, the time of the year crops were ripening and food was usually plentiful. But the Wild Cat People were compelled to live frugally, for so great had been the chaos brought about by lifaqane in general and the plundering of Mantatisi, Mpangazita and Matiwane in particular that entire tribes had vanished from their settlements even before they had tilled their fields in preparation for planting. Indeed, the Central Plateau swarmed with hunger-stricken stragglers and small, detached parties of bandits. Apart from roots, bulbs and berries, there was little food to be found in the veld, certainly not enough to feed so large a horde as that of Mantatisi.”
Nonetheless, the most prosperous of the Bechuana chiefs, Makaba of the Bangwaketsi, made a firm decision not to surrender to Mantatisi without a struggle. The same above-mentioned author, Peter Becker, continues by saying that:
“Meanwhile, the old Chief had decided not to surrender to Mantatisi without a fight. He called up every available warrior, garrisoned every pass leading to his capital, and with the guile for which he was famous, prepared traps into which he planned to lead his aggressors.
“Since her flight from the Harrismith District Mantatisi had managed to brush aside all opposition in the teritories she traversed, but now in the stifling bushveld of Bechuanaland she was to come face to face with a foe whose fighting forces were as numerous and also better fed than those of the Wild Cat People. The vanguard of Manatisi’s army strode into ambuscades; large groups of men topped headlong into concealed pitfalls and met their death beneath volleys of barbed javelins. A battle broke out, in the course of which hundreds of the invaders were massacred. Before the situation could develop into a rout Mantatisi suddenly disengaged her armies and retreated with her hordes to the east. Thus Makaba became the first Sotho chief to repulse the formidable Wild Cat Army, and to this day he is spoken of as the ‘Man of Conquest.’”
After Mantatisi’s son Sekonyele reached maturity he took control of the Batlokoa social structures and military. Eventually they would be conquered by the Basotho King Mosheshoe I. In the work known as “Chronicles of Basutoland: A Running Commentary on the Events of the Years 1830-1902 by the French Protestant Missionaries in Southern Africa,” a correspondence from church operatives in Basutoland stated the following in regard to the fate of the Batlokoa under Sekonyela the son of Mantatisi:
“There is no doubt that Moshoeshoe would have preferred to win his old adversary to his side but Sekonyela is irreconcilable as well as dangerous. With the British about to retire from the Sovereignty, Moshoeshoe is faced with the prospect of the inevitable alliance between Sekonyela and the Boers. Before it is too late, Sekonyela must be destroyed. Fortunately, the latter chooses this very moment to goad Moshoeshoe to retaliation and thus plays into his hands, once again, but for the last time.
“Moshoeshoe, a man of peace, for the first time in this record appears in the unusual role of a fighting general and at once reveals himself a master. Now at last he is free to deal with his traditional enemy, an enemy whom he has spared for years. Unfortunately, this meant the end of the Batlokoa tribe as such and their crushing defeat will simultaneously rid Moshoeshoe of their presence and clear the field for further penetration by their common foe, the insatiable land-devouring Boer.
“Moshoeshoe…gentle and humane by nature, has seen his power grow from year to year, and he may be described to-day as stronger and, at the same time, more influential and wealthy than any other chief in Southern Africa.”
Women in the Anti-Colonial Struggle
Queen Nzinga(1583-1663 AD) of Ndongo and Matamba: Fought to Halt Portuguese Colonialism
Nzinga was born in 1583 AD in the area now known as Angola in the southwest region of the African continent. She was reported to have first become involved in politics as an ambassador for her brother in negotiations with the Portuguese colonialists. The Portuguese had set up a slave fortress at Ambaca that was built on the land of the Ndongo kingdom.
Her negotiations with Portuguese Governor Joao Correia de Sousa was initially successful in that he agreed to her terms for resolving their differences. The purpose of the negotiation was to seek the withdrawal of the Portuguese colonialists from their land and the return of the Ndongo people who had been captured and enslaved.
Although she converted to Christianity during this period in order to consolidate the treaty with Portugal, it was reported in later years that she was highly critical and condemnatory of European Christians and their motives in Africa. Despite the signing of a treaty with Portugal, the Europeans never honored its terms. Consequently war would erupt after she assumed control of Ndongo around 1624.
The battles between the Ndongo and the Portuguese would continue for decades. Queen Nzinga launched attacks against the Portuguese occupation of Ambaca. She was eventually forced to flee to the east in 1627 and re-occupy the island of Kidonga where she had been ousted by the Portuguese in 1624. By 1631 she had taken over the neighboring kingdom of Matamba in her continuing efforts to battle the encroachment of the Portuguese into the interior of this region.
Queen Nzinga would later form an alliance with the Kongo people who worked in conjunction with the Dutch West India Company. Even in 1644 she attacked the Portuguese again and defeated them at Ngoleme. However, by 1646, with the capture of her sister, she was defeated at Kavanga. Her sister was able to secretly correspond with Queen Nzinga revealing the war plans of the Portuguese. When this was discovered by the colonialists her sister was reported drowned by the Portuguese military in the Kwanza River.
As a result of her alliance with the Netherlands, reinforcements were sent to Queen Nzinga’s army. She would route the Portuguese and seize their capital at Masangano in 1647. Despite a Portuguese retaliation causing Queen Nzinga to flee, her retreat led to other battles well into the 1650s. Even into her sixties, Queen Nzinga would continue attacks on the Portuguese fortresses leading her own troops in battle. She would eventually sign a peace treaty with the Portuguese in 1657.
In her later years she would devote her time to re-integrating former slaves back into African society. She died peacefully at the age of eighty on December 17, 1663 in Matamba. In modern Angolan political life, Queen Nzinga is remembered for her enormous military and diplomatic skills. A major street in Luanda, the capital of Angola, is named after her. A statue of her is located at Kinaxixi at a massive square. Angolan women view the area as ideal for marriage and many couples exchange vows there on Thursdays and Fridays.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nzinga_of_Ndongo_and_Matamba
Mbuya Nehanda (Charwe Nyakasikana)(1862-1898): Spirit Mediums & the Anti-Colonial Revolt in Mashonaland (Zimbabwe)
The struggle in Zimbabwe goes back for over 100 years to reclaim the land and culture of the Mashona and Ndebele peoples whose populations constitute the majority of Africans living in this region of sub-continent. One of the key figures in sparking an anti-colonial revolt during the last decade of the 19th century, was Mbuya Nehanda who in all likelihood had accumulated some status and clout prior to the 1896-97 rebellion in Mashonaland.
Nehanda was considered a powerful spirit medium who dedicated her life to the preservation of traditional African culture. During the late 19th century in the hills around Mazoe, Zimbabwe, there resided numerous sub-chiefs including the Wata and Chidamba. In the area, according to the Anglican Church maps after 1888, there was a village called Nehandas.
The historical sources on Zimbabwe say that the original Nehanda was a child of Mutota who was the initial Monomatapa (ruler) who resided in the escarpment North of Sipolilo in the early 15th century. Mutota was the founder of the Mutapa state and also had a son called Matope. Nehanda in 15th century Mutapa became so powerful that it was believed that her spirit lived in other humans over the generations. Even 500 years later it was taught that the spirit of the original Nehanda occupied Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana as the woman incarnation of the oracle Nyamhika Nehanda.
Nehanda and her spirit companion Kaguvi were cited as the important figures in the First Chimurenga during 1896-97. Kaguvi was considered the spirit husband of the former great Shona medium Nehanda and this consequent historical connection influenced Mbuya Nehanda to teach the philosophy of resistance to British imperialism. This important role of Kaguvi and Nehanda can never be minimized in assessing anti-colonial history in Zimbabwe.
The resistance fighters and their supporters in Mashonaland believed that both Kaguvi and Nehanda were the voices of God, also known as Mwari. They both preached that the origins of problems within the homeland resulted from the settlements established by the British which sought to encroach on greater portions of land occupied and utilized by the African people. According to Kaguvi and Nehanda, Mwari had decreed that the Europeans be driven from the country.
As a result of Nehanda’s role in the First Chimurenga, an arrest warrant was put out for her capture. Kaguvi and Nehanda were charged with the murder of a puppet African police officer and a British colonial agent. They were both sentenced to hang in 1898. At the hanging it required three attempts before Nehanda died. Her last words before death were reported to have been that: “My bones will rise again.”
During the imprisonment of Nehanda and Kaguvi, the Europeans attempted to have both of them converted to Christianity. Even though Kaguvi was reported to have converted, Nehanda emphatically refused to accept what she considered as the belief system of the colonialists.
http://www.bulawayo1872.com/history/nehandambuya.htm
Yaa Asantewaa (1850-1920): State Building and the 1900 Asante War of Resistance Against British Imperialism
The west Africa nation of Ghana is considered historically the fountainhead of the anti-colonial struggle in Africa and the Diaspora. This is the direct result of the triumph of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first Prime Minister and later President of the First Republic of Ghana during the 1950s and 1960s. Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party (CPP) led the years-long battle for national independence that reached fruition on March 6, 1957.
Yet over a half-century earlier a great African warrior Queen Yaa Asantewaa has been recognized by historians as a major contributor to the efforts by African people to prevent the consolidation of British imperialism in what was then known as the Gold Coast (today Ghana). Yaa Asantewaa was born into the royal Asona clan of Edweso and in 1887 when the female stool of Edweso was vacated, Nana Akwasi Afrane Okpese, who was then Edwesohene, utilized his traditional authority to place Yaa Asantewaa as successor to Nana Ampobin I as Edwesohemaa.
After her appointment to the position of the Edwesohene she performed her functions very effectively. Later when her brother died in 1894, Yaa Asantewaa used her prerogative as Queen-mother to select her grandson to take over the position vacated by his uncle. In 1896 she reached an agreement with the British and signed a Treaty of Protection. At the same time she worked between 1896-1900 to resist European commercial and mining agents who sought to encroach further into the territory of the Edweso.
Yaa Asantewaa opposed both the European commercial agents and their allies among the neighboring people of Kokofu. She eventually challenged the efforts of the colonialists in the British courts established in Kumasi after the deportation of the Asantehene in 1896. The British sought to prevent any effective resistance to their growing colonial rule in the area. They would impose taxation and alien rule on the people which caused great consternation and outrage among the Asante.
In March of 1900 the British formerly announced to the Asante Chiefs that the leadership of the nation would not be allowed to return and assume their rightful authority. The British demanded that the Golden Stool, which is considered the soul of the people, be surrendered. Wilhelmina J. Donkoh in her article entitled: “Yaa Asantewaa, A Role Model for Womanhood in the New Millennium,” points out that:
“This was the environment in which Nana Yaa Asantewaa, the only female present at the gathering in her capacity as the caretaker of the Edweso State rose up and defied British authority by questioning the Governor. She inquired of the Governor, whether he had seen the Asantehene before coming to Kumasi, that since the Asantehene was the traditional custodian of the Stool, he was the appropriate person to disclose its whereabouts. She then turned on her male counterparts who had been stunned into silence, and taunted them about their manhood.”
Donkoh in the same above-mentioned article continues by illustrating her direct role in commanding the resistance war of 1900 against the British. She also notes that her actions defied Akan values that call for the woman to be submissive and quiet in public. Consequently, she was not at all concerned about being described as an “obaa Kokonyini” (a female cockerel) or an “obaa sagyefoo” which in essence means a female redeemer in the times of war.
Donkoh relates Yaa Asantewaa’s leadership style during the resistance war of the people against the British in 1900:
“From various accounts, Yaa Asantewaa comes across as a ‘Mother Courage’ figure as well as an astute tactician and able military leader. For example, her taunts challenged some of the men to act. Eyewitness accounts from Edweso indicate that she herself did not physically take up arms to fight. Her role has been described as being mainly inspirational.
“Yet all accounts acknowledge her to be the leader of the resistance supported by some male leaders–Kofi Fofie of Nkonson, Antoa Mensa, Kwame Afrifa of Atwima and Osei Kwadwo Kromo. She was known to have visited the soldiers in the battlefield to ascertain how they were faring. She also gave directions and advice as well as supplied gunpowder.”
Donkoh also stresses that Yaa Asantewaa’s role was not totally without precedent within her people’s history:
“It should be pointed out that in Asante history, there, have been many instances when women have excelled in a public capacity. There is, for example, the case of the Asantehemaa Adoma Akosua, who in 1814, was left in charge of the affairs of the Asante nation while the Asantehene Osei Bonsu went to the coast to visit his troops on the battlefield there.
“In the period, Adoma Akosua received a Dutch embassy with which she discussed trade. There is also the brief diplomatic career Akyaawaa Oyiakwan, a daughter of the Asantehene Osei Kwadwo (1764-77), who headed two different diplomatic missions that successfully negotiated the Maclean treaty in April 1831 with the British and with the Danes at Christianborg Castle in August of the same year.
“In addition, is the example of the Dwabenhemaa Ama Seiwaa who in 1843 took over as chief of the Dwabeii and led her people back to Asante from exile in Akyem Abuakwa in the south east of the Gold Coast after the death of her two sons in succession.
“Indeed, her daughter, Nana Afrakoma Panin and her granddaughter Nana Akua Saponmaa both held the dual offices of Dwabenhemaa and Dwabenhene concurrently. However, the difference between all these examples and the case of Nana Yaa Asantewaa was that the latter took on the might of the technologically superior British.”
Conclusion
This brief survey of the role of five African women within their societies during the ancient, pre-colonial and colonial eras illustrate quite clearly that the assumptions around the strict divisions of labor and political power among traditional African nations depart significantly from those in Europe and Asia. The lives, contributions and accomplishments of these women also defy the stereotypical notions of the role of females within traditional African societies prior to the advent of colonialism and national independence.
The political imperatives of the twenty-first century require that further scientific research be conducted into the role of women in African history and societies. This can be done by a more objective approach to the existing data and artifacts available on the pre-colonial period as well as utilizing the vast oral histories within African societies themselves.
Genuine national independence of the continent and the former colonial territories require the total emancipation of all oppressed sections of society. For Africa will never reach its full potential without the complete liberation of women. Consequently, the reconstruction of African history and the role of women within it will make a significant contribution to the realization of a society devoid of all forms of exploitation and oppression.
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Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African News Wire.
When the Sun weeps a second time, and lets fall water from his eyes, it is changed into working bees; they work in the flowers of each kind, and honey and wax are produced instead of water.
pSalt 825, first millennium BCE [29]
The first official mention recognizing the importance of honey dates from the first dynasty, when the title of “Sealer of the Honey” is given [11]; the oldest pictures of bee-keepers in action are from the Old Kingdom: in Niuserre’s sun temple bee-keepers are shown blowing smoke into hives as they are removing the honey-combs. After extracting the honey from the combs it was strained and poured into earthen jars which were then sealed. Honey treated in this manner could be kept years. From the New Kingdom on mentions of honey become more frequent [8], but only four depictions of honey production and no actual hives have been found. [15]
Sedge and bee, symbolizing respectively Upper and Lower Egypt
© Kenneth J. Stein [17]
The main centre of bee-keeping was Lower Egypt with its extensive irrigated lands full of flowering plants, where the bee was chosen as a symbol for the country. Since earliest times one of the pharaohs’ titles was Bee King,[32] and the gods also were associated with the bee. The sanctuary in which Osiris was worshipped, was the Hwt bjt [7], the Mansion of the Bee.
The Egyptians had a steady honey supply from their domesticated bees, but they seem to have valued wild honey even more. Honey hunters, often protected by royal archers, would scour the wild wadis for bee colonies.
I appointed for thee archers and collectors of honey, bearing incense to deliver their yearly impost into thy august treasury.
Papyrus Harris, donation to the temple of Re at Heliopolis, New Kingdom [28]
In a 4th century BCE papyrus containing the Myth of the Eye of Re the hives are described as follows:
One does not build a royal palace for the honey bee. A hive of dung is better than a hive of stone [like a barn]…The house of the bee is effectively an arrangement of combs, a place suitable for storing honey…It is more pleasant for the bees beneath the honey combs.
Myth of the Eye of Re, Leiden Cat, I 384 [32]
Bee-keeping methods are conservative in this region, well adapted to local conditions, for instance the kind of hives depicted in the reliefs of Rekhmire, apparently made of unbaked clay [20] or possibly woven baskets or mattings covered with mud, have been used in Egypt [18] to this day.[20]
Tomb of Pabasa (25th dynasty)
Photo courtesy Kenneth Stein.[17]
Cylindrical hives like the ones in the picture on the left from the tomb of Pabasa, dated to the 7th century BCE, were made of clay and stacked horizontally on top of each other [12] in rows up to eight high, a total of up to 500 hives, wall apiaries with the hives on the outside left empty at times as insulation against the heat. [16] Combs in horizontal hives are smaller but more numerous than those in upright ones. This makes honey being stored and bee larvae being raised in the same comb less likely,[22] making harvesting easier.
The bees were possibly induced into building their combs across the hive, for easier removal of the honey and division of the colony at swarming time. Swarming had best be prevented as one might lose a large part of the bees. Crane suggests that short reed pipes may have been used to call the young queens still in their cells. listening for their reply, separating them from the rest of the swarm and installing them in a hive of their own.[32]
When there were few blossoming flowers, the hives were probably kept close to home to prevent theft and moved close to the sources of nectar during the flowering season.Thus, in the year 256 BCE a beehive owner named Senchons wanted her donkey returned to her, so that she could move her hives into the pastures.[10] Sometimes the hives had to be transported to higher lying land, to prevent them from being destroyed in the annual Nile inundation, as the so-called bee-keepers’ petition dating from the middle of the third century BCE shows:
To Zeno greeting from the beekeepers of the Arsinoite nome.
You wrote about the donkeys, that they were to come to Philadelphia and work ten days. But it is now eighteen days that they have been working and the hives have been kept in the fields, and it is time to bring them home and we have no donkeys to carry them back. Now it is no small impost that we pay the king. Unless the donkeys are sent at once, the result will be that the hives will be ruined and the impost lost. Already the peasants are warning us, saying: “We are going to release the water and burn the brushwood, so unless you remove them you will lose them.” We beg you then, if it please you, to send us our donkeys, in order that we may remove them. And after removing them we will come back with the donkeys when you need them.
May you prosper!Bee-keepers’ petition, Ptolemaic period [35]
There may have been itinerant apiarists living by the Nile who loaded their hives onto boats, shipped them upriver in autumn or early spring, and then followed the flowering of the plants northwards, as they were reported to do in the 18th century CE [19], but there is no evidence for it.
Ancient Egyptian bees may well have been more agressive than the placid Italian bee, which has become the the dominant variety in modern times. Aristophanes of Byzantium, the head of the library at Alexandria around 200 BCE, claimed, that the beekeepers approached the hives with shaven heads, as the bees reacted very violently to the smell of perfumed oil applied to the hair.[14] Apiarists are never shown using protective gear and relied on smoke blown into the hives to keep the bees peaceful.
Little is known about how the honey was harvested. According to the tomb depictions in TT279 the hives were opened from the back, smoke was blown into the hives and the bees escaped through the hive entrance in the front. Anything else about the process in ancient times is conjecture, based on how honey has traditionally been harvested in Egypt:
The standing bee-keeper produces smoke, while the one kneeling removes the combs from the back of the clay hive after breaking the mud sealing.
(Picture in the tomb of Rekhmire, 18th dynasty
After a photograph from Abd el Wahab, The apiculture in Egypt, 2008)
Harvesting generally takes place twice a year, in spring and in late autumn. The combs are gathered in a cow skin, then they are crushed by treading on them and the honey let flow out through a small hole in the skin into containers. What was left in the skin was put into a bowl and the remaining honey washed out with a small amount of water, passed through a sieve made of blades of grass thus removing impurities.[20]
The wax is rendered by heating, nowadays done in a water bath to prevent it from catching fire. Impurities floating on the surface of the liquid wax can be scooped off, then it is possibly strained and put into a bag press. It has been estimated that for every kilo of honey somwhat more than sixty grammes of wax can be won.[21]
Temples kept bees in order to satisfy the desire of the gods for honey and for the production of medicines and ointments. But demand far outran local production. Honey, like many other luxury goods was imported from Djahi, Retenu [3] and possibly even further afield. Canaan, for instance, was called Land of Milk and Honey in the Hebrew tradition, and the probably fictitious Sinuhe waxed lyrical about the riches of Yaa, an unidentified Asiatic region:
It was a good land called Yaa. Figs were in it and grapes. It had more wine than water. Abundant was its honey, plentiful its oil. All kinds of fruit were on its trees. Barley was there and emmer, and no end of cattle of all kinds.
The Tale of Sinuhe, Middle Kingdom [30]
Apiarist pouring honey, possibly straining it
Tomb of Pabasa (25th dynasty)
Photo courtesy Kenneth Stein.[17]
Honey was used for sweetening, as sugar was unknown in antiquity [9]. It was part of the diet of the well-to-do, one of one’s – using the words of the courtier Ineni – necessities
:
I was supplied from the table of the king with bread of oblations for the king, beer likewise, meat, fat-meat, vegetables, various fruit, honey, cakes, wine, oil. My necessities were apportioned in life and health, as his majesty himself said, for love of me.
Tomb of Ineni, reign of Thutmose II [31]
Honey was too expensive for peasants and servants, yet underlings found opportunities to enjoy it as well, even if the consequence was that the back would have to pay for the pleasures of the belly. A scribe wrote to his master at Lahun a letter containing the following passage:
As concerns this hin (about half a litre) of honey which had been given for this here servant (i.e. the writer) – this servant discovered that this Asiatic had drunk it, giving this here servant (i.e. the writer) the answer which follows: “Behold, it was the sweetness which has seduced me to do it.”
pUC 32124, Middle Kingdom [23]
The gods – and their priesthood – had a sweet tooth too [13]. Thutmose III’s divine offerings to Amen included 4 (pg-)vessels of honey. [4]. According to Herodotus sacrificial animals were prepared as follows:
When they have flayed the bullock and made imprecation, they take out the whole of its lower entrails but leave in the body the upper entrails and the fat; and they sever from it the legs and the end of the loin and the shoulders and the neck: and this done, they fill the rest of the body of the animal with consecrated loaves and honey and raisins and figs and frankincense and myrrh and every other kind of spices, and having filled it with these they offer it, pouring over it great abundance of oil.
Herodotus, 5th century BCE[24]
The various animal cults became ever more important during the first millennium BCE, and the sacred animals received better food, among it titbits made of honey, than most Egyptians themselves:
About the Apis in Memphis, the Mnevis in Heliopolis, the Ram in Mendes, the Crocodile in the Lake of Moeris, the Lion kept in Leontopolis and many other such animals much may be said, but the reporter will gain little credence with people who have not been eye-witnesses. These animals are kept in sacred enclosures, and many noble men feed them, offering them the most delicious food. They provide them constantly with a mash made of finest flour or wheat groats and milk, prepared with all kinds of honey pastries, with goose meat, at times boiled, at times roasted. They catch birds for the carnivorous animals which they offer to them in great amounts.
Diodorus Siculus, 1st century BCE [25]
Strabo reported that honey was made into mead and fed to the sacred crocodile at Crocodilopolis in the Fayum:
Our host, one of the most honoured men in Arsinoe, showed us holy things and accompanied us to the lake taking with him a cake, roasted meat and a little bottle of honey mead left over from the meal. We found the animal lying on the shore. The priests approached it, two of them opened its mouth, the third one pushed the pastry and then the meat into it and then poured the honey mead into it. The animal jumped into the lake and swam to the opposite shore.
Strabo (c.64 BCE – 24 CE) [26]
Claims have been made that honey was used in the mummification process. The evidence for such usage is scant and anecdotal, e.g. Abd el-Latif’s unsupported tale published in Budge’s book The Mummy about treasure hunters who found a sealed jar containing honey, and after eating part of it they discovered it also contained the body of a small child.[33]
Honey was added to wine, various kinds of bread and cakes. Medicines and salves often contained honey as is attested in the Smith Papyrus and the Ebers Papyrus (§§ 3, 5, 13, 17, 20). The practice was to apply honey to open wounds—a reasonable treatment considering its antibacterial and fungicidal qualities.
Being universally appreciated jars of honey made excellent presents. In the reign of Pepi II the priest Mekhu died in Nubia and his son Sebni set out to retrieve his father’s body:
[Then I took] a troop of my estate, and 100 asses with me, bearing ointment, honey, clothing, oil, and [///] of every sack, in order to [make presents in] these countries [and I went out to] these countries of the Negroes. [6]
Inscriptions of Sebni, Old Kingdom [27]
While there are scenes of honey production, it is unknown how the Egyptians rendered the wax. It has been suggested, that after crushing the combs and extracting the honey they used the “hot water technique”, placing the broken down combs in a metal vessel filled with water and bringing the water to the boil, pouring the vessels contents into a sack and pressing it. [21]
Beeswax statuette of Ramses XI and Maat
After a photo by Jon Bodsworth
In every day life wax was used for sealing things,[5] coating the inside of wine amphoras, making amulets,[41] which were at times gilded,[42] and, since Ptolemaic times, for covering writing tablets. [41] Beeswax found use in boat and ship building, as a binding agent for paints and in metal casting. Sometimes it served as a base for medicines. Mixed with pulverized stone it made an adhesive for connecting razor blades to their handles. Wigs were waxed[43] to give permanence to plaits. Although people must have known about the flammability of wax, it was not used for lighting in ancient times.
In a religious or funerary context wax was used in mummification where small bodily orifices were plugged with it. From the Saite Period onwards votive bronze statuettes were cast in large numbers using the cire-perdue method.[38] In Roman times wax was mixed with pigments and used to paint the encaustic portraits, which came to replace the funerary masks. Corn mummies buried during the Osirian mysteries often had faces made of wax.[39] In the Third Intermediate Period, when canopic jars began to fall into disuse, figurines of the Sons of Horus made of wax were at times included in the packages of embalmed viscera returned into the mummy’s body cavity.[40]
Wax was an important material in magic, being easily molded into any desirable shape. In execration rituals figurines representing specific people or deities were made of wax, which could then easily be destroyed by force or by fire, thus magically destroying the being they represented:
This spell is to be recited over (an image of) Apophis drawn on a new sheet of papyrus in green ink, and (over a figure of) Apophis in red wax. See, his name is inscribed on it in green ink … I have overthrown all the enemies of Pharaoh from all their seats in every place where they are. See, their names written on their breasts, having been made of wax, and also bound with bonds of black rope. Spit upon them! To be trampled with the left foot, to be fallen with the spear (and) knife; to be placed on the fire in the melting-furnace of the copper-smiths … It is a burning in a fire of bryony. Its ashes are placed in a pot of urine, which is pressed firmly into a unique fire.
P. Bremner-Rhind, col. 23/6-10 and 26/2-6 = Faulkner, JEA23 (1937), 168 and 172 [36]
The conspirators against Ramses III used wax as well in order to form images and employ these to cause damage
He began to make magic rolls for [hindering] and terrifying, and to make some gods of wax, and some people, for enfeebling the limbs of people; and gave them into the hand of Pebekkamen, whom Re made not to be chief of the chamber, and the other great criminals, saying: “Take them in;” and they took them in.
…
He began to make people of wax, inscribed, in order that they might be taken in by the inspector, Errem, [hindering] one troop and bewitching the others, that a few words might be taken in, and others brought out.Papyrus Rollin and Papyrus Lee
Wax was not just used for destructive purposes. In the tale of Setne Khamwas and Naneferkaptah the magician needed to make a journey, he created a craft and its crew:
Naneferkaptah had [much] pure [wax brought] to him. He made a boat filled with its rowers and sailors. He recited a spell to them, he made them live, he gave them breath, he put them on the water.
Setne Khamwas and Naneferkaptah [37]
Temples used considerable quantities of wax. Ramses III founded a festival in honour of Amen-Re called Usermare-Meriamon-L.P.H.-Making-Festive-Thebes-For-Amon with oblations of millions of loaves of bread, hundreds of thousands of jars of beer, tens of thousands of vessels of wine. One of the lesser items was wax: deben 3,100, about 300 kg.[34]
Bibliography:
Roger S. Bagnall, Raffaella Cribiore, Evie Ahtaridis, Women’s letters from ancient Egypt, 300 BC-AD 800, University of Michigan Press, 2006
S. Birch (ed.), Records of the Past, Vol.6, 1876
J. H. Breasted, 1906, Ancient Records of Egypt, Chicago
Alan Houghton Brodrick, 1972 Animals in Archaeology, Praeger
Patricia Brothwell, 1998 Food in Antiquity: A Survey of the Diet of Early Peoples, Johns Hopkins University Press
Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge, The Mummy: chapters on Egyptian funereal archaeology, University Press, 1894
Egypt Exploration Fund, The Journal of Egyptian archaeology Vol. 63, Egypt Exploration Fund, 1977
Eva Crane, 1999, The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting, Taylor & Francis
Sigrid Hodel-Hoenes, 2000 Life and Death in Ancient Egypt: Scenes from Private Tombs in New Kingdom Thebes, Cornell University Press
Andrew B. Kidd, Berthold Schrimpf, “Bees and Bee-keeping” in R. Blench, Kevin C. MacDonald (eds.), The origins and development of African livestock: archaeology, genetics, linguistics and ethnography, Routledge, 2000
Panagiotis Kousoulis, “Nine Measures of Magic; Part 3: ‘Overthrowing Apophis’: Egyptian ritual in practice” in Ancient Egypt Magazine: Issue Nine – November/December 2001 [2]
Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I, The University of California Press 1973
Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume III, The University of California Press 1980
Paul T. Nicholson, Ian Shaw, 2000 Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, Cambridge University Press
Hilda M. Ransome, 1937, The Sacred Bee in Ancient Times and Folklore, Courier Dover 2004
Ian Shaw, Paul Nicholson, The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt. British Museum Press 1995
W. Vogel, “Bees and Beekeeping in Egypt” in George W. Johnson, Robert Hogg (eds.), Journal of Horticulture, Cottage Gardener and Country Gentlemen, Vol. XII, New Series, G. W. Johnson, London 1867
Footnotes:
[3] On his fifth campaign Thutmose III exacted from Djahi (a region in Canaan) i.a. 470 (mn-)jars of honey, and the tribute from Syria in the year 39 of his reign included among other things:
honey 264 [+x jars]
[4] Breasted 1906, § 571
[5] In a letter Shed-em-duat(?) wrote Djehuti-mesu
They said to me: Concerning the containers (?) //// the wax of the mouth of the vessels.
After a transcription and German translation on the Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae website:
Altägyptisches Wörterbuch, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften => Briefe => Briefe des Neuen Reiches und der Dritten Zwischenzeit => Verwaltung/Alltag => Briefe aus Theben => Briefe des Deir el-Medina Corpus (Auswahl) => Briefwechsel des Djehuti-mesu => pBournemouth 17/1931 => Brief der Sched-em-duat(?) an Djehuti-mesu
[6] Honey was apparently rare in Nubia. The lists of tribute of Thutmose III which frequently mention honey from Asiatic countries, do not show that honey was contributed by Nubia or Kush.
[8] Brothwell 1998, pp.7f ff.
[9] Hodel-Hoenes, 2000, p.153
[10] Bagnall et al. 2006, p.103
[11] Ransome, 1937, p.26
[12] Brodrick, 1972, p.83
[13] And they were not overjoyed when they thought they had been cheated. A priest wrote to the mayor of Elephantine:
/////// ////khai of the temple of Harakhte sends greetings to [Montu-hor-////, mayor of] Elephantine: in life, prosperity, health, in the favour of Amen-Re, king of gods. Furthermore the following: I pray to Amen-Re and Harakhte as he rises and as he sets, to Harakhte and his ennead: may they grant you to be healthy and in the favour of Harakhte, your lord, who sees you.
Furthermore, I opened the [A]aa.t-jars of honey which you have brought for the god, and when I wanted to take out 10 hin of honey for the god’s sacrifice I found it completely filled with a bar of ointment. So I sealed it again and had it taken south. If it was somebody else who had given it to you, make him have a look at it. And behold, if you find (the) right one (i.e. a pot with honey) then have it brought to me. Then Re will let you be well.After a transcription and German translation on the Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae website
I. Hafemann ed., Altägyptisches Wörterbuch, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften => Briefe => Briefe des Mittleren Reiches => Verwaltung/Alltag => Briefe aus Theben => pLouvre E 27151 => Brief eines [_]-chay an Montju-hor-[_]
[14] Crane 1999, p.167
[15] Nicholson & Shaw, 2000, pp.409f: The depictions are found in the tombs of Niuserre at Abu Gurob, of Rekhmire (TT100), of anonymous (TT73), and of Pabasa (TT279).
[16] Crane 1999, p.323
[18] Vogel, 1867, describes contemporary Egyptian beehives as four foot long cylinders made of compost of Nile mud and cow dung.
[19] Vogel 1867, did not find any evidence for this itinerant tradition in his time.
[20] Nicholson & Shaw, 2000, pp.410
[21] Nicholson & Shaw, 2000, pp.411
[22] Kidd & Schrimpf, pp.519f.
[23] After a transcription and German translation on the Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae website
I. Hafemann ed., Altägyptisches Wörterbuch, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften => Briefe => Briefe des Mittleren Reiches => Verwaltung/Alltag => Briefe aus Illahun => London pUC 32124 => Brief eines Dieners der Stiftung über Honig
[24] Herodotus Histories, Part II: Euterpe
[25] After a German translation by Julius Friedrich Wurm of Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library, Chapter 84
[26] After a German translation by C.G.Groskurd of Strabo, Geography, 17th Book, 1st section: Egypt, § 38
[27] J. H. Breasted 1906, Part One, § 366
[28] Breasted 1906, Part Four, § 266
[29] S. Birch, Egyptian Magical Text, in S. Birch ed., Records of the Past, Vol.6, 1876
[30] Lichtheim 1973, p. 226
[31] Breasted 1906, Part Two, § 117
[32] Crane 1999, p.170
[33] Budge 1894, p.183
[34] Breasted 1906, Part Four, § 240
[35] Ransome 1937, p.27
[36] Kousoulis 2001, p.30
[37] Lichtheim 1980, p.130
[38] Shaw & Nicholson 1995, p.71. See also UC69847 on the Petrie Museum web site: Wax figurine of falcon for casting by lost wax method
[39] Shaw & Nicholson 1995, p.72
[40] Shaw & Nicholson 1995, p.191. See also UC55192i-viii on the Petrie Museum web site: Third Intermediate Period wax figures of the four Sons of Horus.
[41] On the Petrie Museum web site search for objects made of wax, such as UC59418: wax from Roman period writing tablet, UC52066: Ptolemaic or Roman period girdle of Isis amulet
[42] e.g. UC79323 on the Petrie Museum web site
[43] Egypt Exploration Fund 1977, p.69
Africa provides a comprehensive and contigious time line of human development going back at least 7 million years. Africa gave humanity the use of fire a million and half to two million years ago. It is the home of the first tools, astronomy, jewelry, fishing, mathematics, crops, art, use of pigments, cutting and other pointed instruments and animal domestication. In short Africa gave the world human civilization.
 Ishango Bone World’s First Abacus |
Millions of years ago human life started in Africa, Australopithecus aphaeresis and Australopithecus africanus and Australopithecus robustus were all key rungs in the development of humanity. These fossils were found in East and South Africa (Azania). Some of the fossils may be as old as 5 million years. For example Australopithecus robustus fossils found in an East Turkana Kenya site were at least 4 million year old.
It is generally accepted that the Homo habilis were the first full fledge tool makingancestor of humans. The earliest archaeological evidence of toolmaking comes from the Koobi Fora section of East Turkana. These Homo habilis are believed to be at least 2.5 million years old. The name Homo habilis comes from the Leakeys. They found what they believed to be conclusive fossil evidence of the first humans in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and gave these ancestors that name called Homo habilis.. The Olduvai Gorge Homo habilis existed at least a million and quarter years ago
More important than tool making in human evolution is the mastery of fire. Nearly 2 million years ago early East Africans had mastered the use of fire. This was a revolutionary step in the development of humanity. This critical innovation insured the survival and spread of the species around the planet. It gave us an advantage over animal predators such as the big cats, hyenas and allowed human settlements in less accommodating climates. These people have been named Homo erectus by archaeologists. It is generally accepted that the final leap from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens sapiens as having occurred in Africa over two hundreds thousand years ago.
The Encyclopedia of World History describes the use of mtDNA found in fossils as a means of revealing the processes involved in this final leap. (The acronym mtDNA stands for mitochondrial DNA*.)
olecular biologists like Alan Wilson and Rebecca Cann have studied the human family tree using this form of DNA, which is inherited through the female line without being diluted with paternal DNA. Thus, they argue, it provides a unique tool for studying ancestral populations. They compared mtDNA from Africans, Asians, Europeans, and Southeast Asians and found that the differences between them were small. They formed two groups: one was the Africans, the other the remainder. Wilson and Cann concluded that all modern humans derive from a primordial African population, from which populations migrated to the rest of the Old World with little or no interbreeding with existing archaic human groups. By calculating the rate of mtDNA mutations, they argue that archaic Homo sapiens evolved from Homo erectus in Africa by about 200,000 years ago. Then Homo sapiens sapiens, anatomically modern humans, appeared some 140,000 years ago. Mitochondrial DNA is still controversial, but there is some archaeological evidence from Africa that supports the biologists’ scenario. Highly varied, early Homo sapiens populations flourished in sub-Saharan Africa between 200,000 and 150,000 years ago, some of them displaying some anatomically modern features. At the Klasies River Caves on the Indian Ocean coast of South Africa, anatomically modern human remains date to between 125,000 and 95,000 years ago. They are associated with sophisticated, versatile tool kits that were, if anything, superior to those used by the Neanderthals in Europe at the time.
Many scientists believe that Homo sapiens sapiens, modern humans, did indeed evolve in tropical Africa sometime after 150,000 years ago, as the geneticists argue. Ecologist Robert Foley has theorized that modern humans evolved in a mosaic of constantly changing tropical environments, which tended to isolate evolving human populations for considerable periods of time. Some groups living in exceptionally rich areas may have developed unusual hunting and foraging skills, using a new technology so effective that they could prey on animals from a distance with finely made projectiles. With efficient technology, more planning, and better organization of both hunting and foraging, our ancestors could have reduced the risks of living in unpredictable environments in dramatic ways.
source: http://www.bartleby.com/67/24.html
*Mitochondrial is defined as: 1. A spherical or elongated organelle in the cytoplasm of nearly all eukaryotic cells, containing genetic material and many enzymes important for cell metabolism, including those responsible for the conversion of food to usable energy. It consists of two membranes: an outer smooth membrane and an inner membrane arranged to form cristae. 2. The cell organelle where much of cellular respiration takes place; the “power plant” of the cell. Mitochondria probably entered eukaryotes by an act of endosymbiosis, in which one simple cell was absorbed by another. Mitochondria contain their own DNA. It is by tracing the mitochondrial DNA, which individuals inherit only from their mothers, that genetic linkages are often traced (Sources: the Houghton Mifflin Company Medical and Science Dictionaries)
| . | Time Line: Complete Hominid Time Line found only in Africa. Chad 7 million years ago Ethiopia 5 million years ago South Africa 3.5 – 4 million years ago | |
| . | Oldest Stone Tools: dated back to 2.5 million years ago in Ethiopia and other parts of the Rift Valley | |
| Domestic Use of Fire: 1.4 million years ago. | ||
| Oldest Fossils of Modern Man (Homosapiens, Sapiens) 195,000 years ago in Ethiopia | ||
| Oldest Example of Fishing – 110,000 years ago, N. E. Africa & South Africa | ||
| Oldest Use of Pigments, 150,000 years ago, Rift Valley & South Africa | ||
| Oldest Bone Tools, 90,000 years ago in South Africa | ||
| Oldest Barbed Points & Hook, 70-90,000 years ago, N.E. & South Africa | ||
| Oldest Jewelry Beads, 90,000 years ago, Central & South Africa | ||
| Oldest Homesite, 90,000 years ago, Sudan | ||
| Stargazing, 43,000 years ago, Nile Valley | ||
| Iron Ore Mining, 40,000 years ago | ||
| Oldest Known Mathematical Artifact, 37,000 years ago, Lebombo Bone, Swaziland | ||
| Oldest Example of Math Calculations, 27,000 years ago, Ishango Bone, Zaire | ||
| Oldest Rock Art (Apollo II Rock Shelter) Namibia, 28,000 years ago | ||
| Animal Domestication, 15,000 years ago, Ethiopia | ||
| Crop Cultivation, 18,000 years ago |
Fighting Female Genital Mutilation in Africa
In spite of laws against mutilation of females, this ill-treatment continues in many parts of Africa. Different organisations working against the practice, stress the need of thorough information on the damage this tradition generates on women. The practice tends to go underground when its only limitation rests on the law.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is not a secret anathema in Africa anymore. From Senegal to Tanzania, governments and organisations are outspoken on the harmful practice and public debate is brought to life. Results are ambiguous, but successes are always slow.
Map
The following map outlines the approximate prevalence of FGM in Africa. For more detailed data, see table below.
Important note on data:
There are no exact data on the prevalence of FGM in Africa. The map is based on data selected from various sources, destined not to have used the same methology collecting them. Most available data were on a country basis, though often named peoples were singled out as practising FGM. These data were thus projected on the approximate areas these people inhabit. Note that the map’s scale is very coarse, the presentation not giving room for the very many local variations in prevalence.
As a very coarse and general illustration, the map however has some analythic value. For example, as clearly will be seen, although FGM is most common in Muslim countries, FGM prevalence in no way follows the prevalence of Islam. Rather, FGM prevalence seems to follow regional cultures independent on religion.
What is FGM?
The World Health Organization (WHO, 1997) defined female genital mutilation (FGM) as all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons.
FGM by type
The World Health Organization classifies FGM into four types:
•Type I. Excision of the prepuce, with or without excision of part or all of the clitoris.
•Type II. Excision of the clitoris with partial or total excision of the labia minora.
•Type Ill. Excision of part or all of the external genitalia and stitching/narrowing of the vaginal opening (infibulation).
•Type IV. Unclassified: this includes pricking, piercing or incising of the clitoris and/or labia; stretching of the clitoris and/or labia cauterization by burning of the clitoris and surrounding tissue.
| FGM practices by country and type | ||
| Country | Prevalence | Type |
| Benin | 5-50% | excision |
| Burkina Faso | up to 70% | excision |
| Cameroon | local | clitoridectomy and excision |
| Central Afr. Republic | 45-50% | clitoridectomy and excision |
| Chad | 60% | excision and infibulation |
| Comoros | very local | excision |
| Côte d’Ivoire | up to 60% | excision |
| DRC (Congo) | local | excision |
| Djibouti | 98% | excision and infibulation |
| Egypt | 85-95% | clitoridectomy, excision and infibulation |
| Eritrea | 95% | clitoridectomy, excision and infibulation |
| Ethiopia | 70-90% | clitoridectomy, excision and infibulation |
| Gambia | 60-90% | excision and infibulation |
| Ghana | 15-30% | excision |
| Guinea | 65-90% | clitoridectomy, excision and infibulation |
| Guinea Bissau | local | clitoridectomy and excision |
| Kenya | 50% | clitoridectomy, excision and some infibulation |
| Liberia | 50% | excision |
| Mali | 94% | clitoridectomy, excision and infibulation |
| Mauritania | 25% | clitoridectomy and excision |
| Niger | local | excision |
| Nigeria | 60-90% | clitoridectomy, excision, some infibulation |
| Senegal | 20% | excision |
| Sierra Leone | 90% | excision |
| Somalia | 98% | infibulation |
| Sudan | 90% | infibulation and excision |
| Tanzania | 18% | excision, infibulation |
| Togo | 12% | excision |
| Uganda | local | clitoridectomy and excision |
| Based on statistics from Amnesty International and US govt. | ||
Sources: Based on UN agencies, Amnesty, US govt. and afrol archives
Borrowed from Afronews,com
BY Meena Hartenstein
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, June 19th 2010, 4:00 AM
Historians say Cleopatra probably looked more like this computer generated model (l.), than bombshell Angelina Jolie who is slated to play her in an upcoming film.
Angelina Jolie is one of the most beautiful women in the world, but her “perfect” looks have some critics complaining she’s all wrong for her latest role.
Earlier this month producer Scott Rudin got the Internet buzzing with his announcement that he was developing a Cleopatra biopic “for and with Jolie” based on Stacy Schiff’s book “Cleopatra: A Life.”
Schiff raved about the choice, telling USA Today, “Physically, she’s the perfect look.”
But some members of the African American community beg to differ — they are outraged by the casting decision and say Jolie is “too white” to play the Egyptian Queen.
“I don’t care how full Angelina Jolie’s lips are, how many African children she adopts, or how bronzed her skin will become for the film,” Shirea Carroll wrote in an editorial for Essence.com.
“I firmly believe this role should have gone to a Black woman…What’s next? A biopic on Sojourner Truth played by Betty White?”
This isn’t the first time Jolie has found herself at the center of a debate about race in Hollywood.
In 2007, she sparked serious controversy when she wore tinted make-up to play the role of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl’s wife Marian, who is partly of African descent. Pearl herself took to the press to defend Jolie, telling Time Magazine, “It is not about the color of your skin. It is about who you are.”
While experts can’t say with certainty what Cleopatra looked like, physically speaking, Jolie is probably not the most historically accurate choice. For starters, she’s probably too tall, beautiful and skinny, according to what historians now know.
“Sadly for those who seek the secret of her personal allure, the more we study Cleopatra’s surviving images, the less certain we may be of her [allegedly gorgeous] looks,” Susan Walker, a senior curator at the British Museum, told the British Sunday Times.
In fact, according to ABC News, Egyptologists insist that the legendary temptress, known for having used her beauty to seduce Roman Emperor Julius Caesar and general Mark Anthony, was actually “short, fat and plain.”
Despite the controversy, Jolie is still at least one fan’s ideal choice to play the Queen.
Michael Pietsch, publisher of Little, Brown (which will put out Schiff’s book this November) told UsMagazine.com, “Angelina Jolie radiates grace and power, exactly the qualities of the most intriguing ruler who ever lived.”
Monday, June 14, 2010 | 3:00 PM
by Shirea L. Carroll
Just when we thought there weren’t enough leading roles for Black women in Hollywood, they create one and give it to a White woman.
Film producer Scott Rudin has purchased the film rights to upcoming biography ‘Queen of the Nile, Cleopatra: A Life,’ and has confirmed that the movie “is being developed for and with [Angelina] Jolie.” Jolie, a Hollywood A-lister, will do her best in bringing the story of the famed Egyptian queen to life, and it appears no one doubts she can do it… including Pulitzer prize-winning author Stacy Schiff, who penned the biography, “Cleopatra: A Life,” a book that won’t be on shelves until the fall.
Schiff already heavily endorses Jolie, stating, “I think she’d be perfect for it and I can see a possible Oscar in her future. Physically, she’s got the perfect look.”
Gasp, the nerve! “She’s got the perfect look?” Honestly, I don’t care how full Angelina Jolie’s lips are, how many African children she adopts, or how bronzed her skin will become for the film, I firmly believe this role should have gone to a Black woman. I mean, isn’t it enough that 47 years ago, dame Elizabeth Taylor was cast to portray Cleopatra in one of the most expensive films ever made? That Elizabeth Taylor was actually the third White woman to be tapped for the Cleopatra role — following Vivien Leigh and Claudette Colbert — just makes this all the more comical.
Were Vanessa Williams, Halle Berry and Thandie Newton unavailable for auditions that day? Why does Hollywood think it’s even slightly plausible to cast White women in roles that would be more sensible to cast a Black actress for? Especially when that role is an African queen.
It happened just two years ago, in 2007′s thriller “Stuck,” directed by Stuart Gordon, based on the true story of a Chante Mallard. The story tells a tale of a woman who hits a homeless man with her car and results with him trapped in her car’s windshield. Instead of getting the man help, Mallard (played by actress Mena Suvari) opts to let him die slowly in her garage.
The interesting thing is Mallard is a Black woman, and Suvari, who was cast to play the role, is — surprise, surprise — a White woman. Adding insult to injury, instead of just casting a Black woman to play the role, the film gave Suvari a more “ethnic look” for the role, by adding stereotypical cornrows to her hair. Hollywood, are you serious?
Now, Jolie is set to play Cleopatra, who isn’t as technically perfect as some would claim if you study the Queen of the Nile’s distinguished history. First and foremost, the role should be given to a younger actress — think Jurnee Smollett — considering Cleopatra began her reign as Queen of Egypt at the tender age of 18 and ended her own life at the age of 39.
Secondly, while historically there is no concrete confirmation that Cleopatra was of a darker complexion, there is more evidence than not that she was Black, and not entirely of Macedonian Greek ancestry, as Shakespeare, leagues of painters and now Hollywood would have us believe. And, ultimately, while Cleopatra’s heritage remains under speculation, it remains that she was in fact an African queen. Jolie — not so perfect.
What’s next? A biopic on Sojourner Truth played by Betty White?
The Obama Administration: Agency for Continuity or Change in the United States Foreign Policy towards Africa?
A poignant Essay on Obama’s criticism against rogue puppet rulers of the African Continent including his family’s native Kenya and his lack of action to counter the policies America has that facilitates the machinations of Evil perpetrate by these puppet rulers that are in bed with European powers..
By Kwanisai Mafa and Netfa Freeman
October 12, 2006, pambazuka.org
This article is a response to an article (entitled “The Anatomy of Zimbabwe’s Problems (www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/37060) by Maggie Makanza that we published last month. Kwanisai Mafa and Netfa Freeman caution “…all Africans at home and in the Diaspora are to unite against real live enemies and beware of any diagnoses with a psychosis of denial that neglects the most pertinent aspects our anatomical problems.”
We agree with the author of this article that all is not well in Zimbabwe but she fails to objectively explain the causes of the problems in Zimbabwe. It is strange to make a statement like, “Most pressure for reform appears to be coming from external rather than internal forces,” without referring to the external destabilization measures of the British and US governments, the EU and certain white settlers bent on maintaining power and privilege. This is to speak of such problems in Zimbabwe as if the aforementioned have no bearing on them, or as if they do not exist. In psychology this is analogous to a condition called denial.
Zimbabwe’s problems are caused by two conflicting ideological dispositions: Pan-Africanism versus neo-colonialism. To understand this, we must remember that British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, stated openly that he is working with the Movement of Democratic Change in Zimbabwe to effect regime change. To achieve this objective the western secret services MI6, CIA, and others used their arsenals of alliances, networks of military bases, economic devices such as sanctions, sabotage, blackmail, and provocateurs. Equally insidious is the psychological weapon of propaganda which aims to impress on the masses a number of imperialist dogmas.
Kwame Nkrumah taught us that these are the, “…mechanisms of neo-colonialism”. Nkrumah told us, “In the labor field, for example, imperialism operates through labor arms like the Social Democratic parties of Europe led by the British Labor Party, and through such instruments as the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), now apparently being superseded by the New York Africa-American Labor Center (AALC) under AFL-CIO chief George Meany and the well-known CIA man in labor’s top echelons, Irving Brown.”
Philip Agee, former CIA operative and author of ‘Inside the Company: CIA Diary’, confirms this when he revealed that, “…the successes of revolutionary movements in Ethiopia, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Grenada, Nicaragua and elsewhere brought ‘cold warrior’ Democrats and ‘internationalist’ Republicans together to establish in 1979 the American Political Foundation (APF). The foundation’s task was to study the feasibility of establishing through legislation a government-financed foundation to subsidize foreign operations in civil society through U.S. non-governmental organizations. Within APF four task forces were set up to conduct the study, one for the Democrats, one for the Republicans, one for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and one for the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).”
Agee describes how this effort developed mainly into the U.S Agency for International Development now doing overtly what the CIA used to do covertly to advance the neo-colonial agenda of the West. The psychological denial around Zimbabwe consistently avoids such facts. The author asks, “Why has the pro-democracy movement not been able to capitalize on many reported failures of the ZANU PF government?” Could it be because this not a legitimate movement? Nor is it for democracy.
Neglected by psychological denial in the anatomy of Zimbabwe’s problems is the fact that the trade union “movement” in Zimbabwe, which spawned the so-called Movement for Democratic Change, is in line with recommendations from a 1998 European Union study on Zimbabwe. These recommendations call for Mugabe’s removal specifically by systematically building up NGOs and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) as alternative centers of power, supported by fostering strikes, demonstrations, urban unrest, food riots and carefully engineering dissension within the ranks of the government, the ruling party and the country’s armed forces.
The blatant violation of Zimbabwe’s sovereignty is inherent in the anatomy of Zimbabwe’s problems. No other word better describes omission of this fact than the condition of denial.
Surprisingly the author who is a member of a liberal organization, Zimbabwe Social Forum, has lost faith in the parliamentary system, and says that, “…the continual use of the ballot under the present circumstances can only be described as sheer madness.” What other means is the author advocating? Imperialism tells us that western democracy and the parliamentary system are the only valid ways of governing. Zimbabwe has been using this model to run elections since its independence every five years without fail.
It is wrong to say that people lack energy and suffer from inertia to fight the regime. The only democratic means for regime change is through the ballot box. We know, however that the leader of the main opposition in Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai is on record as suggesting that if Mugabe does not want to go they will remove him violently. He has been exposed through meetings in London and Montreal, Canada in what was more than likely a plot to assassinate President Mugabe and stage a coup d’état.
The leader of MDC has been globetrotting calling for the isolation of Zimbabwe through economic sanctions. While the western governments are fooling the world that these are “smart sanctions” targeting only government and party leaders, so-called progressives abet this misnomer by blaming Zimbabwe’s ailing economy on Mugabe and ZANU- PF.
These so-called progressives neglect to consider that these sanctions openly oppose “…any extension by [international financial institutions] of any loan, credit, or guarantee to the government of Zimbabwe,” and in addition oppose any reduction or cancellation of debt. It is dishonest denial to suggest the anatomy of Zimbabwe’s problems can be determined without conceding to these facts. The ordinary person is suffering because of these sanctions.
If ZANU PF were intolerant of the opposition, MDC would not be in parliament. Most mayors and councilors in urban centers are MDC. MDC legislators head most parliamentary portfolio committees. This demonstrates that people in Zimbabwe have the capacity to choose the leadership they want. ZANU PF knows that urban centres are MDC domains. MDC knows well that rural constituencies are ZANU PF strongholds. The majority of the Zimbabwean population lives in rural areas. The author is not correct to say that rural folk have been used and then “abandoned” after elections. Since independence, government has embarked on many developmental projects in rural areas to improve their lives. Most of the major dams were built in rural areas for irrigation and fisheries.
Most rural areas have benefited immensely from the government rural electrification programs. Schools and clinics have been built and recently the government is building major referral hospitals in all districts. Every farming season the government dispatches tractors to rural folk for tillage but the major challenge has been fuel, a need mostly impeded by foreign versus domestic challenges.
There are so many government community empowerment programmes underway in rural areas. Seed packs and fertilizers are given to the rural folk and new farmers for free by the government. With these things is it not also a denial to say rural people are being neglected?
Wrecked: Shops are forced to weigh notes – with $25m enough to buy only a can of drink
However, the author is right when she says, “The opposition has worked on the false assumption that no one supports ZANU PF.” Tsvangirai and his controllers have seen that they cannot dislodge ZANU PF through the ballot box. That is why they are trying to create the “…necessary conditions needed for combustion to happen,” so that they can violently remove the government. Tsvangirai even asked President Thabo Mbeki to cut all lifelines to Zimbabwe including trade routes, electricity supply and fuel. Any leader with people at heart would not ask for the continued suffering of his own people until they vote him into power.
On the land issue, the author needs to do more thorough research about the history of this question in Zimbabwe. There is nothing poor or chaotic about the land reform programme. What solution could have been better to address the racial land imbalance maintained by the “willing buyer-willing seller” clause? Who was willing to sell land and who, in a new nation of mostly poor Africans, was in a position to buy it?
An honest analogy for the anatomy of Zimbabwe’s problems is more like a gang taking control of a family’s house. Only after being forced by the family to relinquish control in part, the gang then co-opts certain family members to badger the rest into infighting while the gang ransacks the house and from outside, standing in front of their glass homes they throw stones. Our call to all Africans at home and in the Diaspora is to unite against real live enemies and beware of any diagnoses with a psychosis of denial that neglects the most pertinent aspects our anatomical problems.
* Kwanisai Mafa is an Electronic Resources Librarian at Zimbabwe’s Midland State University and Chairman of the Ujamma Youth Farming Project in Gweru. He can be reached at Netfa Freeman is the Director of the Social Action & Leadership School for Activists at the Institute for Policy Studies and an organizer with PALO, the Pan-African Liberation Organization. He can be reached at
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