African history

Thanks for the video.

PEACE
http://www.voyageafrica.net/

Can written Chinese or Egyptian really be called an alphabet?
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It depends on who you are and which language you speak. If you are a Chinese, Egyptian and many other non european people the symbols used for writing have a same name that means writing symbols and that what alphabet stands for.
If you are european or caucasian for supremacy reason you need to make a difference between symbols used for writing and calls your own symbols alphabet and find another name for writing symbols of other civilizations.

To be happy read the history of alphabet. All writing systems of the Old World (Europe, Asia and Africa) derived either from the Egyptian or the Chinese writing systems through simplifications for fewer symbols. It doesn't matter whether some people have different or same name for symbols and characters used all over the world. They all serve a same purpose of writing.

Can written Chinese or Egyptian really be called an alphabet?

The olden kingdoms of Egypt and Ethiopia were the architects of Africa's downfall. When they were in the height of their power and empire, they did not extend a hand to their fellow continent dwellers around them (i.e the people of Africa). Instead, they forged on closer ties with Arabs and Jews.

When the time came for these to fall- when they were under attack by their same peers, they were exposed without a community of brotherhood to defend and fight for them. This we can now see in perfect example as practised by the brotherhood of the European Union (where a few civilized and rich countries like the UK, Germany and France constantly prop up really poor and abject countries as Poland, Greece, etc) and the United states of America.
These are lessons for any new world power to copy and apply. So there you go, China, remember to help, work with and strengthen your surrounding fellow Asian countries when you take over the mantle of power from America and Europe: never be selfish- do not make the mistakes of Egypt and Ethiopia. An Igbo saying goes this way, ''When singularly isolated, a broomstick is breakable easily; but collectively, a bunch of broomsticks can bend 360 degrees and non of it will break when it returns to normalcy.''

Well said Mekuria,

The two great european civilizations (Greek and Roman) made alphabets long after the Egyptians and Chinese. All Europeans glorify themselves as having thousand years of written history because of the Romans and the Greek.
Africa has Nubian with their meroic alphabet and Ethiopian civilization with their geez alphabet.
Europeans don't want all Sub-Saharan Africans to glorify ourselves for thousand years of written history from those two great African civilizations. I wonder when those so called European scholars like this one will stop their belief in an empty supremacy.

Well said Mekuria.

“Sub-Saharan Africa mostly lacks a written history. Its rock art belongs to peoples who have vanished without trace. There were few cities and very little technology.” This is the usual Euro-Centric Afro-pessimist view. Contrary to the assertion by the article, Ethiopia, a black African country, has a long written history. Timbuktu, in Mali, again a black Africa country if you do not know, has been a center of Islamic education, in its written form, for centuries. Monomutapa Kingdom in the Southern Africa region was strong and progressive. Axum and Lalibela in Ethiopia, Timbuktu in Mali or Monomutapa in Zimbabwe are not “rock art belongs to peoples who have vanished without trace”. Anyone who went to history 101 knows that Ethiopia has written and inscribed history which is older than England, France and the very young U.S.A. It accepted Christianity when Europe was in its wilderness, it has one of the oldest alphabets and calendar. If you want to talk about history be brave and state the slave trade and the inhuman genocide committed by Britain, France, Fascist Italy, Belgium and Germany against the peoples of Africa for centuries. And try to mention that Africa has also one of the oldest written histories, because it is a fact. Please for heaven sake, stop generalization and petty assumption to romanticize your writings. Try, at least for a change, to write about the positive achievements Africa has made in recent years.

Great video which I will save for the future.

The people depicted here are not Zulu as the subtitles state. The film looks to have been shot in Central and East Africa, with tribes including Maasai, Kikuyu and others found in Kenya, Tanzania and possibly Uganda or Burundi.

The American film editors either mistook them for South African Zulus or just thought the name would resonate better with US audiences.

The railway is probably the Uganda Railway that connected Mombasa on the coast with the interior and went through Nairobi. It operates under a different name now but it is the very same track. By the way, Kenya and Uganda were not yet legal colonial entities with fixed boundaries.

The pastoralists have changed amazingly little in the 101 years since then.

Teddy Roosevelt was a great leader whose silly hat and hunting fixation may distract from his basic humanitarian nature. He was probably the greatest conservationist who ever lived. He did like to shoot lions, but the wildlife had larger ranges back then and could recover from the predations of a few Great White Hunters. The Maasai tribesmen probably accounted for more kills as it was a key part of their manhood ritual.

I am wondering if this is actually the oldest film reel of Kenya. Any theories?

Great find with the video - it reminds me of the Fromkin book, "A Peace to End All Peace." It's hard to imagine that 100 years ago Pax Brittania ruled the seas... A very different world.