Imago Dei--Moors, Berbers, Axum and Mestizos

TBR--Leighton Bradford Editor-in-Chief
 The first ascertainable African state to attain power was the ancient empire of Ethiopia, Axum, Abyssinia, etc... For over five thousand years from military conquest and intermarrying, Ethiopia and Kemet (Egypt) established the foundation and the heritage associated with Blacks within the African Diaspora! Carter G. Woodson would have handled this synopsis better than I. All of humanity has contributed to the greatness of this earth! It becomes duly important to shore up past inequalities suspended within a euro-centric reality.

The term Moor when translated from Greek refers to, Mauro's-meaning dark or tanned.  Moors originated from Northern Africa, came to conquer and rule the Iberian [Spain & Portugal] peninsula for 800 years! Was Hannibal Black? I argue he was at least tanned or a light skin brother. There are rumors Vin Diesel or Denzel Washington; may star in upcoming roles, depicting the military genius. Young impressionable individuals of African descent; should see their image in what Hollywood depicts. "Indeed, in Spain (Iberia) and Portugal the indigenous pop. had been ruled until the fifteenth century by the Moors who were both darker skinned and more educated than the natives," Race and Racism, Pierre L. van den Berghe. When the Spaniards came to the America's they had to be of an admixture; moreover, possessed elements of African ancestry! Mestizo refers to a Spanish, African and Indigenous admixture. We interpret the term Mestizos as Mexican. We may have time to discuss Creole, French, Indigenous, and African. Creole culture is a pivotal aspect of not only New Orleans, but around the world.


 The Moors territory of rule stretched from Mali and Niger to present day Spain. Their conquest and existence pre-dates Islam, i.e. The Numidian Kingdom of Maure 3rd century BCE!  Al Andulas a reference used to identify the aforementioned conquered lands of the Iberian Peninsula. I argue that descendants from Al Andulas or the Iberian Peninsula, have elements of Black within them! The conquistadors leading the diaspora of the America's had possible Moorish eugenics scheme. Moors, Berber, and Nubian are interchangeable humanistic, or of African descent distinctions. Let's transition towards an epic scholar Dr Ivan Van Sertima*.

Photo: Dr. Ivan Van Sertima

"Contrary to widespread misinformation, the history of black Americans does not begin with their arrival in the New World on slave ships!" Ebony Pictorial History

Dr. Ivan Van Sertima [*was born in Guyana, South America.  He was educated at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London University) and the Rutgers Graduate School and holds degrees in African Studies and Anthropology.  From 1957-1959 he served as a Press and Broadcasting Officer in the Guyana Information Services.  During the decade of the 1960s he broadcast weekly from Britain to Africa and the Caribbean. ] http://www.journalofafricancivilizations.com/page/9048 

Dr. Van Sertima [*He also appeared before a Congressional Committee on July 7, 1987, to challenge the Columbus myth. This landmark presentation before Congress was illuminating and brilliantly presented in the name of all peoples of color across the world.]:

July 7, 1987, Van Sertima Before Congress - Challenging the Columbus Myth

*“If we are to have a commemoration, let us take this opportunity not to consolidate a myth, but to open a new window upon the universe of peoples. Let us take full cognizance of other civilizations here in a true cross-cultural fashion so we can really speak of ourselves as true Americans, New World people, because that is what the New World means...the bringing together of all these old-world elements into a new world.”

— Ivan Van Sertima

*Dr. Van Sertima appeared, on July 7, 1987, before Congress to discuss the Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Act. Van Sertima, single-handedly, presented evidence to prove that Africans made contact with native Americans long before Columbus, and that Columbus did not “discover”.

 It becomes critically important, within an identity of an altruistic interpretation of blackness, to define our anthropological existence.  It thwarts dehumanizing attributes. The Moors derived from an area within and adjacent to Carthage, i.e., Hannibal conqueror of Rome! Libya, Morocco, and Algeria where near or a part of the territory of Carthage.

Some of the oldest human settlements have been unearthed in Tanzania. The oldest human fossils were found in and around Olduvai Gorge (Oldupai) in northern Tanzania, an area referred to as "The Cradle of Mankind". It is believed to be the birthplace of humanity. Fossils found in this area include Paranthropus bones thought to be over 2 million years old, and the oldest known footprints of the immediate ancestors of humans, the Laetoli footprints, estimated to be about 3.6 million years old. About 10,000 years ago, Tanzania was populated by hunter-gatherer communities who spoke Khoisan. They were joined by Cushitic-speaking people who came from the north about 5000 years ago.

[Berbers (Berber: Imazighen / Imaziɣen) are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Today, varieties of Maghreb's colloquial Arabic are spoken by a large portion of Berbers besides the Berber language itself]. wikipedia 


[Many Louisiana creole families arrived in Louisiana during the Colonial Period following the Slave Uprising led by Toussaint Breda (later called L'Ouverture) in 1791 in Ste. Dominique, later called Haiti. Protesting French Colonial rule - and winning the fight with the assistance, in part of the mosquito, as the French plantation owners most holding land grants from Louis XVI (farming primarily sugar) were succumbing to yellow fever. The slave army of L'Ouverture originally in alliance with the French to exile Spanish and English eventually helped evict them too creating a free Haiti]. Wikipedia

Establishing a cultural identity is crucial to a valued self-esteem! Detractors know and understand, without it, you are subjected to the dehumanizing effect, of social genocide. Anthropology is as much a part of the civil rights struggle or equality, as sitting at a lunch counter in the sixties! This is what I often refer to as, Imago Dei, Latin for Image of God. Translated further, all human beings were created in the image or likeness of God! European history must acknowledge the aforementioned ideals. Moors are individuals of African descent.