Science: Africa's cradle of humanity, History erased

We can not stress enough that the history of mankind has been erased. That is why the restitution of the history of humanity has become our battleground. This motivates this article, which is devoted to the analysis of the quotation "Africa is the cradle of humanity".

 Who is the author of the quotation "Africa is the cradle of humanity"? Where are the authors? The answer to this question is worth its weight in gold insofar as it should make it possible to take an interest in the thought of the author or the authors. For the study of a quotation cannot be analyzed without first referring in the sense that its author (s) conferred on it.

It seems that the humanists of the rebirth are the authors of the quotation "Africa is the cradle of humanity". Who are they? At the time of the Renaissance, "it is scholars versed in the knowledge of ancient languages ​​and literatures, considered as the foundation of the knowledge of man."

"Ancient languages ​​and literatures" have made it possible for the humanists of the Renaissance to discover that "Africa is the cradle of humanity" (and not the bones of primates). The hieroglyph. To understand how they came to establish that "Africa is the cradle of humanity", it is necessary to reconstitute the environment of the time.

Africa declared end of the earth by the Catholic Church

In 1482, Diego Cao, in the service of the king of Portugal, discovers the mouth of the river Congo. And in 1492, Christopher Columbus, in the service of King of Spain, discovers America. Two years later, Pope Alexander VI, Borgia, shared the world in two. He attributes Africa to Portugal and America to Spain, despite the dissatisfaction of France, England and other countries...

In 1494, in the same year, Portugal and Spain agreed to respect the Pope's decision by signing the Treaty of Tordesillas. Where did the Pope have authority to divide the world in two? This is explained by the fact that after the fall of the Roman Empire the Catholic Church had taken over in the sense that all the countries which the Roman Empire had conquered were converted to Christianity State by the decision of the Emperor Constantine).

Thus, in spite of the fall of the Roman Empire and the end of the reign of the Roman emperors, the leaders of the ancient Roman provinces, converted to Christianity, all recognized the authority of the Pope.

Thus, after the discovery of the mouth of the Congo River and of America, the Vatican considered the new lands discovered as "the extremities" of the earth. Hence the new mission of the Catholic Church: to bring the knowledge of God to the living peoples "at the extremities" of the earth. This supposes that these peoples did not know God. This is the postulate of the Catholic Church.

Not knowing God, all that was African, was supposed to come from the devil. As a result, Africans were asked to get rid of their works of art: statues, masks considered diabolical. Thus, the Africans were stripped because all these works of art of antiquity are today exposed in the museums in the Occident. And these antiquities have reached invaluable values.

In addition, it should be remembered that not too long ago, the Tam-Tam could not be played in the Catholic Church because the tam-tam was considered diabolical. The devil was represented as a black man, like the Africans who were supposed to have queens.

 Thus the two powers of the time, Portugal and Spain, after the division of the world between the two maritime powers of the time, committed themselves in their turn to contribute to the new mission which the Catholic Church: Bring the knowledge of God to the living people at the "ends" of the earth, Rome being the center

Besides its influence on kings and princes, the Catholic Church had a hand on teaching. As a result, "teaching was almost exclusively about theology and logic" and Latin was the only language of instruction. The mission of the church, that of bringing the knowledge of God to the "ends of the earth", was set up as a doctrine taught to every Christian so that everyone could contribute (to the mission).

   Africa center (or cradle) of humanity: the rebirth

 Around the 16th century, a powerful movement of renovation of the arts and letters was born, based on the return to the ancient culture: the rebirth. This is called humanism because it was a movement from the Renaissance to the study of ancient letters, long called human letters, as opposed to the scholastic theology taught by the Catholic Church in schools, Teaching Latin.

This being so, the humanistic movement is for a time mainly academic. "It begins in reaction to a teaching that was almost exclusively about theology and logic, without going back to the original texts ...»

Wishing to read the original texts, the humanists of the Renaissance were interested in the study of ancient Greek.

However, "theologians, defenders of tradition, are worried about the humanist movement. They consider it dangerous for orthodoxy. The free examination of the texts may in fact call into question the doctrine officially taught. "This was not long in coming.

Indeed, the Renaissance humanists discovered through the ancient texts that the Greeks drew wisdom and science in Africa, especially in ancient Egypt. Sauneron stigmatizes him in these terms: "To traverse the ancient Greek texts, one cannot defend the idea that in the eyes of these ancient authors, Egypt was like the cradle of all science; of all wisdom ".

In addition, Amelineau in his prolegomena to religion wrote: "I saw then and clearly seen, that the most famous systems of Greece, especially those of Plato and Aristotle, had Egypt for cradle"

This being so, while the Catholic Church considered Africa as the end of the earth, which presupposes that the peoples living on the African continent lived on the fringes of human knowledge, the Renaissance humanists discovered from the Writings of the ancient Greeks, that Africa is rather the center from which came the knowledge of humanity in particular the values ​​of humanity that are solidarity, hospitality etc. ..., sciences, monotheism...

Africa: end or center (cradle)

As a result, Africa found itself at the heart of a debate in the 16th century between the Catholic Church and the humanists of the Renaissance. The Catholic Church regarded Africa as the end of the earth, whereas for the humanists of the Renaissance, Africa was more the center or the cradle.

Thus a struggle of opinion broke out between the Catholic Church against the humanists of the Renaissance on the two theses. Since Renaissance humanists used history to argue that Africa is the cradle of humanity, a law was drafted to erase the history of humanity born in Africa. Hubert Deschamps evokes this law in these terms: "In Bossuet's time, universal history was limited to Israel, the Greco-Roman and polished Europe. It was the norm...

         To comply with this norm, the Catholic Church will forbid reading the Bible because most of the history of the Old Testament took place in Africa, particularly in Egypt, and near the Nile, River of Africa. The accounts of Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses illustrate this historical reality.

Thus the history of the birth of humanity in Africa is not taught either in schools or in universities up to the present day. Because of this law, all those who alluded to the history of mankind born in Africa suffered the fate of Galilee: the sanction. Such was the case of the Renaissance humanists who saw their works censored by the Sorbonne.

Indeed, in its struggle against the humanists of the Renaissance, the Catholic Church had received the support of the Sorbonne.

The Sorbonne against the Humanists of the Renaissance

The Catholic Church had a hand on teaching. In its struggle against the Renaissance Humanists, the Sorbonne, which was "first a college of theology founded in 1257" and an ecclesiastical tribunal, fiercely opposed the Renaissance humanists by condemning and censuring their publications.

 The Sorbonne took a stand against the Humanists of the Renaissance, arguing that Africa is the "end" of the land, an opinion erected as a doctrine by the Catholic Church. In short, the Sorbonne is one of the institutions that ensured that the universal history was confined to Israel, the Greco-Roman and polished Europe.

The Sorbonne became a "public institution of higher education (...) housing several research units (EBU) attached to universities. This allowed him to popularize the ideology according to which one cannot speak of the intellectual development of the African man, because the theory of evolution states that the man who appeared in Africa had a small brain similar to monkeys Current events.

As a result, the African man was incapable of any intellectual development. For the African man was in the primary state of evolution. This being so, the African man has brought nothing to the world. Such is the theory sustained. Consequently, it was long considered that the sciences could not have as cradle Africa, especially Egypt. It was attributed to Greece, European country, the paternity of the sciences.

For example, the Sorbonne ruled that Cheick Anta Diop's theses on ancient Egypt were irreceivable without being debated. In fact, Cheick Anta Diop's theses demonstrating the greatness of Africa, through Egyptian civilization, go against the theory of evolution.

However, the Cairo Symposium organized by UNESO recognized the scientific validity of Cheick Anta Diop's theses on ancient Egypt. But Cheikh Anta Diop's theses demonstrating that ancient Egypt was African by its civilization, its culture (language and writing), its religion ... are not studied in schools or in African universities.

Indeed, after erasing the history of the birth of humanity in Africa, it was necessary to find another explanation than that of the humanists of the rebirth to the quotation "Africa is the cradle of humanity".

Hence the substitution of the history of the birth of humanity in Africa by the theory of evolution up to the present day. However, the theory of evolution gives the explanation of the origin of man and not the explanation of the origin of mankind (see the article "Origin of humanity and origin of man: Confusion maintained / Google).

Epistemology: the Catholic Church for a return to the roots

After centuries of obscurantism, the development of printing and the Internet have pushed the sources of information and training. In 2002, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications published "The Church and the Internet." It describes some of the multilateral impacts of the Internet (...), in particular on the fact that Traditional institutions no longer have a monopoly on information and training.

 On the occasion of this communication, the Pontifical Council made the observation that censorship has become more and more difficult. This is the revolution that the internet causes. And the sources of information and training are now diversified.

As a result, "the church is resolutely engaged with the help of the magisterium, in an undertaking of research and the attainment of truth in solidarity with the whole of humanity. 

In order to carry out this research well, socioconstructivist epistemology is proposed as a structuring reference to the pastoral posture of a church engaging in dialogue and encouraging the construction of new knowledge ... «

This opening of the Catholic Church is an historic event because it allows the possibility of officially recognizing that Africa is the cradle of humanity and its values ​​and not the end of the earth.

It is important to understand the meaning of the socioconstructivist epistemology recommended by the Pontifical Council. Socioconstructivist epistemology is understood to mean "... the ways in which knowledge is constructed independently of the ways in which scientists believe that they are constructed".

From the above, "Africa's cradle of humanity" is a quote from the Renaissance humanists. For them, Africa is the continent where humanity and its values, such as hospitality, solidarity, non-violence, dialogue (palaver), the sciences, etc., have emerged first. It is thanks to ancient languages ​​and literatures that they came to this conclusion and not to the bones of the primates.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Jean-Raoul Lumpungu