Page 7 Portland O bserver O C T O B E R 12, 1989
PERSPECTIVES
by Mckinley Burt
W ell, last week 1 got your attention by
w riting about 'B la ck Pirates'. There
was a method in my madness as I
wished to draw attention to the fact that
contrary to most contemporary white
historians, there is a long and well-
documented tradition o f African sea-
farers-5000 year tradition. This had
been a touchy subject, since roaming
sailors and soldiers are known to leave
quite visible evidence o f their pres
ence-vis a vis their genes.
We may begin our older citations with
'Queen Hatshepsut' (1390-1468 B.C.),
the great Egyptian ruler o f Ethiopian
descent. The w orld ’s first 'U rban
P lanner', she b uilt paved roads 3200
years before the United States (The
1794 Lancaster Turnpike which linked
Philadelphia w ith Lancaster, Pennsyl
vania). This is the same Black queen
whose seaborne expeditions to the 'Land
o f P unt' are described in the Bible
(today’s countries o f Oman and Yeman.)
From this Red Sea Coast o f Arabia,
many African Pharaohs brought back
many shiploads o f gum and resin-laden
trees-the Bibical “ frankincense and
m y rrh ” .
Queen Hatshepsut was succeeded by
her brother, Thotmese III (Thutmose)
whose seaborne e' ped.tions o f discov
ery and conquest ranged from the fast
ness o f Asia M inor and the marshes o f
the Upper Euphrates to the swamps o f
Babylon and the islands o f the M edi
terranean. African voyage like these
led the ancients to give to today’ s Per
sian G u lf its original name. The 'E th io
pian Sea'. Thotmese, a great builder o f
temples, also constructed two huge
'obelisks', stone towers sim ilar to the
Washington Monument. One has been
brought to Central Park, New York
C ity, and the British have set up the
other on the Thames embankment in
London England.
But even in earlier times the Bible tells
us o f the 'Reed boats o f the E th io p i
ans' (Isaiah), boats exactly the same as,
found today o r both coasts o f Africa.
They are also found throughout the Pa
cific Rim and Polynesia, including Easter
Island, and on Lake Titicaca in South
America’s Andes Mountains. It was
this knowledge o f the proliferation o f
the fabled African craft that prompted
the noted explorer, T h o r Heyerdahl,
to test the theory o f prehistorical trav
els from A frica (o f course, American
Blacks already knew that the majority
o f the peoples o f these lands look ex
actly like most o f our ghetto popula
tion.
Heyerdahl, in his famous book, 'K on -
T ik i' (1950), also describers a 4000
mile voyage in a balsa wood and reed
raft from South America to the South
Pacific islands o f Polynesia. Equally
significant is his 'reed raft* expedition
from the West Coast o f A frica to the
Americas-these vessels having been
constructed by the Africans themselves
and modeled to their ancient tradition.
But, for the most concrete and compel
ling evidence we are indebted to the
ancient A frica n ’s demonstrated a b ili
ties in mathematics, astronomy and
Map-making-and their history-preserv
ing habit o f w riting in stone or sturdy
papyrus. We have the follow ing from
p.136 o f David Grecnhoods’s book.
Mapping:
“ A cone is another round shape which
can be unrolled to lie flat. It can fit a
globe as nicely as a hat can fit a head.
And the ‘ sweatband’ w ill take an accu
rate print o f everything it touches on
that dome. S lit the cone from rim to
point, ro ll it out, and you’ll have a kind
o f fan. The ribs o f the fan w ill be the
meridians.”
“ This is a very old trick. About 1800
years ago, over in Egypt, a map-maker
worked this trick and made a splendid
map o f the then known world. Il ex
tended from the longitude o f Ireland to
that o f ‘silkland’ or China. On the
right-hand edge he put figures showing
the number o f hours in the longest day
o f the year at each latitude” .
Other, much older maps, indicate that
the African’s had accurately pinpointed
specific sites in Russia, and even India.
This is revealed by 4000 year old pa
pyri and stone steles in European
museums Not loo much o f a “ tr ic k ”
if you arc the one w ho taught the Greeks
mathematics.
COMPUTER OPERATIONS
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Capitol Health Care, a w holly owned
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ADMINISTRATION DI VISON
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This position w ill manage, direct,
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C LO S IN G D A T E : O ctober 27,
1989. A A /E O E
E X E C U T IV E D IR E C T O R
M en tal H ealth Association o f O re
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ACCOUNTANT-
H A LF-T IM E
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M E D IC A L C L A IM S
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Duties include accounts payable, ac
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prefer degree in accounting,business
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M E D IC A L Opening for OR RN
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Blue Cross and Blue Shield o f Oregon offers an excellent employee
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SE R V IC E W O R K ER
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Cleaning and Servicing District buses.
Hours from 7:00p.m. to 5:30 a.m.
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Wage $7.73 per hour plus $.40
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