S eptember 21, 1994 • I he P ortland O bserver
P age B 4
Urban League
Guild Welcomes
Okianer Dark
West Coast Publishers Meet
Opening remarks on the occasion of the 18th Cal-Pac Convention of the West Coast Black Publishers Association Covention held recently
in Las Vegas, Nev. were made by Bernie Foster. His message addressed the challenges and responsibilities of the black press in America
and the importance of free speech. Pictured are (from left) Jim Williams, president of Cal-Pac North in Oakland, Calif., Michael Suggs,
national manager of corporate.affairs for RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co., Foster of Portland, Clem Daniels, state president of Cal-Pac, John Hoy,
public issues consultant for RJR and Gilbert Baker, president of Cal-Pac South in Los Angeles.
Urban Renewal: People, Politics And
Planning:
The Africans Began It All 4000 Years Ago
B y P rof . M c K inley B urt
Last week, I promised more rev
elations. Indeed, it would seem that
the bare statement of almost any fact
about the historical development of
the so-called ‘modern’ urban infra
structure proves to be a “revelation".
This is especially true when we
consider the pioneering role of Afri
can people in this process, as incom
prehensible as this may seem to so
many of us who have been brain
washed or simply left ignorant and
deceived by the establishment (both
academia and media). The truth of
the matter is that the blacks of the
‘Egypt, Sudan/Nubia and Ethiopia'
geographical complex developed
what is functional yet beautiful in
m an-m ade lan d scap es--an d as
Napoleon ’ s 1798 expedition detailed
so well, accomplished this long be
fore the Greek imitations and over a
thousand years before the Romans.
In this month’s Scientific Ameri
can Magazine, the most respected of
the genre, is an 8-page article, mag
nificently illustrated, which docu
ments all of this within the context of
Napoleon’s effort; The Scientific
Importance of Napoleon's Egyptian
Campaign”. Read that as “Africa,
big, black and competent.” Urban,
Planning in stone long before mud
huts of the “Fertile Crescent.
The subheading of the article
tells it all; or it seems to. “Bonaparte's
invasion of Egypt brought French
Scientists and engineers to the Nile.
Their work, in turn, brought the splen
dors of the Nile to Europe”. The gift
from the African continent was much
greater than the phraseology implies.
Most importantly the armada of 400
ships carried not only thousands of
soldiers but 151 scientists, engineers,
medical men and scholars who were
supported in turn, by artists, survey
ors, mapmakers and language ex
perts.
So it is obvious that this incred
ible expedition was designed from
the start’ to voraciously seize the
seminal concepts that Africa had de
veloped 4000 years earlier and graft
them onto a stumbling and war-tom
European establishment. These des
perate attempts to bring some vigor
and intellectual vitality to Europe
went far beyond the importation of
so called modern urban design like
black Queen Hatshepsuts design of
panoramic city vistas of broad, tree-
lined boulevards with municipal gar
dens, parks and appropriately located
public squares and buildings (from
1500 B.C.). As m entioned, the
Greeks and Romans slavishly cop
ied the formats of the African Cities
and infrastructure.
The memoirs and monographs
of the French Expedition (La De
scription de l’Egypte) cover many
topics that today would be classified
as social science or humanities.
“These include anthropology (both
cultural and physical), demography,
meteorology, political science, soci
ology, g eo p o litics, agronom y,
microeconomics, medieval history,
administrative history, linguistics and
musicology-disciplines that did not
yet exist for the most part. The au
thors of these pieces also were engi
neers, scientists and military men,
people trained to be systematic, who
knew how to look around them and
take the m easure of what they
saw.’’Key to an appreciation of the
African perspective of the modern
metropolitan vista is the fact that
Chabrol de Volvic, one of the engi
neers who accompanied Napoleon
on the expedition, launched a new
career after retiring as mayor of the
seine in 1820. “He then ordered the
compilation of an urban topography,
'Statistique de la Ville de Paris’, in
effect an application to the capital of
France of the techniques of deep
description he and his colleagues
had employed in Egypt.”
Consequently, first in Paris and
then in the rest of the world, this
great African Renaissance foreshad
owed the shape of the twentieth cen
tury: The Arch deTriumph, the broad
boulevards like the Champ Elysees
which Vast corridors were opened
upon by public parks and gardens in
the m anner o f black Q ueen
Halshepsut almost 4000 years ear
lier; magnificent public buildings
already incorporating the Egyptian
mathematical formula called the
“Golden Section” in structural de
sign.
This brilliant 4000-year old ur
ban scheme was to become the back
bone of the arch itectu ral system
developed by the great French
architect Le C orb u sier for his
construction o f anything from the
U nited N ations building in New
York to apartm ents and closets.
And, of course, there were the
‘O belisks; graceful stone tow ers
that were carted o ff from A frica
to every im portant urban scenario
in the world, including C entral
Park in New York. The W ash
ington M onum ent is a perfect
replica. W hen will our wayward
children be told who thy really
a re --w h a t th e y ’re capable of?
Continued next week.
ATTENTION
Okianer Christian Dark, wife of Urban League of Portland President
Lawrence J. Dark, is welcomed to Portland by Helloise Hill (left) and
Peggy Ross.
The Urban League of Portland
Guild hosted a welcome luncheon
on Saturday for Mrs. Okianer (pro
nounced O -K ee-M er) C hristian
Dark, wife of Urban League Presi
dent Lawrence J. Dark. More than 50
members of the Guild and friends
gathered at the home of Helloise
Hill, widow o f longtime Urban
League Director E. Shelton Hill.
Alene Grice, a former employee of
the league, organized a crew of vol
unteers who prepared a feast for the
occasion.
Mrs. Dark moved to Portland
this summer with her six-year-old
son Harrison, to join her husband,
Lawrence. She is a visiting Profes
sor of Law at Willamette University
School of Law in Salem, teaching
courses on contracts, advanced torts,
and gender and the law. Before mov
ing to Portland, she was a law pro
fessor at the University of Rich
mond School of Law in Richmond,
Va.
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