Remember seeing the map of Africa and Egypt was not there? Neither do we, however removing Egypt from Africa and its Black history is just one example of what museums typically do in the west. Your next museum visit should not be ruined nor frustrated by western propaganda and nuances of layered intentional miseducation. Colonization starts with the mind. Therefore we must decolonize in order to decipher truth upon the next museum or cultural institution visit.
Stolen Goods
Don’t get it twisted. Many of the artifacts were acquired from theft or swindlers. It belongs to African/Original people’s and their Ancestral descendants.
Perspective Determines Perception
So-called Western or white supremacy is the lens through which most museums are currently curated and organized. Blackness is often hidden, omitted or edited-out of truestory (the true story left out of world history), so look beyond the surface.
Ask yourself, from whose cultural perspective are you filtering information and thinking? African/Original or European?
Kemet (Egypt) is typically completely “geographically” removed from Africa, though it’s the granddaughter of Nubia, Original Nile Valley people and cultural traditions. Take not Kemetic (Egyptian) exhibits are usually sectioned off separately from African exhibitions, and placed in “middle east” categories.
Rename Game
Steal the original, make a copy, then say the copy is better, that’s the european way. Do not fall for the okie doke. Names of people, locations, cultural artifacts and traditions are some times changed or whitewashed from African/Original people, including the geographical African orientation of north and south. This kind of word trickery creates intentional confusion and promotes blatant lies.
For example an African spiritual tradition of pouring libations or communing with the Ancestors is considered heathen and even demonic by Western/ European cultural standards. Ironically, most of Western/European spiritual practices and concepts such as “guardian angels” “saints” are bastardized versions African “Ancestors” spiritual concepts and traditions.
The Moors who ruled Spain are falsely assumed Indo-European under the cloak of Arabism. Arab denotes a culture and people that lived in the Arabian Peninsula, in ancient times considered part of Africa. These Arabs where originally expansions of Black Nubian and Semitic empires, yet eventually invaded by Indo-Europeans. These Black Arabs brought their same high knowledge and high culture from Nile Valley civilization to Spain, but are white washed and tan washed from truestory.
Terminology and how it is used in construction of narratives shapes perspectives. “Enslaved Africans,’ ‘prisoners of war’ and ‘stolen Africans” denotes a different understanding of ourstorical events than “African slaves” of the trans- atlantic slave trade. A term reconceptualizing ourstory more appropriately from Dr. Marimba Ani is “Maafa,” the great African destruction, “hellacaust.” Maafa, a term not only encompassing the “trans-Atlantic enslavement trade,” but the global european invasion and war leading to the fall of African people, including current racial oppression.
Below are maps displaying the shift in African cultural perception, with north facing the what is now considered by western geologist “South Africa” (Azania). The African continent, once loosely bordered is now encaged with lines drawn by European invaders (colonizers).
Pictured below are examples of locations, architectural structures, fossils, people and spiritual concepts whitewashed by the European rename deceptive game to mis-educate, remove or confuse the truestory of the African cultural narratives and origins. Original names and Europeanized renaming.
Africans Brought Civilization to the World
African cultural continuity and the Africans global influence are usually negated all together in museums. Africans global migration and cultural influences are present if one searches at the of early formation of European, Middle Eastern, Asian, America’s and Caribbean civilizations.
While the Smithsonian published an article on findings from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, indicating white europeans humans (homo sapien sapien) have only been white phenotypically for roughly 7,000 – 8,500 years. Most museums depict the world as one was not exclusively a Black humanity that existing at least 200,000 years before a white human. Generally neglected is information attributing high science, medicine, mathematics, art, spirituality, agriculture, architecture, economics, social and political systems as rooted and reaching apex from the African development and migration which brought knowledge to every corner of the world, foundational to European, Chinese, Indian, Australian and American civilizations.
Romanticized War Culture
Romanticism of Eurasian barbarism, savagery, imperialism and colonialism are softened with euphemisms. ie. explorers (invaders), manifest-destiny (white domination and Original people’s genocide), Darwinism (pseudo racial white supremacy), colonization (rape, robbery, enslavement to control the Original/African global people and earth’s resources). Much of the world has been infected with the colonialist narrative. Unfortunately even African museums run by African people sometimes subscribe to European miseducation practices.
We Still Need to Visit the Museums
Now you may be questioning at this point why bother going to museum. While you may not plan to visit Nigeria in the near future, you can take a glimpse into the ancient Benin empire at the museum. There is a plethora of African/Original cultural artifacts housed in these institutions awaiting your arrival to rediscover part of yourself that was once hidden and forbidden. To learn one’s past is the compass to navigate ones future. In order to know thyself, we must know thy truestory, culture, and reclaim it for our benefit. You will discover the essence of our greatness and what miscalculations attributed to our fall to rebuild without repeating mistakes. You will see a reflection of majesty residing in you and feel compelled to revive our leadership as Africans on the global stage. Eventually, that self knowledge will stoke the courage in us to get our belongs back and returned to their rightful home.