The 'mortar board' and the world's first university...

--”I thought Timbuktu was some fantasy land, I didn't know it really existed.” 
--A statement made to me by an African American man, in a conversation.

All my life, and especially as an american student, I'd been made to envy something white academics called the 'Ivy League' university. The term 'Ivy League' was coined from campus buildings of schools like Harvard, Princeton and Yale, literally having lengthy stems of ivy growing along the sides of them. At any rate, these are the institutions of 'higher learning' every american student is told they should strive to attend.

Now, when I was an anglophile, looking for a path out of my white supremacist induced self-hatred, I had two questions burning in my brain; and these were: One, how did white people wind up on top? I wanted to know how an ethnic group that was the world's minority, could control the global majority. Now, disproportionately, everyone I knew chalked this up to whitey being smarter than everyone else. But I needed hard evidence proving this, lest I be made to walk this earth thinking I'm intellectually inferior to them. And I promise everyone reading this, that I'll tackle this subject in an upcoming post. Two: Where did all the world's sciences come from? Again, the majority of my peers, and myself at one time, chalked this up to the greeks/freaks and romans, who academia tells us created them. But whilst I was engaged in my studies to undo the anglophilic conditioning I'd endured in my youth, I came across an extremely enlightening fact.

Unknown to white 'scholars', the place where all the academic sciences came from, was the world's first university, the Sankore Madrasah, or Sankore University, in Timbuktu; the capital of Mali, Africa.

They actually called this school an 'OMNI-versity', 'cause ALL of the sciences were housed beneath it's roof.

Roughly before the 12^th century, Sankore University had an attendance of roughly 25,000 students. These students came from all over Africa in search of masterful introductions to and instructions on religion, mathematics, medicine, law and every other world science. Also, the great library of Sankore U. boasts a collection of over 700,000 manuscripts.

Now, the quote at the bottom of this post's header, is one stated to me when I told a fellow Black/indigenous man these facts. And in a survey done of young people in britain, a third thought Timbuktu was imaginary. The rest had the name conjuring something or someplace 'mystical' in their minds. Thus, the overwhelming majority of us think this isn't a place in actual geography or history. And this was done purposely. 'Cause think about it, why would whitey want any Black/Indigenous person knowing this? It would shatter the notion of white supremacy, especially at the academic level.

Now, it's said that graduating students of Sankore U., were given 'turbans' to wear; signifying divine light, wisdom, knowledge and excellent moral conduct. And this also signified, a higher understanding of the tenets of the islamic faith. And the word 'Madrasah', in arabic, is said to mean 'university'...according to my research. With that said, I'd like to make one fact abundantly clear, the islamic faith our African ancestors practiced, has nothing to do with the white supremacist spin on islam, that's being passed off as the modern 'religion' we know today.

Just like we as Black/indigenous people, have to be able to make a distinction between freemasonry...i.e. the ancient sciences of our indigenous ancestors, and white supremacist freemasonry; we need to discern the difference between our ancestors forms of islam, christianity, judaism, etc. and its white supremacist counterparts.

Now, we all know that turbans, are usually white or lighter colored personal adornments. But let me tell you how this was turned into a 'head-dress', that more directly symbolizes the people who created the sciences taught at Sankore U.

I think everyone reading this knows that when you graduate from a university, in america at least, they're no longer putting turbans on the heads of graduates. What do they get instead?

A 'Mortar Board'.

Now, let's break this term all the way down!

Take the first part of 'Mortar Board'...which is 'Mortar'. Now if you use your melanated mind to 'see' into this word, you'll recognize the 'Mor' or 'Moor' at the beginning of it. (Moors being ancient Black/indigenous people—like us) and 'tar' at the word's end. Now, what color is tar y'all? Yep, it's Black.

So the 'Mortar Board' is really signifying ancient Black people...i.e. It's REALLY REPRESENTING US!!

So you might be thinking, okay, if that's what 'Mortar' really means, what's the 'Board' part of this word representing? For that answer, we need to look to the cult of the 'Black cube'.

Now, the 'Kabba', (pictured left), is the name of the 'Black cube' that muslims make seven 'circuits' around when they perform the 'Hajj'. This is a spiritual 'rite of passage' so to speak, and even Malcolm X made a pilgrimage to Mecca to perform this. Thus, he got his islamic name, 'El HAJJ' Malik El Shabazz. And the seven circles or 'circuits' traversed around the Kabba reflect the seven circuits of the brain. And we all know how the number seven has been deified in modern culture, and it's a very powerful number in 'mystic' circles as well; thus we have seven days of the week, seven seas, seven continents, seven years of bad luck if you break a mirror...we even have seven orifices, or holes in our heads.

And, not so coincidentally, the term 'Kabba', is where the science of 'Kabbalah' gets its name from.

Oh...and I also forgot to mention, the word 'Kabba' means 'Black Stone', and it is the symbol of God in islam. 

Now, if you look at what the white jews call 'Tefillin' or 'Tefillah' (plural) to the right, these are also 'Black cubes' that represent teaching a person how they should dedicate themselves to the service of God. Thus, again, this Black cube is representing God. And we should all know that judaism not only started in Africa, but isreal is on the continent of Africa. It lies on the tectonic plate of the mother continent and is connected to Egypt. Now, of course white jews are gonna' contest this. They'll even go so far as to say that isreal, is really on the continent of asia. But when's the last time you heard a white jew refer to themselves as asian? Moving on...

So if you're a Black/indigenous man or woman reading this, I'm hoping you get the message! 'Cause what is a 'Mortar Board' really? It's a BLACK CUBE! And seeing as how a turban might be a fair representation of our people, the Black cube is a physical symbol more directly linking every graduate and what they've learned, back to the people who created every one of the world's sciences...ANCIENT BLACK PEOPLE!!

So the next time some inbred tries to make you feel like they're an authority on any topic, let him or her know, that if it wasn't for your ancestors, they wouldn't be blessed with the knowledge they wanna' flaunt in our faces!!

And...not only did our ancestors create all the sciences, they created ALL THE ARTS TOO!! Meaning, not only do our people create the best genres of music...but we CREATED MUSIC, PERIOD!!

MAN...I LOVE BEING BLACK!!!!!

Ma'at Kheru (roughly meaning 'truer voice' or the vernacular term for 'true dat' in the Medu Netcher)

MontUHURU Mimia

P.S.

Family, I kid you not, the same day I put out this post, I found this YouTube vid from the ingenious mind of 'African Creation Energy'. It tells of the Black/Indigenous navigator, Mansa Abubakari Keita II, who also studied at Sankore U. This must be some kinda' Kemetic kismet y'all!! Anyhow, enjoy this vid! And if you'd like to see the expanded version of this video, please click onto the video's title, and it will take you to the YouTube window, where it's currently playing.

The Legend of Dr. John Henrik Clarke...

"...damnit, If you want a friend, look in the mirror."
--Dr. John Henrik Clarke speaking on the Black
Diaspora's search for political allies amongst non-Black people. 

There ain't no justice, there's 'just-us'.
--Old African American proverb.

As of late, I've begun expounding on how I don't care about the plights of white, asian and spanish people; and even though this might seem mean-spirited, I'm not doing this merely as an exercise in embracing Black Nationalist extremities, I'm doing this 'cause the only people who talk about or practice any kind of 'multiculturalism' is our people.

It's imperative at some point that the Black Diaspora realize, we have no political allies in other ethnic groups. They either concentrate on their own agendas, or they band together to team up against us. 

But hearing that message ad nauseum on this Blog, might result in the message losing its potency. It's kinda' like how I'm stressing subconscious meditation to cure us of the white supremacist induced self-hatred we carry throughout this life; at some point, hearing that same diatribe on this Blog over and over again can get pretty hackneyed. 

Thus, I'm happy to have found an advocate in one of our ingenious ancestors, Dr. John Henrik Clarke.

Now, recently, I came across a video taped lecture of Dr. Clarke's called 'You have no friends'; the title pertains again to the Black Diaspora's thinking other ethnic groups have their best interest at heart. And in this lecture Dr. Clarke does a masterful job of elucidating how Black people are under the illusion that by working with other ethnic groups, we can achieve some kind of political camaraderie, that could get us closer to a socio-economic freedom. He tells us to basically wake up and smell the coffee, and puts into historical context how other ethnic groups continually prey on us when we do seek them out for some sort of assistance. 

Now, I've never based an entire Blog post around a video, but this is the exception. I was always thinking about writing some sort of homage to Dr. Clarke, but never thought the timing was right. But accompanied by his videotaped message, I think this is the perfect way to introduce him to this Blog's audience. Firstly though, let me give you a bit of a primer as to who this masterful man was. 

Dr. John Henrik Clarke was born on January 1, 1915, in Union Springs, Alabama. He was the youngest child of John and Willie Ella Clark who moved to Columbus, Georgia with hopes of earning enough money to purchase some land outright instead of sharecropping.

Dr. Clarke tells a story of how he was working for a white lawyer in his youth, and how he saw the lawyer's library was stocked with books on european history. Dr. Clarke stated to the lawyer how he'd like to read some books on Black history, to which this lawyer replied, "Unfortunately, you come from a people who have no history."

Even as a youth he knew this was a bald-faced lie; and he dedicated his life to finding his people in the annals of the world's historical events. 

Clarke left Georgia in 1933 on a freight train bound for Harlem, New York City to pursue academics and activism.

He was 18 when he arrived in Harlem, and his skills as a writer and lecturer would be nurtured during the years of the 'Harlem Renaissance'. He studied history and world literature at Columbia and New York Universities and at the League for Professional Writers. Dr. Clarke was also co-founder of the 'Harlem Quarterly' newspaper (1949-1951), book review editor of the Negro History Bulletin (1948-1952), and a feature writer for the Black-owned Pittsburgh Courier and the Ghana Evening News. 

Dr. Clarke became prominent in the Black Power Movement in the 1960's. He advocated for studies in academic institutions that told African history from a Black Nationalist's perspective. One of his peers was quoted as saying, "Clarke was a scholar devoted to redressing what he saw as a systematic and racist repression and distortion of African history by traditional scholars."

Besides teaching at Hunter College and Cornell University, Dr. Clarke founded professional associations dedicated to the study of Black culture. He was a founder along with Dr. Leonard Jeffries (another great Black scholar, google him if you haven't heard of this man) and first president of the African Heritage Studies Association and he was a founding member of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters. He was also one of the founding members of the African American Scholars Council.   

At age 78, Dr. Clarke received his official doctorate from California Miramar University in Los Angeles. 

Dr. Clarke returned to the ancestors on July 16, 1998.

Now, what makes and made Dr. Clarke deserving of the title 'Master Teacher' was his ability to put dates and world historical events contextually into a modern day perspective. He was able to delineate where and when concepts like greek philosophy were stolen from the schools of ancient Black people and give our diaspora chapter and verse of how they repackaged our sciences and spiritual practices so they could claim them as their own. 

I've never asked the readers of this Blog to watch a video I've posted in its entirety, but this too will be the exception. If you are a Black man or woman who fancies themselves a Black Nationalist or conscious at all...or if you're just down for your people, you'd be well served to watch the entire thirty minutes of this video. Reason being, it touches on so many topics pertaining to Black Nationalism. Whether it's the African origins of every religion, or the european creations of male chauvinism and homosexuality, there's something to suit every stripe of Black Nationalist in Dr. Clarke's magnificent lecture. 

SO I SAY HOTEP AND KEM WESIR TO THE NEGUS/NETJER/NETER/GOD, DR. JOHN HENRIK CLARKE!

Also, this entry marks a milestone, being that its my 100th Blog post!

I'd like to send a shout out to all the comrades that have been ridin' wit' me for nearly two years; and I'd like to send a special shout out to 'Kev' and 'Clair' for their support in my curating of this Blog. I'd also like to say, there's more e-books and vids in the works and on the way, so if you feel so inclined, stay tuned...you won't be dissapointed. 

Enjoy this vid!

Sutekh!

MontUHURU Mimia