When Blacks Ruled Spain, Portugal and North Africa

(This is not out of hate or bitterness against anyone. There is no language of hate or anger in the article. Therefore, please do not abuse the information contained therein against anyone.)

Check for the majority of Spanish, Portuguese and North Africans and you will see very dark hair and bushy eye lashes. It is the black genes in those people. How did that happen? Read on!

Duke Alessandro de Medici

Duke Alessandro de Medici

There has been mainstream Eurocentric or Western attempts in describing 'Moors' as people of Caucasian or mixed race; or a claim that it was interchangeable with Arab and Muslim. These are all mainstream Western attempts to minimise the role and place of Blacks in history and influence in European development. 

Duke Alessandro de Medici

(See www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/africans-in-medieval-and-renaissance-art-duke-alessandro-de-medici/)
 
In its original form the term "moor" denoted a physical description. It was not used by the Moors themselves. Christians called those lands occupied by black Muslims – Moorish. The Moors called the lands ‘Al-Andalus.’ The only time the term ‘Moor’ came to be used in a non-descriptive manner was during the Islamic epoch of Spain when all Muslims were called Moors, and even then there were modifiers like "Moriscos" to denote non-black converts.  
 
The term maure, mauri or "Moor" was used before the 8th century invasion of Iberia or Iberian Peninsula, which was conquered and ruled by the Moors for nearly 800 years in the period between 711 and 1492. The Iberian Peninsula was referred to by the Moors as ‘Al-Andalus’ and consisted of Asturian, Leonese, Mirandese, Spanish, Portuguese  and Galician: Península Ibérica, Catalan: Península Ibèrica, Aragonese  and Occitan: Peninsula Iberica, French: Péninsule Ibérique, Basque: Iberiar Penintsula. It is located in the extreme southwest of Europe  and includes the modern-day sovereign states  of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar.   
 
Most Muslims of medieval Spain were local “muwalladun.” But the bulk of the Islamic "foreigners" were Berber/Arabic speaking Africans traditionally called Moors. They far outnumbered Arabs, Persians, Syrians and even the Slavs. Al-Mansur, the ruler over all the Muslim dominions following the collapse of the caliphate and preceding the Taifa states, was "stocky and dark-skinned..." (H. Kennedy, Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History", p. 41; p 237).
 
The Spanish account of the Almohad invasion quips that their "faces were like pitch and the most handsome of them was like a cooking pan"; this was of course nine centuries ago.
 
Alfonso X described the invading soldiers of the 13th: Los moros de la hueste todos vestidos del sirgo et de os panos de color que ganaran … las caras dellos negras como la pez el mas fremoso dellos era negro cmo la olla ("All the Moorish soldiers were dressed with silk and black wool that had been forcibly acquired… their black faces were like pitch and the most handsome of them was like a cooking pan.")

All Muslims were called Moors for the simple fact that most of the invaders were notably dark-skinned.  Following the tenth century all local converts were described variously by the Spanish and Portuguese as muladi or mulado after the Spaniards and Portuguese had adopted the Arabic “muwalladin” for half-castes and modified it to mean mixed-race as well as local converts. They tended to call non-black foreigners, including Arabs, saracens. 
 
The dictum holds true that all blacks were Moors but not all Moors were black. Because Moor became synonymous with Islam there came a point in Iberia where the term offered no significant ethnological value, but held its original connotations irrespective of Islam in other parts of Europe (hence the representation of Moors on numerous family crests).
 
The Moors here are perfectly black; the only personal distinction between them and the Negroes being, that the Moors had long black hair, and had no scars on their faces. The Negroes are in general marked in the same manner as those of Tombuctoo." - The narrative of Robert Adams: an American sailor, who was wrecked on the western coast of Africa, in the year 1810, was detained three years in slavery by the Arabs of the Great Desert, and resided several months in the City of Tombuctoo. With a map, notes and an appendix (1817).
 
"Mauri, the inhabitants of Mauritania. This name is derived from their black complexion"  - A classical dictionary: containing a copious account of all proper names mentioned in ancient authors, with the value of coins, weights, and measures used among the Greeks and Romans, and a chronological table (1822) by John Lemprière (www.archive.org/details/classicaldiction00lemp).
 
The Greeks called the Moors, Mauri or mavros which means dark-skinned or black, the word "Moor" is a derivative of this. The Romans called the land Mauritania which means "Land of the blacks". By the time of Shakespeare 'moor' and 'negro' were equivalent. And by the early 17th century the Latin nigri supplanted the Greek mavros.  

In Latin, Mauricius means dark skinned.In Italian, it's Mauro; in French, Maurice; in German, Moritz; English, Morris.
 
Quoting Isidore: "Mauretania vocata a colore populorum; Graeci enim nigrum [uiT'oov vocant" ("Mauretania derives its name from the color of its people, for the Greeks render nigrum as mauron.") This refers not to "sub-Saharan Africa" but northern Africa: "Let's be more precise: we are talking about the inhabitants of Maghreb, particularly Algeria and Morocco (Mauri) in the first millennium AD, not about prehistoric inhabitants of the Sahara. In the context of our discussion, "Sub-Saharan look" might mean the typical appearance of Wolof, Tibbu, Fula, Somalis or San, but not the predominant type found among Kabyles, Chaouia, Riffians or any other Berber group in the Atlas.

I am not sure why are you mentioning the Garamantes here. Isn't this discussion supposed to be about the Mauri? The Romans clearly distinguished these populations, they were two distinct people living in two different regions. You seem to be playing with definitions here."

According to A Book of English Surnames, Blackmore, Blakemore, Blackmoor, Blacomer, Blackomer and Blakomor all derive from the phrase "black as a moor."
 
Charles Dickens said: "Tho convenient term " black-a-moor" — which may be a corruption of " black as a Moor" — comprehended alike the dark- skinned of both Africa and Asia."

In ‘Race, Rhetoric and Composition,’ they argue: "Blackamoor seems understandable, thus, not as a compound of black and moor, but rather as a contraction of the implied argument that this person being referred to was "as black as a Moor."
 
Procopius was clear that the Moors who broke their treaty with Belisarius were distinct from the Vandals, who were "not black-skinned like the Moors, but very white and fair-haired." (History of the Wars, Books III and IV (Vandalic Wars)

In the first or second century Juvenal quipped "a Gaetulian" he encountered was "so black you’d rather not see him at midnight". He said, "tibi pocula cursor Gaetulus dabit aut nigri manus ossea Mauri et cui per mediam nolis occurrere noctem," (satire V. 53). Which translates roughly as, "..handed to you by a Gaetulian messenger, or by the black bony hand of a "Moor" whom you would rather not meet at midnight"

“The Kabyles or Kabaily of Algerian and Tunisian territories besides tillage, work the mines contained in their mountains. They live in huts made of branches of trees and covered with clay which resemble the Magalia of the old Numidians. They are of middle stature, their complexion brown and sometimes nearly black.” from The Encyclopedia Britannica: Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and General Literature Henry G. Allen Company p. 261 Volume I 1890.

The Arthurian text The Romance of Morien, written in 13th century Dutch, one can see that by the name "Morien" the author meant: "He was all black, even as I tell ye: his head, his body, and his hands were all black, saving only his teeth. His shield and his armour were even those of a Moor, and black as a raven."

In the 13th century German tapestry entitled "Wild Men and Moors", you can see quite clearly the dark-skinned "Moors" defending their castle from pale-skinned "Wild men". 

13th century German tapestry entitled "Wild Men and Moors"

 
Moors served under the Romans in Britain, Switzerland, France, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Romania - virtually everywhere Rome held sway. Latin phrases such as "woolly hair like a Moor" leave little doubt as to their racial composition.
 
"A historical rather than an ethnographical term applied to very different peoples of northwestern Africa. In Roman history it is applied to Inhabitants of Mauretania (Morocco and Algeria), who were in part Phoenician colonists. In Spanish history the " Moors " and " Morlscos" were mainly Berbers rather than, as commonly supposed, Arabs.

The Moors, in a stricter ethnological sense, are the mixed Trarza and other tribes on the western coast, from Morocco to the Senegal, mainly of nomadic habits. They are of mixed Berber, Arab, and often Negro blood. Many speak Arabic."  - Dictionary of races or peoples (1911).
 
WHO WERE THE "ANCIENT BRITONS"? "The earliest of these two races would seem to have inhabited our islands from the most ancient times, and may, for our purpose, be described as aboriginal. "

"In physique it was short, swarthy, dark-haired, dark-eyed, and long-skulled; its language belonged to the class called "Hamitic ", the surviving types of which are found among the Gallas, Abyssinians, Berbers, and other North African tribes; and it seems to have come ORIGINALLY FROM some part either of EASTERN, NORTHERN, OR CENTRAL AFRICA."  - The mythology of the British Islands; an introduction to Celtic myth, legend, poetry, and romance (1905) by Charles Squire.

The current pope's coat of arms, which features a bear, a shell, and a "moor's head." Note: the moor is crowned.

Coat of Arms of Pope Benedict XVI

The coat of arms comes from the Bavarian tradition which Joseph Ratzinger introduced into his coat of arms when he became Archbishop of Munich and Freising in 1977. 

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

(Moor of Freising or Caput Aethiopum, the head of a Crowned Ethiopian, is depicted in natural colour (brown) with red lips, crown and collar. The Moor's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors) head typically facing to the viewer's left (dexter in heraldic terms) and is associated with the ancient emblem of the Diocese of Freising, founded in the eighth century, which became a Metropolitan Archdiocese with the name of München und Freising in 1818, subsequent to the Concordat between Pius VII and King Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria (5 June 1817). 

This is the ancient emblem of the Diocese of Freising, founded in the 8th century, which became a Metropolitan Archdiocese with the name of München und Freising in 1818, subsequent to the Concordat between Pius VII and King Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria (5 June 1817).

The Moor's head is not rare in European heraldry. It still appears today in the arms of Sardinia (the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily and before Cyprus and Corsica  (located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia), as well as in the blazons of various noble families. 

Flag for Corsica

Coat of Arms for Sardinia

Italian heraldry, however, usually depicts the Moor wearing a white band around his head instead of a crown, indicating a slave who has been freed; whereas in German heraldry the Moor is shown wearing a crown. The Moor's head is common in the Bavarian tradition and is known as the caput Ethiopicum or the Moor of Freising.

The Moor’s head, facing left and typically crowned, appeared on the coat of arms of the old principality of Freising as early as 1316, during the reign of the Bishop of Freising, Prince Konrad III. 

There was widespread the use of the "Black Moor head" in European heraldry the prevalence of blacks on shields, family crests, landmarks etc, throughout the medieval period, is the strongest indication of what "Moor" meant. Were it "medium tan/brown as a moor," we'd be having a very different discussion.

(www.vam.ac.uk/collections/periods_styles/medieval/hidden_histories_africans/heraldry/index.html)
www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/africans-in-medieval-and-renaissance-art-moors-head/
 
MOOR'S HEAD, the heraldic term for the head of a NEGRO MAN, in profile, couped at the neck, wreathed about the temples, and having a pearl pendent at the ear.
"MOOR'S HEAD, the heraldic term for the head of a NEGRO MAN, in profile, couped at the neck, wreathed about the temples, and having a pearl pendent at the ear." - Encyclopædia of heraldry: or General armory of England, Scotland, and Ireland, comprising a registry of all armorial bearings from the earliest to the present time (1844) by John Burke, Sir Bernard Burke
In Abd Allah's Roudh el-Kartas, he describes Yusuf ibn Tashfin, the founder of Marrakesh/Morocco, as "Brown color, middle height, thin, little beard, soft voice, black eyes, straight nose, lock of Muhammad falling on the top of his ear, eyebrow joined, wooly hair."

The portrait of Mulay al-Rashid (or "Mulay Arsheid Zeriff" in the US National Portrait Gallery), the founder of the current Alaouite dynasty of Morocco, and conclude he was anything other than black African. As far as Moulay-Ismail, this is how Mulay al-Rashid was described at the time: "He is of middle size; his face is long and thin; his beard, forked and white, his color, almost black with a white mark near the nose" - Abbé Busnot, Histoire de Regne de Mouley Ismael, Roven, 1714

 



Alfonso X was the ruler of Castile, Galacia and Leon for much of the 13th century. How did he describe the invaders?

- Los moros de la hueste todos vestidos del sirgo et de os panos de color que ganaran … las caras dellos negras como la pez el mas fremoso dellos era negro cmo la olla -

"All the Moorish soldiers were dressed with silk and black wool that had been forcibly acquired… their black faces were like pitch and the most handsome of them was like (as black as) a cooking pan."

 Islamic or Moorish Spain was, in fact, mostly black African. Richard Fletcher says: "... "Moorish" Iberia does at least have the merit of reminding us that the bulk of the invaders and settlers were Moors, i.e. Berbers from Algeria and Morocco."
 
Although 'Moor' came to be used in a very general non-descriptive sense to denote Muslim culture in Iberia, some people have taken this as indication that the term never had any specified ethnic/racial connotations. This is indeed a false argument because, as we've seen, the Spanish had modifiers like "Moriscos" to denote mixed heritage.
 
Northern Africa includes the Maghreb, Egypt, Western Sudan, as well as the northern regions of what is today Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Niger and Sudan. The Sahara went from grass to woods to desert by 3,500 BCE. From Morocco to the Red Sea, the once fertile Sahara was pretty much the same climate, where various peoples tended to congregate in the vicinity of Lake Chad.

Today the northern Sahara is a dry sub-tropical climate, while the south is a humid tropical environment.
 
Ibn Khaldun wrote: "The inhabitants of the first and the second zone in the south are called the Abyssinians, the Zanj, the Sudanese. These are synonyms used to designate the particular nation that has turned black. The name Abyssinians however is restricted to those Negroes who live opposite Mecca and the Yemen and the name Zanj is restricted to those who live along the Indian Ocean. These names are not given to them because of an alleged descent from a black human being, be it Ham or anyone else. Negroes from the south who settled in the temperate fourth zone or in the seventh zone that tends towards whiteness, are found to produce descendants whose color gradually turns white in the course of time."

"Our objective is to highlight the age of sub-Saharan gene flows in North Africa and particularly in Tunisia. Therefore we analyzed in a broad phylogeographic context sub-Saharan mtDNA haplogroups of Tunisian Berber populations considered representative of ancient settlement. More than 2,000 sequences were collected from the literature, and networks were constructed. The results show that the most ancient haplogroup is L3*, which would have been introduced to North Africa from eastern sub-Saharan populations around 20,000 years ago. Our results also point to a less ancient western sub-Saharan gene flow to Tunisia, including haplogroups L2a and L3b. This conclusion points to an ancient African gene flow to Tunisia before 20,000 years BP. These findings parallel the more recent findings of both archaeology and linguistics on the prehistory of Africa. The present work suggests that sub-Saharan contributions to North Africa have experienced several complex population processes after the occupation of the region by anatomically modern humans. Our results reveal that Berber speakers have a foundational biogeographic root in Africa and that deep African lineages have continued to evolve in supra-Saharan Africa." - Ancient Local Evolution of African mtDNA Haplogroups in Tunisian Berber Populations, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3659/is_201008/ai_n56443544/

Ibn Butlan, the Iraqi, wrote in the 11th century: "The Berber women ...[t]heir color is mostly black though some pale ones can be found among them. If you can find one whose mother is of Kutama, whose father is of Sanhaja, and whose origin is Masmuda, then you will find her naturally inclined to obedience and loyalty in all matters." Most of the early Arab writers variously described Berbers as so-called sons of Ham.
 
“Ham, having become black because of a curse pronounced against him by his father, fled to the Maghrib to hide in shame.... Berber, son of Kesloudjim [Casluhim], one of his descendants, left numerous posterity in the Maghrib." - Ibn Khaldun, Histoire I, 177–178.

"Now the real fact, the fact which dispenses with all hypothesis, is this: the Berbers are the children of Canaan, the son of Ham, son of Noah." Down this line came Berr who had two sons, Baranis and Madghis al-Abtar. All Berber tribes descended from one or the other of these brothers and were classified as either Baranes or Botr." - Histoire I, 173–185

Adolph Bloch said, in a presentation to the French Anthropology Society in 1896, entitled “Sur des races noires indigènes qui existaient anciennement dans l’afrique septentrionale” (On native black races which existed formerly in northern Africa): "The race which gave birth to the Moroccans can be no other than the African negroes because the same black type [...] is found all the way to Senegal upon the right bank of the river without counting that it has been recognized in various parts of the Sahara [...] and from there comes black Moors who still have thick lips as a result of negro descent and not from intermixture [...] As to the white, bronze, or dark Moors, they are no other than the near relations of black Moors with whom they form the varieties of the same race; and as one can also see among the Europeans, blondes, brunettes, and chestnuts, in the midst of the same population so one may see Moroccans of every color in the same agglomeration without it being a question of their being real mulattos."

In Hispanio-Arabic Poetry and its Relation with Old Provencal Poetry we discover an Arab poet refused to work along side his son because, evidently: "the dark-skinned Berber seemed to him far below his own intellectual standards."
 
Yaqut, the Syrian geographer of the twelfth-thirteenth centuries, that relates a meeting which took place at a transitional period, between the Almoravid and Almohad dynasties:

"The king of Zafun is stronger than the veiled people of the Maghreb and more versed in the art of kingship. The veiled people acknowledge his superiority over them, obey him and resort to him in all important matters of government. One year the king, on his way to the pilgrimage, came to the Maghreb to pay a visit to the commander of the Muslims, the veiled king of the Maghreb, of the tribe of Lamtuna. The Commander of the Muslims met him on foot, whereas the king of Zafun did not dismount for him. He was tall, of deep black complexion and veiled." Zafun was both black and Berber.

On the remains of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians: "The Phoenicians had nothing in common with the official Jewish type: brachycephal, aquiline or Hittite nose, and so on [...] skulls presumably Phoenician, have been found west of Syracuse [...] but these skulls are dolichocephalic and proganthous, with Negroid affinities"

"Other bones discovered in Punic Carthage, and housed in the Lavigerie Museum, come from personages found in special sarcophagi and probably belonging to the Carthaginian elite. Almost all the skulls are dolichocephalic." - Eugene Pittard "Les races et L' histoire."

"The anthropological examination of skeletons found in tombs in Carthage proves that there is no racial unity [...] The so called Semitic type, characterized by the long, perfectly oval face, the thin aquiline nose and the lengthened cranium, enlarged over the nape of the neck has not been found in Carthage. On the other hand, another cranial form, with a fairly short face, prominent parietal bumps, farther forward and lower down than is usual is common [...] most of the Punic population in Carthage had African and even Negro ancestors" - Charles Picard "Daily Life in Carthage at the time of Hannibal"

Appian relates that the figurative Ethiopians "extend from eastern Ethiopia westward to the Mauritanian Mount Atlas."

Cambridge History of Africa: "The Soninke, the people of ancient Ghana, are the northernmost Sudanic people. Before the arrival of the Berbers, their ancestors had occupied the Sahara, as is suggested by the survival of black groups in Walata, Nema, Tichit, and as far Shinqit, who speak Azer, which is a Soninke dialect." 80% of Berber Y-chromosomes originate in east Africa, south of Egypt.

"Snowden (1970) and Desanges (1981) reference various writers’ physical descriptions of the ancient Maghreb’s inhabitants. In various writers’ physical descriptions of the ancient Maghreb’s inhabitants. In addition to the presence of fair-skinned blonds, various “Ethiopian” or “part-Ethiopian” groups are described, near the coast and on the southern slopes of the Atlas mountains. “Ethiopians,” meaning dark-skinned peoples usually having “ulotrichous” (wooly) hair, are noted in various Greek accounts and European coinage (Snowden, 1970). Hiernaux (1975) interprets the finding of “subsaharan” population affinities in living Maghrebans as being solely the result of the medieval transsaharan slave trade; it is clear that this is not the case. Furthermore, the blacks of the ancient Maghreb were apparently not foreign or a caste." (S.O.Y Keita, "Studies of Ancient Crania From Northern Africa," American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 83:35-48 (1990).

 Joseph Vogel stressed: "Populations and cultures now found south of the desert roamed far to the north." (Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa by Joseph O. Vogel, AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, California, 1997, pp. 465-472).

"Except for the Zandj (black slaves) from lower Iraq, no large body of blacks historically linked to the trans-Saharan slave trade existed anywhere in the Arab world ... The high costs of slaves, because of the risks inherent in the desert crossing, which would have not permitted such a massive exodus ... Until the Crusades the Muslim world drew its slaves from two main sources: Eastern and Central Europe (Slavs) and Turkestan. The Sudan only came third." - Africa from the Seventh to Eleventh Century, UNESCO, 1988.

Source: www.historum.com/members/jehosafats.html

The Biological State and Condition of the African Skin

(Dear Reader - this is not article about the biological black supremacy but simply the details about the biological state and condition of the black skin so that we should not undermine or hate it.)

The African skin is given its dark brown to black pigment by a substance called 'melanin.' Melanin is a dark brown to black pigment occurring in the hair, skin and iris of the eye in people and animals. There are two major forms of melanin -- eumelanin and pheomelanin. Eumelanin is brown to black while pheomelanin is yellow to red.  

The word melanin comes from the Greek term ‘melas,’ 'melasis' or 'melanos,' which means dark or black. It is found in almost every organ of the body and is necessary in order for the brain and nerves to operate, the eyes to see, and the human body to reproduce.

It is produced by cells in the skin called melanocytes. Melanocytes resemble nerve cells and are essential for conveying energy. In the geometric centre of the brain is a part called the "pineal gland" (the Third Eye in Eastern philosophy, the Horus Eye in ancient Egypt or the Inner Vision) and this secretes melatonin which activates the pituitary gland to release the melanocyte stimulating hormone according to light stimulus received through the eyes and from the skin. It is in the melanocytes that melanin is produced. 

The pineal gland is the size of a pea  an eye like structure, is located directly behind the eyes, attached to the third ventricle. This gland is activated by Light, and it controls the various biorhythms of the body. It works in harmony with the hypothalamus gland which directs the body's thirst, hunger, sexual desire and the biological clock that determines our aging process.  

The outer layer of the skin is where melanin is produced and there are 12 black nuclei or melanated centers in the core of the brain. Melanin is present at the inception of life: a melanin sheath covers both the sperm and the egg. In the human embryo, the melanocytes (skin pigment cells), brain and nerve cells all originate from the same place - the neural crest. When Melanin is missing or insufficient in the ectoderm of the early embryo (blastula), this causes the mother to lose her baby; in the case of Caucasians, a defective baby is produced. 

"Individuals whose bodies can produce sufficient quantities of melanin will have dark skin, black hair and brown eyes. Those with bodies that are not able to produce significant amounts of melanin will have pale skin, blonde hair and blue eyes."

Melanin is also found in pigment-bearing neurons within areas of the brain stem, such as the locus ceruleus and the substantia nigra.

At the core of one’s brain is found the locus coeruleus, literally, means ‘dark blue place’ in Latin. It is a nucleus in the brain stem (inferior to the cerebellum in the caudal midbrain/rostral pons) apparently responsible for the physiological reactions involved in stress and panic.

Substantia nigra is the "black substance", a darkly coloured structure buried deep in the brain that makes dopamine, a compound present in the body as a neurotransmitter and a precursor of other substances including epinephrine (a hormone secreted by the adrenal glands, especially in conditions of stress, increasing rates of blood circulation, breathing, and carbohydrate metabolism and preparing muscles for exertion).

Melanin-rich cells in the substantia nigra are the ones most likely to be destroyed in people who have Parkinson's disease, resulting in tremors and rigidity. In fact, all the most crucial brain structures are heavily melanized. Melanin in the brain increases from the lower primates and reaches its peak in the black people.

There are hints that people with lots of skin melanin are less prone to hearing damage than the more lightly pigmented among people because melanin of the skin variety is also found in certain cells of the cochlea of the inner ear.

Melanin is like chlorophyll in plants. Chlorophyll allows photosynthesis to occur and the transference of the sun’s energy for the body. While the growth of plants is directed physical sunlight, the growth of human beings is directed toward spiritual consciousness and inner vision.

Melanin is the super absorber of all forms of energy.  It has "black hole" properties. It can convert light to sound and back again. It stores, transforms and conducts energy.

The colour black is the perfect absorber of light and all energy frequencies, giving melanin these properties. Thus scientists describe melanin as acting like a "black hole." Melanin can rearrange its chemical structure to absorb ALL wavelengths of energy (sunlight, X-rays, music, radar) and can transmute and store this energy for later use.  In The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors (Third World Press, 1991), Dr. Cress Welsing writes that melanin gives us the ability to use our bodies as direct connections with the Godforce, the source of all Energy - like plugging a cord into a wall socket. It also gives our hair antennae-like ability.

Life is built upon carbon or carbon-based compounds. Carbon is a black element that forms the basis of all organic and biochemisrty (Chemistry of Carbon Building Blocks of Life). As an element, it burns hotter, cuts deeper, dies harder, insulates more thoroughly, absorbs more fully than any other material and the key to modern technology. Important biological molecules are arranged around a backbone of carbon. These molecules iclude DNA, RNA, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Therefore, "blackness" is fundamental in the operation of the universe because it allows the perfect reception of all wavelengths of energy.

It is the body' s natural defense against the ultraviolet rays of the sun and appears as a dark-brownish material inside the cells of the deep layers of the skin. The cells that produce it (melanocytes) are residents in the skin's deepest layers. The more melanin present in the skin, the less risk of damage to the skin.

The amount of melanin one has in the skin will determine the hair and skin colour. Melanin plays an important role in the determination of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) effects, such as wrinkling, premature skin aging and sunburn. Resistance to these effects is determined by the amount of melanin or pigmentation present in the skin. People with albinism are highly sensitive to ultraviolet, which can easily damage skin and eyes and a Caucasian receives protection through temporary pigmentation from tanning by sunbathing or aplication of skin creams. For them, sensitive areas such as lips, nose, ears, palms of the hands and soles of the feet should be protected. In this regard, dark-brown skinned people (Africans, Maories, native Americans, Aborigines and some Indians) have high skin melanin content and are less likely to suffer from skin cancers and other solar-induced diseases than those with lower melanin content

Melanin helps one to survive a variety of environmental conditions. Clearly melanin protects us from the ravages of ultraviolet light. Some of the most darkly pigmented people in the world, natives of the North Solomon Islands, almost never get basal cell carcinoma or melanoma, and if they do have melanomas, these tumors arise on the light-skinned soles of their feet. Caucasians living in Hawaii, on the other hand, have the highest documented skin cancer rate in the United States.

Melanin is the umbrella of the skin and protector of its deeper layers. One of the most important effects of melanin is the absorption of heat, which works most effectively in people who have the most melanin in the skin. Another huge advantage for melanin is that it is an effective neutralizing agent for molecules that are harmful to the human body.

Other amazing facts about melanin:

·     Melanin granules are "central computers" and may analyze and initiate body responses without reporting to the brain;

·     Melanin slows aging and protects you from damning effects of sunlight.  The darker your skin (genetically) is, the less it ages. Thus Whites have wrinkled skin in there 30s while Blacks have smooth, slowly wrinkling skin even in old age;

·     All people of colour have melanin circulating in the blood due to spillage from the melanosomes (melanin packets).

·     The melanin molecule is so stable that it has been found in 150-million-year-old dinosaur fossils. It is highly resistant to chemical and physical analysis; thus its precise structure is unknown;

·     Melanin particles both scatter and absorb ultraviolet and visible light smoothly over a broad spectral range. Every sunburn is an injury, and injuries are cumulative over the years. During the tanning process, the sun stimulates the melanocytes to produce and liberate more melanin for skin protection. This is why Europeans will always come to visit and stay in Africa. Sunbathes especially in Africa and visiting saunas for Europeans is more beneficial because they create a darkish colouring on their skin, thus strengthening it. However, until the melanin reaches the surface of the skin, the skin is left vulnerable and can be heavily damaged and burned.

·     Skin cancer risk rates are inversely proportional to degree of skin pigmentation. Melanin is therefore photo-protective. To look at the undisputed scientific benefits of melanin, we must look at the effects of what naturally occurs on people with or without melanin. Africans do sunburn and seem to be clinically exempt from the well known signs of premature skin aging as seen in Europeans. Africans rarely show deep wrinkles and the other signs of de-pigmentations, leathery-dry skin, etc.

Europeans have produced melanin-based sunscreens lotions, skincare (eye shadow and face powders) and haircare cosmetics to protect their skins. These melanin-based products are meant to provide what they do not have from nature - melanin, the invisible shield of protection. If Caucasians really believe that white skin is "superior," why is "tanning" so important despite its known health risks (thousands die annually from skin cancer)?

In the same vein, they have then produced lotions and creams so that African women can look lighter (like Caucasians) in the name of beauty yet they will be damaging the melanin's capacity to be useful. Africans have then taken up these kind of cosmetics blindly. The electromagnetic spectrum is composed of rays of the sun vary in intensity according to their wavelength, which is measured in nanometers (nm).

The energy emitted by these rays can burn the skin and cause various illnesses. Fortunately, the atmosphere of the earth provides a natural barrier against ultraviolet radiation and the ozone layer filters out many of them. Because they penetrate deep into the skin, the rays of the sun have far-reaching effects. The main consequence is that the body tissues slacken, the skin loses its firmness and fine lines and wrinkles are formed.

Sun protection is mainly a matter of putting a barrier between sunlight and the skin, as well as respecting some simple rules (gradual exposure to the sun, using clothes as protection, not going in the sun at the hottest time of day and using melanin-based sunscreen). Skins of Caucasians are obviously the most at risk.

The African skin is dark and therefore rich in MELANIN and therefore: 

1. Never let anyone make you feel ugly, bad or inferior for having a dark skin. 

2. Never let anyone try to change your dark pigmentation by using skin bleaching cremes and skin lighteners. 

Locating and Producing the "Talented Tenth" of the African-Americans

The sun as a symbol of the vital principle of Nature, has three properties – Life, Light and Heat. The three vitalize and enliven the three worlds – Emotional, Intellectual and Material.

The active, radiant and virile principle of the Sun impregnates the passive, watery and maternal principle of Nature.

The Talented Tenth should be those who would have discovered first hand the eternity of “Life, Light and Truth” and the illusion of “Death, Disease and Perversion.”

In the USA, there are some organizations that were formed by those with the desire to know and understand, and to seek greater breath and scope of enlightenment:


Sigma Pi Phi - The most exclusive and prestigious society in the black community as the first Greek-letter fraternity organized by African Americans. It was founded in 1904  in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and its membership includes men from all Greek  letter organizations as well as those who are not. It is often called the Boulé which means "a council of noblemen" after an ancient Athenian governing body from the ancient Greek verb ‘boulomai’ meaning “to will” (after deliberating). This was a “council of citizens” appointed to run daily affairs of the city.

Sigma Pi Phi was not a college fraternity. It provided fellowship for African-American men who already held college degrees and were established in the professions or business. The Boule is modeled on the Caucasian society called Skull & Bones, established in 1776 at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Today, the Skull and Bones is the source of Caucasian Establishment.

The logo of Sigma Pi Phi is the Sphinx (Hu), an androgynous creature with the body of a winged lion and the human head. The creature symbolized strength and intelligence. It was found by the entrance into the Great Pyramid of Egypt, wrongly considered as a tomb. The Great Pyramid was the first structure erected as a repository of secret truths and the “womb of the Mysteries” as a place of the “second birth” unfolded by the Sage Illuminator or the Master of the Secret House It has three main chambers and three faces representing the human constitution – the heart, brain and generative system. It has a square base as the representative of the universe or Nature, the House of Wisdom, firmly on 4 immutable laws – “Truth, Intelligence, Silence and Profundity” and the cardinal points (east, west, north and south) and the elements of life (fire, air, water and earth). Humanity is the living apex or capstone (a miniature pyramid, a smaller block of similar shape) of the unfinished universe through which the divine wisdom and energies stream down the diverging sides of the structure below throughout the world. The capstone is the epitome of the pyramid just like the spirit is the epitome of human being and God is the epitome of the spirit. Each person who sought to be admitted into the Greater Mysteries for initiation in the sacred subterranean galleries beneath the Pyramid, was asked a question by the attendant (the Magi), “What animal is it that in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two feet and in the evening on three feet?” Literally, the answer is a human being, who is childhood crawled upon his hands and knees, in maturity stood erect, and in old age shuffled along supporting him/herself using a staff. Esoterically, there is value of numbers – 4, 2, and 3, which produce a sum of 9. The 4 represents the infant or ignorant person, the 2 the evolving or intellectual person and the 3 the illumined person who adds the staff of wisdom. Therefore the sphinx is the mystery of Nature, the embodiment of the secret doctrine of Life and those passed it attained personal immortality. - Wisdom of Religions Volume 5. After one has passed Sphinx, he was informed to enter with the Riddle of the Sphinx - “Look Within for that which Thou needest."

The first constitution of Sigma Pi Phi proclaimed that:

“Whereas it seems wise and good that men of ambition,
refinement and self-respect should seek the society of each other
Both for the mutual benefit and to be an example of the higher
type of manhood.

“Be it Resolved that a society be organized for the
purpose of binding men of like qualities into a close, sacred,
fraternal union, that they may know the best of one another,
and that each in this life may to his full ability aid the other,
and by concerted action bring about those things that seem best
for all that cannot be accomplished by individual effort.”

It was thought that black learned and professional men should have an organization that "should be a fraternity in the true sense of the word; one whose chief thought should not be to visit the sick and bury the dead, but to bind men of like qualities, tastes and attainments into a close and sacred union that they might know the best of one another." Members would not be "selected on the basis of brains alone – but in addition to congeniality, culture and good fellowship; that they shall have behind them [at initiation] a record of accomplishment, not merely be men of promise and good education." His fraternity would contain the "best of Skull and Bones of Yale and of Phi Beta Kappa."

“Now the striking truth in connection with this forceful and memorable utterance is that it came in the most effective way; it grew out of a life situation. It was not a studied abstraction, emanating from the minds of Boulé philosophers; it was no finely spun theory, beautiful for contemplation, but impracticable when applied to the vexing problems that arise out of our relationship toward each other; it was not the result of an attempt of any kind away and apart from a real situation, to define a merely idealistic principle. The utterance of the Grand Boulé has all of the simplicity of a fundamental principle. It is earnest, straightforward, unequivocal. In so many words it says this: first of all every archon is a gentleman, or he has no business in the Boulé. He will, therefore, at all times and in all situations conduct himself as a gentleman; he cannot do less. He will realize, or at least assume, that every other archon along with himself is a gentleman; and therefore in all his social, business, political and religious relationships, subscribes to and practices the same high principles to which he is committed. This assumption will therefore make it impossible for one archon unjustly and viciously to attack another one even when he is in possession of facts sufficient to justify the attack. As brothers in the same circle, it would be his business to present his findings to the Boulé and let them deal with the apostasy from the spirit of the fraternity. Archons may, and should differ; they will, and should be subject to criticism in their public life, by any other archon who disagrees with the program or procedures involved. But this has nothing to do with vicious personal attack that questions the honor and high standing of a fellow archon. This is outside of the pale of the fundamental elements of "brotherhood.'” - Grand Grapter Davis, The Boulé Journal (1929)

The profile of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity is that of African-Americans with significant disposable income; leaders in corporate America, government, education, health care, politics and religion; highly influential shapers of local and national opinion. The demographics are as follows:

• Median Age: 55;
• Age: 35-49 25%, 50+ 75%;
• Median Household Income: US$250,000;
• Average Net Worth: US$2,000,000;
• Graduated College: 100%;
• Postgraduate Study: 100%;
• Professional/managerial: 90%;
• Top Management: 60%;
• Real Estate - Primary Resident: 80%, Real Estate - Own Other: 60%;
• Marital Status - Married: 85%, Children in the Household: 35%;
• Male/Female: 98%/2%
  

Prominent members of the Boule are: WEB DuBois; Jesse Jackson Bill Cosby; Al Sharpton; Thurgood Marshall;  Vernon Jordan; Dr. Daniel Hale Williams who performed 1st open hear surgery; Ralph Bunch a former UN Ambassador; Arthur Ashe; Urban League President; Whitney Young; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Benjamin Mays; Carter G. Woodson; John H. Johnson; Maynard Jackson former mayor of Atlanta; Baseball great Hank Aaron; Tom Bradley a TV personality; Dennis Archor former mayor of Detroit; Elvin Big 'E' Hayes; Bill Cosby; Jesse Jackson; Earl Graves; Douglass Wilder; ex-Steeler, Lynn Swann; David Dinkins former mayor of New York City. The Ebony, Jet, Essence, and Black Enterprise magazines are owned by the Boule.


Official site: www.sigmapiphi.org/home/

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There are a total of nine historically black sororities and fraternities that make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council, sometimes referred to as the “Divine Nine.” The organizations include
1. Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.(1906),
2. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.(1908),
3. Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc .(1911),
4. Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.(1911),
5. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.(1913)
6. Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc (1914),
7. Zeta Phi Beta (1920),
8. Sigma Gamma Rho (1922),
9. Iota Phi Theta (1963).

Lawrence Otis Graham, a Boule, said in his book, Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class, that these sororities and fraternities “are a lasting identity, a circle of lifetime friends, a base for future political and civic activism.”

Prominent among them are:

Alpha Phi Alpha  - is a fraternity that was founded on December 4, 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and the founders are collectively known as the "Seven Jewels". Alpha Phi Alpha the first intercollegiate Greek-lettered fraternity in the United States established for people of African descent, and the paragon for the Black Greek Lettered Organizations (BGLOs) that followed. It uses motifs and artifacts from Ancient Egypt to represent itself and its archives are preserved at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.

Purpose Statement: To promote a more perfect union among college men; to aid in and insist upon the personal progress of its members; to further brotherly love and a fraternal spirit within the organization; to discountenance evil; to destroy all prejudices; to preserve the sanctity of the home, the personification of virtue and the chastity of woman.

Mission Statement: To develop leaders, promote brotherhood and academic excellence, while providing service and advocacy for communities.     

Vision Statement To stimulate the ambition of its members; to prepare them for the greatest usefulness in the causes of humanity, freedom, and dignity of the individual;  to encourage the highest and noblest form of manhood; and to aid down-trodden humanity in its efforts to achieve higher social, economic and intellectual status.

Alpha Phi Alpha utilizes motifs from Ancient Egypt and uses images and songs depicting the Her-em-akhet (Great Sphinx of Giza), pharaohs, and other Egyptian artifacts to represent the organization. The Great Sphinx of Giza was made out of one unified body of stone which represents the fraternity and its members. 

This is in contrast to other fraternities that traditionally echo themes from the golden age of Ancient Greece. Alpha's constant reference to Ethiopia in hymns and poems are further examples of Alpha's mission to imbue itself with an African cultural heritage. Fraternity brother Charles H. Wesley wrote, "To the Alpha Phi Alpha brotherhood, African history and civilization, the Sphinx, and Ethiopian tradition bring new meanings and these are interpreted with new significance to others." The Great Pyramids of Giza, symbols of foundation, sacred geometry and more, are other African images chosen by Alpha Phi Alpha as fraternity icons.

The fraternity's 21st General President, Thomas W. Cole once said, "Alpha Phi Alpha must go back to her ultimate roots; only then can she be nurtured to full bloom." Fraternity members make pilgrimages to its birthplaces of Egypt to walk across the sands of the Giza Plateau to the Great Sphinx of Giza and the Great Pyramids of Giza, and to Ethiopia

Alpha Phi Alpha and its members have had a voice and influence on politics, current-affairs and key issues facing the world as founder and editor of national publications. The Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was started by fraternity member W. E. B. Du Bois in 1910. In 1914, The Sphinx, named after the Egyptian landmark, began publication as the fraternity's journal. The Crisis and The Sphinx are respectively the first and second oldest continuously published black journals in the United States. The National Urban League's (NUL) Opportunity Journal, was first published in 1923 under the leadership of Alpha founder Eugene K. Jones, with fraternity brother Charles Johnson as its executive editor. While continuing to stress academic excellence among its members, Alpha's leaders recognized the need to correct the educational, economic, political, and social injustices faced by African-Americans and the world community.  Alpha Phi Alpha began its continuing commitment to providing scholarships for needy students and initiating various other charitable and service projects and evolved from a social fraternity to a primarily community service organization.

In practice, through their post-college activities, African-American undergraduate fraternities and sororities also functioned as clubs for the privileged elite, both people who had joined during their student days and a few co-opted men and women.

Official site: www.alpha-phi-alpha.com/

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Phi_Alpha#Egyptian_symbolism

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Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, a fraternity and is the first African-American national fraternal organization to be founded at a historically black college. The fraternity has worked to build a strong and effective force of men dedicated to its Cardinal Principles of manhood, scholarship, perseverance, and uplift. In 1927, at the urging of fraternity member Carter G. Woodson, the fraternity made National Negro Achievement Week an annual observance and it continues today as Black History Month.

Omega Psi Phi does not seek members; quality men seek Omega Psi Phi. A man who successfully completes the membership selection process will immediately have access to a brotherhood of men who share similar ideals and aspirations. Those who seek admission will learn the history of the fraternity from a historical perspective, written test and personal accounts. 

Omega Psi Phi Fraternity is a professional organization of educated men with similar ideas and like attainments. The fraternity’s founders chose Manhood, Scholarship, Perseverance and Uplift as the cardinal principles that every prospective candidate must possess. The fraternity’s motto is “Friendship Is Essential To The Soul.”

Since the birth of the organization, Omega has and will continue to impact the world in every profession and all walks of life.

Candidates must exhibit the qualities of the Fraternity’s Four Cardinal Principles:
1. Manhood – Being appropriate in character and marked by moral excellence, courage, bravery, and resolve.
2. Scholarship – Demonstrating an attitude toward education, learning and being informed by achieving or exceeding and maintaining the minimum educational requirements of the fraternity.
3. Perseverance – Exhibiting a “spirit” of brotherhood, togetherness, humility, cooperation, and a willingness to go an extra mile for the goal sought, as a responsible first-class citizen. This can be demonstrated by presenting obstacles overcome, awards received and honors issued.
4. Uplift – Sharing ones gifts with the community in the form verifiable aid, activism and leadership. 

Official site: www.oppf.org/

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  Non-Black Greek Lettered Fraternities

There are many hundreds of non-black Greek lettered fraternities. The main ones are:


1. Phi Beta Kappa Society was founded on December 5, 1776 at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and established the precedent for naming American college societies after the Greek-letter initials of a secret Greek motto.

Phi Beta Kappa, an academic honor society. Its mission is to "celebrate and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences"; and induct "the most outstanding students of arts and sciences at America’s leading colleges and universities." 

Phi Beta Kappa (ΦΒΚ) stands for philosophia biou kybernētēs — "Philosophy is the guide of life". 

Its three distinguishing principles are friendship, morality and learning. 

Like the older, Latin-letter fraternities, the Phi Beta Kappa was a fraternal society. To protect its members and to instill a sense of solidarity, it had the essential attributes of most modern fraternities: 
1. an oath of secrecy, 
2. a badge (or token) and a diploma (or certificate) of membership, 
3. motto, 
4. a ritual of initiation, and 
5. a handclasp of recognition.


Its symbol is that of a golden key engraved on the obverse with the image of a pointing finger, three stars and the Greek letters from the society takes its name. 

The stars are said to represent ambition and the three distinguishing principles of the Society: friendship, morality, and learning. 

On the reverse are found the initials "SP" in script, which stand for the Latin words Societas Philosophiae ("Philosophical Society").


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi_Beta_Kappa_Society


******

Pi Kappa Phi, a fraternity whose mission is to make members lead by "The expression of shared values and ideals as contained in the Ritual of Initiation, Supreme Law and Fraternity policy; The pursuit of brotherhood through scholarship, leadership, service, and personal experiences; The achievement of personal excellence in each member and collective excellence in our Fraternity; A lifelong brotherhood of its members." 


Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity is a value-based membership development organization that focuses on building brotherhood through character enhancement, leadership development, academic achievement, commitment to service, lifelong friendship and social experiences.  


All Pi Kappa Phi (Pi Kapps) are expected to be men of CLASS, which stands for “Character, Leadership, Academics, Sportsmanship, Service.” The ideals arise out of the original acronym, “Chivalry, Loyalty, Accountability, Scholarship and Sportsmanship."


1. CHARACTER. A man of true character displays moral and ethical strength in any situation and displays such strength through personal integrity, ultimate respect and selflessness. 


2. LEADERSHIP opportunities; therefore, Pi Kappa Phi believes that leadership is a choice rather than an action. Pi Kappa Phi offers some of the most progressive and innovative LEADERSHIP development programs. 


3. ACADEMICS are important to every fraternity man. However, not every fraternity man is provided with the resources necessary to help him achieve academic success. Pi Kappa Phi provides the opportunity for advising and mentoring exclusively to its members through the Collegiate Success Program as well as scholarships to recognized academic achievements.


4. Pi Kappa Phi competes to win, but not at all costs. There is a right way and a wrong way to compete. The right way involves the display of SPORTSMANSHIP—through dedication to one’s team, respect for one’s opponent and dignity in winning and losing. Pi Kappa Phi believes that one’s conduct and attitude as a sportsman speak to one’s quality as an individual. 

5. Pi Kappa Phi promotes leadership through SERVICE. However, Pi Kappa Phi prides itself on being the only national fraternal organization to establish and maintain its own national philanthropy—Push America, which develops leadership qualities in the members of Pi Kappa Phi.

The Creed of Pi Kappa Phi 
I believe that the ideal chapter is made up of men

Who are bound together in a common loyalty
which transcends any personal selfishness;

Who realize that membership means personal responsibility
in bearing their share of the financial burden
of the chapter and the national organization;

Who bring credit to the fraternity by striving to attain
the highest possible standards of scholarship;

Who safeguard the reputation of their chapter
by keeping careful watch over their personal conduct;

Who uphold faithfully the
traditions and activities of their college;

Who prepare themselves diligently to shoulder their
full responsibility as citizens.

I believe that my chapter can become an ideal chapter, 

and I shall do my share to make it so. 

Source: www.pikapp.org
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Argument for Bourgeoisie Nationalist or the Corporate "Talented Tenth" in Africa and Zimbabwe