Black History
How can one sum up the whole of black history in one month? Even Scientific evidence has proven that modern humans (Homo Sapiens) originiated in Africa. Civilisation, therefore, began in Africa, thus world history is an African history; a black history.
Children of all backgrounds and ethnicities should be given the opportunity to learn about this long, rich and diverse history, especially as it conects all of us – the human race. Of course, certain parts of black history have been deliberately hidden, denied or simply deemed irrelevant and inconsequential. That is why it is necessary to redress these misinformation and shine the light on how black people from all parts of the world have made valuabe contributions to world and human history.
Characters from the past forgotten in modern history books.
Kandake Amanirenas (Kandake is the title of Kushite Queens who ruled the Ancient Kingdom of Kush-now modern day Northern Sudan).
Kandake Amanirenas – the queen who stood up to the empire building Augustus Caesar.
Egypt, under Cleopatra had just fallen to Caesar, who was keen on expanding his rule and domination southward into Africa. The Kushite Kingdom of Meroe was not only a close neigbour of Ancient Egypt, it had also been a formidable rival of Ancient Egypt for centuries. In fact, the Kushites ruled Eqypt as the 25th dynasty from the the 8th centuary BCE for about a hundred years.
The Romans, after occupying Egypt, set thier sites on and started encroaching into the Kushite teritory of Meroe. The Kingdom was rich in natural resources like gold and Kushites were being captured as slaves. The Romans, eventually, declared Meroe a vasal state. This was, of course, an unacceptable position for the Kushites. They mounted attacks and campaings against the Romans leading to a war that lasted for five years (27 BCE-.22 BCE). Queen Amanirenas, after the loss of her husband and older son during the early years of the war, together with her younger son, Akinidad, led a mighty resurgence on the Romans, tore down their cities, captured prisoners and defaced statues of Caesar. They successfuly drove the Romans back into Egyptian territory. This defeat was humilating to Augustus Caesar, who enlisted the veteran commander Petronius to mount further attacks on the Kushites. Under Petronius, the Romans succeeded in pushing back Kushite resistance, and in one such battles, Queen Amanirenas lost her younger and second son, Akinidad.
Despite these losses, she proved to be a formidable opposition. She rallied her people together and was ready to battle the Romans against the occupation of Kushite land and subdugation. The Roman commander soon realised that the geographical position of the Roman army relative to that of the Kushite army, under Queen Amarnirenas, put them at a disadvantage, because of the terrain. His advice, therefore to Caesar, was to negotiate. The negotiation led to a treaty between both States recognising that a boundary had to exist between the Soveriegn Kingdom of Meroe and Egypt.
Mansa Musa (Mansa is the Mandika title for emperor or sultan).
Mansa Musa – the richest man who ever lived.
The Mali Empire rose from the decline of the Ghana empire in West Africa (not modern day Ghana). It’s founder was a prince named Sundiata Keita. His reign established and grew the West African Kingdom in the 13th Centruary. Making it a super power in its own right. However, Mansa Musa- thought to be Keita’s great nephew, was to make it the largest and most influencial empire the region had ever known.
How did Mansa Musa become so rich?
He inherited a well established and organised empire rich in gold and salt. However, his ambition was to expand and extend his reach and influence; this he did successfully with rewards and gains which surpassed his ancessestor, Sundiata Keita. Consequently, he controled the gold mines and salt deposits of the expanded Mali empire as well as trade between West and North Africa, where Arab traders and other merchants would travel to buy and sell commodities. It is thought that the majority of gold that was bought and sold at that period came from the Mali empire, and he owned the gold deposits!
How much was he worth in today’s currency?
It is difficult to be accurate because he was so wealthy. However, estimates have been suggested of about $400 billion, incredibly more wealthy than the richest billionares of today or ever!
Muhammad ibn Muhammad al Fullani (Died in 1741) Great Mathematician
He was a Fulani scholar born in Katsina in modern day Northern Nigeria. He was not only a gifted Mathematcian but also an astrologer, astronomer and mytstic. His most noted Mathematical work was finding a rule for constructing a magic square up to order eleven. Magic squares are ones in which the numbers in the columns, rows, and diagonal numbers add up to the same constant .He developed two formulas which would find out the middle number in the squares and the magic constant.These formulae are (n(^2+1))2 for magic constant and (n^2+1y)/2 for the middle number.
Thomas Fuller – A Mathematical Genious (1710-1790)
He was only fourteen years old when he arrived in America as a slave taken from his homeland, in Benin, West Africa in 1724. He was the property of Mr and Mrs Coxe who quickly realised his genious.
Although he couldn’t read and write in English, he was able to use his Mathematical abilities and skills to his owners’ advantage; they were illiterate themselves. They refused to sell him even though they had a lot of offers for him because of his genious. Despite his reputation, it wasn’t until he was about 70 years old that anti-slavery campaingners heard about him, and were able to use him as evidence that black people were as intelligent as white people. An example of questonestions he was asked to answer to prove his genious was how many seconds were there in a year and a half ( Answer 47,304,00). Another was how many seconds would a man live who was seventy years, seventeen days and twelve hours ( Answer 2,210,500,800). He was able to answer these questions in two minutes and a minute and a half consecutively.
When he gave account of himself, he said that he first started applying his number skills by counting the number of hairs in a cow’s tail, which he found to be 2872 and just for amusement, he counted a bushel of wheat and a bushel of flax-feed. What a character!
Phillis Wheatly– The First African American and second woman to publish a book of poems (1753-1784).
Phillis Wheatly was born in the west coast of Africa, possibly in Gambia in about 1753. She was captured and brought to America when she was very young and sold as a slave to the Wheatly family.
She was taught to read and write by Sussana Wheatly, who saw her potential, in under two years. After mastering English, she went on to learn Greek and Latin. At about fourteen she began writing poetry with her first poem published in 1767, and in 1770 the publication of “Elegiac Poem on the Death of a celebrated devine George Whitefield brought her great recognition.
Online
Leaning
At this unpresidented time, it is likely that a lot of children have had some exposure to online learning from home. The quality of engagement and learning will, of course, vary from place to place. Nevertheless, there are some useful tips that could make this a much more productive time spent learning.
- Discuss the reason for the online sessions with your child/children. Be clear about why it is important to engage fully with the lessons.
- Ensure there is a quiet and safe space for the lessons. Minimise distractions as much as possible.
- Make sure that the space is within easy reach for you to be able to observe what is being accessed online.
- Resources needed for the session should be ready and within easy reach before the session starts- encourage your child/children to take responsibility for that, depending on age and maturity
- Once the session has ended, allow your child/children some down time.
- Discuss what they have been learning by asking open ended questions. Allow them time to tell you in their own words, without asking too many questions.
Useful information
Mathematics
Place Value
What is Place Value?
This is the value of the position of digits in our number system. We use digits 1, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 0, which is a place holder. Each digit, depending on its position, has a value which increases from right to left.
For example, 749 has 7 hundreds, 4 tens and 9 ones. If you change the positions of the digits to 974 then the number has 9 hundreds, 7 tens and 4 ones. In this case, the value of the 7 digit is less than the value of the 7 digit in the 749. However, the hundreds digit in 974 is more than the hundeds digit in 749. Therefore, 974 is more than 749.
Why is Place Value important?
It is the fundamental basis for understanding the meaning and size of a number.