This quarter history focuses on slavery which is just a portion of history.
As African kingdoms begin to rise and fall on the continent, outsiders begin to creep in with eyes on the treasures throughout the land.
In 1200, Mali Empire rises under Sunjata Keita and after 1250 expands to the Atlantic coast.
In 1324, Mansa Musa, emperor of Mali, pilgrimages to Mecca.
In 1413, Portuguese voyagers landed on the African Coast.
By 1444, the first African captives were sold in Europe.
Toby Green in Fistful of Shells wrote that medieval Europeans named African regions based on “commodities on offer for exchange…Ivory Coast, Grain Coast (modern Liberia) and the Slave Coast (between modern Benin and southwestern Nigeria).” Green said it became a continent thought of in terms of what could be extracted or consumed. Europeans were not the only ones who thought of the continent in that way, because trade routes to the middle east existed before the Europeans came.
2nd Quarter brings in a different book. You will get to know my book, Connections.
In this adventure thriller, Connections, Sandy and her best friend found missing relatives, spied on cheating spouses and caught a few bail jumpers. This private investigator never imagined the bad guys would chase her. Running for her life, Sandy Herrick discovered that God was the only one with her who wasn’t talking smack, trying to kill her or get into her pants. As she and her friends try to figure out who framed them, they all discover that there was more to each other than they thought they knew. As evil forces closed in on them, they have to determine who they trust and what they believe about each other. Would this be enough to save them?
Sometimes we live under a stigma and have a hard time seeing something that looks like us as beautiful. Embrace your hue. Remind yourself that when God created you, He was happy with you.
My Brown is Beautiful Collection promises to help you show off your best features.
Some areas can trace the history back 350,000 years ago.
Even though much of the history has not been documented in traditional methods, stereotypes of African societies have been destroyed showing vibrant societies that functioned almost better than European ones.
We have seen evidence of ambassadors sent from the Kingdoms of the Kongo, Senegambia, Benin, Dahomey and more to Europe and other parts of the world.
In addition to representing their kingdoms, the people developed technologies, such as rice growing which contributed to world economies especially in Brazil and the southern part of the United States.
The healing practices from Dahomey and Angola were taken to Brazil and the Caribbean.
This month we show respect for the Golden Age of West Africa which coincides with Medieval Period in Europe. While many African kingdoms were powerful in the gold trade, others through making cloth. Some kingdoms had so much gold that when they went to trade it in the Middle East or Europe, they would go home with a third of the gold they brought because there was nothing left to buy.
There were ups and downs in agriculture, but the people were learning how to grow food during rainy seasons or drought.
Some of the great kingdoms and empires in the Senegambia region. The Ghana Empire, Mali Empire, Songhai Empire, Jolog Empire, Kaabu Empire, Kingdoms of Sine, Saloum, Baol, Waalo and Takrur.
This image shows the fertile land with rice fields, but that ship in the distant is bringing trouble.
An African American woman moved home to take care of her dying mother giving up the opportunity to experience a world beyond segregation. Zoraida Hughes Williams finds that some things have changed about her hometown of Fort Worth, Texas while some have stayed the same, like Hell’s Half Acre, an area where saloons, prostitution and gambling runs wild. Like most of the residents, she wants to keep her head down and stay away from trouble, but it comes in the unlikely form of an Anglo Baptist preacher. He messes up everything and almost gets them killed.
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Sample Chapter
She had just picked up her first newspaper when she heard.
“Miss Zoraida Williams, you are looking lovely today.”
She turned to see the man who had rescued her at the train station on the day she first arrived. She could not remember his name, but she remembered his smile and his playful big brown eyes. He was a big dark skinned man with a solid build. He had on a nice pair of pants and a suit jacket that didn’t quite match it, but looked good on his build. He looked like a business man, not a farmer.
“Mister?”
“Andrew Forrest. My friends call me Drew.”
“I just want to thank you for your help the other day.”
When Zo arrived in Fort Worth off the train, she was confronted by a big smoky black colored man who the locals called Big Bull. He was notorious for meeting colored women who were fresh from the country and putting them to work in his prostitution houses. It had become an acceptable practice among the white and colored whore house establishments. He saw Zo at the train station and tried to grab her. Andrew Forrest interrupted Big Bull’s plans.
“Now Miss Zo, it is not safe for you to be walking about by yourself. You need to let me know when you need a ride. “
“Andrew, I can take care of myself. I am not as helpless as I look.”
“Girl, I know you ain’t helpless. I know your daddy.”
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