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Connection Point
A Different version of African American Folklore
By Lee Ferry AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2009 Lee Ferry
All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4490-2707-0
Chapter One
Connection Point
African American's past and present are connected to a side of us that we thought was forgotten and/or lost in the past. This side of us remains in the development of our people into the so-called infamous Nigger. Sure, we have allowed others to set the perimeters to how we should define and treat this proverbial Creature; so, let us not judge too quickly! Most people do not have a clear understanding that the Africans enslaved in the western world came from different nations, different cultures, and different developments, which were as different from each other as the English are from the Russians and the Greeks. To heighten the confusion, many of us were brought here in different periods. Even more, the English of North America denying us the right to practice our ancestral knowledge left only some of us with bits and pieces of self identity; while, many of us continue the ongoing search for an acceptable identity. We all have hoped that America would accept us and view us differently, which has not fully materialized. In our world underneath, most of us feel Nigger is innate; it is like a spirit attached to us that we cannot call evil without cursing the innocent-our deadenslaved ancestors and the generations that follows. It is like chasing a part of ourselves away; therefore, we must confront this matter with our hands on the table and with our eyes open.
Since our appearance in North America, we have gone through many names, for example, we have gone from Coons and Bucks to Neegras (males) and Neggress (females); and other forms like Coloreds, Negro-Spanish for Blacks, Afro-Americans and African Americans. Yet, Nigger remains the principle name that we use collectively in referring to ourselves. Therefore, our questions for disclosure should be did the name Nigger originally contains the definition we are educated to believe it to mean. On the other hand, did the definition develop as the after slavery bondage system saw the need to degenerate us to sub-human standards? What is the reason for this subliminal brainwash that abuses and causes the victim to become a self-abuser, and who is benefiting the most from our confused estate?
The history of the word Nigger has its beginning as a reference in the word Niger. The Niger is a major River in the Western bulge of Africa. The Bend of this River was the major education and commerce center where most of the trade routes came together from the East, North, South and the Coast. The cities around the Bend of this River produced one of the highest educated civilization in the Western World. There were many routes that led from the Interior of West Africa to the coast.
The name Niger is found more common in the German languages, for example, Honniger, Niger and Einiger are related forms that are common in German names. The different forms in German do not refer to color or race. However, the name seems to have its roots in Latin, coming from two root words: one root is Ger or Gar, which is found in the names, Algeria, Bulgaria, Hungaria, Nigeria and Niger and Germani (Celtic); all of these forms refer to German. Continental Europe pronounces (i) like two ee's, which is pronounced differently than the (i) that is pronounced as an eye in English America. Combining the Ni with Ger, then pronounce them using the different sounds of the vowel (i).
Spain is the key to the rise of Europe from the Dark Age and ultimately, the fall of Interior West Africa. European's historians recorded it was the Christian Tribes of Spain, who defeated the Moors. In 1492, the Arabs, Jews and Moors were expelled from Spain, America was discovered and Sonny Ali Ber, the last Zuwa King of Songhai died that same year. The final war for control of Spain started around the latter part of the 1500's and lasted to the early part of the 1600's before Islam was completely subdued in Spain. After the Christians of Spain recaptures Iberia, Spain inherited mounds of knowledge, educators an educated people (This knowledge was shared with Austria and Holland).
This working together of the German nations brought Europe out of the dark age, including England. Of the knowledge gathered were more advance sails and compasses for sea going ships that could propel the ships into the wind and know where they were at most times (Europe did not have this technology before Islamic knowledge came to Spain). This knowledge gave Europe the ability and confidence to sail around the world and return home. They also developed guns and cannons. They corrected their maps of the unknown world and Africa. Before Islam came to Spain, European scholars thought the world was flat and both the Nile and the Niger in Africa were the same River. In their discoveries, they learned the world was round and the Nile and the Niger were two different Rivers.
Meanwhile, in Africa, the expelled Moslems became refugees in Morocco and many of the men were mercenaries from different Moslem nations. This came at a time when Songhai and Morocco were quarreling over salt mines that they both claimed, and they were heading into war with each other. King al-Mansur Ahmad I of Morocco was nervous from having a large expelled mercenary army in his borders and a strong enemy in the South; he turned to the English for support. England and Spain were enemies and Morocco was a good possible ally for England. English merchants supplied Morocco with material to build ships and military supplies to make war. King al-Mansur armed his mercenary army and gave them orders to attack Songhai, remove the people from the land, and claim it for themselves. Once Morocco attacked Songhai, other people in West Africa who wanted revenge for what the Ahchia (Askia) Kings of Songhai had done to them joined in the fight against Songhai.
The Kingdom of Songhai occupied the Eastern branch of the Niger River from the old city Bamba in the Bend of the River to Bussa rapids near Nigeria. Under Sonny Ali Bare and Ahchia Mohammad, Songhai became an Empire in the interior of West Africa the size of the United States. In 1593, Songhai fell, their libraries were destroyed, and many of the citizens were marched to the coast and sold to the Europeans, who were already trading with Coastal nations. Many others found refugee status with friendly nations. Early in the Nigeria area slave trade, Spain, Portugal and Holland were the main traders until the Dutch broke away from the Spanish Crown. Then America, the Dutch, England, and other European countries began to form Corporations to trade and monopolize the commerce of the darker world.
The King of Portugal and their Dutch merchants were well aware of the problems Songhai was having within it's Noble House , and they had learned it from the Moors. They had a trading station at Lagos, Nigeria that was doing business with Coastal Kings. The Portugal had Colonized Brazil and did not want the Songhai people as slaves. Hebrew people had ruled Iberia, and they did not want to risk that problem in their Colonies. If Songhai was destroyed in war with Morocco and they could not be converted, Portugal did not want anything to do with Songhai. Moreover, they also were aware of the history of their leaders and their history of a long war with the Roman Empire and did not convert. The Dutch and the English started to experiment on training these Niggers how to become slaves. It started on islands in the Caribbean Sea.
In the early 1600's, several slaves were sold to American merchants from a Dutch man of war ship. Most of the Interior people had a Semite traditions and culture, or they were highly influenced by Islam. Latin countries forbade Islamic slaves in their colonies. The Protestant society in North America was ignorant to Islam, so they did not care; they needed free labor. Subsequently, North America designed a slavery system that became the cruelest the world has ever known. Perhaps, it may have been motivated from their determination to destroy the spirit in the slaves they bought. It is strange the Dutch West Indian Company got its Charter around the same time these merchants found America would purchase these people. The English colonized Gambia, Ghana, and Nigeria to trade with West African Kingdoms. These colonies were at the end of some of the major trade routes coming from the Interior of West Africa. With long holy wars going on in the Interior, people always run in the direction away from wars; however, in this case, it was into the hands of the slave merchants.
Around the latter part of the 1700, to the outbreak of the civil war, cotton plantations were being developed in the south and required many more slaves. Its ironic how during that time a leader in North Nigeria aroused his people to make war; these wars lasted to the beginning of the American Civil War. We were told they were holy wars, but it was later determined that they were wars for material gain and powers to control. The people that supplied them war material just might have been the ones receiving the majority of slaves from the refugee bases alone the borders of the Coastal nations. Seeing people idle in those refugee bases led the Europeans to suggest that we were sitting around idle-a lazy people, the land was not worked, and it was our Kings that sold us to Europeans. [It is all mis-information to relieve their future shame.] However, from the 1700's to the 1855's, millions of slaves were brought directly into the Southern states. Many were Songhai, Hausas and Fulani, Malian, Moshe and other nations that were affected by the holy wars that went on in the Interior of West Africa. In America, the raw slaves were given the common property name, Nigger. They were placed in breaking/breeding camps. These camps were developed to break the will of the African slaves that Latin Colonies would not buy. Finally, the raw slaves accepted assimilating into North American slave society over the cruelty this system rendered them. The slave master didn't care whether some of these slaves were enemies in Africa, or what they were doing to these people was contrary to nature and traditions-most African people married only within their related Tribes, and it was a dishonor to do otherwise.
After the Civil War, many African Noble Houses who remembered themselves began to spy out the land, looking for ways to resolve the many problems that had developed among the tribal groups that were enslaved here. Some of these groups had been enemies in Africa and some of us knew how to resolve the fears that many of us had. The search was for Noble Houses of the different groups enslaved here. This was accomplished through knowledge of the signs of these Houses. The names Man-Mansa, Ahchia-Askia, Sonny-Sonny and other names were given to young blacks after the Civil War. Many lives were lost in the movement to merge all the Noble people into one family and establish decrees to eliminate the possibility of wars among our groups. (Greasyman and Sonny-man were dispatched to resolve hard-core matters-they were the lone warriors.) Some of these decrees exist today, for example, the decree of marriage suggests tall people to short people and light people to dark people.
The Sonny/Man noble people were the best groups to initiate this movement because they came into America in larger numbers and could recognize each other in the different periods we came into America; plus, Nigger originally applied to the River people, and both of these people were native to the Niger River. However, America did not discriminate with their slaves; they applied Nigger to all African slaves who came into America, including the colors and hair did not matter either. Some Songhai, Interior Geezchi and other affected Tribes were blacks with hair similar to Northeast Africans. Our mission was to merge all our tribes into one group, and Nigger was the only uniting factor visible, which was undefined at that time. The slave master unknowingly gave us the tool that we needed to merge our different tribes into one tribe. It was what we needed most. We were cut off from related people and homeland forever; so, we used Nigger to place our memories of Songhai. Frankly, if we are earnest with ourselves, Nigger unites us today quicker than anything else in America. The fusion was complete before the slave master got wise to what we had done.
Finally, North Americans and Europeans got their bearing on how powerful they had become from the wealth of knowledge they received and translated. They began to setup their world, and define the whole world in their own likeness. It did not take long before the neo-slave system caught on that we had developed a unity in adopting Nigger in reference to ourselves. The education system did not change the derogatively defined name in the school systems and libraries. When our people got to the schoolhouse, the derogative definition was sitting there waiting for us. The definition of us today is man made to keep the world rejecting us; it also remains a covert act to maintain inconsistency among us as we look for ways to get others to accept us as equals in the world. We did not write it! This causes us to run from a roar into the lion's mouth as the blue bird of our unity continue crying to us daily, from our self-reference.
Our search each generation for ways to escape Nigger seems to make this innate force more aggressive and stronger. Now we are the leaders in the eradication of the Nigger; yet, all we see is a black family's relative who dies or is locked up for life. Again, the name Nigger does not appear among blacks of Latin countries; neither does it appear among blacks in other Europeans former colonies. Mainly, because the slave they obtained did not come from the Niger River. Blacks who migrate to Europe are not referred to as Neegers; they are referred to by the nations that they come from. We have to look further because it seems that Nigger applies only to Africans of the North American slavery experiment. Bear in mind, we are the only people in the world locked into a void in the richest country on earth.
This emptiness seems parallel to a revisit of the 400 years of cruel slavery/bondage that ends with conditions like we are facing now. We are still enduring the pain of being called evil and treated outside of humanity no different from what Children of Jacob experience in ancient Egypt before deliverance. The name Niger was corrupt when we first enter America, and later it was given a very negative definition in education. Over time this idea became a self feeding system where we are unknowingly crippling our own selves for continual use as an economical unit. Cunningly, this is fed through propaganda with covert action to maintain unquestioned unity among different European ethnic group in America. This is so unfair for everything in the God of Abraham that we trust in our partners in America can still outcaste us.
However, it is not left up to anyone or the world to correct this disgrace placed on us. It is our duty to eliminate the pain that this enigma in nature is causing our citizens. To rely on the hater to correct his error or intent is like running water up a skinny rope. Why should the hater change his habits when he has acquired exactly what the intent was meant to obtain? The system of hate allowing the error it has made in wrongly defining us suggests to everyone that it is acceptable under the present concept of Nigger to see and treat American Blacks as a lesser people. The name Gook was used by U.S. Forces fighting in Asia to eliminate the soldier's mind from thinking he was killing a human being. The name Nigger, presently defined, suggests the same isolation and treatment as the Gook in Asia received.
What has the Nigger done to anyone anyway? In fact, the generations known as Nigger are the most innocently defined in America. He and She were forcefully taken from their mother/father's land; they were made the free labor source to build a country for others; he was used to help protect and fight wars to help others keep what they took from darker people; yet, he received less or nothing for himself, not even the right to head his family or exist in peace among his own people. When education was given, it was corrupted to confuse him, as long as he follows the suggestions. The most dangerous thing we face now is how can we as a people reject Nigger without rejecting the positive aspect of our whole experience in America. Common sense should tell us that our negative concept of Nigger is a major reason why we kill each other for nothing and heartless.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Connection Point by Lee Ferry Copyright © 2009 by Lee Ferry. Excerpted by permission.
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