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The birth of El Yanga in circa 1545 is celebrated on this date. He was an African abolitionist and a leader of a slave rebellion in Mexico during the early period of Spanish colonial rule.
Gaspar Yanga, often called Yanga, El Yanga, or Nyanga, was said to be a member of the royal family of Gabon, Africa, before being kidnapped and placed in the Middle Passage to the new world. Yanga came to be the head of a group of slaves who were revolting near Vera Cruz, Mexico, around 1570. Escaping to the highland terrain, he and his people built a small, free colony." www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/yanga-african-abolitionist-and-rebel-mexico |
Lost Kingdoms of Africa
Series 2
We know less about Africa's distant past than almost anywhere else on Earth. But the scarcity of written records doesn't mean Africa lacks history. It is found instead in the culture, artefacts, and traditions of the people. Art historian Dr Gus Casely-Hayford explores some of the richest and most vibrant histories in the world, revealing fascinating stories of complex and sophisticated civilisations: The Kingdom of Asante; The Zulu Kingdom; The Berber Kingdom of Morocco; The Kingdoms of Bunyoro & Buganda." It's easy to think of Islamic North Africa as Arab, rather than African. But the land that is now Morocco once lay at the centre of a vast African Kingdom that stretched from northern Spain to the heart of West Africa. It was created by African Berbers, and ruled for centuries by two dynasties that created tremendous wealth, commissioned fabulous architecture, and promoted sophisticated ideas. But art historian Dr. Gus Casely-Hayford reveals how the very forces that forged the kingdom ultimately helped to destroy its indigenous African identity." www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01c2wns Series 1 The series reveals that Africa's stories are preserved for us in its treasures, statues and ancient buildings - in the culture, art and legends of the people. When magnificent 16th-century bronze casts were discovered in the kingdom of Benin in 1897, many could not believe they had been made by Africans. It was thought West Africa lacked the technical development required to make them. Dr Casely-Hayford travels to present-day Nigeria and Mali in search of the truth, exploring what the bronzes mean, how the technology to make them developed, and what it reveals about the lost kingdoms of West Africa." www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pv1m4 |
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How the FBI lost Lucy ParsonsBureau files handed over to the National Archives are often provided inaccurate tracking numbers, undercutting efforts at preservation (click on image for more)
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Nanny of the Maroons
Nanny, known as Granny Nanny, Grandy Nanny, and Queen Nanny was a Maroon leader and Obeah woman in Jamaica during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Maroons were slaves in the Americas who escaped and formed independent settlements. Nanny herself was an escaped slave who had been shipped from Western Africa. It has been widely accepted that she came from the Ashanti tribe of present-day Ghana.
Nanny and her four brothers (all of whom became Maroon leaders) were sold into slavery and later escaped from their plantations into the mountains and jungles that still make up a large proportion of Jamaica. Nanny and one brother, Quao, founded a village in the Blue Mountains, on the Eastern (or Windward) side of Jamaica, which became known as Nanny Town. Nanny has been described as a practitioner of Obeah, a term used in the Caribbean to describe folk magic and religion based on West African influences." www.blackpast.org/gah/queen-nanny-maroons-1733 |
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Abram Petrovich Hannibal
Sold into Turkish slavery, Abram Petrovich Hannibal was brought as a black servant to Czar Peter I, known as Peter the Great. He became one of the royal favorites, a general-in-chief, and one of the best educated men in Russia in his era. His great-grandson was Alexander Pushkin, the famous Russian writer who later glorified the deeds of his black ancestor in his book, The Negro of Peter the Great."
Abram Petrovich Gannibal is the Russian-African Politician, General, Philosopher and Scientist Extraordinaire. Abram Petrovich is founding father of calculus, modern mathematics and the science of rocketry or rocket propulsion, among numerous accomplishments, including the opening and organization of the first higher education establishment in Russia, the University of Moscow. This astonishingly astute and academically assiduous Russian of African descent made the reign of Tsar Peter great." Abram Petrovich was important in enhancing Russia's military might, mathematics and lineage/blood-line created the most influential heroes, legends, pioneers in Russia. Sources: http://www.blackpast.org/gah/hannibal-abram-petrovich-gannibal-p-1696-1781 http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/blackeuro/pushkinback.html http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/slave-general-abram-hannibal http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/opinion/13iht-edschmemann.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Gannibal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abram_Petrovich_Gannibal |
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Black In Latin America
Black in Latin America, a new four-part series on the influence of African descent on Latin America, is the 11th and latest production from renowned Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., writer and presenter of the acclaimed PBS series African American Lives 1 (2006), Oprah’s Roots (2007), African American Lives 2(2008), Looking for Lincoln (2009) and most recently Faces of America (2010). Black in Latin America is the third of a trilogy that began in 1999 with the broadcast of Professor Gates first series for public television, Wonders of the African World, an exploration of the relationship between Africa and the New World, a story he continued in 2004 with America Beyond the Color Line, a report on the lives of modern-day African Americans.Black In Latin America, premiering nationally Tuesdays April 19, 26 and May 3, 10, 2011 at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings), examines how Africa and Europe came together to create the rich cultures of Latin America and the Caribbean."
Make sure you check out the book Life Upon These Shores as well. Latin America is often associated with music, monuments and sun, but each of the six countries featured in Black in Latin America including the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru, has a secret history. On his journey, Professor Gates discovers, behind a shared legacy of colonialism and slavery, vivid stories and people marked by African roots. Latin America and the Caribbean have the largest concentration of people with African ancestry outside Africa — up to 70 percent of the population in some countries. The region imported over ten times as many slaves as the United States, and kept them in bondage far longer. On this series of journeys, Professor Gates celebrates the massive influence of millions of people of African descent on the history and culture of Latin America and the Caribbean, and considers why and how their contribution is often forgotten or ignored." |