Two Uncomfortable Historical Truths: Black History Before Slavery Biblical History is Black History

Why do you think that most African Americans are unaware of our history pre-slavery? Let's explore some reasons. One lesser-known reason why there is so little written information

to counter the Western fallacy of white supremacy is the fact that Europeans carefully preserved their history through well-stocked and well-maintained libraries while simultaneously and systematically destroying hundreds of thousands of ancient manuscripts. This explains, in part, why there are so few written accounts of ancient Black historical events and achievements.

Thousands of books from pre-Columbian America (yes, there were books in the Americas prior to the arrival of Columbus.) were destroyed. Bishop Diego de Landa Calder鏮 of Spain oversaw this campaign, saying, "burn them all, they are the work of the Devil." Close to a million books were destroyed when Europeans ransacked the culturally advanced Egyptian city of Alexandria. This city's magnificent libraries were burned to the ground-but not before Greek scholars made off with hundreds of books on science, mathematics, engineering, philosophy, and more. Thousands of books were burned when the culturally sophisticated city of Timbuktu was leveled on two occasions. In response to orders by Cardinal Jimenez, Europeans destroyed eighty-four thousand books written by the Black Moors. The Moorsdominated Europe during the Dark Ages and established an oasis of governmental, educational, and cultural sophistication. They were finally driven out in 1942. Another reason (and this is an indictment) why we are not familiar with our pre-slavery history is that we do not have faith in the works of our Black scholars. We do not read their books nor attend their lectures. Some of these scholars-like Ivan Van Sertima, Cheikh Anta Diop, John Henry Clarke, and Dr. Yosef Ben Jochannan-have toiled for decades documenting our history, but we have been brainwashed into being suspicious of historical facts not presented by white historians. Other ethnic groups hold their historians in the highest esteem and rely on them to accurately tell their stories. Sadly, we have come to the point where we pay little or no attention to the work of

our black scholars and appear insensitive to their tireless efforts to educate us.