Washington D. C. Commentary
companion video - Dr. Walter B. Hill Jr, Archivist, Historian, and Archaeologist,, the National Archives, Washington, DC
What Africa Gave to the World
A civilization can be defined as an organized body of people working together to achieve a purpose. African civilization began over 6,000 years ago and is the oldest recorded civilization. From this civilization came the disciplines of economics, art, science, math, language, spirituality, as well as the social activities of dinning, dating, marriage, birthing, etc. This and more is what Africa has given to the world.
Egyptian architecture (the pyramids) is renowned for being one of the world’s unsolved architectural mysteries. The people who built the pyramids migrated from Nubia in the South and from the interior where smaller pyramids can still be seen. Nubians who migrated up the Nile River to found Kmt (Egypt) were and still are some of the darkest and most beautiful people in Africa.
Did you know that the most visible monument in Washington, D.C. is an ancient Egyptian symbol? "Washington, D.C. is significant because it was the first city built in modern times which was laid out on paper before construction began. The layout and design of the city was based on concepts of city planning and temple orientation that were first developed in ancient Egypt and incorporated in the construction of many buildings throughout Europe." http://www.ikg-info.com/potomacTour.html
Thomas Jefferson, who commissioned his friend to design the capital, was full of irony. Although he felt Blacks were inferior to whites (as stated in his writings in paragraph 12 in his Notes on Virginia), ( http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/biog/lj16.htm), Jefferson fathered children with his Black slave and mistress. Jefferson’s statements (notes) did not go unchallenged. In another instance of irony, Benjamin Banneker the assistant to the architect who laid the plans for the city of Washington and who was responsible for recreating the plans when the lead designer quit, wrote his response to Jefferson. ( http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/special/banneker-benjamin.html)
To find out more about Benjamin Banneker you can visit http://www.bannekermemorial.org/history.htm
In the Rotundo of the Capitol building, there is an 1864 painting by Constantino Brumidi depicting scenes of America’s history…all white. "I looked up again at Brumidi’s celebration of the "principles upon which the United States was founded" and visualized the glistening backs of blacks with ropes and pulleys heaving the ponderous stones of the dome into place."1
1 Randal Robinson "The Debt" p.3
Images courtesy of the following: Mathematical Association of America Surveyor’s in Postage
