Categories: William “Tony” Rogers,
The untold facts about he African influence on the world as we know it today will continue to be uncovered. While in Senegal a few years ago, I was amazed at the information I discovered during a visit to The Museum of Black Civilizations, a new museum in Dakar that provides evidence that all civilizations can now be traced back to Africa.
. The Museum has a map that shows how West Africans migrated to early China. The African Presence in Early Asia (Runoko Rashidi, Ivan Van Sertima) is another wonderful source of research I studied over the years to better understand my ancestral connection to Taoism.
The Rashidi/Van Sertima book also provides scholarly evidence about how Black tribes from West Africa played a major role in the creation of the early Chinese dynasties between 1900 and 1050 BC.
Chinese legend gives Fu Hsi the first emperor to unite all of China the credit for developing the I Ching and several hundred years later the great scholar Confucius for developing it to where it is today.
Research by Wayne B. Chandler provides evidence that the Yin/Yang foundation of the I Ching and Taoism can be traced to Bak tribes from West Africa, many from Burkina Faso, Niger and Ghana.
Research points to the Bak tribes who immigrated into China carrying with them the beginnings of civilization writing, philosophy, and economic fortification according to Professor Albert Etienne Terrien de Lacouperie, one of the world’s leading authorities on the history of Chinese people and their philosophies.
As it relates specifically to the origin of the I Ching, Lacouperie wrote, “before their emigration to the Far East, the Bak families had borrowed the pre-cuneiform writing from Southwestern Asia.
Chandler provides a picture of Tieguai one of the eight immortals of Taoism in the Rashidi/Van Sertima book. Tieguai, was an African who resembled Lionel Richie, also known as the Iron-Staff Immortal. He was a martial artist and an energy healer. The picture of Tieguai was from a hand painted silk design from the early thirteenth century Yuan Dynasty.
Part of awakening of the sleeping giant movement is to provide history that was hidden about the early influence Africans had on the world. Perhaps if those facts were never hidden, we would not need a special month; then again, I guess that’s why they were hidden.
The best way to learn about who you really are is to return to the motherland. The African Diaspora is the sleeping giant, once awaken it will make Africa strong and Africa will make the Diaspora strong.
African and Caribbean Americans are the only group of people who do not travel, invest and live in the country of their ancestors. This is starting to change. There is a movement to create a United States of Africa. This movement will need support of the African Diaspora
The next homecoming journey, to Northern Ghana for the annual Cultural Oneness Festival, will be in December 2026. if you would like information on traveling details send an email harlemtourismboard@gmail.com or visit www.harlemtourismboard.com
