Great Zimbabwe Bantu, Shona

This Iron Age site, the symbol modern Zimbabwe took its name from, lies 17 miles from Masvingo and is the remains of an extensive town built around 1200 AD.

 The word 'Zimbabwe' is derived from Shona words that mean 'houses of stone' or 'venerated house'. Zimbabwe developed into an empire covering over 1000 square miles. Evidence at Great Zimbabwe, like Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) pottery from China, indicates that the empire had extensive trade.

The two main areas of stone wall enclosures are: the Hill Complex, on the long, steep-sided granite hill that rises 260 feet above the surrounding ground; and the land below this hill where the Valley Enclosures and the Great Enclosure are situated. The stone walls, up to 20 feet thick and 36 feet high, are built of granite blocks without the use of mortar.

Two high walls form the narrow parallel passage, 180 feet long, that allows direct access to the Conical Tower. The great material wealth of Great Zimbabwe may have been its downfall. After its discovery in the 1870s European adventurers arrived in droves. The rumour started that Zimbabwe was the legendary "Land of Ophir", the source of King Solomon's gold.

The name Zimbabwe is in Bantu and means "House of Stone". Bantu is one of the languages that they spoke in Zimbabwe. However the name “House of Stone" was put to the place because of the stone ruins found there that spread on 200 square miles. These ruins are the oldest and greatest in Sub Saharan Africa. They are all made out of stone. Zimbawe was built from the 12th century to the 15th century.

In the 16th century the Portuguese came and started controlling the trades and everything. Inhabitants were mostly Bantu farmers, cattle raisers from West Africa. Bantu people began to come about 2,000 years ago including the Shona that are officially the people from Zimbabwe. Now the Shona are four fifths of the country's population. In the 10th century Zimbabwe began to develop. Zimbabwe is located inland from the southeastern coast of Africa. The Sabi River ran through the south part of Zimbabwe. The Mazoe and Zambezi rivers were north. The Zambezi is the fourth longest river. Zimbabwe was developed on a hilltop that was protected from invasion by a large crop of granite.

Most of the empire was on a high plateau, it was safe from diseases such as tsetse flies that were common close to water. The rain was good for farming. Zimbabwe could be mined for granite, iron, copper, and gold. The Mutapa’s rulers had a tradition of building structures made out of stone.

'The Jewish Talmud', also contains oblique references to the story, as well the New Testament where Sheba is referred to as "The Queen of the South." There is, in addition, a fairly detailed account in the Koran, echoed in several Arabic and Persian folk tales of later date, (in which she is known as Bilqis).

Further afield, in southern enigmatic stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe are said by the local Mashona people to have been the palace of the Queen of Sheba, and tribal elders still repeat their own fully evolved version of the legend. In addition, the Yoruba of West Africa also claimed to have the Staff of Queen of Sheeba in Ile Ife.

The Europeans could not believe that the African "savages" could build in stone. Zimbabwe did have extensive copper and gold mines, and may well have been the Biblical source of Temple Gold. Not much is left of anything since the diggers, looters, and "shoot the niggers on sight" murders have come and gone. Long after the buildings and cathedrals of Europe have fallen, the Great Tower still stand as a testimony to a long dead civilisation.

Bandlet of Righteousness

The world's first religious principles are written by the Kushite, King 'Ori' (right & wrong). However, taken from Ifa Sacred Poems was a story about "Ori" (head) the king of the body. Ori (head) was the only divinity that broke the kola nuts that Orunmila kept at his shrine. Ori's wish was for a permanent abode (home) and plenty of followers.

Upon hearing the news of the finally broken Kola-nuts, all the other divinities agreed, (since they all tried to break the nuts) that the "Head" was the right divinity to the Kola-nuts.

Almost immediately the hand, feet, body, stomach, chest, neck etc, each of which before then had distinct identities, all assembled and decided to go and live with the Head. Together, they all carried the Head high above as the king of the body. It is on account of the role played by Orunmila in his fortune that the head touches the ground to defer and revere to Orunmila to this day.

The most fascinating collection of sacred texts is, without doubt, the "Bandlet of Righteousness." Among the contents are the awe-inspiring 'Scrolls of Life', (MASHAFA HAYWAT) in Ethiopic and the 'MYSTICAL NAMES OF THE PERSONS OF THE TRINITY' (TERGUAME FIDAL) in Amharic. Bandages of parchments were used to wrap the dead as part of an ancient tradition linked to the belief that they will assist the wearer to come forth on the Day of Judgement.

Parchments were also used as amulets. Upon which were inscribed spells, mystical symbols, crosses and figurines to ward off disease and sickness in men and children. It was used by women as protection, especially for miscarriages and abortions caused by evil spirits to ensure safe delivery.

Those accused for the illegal removal and theft of these sacred items are now also accountable for misguidance. They even erroneously suggested that the stolen loot of parchments, now located in many inaccessible vaults of several libraries, museums, and universities constitute the famed ' Lafafa Sedek.'

However, these hold very little in common with the authentic 'Scroll of Life; which they claimed was written by the hands of the Creator. It was conceived to protect the deceased from mutilation in the grave and the awful fire in Hell. This scroll serves as a key to attaining everlasting life in paradise. This fact links it directly with the 'Pert Em Hru'. This is also known as the 'Egyptian Book of the Dead', of which the best-preserved copy is the 'Papyrus of Ani' and dates to the Eighteenth Dynasty of Kushite regents (1575 B.C.E.) in Ta-Meri, while other copies are dated from as early as the Fifth Dynasty.

The ancestors of the Christians of Sudan and Ethiopia were the ones who established an ancient culture that eventually exported civilization to the north (i.e. Tameri/ KMT) since 3500 B.C.E. This was done under the leadership of a regent known only by the name ‘SCORPION’.

In the year 270 B.C.E. Ptolemy Philadelphus commanded the African-European High-Priest of Sebenmytus, Manetho, to "Write a Complete History of Egypt." "Manetho's History" was the first to divide Egyptian experiences into Dynasties, all of which he placed securely in the Great Library of Alexandria, Egypt.

Jugurtha, War, Dacians

Unfortunately, because of the many North African revolts against Roman authority, historians tend to mention only those that were of exceptional violence and intensity.

 One such rising, known as the Jugurthine War (112-105 A.D) was initiated by the nationalist fervour of the North African patriot Jugurtha.

Directing an unrelenting guerrilla war, Jugurtha became a formidable adversary to his enemies, inflicting embarrassing defeats upon the Roman legions.

"The wars of Jugurtha," writes Graham Webster, demonstrated the value of the nimble Moorish horsemen who Trajan later found so useful against the Dacians. During the Dacian Wars of Eastern Europe (101-105), the Roman military relied heavily upon highly mobile units of Moorish cavalry.

On a Roman column dedicated to the wars of Trajan in Dacia, there is a special relief devoted to a large body of galloping horsemen easily recognisable as Moors. They are depicted with tiered and plaited rows of curled hair, short tunics, and saddle-less with only a single bridle. Another work dated to the same period is terracotta human head found in the Dacian city of Suicidava.

Described by archaeologists as the head of a "Negro or Moor," it is in many respects similar to the horse cavalry depicted on the Roman column. Black soldiers, specifically identified as Moors, were actively recruited by Rome and served tours of duty in Britain, France, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Romania, etc.

An original brass military diploma which dates from the middle of the second century A.D. mentions Moorish soldiers in Moesia, which is modern Serbia. Another military diploma of A.D. speaks of Moorish soldiers from Africa in Dacia, or modern Romania, and also of auxiliary troops of the Dacian Moors.

A Roman document, Notitia Dignitatum dates from the beginning of the fifth century A.D., mentions several Moorish battalions in the Balkans and the Moorish military colony Ad Mauros was located on the Inn River near Vienna; and in what modern Besarabia, there is was a city called Maurocastrum.

According to the document Notitia Dignitatum, 2500to 5000 illyrian Moorish soldiers, in five separate military units, had served in the Near East. From this document we must deduce that at the beginning of the fifth century at least 100,000 descendants of Moors lived in Illyricum, which was located in the present-day Balkans.

Regarding specific military men of Moorish extraction, there were several Rome honourably, or had ancestors that participated in Rome’s foreign wars. In 253 A.D., for example, "After his departure, the governor of Lower Moesia (modern Serbia), M. Aemilius Aemilianus, a Moor born Mauritania, in defeating the Goths and was proclaimed emperor by his troops. In another case, Zenophilus, Consul of Numidia, boasts that my grandfather is a soldier; he had served in the Commitatus, for our family is of Moorish origin. To the Commitatus belonged the renowned Equites Mauri, a Black horse cavalry of North Africa.

Spain, Moor, Armenia, Tigranes

For example, the city of Osuna, in southern Spain, has yielded several archaeological works depicting Blacks with tightly curled hair which archaeologists have labeled "Negroid." As long ago as 170 A.D., writes Durant, "the Mauri Moors invaded Spain from Africa."

Bronze Male Statuette

Even earlier, according to Laroui, "The Berbers of that region [North Africa] made incursions into Baetica, Spain. But the use of the term "Berber" perhaps camouflages the issue here. Regard­ing the same event, W.T. Arnold' speaks of "Moorish incursions in Baetica as early as the first century. Interestingly enough, many of these Moors were Christians. During the sixth century, the Byzantine historian Procopius and the Latin poet Corippus compiled precious documents regarding the Moors in post­ Roman North Africa.

During this period the dominance of the Vandals, Germanic tribes who had invaded North Africa in 429 and seized several provinces (including Mauretania), was challenged politically and militarily. In providing a veritable war correspondent's view, Procopius chronicled the vicious assaults and ultimate victories of the Moorish rebels.

This was recorded in his volume, appropriately entitled The Wars: When the Moors wrested Aurasium from the Vandals, not a single enemy had until now ever come there or so much as caused the barbarians to be afraid that they would come. And the Moors of that place also held the land west of Aurasium, a tract both extensive and fertile. And beyond these dwelt other nations of the Moors, who were ruled by Ortaias. This statement shows that the Moors were not only perceived by Procopius as numerically significant, but demonstrates that they occupied an extensive portion of northwest Africa.

During this same period Byzantine arms began moving into Africa. With them came strong efforts to renew the grip of Roman dominance. The Empror Justinian sent in General Johannes Troglita to quell the challenge to Byzantine authority, but was forced to face a full-scale war. There was a great slaughter and taking of prisoners, as recounted by Corippus in the military epic Iohannis. Corippus recorded not only the slaying of several Moorish chieftains;

he also mentioned a number of captives that were as "black as crows. One Moorish ruler, Garmu (king of Mauretania), engineered the crushing of the Bvzantine army in 571 A.D. Such events established the situation in North Africa prior to the Arab invasions late in the seventh century.  An attempt to end the division of Armenia was made at about 165 B.C, when an Artaxiad ruler sought to suppress his rival, the attempt failed however, and it was left to his descendant Tigranes II (95 B.C.) to establish, by his conquest of Sophene, a unity that was to last almost 500 years. Top Bronze male statuette with a gold mask, found in Cadiz (Andalusia, Spain) in 1928, dated back to 8th or 7th century B.C.E.

Tigranes

Under Tigranes, Armenia ascended to a pinnacle of power unique in its history and became, albeit briefly, the strongest state in the Roman east. Extensive territories were taken from the kingdom of Parthia in Iran, which was compelled to sign a treaty of alliance. Iberia (Georgia), Albania, and Atropatene had already accepted Tigranes' suzerainty when the Aramaeans, tired of anarchy, offered him their crown (83 B.C.). And with that, Tigranes penetrated as far south as Canaan.

Armenian culture at the time of Tigranes was Persian, as it had been, and as it was fundamentally to remain for many centuries. The Armenian empire lasted until Tigranes became involved in a struggle between his father-in-law, Mithradates VI of Pontus and Rome.The Roman general Lucius captured Tigranocerta, Tigranes' new capital in 69 B.C, but He failed to reach Artashat.

But in 66 B.C, the legions of Pompey, aided by one of Tigranes' sons, succeeded in reaching Artashat. Tigrane was compelled to give up Syria and other conquests in the south, and to become an ally of Rome. Armenia thus became a buffer state, and often a battlefield between Rome and Parthia. Maneuvering between these two larger neighbors, the Armenians gained a reputation for deviousness. The Roman historian Tacitus called them an ambigua gens (“ambiguous people”).