The Africans Who Discovered Europe 45,000 BCE
It is not without some ironic humor that one considers the incendiary sentiments of the modern European politicians especially Spanish politicians respecting African immigration. It is usually forgotten in the tumult of patriotic passion that the notions of country, nation and state are very fragile and susceptible to time. It is forgotten that many of those that live in countries such as Spain are not indigenous to the place. Rather their ancestors were once immigrants into the areas or belonged to pillaging armies and tribes that committed a thousand unspoken atrocities.
And for many of today’s would be Spaniards, perhaps it is time they and the world are reminded once again that the borders of Africa have historically ended on the Pyrenees. The Iberian Peninsula has always been a part of Africa and has featured prominently in African history and psyche from the earliest periods of prehistory.
Black Africans had first settled Spain, which was once physically attached to North Africa. Black Africans were the aborigines of Spain. Those same Africans migrated over and again in recurring tides of human movement. It is thus not surprising that Africans have lived in Spain for hundreds and thousand of years as Spaniards until the 1492 conquest of Granada by the piratical armies of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabelle of Castille. Those two later oversaw the systematic expulsion from Spain (back to Africa or enslavement in West Indies), of the most “negroid†of the Black Spaniards (the so-called “Muslims†who had ruled for 700 years without interuption). Yet, African blood remains very dominant and highly visible in southern Spain no, the entire Iberian Peninsula one would dare say, even up to this day.
The genetic heritage of the Black African, which bears the original genetic tree of humanity, is very persistent and pervasive. Black Africans having birthed and built Spain, remain firmly intertwined in the midst of the Spanish population thriving. The blood of the original Spaniards continues to flourish in Spain. The blood of the Black Africans who always lived in Spain (often by themselves, but sometimes with their paler cousins like the Visigoths) through the dawn of pre-history, down to 1500 AD simply refused to be wiped away by denial, silence or historical distortion.
Now let the reader be aware, that the natural motions of creation may be interfered with for a while but the will of nature must eventually be respected. Spain is the natural haunt and playground of the Black African. Nature requires that Africans will like the inundations of the River Nile periodically rise from Africa to replenish the genetic and the cultural pool of their original heritage. After reading the brief outline of history that follows hereunder and doing the follow-up independent research it calls for, one will understand when it is declared herein that, Africans once marched in Spain as its original owners, Africans will once again march through Spain.
African Owners of EuropeThe so called Grimaldi, a nation of Black Africans were the first modern human nation to arrive in Europe. Their significance has always been clouded by the funny nomenclatures used to designate them i.e. Grimaldi, Neolithic men, etc. This reason for this being that many modern European historians steeped in the pervasive racism of their culture, would earnestly wish away the significance of the Grimaldi, and the founding role of Africans in the making of Europe and its present day inhabitants. The founding of Europe by Africans is one of those inconvenient historical facts that completely make a mess of the Eurocentric matrix of world history as developed by the western culture.
Into EuroLand
Just like the modern day immigrants of Africa who are today lured to Europe by forces lying buried in their genetic programming, the Grimaldi moved inexplicably from their lush and vast ancestral Africa into the southern but balmier shores of cold Europe.
They left Africa in waves of migratory movements beginning as far as the Cape of South Africa. They were in Europe as early as 45,000 years ago. On their way, most of them stopped settled and developed many nations in Africa. Many of those nations founded the groupings that currently exist in modern states of Central, West and North Africa.
45,000 years ago, there were no Straits of Gibraltar. It is speculated that theGrimaldis walked on dry land into Spain and France, into Italy, moving northwardinto Lombardy. They also dispersed into Bulgaria, Switzerland, Illyria and Southern Europe on the Adriatic Sea and into the area consisting of the modern England, Wales and Scotland.
The Grimaldi brought the first material culture to Europe evidence of which they left all over Southern Europe. These include artifacts such as gemstone pendants, stone implements, and symbols of communication.
Roots and Culture
The Grimaldi produced a joyful, spiritual culture which by all measures was relatively advanced for its time. Their artwork, and their cultural styles and fashion were surprisingly refreshing.
The Grimaldis depicted images of themselves with elaborate hairdo, which have been compared in appearance to those of modern African Blacks. Some wore their hair coiffure in fashions that resembled today’s cornrows. Others wore a peppercorn like style, where the hair is put into little black rolls or heads. The fact is that all the styles depicted by the ancient Grimaldi resemble what one could come across today in modern West Africa, or the Caribbean or United States.
The Grimaldi brought innovative sparks of the arts, as well as the survival skills, which gave new life to the staid and stagnant Neanderthal-period Europe. During the later Paleolithic period, the Grimaldi were the most powerful and influential cultural force on the European continent.
Archaeologists have uncovered Grimaldi arts of great antiquity but extraordinary workmanship. For instance, Graham Clarke, writing in the Dawn of Civilization designated the statue of the “Maid of Willendorf†designed and molded by some un-named Grimaldi artist and later found in Austria, as “the first designs of art on earth.†The remnants of their artwork suggest an idea of the extent of their migration. Pieces of Grimaldi sculpture have been found as far flung as southern Siberia and Russia.
The Grimaldi bequeathed useful tools like the bow and arrow to later Europeans. They also left rudimentary musical instruments providing an idea of how much they cherished joyfulness. These artifacts were crucial in the survival of later generations of barbaric peoples of Europe through prehistory until the coming of the Romans.
Their Bones Tell Tales Beyond Their Graves
Archeaological and genetic evidence have demonstrated that the Grimaldi were Blacks of the Central and West African typology. It is said that their facial and head characteristics resembled the Koramus people of South Africa and the San tribe (so called Bushmen) who were to come many thousands of years later.
Neolithic graves in Europe and Africa highlight the African origin of the Grimaldi and hence Africa’s claim to Europe. Archeologists working in this field have repeatedly denoted the racial and morphological similarities between the early settlers of Europe and those of the African continent.
It has been observed in respect of those graves that “they are constructed on similar lines, and the great majority of the skeletons they contain are remarkablefor their uniformity of type.†“So strikingâ€, writes Professor Elliot Smith, “is the family likeness between the early Neolithic peoples of the British Isles and the Mediterranean and the bulk of the population, both ancient and modern, of Egypt and East Africa, that the description of the bones of an Early Briton of that remote epoch might apply in all essential details to an inhabitant of Somaliland.†(The Ancient Egyptians, p. 58.)
In his book titled Civilization or Barbarism, (1981), at page 15-16, Cheikh Anta Diop made the following observation:
“The Grimaldi Negroids have left their numerous traces all over Europe and Asia, from the Iberian Peninsula to Lake Baykal in Siberia, passing through France, Austria, the Crimea, and the Basin of Don, etc. In these last two regions, the late Soviet Professor Mikhail Gerasimov, a scholar of rare objectivity, identified the Negroid type from skulls found in the Middle Mousterian period.If one bases one’s judgment on morphology, the first White appeared only around 20,000 years ago: the Cro-Magnon Man. He is probably the result of a mutationfrom the Grimaldi Negroid due to an existence of 20,000 years in the excessively cold climate of Europe at the end of the last glaciation.
The Basques, who live today in the Franco-Catabrian region where the Cro-Magnon was born, would be his descendants; in any case there are many ofthem in the southern region of France.â€
Change of Baton
The Grimaldi culture began to wane around 12,000 BCE. Eventually they moved on and all their trace became lost. There are several theories as to why this occurred. One improbable claim was that the Cro-Magnons exterminated them. Another suggests intermarriage, or race mixing causing the Grimaldi to lose their Black color. A more likely explanation as posited by Diop and confirmed by genetic studies is that the Grimaldi later evolved into the Cro-Magnon, either through an independent mutation of genes responsible for the phenotype or by intermixture with the Neanderthal.
Yet, archeological diggings conducted on the European continent provide irrefutable evidence the Grimaldi were its earliest modern inhabitants. The opening of Grimaldi graves and other excavations have revealed skeletons and artifacts in layers below those of the Cro-Magnons.
Many anthropologists believe that the Grimaldi Negroid was the African Homosapien who migrated into Europe about 50,000 years ago and gradually changed from Black Grimaldi to “intermediate†Cro-Magnon to northern pale skin Europeans of today.
It appears that after all is said and done, the bones of those long departed African men and women surely tell many instructive tales. At least those of the most ancient Europeans have testified. What they tell us is that Black Africans discovered Europe, and that Black African is thus the root of Europe.
Other Migrations from Africa
The Grimaldi was not the only Black African nation to have migrated, dominated and civilized Europe in many fundamental ways. Around 8,500 BC, it is speculated that Iberia (Spain and Portugal) were occupied by the Iberian Capsin culture and France was occupied by the early Tardendsain (Tardenoisian) culture. These cultural strains belonged to a group of cultures extant at that time in Africa that had migrated north through Spain.
The Iberian culture, which arrived in Spain, (from Africa) is the root of the present day Basque culture found in Spain, and France. The peoples of the Iberian culture eventually mixed with the Celts to become the Celt-Iberian Culture. Neolithic Iberian (recent African immigrants), small dark and long-headed people also inhabited Wales and Cornwall.
Then there were other major migratory initiatives by later pre-dynastic Egyptians and Ethiopians, which led to the establishment of colonies in pre-Hellenic Greek and Etruscan territories (Italy). These later developed into the great Empires of the Mediterranean, of which history, culture and origin, modern day Europe is so adept at distorting.
Furthermore, the Egyptians (original Anus from Sudan), Phoenicians (Africans originally from Punt by the Red sea coast of Africa), and Ethiopians (the most ancient nation in Africa) also established colonies in England, and Ireland where they mined important mineral like tin. They had numerous settlements therein for hundreds of years and they made essential impact on the demographic make up of the British Isles.
Ancient Mauretania, Morocco, (Northwest Africa) Ghana Empire (West Africa), Bornu Empire, in Nigeria, had at different times in history traded heavily with the Mediterranean civilization and actually left discernable genetic footprints on Spain, Rome and Greece suggesting an influence and impact of no small measure. Actually, the Pyrenees in Spain was always regarded (since pre-history) as the original border of Africa with Europe.
Moreover, between 711AD to 1495AD West African ruling houses, most of them from the area lying between what is presently known as Nigeria and Senegal, ruled Spain. They civilized Spain, and Spain in turn became the civilizing torch that moved Europe out of the dark ages.
Incidentally, whenever a connection is made to the African substratum of Europe, these days, one is wont to hear some diseased racist minds suggesting that such connection most have been a consequence of enslavement or conquest.
That was never the case. Africa was the last continent on earth to see the enslavement of its people. Other continents had long perfected the art and science of enslavement of their people (for example Eastern (Slavic or Slave tribe of) Europe) before it was forcibly imposed on Africa these last 1,000 years, but most especially the last 500 years of European abated slave trade.
Chattel slavery first came to Africa with the subsequent corruption of the Islamic religion which turned many of its adherents into human predators. These were supported by the venal, corrupt and greedy muslim clerics who parasited on African people and continent. This was followed by the depredations of historic proportion wrought on Africa by the murderous European piratical slave dealers who introduced an extremely vicious aspect of human destruction unseen in history into the frame of things.
Nevertheless, besides this aberration that occurred the last 500 years, African migration into Europe had nothing to do with slavery but everything to do with trade, acculturation and sometimes colonization of Europe by those ancient and highly advanced Africans.
One can then begin to understand why this article commenced with a note of irony. The ancestors of those same Africans of today prevented from entering Western Europe by all sorts of immigration policy, were really the founders of Europe in general and Spain in particular. How febble a thing this human memory can prove.
In the near future, other articles will explore the nature and extent of those other great and historically significant migrations which modern racist scholarship seeks to hide away permanently. We will keep you posted.
Ogu Eji Ofor Annu
May 1, 2006
Sources:
Mark Hyman, Blacks Before America, Africa World Press Inc., Trenton,
NJ, 1994, pp. 108, 109
Cheik Anta Diop, The African Origin of Civilization, 1955 – 1974
Cheik Anta Diop, Civilization or Barbarism, (1981)
Dr. Rene Verneau, Les Grottes de Grimaldi, Vol. II., Monaco, 1906.
Encyclopedia Britanica online.
Brown Africans yes, Black Africans, No. The Paleoanthopologists found that the racial type of the neolithic peoples of Europe, North America, the Medditeranean regions, and even China were of skull types that actually predated racial categories of today and were most like peoples today who are of mixed race. All exhibited distinctive caucasian cranial features such as pronounced brows and square orbits, had large noses and long vs. round heads. On the other hand, they had quite asian features as well. Can it be that their hair and skin more closely resembled the African norm of today? Their sculptures and paintings seem to indicate this. It is interested to do an online study of cranial reconstructions of neolithic skeletons such as Spirit Cave Man, Kennewick Man, and so on. They in general closely resemble the mixed South American or Medditerraneans in my opinion, some are said to look like the polynesians or the Ainu of Japan. The Black Bantu tribes, on the other hand, are thought to be a quite recent expansion out of the Congo basin of Africa and are the most recent wave of people groups coming out of Africa. Of course, they probably were an early admixture all along anyway. Nice article.
I`m spaniard and I`m also historian…Berebers and arabs ruled for 700 years only in Granada. Had you ever heart something about RECONQUISTA. RE- means again.
CONQUISTA- means conquest….So before the berebers the people who where living here, celts, basques, iberians, romans, germans and others where not black. So for your information read something about the advance of “europeans” in the peninsula. And another question is: Why do you forget Portugueses people in your afirmations? They where ruled by berebers for the same time as Spain but not Granada that was so small.
And I don`t know if the kings of Castilla and Aragon where more pirates than later english and berebers…By the way, Spain ruled the world (Europe included) with no interruption for more than 200 years and we are not always saying it.
Anyway…spanish is the second language in the world, before english in terms of mother tongue.
How is it that brown Africans discovered Europe but not black Africans? Is this division of color the result of the fact that you can’t face the possible truth that Africans whether they are brown, mahogany, chocolate, latte, butterscotch, dark black, middle black, really black, light brown, brownish-brown, brown, etc are responsible for building this giant, known as Europe. As you claim, if their “skull types predated racial categories†and can be described today as “mixed raceâ€, then how do you arrive at the conclusion that they exhibit distinctive Caucasian cranial features? Or why is it supposed that one of the race is Caucasian? Now if they actually predated racial categories, how did the paleoanthopologists determine their features? Or is their assumption based on a notion that Africans have a uniformed look?
“Human skin color is quite variable around the world. It ranges from a very dark brown among some Africans, Australians, and Melanesians to a near yellowish pink among some Northern Europeans. There are no people who actually have true black, white, red, or yellow skin. These are commonly used color terms that do not reflect biological reality.”
Human Biological Adaptability: Skin Color as an Adaptation
So consider the use of Black as an ethnic and cultural designation for Africa and its descendants. But truly like your racialist presumptions would suggest, “brown (and dark brown) Africans built Europe.”
No matter how you term it, Africa built Europe! And this fact will no more remain hidden.
Jahdey
Thank you for your contribution, Sandy Van Eysinga. I also have read similar things. See my arguments here
“No matter how you term it, Africa built Europe! And this fact will no more remain hidden.â€
It can’t be “hidden†because it’s not fact, Jahdey. Why are you so preoccupied with Europe? See my arguments on the “African Roots of Ireland†page, as well as here
Europe is its own place, and Europeans are their own people. Your claims are false, Jahdey.
Africa built Europe? what is it? Indo-europeans built Europe, and spaniards and caucasian mediterranean don’t share any ethnic characters with tribes from north africa. Please, respect my Ancient Mother Europe.
Some mania causes these assertions, that “black” Africans built every other civilization. The evidence for Europe is clear: Cro-Magnon were the ancestors of modern Europeans, they migrated in from the East (steppes today). A few very early remains of “Grimaldi” type were found. After that, it is all Cro-Magnon.
The creators of European civilization, culture, and, yes, SPAIN, were Europeans. Sorry if those facts, all well-substantiated, threaten some people.
Cro-Magnons are not the ancestors of [all] Modern europeans in my opinion. If you look at many europeans, today especially, you can see many similarities with their asian cousins. Compare even a dark skinned indian person, with his pointy nose, very straight hair, and low eyebrows and you can imagine that thousands of years-ago, or maybe even quite recently, europeans would have looked similar to this before they moved west into europe and mixed with cro-magnon and Neanderthal.
Cro-Magnons had high foreheads, long faces, and were by modern standards powerfully built. [Many] modern europeans do not fit this description (Irish people have small faces for example) and apart from skin colour resemble peoples of the indian sub continent-(even south Indians or aborigines). The [skin colour] of europeans and, maybe, a more stocky anatomy, I would say is due to a little Neanderthal Gene mixing. The very tall stature seen in homo sapiens comes from homo erectus, cro magnon was tall but he wasnt a bean pole! The last home of the Neanderthals was western europe and maybe southern europe(france, portugal, croatia, Gibraltar). In some of these regions even today you have people whose body anatomy doesn’t look anything like their supposed African ancestors of thousands of years ago, and if you put a Neanderthal next to them, he wouldnt look that out of place. Scientists try to say that the differences in all the races today is due to evolution over time and living in cold or warm climates affecting skin colour, body anotomy, etc. I doubt it. And this has happened in such a short space of time. One minute you’ve got these black people leaving Africa, and then you’ve got caucasians walking around with beards, spears, and long hair looking like hippys (the usual image in the Archaeology books anyway). So Africans mixed with these other ancient hominids. Its not as clear cut as the scientists would want us to believe, and they keep trying to put a nail in the coffin on the out of Africa debate.
Regards