Was Septimius Severus the 1st Black man to rule England?
Did you know that Black and Asian people first came to the North East in Roman times? Or that England was once ruled by a Libyan? These and many more historical facts were revealed as part of BBC Black History Month.
Early Black History
Emperor Septimius Severus wasn’t the only Black Roman in Britain. There were other African officers, soldiers … stationed on and around Hadrian’s Wall in the 3rd century.
From the 9th century onwards, there are records of Vikings bringing Moroccans to the region.
There’s a gap in the recording of black presence in the North East of England for nearly 400 years until the start of the 16th century.
Black and Asian presence in the North East of England can be traced back to Septimius Severus, a North African Libyan, who ruled England as Roman Emperor between 193-211 AD.
Severus was unique amongst the Roman emperors as being the first Black citizen to hold the highest office in the empire.
The most celebrated example of an early Black presence in Britain is the case of the Roman military garrison on Hadrian’s Wall in Cumbria.
A 4th century inscription tells us that the Roman auxiliary unit, Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum, was stationed at Aballava, modern day Burgh-by-Sands.
This unit had been mustered in the Roman province of Mauretania in North Africa, modern Morocco.
Genetic evidence
It was recently suggested that African DNA might be found to be present in the local populations near to Hadrian’s Wall.
However, this would not conclusively show that the Black Roman soldiers on the wall intermarried with the local population because of the problem of ‘admixture’.
Admixture is a process whereby the DNA of a population becomes diluted over time and it cannot be shown at what period in time that dilution took place.
African Legacy
During his time in office, Septimius Severus legalised marriage during military service.
There is also evidence that that some Black Romans married, had children, and remained in Britain after their tour of duty.
Skeletons unearthed in a Romano British Cemetery outside York revealed the limb proportions of some of the men suggested that they were Black Africans.
Perhaps they might be considered to be Britain’s first Diaspora people, making Cumbria the birthplace of Black British history?
The problem with white racists is they’ve convinced themselves that physically, there can only be one time of black person–something out of their stereotypes. But even if we stay in so-called Sub-Saharan Africa, you will discover more diversity in single African tribes than in the entire white race. Just take the Igbos of Nigeria for example. Some of them are nearly white in color, some are virtually black. Some have narrow faces, thin lips and pointy noses. Some have wide faces, broad noses and full lips. Some are long and lean, some stout and muscular. There is absolutely no Caucasian or Arab admixture. These people are 100% black African. Other ethic groups are the same way.
Therefore if you see a depiction of an ancient Egyptian, no matter how that Egyptian looks, there are unmixed Africans today who look just like him or her. There is tremendous variety even within the same family. Africa, after all, has the most genetic diversity. This is a scientific fact. White racists actually take diversity for granted among whites but they dismiss diversity among the more diverse blacks.
Seth,The Euroclowns and Bigots are infact jealous and afraid us.We are the Original People On planet earth.From us came all others.The Europeans knows very that we gave them what they have today and without us they are nowhere.They are less intelligent than us.They have a recessive brain that makes them behave as a beast.This is the caveman mentality.Brother Seth Man Know Thyself.They are feeding from our because we allowed them to exist.These European psychopthic bigots are just wannabes.Personally they are inferior to me so i don’t give damn about them.These are their last days.The day of reckoning is coming.OUR GODS AUSAR,ASET,MAAT,HERU they are coming back to clean up this pink people.
Hotep.
Brothers and sisters lot of wellmeaning people in the world know the truth about ancient Africa’s greatness in education, religion and kingdoms. They also know that western philosophers and priests studied in africa and went to europe to educate their own well before Christianity was a dream . Thererefore brothers and sisters do not waste time explaining one thing to those that are scared of the African truth, rather focus your energies on spreading the research to your own in africa and diaspora. The truth is out and no one will manage to contain it without losing credebility. If only the disecration of holy graves in pyramids and other african lands can stop. If only Darfu and south sudan can survive the onslought to tell the truth to the rest of its african brethren and world sympathisers the story of genocide that must not repeated.
do;nt waste your time dealing with the white man ie ,arab we are the mother,s and father.s of all humannity.in fact the arabs gave nothing to kemit and the ivaders there now are nothing more than bastards,maat hotep buy the way this planet will shout for joy whem the tamahu are gone!
To the ignorant idiot by the name TRUTH, please, your bigotry shocks me. I am from Sub Saharan Africa and I can tell you, my early ancestors had their way of illustrating their way of life. They were hunter gatherers and would teach their children through paintings life stories that are still existing today in the caves around Sub Saharan Africa. We are talking hundreds of years old…Way before the whites set their feet on African soil. Go to Africa today and it is still there, amazing work……and you tell me they never wrote a book….my ass! How did they invent ink that last to this day? Talking of inventing wheels, at the time, given their way of life in warm Africa and the availability of bounty fruits and vegetables, Hellooo? Those other inventions were not necessary to them. Europeans had no choice given the harsh cold weather….they had to invent or die.
Get it MF, truth my ass!
greeks werent black they were a mix of celts, and other indo europeans but they were heavily influenced by egyptians who were of ethiopian, and northern african descent, as far as that book black spark white flame…. its total bullshit i read it in my senior year of highschool and it was full of maybes and possiblys, basically its not gospel nor is it really backed by genetic research. we do have to remember that the meditaranean is not that large and the middle east is land locked so of course there is mixing but not on a large enough scale to vaguely say “oh greeks are black” or “colchians are black” or egyptians are black, on the contrary alot of egyptians were greek from the conquests of alexander the great (cleopatra was greek, kind of a gross fact but to legitimize their claim to the throne they mimicked the old brother sister marriage thing, it was called the ptolomaic dynasty) and a lot of egytians were jewish not just kushites either but actually from places like palaestine. my long drawn out point is, human genetics is a complex thing but we can pinpoint certain realities and, no as a european im not afraid of the cultural gifts that came from africa, i dont really care cause guess what….you didnt invent them and you werent their and neither was I so get over it. cause in the end it doesnt matter what the hell you are humans are pathetic gross and far too proud, guess what in my mind for admitting this, im superior
Whoa I hope I’m not the only person actually taking something useful away from this article. I’m really not interested in what colour any of you are or what ‘race’ of people are better. ‘Black’ people were largely written out of British history. All societies do it, they create an ‘other’ in order to create a national id. The racism of the process is not forgotten- that is the whole point of this article- actually there were black people in Britain, it is attempting to correct the record. Lets not use it as an excuse to continue the racism.
^Wisdom speaks …. Who have ears, hear!
The Ashanti, The Yorubas, The Edo, Benins, The Zulus, The Ntebele, all have culture peculiar to them, but a very strong undercurrent of unity.Leo Frobenius arrived in Ile-Ife and thought he had found Atlantis. Imagine this the country called Australia and New Zealand less than four centuries a ago was inhabited by a homogenous group of people. Very dark skin, bushy, curly air. But today it is multicultural with the white british settlers on top of the pyramid , the asians, chinese, hindu, now followed by the mix of white and aboroginal like the former olympic champion athlete. and finally the original charcoal black inhabitants in reservation like native AMERICANS. Alcohol, poverty and disease taking their toll. The end will come for them soon and the only thing left will be the mixture of the three. And them we will wonder what happened to them. It is happening in our life time. I have been to the valley of the kings, to the museum in Cairo, to Abou Simel, all that stared me in the face were authentic Negroes.There were charcoal looking black people on the tomb paintings,Dark Brown …… not even yellow and certainly not white.Karl Lepsius sums it up ‘Authentic Negroes’. Just for the sake of arguement sculpture is an anathema in Islam. Why would one destroy, deface monuments of unknown age if it belongs to one. Name calling is childs play. Cuba Gooding Jnr played Ben Carson, but I have seen pictures of him he was dark like the painting on the egyptian tomb painting.