The etymology or source of the term science is to be found in Latin; that is, scire means to know and scio in the same language means I know.
This European context notwithstanding, in actual fact the origin of science, philosophy and civilization generally is African thought systems. Ofcourse, this is a bold assertion but I hope to provide the evidence from available publications and authorities.
The second category is the book titled “The Destruction of Black Civilization” written by Dr Chancellor Williams who shows how Africa lost its civilization through violence perpetrated by Asia and Europe upon Africa: the third treatise of equal significance is Black Athena in three volumes in which Prof MartinBernal shows how African culture and unification were destroyed and why Europeans spread the myth that Africa is a savage continent so as to justify European conquest of Americas, Africa, Oceania and other parts of Asia.
One of the most concrete pieces of evidence of civilization in Africa is the Egyptian calendar dated 4241 BC based on the period approximately, of 365 days it takes the earth to revolve around the sun. Other marks of civilization such as agriculture were practiced even earlier.
In technology we have the great pyramids of Giza near Cairo which date back to some 3,000 years BC. Make no mistake, the founders of the calendar and builders of the pyramids were black people. The proof beyond contention lies in the level of melanin in the mummified bodies of the Pharaohs buried in the pyramids.
It is the same level of melanin in the skins of the present-day Africans south of the Sahara. Imhotep who lived between 2667-2648 BC is reported to be the pioneer engineer. He was also premier to the king and was a physician (doctor). Hippocrates, the Greek studied his medicine from materials written by Imhotep. So, the father of medicine was Imhotep. See “The African Background to Medical Science” by Charles S. Finch.
The ancient Egyptians studied astronomy, the science of the stars, they ardently believed in astrology and held the belief that heavenly bodies, the stars etc. have an effect or rather determine our fortunes and affairs on earth. There are many educated people who subscribe to this view.
This is the crux of the matter, it was crucial to these ancient black people (Egyptians) to develop capacity to determine how faraway from the earth and how far away these stars were from each other, these heavenly bodies were.
This was the motive force for studying and perfecting mathematics. Hence from the Great Pyramid at Giza you can calculate the circumference of the earth, the distance from the earth to the sun and the measurements at the base of the pyramid are compared to the distance traced by Venus in its orbit around the sun.
As we have seen the builders of the great pyramids were black people, believe it or not. The revolution of Venus around the sun is proof that ancient black people knew heliocentricity i.e. that planets move around the sun and not the other way round. The knowledge of mathematics and study of science became feasible.
Measurements and weighing so as to define the area of object of study as is well known with measurements, observations and inferences which are deducted from the facts, the scientific approach is made possible. Peer review entails submission of findings to fellow scientists for comparison and impartial judgement.
Other pieces of evidence of advanced technology in Africa are obelisks and rock temples in Ethiopia and temples like Luxor in Egypt. Ethiopia in Greek means land of sunburnt or black people.
The significance of heliocentricity cannot be overstated, it means black people, that is to say Africans, preceded Copernicus and Galileo by thousands of years in this feat. The ancient Egyptians practiced professional medicine to high standards.
They had advanced knowledge of anatomy and surgery. Diseases treated included dental diseases, gynecological diseases, gastrointestinal diseases and urinary disorders as well as cancer, according to Wikipedia. Documented Egyptian herbal medicine dates back to 1550 BC and covers herbal remedies, among others in hundreds. Remedies for mental disorders such as depression and dementia are covered.
Scholars inform us that such wealth of information is available in a record known as “The Ebers Papyrus”. The fate of ancient African medicine is closely related to invasions from Asia and Europe. Professional historians will recall that the last native that is Pharaoh or King was assassinated by Cambyses a Persian and his name was Amasis. He was assassinated in 525 BC.
Other crucial invaders were Assyrians, Persians as pointed out earlier, Greeks in 322BC occupied it with the headquarters at Alexandria. They were ousted by Romans in 30 BC, others are Hyksos, Assyrians, Arabs i.e. Arabs in 640 AD, Turks in 1517, the British in 1882 till 1956 when Egypt became independent and the French in 1798 under Napoleon.
Invaders realized only too well that knowledge is power and inspiration, hence the major invasions are closely associated with mass destruction of African libraries notably The Library of Alexandria in 48 BC by Roman invaders and in 390 AD by the same European civilization, the great Alexandria library was burnt down by religious fanatics in what was misconceived to be destruction of pagan ideas.
The great libraries in Songhai Empire in Sankore University, Timbuktu in today’s Mali were destroyed around 1594 AD when the Moroccan forces reduced the city to waste that is in 1594.In 661 BC the Assyrian army destroyed the library at Thebes in Egypt. We see therefore that dismissing the validity of herbal medicine on account of its African origin is unscientific.
The proper approach is to observe the herbs, subject them to scientific inquiry through measurements and weighing, experimentation and observation and to draw inferences as to whether they are curative or otherwise in clinics.
The success stories under NACOTHA (National Council of Traditional Healers and Herbalists Association) indicate that herbal medicine is curative and it is in actual fact also administered in advanced countries as alternative medicine. The recent sensational cases of traditional healers concerning cancer are not isolated affairs. They are part and parcel of the rich heritage of African herbal medicine.
The primary objective of administering traditional medicine was saving life for fair reward, and not money making, in accordance with Ubuntu Philosophy.
And a surprise to the reader, in the Greek language, allegedly the origin of philosophy, there is no root of the word. On the contrary, the etymology of the word is Sophia ‘wisdom’ and it’s Egyptian which was typified by deep thought and divine speech. So much is amply clear from Jacob H. Carruthers book entitled, MDW NTR Divine Speech. The Greeks were just lovers of the philosophy of the ancient black Egyptians.
In Uganda, the NDA (National Drug Authority) and the Natural Chemotherapeutics Research Institute (NCRI) at Wandegeya are handy in verification of validity of herbal medicine.
The author is a retired judge
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