A Scattered Past

Chapter 2: Distorted Geography

Geography

In general, every historic event consists of a few key elements:

  • notable people
  • a date
  • details of the event and
  • a geographical location

History and geography work in concert.

And when African geography is changed, altered, or distorted, those people’s history becomes unclear.

The definition of Geography is:

”a science that deals with the description, distribution, and interaction of the diverse physical, biological, and cultural features of the earth’s surface.”

One of the simplest methods of distorting the cultural memory of the so-called “Black” people is to change the Geography of the land –

–by changing the borders of the lands.

Border Changes

This is the Four Corners Monument, the geographic point where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet.

The borders of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet here to form the four 90 degree corners at this monument– all of which consist of straight meridian and parallel lines.

These are not natural borderlines.

Meridian and parallel lines in geography indicate man-made elements.

One can find the same in Louisiana and Mississippi.

One can find these occurrences of “straight edge” borders all over the United States of America and around the globe.

This “straight edge” pattern is especially prevalent in Africa, which we’ll go into shortly.

But before that, let's finish this point.

What were the borders before certain powers redrew them?

What history is not so obvious or possibly lost due to the modern borders?

Beforehand, the borders had a very different complexion and told a very different story.

By merely changing the geographical borders, this story becomes not so obvious.

And to most people, this history becomes lost.

Let’s go to Africa.

An event called the Berlin Conference took place in Berlin, Germany lasting from 1884 - 1885.

This event also goes by the names of the Congo Conference, West African Conference and the “Scramble for Africa.”

At this conference - Leopold II of Belgium is known to have carved Africa into new separate states.

He, along with other European nations, completed changed the borders.

In general, the Berlin Conference dealt was the invasion, occupation, division, and colonization of African territory by European nations.

By doing this, the European nations disrupted the cultural and linguistic borders that were already in place by its inhabitants.

This change in the geographical borders is one of the many reasons why the so-called “Blacks” suffer from cultural amnesia.

This map references Africa Before and After Berlin Conference:

In West Africa alone, the newly drawn borders swallowed up nearly 100 smaller tribes and borders.

To trace your ancestors, you will have to know current geographical names and past border changes, wars, and name changes of African nations throughout history to keep up.

Remember our earlier questions:

What were the borders before the European nations redrew them?

And what history is not so obvious or possibly lost due to the modern borders?

Suppose you were descendants of the Kushite Kingdom.

It would be nearly impossible to find your ancestors based on Africa’s maps after the Berlin Conference.

With newer borders drawn and many territories renamed, the European nations practically wiped the original Kushite kingdom off the map.

The border of Africa itself has shifted over time from its original boundary.

At one time, the borders of Africa were unbelievably different from today.

Before the entire continent was considered Africa–

Africa (orthographic projection).svg

– This was Africa (in red).

This alone is a striking example of how Geography’s science has been used against so-called “Black” people.

If this is confusing to you, don’t worry.

We’ll go into greater detail about Africa later in Chapter 4 of this series.

For now, we want you to see how geographical changes can have a drastic effect on a people–

– Especially those who do not know their national descent.

– Those who are disconnected from their culture, their land, and their ancestors.

Or, as Dr. Pimienta Bey states, people who have amnesia.

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Next chapter, we unpack how Archaeology is misused to scatter the so-called “Black” people’s memory of their culture, language, and history.