Notes: Blacks in Science — Pages 1-5 (Overview of Medical Practice, Writing Systems, and Communication)

Context and Narrative Overview

• Topic: Blacks in Science: Ancient and Modern (Ivan Van Sertima).
• Emphasis on Africa’s historical contributions to science, medicine, writing, and communications, often overlooked or misrepresented in mainstream narratives.
• The text juxtaposes Western medical advances with parallel African developments, highlighting sophistication, technique, and evidence across periods.
• Key throughlines:
  • Recognition of advanced surgical skill and antisepsis parallel to (and sometimes preceding) European practices.
  • The importance of oral traditions (griots) in preserving knowledge, alongside debates about why Africa appeared pre-literate in some contexts.
  • Discovery and reevaluation of African writing systems and their connections to broader world scripts.
  • The sophisticated intersection of ritual, psychology, and medicine in traditional African healing.
  • The continuity of scientific achievement (medicine, surgery, immunology, astronomy, metallurgy, navigation, etc.) across Africa, with long-range cultural and technological linkages.
  • The broader implications for understanding Africa’s historical agency and its influence on global knowledge.

The Surgical Tradition and antisepsis in Africa

• Example of surgical practice: A skilled team performing a well-tried operation with smooth efficiency and unhurried skill; Lister’s London team could not have performed with greater smoothness (as described by contemporaries).
• Caution with cautery: Skillful use can prevent tissue damage; misused cautery leads to severe injury.
• Contrast and context: Africa’s surgical capabilities were noted by Western observers as advanced in several regions and time periods.

Oral Tradition vs. Written Records

• Oral tradition played a crucial role in preserving medical and cultural knowledge.
• Griots (pronounced gree-ohs) in great African courts preserved detailed, enduring knowledge even when written records were scarce or lost during upheavals.
• Example of memory power: King Mutesa II of Uganda could recite 700 years of Baganda history, illustrating depth of oral tradition.
• Core question: Why did Africans not leave written documents in some cases?
  • The assumption that Africans did not develop writing is a myth; evidence exists for multiple scripts before historical disruptions.

Africa's Writing Systems: Evidence and Discoveries

• Pre-Holocaust scripts: Africa likely had half a dozen scripts used before major historical disruptions (Alexandria, Timbuktu, Granada events) that resulted in loss of manuscripts.
• Meroitic script: Well-known Nubian script; Africa had other writing systems that predate or accompany Egypt’s hieroglyphs.
• Ta-Sert and Qustul discovery (March 1, 1979):
  • A black kingdom Ta-Sert at Qustul predates Egypt’s first dynasty by about twelve generations.
  • Kings of Ta-Sert held major religious and political symbols later seen in Egypt (e.g., falcon Horus, uniquely shaped crown, sacred boat-litter, palace serekhs).
  • Inscriptions on a stone incense burner dated to $3300 ext{ B.C.}$ show the earliest hieroglyphic-like inscriptions in that region.
  • This finding suggested that the origins of the Egyptian hieroglyphic system lay among Africans in the Sudan, not solely within Egypt.
• These discoveries imply a black-dynastic influence on early Egyptian symbolism and writing practices.
• Visual attestations of early writing included the Horus falcon, royal regalia, and other serekhs from Ta-Sert.
• The broader implication: Africa contributed foundational writing systems and symbols that influenced later Egyptian writing.

Writing, Literacy, and Cultural Transmission

• Saharan and Sudanic literacy: Ancients like the Manding and Akan developed scripts; literacy was often confined to specialists, priests, traders, or secret societies, not the general populace.
• Akan gold-weights as a cultural encyclopedia:
  • Originally used for standardizing gold weighing, the weights also functioned as a compact archive of symbols and ideas from ancient Akan culture.
  • Niangoran Bouah’s Sankofa asserts that these weights preserve a Numidian-style writing system, not merely artistic decoration.
  • Bouah identifies 135 basic symbols, providing a basis for decipherment of this writing system.
• Afaka script in Suriname:
  • A Surinamese black community (related to Akan) appears to have carried a script from Africa to the Americas.
  • Dr. Erzel (University of Suriname) identified the Afaka script among these communities, suggesting pre-colonial African literacy linked to the Americas.
• Manding writing and secrecy:
  • Clyde-Ahmad Winters argues that the Manding developed an ancient script used by Mande tribes (e.g., the Val) before adopting Arabic and Roman scripts.
  • Delafosse (1899) and Hau (1973) provide earlier evidence for Manding writing; Winters expands to show migrations and cross-regional use.
  • Manding secrecy and guarded word were central to their literacy; inscriptions carved on volcanic rocks in the Sahara match Manding syllabaries.
  • Oued Mertoutek in North Africa hosts a 3,000 B.C. inscription in the Manding script, linking Africa’s ancient writing to broader cultural migrations.
• Broader implications:
  • The emergence of multiple African writing systems indicates sophisticated linguistic and symbolic development across diverse regions.
  • The Manding script served not only as a linguistic tool but also as a cultural and secret-society symbol across time.

Africa’s Lost Sciences: A Holistic View

• Winters and others synthesize evidence across disciplines (steel-making, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, agriculture, cattle-rearing, navigation, medicine, and communication).
• The overarching claim: Africa possessed a broad and sophisticated scientific culture that modern scholarship has only partially uncovered.
• The concluding perspective:
  • Africa’s scientific heart receded into the shadow, while its remains were sensationalized as primitive or primitive-like artifacts.
  • The “periphery of the primitive” image is challenged by a view of Africa as a dynamic source of genius in its heartland.

The Lost Sciences of Africa: An Overview (Part II) – Communication Over Distances

• Africa’s decentralised empires required rapid information transfer over vast distances.
• Before telegraphy, West Africans developed communication systems to manage large empires (13th–15th centuries).
• Nubian voice transmission across the Nile:
  • Charles Breasted documented Nubians’ ability to relay information across nearly two miles of water.
  • Method described by observers: a man stands at the riverbank, cups hands about four inches from lips, speaks into the water at an angle of $45^ ext{o}$, distance communicants respond in kind, and listeners on shore hear no sound.
  • The distant messenger would then convey information in a straightforward, matter-of-fact manner.
• Implication: sophisticated, long-range communication enabled governance of enormous states and empires across West and Central Africa, predating European telecommunication technologies.
• Transitional note: This swift information transfer helped sustain empires as large as all of Western Europe, illustrating parallel developments in governance and science.
• A historical caveat:
  • The fact of advanced transmission does not imply Africa was isolated from global exchange; rather, it underscores Africa’s capacity for parallel, independent innovation and sophisticated infrastructure.

Implications for Historical Narrative and Ethical Considerations

• Reframing African history:
  • The material challenges the simplistic lineage of scientific progress that places Africa outside the history of science.
  • It invites a reevaluation of how scientific heritage is traced, credited, and taught in global contexts.
• Analytical rigor:
  • While Van Sertima presents compelling cases, the narrative invites further multidisciplinary corroboration, peer-reviewed scholarship, and careful dating to bolster broader acceptance.
• Cultural memory and education:
  • Acknowledging Africa’s contributions can reshape contemporary education, reduce intellectual colonial bias, and empower communities to see themselves as part of a global scientific tradition.
• Ethical dimension:
  • Recognizing past achievements must be paired with responsible interpretation to avoid essentialism or romanticization; emphasis on evidence, context, and methodological plurality is essential.

Key Dates, Figures, and Symbols to Remember

• $3{,}300 ext{ B.C.}$: Incense burner from Ta-Sert with Horus, royal crown, sacred boat-litter, serekhs – evidence of early hieroglyphic-style inscriptions.
• $3{,}000 ext{ B.C.}$: Manding inscription at Oued Mertoutek, North Africa, linking Manding script to ancient writing.
• $3300 ext{ B.C.}$ (alternate notation in source): Pre-first-dynasty hieroglyphic inscriptions in Ta-Sert.
• The Ta-Sert kings preceded Egypt’s first dynasty by about twelve generations.
• The 1879 Banyoro Caesarean operation witnessed by Felkin, noted for antiseptic technique historically two years after Lister’s era (Lister’s antisepsis developed around the 1860s–1870s; the text notes the Lister method as a recent development relative to 1879).
• 135 basic symbols in the Akan/Numidian-like script preserved on gold-weights and related objects.
• Approximate long-distance communication across the Nile by Nubians using a vocal trick across ~$2 ext{ miles}$ of water with a $45^ ext{o}$ setup.

Notable People and Terms to Remember

• Dr. Finch: Emphasizes that traditional African medicine integrates psychosocial and cultural nuances; traditional doctors can act as psychotherapists; use of suggestion, hypnosis, and placebo in treatment; psychosomatic illnesses acknowledged.
• Lister: Pioneer of antiseptic surgery in Europe; Africa’s Caesarean operation is noted to have used antiseptic techniques two years after Lister’s groundwork.
• Felkin: Documented Banyoro Caesarean operation in 1879.
• Ta-Sert: Early black kingdom with inscriptions foundational to hieroglyphic systems; predates Egypt’s early dynastic stage.
• Qustul: Site associated with Ta-Sert; key for inscriptions and symbols.
• Akan, Manding, Manding script, Afaka script (Suriname): Writing traditions and diaspora links; gold-weights as cultural encyclopedias; secrecy and syllabaries; pre-Arabic/Roman literacy among African societies.
• Bouah: Niangoran Bouah’s Sankofa, a study highlighting Akan gold-weights as a repository of ancient script.
• Winters: Clyde-Ahmad Winters (and associates) linking Manding script to broader African migrations and decipherment of Manding inscriptions.
• Erzel: Researcher who identified Afaka script in Suriname.

Summary Takeaways for Exam Preparation

• Africa contributed foundational writing systems, medical practices, and long-distance communication technologies that influenced or paralleled world developments.
• Oral traditions and written scripts coexisted, with literacy often restricted to specialized groups rather than a universal populace, mirroring global historical patterns.
• Traditional African medicine integrated psychosocial dimensions with physical treatment, illustrating an early, robust model of psychotherapy and placebo effects within medical practice.
• The discovery of Ta-Sert and Qustul’s inscriptions reframes assumptions about the origins of hieroglyphic writing, suggesting African roots for some symbols and organizational forms central to early Egyptian statehood.
• The Akan gold-weights and Afaka script demonstrate that writing and symbolic representation persisted in multiple African contexts and even extended to the African diaspora.
• Across centuries, African societies exhibited advanced surgical techniques, immunological understanding (early vaccination concepts), autopsy practices, and disease management strategies, with some techniques anticipated in Europe.
• The broader historical narrative should emphasize Africa as a center of innovation and scientific inquiry rather than a peripheral or static culture; this has implications for education, identity, and the philosophy of science.

Quick Reference Formulas and Dates (LaTeX-Formatted)

• Early Ta-Sert inscriptions: $3300 ext{ B.C.}$
• Ta-Sert predates Egypt’s first dynasty by $12$ generations (approximate dating context).
• Akan symbol set: $135$ basic symbols.
• Nubian long-distance voice transmission: distance ≈ $2 ext{ miles}$; angle = $45^ ext{o}$.
• Oued Mertoutek inscription: $3000 ext{ B.C.}$
• Lister’s antiseptic framework established around the late 1860s–1870s; Banyoro Caesarean observation: $1879$ (Lister-era methods discussed as preceding or informing this practice by about two years).

Connections to Broader Themes

• Precolonial scientific universes: Africa’s achievements in steel-making, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, and navigation place Africa at the center of a global history of science.
• Cross-cultural linkages: Script development, diaspora scripts (Afaka in Suriname), and the Manding’s movements illuminate trans-Atlantic and trans-Saharan connections.
• Critical historiography: The text challenges conventional narratives that minimize Africa’s scientific contributions, urging scholars to reassess and broaden evidence-based histories.