The widely accessible research to support connections from Asia to Africa are immediately linked to African slaves. “Movement of Africans to South Asia was fuelled by the slave trade. An estimated 12.5 million Africans were moved across the Sahara, Red Sea and the Indian Ocean to unfamiliar lands where they were re-rooted. But this movement was over a millennium, from 900 AD to 1900 AD” or “A few present-day populations in South Asia, including the Siddis from western India and the Makranis from Pakistan, are considered to descend from African slaves.” The scientific research to support connections from Africa to Asia shows up as convoluted and an offshoot of a debated ‘Out of Africa’ theory which is that Homo sapiens developed first in Africa and then spread around the world between 100 and 200,000 years ago, superseding all other hominid species. The implication of this argument is that all modern people are ultimately of African descent. The articles that support this are offset with jarring imagery and portrayals of Neanderthals as well as evolution involving animals. The simplified version that explains an hypothesis of connection of South Asian and African genetics that pre-date African slaves is from The National Library of Medicine, “the most reasonable scenario for the peopling of South Asia is an Upper Paleolithic event (i.e., the major expansion of modern humans out of Africa through the Levant [Lahr and Foley 1994]), from which the current Indian gene pool is derived.” Still, it is concluded that there is not convincing genetic evidence that supports this. In conclusion, for now…is what unites South Asian & African genetically is, slavery? Keep researching.
Black History 365 | # 172 Marcellus Williams
Marcellus Williams, whose murder conviction was questioned by a prosecutor, died by lethal injection September 24, 2024 in Missouri after the US Supreme Court denied a stay. Williams’ attorneys had filed a flurry of appeal efforts based on what they described as new evidence – including alleged bias in jury selection and contamination of the murder weapon prior to trial. The victim’s family had asked the inmate be spared death. The St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, which handled the trial against Williams, argued in the motion that DNA testing of the knife used in the killing might suggest Williams was not Gayle’s killer. Missouri executed Marcellus Williams despite prosecutors and the victim’s family asking that he be spared.
Black History 365 | # 171 The Maniq People of Thailand
The Mani, also known as the Maniq or Sakai, are an ethnic minority group in southern Thailand, inhabiting the Bathat mountain area in Trang, Phatthalung, Satun, Songkhla, Yala, and Narathiwat provinces. They are the first ethnic group from Africa to migrate to Asia, from South India to Southeast Asia. The Mani are indigenous mobile hunter-gatherers who have lived in isolated forest areas at the foot of the Bathat mountains for centuries. Their communities spread across the forest, comprising around 25–35 presumably related people. They live in makeshift camps built out of wood, called ‘Ha Ya,’ with women and young children usually spending most of their time in these camps while the men are occupied with daily hunting and gathering activities. This article in the 14th volume of Genome Biology and Evolution unveils the genetic history of the Maniq people in great detail.
Black History 365 | # 170 The African Origins of Surfing
The first known account of surfing was written during the 1640s in what is now Ghana. Surfing was independently developed from Senegal to Angola. Africa possesses thousands of miles of warm, surf-filled waters and populations of strong swimmers and sea-going fishermen and merchants who knew surf patterns and crewed surf-canoes capable of catching and riding waves upwards of ten feet high. Popular histories of surfing tell us that Polynesians were the only people to develop surfing, that the first account of surfing was written in Hawai‘i in 1778 and that Bruce Brown, Robert August and Mike Hynson introduced surfing into West Africa. All these claims are incorrect. This is according to Surfing.com by way of University of California history professor Kevin Dawson who writes about longstanding connection between African people and the ocean in Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora.
Black History 365 | # 169 Benjamin O. Davis Jr.
The story of the Tuskegee Airmen is linked directly to the life and career of Benjamin O. Davis Jr. The son of an Army general and a 1936 graduate of West Point, Davis was a member of the first class of five cadets to earn their wings at Tuskegee. He was selected to lead the new 99th Pursuit Squadron, the Army Air Corps’ first all-black air unit. He was the first for a lot of things. He was the first Black military officer to attend any War College, graduating from the Air War College in 1950. After serving at the Pentagon for two years, the Air Force placed Davis in charge of a fighter wing stationed in South Korea. He was the first Black commander of an integrated fighter wing and proved that white pilots and officers could respect and take orders from a Black officer. After his success in Korea, Davis was promoted to brigadier general, making him the first Black general in the Air Force. Peace > War. But we can’t deny this major piece of Black history in America. Respect and thank you for your service.