Why African Culture Matters: A Survival Toolkit

[@000amp1]

I certainly wish we had more educators like you in our institutions of higher learning. I lived in West Africa for almost 2 years and learned some of what you teach is this video. Please keep up the good work! So many of our people sorely need you!!

[@beccak9733]

We should be concerned with African American culture prior to colonization because it gives us insight into real raw history, not the type of history we learn in school today through a western European lens. it is important to know our roots and our history so that we can be a proud people and realize that we are not inferior although we came about and live differently than our counterparts. It is important for non African Americans to also know this history so they understand we are not inferior. Understanding why people act, grow, eat, pray, believe the way they do allows for dialogue and empathy to be passed between cultures more fluidly because there is a foundation of understanding. I really enjoyed this video! I look forward to watching the rest of them and participating in similar discussions. Thank you, be well.

[@cherylchild]

A lot of points never considered before. Look forward to more expansion on these ideas.

[@rotimiojo2882]

Well done brother for this! Do you have platform where Africans can meet and interact on transformative matters?

[@AfricanElements]

Thanks for watching! The only real platform I have is my classroom. My students have gone on to do some excellent work, though!

[@rotimiojo2882]

@@AfricanElements you're doing a great work sir! Please get me involve

[@JustMyExpressions]

Thanks for spreading this amazing, Information

[@LitanyInWhichCertain]

Thank you for the excellent video! Just so you know, the captions become unsynced from the audio at 9:22, and resync at 9:43.

[@AfricanElements]

Thank you for letting me know! Should be a fairly easy fix.

[@Charmelllee]

Theres a vast amount of Pyramids in North America which is actually originally a part of Africa before the Continental Drift...

[@AfricanElements]

Correct. However, given that the supercontinent of Pangaea began to break apart 200 million years before human beings even existed (much less pyramids), I'm not sure what the connection is there.

[@terridobson9799]

I like your channel; very informative!

[@AfricanElements]

Thank you for watching!

[@geridollison3632]

Would you say that oral transmission of information could be less accurate? Almost like playing telephone?

[@AfricanElements]

It can be, but it gets complicated. Generally speaking, closer to the source is more reliable, but whether written or oral, the source still has to be evaluated and written sources aren't automatically more reliable than oral accounts. It also depends on the claim that's being made. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

[@walidshabazz5193]

Good lecture Professor.

[@moriahproctor951]

I enjoyed watching, I do appreciate that it’s free however you should consider selling. Is there a way to contact you? Email?

[@AfricanElements]

Thanks! You can actually contact me through my web page, africanelements.org/contact. Let's talk!

[@AfricanElements]

... or [e-mail]

[@matthewleitch1]

Pyramids as devices for predicting the annual floods? That seems extremely unlikely. The pyramids are far larger and more expensive to create than necessary for that purpose. Also, a 'giant sundial' is a completely different device to one used for tracking days through the year.

[@AfricanElements]

Whether you find it unlikely is irrelevant. The fact is that's what they were used for. We have plenty of examples of using mountains (or people creating artificial mountains) as a method of tracking what time of year it is. The pyramids were basically artificial mountains.

[@AfricanElements]

...in fact, Aztec pyramids were used for the same purpose.

[@matthewleitch1]

@@AfricanElements How do you know this? What is your evidence? You need exceptional evidence because your claim is so unlikely, based on (1) the obvious point that a cheaper, quicker solution was available and (2) the fact that discoveries inside pyramids indicate they were used for burial. Just to expand on the point about costliness, there are 118 pyramids in Egypt. How many do you actually need for identifying the day of the year? With your theory you should at least be able to say exactly how the high object is used. How does the orientation of the base contribute to the measurement if it is the shadow of the vertex that you actually track? What advantage is there in having a very large object to throw the shadow? You would surely be counting days anyway, so is this more about working out how many days there are in a year.

[@matthewleitch1]

@@AfricanElements What makes you think this? And even if it was true for Aztec pyramids, how is that relevant to pyramids on the other side of the world?

[@AfricanElements]

Dude, I cited my source (Isler, Martin. Sticks, Stones, and Shadows : Building the Egyptian Pyramids . University of Oklahoma Press, 2001.) There are NUMEROUS other sources that corroborate this, so the claim is not nearly as exceptional as you think it is. As for the Aztec pyramids, (in this case a better example would have been Mayan pyramids, but the point still holds true - www.thomasmoretravel.com/blog/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-chichen-itza-equinox/ ). As for what it's relevant, I brought it up because you made the claim that it was "unlikely." My point is that it's NOT unlikely as there are NUMEROUS other examples of this throughout the world.

[@bulldogface8259]

Amazing

[@AfricanElements]

Thanks for watching!