The Black Man, the Father of Civilization, Proven by Biblical History — John Shaqi
The Black Man, the Father of Civilization, Proven by Biblical HistoryWebb, James Morris
History
The Black Man, the Father of Civilization, Proven by Biblical History
Webb, James Morris
Black people in the Bible; Civilization, Ancient; Theological anthropology
Yes, the regeneration of Africa belongs to this new and powerful period!
By this term regeneration I wish to be understood to mean the entrance
into a new life, embracing the diverse phases of a higher, complex
existence. The basic factor which assures their regeneration resides in
the awakened race-consciousness. This gives them a clear perception of
their elemental needs and of their undeveloped powers. It therefore must
lead them to the attainment of that higher and advanced standard of life.
The African people, although not a strictly homogeneous race, possess a
common fundamental sentiment which is everywhere manifest, crystalizing
itself into one common controlling idea. Conflicts and strife are rapidly
disappearing before the fusing force of this enlightened perception of the
true intertribal relation, which relation should subsist among a people
with a common destiny. Agencies of a social, economic and religious
advance tell of a new spirit which, acting as a leavening ferment, shall
raise the anxious and aspiring mass to the level of their ancient glory.
The ancestral greatness, the unimpaired genius, and the recuperative power
of the race, its irrepressibility, which assures its permanence,
constitute the African's greatest source of inspiration. He has refused to
camp forever on the borders of the industrial world; having learned that
knowledge is power, he is educating his children. You find them in
Edinburgh, in Cambridge, and in the great schools of Germany. These return
to their country like arrows, to drive darkness from the land. I hold that
this industrial and educational initiative, and his untiring devotion to
these activities must be regarded as positive evidences of this process of
his regeneration.
The regeneration of Africa means that a new and unique civilization is
soon to be added to the world. The African is not a proletarian in the
world of science and art. He has precious creations of his own, of ivory,
of copper and of gold, fine, plaited willow-ware and weapons of superior
workmanship. Civilization resembles an organic being in its
development--it is born, it perishes, and it can propogate itself. More
particularly, it resembles a plant, it takes root in the teeming earth,
and when the seeds fall in other soils new varieties sprout up. The most
essential departure of this new civilization is that it shall be
thoroughly spiritual and humanistic--indeed a regeneration moral and
eternal!
O AFRICA!
Like some great century plant that shall bloom
In ages hence, we watch thee; in our dream
See in thy swamps the Prospero of our stream;
Thy doors unlocked, where knowledge in her tomb
Hath lain innumerable years in gloom.
Then shalt thou, waking with that morning gleam
Shine as thy sister lands with equal beam.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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