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Asar Imhotep

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Asar Imhotep last won the day on September 13 2013

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  1. Greetings Everyone I am happy to announce that I will be releasing my book titled Aaluja: Rescue, Reinterpretation and the Restoration of Major Ancient Egyptian Themes on Tuesday September 24, 2013. I am currently taking pre-sale orders. The book will be shipped on that day directly from the publisher. The pre-sale price is $19.99 US dollars. After the 24th of September it will jump-back to $24.99, so get your order in early. For those who live outside of the U.S., shipping will have to be calculated on an individual basis. I thank you in advance for your support and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. The details of the book are below. Ancestrally, Asar Imhotep www.asarimhotep.com PRE-SALE LINK: http://asarimhotep.com/index.php/asar-market-center/product/35-aaluja-rescue-reinterpretation-and-the-restoration-of-major-egyptian-themes DESCRIPTION: Thoughtful and challenging, Aaluja: Rescue, Reinterpretation and the Restoration of Major Ancient Egyptian Themes Vol. I is a collection of essays which seek, in part, to situate current discourses concerning major Egyptian conceptual themes within their proper African contexts. Much of the reality as expressed in the ancient Egyptian writings has been distorted due, in part, to Eurocentric biases in interpreting the texts. Instead of drawing from the pool of shared African traditions from which emerged the Egyptian civilization, researchers have instead sought inspiration outside of Africa among a (yet to be discovered) mythical Hamito-Asiatic race as the bringers of civilization to Egypt (ciKam). Drawing from an array of modern African languages and cultures, Asar Imhotep illuminates the primary assumptions, principles and concepts upon which African culture(s) and world-view are structured. He then utilizes these characteristics—which are shared among the ancient Egyptians (rmT, luntu, lome)—to provide us with the necessary conceptual grounding for a critical reassessment and reinterpretation of the major concepts and ideas that gave Egypt its salience. Topics range from understanding the dynamics of the God Ra, the African origins of the word God, to reinterpreting the nature and function of the Ankh (anx, nkwa) symbol, to how “ropes” were used in ancient Egypt to convey the concepts of “knowledge” and “wisdom.” This stimulating book will be appreciated by students, scholars and general readers alike and is a major contribution to the fields of Egyptology and Africology. TABLE OF CONTENTS: Dedication Linguistic Abbreviations Preface Introduction Chapter 1: Did the God Ra Derive from Arabia? An examination of Wesley Muhammad’s claim in Black Arabia and the African Origin of Islam Chapter 2: Did the God Ra Derive from Arabia? An examination of Wesley Muhammad’s claim in Black Arabia and the African Origin of Islam Part II: Allah the sky god Chapter 3.1: African Origins of the Word God Chapter 3.2: African Origins of the Word God, ADDENDUM Chapter 4: Understanding àṣẹ and its relation to Èṣú among the Yorùbá and Aset in Ancient Egypt Chapter 5: Reinterpretations of the Ankh symbol: Emblem of a Master Teacher Chapter 6: Reinterpretations of the Ankh Symbol Part II Chapter 7: Towards a Better Understanding of HOTEP (Htp) in the Ancient Egyptian Language Chapter 8: Tying knotty ropes as a way of knowing in Ancient Egyptian Appendix A: The Complexity of Meaning Appendix B: The Sounds of Ciluba Bibliography Index
  2. I think it is very important to remember that he was murdered simply because he wanted to improve the lives of Black people. If anything, this should be a reminder of the risk of being a Black leader and why there are so few today: because they fear being assassinated. I say press on and understand that to be a leader is to risk your life for the advancement of the people. I take that lesson in everyday and his memory and legacy will not be distorted while I'm around.
  3. Nope, I don't think we're smart enough. I mean, we think being homeless is something that's normal and should be tolerated in a society. We act as if it is an inevitable consequence...just don't be like them.
  4. Introduction Shakespeare once asked, “What is in a name?” The answer to this age-old question depends on the particular culture from which it is framed: among many African cultures a name tells a lot about the individual that it signifies, the language from which it is drawn, and the society that ascribes it. A name may indicate the linguistic structures and phonological processes found in the language, the position of the name’s bearer in society, and the collective history and life experiences of the people surrounding the individual. African cultures have various ways of naming a child, ranging from the Akan naming system based on days of the week to the Egyptian more cosmic one. Slavery,colonialism, and globalization have all contributed to the exportation of the African systems of naming into the African Diaspora. Among the various endeavors that African slaves made in becoming African American in culture, orientation was the culture of resistance involving the process of renaming themselves, constantly reverting back to their African cultural forms, such as spirituality, burial rites, and naming for inspiration and guidance, and thus reasserting themselves and reaffirming their humanity in a hostile world. Through re-naming themselves, African Americans have continued the process of cultural identity formulations and re-claiming of their complex African roots in the continuing process of redefining themselves and dismantling the paradigm that kept them mentally chained for centuries. How has the African naming system been retained and modified in the African Diaspora, and how has it adapted to the black experience in the Americas? More specifically, what influence have African languages exerted on the American naming system in the United States of America? What are the historical and cultural traits and origins of African language practice that can be said to motivate or influence contemporary African and African American cultural reality? How does a name contribute to discourse and interlocution in the African and African American societies? These are some of the questions we will discuss in this paper. What are Africanisms in American and other diasporic cultures, and how were they introduced into the New World? Joseph Holloway defines Africanisms as “those elements of culture found in the New World that are traceable to an African origin” (1990:ix). As part of their politico-cultural struggles, African Americans have endeavored to construct their identities partly by reclaiming those features that speak to their African heritage. In recent years perhaps the most pronounced form of claiming African identity has been the adoption of African names by people of African-American descent. Thus through the naming system African Americans are re-claiming their complex African roots in the continuing process of redefining themselves and dismantling the paradigm that kept them mentally chained for centuries. The purpose of this study of Africanisms is not only to help confirm the survival of African traditions in America, but also reveal the presence of a distinct African American cultural enclave in the United States...... Full Source Text: http://www.lingref.com/cpp/acal/35/paper1301.pdf
  5. You are another I will refrain from further comment on the subject, for I don't know of any "Dr." who would in public call Africa a "country" and not a "continent." If you can't get geography 101, then I know for a fact linguistics is out of your league. Secondly, if you knew ANYTHING about the Nation of Islam you'd know they have a problem with ALL European names. European names to them are "weird" sounding names. Again, this is Black History 101 as why they change their names to "X." Did you even bother to read the Autobiography of Malcolm X? Don't answer that. Thirdly, and I wonder if you have EVER opened up a book about Black people, let alone the Harlem Renaissance. Let's take the biggest name of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes, and lets what the core of his being lied. http://www.nathanielturner.com/langstonhughesandafrica.htm John Coltrane took off to study spirituality across the world, especially AFRICAN SPIRITUALITY and come out with A LOVE SUPREME. This is why the church named after him is called the SAINT JOHN COLTRANE AFRICAN ORTHODOX CHURCH. From Wikepedia: Have you even read Walter Mosley's "47"? Have you read Carter G. Woodson's "The Negro in Our History?" Did you read the first chapter, "The Negro in Africa?" If you have, would you be arguing that he's some crazy "Afro-Centrist?" I think if he was alive he'd be arguing with you as well wondering what planet did you step off of. Especially when Dr. Woodson asks critical research questions like this ...And that's on the very first page. Carter G Woodson is beginning to address the question of continuity vs incontinuity brought up by E. Franklin Frazier, which Joseph Halloway and others put to rest in Africanisms in American Culture (2005), in regards to the retaining of African cultural elements, or is everything we do some new innovation from the states: the same argument we are having now. Dr. Woodson had to school historians of his day who didn't know jack about Africa, but attempted to contribute to a conversation from which they had no data: just like "Dr" Stinky Onion (Chicago). I could go on, but I don't toss pearls among swine. You evoked these names and more and because you didn't actually study them, didn't know that they too, like the African-Centered scholars, drew from Africa to create some of their greatest works we all know and love today. Because of your incompetence and total disregard for the proper study of my people, please refrain from commenting back to this post as it is clear you are talking out of the side of your rectum. I only debate my equals, all others I teach. You as well can have the last word. I'm through with you.
  6. I will refrain from responding to this nonsensical banter as you obviously don't know who I am or what I advocate in regards to African-Americans "now." So until you do what this website advocates and read a book, then please refrain from commenting about things you do not know. The last comment demonstrates for me that you might not be all that smart. For if I came from a "tribe" that sold his ancestors into slavery, if you are "Black" 9/10 so would you be. But I'll let you struggle with that one on your own. Cognitive dissonance is a disease I don't have a cure for. You can have the last word.
  7. Recent discussion in regards to African-Americans having the agency to define themselves is something near and dear to me and has been focus of my research for several years now. Not to seem self-promoting, but my latest book The Bakala of North America: The Living Suns of Vitality speaks to this very notion. I have provided a sample chapter (Appendix for the community to read in regards to this ancient African concept of Simultaneous Validity that speaks of the divine right for man to define himself in relation to the challenges of his environment. I think that if we understand this philosophy that has sustained humanity for over 4.2 million years, I think we can better appreciate who we are and encourage others to expand and contribute to the forward flow of history and not simply be pawns in someone else's game. Here is the link: http://www.asarimhotep.com/documentdownloads/samplechapter_appendixb.pdf
  8. Peace and blessings. I appreciate it greatly and thanks for creating such a forum where we can dialogue and better understand and validate ourselves.

  9. Dr. Noble’s definition is based on over 30 years of research into the subject. This has nothing to do with pride but on exactly what I said in my first statement. Your reply is a pseudo reactionary response on something that you have not studied based on your quoted statement. I don’t aim to debate this point which is humanities 101. All human agminations (clusters, populations, groups), as a very fundamental human right, has the right to define themselves as they see fit in response to the challenges of their environment. In Amazulu thought we call this SIMULTANEOUS VALIDTY. This is the notion that all human population’s self definitions are simultaneously valid, legitimate and important like any other people on earth. The argument you are making is from the perspective of someone who has little to no self-worth; someone who has wholly adopted the European devaluation of the human being. If you did not, then you would see the importance and value of the expressions and world-view of Black people in America. Also, by your concept of what Afrocentrism is, you obviously have not read any literature by African-Centered scholars. If you did you’d know how to properly define Afrocentricity. What you just spouted is something you made up. Afrocentricity is a methodology that re-locates, re-orientates African/Black people in history as agents/subjects of their own history and perspectives and not objects, something insignificant to the forward flow of human progress. Afrocentricity as a workable, viable social theorem has been alive and well before African people were drug to these shores. As a viable framework and method of analysis of texts written about African people across the world, it really has its footing in the 1950’s with Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop and solidified itself in the late 60’s, early 70’s with Molefi Kete Asante. So this notion that it is a “fad” and will “never” find a place in “Babylon” is hogwash as it is older than probably most people on this forum.
  10. I have to respectfully disagree here based on my own research into African naming conventions and how these methods, although full meaning has been lost, has been retained in African-American "culture" (if we can name it that). This is why I recommended the book Africanisms in American Culture by Dr. Joseph Holloway. There are several articles which explain the phenomenon in detail which is too great to address here. In the list provided above there is a name for a female as AMANI. That is not an attempt at an "African-Sounding" name: it is African. AMANI derives from IMANI, MWENE, MANI (MANA) which refers to the divine (God) and human beings (the spirit of man). It is where we actually get the term MAN from which survived in Indo-European. Europe lost the meaning of GOD/DIVINE in relation to the name. But they still kept the an association in a variant of the term ANIMUS which means SPIRIT. It is the same root for ANIMAL. In linguistics we call the switching of phonemes "metathesis." Here the MA and NI have been switched. The root of MANI/IMANI/AMANI is -NI- which means SPIRIT/MAN/DIVINE. MA- is a Niger-Congo class prefix which denotes a human noun class. In reality it is a word which denotes INTELLIGENCE. Thus why it is associated with humans, the Divine and ancestors: because what separates them from rocks, trees, clouds, etc., is its capacity to think (although a lot of humans refuse to use this capacity to the fullest). So AMANI (MAN) is an INTELLIGENT BEING/SPIRIT. If we didn't tap back into the African cultural philosophy that spawned many of the concepts we hold dear, we would forever be in darkness to the words we use. MAN in the European tradition simply refers to a physical body in contrast to inanimate things. This was/is not the understanding of the mothers and fathers of humanity. A human being is an intelligent force of the cosmos having a human experience. There is nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to "African-sounding" names. There is no intelligence deficiency. There are many practices AA's do that if they would just study their history will understand why they do what they do and why they shouldn't be ashamed of it. A student of African history will understand why LAKISHA is not just some "made-up" name, but a name that derives from the ancestral memory of the people (AKWANSHI/KUSH). I know many LaKisha's in high places, even in education, who have no problems navigating based on their name. As I mentioned in my book, and as someone has echoed in this thread, Barack HUSSEIN Obama is president of the United States, the highest office with a "weird" sounding name. That baseless argument is no excuse anymore. What I find as antiquated Negroism (coonery) is Black folks who don't know their history trying to sound intelligent and whose arguments can't hold up to scrutiny because they are baseless and are only used to cover one's desire to be something they can never be: a White man.
  11. At the core of this debate is whether or not African-Americans have the right to define themselves like all other people on the face of the earth; or are we somehow not qualified for this basic human benefit? When you say a name sound strange, who does it sound strange to? It would only sound "strange" to a European. African names don't sound strange to Africans. European names sound "strange" to Africans. These are relative arguments. This is only a debate because we have Black folks who think that White people's ice water is colder than theirs. Only someone who hates himself, doesn't know his history and thinks that white culture and values are the "norm" or standard in which all other people should be waged, would even entertain such stupidity as this. Dr. Wade Nobles defines power as, "The ability to define reality and to have everyone respond to your definition as if it were their own." By some of the comments in this discussion, we obviously are not dealing with people who believe they are sovereign and have power. I don't mesh well with people who think they are powerless.
  12. The real question is are you an action type person or a "reaction" type person? Type people? Who cares what society thinks. Society once thought that Blacks should ride the back of the bus. But we, being us with no apologies, changed the circumstances by forcing the world to recognize our world-view. It is statements like these that renders most Black people, with a Eurocentric mindset, impotent in making history and contributing to the forward flow of history. Everything they do, every thought they think is a reactionary one. What would white folks say? Most Blacks claim they believe in God but statements like this keeps reinforcing for me that they (Black folk) are full of hot air. For if one does believe in God, and that we are made in the likeness of his/her/its image, and that we have a fraction of the power that is the Creator, then trivial things like the White man won't approve our names would be of no consequence and asinine. It's time Black people stop being scared of who they are and how they "be." When you take ownership of the great gifts that make your community the emulation of the world, then you command the respect that other people in the world get who don't give a rats ass about "society" (code word for the white man) thinks; but embraces who they are and thrives because they have a rich ethnic consciousness and uses that consciousness to surpass Blacks in this country (Latinos, Indians, Jews, Chinese, Japanese, etc.). Black people still haven't learned that it is by your culture that you get ahead as a people, not by emulating the white man. Here are a few African proverbs quoted in my The Bakala of North America: The Living Suns of Vitality pg7,8: The Bird does not think that his own nest is shabby - Waswahili If nobody praises one, one must praise oneself - Edo One's buttocks, even if skinny, serves as a seat - Oromo A man's greatness and respect comes from himself - Waswahili Every bird flies with its own wings - Waswahili When a snake or some other animal leaps out of the forest, you throw at it whatever is in your hand - Bambara
  13. I have no problems navigating the world with the name Asar Imhotep. The Yoruba variant is ISALE MODUPE. When you know and own your name with no apologies and strut it boldly you don't have issues. And if there is, as a linguist, I can check em where they stand in regards to what they think they know about language, names and history etc. It seems like the majority of the responses on this thread comes from people who sound like they come from small country towns and never interacted as a youth with people from various cultures. It's funny how some people associate having a good "English" name is to be honored but don't understand a lot of these names are mispronunciations of African names. I will be glad when Black people actually turn off the tv and read books about their history and language so we can stop embarrassing ourselves in public thinking we're intelligent by denying who we are, when who they are trying to be is trying to be like us. ...
  14. Hmmm, funny at Dr. Chicago. Chicago is a mispronunciation of the Algoquian language word shikaakwa which means "Stinky Onion" and you have the nerve to talk about Black names? And it amazes me that people who think they are smart and learned know nothing about African history, linguistics, language contact and African-American Vernacular English [AAVE](what I call KiKala). If you did, then you'd know why your statement is inaccurate and a folk belief according to linguists. One does not have to be "aware" of customs to practice them. Most Christians don't know (or care to know) that JESUS is a Yoruba "deity" by the name of ESU. In the Akan language it is AYESHU. In ancient Egyptian it is simply SHU. In Hebrew we have YESHUA. 99% of Christians don't know that the Angel GABGRIEL is another Yoruba deity by the name ELEGBARA. EL- is Cannanite for "God" and GEBRE means "servant" or "messenger." In Yoruba EL-EGBARA is a variant. The Europeans try to make him the devil because he's an African "deity" but try to make the same deity in Hebrew an "angel." All this to say is that when African-Americans make silly arguments concerning what they perceive to be negative among their people only demonstrates how ignorant they are and how ashamed they are to be Black. It's funny how ancient Romans, Greeks, Hebrews, etc., break their necks to try and be like the Africans, yet African-Americans run like hell from their own culture and demonize it. And I personally know people with "black sounding names" who are doing very well in corporate America. I'm just wondering if Chicago has evolved yet based on your statements.
  15. No disrespect, but this topic reeks of absurdity to one who actually knows and appreciates the dynamics and richness of one's history. I wonder if Xeon is actually a European in Blackface. For the general community I recommend the book Africanisms in American Culture by Joseph Holloway. There are many essays which address the African-American naming convention and linguists assert it is a carry over of Niger-Congo (a language family) linguistic traits into American version of English. This isn't "weird" or "unintelligent" speech; but in fact the retaining of old African naming conventions and styles that have survived and even mutated in English via the Indo-European language family. Most people forget that cities are named after PEOPLE. So to name someone after a city is no different than naming your child after your grandmother: it's still the name of a person. A lot of times people think AA's are mispronouncing English words when in fact they are African. For instance, MASSA is not a mispronunciation of MASTER. It is a Mande (Mandingo) word MASA which means CHIEF (or anyone in authority under the chief). The so-called made up names adhere to a convention that purposely distinguishes it from Anglo saxon names. This isn't a "travesty" but a clear and conscious effort for identification after one's identity has been stripped due to enslavement. Not all Black people are of the ignorant notion that European names are better "sounding" than "Black" names. A matter of fact, when one does a comparative analysis of African and Indo-European languages, one will come to find out that a large number of English, Latin and Greek terms are in fact African (see writings from Catherine Acholonu, Chiekh Anta Diop, Mubinge Bilolo, GJK Campbell-Dunn, Theophile Obenga, etc.). So if these terms originate from Black people and they transposed it under European tongues, which one "sounds" more absurd? The imitator or the originator? The majority of European names are "made-up" and have lost or have no meaning. A lot of them are the result of folk etymology. At some point in history all names are "made-up." I can guarantee that you don't know what the name America means but you will still call yourself an American! America comes from Ameriggo and has no meaning which Mr. Vespucci made-up. But Europeans somehow get a pass for their "travesties" but among the Bakala (African-Americans) this is somehow a sin. Only Black people hate their culture....I wonder why?
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