With all due respects Filho and Feliziano, The intent of the slogan is not to be literally taken in the political context as a Marcus Garvey call to return but in a sense which speaks to a cultural heritage ; one in which we share common ancestral traditions . Literally not all nationals from TNT would ascribe to Africa as a homeland. Many are ethnically fused to many cultures from which they could extrapolate some links.
The slogan is meant to generate some focus ; some direction; some emphasis on our football future. But instead leave in to we to create a bachannal and to find fault in the positive. Why we so? just put up a flipping slogan if yuh eh like what come up instead of trying to beark up a man's thunder.
One Groups Opinion
KON-KON-TE CULTURAL GROUP
EXPLORATION OF BLACK AFRICA'S HISTORY
Kon-kon-te is committed to the restoration of Black History to its rightful place. We might lack the ability to excavate that evidence that lies deep within the bowels of mother earth; however, while others dig, we will spread.
One of our speciality is Quadrille Dancing. This is just one way to maintain balance between the subjective and objective Being. It also sustains memories of our ancestors who used quadrille as an instrument of resistance, and spiritual up-liftment. They did what was necessary to remove physical shackles. Now, it is up to us to do what is necessary to remove mental shackles, and to cultivate the mind.
Starting from the premise that Black History is Africa's history; and that Black People, everywhere, are the descendants of Mother Africa; we want to retrace the steps of those great black men and women who took Culture to its greatest heights.
History should tell us about the past, prepare us to deal with the present, and guide us through the future. Unfortunately, for millions of us, it did not work this way. Inferior images, and derogatory statements are far too common, for one to develop anything but a negative perception, about Africa.
Mention black history, and the first thoughts that sprang to mind were: slavery, colonialism, rebellion, war, disaster, or missionaries risking their lives to take Christianity to savages. Yet, there was something suggesting that these are all distorted versions of reality.
This land Africa: nearest to the point where the earth's horizontal center line crosses its vertical center line; the Tropics of Cancer and of Capricorn passes through, with hundreds of miles south of Capricorn, and north of Cancer; that has the largest land mass within the tropics. The only continent that spans two sides of the Meridian Line; and two sides of the Equator Yet, any thought of associating it with excellence is inconceivable? That is...until scientists began to produce startling evidence that sends shivers down the spine of the scientific world.
This did not come about without some resistance! Richard Leaky wrote about the vehemence of anthropologists' anti-African sentiment.
"In 1931 when my father told his intellectual mentors at Cambridge University that he had planned to search for human origins in East Africa, he came under great pressure to concentrate his attention on Asia instead. He ignored the advice of the Cambridge scholars and went on to establish East Africa as a vital region in the history of our early evolution." (The Origin of Humankind, Pp. 2-3, by Richard Leaky, 1994)
In October of 1999, Kon-kon-te Cultural Group embarked on mission to seek out the truth about the origin of: Humankind, Culture, and Civilization.
ORIGIN OF HUMANKIND.
The Paeleanthropologist Chris Stringer told us, in a live lecture, and in his book African Exodus, that:
While this subject is still being hotly debated by some scientists, other scientists are finding a wealth of evidence that points to the place where human life began.
Three very important developments have taken place in the scientific world that enables scientists to look further into the distant past:
The arrival of radiocarbon dating. This is a technique that archaeologists use to obtain an estimate of the age of plants, animal, and human remains. This technique is only effective with remains less than 40,000 years old.
The development of electron spin resonance, uranium-series, and two forms of luminescence dating. These techniques enable scientists to determine dates as far back as prehistoric times.
The discovery of the mitochondrial DNA. This is a special type of genetic material that scientists can use to study the relatedness of the world's dispersed peoples.
In 1993, at Aramis, in Ethiopia, an international team of researchers uncovered more than forty fragments of several primitive individuals with both human and ape-like features that lived about 4.5 million years ago.
The first real human, a member of the genus Homo appeared in Africa about 2.3 million years ago. It was named Homo habalis.
In 1967 a team of archaeologists, led by Richard Leaky, unearth a human fossil from the banks of the River Kibish in Ethiopia. He lived around 130,000 years ago. He was a member of our own spices, Homo sapiens.
About 150,000 years ago, a 60,000-year-old cold snap was peaking. Ice caps sprawled across the poles, bringing cooler, drier conditions to the rest of the planet. Central Africa's dense tropical forests and grasslands would have provided homes for humans. Then about 130,000 years ago the climate switched back briefly into a warmer, moister mode, a situation that probably led to prototype modern humans' first tentative steps out of Africa into the Middle East 120,000 years ago and further into Asia by 80,000 years ago.
These were the first unequivocal representatives of Homo Sapiens and they must have evolved in Africa's hinterland between 130,000 to 200,000 years ago. They spread, and by 100,000 years ago had established themselves in terrain stretching from Southern Africa to present-day Ethiopia and the Levant. Their place of origin are unsure. Their remains, and evidence of their behaviour, is sparse, although pointing to East Africa as their land of origin.
In 1987, biologists, in California performed tests on the mitochondrial DNA of various races of mankind made the following discoveries:
Very few mutational differences exist between the mitochondrial DNA of human beings.
The researchers put their data in a computer and asked it to produce the most likely set of linkages between the different people, graded according to the similarity of their mitochondrial DNA, it created a tree with two main branches. One consisted solely of Africans. The other contained the remaining people of African origin, and everyone else in the world.
African people had slightly more mitochondrial DNA mutations compared to non-Africans, implying their roots are a little older.
In total, these results seemed to provide overwhelming support for the idea that mankind arose in Africa, and, according to the researchers' data, very recently. Their arithmetic placed the common ancestor as living between 142,500 and 285,000 years ago, probably about 200,000 years ago. These figures show that the appearance of modern forms of Homo sapiens occurred first in Africa around this time and that all present day humans are descendants of that African population.
Ancient Africans after living in cold climates for thousand of years adjust their features to suit the climate, but beneath that exterior, there is just one race. The human race! (African Exodus, Chris Stringer & Robin McKie, 1997) These are convincing evidence, but not enough to satisfy our quest for the truth. Therefore the search continued.
Human fossil remains unearth by scientists, enabled them to compile a dossier on the different evolutionary stages of mankind. (The Reader's Digest Library of Modern Knowledge 1979)
Ramapithecus12-14 million years ago
Australopithecus Homo habillis1-5 million years ago
Homo erectus800,000 years ago
Early Homo sapiens250,000 years ago
Homo sapiens Neanderthal man70,000 years ago
Homo sapiens sapiens or Modern man35,000 years ago
The first early human fossil in East Africa was found by, anthropologist, Mary Leakey, in August 1959. It is named Zinjanthropus Boisei, and was determined to have lived 1.75 million years ago. (The Origin of Humankind, Richard Leaky 1994)
Dr. Yosef A. A. ben-jochannan, has given us a long list of human fossil remains that were found all over the continent of Africa. They represent the oldest remains to be found anywhere. Among them are skulls of 55,000 to 60,000 years old, unearthed in Kenya, that have the likeness of 20th century man. (Africa Mother of Western Civilization, 1988)
Cheikh Anta Diop informs us that skulls found in southern Africa shows that Negroid Homo sapiens sapiens lived in southern Africa between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago. (Civilization Or Barbarism, 1991)
Dr. Eric Higgs of Cambridge University has made a study of the migrations of ancient men, and claims that the first man of Europe came to that continent from central and east Africa about 250,000 years ago.
Professor Chester Chard, of the University of Wisconsin, has studied the routes of early men who left Africa to colonize the rest of the world. He has concluded that there were four prehistoric migration routes from Africa to Europe. (Introduction to African Civilization, p 50, J. G. Jackson)
King James' version of the bible states; "In the beginning God made one man, Adam, and one woman Eve." Genesis 2, 8: "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed." Genesis 2, 10: "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted and became into four heads." Verse 13: "And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia."
