The Egyptian Moorish & African American Connection EXPLAINED | Hidden History - Mauryell Smith El

Empires rise and fall, but their ideas, songs, and symbols don’t vanish—they travel. We follow that movement across millennia: from predynastic Egypt’s ties to the Maghreb and the Levant, through Libyan pharaohs and Hyksos rulers, to the syncretic pantheon that linked Neith, Tanit, and Athena. Along the way, Greek thinkers studied in Egyptian temples, and their learning flowed back through Alexandria, across Arabic translation circles, and into both Europe and West Africa.

We map the desert not as a barrier but as a highway. Pre‑Islamic caravans shaped Trans‑Saharan routes that Islam later unified, connecting Morocco, Fez, and Al‑Andalus to Ghana, Mali, and Songhai. Timbuktu’s libraries held Aristotelian logic beside Quranic law, proof that the intellectual current from Egypt and Greece reached the Western Sudan. In the forest belt, Mande, Jula, Hausa, and Fulani traders built zongos where Arabic literacy, commerce, and protective amulets mingled with Akan and Yoruba worlds. We also surface a lesser‑told thread: Sephardic Jewish merchants operating between Iberia, Angola, and Guinea, weaving yet another strand into the Atlantic economy.

The story crosses the ocean with people who were never blank slates. Rice cultivation expertise from the Upper Niger made Carolina rice boom. Indigo and ironworking skills took root in the Americas. A significant share of captives were Muslims who preserved prayer, writing, and amulets under bondage; their vocal style echoes in field hollers and early blues, while the West African grigri becomes the hoodoo mojo bag. Layer in Congo‑derived spirit work and maroon resistance, and a mosaic appears: African American culture as a living archive of Egypt, Moors, and West Africa.

If this lineage reframes what you thought you knew, hit follow, share with a friend, and leave a review telling us which connection surprised you most. Your support helps more listeners discover the deep roots behind the music, faith, and memory we carry today.

Transcript

Opening And Show Intro

SPEAKER_04 0:10

What's going on, everybody? Up there is Rob Brown LMT, the People's Fitness Professional. We are building today on the Egyptian, Moorish, and African American connection explained. Um, before we go into this, let's run the commercial, and we will be right back. You know how we do hold on with the Peace Family.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Welcome to NYP Talk Show. This is more than a podcast. It's a content platform rooted in truth and culture. From the 5% nation, native physical, forest movement, and face to risk. Our fifty is the weekend characteristics, and fixed, storage, and fixed. Donations on FCS. GoFundTh, Patreon, or FunScraft. And directly our official merch. Available on our website and right here on YouTube's merch shelf. Every dollar, every super chat, every hoodie builds the movement. This is NYP Talk Show.

Framing The Egypt–Moors–African American Thesis

SPEAKER_04 1:20

All right, we're back, we're back, we're back, we're back. Thank you guys for viewing. People in the chat, uh, and people on the audio, the audio, the audio, the audio. We are in the building. We're talking about the Egyptian and the Egyptian, Moorish, and African American connection. We're brother Moriel Smith L. Um, I call him the young phenom. Uh, look out for this brother. He's uh 28 years old, dropping fire, dropping fire. Let's build on it, brother. So, uh, how you doing this evening?

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Man, I'm doing good, brother. If you will allow me to, I want to give my uh praises and honors. Giving praise to Allah, honors to his prophet, honors to the first Supreme Grand Sheikh of the Morris Science Temple, brother Edward Miliel, to the present Supreme Grand Sheik, brother Keith Dandershale, and honors to my wife, who makes these interviews possible by watching our two and one year old. So I just want to give a shout out to my wife, uh, because without her, I wouldn't be able to do these interviews.

SPEAKER_04 2:22

So shout out to shout out to the wife even now. Uh, brother, we're talking about the Egyptian Moorish connection, uh, and African-American connection. I'm trying to I want to see how you can tie this all in. Um, can we can we build on um uh first off, let's start off with ancient Egypt and the Moorish connection.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Yeah, so I want to give like a brief overview of everything so that you know if we like you know press for time towards the end, people will know where I'm taking it. So, first things first, uh, when we look at the Moorish Egyptian connection, this goes back uh pre-dynastic. So we're gonna we're gonna first look at the pre-dynastic Egypt connections to North Africa as well as the Levant area, and then we're gonna go through to where between pre-dynastic Egypt up until what we call the Middle Kingdom, or right after the Middle Kingdom, we're gonna look at these people called the Hyksos and the Hyksos, right? People, yes, our group of people who came from who actually called Emorites, which is one of the tribes that the prophet lays out in the circle seven. Um, they come from areas like uh Syria, places like that, modern-day Syria, places like that. Right, right. They became pharaohs of Egypt. We're gonna also talk about the Libyan pharaohs, right? So people that again west of Egypt that became pharaohs of Egypt. We're gonna also look at how um Libyan, ancient Egyptian, and Carthaginian gods have been syncretized, and then we're gonna look into how Egypt influenced um Greek philosophy, and then we're gonna look into how um after Cleopatra, uh Cleopatra and Mark Anthony committed their suicide. We're gonna look at how Cleopatra and Mark Anthony's daughter, Cleopatra Celine, married the king of Mauritania, King Juba II, and then we're gonna get into from there, probably get into some uh pre-Islamic Trans-Saharan trade networks in West Africa, linking North and West Africa together, and then we're gonna move into Islam and look at the golden age and actually have a lot of Muslims, right, at the time where um the early Umayyad dynasty, Abbasid dynasty, where you know the early Muslims were um you know putting out uh knowledge in all fields of human inquiry, and what they did was translate a lot of old Greek literature, which comes from Egyptian philosophy, into Arabic, which then got passed on to the Christians um later. And then we're gonna look at how also these networks, the Trans the Hammer network, after this Islam has been produced, actually uh brought Muslims as far south as northern Ghana, northern Benin, uh Togo, um Ivory Coast, Nigeria, etc. And these ethnic groups make up the ethnic groups that were then um trafficked to through the transatlantic slave trade to the Americas, and then we're gonna look at how when these ethnic groups came to the Americas, how did they start to syncretise religions into Hoodoo, Kendobla, Santa Maria, all these different things, and then look at the Islamic influence on the culture today out of that?

SPEAKER_04 5:54

Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Sounds like a uh pretty clear stream.

SPEAKER_04 6:00

Oh, indeed, indeed. Peace and love, peace and love to A B the Light, my brother, always under check and supporting from day one when we had what? Yo, uh uh uh Ben, are you still on? Were you with us when uh we had what 200 followers or something like that? Subscribers still rocking with us, man. That's peace, brother. Hold on, let me see.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Can you see my screen?

SPEAKER_04 6:31

Yes, sir. Okay, all right, yeah, yeah. Ben, you were with us was was rocking with us back when we had like 200 subs. Word, man, that's crazy, man. I really appreciate you, brother. Um, oh yeah, this is thorough. Okay.

Predynastic Links With North Africa And The Levant

SPEAKER_01 6:50

So let's get into it. So from ancient Egypt to more civilization, trace the connections to African American heritage. So, first things first, understand the ancient Egypt's early links to the Maghreb, the Levant, right, and parts of Arabia. So, what this blurred with this paragraph is going to talk about is how the um the DNA of the early elite of pre-dynastic Egypt is very similar to the rest of North Africa in the Fertile Crescent, which is you know part of uh the land of Canaan. So it says, even in pre-dynastic times, ancient Egypt did not develop in isolation. Modern research reveals genetic and cultural ties between early Egyptians and neighboring regions. A recent uh genomic study, for example, found that an elite man from early dynastic Egypt had about 77% ancestry from Neolithic North Africa and 20% from the Fertile Crescent. This suggests significant migration and interaction between prehistoric North African communities and the Nile Valley. Indeed, Neolithic farming cultures in present-day Morocco arose contemporaneously with early Egyptian civilization, indicating shared developments across North Africa. Early Egyptians also had contacts to the east. Archaeological evidence shows trade between pre-dynastic Egypt and the Levant as early as the fourth millennium BC. Palestinian pottery found in Egyptian sites like Mahdi and the Egyptian goods in southern Canaan attests to a two-way exchange before the pharaohs. As Egyptian society grew, it maintained overland Sinai routes and Red Sea links that connected it with the Levant and Arabia, exchanging commodities like copper, oil, wine, and incense. Alright. So, in short, ancient Egypt, ancient Egypt's foundations were intertwined with neighboring African and Asiatic peoples. So you told me to have some links. So and I can share this uh pre this uh uh document with anybody. So I'll put the links in the video, I mean in the document for reference point. All right. So as we can see here it says this research room. So it talks about again how the early DNA evidence of pre-dynastic Egypt and you know some of the oldest dynasties um have shared DNA with the rest of North Africa, even leading to Morocco. Alright. So that's the first link. And then we want to look at so if I can zoom in. Can y'all see that?

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

So this is pottery. So Biblos is in modern day Lebanon, which is a part of uh old Canaan. Um, Helwan is a city in Egypt, I believe that's on the Eastern Nile Delta, and what this shows is how the pottery were very similar. The techniques that were used, the type of oil that was used, the uh fabric that was used to make this pottery is very similar between Egypt and uh Canaan. So, any questions on this real quick?

SPEAKER_04 10:35

No.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Okay. So as we can see again, similar pottery, similar culture. Even um our brother, our brother, um why is it Sheikh Antajo in his book African Origins of Civilization talks about how again the Egyptians and the Phoenicians or Canaanites were brothers?

SPEAKER_04 11:01

I thought I always thought they were the same people.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

They are that's the thing, they are, right? Especially when you look at um you know the biblical narrative, all sons of Ham, Canaan, Cush, Foot, and Mizraim. All right, so also so in between this time, this next part is about the second intermediate period in Egypt, but there's a lot of time in between uh pre-dynastic Egypt and the second intermediate period. So when we look at Old Kingdom Egypt and Middle Kingdom Egypt, what we start to have is uh you have some of the earliest Red Sea links, uh visits to Puntland and things like that. I want to say around 2500 BC. And you also have a lot of trade links with the Levant as well in early dynastic times. So why Egypt needed um ancient Canaan was for the cedar wood, because in Egypt they didn't have a lot of uh you know cedar and wood available to them, so they would trade with the Canaanites in the land of Canaan in the modern-day Lebanon, who still uses the cedar tree on their present-day flag today, they would get the cedar and wood from there for their ships, right? So, again, you're talking about a deep ancient connection, right? As well as understanding, too, during the Middle Kingdom, um, you had a lot of migrations into Egypt during that time as well. So when we get to the time of the the Hyksos, we get to the time of the Hyksos, you already have a Canaanite population, a heavy Canaanite population there. So once you get once the middle kingdom falls, and we get into the second intermediate period in Egypt, these people that already migrated uh down into Egypt uh into from Canaan, they're already there and they already have a population. So once the uh the last dynasty of the middle kingdom falls, they just take over. And now you have during the second intermediate period these these people from Canaan ruling lower Egypt, and then you have the uh 16th and 17th dynasty um ruling uh upper Egypt, further towards the south.

SPEAKER_04 13:22

Gotcha. Now I want to ask you this the Hyksos they didn't have any connection to the Jews.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

So, excellent question. So um Genesis chapter 14. If anybody loves to understand uh connect biblical history to actual history, Genesis chapter 14 is a good start because Abraham's story, right? Abraham is from um Ur of the Chaldees, okay. He then migrates to Haran, where his people are from, and then from Haran, he goes down into the land of Canaan, and then from Canaan into Egypt back into Canaan. And in Genesis chapter 14, it talks about how Abraham was in a coalition with Amorites. So understanding that at that time, on the Quran always says that Abraham was not a Jew, so the Israelites at the time of Abraham didn't exist. So if you're looking for Israelites, the further you go back, you wouldn't necessarily find that. But the Bible leaves clues again. It says that Abraham was a part of a coalition of Amorites, and his migration, the migration story that the Bible tells of how he went from Ur of the Chaldees north to Haran, down south into Canaan, and then further south into Egypt, actually follows Amorite migration patterns. And then we get into Jacob, and then they now get into the story of Joseph, right? They sell off Joseph to some Midianite Ishmaelite traders who then ends up selling him to Egypt, right? This period, more than likely, a lot of scholars, the Hyksos period, more than likely, a lot of scholars uh attribute to the era where Joseph, the prophet Joseph, possibly lived, because when you get into the story of Moses, it talks about how the the Pharaoh of Moses didn't know Joseph. Okay. So what a lot of scholars, uh biblical scholars and biblical archaeological archaeologists, like to say is that because the Hyksos was from the land of Canaan, right, it would have made more sense during the time that uh it would have made more sense that the pharaoh of Moses wouldn't know Joseph. Because after the Hyksos uh get ran out of Egypt uh by uh the pharaoh Akmos, now the Egyptians start to uh rule the land of Canaan. So, with that being said, what we have is the connection between the Jews and the Hyksos is that early Israelite populations are Canaanites, and that these Canaanites, the Israelites were probably amongst these Canaanites that migrated into Egypt. So that's the connection.

SPEAKER_04 16:40

Gotcha. Yeah, makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

Probably that, but that's no no no no.

SPEAKER_04 16:45

That's fine. That's fine. That was that was a break, that was a great breakdown. So now um, so let's take it back to because you that was that I I because I always remember that the Hyksos were actually Jews. Um, hold on, Islam Moore's peace to brother Ron Brown, brother Moriel Switch, peace to you, brother, uh Rush 25 24 fit 45. What's up, brother? What's up? Um now um to take it back, man. I mean, we're talking about early Egypt and the connection to the Moors. I'm gonna let you go because I have a lot of questions. Go ahead, go ahead. Okay, so um ancient ancient Egyptians, the uh this the mystery schools. I wanted to go into that, but uh maybe that's later on in the in the yeah, so that's that's a part of the Greek uh section. Yeah, all right, all right. So I'm I'm not gonna ask that. All right, go ahead. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Okay, cool. So so it says throughout pharaonic history, Egypt saw periods of foreign rule that forged deeper connections with Libya and the Levant and the second intermediate period. First off, I wanted to kind of zoom in on these pictures here. So this these are uh some depictions of the Hyksos. All right, these are the pictures of the Hyksos. Now, what you will see is is that modern day uh reimaginings of these things that's on the walls in Egypt, they paint these people lighter, like almost like sips in light. All right, but these are how the Hyksos were depicted.

Hyksos Rule And Canaanite Connections

SPEAKER_04 18:34

So the brother, the brother in the chat. I got a question for the mystery schools. Everybody that's a that's a a pivotal point in history, right there, those mystery schools. But uh we're gonna let you let the brother go, though.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Yeah, we we're gonna we're gonna get to that more in the audience. So in the second intermediate period, the Hyksos from Canaan seized power over northern Egypt. The Hyksos are credited for eleven time innovations like the horse drawing carrot, chariot, and maintained their own customs while governing the Nile Delta. After the native Egyptian dynasty expelled the Hyksos around 1540 BCE, Egypt's new kingdom pharaohs turned the tables by conquering Canaan for about three centuries from 1500 to 1200 BCE. So this is an important um again connection, which I mentioned earlier. People from Canaan rule parts of Egypt. Once Egypt uh took those leaders out, they started to rule parts of Canaan. So again, the closeness connection. Uh Egyptians ruled the land of Canaan, building forts and estates from Gaza to Galilee. They extracted Canaan's wealth, cedar wood from Lebanon, copper from the Dead Sea, wine, olive oil, and even people. Funneling these resources down to Egypt, this colonial presence led to. Cultural syncretism, Canaanite elites adopted Egyptian fashions from amulets and human-shaped coffins to the worship of Egyptian deities by Horus and Hathor. Alright. Then we get into also later in the first millennium BCE, the Libyan pharaohs. This is a supposed depiction of Shoshank, who was also a pharaoh that is mentioned in the Bible. He's actually mentioned in the Bible. So it says various Libyan Libyan tribes had long been neighbors and mercenaries in Egypt. By 945 BCE, a Libyan chieftain, Shoshank, became pharaoh, found in the 22nd dynasty. Shoshek's family of Meshwesh, which is uh the term Meshwesh, um, is the term for a group of North African Berbers, etc., which is linked to Maziks, which is linked to the actual name for the Berbers, Amazig.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Yeah. So it says Libyan origin ruled about 200 years, cementing ties between Egypt and the Rubian people. Libyan rulers revered Egyptian gods, but they also likely brought some of their own cultural heritage, notably Egypt's link with ancient Carthage, right? Which is another Moorish kingdom, and the Berber world is seen in religion. The Punic city of Carthage worshiped the goddess Tanit as its chief deity. So the chief goddess of Carthage was Tanit, and Tanit is widely thought to be of Libyan origin. In fact, the Egyptians themselves identified Tanit with their war and wisdom goddess Neath, and the Greeks likewise equated her with Athena. According to classical writers, the veneration of Neath and Athena originally came from Libya near Lake Tritonis or Tritonus. So the Greeks, the Carthaginians, who were Canaanites, came from Canaan, the Egyptians and the Libyans all have the same god in their mythology, the goddess Neath. So the goddess Neath again, she was a goddess in the Egyptian pantheon, but she came from Libya, she came from west of Egypt, and then Neath uh turned into Athena for the Greeks, and she was called Tanet for the Carthaginians. All right, gotcha. So it says in Carthage, Tanet only appears after the 5th century BCE, but rapidly eclipsed older Phoenician gods. Scholars interpret Tanet as a fusion of Phoenician and Berber traditions, a Libyan great goddess akin to Neve. This is one example of religious syncretism linking Egypt, Libya, and the Levant. Another god that was syncretized between um Egypt and Carthage was Mhotep. So a lot again, a lot of the syncretism was happening. Another syncretism that happened was between the Canaanite god Bao and the Egyptian god Set.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Right.

SPEAKER_04 23:25

So a lot of religious. Hold on. So Bao and Set would be the devil.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Um depending on the era, yes. However, uh earlier earlier Egyptian dynasties necessarily didn't see set as the devil.

unknown 23:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

And the reason why a lot of Canaanites uh uh related set and bow together because set was also known as the god of outsiders. So this is kind of how that synchrone uh synchretization happened as well, right? All right, so it says, in some foreign dominions, Canaanite hexos, Libyan pharaohs, and ongoing trade spread Egyptian influence outward and brought foreign ideas inward, creating a rich blend of traditions in the late bronze and iron ages. So, full pause again, up until the Libyan pharaohs, you have again people from Libya ruling Egypt, people from Canaan ruling Egypt, and then Egypt ruling Canaan ruling Libya, and trade happening both ways, right? So, right there, off back, this is the foundation of the Egyptian Moorish connection. Slam trade, trade, trade, uh, and religious syncretization. Right. All right, and then showing this as well. So, this is uh depiction of a Phoenician or Canaanite sarcophagus, as you can see, it looks Egyptian, and this is from King Ashmunazir II from Sidon, one of the famous Canaanite cities, and then we also have uh Ivory Hittite Sphinx. The Hittites was another tribe that the prophet mentioned among the brethren of the Moabites. If you've seen uh brother, I want you to re-watch the movie Troy with Brad Pitt, and the Trojans, right, in their temples, you see Egyptian statues in the background. Now, if you don't understand the history, right, because Troy is in modern-day Turkey, and the area that they called Troy was ruled by people called the Luyans, and the Luyans were a sect of Hittites. So the Hittites being in Anatolia, and then the further you go south, you run into the Amorites, which is another Canaanite tribe, as well as the rest of the Canaanites and their connection to Egypt. So you have Egyptian iconography, right? Sphinxes, wings, sarcophagus, and things like that, all throughout the land of Canaan, because of this ancient connection. Check. Alright. Next, we also have an Egyptian king of Moab. So this right here is the Al Balu Stele. Let me scroll in on this. This was found in the land of Moab, and is date back, it dates back to about 1300 BC up until about 1151 BCE. And as you can see, as we zoom in, more Egyptian style relics, right? Found in the land of Moab. Right? So Nobu Jewali, peace and blessings be upon him, right, said that the Moors are ancient Moabites. However, he also again styled himself as the Egyptian adept. Understanding this, all of the Moabites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Hamathites, are all the tribes that Nobu Jewali mentioned, who we are related to. All of these tribes have an Egyptian connection. And we can see it in the archaeology.

SPEAKER_04 27:33

Which which uh makes me think we're thinking from this is the way I'm I'm thinking right now. So Egypt is a uh country in Africa, right? But my thought is in ancient times, maybe Egypt was an empire.

Libyan Pharaohs And Religious Syncretism

SPEAKER_01 27:55

Exactly. Yes, sir. That's that's that's right out of chapter 47. Egypt, the capital empire of the dominion of a Mexico. All right, so Egypt's empire, that's what I was mentioning earlier. Is that at the start of the new kingdom, after uh Pharaoh Akmos ran the Hyksos out, they expanded their empire into Canaan. Now, even before the Hyksos came, right, Egypt had a presence in Canaan in the Middle East because we know that Egypt was getting la peace, lazuli, from Afghanistan to Egypt, going back to the old kingdom. So we're talking about 3,000 BCE, 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, right?

SPEAKER_04 28:36

So our perspective on how the world worked in ancient times have to kind of like change a little bit in order for us to understand the history, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

Our people, people have always been interconnected, you know. Um trade, interactions. This is this is humans have not really changed that much over time. We've always been curious, we've always been inquisitive, we always try to get some money, right? Or survive, make a living for ourselves, exactly. So human nature is always gonna come through. So moving more on this um king of Moab, Egyptian king of Moab. So it says the neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions from the 7th century BCE record a ruler of Moab named Mussouri, whose name literally means the Egyptian.

SPEAKER_04 29:38

That's that's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Yes, appearing in the annals of Esserhadan and Ashrabanapal. Missouri is listed among Levantine vassal kings summoned to provide tribute and military support to Assyrians. Significantly, he already bears the epithet the Egyptian before Ashrabanopal's Egyptian campaign, indicating that the designation was not earned in battle but reflected an early identity or association. This suggests that the Egyptian lineage, culturally, cultural affiliation or political legitimacy could extend beyond the Nile Valley and into the transjordan rulership. The existence of an Egyptian king ruling Moab underscores the deep and persistent entanglement between Egypt and the Levant. In the Iron Age, Egyptian identity carried enduring prestige and reinforced through earlier periods of Egyptian rule in Canaan, diplomatic marriages, and long-standing cultural exchange. Whether Missouri was ethnically Egyptian, born of an Egyptian elite language, or culturally aligned with Egypt, his title demonstrates that Egyptian civilization functioned as a mobile and influential force within a broader Afro-Asiatic world. This case provides concrete evidence that Egypt's civilizational reach extended into the Levant well after the New Kingdom, supporting a long continuum of Egyptian influence that later passed through North Africa and into the Moorish and Islamic worlds.

SPEAKER_04 31:10

Boom.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

So again, reasons why the prophet gives the credence to Egypt, right, as the capital empire.

SPEAKER_04 31:55

That was that was solid. Like the brother uh Rush 24 said, solid. Yo, man, uh, we this brother right here. All right, go ahead. I'm about to I'm I'm about to text one of the one of the guys, like Sanetta, yo, get this brother on your channel, man.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

And here's the link too, because I know you want me to have a source. So here's the link to the article as well. Anybody can have this. So if any of you brothers that's watching this want me to send y'all the link to this uh this essay with the links to all the sources, I got you.

unknown 32:30

All right.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Next, now we can get into Egyptian wisdom and the Greek philosophers. So it says, Beyond material trade, ancient Egypt profoundly influenced the intellectual heritage of the Mediterranean. The esoteric priestly knowledge of Egypt's mystery system, encompassing religion, science, and philosophy, was famed in antiquity and drew secrets from abroad. Classical Greek scholars often acknowledged Egypt as the source of wisdom. Greek legends held that lawgivers like Lysergus, Sparta, and Solon of Athens, as well as philosophers such as Pythagoras, all traveled to Egypt to study. Isocrates and Plato even maintained that these great figures brought back Egyptian knowledge to Greece. Indeed, figures like Pythagoras spent years in Egypt learning mathematics and mysticism. And Plato also visited Heliopolis and was impressed by Egyptian lore. Ancient writers such as Herodotus recorded that the names of nearly all the gods came to Greece from Egypt. So remember, I was just saying that Athena comes from Neath. Athena comes from Neath, right? So emphasizing Egypt's priority in theology. Later Hellenistic scholars noted that Greek mystery schools and philosophy drew on early Egyptian cosmology. For example, the idea of the immortal soul, certain mathematics certain mathematical knowledge and aspects of ritual initiation were likely transmitted from Egyptian priesthood to Greek thinkers. The city of Alexandria in Egypt became a great center of learning in the Hellenistic period, where Greek, Egyptian, and other scholars mingled. It housed the famous Library of Alexandria, preserving not only Greek texts but also Egyptian and Near Eastern knowledge. Greek philosophers like Aristotle indirectly benefited from Egyptian science, and Aristotle's student Alexander the Great brought Egypt into the Hellenic world. Aristotle himself had access to Egyptian and fluid sources via Alexandria, and later in Roman times, Platonic and Pythagorean schools looked back to Egyptian mysteries for inspiration. The writings of Platinus and Limbaclus credit Egyptian wisdom. As modern scholars like Marnev pointed out, the ancient motto accepted by the Greeks themselves was that the Greek civilization was partly a colony of Egyptian and Phoenician knowledge. In short, Egypt's mystery system, its advanced knowledge of math, astronomy, medicine, and spiritual philosophy fertilized Greek thought and through Greece became foundational to Western philosophy and science. Questions on this?

SPEAKER_04 35:29

Uh that was, I have no question. That was like too thorough. I mean, especially for me, I I I pretty much know this, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 35:39

Uh, so yeah, like the first the seven sages, the Thales and all of them, a lot of them studied in Egypt. And again, the Greeks give Egypt some credit for this as well. So this is all well documented, but this is important again because it would be the knowledge that the Greeks got from the Egyptians and codified that would later um make the Islamic world flourish the way that it did.

unknown 36:09

Boom.

Egyptian Wisdom And Greek Philosophy

SPEAKER_01 36:11

We're gonna get to that. All right, this is one of my favorite parts: a royal union between uh of Mauritania and Egypt. Now, this is the part that don't get talked about a lot. So, this is a picture of the royal mausoleum of Mauritania, said to be where um Cleopatra Selene II was buried, along with King Juba. Excuse me. So, the fusion of Egyptian and North African worlds continued into the Roman era. A striking symbol of this connection is the marriage of King Juba II of Mauritania to Cleopatra Selene II, daughter of the famous queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt. Juba II was a learned Berber prince raised in Rome who was installed as King of Mauritania, which is in modern Algeria and Morocco, by Augustus. In 25 BCE, Augustus married him to Cleopatra Selene, the last Telemaic Egyptian princess. Together, Juba and Cleopatra ruled an African kingdom that blended Egyptian, Berber, and Greco-Roman culture. Cleopatra Selene brought her Egyptian royal lineage and Hellenistic education, while Juba was the patron of Berber heritage and Roman learning. Ancient sources say Selene had great influence on Mauritania's governance, especially in fostering trade and scholarship. Under their rule, Mauritania's capital, Caesarea, flourished with architecture and libraries influenced by both Alexandria and Rome. The royal couple named their son Ptolemy of Mauritania, reflecting proud acknowledgement of Nick's heritage. This union effectively merged the bloodlines of pharaonic Egypt with the Moorish nobility of North Africa. Literally, Cleopatra VII was the last pharaoh of Egypt. Her daughter then marries the king of Mauritania. You see what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 38:14

I didn't know that, bro.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

The last pharaoh of Egypt's daughter marries the king of Mauritania.

SPEAKER_04 38:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 38:23

Okay. This union effectively again merged the bloodlines of pharaonic Egypt with the Moorish nobility of North Africa.

SPEAKER_04 38:33

What were the African uh countries that the prophet mentioned? Uh um um Alger, uh Tunis, Algeria, Tripoli, and Morocco. Morocco.

SPEAKER_01 38:46

Right? All of the countries that moved up in part of North Africa, etc. Etc. Yes, big on that, etc.

SPEAKER_02 38:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

Right? So again, the Maghreb in Egypt, like this, right? So, what did I leave off at?

SPEAKER_04 39:06

Uh, Moorish nobility of North Africa.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

Um, yeah, so Moorish nobility of North Africa prefigurating later connections between these regions. So, again, right, going back to uh the goddess needle, right? So, Berber religion through time had already Egyptian mythology baked into it, right? And then you get the adding of Carthaginian mythology, right? So, all of these elements already existed amongst the tribe of the Maury prior to Christianity being introduced, Judaism being introduced, or Islam.

SPEAKER_04 39:49

Carthaginian, that's uh Man Samusa, right?

SPEAKER_01 39:52

No, no, Carthaginian is uh Hannibal, Hannibal.

SPEAKER_04 39:55

Hannibal, Hannibal, Hannibal, Hannibal, right? Right, right, right, right. Hannibal, Hannibal, Hannibal.

SPEAKER_01 39:59

That's Carthagini. Carthage. Right. So again, Carthage, right? People that came from Tyre, which is in Canaan, and into North Africa to set up Carthage. So that's another, again, it's probably I would say the biggest that you could look to source for that Egyptian Moorish connection, right?

SPEAKER_04 40:22

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 40:23

Right. So with that being said, it was saying uh the knowledge of the Mediterranean world, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian, was being actively transmitted into North Africa. Juba II himself was a scholar who wrote on history and geography with Cleopatra Salene's input. He sponsored research on Africa, sent expeditions, bridging the legacy of Nile Valley, now civilization with the Maghreb. Right? So Cleopatra Salene, King Juba, these were scholars. They pushed forth the knowledge as well. Slam.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Slam.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

All right. We got about what 20 minutes. So pre-I Islamic Trans-Saharan trade networks. So this is one of my favorite parts. This is what we gotta understand. So I want to zoom into this a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 41:11

Uh oh.

SPEAKER_01 41:13

All right.

SPEAKER_04 41:13

Uh oh. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

All right. So this is how West Africa was operating. All right. The trade networks, the cities where the gold was at, the cola nuts, the copper, all of these things was going north, and what was coming south? Salt, clothes, beads, horses, etc. All right. And this is pre-Islamic, though. We're talking there was a pre-Islamic Trans-Saharan trade.

unknown 41:46

All right.

Cleopatra Selene And Mauritania’s Royal Union

SPEAKER_01 41:46

So it says long before Islam, Trans-Saharan trade linked North and West Africa through a small, though on a smaller scale that would later explode. Classical writings and archaeology revealed that by the first millennia BCE, organized routes crossed the Sahara. The Greek historian Herodotus in the 5th century BCE described a chain of oases at roughly 10-day intervals across the desert, indicating travel routes connected North Africa to the Niger region. He even recorded that travelers from the Libyan tribe of the Nassimons went far south until they came upon a great river flowing through the city, almost certainly the river Niger in West Africa. This is remarkable proof that 500 years before Christ, Saharan pathways allowed communication between the Mediterranean and so-called sub-Saharan worlds. So one of the most important desert peoples were the Garamantes, who by 500 BCE had built a proto-urban civilization in the Pheasant, modern Libya. The Geromantis dug long underground canals called fogaras or fogaras to irrigate their oasis, producing wheat, grapes, and dates in the heart of the desert. Archaeology shows their capital, Garma, had tens of thousands of inhabitants crucially. The Garamantes became the middlemen of trade. They obtained Mediterranean goods, Roman wine, glassware, and traded south for gold, semi-precious stones, and African ivory. They also engaged in uh trafficking Ethiopians, so-called, in chariots and selling them north for slaves. Herodotus noted this practice, and by Hellenistic and Roman areas, black African slaves became increasingly common in North Africa and the Mediterranean, likely via Garamantes raids. In the first century AD, a Roman official accompanied the Garamantes on the slave raid. Far south suggesting an organized slave trade existed. Some historians argue that the Garamantes pioneered the trans-Saharan gold trade as well, using slaves both as a commodity and as porters to carry other goods across the vast distances. Thus, centuries before Islam, there was a complex Trans-Saharan trade network in operation. North African Berbers peoples exchanged Saharan salt and Mediterranean products for West African gold, ivory, and slaves. The Sahara was not an impenetrable barrier. Oasis settlements and camel caravans made regular crossing possible. By late antiquity, the desert commerce was substantial enough that Roman authors mentioned Ethiopian merchants coming to trade. These early links set the stage for the explosion of transsacaric trade in the Islamic era. In summary, the pre-Islamic Saharan trade, led by peoples like the Garomantis, provided the first economic and cultural bridge between North and West Africa. So on this, right, you know, uh, slavery is a sensitive subject, right, amongst our people. But I want I want people to understand that you know Africans enslaved Africans long before Europeans enslaved Africa. Even when we're talking about how Egypt ruling Canaan, they were enslaving Canaanites. Oh, they was enslaving people, so these are the bad guys. I just kind of wanted to clear that up. Any questions before we move to the next part?

SPEAKER_02 45:24

No, sir.

Pre‑Islamic Trans‑Saharan Trade Networks

SPEAKER_01 45:25

Okay, good. So the Moors Golden Age in West African empires. So with the advent of Islam, North and West Africa were drawn into a single cultural orbit, giving rise to the Moor's civilization that spanned Iberia, North Africa, and extended influence into West Africa. By the 8th century, Islam had spread across Maghreb to Morocco, and Muslim Berber dynasties soon connected our Andalus with Northwest Africa. This Moorish realm became a beacon of learning and prosperity, especially in our Andalus, where a golden age flourished from the 8th to the 15th centuries. Crucially, Moorish fame preserved and translated ancient Greek works, mainly originally from Egypt's Library of Alexandria. So this is the point I want to talk about again. So the one of the earliest main centers of Islamic learning was the house of wisdom in Baghdad. And in the house of wisdom at Baghdad is where a lot of Nestorian Christians who were Greek nationality-wise brought a lot of the old Greek scholars like Plato and Aristotle to the House of Wisdom, where these works got translated into Arabic. So it says, transmitting classical knowledge to both the Islamic world and medieval Europe. For example, in Cordoba and Toledo, scholars translated Aristotle, Euclid, and Galen from Arabic into Latin. So this is how the rest of Europe got it. And then the Moors thus acted as conduits of Egyptian and Greco-Roman wisdom, which have been early absorbed into the Muslim world. This intellectual ferment was not confined to Europe, it also reached West Africa via Trans-Saharan links. From the 9th century onward, Arabic writing Muslim travelers and traders arrived in West African kingdoms. The earliest great West African Empire, Ghana or Wagadu, was known to North African writers by the 9th century. By the 11th century, Ghana had a sizable Muslim community and scholars writing in Arabic. So what would happen as Muslims started to penetrate further into West Africa? The first phase of what things looked like was that in the city, you would have the quarters for the Muslims. And then it got so big that ancient Ghana had a city for the Muslims and a city for the traditional religion, while the Muslims still had their quarters in the traditional city. While modern historians debate if Ghana was formally conquered by the Almoravids, it is clear that around that time the kings of Ghana converted to Islam and the empire became part of the Islamic trade network. Whether the Almoravids conquered Ghana or not, the country certainly did convert to Islam again around 1076 and began adhering to more orthodox Sunni practices. This facilitated closer integration with the North, Muslim merchants, the Wangara, and Jula traders from Mali and Ghana spread out to new markets, and Ghana itself even requested Almoravid help in its wars, indicating political alliance. Next. Mali's kings were devout Muslims and patrons of learning. Massamusa undertook a spec. We know about his pilgrimage, and on his way back, he invited a lot of uh Muslims from Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, etc., from North Africa. And he commissioned the grand mosque at Timbuktu in Gao in Timbuktu, and it blossomed into a celebrated center of Islamic learning. By the 15th and 16th centuries, travelers described Timbuktu's San Corea University and 150 plus Quranic schools filled with books on law, grammar, astronomy, and medicine. These books, so these same books that Morse translated from Greek into Arabic and even translated from Arabic into Latin for the Europeans, these same books also came into West Africa. Many works of Greek origin, philosophy, science translated into Arabic will find their way into West African libraries. For instance, manuscripts in Timbuktu includes texts on Aristotelian logic and geometry, as taught in Madrasas. The very presence of such works shows the intellectual link from Egypt and Greece via the Arabic Moors scholarship to the Western Sudan. Under the Songhai Empire, Timbuktu scholars Ahmed Baba wrote in Arabic and corresponded with peers in Fez in Cairo, solidifying a pan-Islamic republic of letters. When the Moors of Morocco invaded Songhai in 1591, one motive was to seize control of the Saharan gold trade, a reminder that West African gold had long underpinned the Moors and Mediterranean economy. I'm gonna stop right here. So already North and West Africa had a trans-Saharan trade network. Now Morocco, after uh the war that happened and that culminated in 1591, Morocco ruled Timbuktu politically up until like the late 1800s. So it's called the Poshalik of Timbuktu. So from Morocco uh all the way down into Mali, Timbuktu and Gal and Jenejeno, all of this officially right was under the Poshlik of Timbuktu. So you have direct rule, direct Moroccan rule in Mali, and then you also have indirect trade networks as well.

SPEAKER_04 51:41

In Mali.

SPEAKER_01 51:42

In Mali. And that's after the Songai Empire had collapsed. So it says, in summary, during the Moore's golden age, knowledge and commerce flowed freely between North Africa and West Africa. West African empires adopted Islam, used Arabic as a lingua franca, and contributed to their own innovations, a true melding of Moorish civilization with African roots. Notably, some Andalusian scholars were aware of West Africa, and West Africa's in turn integrated Greek Islamic sciences into their curricula. This period firmly embedded West Africa into the Moorish Islamic cultural sphere. So again, Mali, Songhai, these are extensions of your Moorish dynasties of the Al-Moravids, the Almohads, the Marinids, etc. Now here's the good part. Here's the part that nobody talks about. So the trade diasporas, Mandae, and House of Merchants in the forage land. One crucial aspect of Transmarine Network was the emergence of West African trade diasporas, communities of Mandae Housing, other Muslim traders who settled in the forage zone to facilitate commerce. By the 15th and 18th centuries, as coastal trade grew, these Zongo communities from the house of the word for caravan became linchpins connecting Islamic Sahel with the coastal forces. For example, the Bono Kingdom, which is in northern Ghana, have hosted major market towns like Bono Manso and Bago. Now we're gonna have to do a whole nother um presentation on this, but some things that I've been learning is that um the Adincra symbols, yeah, and the Kente Koff may have origins in the northern part of Ghana where the Muslims were at. So that's that's we could do a whole nother thing on that.

unknown 53:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:41

So it says, where Mandate, Jula traders, and housing merchants lived alongside the Khan peoples, archaeology confirms that Bego at its peak had about 15,000 people in the 16th century. It featured a Muslim quarter where mosque and Arabic literacy existed, evidenced by Islamic charms and inscriptions found there. Bono Manso was a cosmopolitan hub and later a key locust in the Atlantic era slave trade. Northern traders came seeking gold and cola nuts, right? Which is also the origin of Coca-Cola. Anyone didn't know that? Exchanging salt, cloth, and eventually firearms. In return, some forest states acquired slaves from inland to trade north or to Europeans on the coast. These towns were essentially early trade colonies of Muslim West African diaspora. Mande, Jula, Wangara, Fulani, and Houses settled among the Hakan and others. They brought with them Islamic culture, including the use of Arabic for record keeping and the concept of Gree Greek amulets for protection. Farther west, similar trade settlements appeared in Ivory Coast, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, where Mende Wangara clans carry Islam and trade goods into non-Muslim forest regions. And the Yoruba country to the east, the great kingdom of Oyo, had extensive trade with the north. Brother, have you seen the movie Woman King?

SPEAKER_04 55:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 55:13

Right? So in the movie Woman King, for example, there's two cities. So the inner city, uh where the kingdom of the home was at, as I think the name of that city is called like Obome or something like that. And then you had the coastal city where from Obome or from the Dahomey Kingdom, they brought the people to Wida, right? So Obome was further inland, Widah was on the coast, and then at the same time, they were warring with the oyo, the oyo, which is which are part Yoruba, and they were also part Muslims. So when they came to the land of the Home, they had horses. These how Yoruba people got horses was for trap was from trade with northern Nigeria Hausa kingdoms, which also were in trade with the further Muslim kingdoms, further. So there's a lot of history in that movie that if you don't know what you're looking at, you wouldn't you couldn't even see that connection. All right. So it says by the 18th and 19th century, Hausa and Fulani Muslims established zonos in Jurabaland. For instance, at Ularan and Oyo, some eventually becoming Muslim-ruled enclaves. Likewise, in the Igbo areas to the southeast, coastal trade brought indirect Islamic influences. Igbu middlemen obtained horses and northern goods via house of traders, though Igbo land itself remained largely non-Islamic. Notably, these trade diasporas often were the channels through which slaves from the interior were collected for sale. Historian Kwame Daaku noted that Bono Manso and Bego were deeply involved in the Atlantic slave trade by the 18th century, serving as an aggregation point for captives from the Hitlerland. Many of these captives came from the very ethnic groups present in these cosmopolitan towns. Thus, the big five ethnic groups, later predominant among enslaved Africans in the Americas, Mende, Fulani, Akkad.

SPEAKER_02 57:20

Ah, he did it.

SPEAKER_01 57:24

All linked directly and indirectly to this Trans Saharan Moorish trade network. So here's the thing plantation populations would have mirrored Islamic trade cities because this is where multiple ethnic groups would meet up for trade. And then in the plantation system, right, this is where multiple ethnic groups got trafficked to. So this is an angle, again, that we don't hear much about. So we're thinking that once these people, these West Africans was trafficked to the Americas, they didn't know how to communicate with one another, right? It makes more sense now that these connections were already in West Africa, which allow people who were Muslim and non-Muslim to work together in all of the various insurrections that happened across the Americas.

SPEAKER_04 58:21

Yeah, brother uh Rust 24. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay. So um what the what did the prophet say about uh I don't know if it was I can't maybe it was the prophet or the messenger saying something about uh our people returning back to Islam.

SPEAKER_01 58:38

Oh yeah, yeah. The prophet said, you know, that's why we are giving uh Christianity back to the Europeans because it was made by their forefathers for the earthly salvation, right? Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_04 58:54

All right, wow.

Moorish Golden Age And West African Empires

SPEAKER_01 58:56

So huge point again. Plantation populations would have mirrored Islamic trade cities. Where else in West Africa would you see Mande, Fulani, Akon, Yoruba, Igbo peeping, Igbo people uh interacting with one another. It would have been in trade cities. All right, so it says uh, in essence, the catchment areas for Atlantic slavery overlapped strongly with the zones of Moorish Islamic commercial influence in West Africa. Many of the Africans who were enslaved had already been part of a larger economic cultural system that connected them, albeit distantly, to North Africa and the legacy of the Moors. Now, now this is just so West Africa, the Monday Fulani, a Khan and Yoruba and Igbu, these were just the big uh ethnic groups of West Africa. Now, half of all other, almost nearly half, about 40% of all. Other uh West Africans or Central Africans traffic from Africa to the Americas came from Congo, right? Angola. So we're gonna get into that next. So this next part, also not talked about enough. The Sephardic Jewish networks from North Africa to West Africa. So it says another thread in this tapestry is the role of Sephardic Jews, Iberian Jews, often exiled from Spain and Portugal in West African trade during the age of exploration. After Spain's Reconquista and the Portuguese expulsion of Jews in the late 15th century, many Sephardin became merchants in the Atlantic colonies. In West Africa, specifically Guinea, Sinegambia, and Angola, there is evidence of significant Sephardic or commercial presence in the 16th and 17th centuries. Portuguese records from the Inquisition revealed that many traders in these African regions were new Christians of Jewish origin. These Portuguese Sephardic merchants helped develop coastal trading posts in Angola and Guinea-Bissau, in effect, laying the groundwork of transatlantic slave transatlantic slave and commodity trade. For instance, Paulo Diaz de Noveas, who founded the Portuguese colony of Angola in 1575, is claimed by some sources to have been crypto-Jewish, to have been of a crypto-Jewish background, allegedly brought Jewish artisans to Luanda. By the late 1500s, reports speak of a clandestine synagogue in Luanda and a clandestine rabbi, suggesting the hidden Jewish community in early Angola. Furthermore, numerous cases came before the Inquisition of Portuguese new Christians saying they learned Judaizing in Angola, i.e., they were introduced to Jewish religious practices while stationed in West Africa. This hints at Sephardic traders in Africa maintained their faith undercover and passed it on. Some Jewish deportees were also sent to the island of Sao Tome in 1493. Historical accounts say that their descendants, known as the Jews of Sao Tome, later migrated to the African mainland. In fact, some Jewish families from Sao Tome settled in the kingdom of Loango in Congo today. By the 17th century, these so-called black Portuguese or Lusu African Jews integrated into local societies while retaining elements of Sephardic culture. The Sephardic role is significant in that they were the middlemen of early slave trade and gold trade. For example, in Amsterdam, London, the Caribbean Sephardic Jewish merchants dominated Atlantic trade networks in the 1600s, often sourcing slaves from West Central Africa, which they had ties to. This adds yet another lead to the Moorish connection. Sephardic Jews from Iberia, who themselves had lived under Moorish rule for centuries, carried their commercial acumen to Africa, becoming agents in the transfer of African people and products across the ocean. They sometimes partnered with Muslim traders on the African coast, bridging religious divide from mutual profit. In some, the Sephardic Jewish connection to West Africa helped facilitate transatlantic links, and they were part of the cosmopolitan fabric with Muslims and Christians operating between Morocco, Angola, and the New World. This underscores the global scope of the network that would funnel Africans from Islamic influenced societies into the Americas. So again, right, we just covered the first half of where all Africans came from, West Africa, from Senegal all the way to Cameroon, and then Congo and Angola, where about 40% of all traffic Africans came from, had Sephardic Jewish connections.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:58

That sounds crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:01

It's the truth, dog.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:04

So Damn, yo, hold on. We're that bomb. Yo.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:12

So this is the last part.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:14

Oh, wait. Uh uh, someone said, uh, can you drop the link for this?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:18

We'll do. Uh, can I put it in the chat or should I just send it to you?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:22

Uh put it in the chat because then I could just um copy it and and and then put it in the in the I guess I put it in the uh comments.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:33

Okay, yeah, we'll do it after I finish this part.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:35

All right.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:35

All right. So this is the this is the this part right here brings it all together. So, middle passage from Moorish West Africa to the Americas, the transatlantic slave trade from 16th century to the 19th century, excuse me, forcibly transported millions of West and Central Africans to the Americas. As noted, many came from regions that have long been connected through trade and religion to Moorish North Africa and the Islamic world. Consequently, they carried with them cultural and intellectual traditions linked back to those older civilizations. Enslaved Africans did not arrive as blank slates, they brought skills, beliefs, and memories that often resilient in the new world.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:23

It's funny that you say that, right? Because as the stories told, right? Yes, it's told as if we had nothing else going on up there at all.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:35

That we was just dancing in the jungle, half naked, right, didn't write nothing. That's what I'm saying. Like, even at this lowest level, that can be debunked, even at its lowest level, that can be debunked. This is why this Morris connection is so important because it literally goes against the narrative that we taught that we've been taught about our identity and who we are as a people.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:05

What do you say?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:06

So it says, for instance, African agricultural expertise was transferred directly. Rice cultivation is a prime example. Enslaved peoples from the rice from the rice coast of West Africa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, right? Senegal, you ever had Joe Love Rice?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:24

Yes, sir.

Trade Diasporas In The Forest Belt

SPEAKER_01 1:06:25

Right? Jo Love Rice comes from the Jolof Empire that was in Senegal. So it says, were specifically sought for colonies like South Carolina and Georgia in the 18th century. Planters deliberately sought out West Africans that were highly educated and well experienced in rice culture. These Africans applied the techniques of irrigation, patty management, and mortal, mortar, and pestle processing. Techniques developed over centuries in places like the Upper Niger Valley to make Carolina's rice plantations enormously productive. This knowledge lineage can be traced back through Islamic West Africa, where rice rice was a staple in places like the inland Delta of Mali. Similarly, African expertise in indigo dye production and iron working were utilized in the Americas as well. Crucially, spiritual and intellectual traditions survived and syncretized in the Americas, forming the core of African American culture. A significant minority of enslaved Africans were Muslims, estimated range up to 15 to 30 percent of those sent to North America were Muslim. These enslaved Muslims, Mandinka, Fulani, Susu, Hausa, managed to retain elements of their faith and worldview under oppression. They continued to pray in Arabic, fast, and write Quranic verses when possible. Over generations, direct practice of Islam waned, but it left discernible traces in African American folk culture. For example, scholars have noted that the traditional field hollers and early blues music of the black American South bear remarkable resemblance to the Islamic call to prayer. And if I could, brother, I would I would play that video that literally lines up Levy Camp Holler, an old blues song, with the with the Islamic Adon. Side by side, it's a video album. So it says, This is no coincidence, those musical traits entered the DNA of African American music through enslaved Muslims and their descendants who blended Islamic vocal styles with the African musical elements to eventually create the blues. And we know from the blues, you get jazz, right? Jazz, we get RB to hip-hop. Right? So it says many of the earliest known bluesmen had grandparents who were slaves in the areas with documented Muslim slave communities. For instance, Mississippi and Louisiana had notable slave uh populations like Balali Muhammad of the Sapelo Island, whose family kept their Islamic practices. Thus, a fundamental root of American music can be traced back to Moorish Africa. African traditional religions also survived but often syncretized with Christianity and each other to form new traditions like voodoo in Haiti, Santeria in Cuba, Cendoble in Brazil, and Hudu in North America. In these, we can detect ingredients from across the African Islamic and non-Islamic spectrum. Hoodoo, the folk spirituality of African Americans in the southern U.S., is especially instructive. It incorporated not only herbs and beliefs from West and Central African religions, but also Islamic elements introduced by enslaved African Muslims. Historian Jeffrey Anderson writes that a major West African influence in Hoodoo Islam, enslaved Muslim root doctors in the South sometimes replaced the usual Christian prayers with Quranic prayers when preparing charms. They also stood out by wearing turbans and wide-legged pants, echoing Western African West African Muslim attire. The famous mojo bag of Hudu, a small pouch of protective or lucky charms, is directly descended from the West African Muslim Grigris. Mandika and Bombara people were known for their Grigri amulets back home. And indeed, many Mendingo slaves carried the Grigri bags onto the slave ships, hiding them on their person. In the Americas, these became the conjure bags of hoodoo, often still containing a scrap of paper with an Arabic verse or mystical numbers square inside. Enslaved people, Muslim or not, recognized the power of these charms. Enslaved Muslims were frequented as conjuremen to make grease for protection or to poison slave owners during slavery. All of this shows how Islamic occult knowledge, part of the Moorish legacy, merged into the spiritual arsenal of African Americans alongside Central African practices, like Congo-derived Spirit Work and others. Even maroon communities, independent settlements of escaped slaves in the Americas, reflected this heritage. Maroons in Jamaica and Suriname largely came from a Khan and Congo peoples, but some also had Mandae and Fulani members. They carried with them West African war medicine and Islamic influence charms to resist colonial forces. Notably, during Jamaica's First Maroon War, British soldiers reported that Maroons employed Obeya that included written charms on papers. Some of these captured talismen had Arabic or unknown scripts on them, pointing to the Muslim influence and their obeya practices. Scholars speculate certain maroon leaders had Mandingo or Fula roots. Across the Americas, there were also instances of actual Islamic communities. For example, in Brazil, the Malay revolt of 1835 and Bahia was led by Yoruba and House of Muslims who attempted to form a maroon Islamic republic, even though that even though that revolt was suppressed, elements of Sufi Islam like prayer beads, veneration of saints and marabouts quietly quietly seeped into African Brazilian religions. The term voodoo, or the term maribut itself, West African Muslim holy man, entered the Caribbean lexicon in Haitian voodoo. A maribut is a type of protective charm of sorcerer. You also have in the Brazilian religion the issue called Maribo as well, right? So showing the crossover of Islamic concepts into the New World syncretism. Finally, beyond music and magic, African Americans inherited a legacy of resilience, entrepreneurship, and intellectual striving that can be traced back to their Moorish African roots. The very notion of education and self-improvement in early black communities often tied back to African pride, uh pride and African civilizations. In the 19th century, intellectuals like Martin Delaney and Edward Blyden explicitly linked African Americans to the greatness of Egypt, Carthage, and Moorish Spain. That's important because writers and intellectuals in the 1800s, right? When they started to write, they themselves also drew pride from Egypt, Carthage, and Moorish Spain. So this is not the prophet isn't bringing up anything new. Scholars were already also making these connections in the previous century. So conclusion from the foregone, we see a continuous chain of historical connections stretching across time and space. Ancient Egypt's innovation spread to the Levant and North Africa, fertilizing the cultures that will become Carthage and later the Moorish Islamic civilization. In turn, the Moors transmitted this heritage, preserving Egyptian and Greek knowledge and linked it via Islam and trade to West Africa's great empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai. Those empires in the trade and diasporas of Mande and other peoples then sent forth millions of their sons and daughters in the cataclysm of the Atlantic slave trade. The African Americans of today are the descendants of those dispersed peoples, yet, through an unimaginable hardship, they retained elements of their ancestral cultures, which were themselves products of a rich global interchange. In the spirituals and blues of the Mississippi Delta, one can hear echoes of Islamic calls to prayer and ancient Sahelian melodies. In the root work of Gullah Conjurer, one finds a leather Grigri bag with Quranic verses sewn in for protection, a direct heirloom of West African Islamic tradition. On a larger scale, the very drive for literacy and learning among early African Americans, many taught themselves to read and write a secret, resonates with their value their ancestors placed on learning. Whether in Timbuktu's libraries or Egypt's mystery schools, and the genius for survival and creation, building new communities, whether in maroon settlements of Jamaica or the thriving black churches of the U.S. draws on a collective memory of past golden ages, Mali, Songhai, Moore Spain, ancient Egypt, where our ancestors were kings, scholars, and saints. This connection between ancient Egypt, Moore civilization, and African Americans are therefore not tenuous, they are profound and tangible. African American culture today is a mosaic enriched by each of these historical currents. It is the product of a millennia transference from the Niger Valley Valley to the Niger, from the Niger to the savannah and forest, from there across the Atlantic, carrying wisdom and spirit. By understanding this deep heritage, we appreciate that African Americans are heirs to a legacy far older and grander than slavery alone. We are the living link to the civilizations of Africa, including pharaonic Egypt and the Moorish Empire, by the way by way of the long road of history. Each blues note, each folk tale, each act of resilience is, in a sense, a modern manifestation of that ancient continuum.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:53

Solid brother. Yo, man, I wish I had uh some claps. I need more sound effects, man. Hold on. No, that ain't the sound effect. Hold on. There we go. Another bomb. Brother, that was an excellent presentation. I need y'all to hit the like, share button, and all of that. I need y'all to share this this uh this video. Brother Moriel Smith Smith L is that guy. He's the future. He is the future. I'm telling y'all. I'm predicting it. Predicting it. Put him in the algorithms, man. It's a shame. The next time I put your video up or we do something, I'm gonna put your name in the title so you can get in the algorithms. We need to get this young brother in the algorithms, y'all. Please share this. Share this, share this video. Um Islam. Islam.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:53

Uh finish what you were saying. I wanted to uh just briefly share how early blues songs sound exactly like how Muslims say the Don.

unknown 1:18:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:47

No. Can't hear it.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:50

Can't can't really hear it.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:53

Okay. We're gonna do a try it another time.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:56

So but I mean, they could look this up. Slave Plantation Field Hollering and the Islamic Prayer uh Compared. Period. Put that that's in the that's on YouTube for my uh my audio listeners on Spotify and Apple. Um it's on YouTube. Slave Plantation Fill Hollering and the Islamic Prayer Compared.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:19

Get the book Servants of Allah by Sylvian Joth. Sylviane Joe, get the book Servants of Allah by Sylvian Joe.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:30

Thank you for that presentation, brother.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:32

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:33

I really appreciate you. And we out of here.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:37

If you got any last words, man, we just went through thousands of years in history in about an hour and a half.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:44

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:45

And each each of those sections could have been an own presentation of within itself.

Sephardic Jewish Links To West And Central Africa

SPEAKER_04 1:19:50

Indeed. Yes, sir. Indeed. Peace to everybody in the chat. Thank y'all guys for viewing. We are out of here. See y'all tomorrow. Uh the Brother Mikey Fever. He is on uh dealing with Santa and stuff like that. You know, on this platform, we deal with it all. You know what I'm saying? Wednesday, we're back with uh uh we we got some Pan-Africanism on Wednesday. We got some, we got we got the brother Son of Man coming back to build with us. Uh we got we got a lot going on this week, man. Next week, too. Anyway, thank y'all for following. Like, share, comment, subscribe, all that good stuff. We out of here.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:34

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