Africa's Gift to the World

By W. D. Palmer

This is an educational book on African slavery and the creation of the African diaspora from the 15th century to the 21st century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9781728371955

W. D. Palmer

Walter. D. Palmer is the founder and director of the W.D. Palmer Foundation (est. 1955), a repository of information-gathering on racism in health, education, employment, housing, courts, prisons, higher education, military, government, politics, law, banking, insurance, and more. He is also the founder of the Black People’s University of Philadelphia (1955) Freedom School, which was the grassroots organizing and training center for grassroots community and political leadership both in Philadelphia and nationally. These organizations were run as nonprofit unincorporated associations from 1955 until 1980, when the W.D. Palmer Foundation received its 501(c)(3) federal tax exemption status. W.D. Palmer has also been a professor, teaching American Racism at the University of Pennsylvania since the 1960s and today he is a member of the President’s Commission on 1619, the 400-year anniversary of African slavery in America. Professor Palmer has been a social activist leading the fight against racial injustice for over 70 years in Philadelphia and around the nation. In 2018, Philadelphia honored him for the organizing work he did to reform the Philadelphia school system in 1967.

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AFRICA’S GIFT

TO THE WORLD:

THE AFRICAN

DIASPORA

©

2020 W.D.Palmer. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

AuthorHouse™

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in

this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views

expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the

views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-7283-7194-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-7195-5 (e)

Published by AuthorHouse 12/15/2020

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Walter D. Palmer Leadership School

Acknowledgments

Notice

Dedication

Africa

Liberia

Ghana

Mali

Songhay

Antarctica

Asia

China

India

Indian Subcontinent and Asia

Middle East

Europe

France

Spain

North America

Antigua

Anguilla

Aruba

Bahamas

Barbados

Belize

Bermuda

Bonaire

British Virgin Islands

Canada

Cayman Islands

Clipperton Island

Caribbean Netherlands

Costa Rica

Cuba

Curacao

Dominica

Dominican Republic

El Salvador

Greenland

Grenada

Guadeloupe

Guatemala

Haiti

Hawaii

Honduras

Jamaica

Martinique

Mexico

Montserrat

Navassa Island

Nicaragua

Panama

Puerto Rico

Saba

Saint Barthelemy

Saint Croix

Saint Eustatius

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Saint John

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Saint Martin

Saint Pierre and Miquelon

Saint Thomas

Saint Vincent & the Grenadines

Tobago

Trinidad

The Virgin Islands

Turks and Caicos

United States

South America

Argentina

Bolivia

Brazil

Chile

Colombia

Ecuador

Falkland Islands

French Guiana

Guyana

Paraguay

Peru

Suriname

Uruguay

Venezuela

Oceania

Australia

Federated States of Micronesia

Melanesia

New Zealand

Papua New Guinea

Polynesian Islands

Solomon Islands

Public Appeal

A Brief Biography of Professor Walter Palmer

About the Artist

Investigators and Contributors

W. D. Palmer Foundation Hashtags

Bibliography

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WALTER D. PALMER LEADERSHIP SCHOOL

Currently W. D. Palmer is the founder and director of the W. D. Palmer Foundation (est. 1955), as a repository of information-gathering on racism in health, education, employment, housing, courts, prisons, higher education, military, government, politics, law, banking, insurance, etc.

He is also the founder of the Black People’s University of Philadelphia (1955) Freedom School, which was the grassroots organizing and training center for grassroots community and political leadership in Philadelphia and nationally. These organizations were run as non profit unincorporated associations from 1955 until 1980 when the Palmer Foundation received its 501(c)(3) federal tax exemption status.

W. D. Palmer has also been a professor, teaching American Racism at the University of Pennsylvania since the 1960’s and today he is a member of the Presidents Commission on 1619, the 400 year anniversary of African slavery in America.

Professor Palmer has been a social activist leading the fight against racial injustice for over seventy years in Philadelphia and around the nation. In 2018, Philadelphia honored him for the organizing work he did to reform the Philadelphia school system in 1967.

In 2020, Philadelphia honored him for 65 years of fighting for social justice throughout the country. In 1980, he led the fight for parental school choice which helped the Governor of Pennsylvania get a law passed in 1997, and in 2000 he created the Walter D. Palmer Leadership Charter School.

In 2005, he borrowed eleven million dollars to build a 55 thousand square-foot two story building on two acres of land in North Philadelphia, which was donated to the school by the City of Philadelphia, and because of the school’s rapid growth, in 2010 he acquired the Saint Bartholomew Catholic High School, for his middle and high school.

In ten years, the school grew from three hundred elementary and middle school students, to two hundred preschoolers and over a thousand kindergarten to twelfth graders. In 2005,

W. D. Palmer commissioned a muralist to paint over four hundred pre-selected portraits on the school walls, corridors, and stairwells, with a goal to paint thirty fifteen foot murals in the gymnatorium.

Although the Walter D. Palmer Leadership School recruited at risk children that were from seventeen of the poorest zip codes in Philadelphia and 300 percent below poverty, the school boasted of a 95% daily attendance, 100% high school graduation, and 100% post graduate placement in four year and two year colleges, trade and technology schools, or military until the school’s closing in 2015.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to take this time to acknowledge from the beginning of the Palmer Foundation, 1955, the many contributors who helped to gather information, organize, and write the leadership, self-development, and social awareness curriculums.

From the Palmer Foundation’s inception, these contributors have been composed of community members, elementary, middle- and high-school students, as well as college student volunteers and interns, along with professional contributors.

We chose this method and process because it was consistent with our history, vision, philosophy, mission, and goals of always developing leadership in practice.

These groups, who have helped to produce our materials, are the same cohorts who over the years have helped to teach and train others as well as helped to develop a national database through which these curriculum and training materials can be distributed.

The story of the Palmer Foundation is the story of building community and leadership at the same time, and the Palmer Foundation wants to give an enthusiastic endorsement in recognition of the thousands of people who have been with us on this long and arduous journey.

We want to take this time to thank the many community leaders and people that have invited us into their communities to help them reclaim and restore the many values, properties, and people who may have been threatened with the loss of finance, property, and life, because they are the true heroes and heroines that made the Palmer Foundation the success that it has become.

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NOTICE

Any proceeds derived from the sales or donations of this book will go towards the development of additional leadership and educational curriculum, as well as training materials for our at-risk children and their families living in marginal communities.

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DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the millions of Africans that perished in the European slave trade from the 15th century until the 19th century. During this period there have been different accounts as to the actual number of Africans that were taken from Africa during the slave trade. It is estimated that the Arabs who invaded Africa in the eighth century took ten million back to Arabia. Brazil imported ten million into Brazil and was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery. Although the United States was late getting into the slave trade, it is estimated that America imported ten million Africans between 1619-1865. This does not take into consideration the loss of African civilization, culture, customs, language, history and natural resources. During that period of time, over four to six million Africans died between the middle voyages and heavy lynches and murders in the United States. Due to their status in America.

Unfortunately, we cannot determine how many Africans in the United States have died or were adversely affected physically, mentally or emotionally from four hundred years of slavery, racism, discrimination, and segregation. We all must remember that Africa is the origin of humanity, the first civilization, and all human beings on Earth descended from Africa a single ancestral group that lived in Africa about 170,000 years ago, as noted by Ulf Gyllenstez at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. He also states that modern humans spread across the globe from Africa in an exodus that took place across 50,000 years ago.

W. D. Palmer

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Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)

Nelson Mandela was a South African activist who fought to end apartheid. He advocated

for human rights and led protests against the white minority regime that oppressed people of

color which resulted in his imprisonment for almost 30 years. After he was released and helped

completely end the apartheid, he went on to be the first black president of South Africa.

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AFRICA

The following topics will be discussed:

• Early exploration

• Early African commerce, migration, exploitation, enslavement

• Resistance to slavery and colonization

o Runaway

o Arms

o Education

o Laws

• How did African slavery improve the economy of the areas where they were enslaved?

• What is America’s relationship today with the countries that had African slavery?

Every single person in the world, no matter the race, ethnicity, or religion, shares a common ancestry that dates back to the single African origin of humans, and their migration to all other regions of the world. Every ethnic group, every race, and every person in any region of the world has an ancestor that came from Africa. While Africa has given much to the world in many different forms, Africa’s greatest gift to the world is its diaspora.

Humans are scientifically known as Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens constitute part of a group called hominids, the earliest human-like organisms on Earth. Certain characteristics specific to hominids, such as bipedalism, the use of symbols, and the use of tools, separate them from other animals. These are the characteristics that make us human. Scientific advancements and research, specifically with dating techniques, have allowed archeologists to pinpoint fossils and other geological evidence to determine approximate time humans originated in and migrated out of Africa. It is believed that hominids originated in Africa and diverged from other primates around 2.5 to 4 million years ago. While the earliest human descendants originated millions of years ago, human migration outside of Africa is believed not to have begun until as recently as 70,000 to 100,000 years ago.

For instance, archeological and fossil evidence shows that Africans reached the Australian continent by traveling in canoes by way of Southern Asia sometime between 35,000 and 65,000 years ago. However, how humans managed to migrate across oceans to other regions of the world, specifically the Americas, is debated. There are two prevailing theories, either that early humans came across the Bering Strait land bridge into the Americas and beyond or they traveled a more coastal route along the western coast of the Americas -- both of which would have occurred 15,000 to 20,000 years ago. Regardless of how they arrived, early humans spread out across the world and ended up populating nearly every continent.

Humans settled onto nearly every continent, and there are some notable early examples of human civilization, the first of which arose in the most fertile, productive areas of the world. A famous example of this is the Fertile Crescent, which is an area of fertile valleys in the modern Middle East where both the Tigris and Euphrates and the Nile rivers run. Sumer, which arose in 400 BCE, is the earliest known civilization that arose around the Mediterranean Sea, as the waterways allowed for trade and travel. The Minoan civilization, which was located in Crete, Greece’s largest island, is thought to be the