THE GLOBAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY
T R A V E L N O T E S
KNOSSOS AND THE ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM ON THE ISLAND OF CRETE Greetings Family,
It is my second day in Crete and I saw my first African today. I was beginning to think that I was the only one here and I was going to compose you a long dramatic letter to that effect. But as I was contemplating the situation over a Greek lunch an African street vendor passed by and we briefly mumbled pleasantries. If I wasn't so shocked and he did not have a handful of products I probably would have invited him to lunch. Today was a good day. I finally got to the archaeological site called Knossos. It is only about eight kilometers from the city center. I took a taxi to the place and a bus back. You know that I have reached a comfort zone when I start using public transportation. Knossos is a heavily restored site and heavily reconstructed also. The work was begun by the English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans with his own money I think back in the 1920s or so. It is a lovely site, an ancient palace with vivid frescoes and bright red pillars, set amidst hills and trees. A gentle breeze was blowing and most of visitors were young school children. I liked Knossos and thought the closest comparison was to Great Zimbabwe in Southern Africa. The same kind of energy I experienced in both places.
The island of Crete, for those of you who might not know, was the basis, according to Cheikh Anta Diop and Martin Bernal, of the mythical lost continent of Atlantis. Try reviewing Diop's Civilization or Barbarism and volume two of Black Athena by Bernal. My old brother and research partner Dr. James E. Brunson also did some very good work on the subject back in the 1980s. You can find it in Ivan Van Sertima's African Presence in Early Europe anthology.
According to the legends, the Greek god Zeus saw a beautiful Phoenician princess named Europa. He wanted her so much that one day when Europa (an African woman?) was at the sea shore Zeus turned into a white bull and laid down in front of her. Europa was entranced by the bull, jumped on his back and away Zeus flew with her to the island of Crete. On Crete Zeus raped Europa. Does this sound like a familiar story? Apparently this is where the name Europe derives from. Anyway, from this union came three sons, one of which was named Minos who became the island's ruler. It is from the name Minos that we derive the name for the civilization of Crete called the Minoan. John G. Jackson writes about this in his Introduction to African Civilization.
The Minoans were a great maritime power in the second millennium BCE. They had many palatial cities and traded far and wide, and even had relations with ancient Kmt. Apparently during the reign of the mighty Thutmose III Crete was an Egyptian vassal state and Knossos was an extremely important Minoan center. Evans actually believed that the impetus for Minoan civilization came from the arrival of African settlers from Libya and Lower Egypt who moved to Crete when Upper and Lower Egypt were unified towards the end of the fourth millennium BCE. So there are a lot of connections. You don't think that I am spending all this money to be here on a humbug do you?
So I enjoyed my visit to Knossos today and it is something that I have wanted to do for a very long time. In my first book, way back in 1983, a self-published manuscript that I called Kushite Case-Studies, I wrote a chapter on Crete and it is that chapter that I am going to develop in my new book. Well, there is nothing quite like seeing a place for yourself with your own eyes and so, following Knossos, I went to the Archaeological Museum. It too was well worth the visit, and as I am here try to fill in my missing historical pages and gathering data for the new book,
I saw several important things. First, the prominence of the female. If anything, in ancient Crete the female enjoyed a status at least the equal to that of a man. Indeed, she seems to have been far more important. The goddess, in particular, not the god, reigned supreme. All of the evidence corroborates this. This does not sound like white folks to me. Secondly, the Kamite/Minoan connection was pronounced. I even found a reproduction of a Minoan wall painting in a north Egyptian palace of the great Ahmose I, founder the illustrious Kamite dynasty XVIII. Even the color schemes seemed familiar with people generally painted a chalky color for the women and reddish-brown for the men. Third, I found a depiction of a Black man from Knossos dated around 1400 BCE. He is in a piece of art called "The Captain of the Blacks." I took a bunch of photos of the piece as I could not find it any book and certainly none of the post cards. And, point number four, I found another good Africoid depiction of Roman Emperor Septimius Severus. So I had a very good day, this day, possibly my best day ever in Greece.
Well, it is Friday night in the city and the music is jumping. I guess that this is my signal to return to my hotel as I never was a jumper anyway and certainly don't figure to jump here. Let me just send an email to my biological family to let them know that I have not disappeared from the face of the earth, although I travel so much now that I figure that they stopped worrying about me a long time ago. And there does not seem to be much to worry about anyway. The cyber cafe is just across the street from my hotel and people do not seem unfriendly.
Tomorrow I will try to visit at least one, perhaps two more archaeological sites. I will post if you if I can. If not, just look for me in the whirlwind. So far it is a very positive experience.
In love of Africa,
Brother Runoko
Copyright © 1998 Runoko Rashidi. All rights reserved.
Posted/Revised: July 27, 2005
Webpage design: Kenneth Ritchards