THE GLOBAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY

H I S T O R Y   N O T E S

THE ANCIENT SUMERIANS OF SOUTHWEST ASIA

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

"`What became of the Black people of Sumer?'  the traveler asked the old man, for ancient records show that the people of Sumer were Black. `What happened to them?'  'Ah,' the old man sighed.  `They lost their history, so they died.'"

Evidence of the presence of African people in ancient Southwest Asia is documented by Homer, who describes the Blacks, or "Ethiopians," as "dwelling at the ends of the earth, towards the setting and rising sun."  The Greek historian Ephorus wrote that "the Ethiopians were considered as occupying all the south coasts of both Asia and Africa, divided by the Red Sea into Eastern and Western Asiatic and African."

Sumer (located in southern Iraq, formerly Mesopotamia) was the first civilization in Southwest Asia.  Prospering during the third millennium B.C.E., Sumer set the guidelines for the kingdoms and empires which followed her.  While Sumer's many achievements are much celebrated, the important question of the ethnic composition of her citizens is frequently either glossed over or left out of the discussion altogether. Since the civilization of ancient Sumer has been claimed by other peoples, it is important to set the record straight.  Sumerian civilization was an extension of Nile Valley civilization "of which Egypt was the noblest-born but not the only child."  The ancient Sumerians referred to themselves as the Blackheaded people.  There is also no doubt that the oldest and most exalted deity of the Sumerians was Anu, a name that loudly recalls the thriving and widely-spread Black civilizers found at history's dawn in Africa, Asia and even Europe. Eye-witness accounts, skeletal evidence, Biblical references, architectural patterns and oral traditions all point to an early African origin for the Sumerians of ancient southwest Asia.

SOURCE:
African Presence In Early Asia, Edited by Runoko Rashidi & Ivan Van Sertima
African Origins Of Civilization, by Cheikh Anta Diop

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Revised: October 15, 2000.
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