Speculation is growing that ancient "racists" living in North Africa helped create the Sahara Desert as a means of preventing immigration into their lands by the group subsequently known as Sub-Saharan Africans, who, it is reported, are still "getting their lives together" after millennia of racism.
The "blue sky thinking" about this ancient mystery follows research by archaeologists working with Seoul National University that suggests that the Sahara Desert was once a green and wet area that was dried out as a result of the deliberate actions of ancient people.
The massive area now covered by the desert was teeming with life until some 6,000 years ago, when it became a hot, waterless wasteland, impossible to cross without the aid of camels. It thus served as an extremely effective barrier against Sub-Saharan Africans keen to take advantage of the much higher living standards in the affluent societies that grew up in North Africa, like Ancient Egypt and Carthage.
For many years, this desertification of the Sahara was seen as a random act of Mother Nature and connected to the melting of some glaciers, but now the process is thought to have been man-made. Archaeologist David Wright has published a paper in "Frontiers in Earth Science" in which he argues that the cause of the Sahara's drying out was human activity.
Some 8,000 years ago, humans in the Middle East and North Africa underwent the Neolithic Revolution, which included deforesting, farming, and herding techniques. While most areas were farmed in a careful and sustainable way in order to maintain a constant supply of food, the Sahara area was apparently farmed in a way that led to its complete desertification.
This would be a senseless act unless it was done with a clear "racist" purpose, namely to create a barrier to prevent Black Africans moving North.
This thesis suggests that even in Neolithic times the problem of racism was deeply embedded in human nature, although it appears that some groups North of the Sahara mixed freely due to the institution of slavery.
The desertification theory is also problematic for "Black Pride" activists and "Hoteps," because it makes it clear that Blacks could not have been present in ancient Egypt, and so could not have been "kangz."
On the plus side, the theory opens the way for Blacks to demand reparations from Ancient Egypt or its successor states for this ancient injustice.
On the plus side, the theory opens the way for Blacks to demand reparations from Ancient Egypt or its successor states for this ancient injustice.
