as rightly said, prejudice creeps into the definition of what a boat, canoe or ship might be.
This is equivalent to the opportunistic use of the word 'clay, ' which eurocentrics usually
call 'mud' when speaking about Africa.
Cheryl Ward, an archeologist from Florida State University, Kathryn Bard of Boston University, and
Rodolfo Fattovich of the University of Naples l'Orientale, dated some wooden planks from an Egyptian
vessel found in 2006 to about 2000BC. This is not the oldest African vessel found to date, though.
The Dufuna boat/ vessel from northeast Nigeria is 4000 years older than the Egyptian, or any
vessel found in the continent, inclusive of Carthage.
It is apparently one of the three oldest vessels in the world found to date.
For more on the Dufuna boat go to:
http://www.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de/~sfb268/c7/dufuna.htm
Gloria Emeagwali
www.africahistory.net/afrihist.htm<http://www.africahistory.net/afrihist.htm>
________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Anunoby, Ogugua [AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 9:52 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com; AfroCentrikWorld@yahoogroups.com; Mwananchi; naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - THE NECESSITY OF STUDYING HISTORY:THE PLACE OF CARTHAGE IN AFRICAN TECHNOLOGICAL AND MILITARY HISTORY
"I had thought Africans had never built ships."
Ta
Who were the Carthaginians? They were Africans of course because Carthage is believed to have been within present day Tunisia. Were Carthaginians black, white or something else. Some historians report that Carthage was settled by Phoenicians who were a successful ancient sea trading people. The Phoenicians understandably must have settled in other places on both the shore areas of the Mediterranean sea and Northwest Africa. What is not clear is whether the Phoenicians started new Mediterranean shoreline towns and cities like Carthage or whether they integrated or meshed with existing (indigenous) populations. Carthage was one of the Phoenicians more successful settlements. We know more about Carthage because of her wars with Rome as recorded by Roman historians.
What is meant by ships though? A canoe is a boat. Could a ship be a big boat? Is a ship a boat that is self powered or wind powered? All sea faring people in history built ships. Some reductive and prejudiced historians choose to call ships built by civilizations outside Europe and North Asia, canoes. Polynesians in spite of their successful conquest of both the Indian and Pacific Oceans are always reported in European history books as traveling by canoes.
In ancient times, navies were usually flotillas of canoes or war canoes. It did not matter that the canoes were big. Their canoes (ships) were powered by oarsmen. Wind propulsion came later. What might be added is that the objectives of sea travelers help to inform the size of the sea vehicle. if the seafarers are plunderers for example, they are more likely to travel in a big canoe.
oa
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of toyin adepoju
Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 6:37 AM
To: usaafricadialogue; AfroCentrikWorld@yahoogroups.com; Mwananchi; naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - THE NECESSITY OF STUDYING HISTORY:THE PLACE OF CARTHAGE IN AFRICAN TECHNOLOGICAL AND MILITARY HISTORY
I had thought Africans had never built ships.Then I saw this on the Wikipedia article on Carthage,<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthage> a civilization that was in North Africa,in present day Tunisa,centuries before its eventual domination by Arabs:
"The navy of Carthage was one of the largest in the Mediterranean<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean>, using serial production<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_production> to maintain high numbers at moderate cost. The sailors and marines<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marines> of the Carthaginian navy were predominantly recruited from the Punic<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punic> citizenry, unlike the multi-national allied and mercenary<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenary> troops of the Carthaginian armies. The navy offered a stable profession and financial security for its sailors. This helped to contribute to the city's political stability, since the unemployed, debt ridden poor in other cities were frequently inclined to support revolutionary leaders in the hope of improving their own lot.[10]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthage#cite_note-9> The reputation of her skilled sailors implies that there was in peacetime a training of oarsmen and coxswains, giving their navy a cutting edge in naval matters. The trade of Carthaginian merchantmen was by land across the Sahara and especially by sea throughout the Mediterranean and far into the Atlantic to the tin-rich islands of Britain and to West Africa. There is evidence that at least one Punic expedition under Hanno<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanno_the_Navigator> sailed along the West African coast to regions south of the Tropic of Cancer<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropic_of_Cancer>, describing how the sun was in the north at noon".
I was even more struck to read that the Romans upgraded their warships through the adaptation of Carthaginian ships:
"Polybius<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybius> wrote in the sixth book of his History that the Carthaginians were "more exercised in maritime affairs than any other people."[11]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthage#cite_note-10> Their navy included some 300 to 350 warships. The Romans, who had little experience in naval warfare prior to the First Punic War<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Punic_War>, managed to finally defeat Carthage with a combination of reverse engineering captured Carthaginian ships, recruitment of experienced Greek<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeks> sailors from the ranks of its conquered cities, the unorthodox corvus<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvus_%28weapon%29> device, and their superior numbers in marines and rowers. In the Third Punic War<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Punic_War> Polybius describes a tactical innovation of the Carthaginians, augmenting their few triremes with small vessels that carried hooks (to attack the oars) and fire (to attack the hulls). With this new combination, they were able to stand their ground against the superior Roman numbers for a whole day."
The article describes the culture and records of Carthage as destroyed by Rome at the end of the Third Punic War.
The effect of this Roman victory on global civilization is so described:
"Over the course of the next century, these three major conflicts between Rome and Carthage would determine the course of Western civilization. The wars included a Carthaginian invasion led by Hannibal<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Barca>, which nearly prevented the rise of the Roman Empire. Eventual victory by Rome was a turning point which meant that the civilization of the ancient Mediterranean would pass to the modern world via Southern Europe instead of North Africa".
It is vital to cross-check Wikipedia with more definitive scholarly data. I expect this information is accurate,though, on account of the fame of Carthage in its wars against Rome,in which it is described as occupying Italy for some years.
Thanks
Toyin
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