The Seminar deliberated on African history in order to throw more light on the unlighted aspects of the African past. The Seminar was proud to learn that one of the world’s early universities was in Timbuktu, Mali and from there to Fez in Morocco, where Arab scholars took the University idea to Cairo in Egypt. The Universities of Bologna, Cologne, Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College, Peking and Peking University, St Charles University, Prague, the Sorbonne, Paris, the Technical University Kharkov, became Centers of learning before the famous American Universities came into being.
(2) Civilization and the enlightenment of the human spirit were accelerated by the University idea. There is only ONE UNIVERSITY, others are Universities of…and no matter where they are located, they reflect the orthodoxy of the UNIVERSITAS. The University idea is Africa’s major contribution to world knowledge development.
(3) The Old Africa was called GUINEA. Its currency was called GUINEA GOLD. It was the universal currency because of its pure gold content. Climate change broke up GUINEA. Today, its remnants are the Republic of Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Papua New Guinea, Guinea Bissau. Its citizens looked like the Aborigines of Australia, the Tamil people and the Indian Sudra.
In Timbuktu, manuscripts were sold to Arabs of the Maghreb nations and were avidly read in the entire Middle East and beyond. Knowledge was transferred to Europe in the fields of algebra, geometry and arithmetic, just like the Universities of America benefited from German and European scholarship after the Second World War. The Rocket scientist, Von Braun assisted in the development of American ROCKET SCIENCE.
(4) The Seminar urged African scholars and scientists to document the part, which Africans have played in world cultural diplomacy, spiritual revival of the human race and international understanding. Africans should TAKE INDEPENDENT POSITIONS IN WORLD AFFAIRS and not yield to partisan affiliations like was the case in Libya.
Positive reactions to the outcome of the International Seminar on the Future of Africa and the New World Economic Order are overwhelming. We shall collate and publish them and present them during the February edition of the Seminar.
More reactions are welcome. Africans should move from gluttonous existence to intellectual pursuits in order to contribute positively to the advancement of mankind and not be consumers of other races intellectual exertions.
The Bradford Initiative Collective
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