Was Hannibal Black?
Black school children have long admired Hannibal as a racial role model.
The reasons for this are many but the main reason is that in urban cities
black nationalist in order to upgrade black self esteem have used the public educational system to promote baseless claims.
When I was nine years old,
I recall seeing a picture of a black Hannibal on a large elephant,
not seeing many black historical figures at my young age,
I readily accepted as truth that Hannibal was black.
Why would my teacher lie to me, and top it off the poster was sponsored
by "Pepsi Cola"!
Well over the years I now know the truth, and that truth is that it was highly
unlikely that Hannibal thought of himself as black.
I seriously doubt if they thought as we do about race today.
To me this is simply a csae of black leftist forcing their prejudice ideas on to history.
It seems based on the facts that Hannibal was directly descended from Lebanese sailors who came from Phoenicia around the 800's-600's BC and started the North African colony of Carthage.
Which would make him semetic, but you can still be dark and semetic.
Some controversy has been stirred up in recent years by an unreleased 20th Century Fox film project titled "Hannibal", starring Denzel Washington in the title role. It is notable that Vin Diesel is also planning his own project, in which he would take the starring role.
Traditionally, Hannibal has been played by white actors, which some regard as questionable. Though certain nationalist or ethnocentric sources maintain that there is no clear evidence what background Hannibal hailed from, the argument against his Semitic origin is similar to that against the Ptolemies of Egypt being of Graeco-Macedonian origin. Some sources maintain that it's "possible Hannibal was the product of a coupling with a native 'Black' African," it is highly unlikely.
Beyond his coin and artistic representations, the society Hannibal came from was very ethnocentric itself, and had Hannibal been of a Sub-Saharan African origin - he would have certainly not been able to advance in Carthage. There is local evidence that very distinctly clarifies the nature of Carthaginian race relations, and even other Semitic cultures were denied citizenship on a wholely arbitrary basis.
It is also worth noting that no recognized authorities on the subject of Carthaginian antiquity supports the idea of African, or even mixed Afro-Semitic origin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal
posted by Libertas @ 5/02/2006 02:30:00 PM
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I am very happy to find when historical figures are black. For example the writers Alexander Dumas and Collette were black. And it appears that Jesus' mom Mary was from Eithiopia. But I oppose pretending that some historical figures were black, when they were not. This doesn't help advance black folks today. Hannibal was Lebonese, and Cleopatra and the Ptolomies were Greek. A Roman coin, similar to the one you display for Hanibal, clearly charactorizes Cleo as a mere honkey. I attended FAMU, the nation's largest black university, and swallowed whole all the cock-eyed claims, such as Cleopatra being black.
Although I now require facts, and apply an open mind, I also applaud disregarding race in casting roles, even of historical figures. Why not have a black man play Hannibal? My only objection would be to any claims that the real Hannibal was black. But embracing black actors playing Bonaparte and Ceaser? Why not.
Did you see the recent PBS special showed where scientists did a DNA study of the ancient Phoenicians, who had settled in Lebanon, which indicated that they were not Lebanese, but had the same blood-line as the Egyptians, who still carry the DNA of the Black pharaohs -- a distictive blood-line from most other Arabs... just some more bit of facts to add to your open mindness. Remember the race story that U.S. created also one drop makes you black.
I don't know if you were able to see the recent PBS special showed where scientists did a DNA study of the ancient Phoenicians, who had settled in Lebanon, which indicated that they were not Lebanese, but had the same blood-line as the Egyptians, who still carry the DNA of the Black pharaohs -- a distictive blood-line from most other Arabs...
Remember the race story that was created in the U.S. one drop of African blood makes you black. Maybe that's why we consider him black. Just some more notes to add to your open mindness.
Paul,
You sound ignorant - Attending FAMU does not make you an authority on who is black and who is not - In this world there have been so much mass movement of people that you cannot say conclusively that one race or what people occupied what nation - To those of you who thought that blacks African where not allowed in Egypt go to show how silly you sound. The Pharonic Egypt saw themselves as Egyptians - Skin color was imaterial you fools. Imhotep was black and so where many of the Egyptian kings - No mater what we do the facts cannot be change - They will still come back to prove us wrong - Was Michale Jackson black?
honestly this is the most "house-negroish" site i have come across.
The first girl(BS..ironic) has a question on her myspace page that says "what is so wrong with black people thinking for themselves?"
smh.
Initially i would suspect that thinking for yourself exempt you from identifying with a 2 party system, both of who oppress the very people your question is aimed at.
i could go on and on with sniping these supposed "educated negrows" but it would do no good.
But some friendly advice, liberate yourselves from the status quo, two party system and start thinking for yourself. Then...smh, im sorry but i feel most of you are hopeless so why even go on, please realize that the "party" you affiliate, sees you as nothing but house negroes.
please refer to these sites for help
http://www.assaultonblacksanity.blogspot.com/
http://blackmystory.wordpress.com/
http://field-negro.blogspot.com/
thats just a start follow the links from those pages and it should act as bread crumbs to hansel and gretel to lead you back to consciousness
It is also worth noting that no recognized authorities on the subject of Egyptian antiquity supports the idea that the ancient Egyptians were a black people. And yet all you have to do is look at the statues of figures such as Thutmose and Ramses II...thick lips, wide nose...and yet the Egyptians were still "white"?
I'm not saying Hannibal was most certainly black...its difficult for us to know this. But blacks were all throughout North Africa, its asinine to think blacks were restricted to sub-Saharan africa. Ancient historians have spoken of the Phonecians as being black. And most importantly, "white out" has been applied to so much ancient history which calls a lot of history into question.
Was Hannibal black? We're not sure. But was Hannibal black? We are equally unsure of this. Instead of always consulting the literature of white historians and white controlled institutions (which are often biased) take a look at the research and literature of some historians of Africans, even Basil Davidson. Both sides may have some bias, but do look at both sides.
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