Journal of African Civilizations, Vol 11, Fall 1991
Ivan Van Sertima (Editor)
Page 185: Pimienta-Bey cites Dr. Diop
Dr. Diop, he states that the Moorish family in Mauritania, maintain manuscripts in which their genealogy is minutely traced. Dr. Diop, also goes on to say that the Moors are descendants of "post-Islamic invaders." He states: "starting from Yemen, ( the Moors ) conquered Egypt, North Africa, and Spain between the seventh and fifteenth centuries. From Spain they fell back on Africa. Thus the Moors are basically Arab Moslems whose installation in Africa is quite resent. Numerous manuscripts preserved by the principal Moorish families in Mauritania today, manuscripts in which their genealogy is minutely traced since their departure from Yemen, testify to their origin. Moors are therefore a branch of those whom it is customary to call Semites. (remember Ruth the Moabites, and their genealogy, Jessie, begat King David, and David begat Salmon/Suleiman, meaning King Solomon, and also the word house means lineage.) The reign of King Solomon, the magnificent (1520-1566)."
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Section 4:
Who are these Moors? The Moors are black people indigenous to Mauretania. "Mr. Chandler tells us of a different race of Moors who were known as Garamantes/Caucasians, they intermarried with the Black Moors, thus became the 'tawny Moors' or 'white Moors'."
According to Dana Reynolds, the original Black Berbers, who were called Moors, were the North African ancestors of the present day dark-brown and dark-black peoples of the Sahara and the Sahel, mainly those called Fulani, Tuareg, Zenagha of Southern Morocco, Kunta and Tebbu of the Sahel countries as well as other black Arabs now living in Mauretania and throughout the Sahel, they include Trarza of Mauretania and Senegal, the Mogharba as well as dozens of other Sudanese tribes, the Chaamba of Chad and Algeria. Apart from her very detailed study of the origins and affiliations of the various tribes, she points out that the Africans involved in the Moorish occupation of Iberia did not just build remarkable things in Europe but also in their native lands. They founded and constructed many industrious and prosperous towns all over the north of Africa and as far south as Timbuktu. The ruins of their many castles can be seen as much in Northern Africa as in Andalusia.
The evidence Reynolds presents to establish the Africoid base of the Berbers is challenged by Wayne Chandler who insists that the Berbers were already heavily mixed with a Caucasoid element before the Moorish invasion. They were classified as the "tawny Moors." They are the result of a mixing of black Africans (the Garamantes of the Sahara) with a race of white Libyans. This clash of views has led to a stimulating debate.
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