Kusum Choppra

   Zanzibar, a minute archipelago off Tanzania, East Africa faces India across the Indian Ocean.    It passed from the hands of local Swahilis, into Arabs, Oman and British hands over centuries; but, the earliest reference to the Indian Ocean trade hub was written in a commercial guide to oceanic trade by an anonymous sailor from Alexandria in 1 st century CE. By the 8 th - 10 centuries the Zanzibar Swahili combine with Mombasa, Kilwa, Lamu and Bagamayo, was trading goods from the interior with visiting merchants from not only India, but also Indonesia and China; effectively making the Swahili civilization the meeting point of the diverse East African and West Asian cultures. No political invasions happened but a cultural footprint did evolve in food, dress, religious, costumes and most, architecture – telling a story of constant change and cosmopolitan integration, not invasion.    Foodgrains, cloves, ivory, mangrove poles and slave magnets drew...

Almost half a century before Micheal Cremo’s trilogy, Forbidden Archaelogy, The Hidden History of the Human Race and Human Devolution challenged Darwin's theory of human evolution, Senegal’s Dr. Leopold Senghor held that man evolved from animal almost 2.5 million years ago; pinpointing South India as the first host of a civilization, where Man evolved into himself, and then Africa. Civilization in Africa reached its zenith in Egypt. Building upon historical research identifying ancient Egypt with black Africa, he argued that sub-Saharan Africa and Europe are in fact part of the same cultural continuum; in the fifth century BC, the torch was passed from Egypt to Classical Greece; then through Rome to the European colonial powers of the modern age.   Meanwhile India conserved her civilization through to the present times. Senghor held that the Dravidian and Sumerian (precursor of Mesopotamia) languages are clearly related to each other, indicating early contact and influe...