Africans Invented the Scientific Method

The scientific method is based on philosophical principles that guide scientific research and experimentation in order to obtain satisfying answers. The essential point is to have results reproducible by any competent scientist in the world. Ancestors to these principles were originally mythological stories dealing with supernatural beings and their forces. Later, because Africans needed to control such earthly problems as earthquakes, tornadoes, lightening, and natural disasters presumably caused by supernatural spirits, they invented magic. Three subdivisions of the practices of magic used to attempt to force spirits into compliance included: (1) the magic of the word (believing words to be real things that soar into the intangible and the immaterial regions of the universe); (2) the magic of the human being himself; and (3) the magic of acts of ritual used as a force. The patterns resulting from trying to make magic happen were the world's first (crude) scientific method. A step above this primitive method resulted from Africans trying to find an absolute anchor in the earth world to serve as a point of stability for all decision-making and problem-solving. They wanted it to resemble God's absolute permanence, changelessness, and timelessness in the spiritual world. Mathematics was chosen as this earthly standard. Mathematics also had the advantage of satisfying the business needs for weights, size measurements, numbers, mass, and volume required by African farmers, shepherds, traders, and builders. A third giant step came when the Black Egyptian Imhotep (c2600 BC) introduced the beginnings of the formal scientific method. As the architect and builder of the world's first Step Pyramid done for religious purposes, Imhotep needed lines, curves, angles, and planes to perform accurate calculations to harmonize planetary events and spiritual beliefs. He did this with an amazingly small margin of mathematical error. Armed with Imhotep's logical reasoning tools, wise Africans applied them to fashion truisms in theoretical and practical realms of life. But for this fashioning to happen, a colossal mental advancement occurred -- unlike anything the world had ever seen at a society level. Because of the ancient African tradition of fellowship with all people, Egyptians in authority agreed to agree on certain steps leading to making a formal and mathematically based choice, decision, conclusion, or judgement about any significant problem. The (c 2000-1500 BC) African scientific method pattern (Van Sertima, "Egypt Child of Africa" p283) bears an amazing resemblance to the eight steps of rational thinking I have independently devised (see Black Voice News 5/8/97 and 10/10/02). These two methods are incorporated as follows: Step I is being clear about the specific problem. Step II sets out the position of the problem -- assigning it to the proper person, situation, or plane of activity (e.g. practical, theoretical). Step III defines or specifies the problem -- gathering all pertinent information and knowing the meaning of key words. Step IV constructs the exact procedure with the result -- assessing the gathered information, analyzing it, maneuvering it into solutions. Step V, the proof, comes from pertinent experiments and supporting evidence. Step VI is synthesizing the most satisfactory solutions emerging from all pertinent information up to that point. These solutions are prioritized in order of importance so as to have "Plans" or "Solutions" A, B, and C. These six African steps, borrowed by the Greeks between 600-300 BC, became the foundation of science, anatomy, surgery, and medicine in all their branching fields. For example, they were used by Black Africans in arriving at the decision that the human heart, by sustaining fluid to the entire system, was the feeder of life. (Wilson, The Culture of Ancient Egypt p 56). They probably discovered the circulation of blood through the body and back to heart centuries before the Englishmen William Harvey was credited by fellow Europeans with the discovery in 1628. Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D

 

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