Indigenous Knowledge Theft
Western Knowledges And Technologies Stolen From Indigenous Scientists And Scholars
European science and technology, supposedly what sets the west apart from more "savage" peoples, is merely knowledge stolen from Indigenous peoples throughout history.
Western propaganda has established the view that historically the majority of the world's peoples have been passive recipients of Western science and technology. This has been achieved through silences and fabrications in scientific and historical texts. So let's set the record straight on a few of these "facts".
- Thales (the "father of science") was of Indigenous Phonecian descent, as was Pythagoras.
- Ancient Greek scientific and mathematical knowledge was built in partnership with African scholars from African universities.
- Ptolemy and Constantine were both African, although they are conferred European identities in Western historical texts. Note the picture of Ptolemy above, drawn as a European.
- Most of the famous scientists of the ancient world were Indigenous people, whose names have been westernised in history, eg. Alkindius was really al-Kindi.
- Writing was invented in Africa.
- The decimal point was invented by Hindu people.
- Movable type printing was invented by African Ibn Yunus.
- Many modern engineering concepts come from Northeast Nigeria.
- The Hindu-Arabic numeric system that we use today was introduced to the West when Leonardo of Pisa learned it from scholars at an African university.
- Western textile manufacture techniques (and other methods that enabled the Industrial Revolution) were stolen from Indian people.
- World-wide use of, and western monopolisation of potatoes, cocoa, strawberries, corn, sunflowers and tomatoes are the result of intellectual property theft from Native American botanists and agricultural scientists.
But isn't that all in the past? Not at all. The theft continues, with IMF and GATT used to plunder Indigenous intellectual property worldwide through IPR's that allow Western corporations to steal and own genetic material. Read more about this in my article Intellectual Property .
The copyright of the article Indigenous Knowledge Theft in Aboriginal Rights is owned by Tyson Yunkaporta. Permission to republish Indigenous Knowledge Theft must be granted by the author in writing.
