http://www.nndb.com/people/922/000163433/
Yesterday, a friend, Leon Dixon, revealed to me that Benjamin Banneker--surveyer, astronomer, mathemetician, farmer, almanac publisher, multi-genius African American-- was descended from the Dogon tribe of Mali, West Africa, an ethnic group renown for its ancient and mystical astronomical knowledge. http://www.unmuseum.org/siriusb.htm, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjDIrFNPLIs, http://www.zetatalk.com/theword/tworx114.htm
Banneker's grandfather, Banneka, was a Dogon. http://www.duboislc.net/read/BannekersDogonAncestors.html His grandmother was a white English woman, named Molly. Their daughter had a child by a slave, Robert, who ran away. http://wapedia.mobi/en/Benjamin_Banneker#5.
Today, I was surprised to learn that Benjamin Bannker, who died at age 75 in 1806, was also a member of the nascent AME church in Oella, Maryland, as the first above link attests. The AME church originated in Baltimore and Philadelphia in the late 1780's. http://www.ame-church.com/about-us/history.php, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Methodist_Episcopal_Church
Ironically, after leaving my friend's home, yesterday, May 28, 2010, I went right around the corner from his house to a revival at St. John A.M.E. Church in Kansas City, Missouri, Rev. Suson Johnson-Williams, pastor.
Bannker's spiritual perspectives and insights are the subject of my present investigation, being an A.M.E. itinerant elder, myself.
However, but for my friend, Leon's disclosure, I could not have known of these connections: Dogon/Banneker/AME or their ethereal imponderables.
Much Love
Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
Raytown, Missouri
Extemporaneous musings, occasionally poetic, about life in its richly varied dimensions, especially as relates to history, theology, law, literature, science, by one who is an attorney, ordained minister, historian, writer, and African American.
