“Say: O Allah, Owner of the Kingdom, Thou givest the kingdom to whom Thou pleasest, and takest away the kingdom from whom Thou pleasest, and Thou exaltest whom Thou pleasest and abasest whom Thou pleasest. In Thine hand is the good. Surely, Thou art Possessor of power over all things.” —Holy Qur’an, Surah 3, verse 25
While preparing this article for the current edition of our newspaper, I reflected upon my first days of arrival to Mexico in the summer of 1965, nearly 44 years ago. I arrived as a student enrolled in summer classes
Tour guide and Educator, Dr. Toni-Mokjaetji Humber accompanied by two of our indigenous tour guides in the Lacondon Forest at the site of beautiful waterfalls near entrance to Bonampak, one of the sights of this year's Mxodus Tour.
at the Interamerican University located in Saltillo, Cuahuila, Mexico. This location is near the city of Monterrey in the northern part of Mexico. Another part of my study began here learning Spanish and the pre-Columbian history of Mexico, which traces its roots to the early Olmecs, Myans, Toltecs and Aztec ancestry. I was greatly intrigued at the historical connections that were drawn from these pre-Hispanic civilizations in America to ancient Egypt on the one hand and to Mongolia on the other.
Within the period of my initiation into these studies, I greatly desired to travel South to Mexico City to visit some of these historic sites. One of them was preserved as the Templo Mayor (main temple) of the capitol of the Aztecs called Tenochtiplan built upon the marshy foundation of present day Mexico City. The replica of this ancient site reconstructed can be visited in the center of Mexico City’s Zacalo (square) where many ancient artifacts and monuments were discovered underground in the building of the metro system crisscrossing the highly populated capitol city.
This vibrant, overpopulated and highly polluted city is full of some of the richest history of Mexico’s past and contemporary marvels of any civilization and people on the planet. The racial complex of its peoples is derived from their Indigenous roots composed of Indian, Mestizo (mixed bloods) of Black, Mulatto and Europeans who first conquered Mexico under the Spanish, then the French, the British and American forces to produce a new race of people with a very distinct character.
(1) Group participating in Mxodus Tour at the site of the Temple of Inscriptions at Palenque, Chiapas. (2) Group photo of participants in the Crystal Skull Ceremony conducted by two Shamans (father and son) at the Palenque site in Chiapas during Crystal Skull Ceremony.
The Black presence in Mexico is now being thoroughly uncovered through extended research by historians, anthropologists and archeologists, who recognize the Black man’s presence as the third race traced as far back as the mother culture of Mexico, the Olmecs, now believed to have been transported from their African roots and during the colonial period transported during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and diaspora to these parts of the American continent. As I reflected on my initial studies in Mexico, much deeper African roots have been discovered here, which leads to the further investigation and current research being conducted by a long list of Black historians now added to the list of Europeans who have chronicled Mexico’s history for centuries.
The current Mxodus Tour being planned for this year under our educational guide, Professor Toni-Mokjaetji Humber, many new and exciting experiences have surfaced in her capable hands of research over the last several years. Mxodus Tours offers this opportunity for you to come face-to-face with the African Black and Brown presence in Mexico from the perspective of both its ancient past and contemporary times. Dr. Humber and myself first met several years ago at her most impressive exhibit featuring photographs and artifacts upholding her years of research staged at the art center in Pomona, California.
Coming from two separate paths now joined as one to host a fantastic journey into the known and unknown worlds of reality. Forty-four years ago, I ventured into our next door neighbor’s house to visit Mexico for the first time stopping off at Mexico City’s ancient ruins and traveled further to the gulf states of Veracruz, Tabasco, Chiapas, exploring temples, pyramids, and monuments in stone covered over by the presence of the pure, natural beauty of tropical rain forests, exotic vegetation and humble village folk. Trying to cope in our modern world of death and destruction, Mxodus Tours takes us through this wilderness journey of spectacular scenery and moving human emotions. Living it is Believing it. For further information, go to our website: http://www.Mxodus.com.
“Thou makest the night to pass into the day and Thou makest the day to pass into the night; and Thou bringest forth the living from the dead and Thou bringest forth the dead from the living; and Thou givest sustenance to whom Thou pleasest without measure.” —Holy Qur’an, Surah 3, verse 26
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“Say: O Allah, Owner of the Kingdom, Thou givest the kingdom to whom Thou pleasest, and takest away the kingdom from whom Thou pleasest, and Thou exaltest whom Thou pleasest and abasest whom Thou pleasest. In Thine hand is the good. Surely, Thou art Possessor of power over all things.” —Holy Qur’an, Surah 3, verse 25
