“Black people built the first shelters and housing structures over 800,000 years ago in the Near East. Before this, our ancestors used natural shelters or portable structures they could disassemble and move around with ease. By the time Europeans came, they were building multi-story complexes with glass windows and balconies.”
#BlackPeopleInventedEverything including the moisture farm homes of Tatooine from the Star Wars Saga. The photo and quote above are from page 25 of the widely anticipated book, Black People Invented Everything, where author Dr. Sujan Dass makes the comparison between ancient African housing and architecture and the Star Wars saga’s desert planet Tatooine. Tatooine is the home planet of Anakin and Luke Skywalker; its where Rey buries the lightsabers at the end of ‘Rise of Skywalker’.
The architecture of the unusual buildings beneath the twin suns may very well be from long long ago but from a galaxy far far away, not so much.
George Lucas chose Tozeur, Tunisia for the landscape of the main planet of the saga and choose the name from Tataouine in southern Tunisia. Lucas especially wanted to capture the dome-shaped and subsurface buildings of Tunisia for the Skywalker clan’s homestead.
The unique style of architecture, both ancient and futuristic at once is more sustainable for the environment and the occupants.
Recently Cashawn Myers the executive director of HABESHA, Inc. shared these photos with me of the Kweku Andoh Sustainability Institute (KASI) that they are currently developing in Ghana, West Africa. The top photo shows the development in progress and below is an aerial scaled model view.
Kanye West has been developing similarly designed dome houses. After three prototypes were torn down for ‘improper building permit’, Kanye has relaunched the project in Wyoming, continuing his mission to house the homeless in his environmentally safe and financial sound ‘dome homes’.
Not only have we invented everything, but we are also well on our way to establishing a sustainable future with the intellectual property of the indigenous ancestors now. Learn more about our creative ingenuity in #BlackPeopleInventedEverything. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to bring some of our old-time inventions Black to the future.
