SAINT MAURICE AND THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLACKHEADS

Before I go any further, I'd like to express my condolences to the family of Ivan van Sertima. He was one of the people who lived Sankofa. He returned to the source, gathered up what he could and brought it back into our consciousness. Those of us who had literally lost our minds were able to recover a part of what we lost through his work and effort. Thank goodness he was not a selfish man and helped to develop another cadre of African oriented historians who could pick up where J.A. Rogers, John Henrik Clark, John Hope Franklin, John G. Jackson, Asa Hilliard, Arthur Schomburg and now Van Sertima himself left off.

Runoko inspired me to do some more work on a piece I had started on Saint Maurice. The problem is, the more I uncover, the more I discover. So far I've discovered and located close to 100 sites related to Saint Maurice, all over Europe, including many important European cities, such as Munich, Paris, Augsburg, Magdeburg, etc.

Much of my focus has been on the continued presence of Saint Maurice in these cities. There's been some discussion of the African slave trade having a negative impact on his prominence in some of the most important churches in Europe, as well as his presence on many of the flags, coats of arms of persons and places, etc. However, what I've been finding appears to be a resurgence of his presence.

For instance in the countries of Estonia and Latvia, which broke off from the Soviet Union within the last 20 years, they have restored or rebuilt 2 important structures which were named in honor of Saint Maurice and displayed him prominently on their coat of arms, etc. The largest and most striking building is The House of the Brotherhood of the Blackheads in Riga, Latvia on the town square. This is a major tourist attraction for that area and St. Maurice stands proudly at the gate in full battle mode holding his standard (a white flag with a red cross in the middle).

The original building dates back to 1731, however it was destroyed by allied bombing during WWII and then completely demolished by the Soviets in 1948. The citizens of Riga decided to rebuild it on the same site in 1995 and completed it in time for the 800th anniversary of their town in 2001.