“So, I guess the Semites ended up acting the same as the Kurgans,” Cassie observed.
“Yup,” Erik concurred. “Desperate times call for desperate measures. Or in their case, theft and murder of anybody who had anything they could steal. Too bad it didn’t stop when they finally got to greener pastures, but they never seemed to get over it. All overlord cultures are fueled by fear. Fear of not having enough—ever. So, even after the nomads invaded richer territories, they kept on fighting amongst themselves for more land, more wealth, more slaves, more...” He paused uncomfortably. “More women to produce heirs to carry on their bloodlines.”
“And patriarchy was born,” Griffin commented softly.
Cassie sighed and glanced out the car window. “Same old, same old,” she murmured to herself. High grey clouds were rolling across the sun. The air was heavy with the promise of an afternoon shower.
Oluoma picked up the narrative. “Overlord patriarchy evolved in two separate regions. You have the Kurgans who left the steppes and moved northwest to invade Old Europe. And then you have the Semites who moved southwest to invade northern and coastal Africa. Of course, these would-be overlords honed their battle skills against one another in their increasingly inhospitable homeland centuries before they spread out to pillage other areas.”
“The Semites and the Kurgans did cross paths and swords occasionally,” Griffin remarked. “For example, they clashed with each other over domination of Mesopotamia. The Kurgans also made inroads into Egypt and crowned themselves its pharaohs, but for the most part, incursions into Africa were perpetrated by Semites.”
“No matter who was responsible for the pilfering, the result is still the same,” Cassie said. “You have a bunch of peaceful gatherer-hunters or farmers getting preyed on by greedy hordes of nomads.”
“That is correct,” Oluoma agreed. “Some scholars insist that the influx of foreigners was a friendly migration of entire tribes. However, we in the Arkana disagree. Overlords, whether Semite or Kurgan, traveled in predatory male packs.”
“How do you know that?” Cassie asked.
“The DNA studies bear out that theory,” Griffin answered. “In Africa, the maternal DNA is all indigenous whereas some of the male DNA is Semitic.”
“So, you’re saying the invading males got to mate with the local girls but never the other way around?”
“Yes,” the scrivener concurred. “The mating was unidirectional. The primary reason for that lopsided arrangement is that the invaders were all unattached males. We know that these raiding parties were not mass migrations of families because there is no female Semitic DNA signature in the conquered regions of Africa. Also, a disproportionate percentage of the ruling class seems to bear Semitic DNA ancestry. The same unidirectional mating pattern was true in Old Europe after the Kurgan invasion and in the Americas after the Spanish arrived. The impetus for such behavior was the same in all three cases. In order to hold onto possessions which were acquired through conquest, a patriarchal bloodline had to be established to trace lineage back to the first thief. And of course, the way to establish a male bloodline is to horde all the indigenous women via polygynous marriage and to curtail their opportunities to mate with other males.”
Oluoma slowed the car as they approached a half dozen people on foot walking along the side of the road. Considering the equatorial climate, Cassie assumed that pedestrian traffic must have been common at all times of the year. She gaped in fascination at a woman balancing a huge bundle on the top of her head.
Tearing her eyes away, she rejoined the conversation. “So, that’s why Africa has so many male-run kingdoms. Outsiders started taking over, marrying the locals and fighting with each other over surrounding territory.”
“That’s not the only reason for patriarchy in Africa,” Oluoma retorted. “Even tribes which preferred to remain matristic found themselves changing after repeated attacks by overlords. Incursions by the Semitic Phoenicians into coastal West Africa had a profound impact on cultural values in this part of the world. The Phoenicians were a lovely people,” she said sarcastically. “They practiced ritual child murder and specialized in flaying their enemies alive. Consequently, the formerly peaceful inhabitants of this area learned to fight back and fighting became a prized skill. The warrior class enjoyed elevated status while the contribution of women diminished in importance. Men who knew how to kill became more valuable than women who knew how to give life. By the time Europeans first arrived in Africa, many of the tribes they encountered were patriarchal kingdoms constantly feuding with one another.”
“Tribal warfare is still around today in this part of the world,” Erik chimed in. “The genocide in Rwanda between the Hutu and the Tutsi happened less than twenty years ago. Outsiders couldn’t understand why there was so much hatred between the two tribes. To foreigners, it looked like a bunch of native black Africans slaughtering another bunch of native black Africans. Brother against brother. But it wasn’t like that.”
“It wasn’t?” Cassie echoed suspiciously.
“Not even remotely,” Erik replied. “The Tutsi tribe is descended from Semitic overlords. The Hutus are indigenous and were oppressed by the Tutsi ruling class from the very start. It’s right there in the DNA. There’s a blood feud between those two tribes—literally—that goes back for centuries. It’s not all about skin color in this part of the world. There are a lot of blacks in Africa walking around with Semitic DNA.”
Oluoma temporarily focused all her attention on maneuvering the car through a small town. Pedestrians were milling around in an open-air market. Three people stood right in the
