African People in World History (Black Classic Press Contemporary Lecture)

John Henrik Clarke (1915-1998) was an African-American historian, professor, and pioneer in Pan-African and Africana studies.He wrote in the Introduction to this 1993 book, “Until quite recently, it was rather generally assumed, even among well-educated persons in the West, that the African continent was a great expanse of land, mostly jungle, inhabited by savages and fierce beasts. It was not thought of as an area where great civilizations could have existed or where the great kings of these civilizations could have could have ruled in might and wisdom over vast empires. Although the cultural achievements of Egypt were acknowledged, Egypt was conceived as of European rather than African. Even if a … globe showed Egypt to be in Africa, the Sahara represented formidable barrier and a convenient division of African into two parts: one, north of the Sahara, inhabited by European-like people of high culture and noble history, the other, south of the Sahara, inhabited by dark-skinned people who had no culture, were incompetent, and had done nothing in their dark and distant past that could be dignified as ‘history.’ …“For generations, European ‘scholars’ have attempted to deny that Egypt was a part of Africa… But it is not difficult to understand why [such ideas] persisted and… still persist in the public mind. Western scholars have acknowledged only recently that the Nile River, which is four thousand miles long, starts in the south, in the heart of Africa, and flows to the north. It was the world’s first cultural highway.” (Pg. 11-12)He points out, “The distorters of African history have chosen to ignore the fact that the people of the ancient land, which would later be called Egypt, never called their country that that name. It was called Ta-Merry and sometimes Kemet and Sais… the name ‘Egypt’ is of Greek origin. The ancient Egyptians were distinctly African people… In many ways, Egypt is the key to ancient African history. Unless Egypt is seen as an African nation, African history becomes distorted. The invasions of Egypt … brought into Egypt large numbers of people who were not indigenous to the country. The bulk of the Arab population in present-day Egypt has no direct relationship to ancient Egyptian history. Most of them came into Africa in the seventh and eighth centuries during the rapid spread of Islam.” (Pg. 22-23)He states, “When significant elements of Egyptian civilization were transferred and became the foundation of what we think of as Greek culture, the teachings of Imhotep were absorbed along with the teachings of other great African teachers. When Greek civilization became predominant in the Mediterranean area, the Greeks wanted the world to think that they were the originators of everything. They stopped acknowledging their early debt to Imhotep and other great Africans.” (Pg. 24)He argues, “Cleopatra… was of mixed Greek and Persian ancestry. If she lived today in the United States, she would probably be classified as a light-skinned African American. She was an absolute ruler who tried to save Egypt from the worst aspect of Roman domination. She had African loyalties and political might, and by today’s standard, she would be considered an African Nationalist. She was the last ruler of Egyptian birth and part African ancestry to rule [Ancient] Egypt…” (Pg. 28-29)He acknowledges, “During the Moorish invasion, West African entered a period of decline. Wreck and ruin became the order of the day. When the Europeans arrived in this part of Africa and saw these conditions, they assumed that noting of order and value had ever existed in these countries. This mistaken impression, too often repeated, has influenced the interpretation of African and African American life for over four hundred years.” (Pg. 47)He notes that in the 18th and 19th centuries, “the subject of colonization and migration to Africa was debated … Many Blacks who were sure about Africa being the homeland of their people were not sure about returning to Africa. Others saw the return to Africa as the only solution to their problems.” (Pg. 63) He continues, “What needs to be remembered about this mid-nineteenth century back-to-Africa movement is that, to a moderate degree, it was successful. There was, of course, no mass exodus to Africa. Individual families did go to Africa at regular intervals for the next fifty years.” (Pg. 69)He observes, “Marcus Garvey… was the only Black man who succeeded in building a mass movement among African Americans. He advocated the return of Africa to the Africans and people of African descent. He organized, maybe too hurriedly and with a shortage of competently trained people, the institutions and enterprises that would make this possible… In the 1920s the structure of the movement was shaken by internal strife and power-hungry personalities fighting for control. This infighting was part of what led to the arrest, trial, and subsequent deportation of Marcus Garvey.” (Pg. 74)He states, “the African freedom explosion was set in motion. This was an international movement affecting African people everywhere. The antecedents of this movement were the nineteenth century struggles against slavery and oppression in Africa, the Americas, and the Caribbean islands. At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, someone found a name for this struggle: PAN-AFRICANISM. This movement contributed to the African independence explosion, the Caribbean movement for independence and federation, and the Civil Rights Movement for complete citizenship in the United States.” (Pg. 76)He concludes, “Africans journeyed far beyond Africa during an early period in their history, and merged their cultures, languages, and technical know-how with others without ever declaring a war against any group… It is unfortunate that so much of the information on the world position of African people and the contributions they have made toward civilization have been lost from the history of mankind. In my opinion, the restoration of Africa’s history is essential to the restoration of the African movement. It is important that African people understand that African civilizations were well established before the political and intellectual emergence of Europe became a factor in world affairs… The fact that civilization started with African people has been ignored, and the contributions that African people are now making to the world are minimized. To understand Africa’s world position, one needs to look at the past and present, in order to prophesy what the future can be.” (Pg. 84-85)This book will be of great interest to fans of Dr. Clarke’s writings, and those studying African-American and Africana history.

I usually don't come here to give a feedback about books or to write review of any products that I get from Amazon. Although I am most of the time happy and satisfied of the products I get here, writing a review is not my thing. But this book is intense!! It is one of the best books that I have read. It totally changed my perspective of Africa and history of African people. It made me to read more and more about the continent. Dr. John Henrik Clarke, became my favorite professor during one speech that I attended while I was in my sophomore year of college. It was not made by him, but the person who gave the presentation had to quote him multiple times and I really wanted to know more about his works. So I introduced Dr. Clarke to myself through this book and he became my favorite historian of all time. I have read many history books in different languages, in Amharic Tigrinya, English etc, but this book is outstanding book. Anyone can finish it in hours it is not that long and the words are very easy to understand if English is your second language. In terms of sources, he provides a very great references.I noticed I have not say anything about the book yet. As you can see on the title this book is about the African people, and he discuss about Egyptian Pyramids and the African people, the origin of civilization, the two or three great kingdoms in West Africa. Also he talks about the origin of beauty. Then he discuss about the North Atlantic Slave trade and the movements towards freedom. Also, he discuss about the different ideologies and goals of the African people during the civil rights movement. He also talk about the Catholic Papa and his position in the slave trade movement. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has no idea of Africa and the African people or scholars of African History. It is very amazing book!!

A short but very instructive book about african history from early civilisation to slavery and after. I guess i can say that it is a summary of african history. I highly recommend it for anyone that want to get some knowledge about africa but does not want to read 50 books.

I am building my, own, personal library and who better to start with than DR. CLARKE!

Dr. Clarke provides a condenced introductory overview of the last 8,000 years of African history. Suitable for any lover of history, Africa or anyone looking to begin to undo the trauma of colonization and western academia.

true and factual history of people of color not what the rest of the world wants us to know

This is a good starting point for those who's history has been shattered by lies

It feels good knowing that I am descended from a people with such a rich history. Will look for moreJohn H. Clarke books.

I bought this for my son to read but as he was taking time to read it, I read it instead. I like it very much and would recommend it as an easily understandable read.