REFERENCE NOTES: RUNOKO'S NEW BOOK ON ASIA IS OUT!

14 December 2005

Greetings Family,

I am hapi to say that my newest book is finally out! It is called Histoire millenaire des Africains en Asie. I think that it translates into English as A Thousand Year History of Africans in Asia. In actuality, the work looks at the presence of African people in Asia from antiquity to right now. It is my first French language book and is published by the African publishing house Editions Monde Global. It is their first book and is part one of a series on the History of the Diaspora.

The book is very professionally done and I am very pleased. The book is 232 pages long and contains almost sixty photographs. It is dedicated to Ivan Van Sertima and features an Afterword on Pan-Africanism in South Asia by Horen Tudu. The work was translated from American English into French by Maurice Akingeneye

The entire work has a Pan-African character to it and so do those involved. Runoko Rashidi was born in the United States. Ivan Van Sertima (to whom the book is dedicated) was born in Guyana, South America and lives in the United States. Horen Tudu was born in the United States of Bangladeshi parents. Maurice Akingeneye is from Rwanda and lives in France. Dieudonne Gnamankou, the head of Editions Monde Global, is from Benin, has lived in Russia and works in France. I like the feel of it!

The photographs in the book are outstanding! They are some of my best photos from my many travels, combined with a choice few from museums and books, two or three from former associates and a handful from the excellent African-American photographer Hamara Holt. Hamara also contributed the cover photo--an image of a colossal Africoid face in the form of the great Khmer king Jayavarman VII atop the east entrance to the mighty Cambodian city called Angkor Thom.

The book has a concise Index, the foot notes are well placed, and there is a nice photo on the back of the book of author Runoko Rashidi on his monumental trip to eastern India in 1999. And, like many of Runoko's works, there are a lot of references and bibliographies throughout the text.

Histoire millenaire des Africains en Asie is divided into five parts:

Part 1 deals with the African presence in the classical antiquity of Southwest, Central and South Asia including Iraq, Iran, the Arabian Peninsula, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, and a personal reflection on the African presence in Turkey. Inserted into the first part is a photo section that you would commit a crime for!

Part 2 details the African presence in the great civilizations of Far East and Southeast Asia including China, Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.

Part 3 focuses on the oppression of African people in Asia and looks at the Revolt of the Zanj and the plight of the Dalits (the Black Untouchables of India).

Part 4 documents the presence of the Diminutive Africoids in Asia, looking at the "Small Blacks" scattered across Asian lands, including the Philippines.

Part 5 like much of the book, presents and examines the documentation of the African presence in Asia including much of the early work on the subject. It particularly looks at the works of African and African-American writers on the subject, and pays homage to the colossal figures Chancellor James Williams and John Glover Jackson.

So that is my story and the story of my newest project. A book is a lot of work and is no light achievement, and so I will be celebrating for a while. I will be in France for another month promoting it and working on yet another one all at the same time! This Sunday I speak at an African bookstore in the heart of Paris and in ten days I have another big venue here.

Although it is entirely in French, for those that might want to order the book you can visit the Editions Monde Global Web Site at www.mondeglobal.com. The email address is mondeglobal@free.fr. The isbn reference locator is 2-916435-00-X

In love of Africa,

Runoko Rashidi