THE GLOBAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY
B O O K R E V I E W S
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF AFRICAN CLASSICAL CIVILIZATIONS
LONDON: KARNAK HOUSE, 1992
Reviewed by Wayne B. Chandler
African-centered scholarship hails the advent of a major work by cultural historian and lecturer of international standing, Runoko Rashidi. Rashidi has created a textbook, devoted to the study of "That Other African:" Earth's original human, the creator of the first civilized Earth cultures, and the first explorer of Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The title of the work--Introduction to the Study of African Classical Civilizations--highlights two of its more important elements. Rashidi juxtaposes the words "classical" and "African" which challenges the Western reflect association with the Greco-Roman roots of Western Civilization. Long overdue is the presentation of scholarship on African civilization on par with that of the roots of Eurocentric thought.
The second distinctive and functionally critical feature of this book is its organization in textbook format. The four chapters of Part One look at Nile Valley Civilizations, flourishing in the Upper Nile Valley of Northern Africa, now variously called Ethiopia and ancient Egypt, but known in the ancient tongue of our ancestors as Kmt. Rashidi recounts, with startling detail, the dynastic history of Kmt with a litany of black African rulers dating from 3200 B.C.E., giving special attention to the golden age of Kmt under the reign of Ramses the Great. Rashidi's astounding ability to condense with great accuracy and comprehensiveness the histories of these periods is indispensable to those academicians whose research leads them into these areas of African history.
In Part Two, Rashidi turns to Asia, using the seminal research of the late eminent historian Cheikh Anta Diop to assert that Asian peoples and civilizations are an extension of Africa. Rashidi clearly stands apart as a strong advocate for the recognition of the African presence in early as well as contemporary Asia. The first chapter of this section discusses the 90,000 year history of Africans in Asia and the African roots of Asian civilizations and religions. For a long time Asia was considered the cradle of humanity, but Diop's work has proven that the first Asians actually journeyed there from the Great Lakes region of East-Central Africa, where was born the first Homo erectus and Homo sapiens sapiens.
Particularly striking in this section are the photographs of Africoid Persians, Phoenicians, Arabians, Indians, Chinese, Jews, Filipinos, and Malaysians. Photographs of stone carvings and statues reveal that the Buddha himself was of African origin.
Chapter Six is devoted to the Dalits, a large but relatively unknown member of the global African community and a particular interest of Runoko Rashidi's--he dedicates the book to them with the imperative "Know Thyself." Since his 1987 sojourn to South India as the honored keynote speaker at the first All India Dalit Writer's Conference in Hyderabad, Rashidi's mission has been to bring into our global vision the Blacks of India, known as Untouchables, who are social and politically oppressed, and denied the very basic of human rights at the hands of non-native Aryan invaders. He documents in detail the atrocities committed against them throughout Aryan/Hindu history and continues their history up to the present day involvement with Dalit writers, historians, and civil rights reformists. Rashidi makes a striking point: despite a series of holocausts and calamities, Africans survive in Asia today at a population of almost three-hundred million. His attention to the Dalits is rounded out by a thought provoking essay by V.T. Rajshekar, a Dalit supporter and militant, who likens the struggle of the Untouchables to that of African Americans: two black populations struggling in the suffocating web of Western civilization.
Part Three is a discourse on theories of the origins of American civilizations, tracing them from Asia, that is, from Asians of African descent. Rashidi exhibits great thoroughness of study, reaching back to the roots of history--archaeology--to fill in a gaping hole in American history with the archeological work and theories of Harold Sterling Gladwin. Rashidi points out that the 4000 B.C.E. migration of Mongoloid people into the Americas was so large that it absorbed three previous migrations of various Africans and Asian peoples, and became the amalgamated group now called the "American Indian" (which includes populations of "Indians" in North, Central and South America). As a result of the modern historical view, and resulting popular consensus, that the "American Indian" is the "Native American," the very first Americans--Black Africans--have faded "into the shadowy realms of fairy tales, myths and legends." Rashidi issues an important challenge: "the history of the Western Hemisphere will remain incomplete and misunderstood until the presence of Black people...is acknowledged by both scholars and the general public."
Chapter Eight studies the African presence in the ancient British Isles, leaning heavily on the works of nineteenth century historian/anthropologists Gerald Massey and David MacRitchie. Rashidi discusses the origins of the "dark white" Briton, black Vikings, and the role of the Moor in western Europe. He includes several reproductions of British family crests in which African visages figure prominently.
Both scholars and the general public will be influenced by this book which, while a scholarly textbook aimed at the serious student, is also lively and lucid reading. The book is divided into manageable sections that can be read by a group in a classroom for discussion or on the subways for pondering and digestion during work hours.
Each topic is approached in a manner which lends itself to study and learning. The author has skillfully dissected the complexities of African history and broken them down into practicable sections. Each part of the book is followed by a helpful summary for easy reference, or review before a test. Also indispensable is the list in table form of geographical names which translate ancient African location from their modern and Greco-Roman names into Kemetic names. The reader is grateful for the extensive glossary, detailed references, and a comprehensive bibliography. Rashidi is incredibly well-read and traveled, and overwhelmingly knowledgeable; both academia and the armchair scholar should be grateful to him for sharing his wisdom, and especially appreciative of his ability to break it down in such a comprehensible manner.
Runoko Rashidi truly succeeds in his effort to promote Pan-Africanism by trying to "reunite a family that been separated for too long."
Wayne B. Chandler
Copyright © 1998 Runoko Rashidi. All rights reserved.
Posted/Revised: November 04, 2002.
Webpage design: Kenneth Ritchards