Ancient African Civilizations: Historical Overview

Edited and translated by Mercer Cook.Laymen and scholars alike will welcome the publication of this one-volume translation of the major sections of C. A. Diop's two books, Nations Negres et Culture and Anteriorite des Civilizations Negres, which have profoundly influenced thinking about Africa around the world. This classic presents historical, archaeological, and anthropological evidence to support the theory that ancient Egypt was a Black civilization. It was largely because of these works that, at the World Festival of the Arts held in Dakar in 1966, Dr. Diop shared with the late W. E. B. DuBois an award as the writer who had exerted the greatest influence on Negro thought in the 20th century. -- Online Version: CU Only

The study of African archaeology and history, the editor argues, has been marred by the extremist attitudes of both condescending European historians and African-American Afrocentrists. These eleven papers, from a conference held in Ohio in 1991 and since revised, re-examine evidence from north-eastern Africa in order to affirm the cultural achievements of the multi-ethnic civilisations of the region, including Meroe and Zimbabwe, and to place them within their wider context. Subjects include contacts between Africa and Asia, Egypt and Nubia, the Kushites, Meroe, Carthage, Cyrenaica and Marmarica, Greco-Roman attitudes towards black Africans, state formation in Egypt and Ethiopia, and the origin myths of the Great Zimbabwe ruins.

From Introduction: There are two ways in which we can deal with the subject of African history. The first is to treat Africa as a whole and give an overall historical account without any special reference to racial types; the second is to regard Africa as the "Land of the Negroes" and to give a history of the Negro race. The first method - that of treating Africa as a whole without special reference to race - may be criticized by those who regard the Egyptians, the Ethiopians, the Moors and Berbers as belonging to groups which are foreign to the African continent, or at least entirely different from the Negro population. The second method - that of treating Africa as the land or home of the Negro race - can be criticized because the actual evolutionary area of the Negro species of Homo sapiens is unknown to us at present.

African Origins of the Major "Western Religions" first published in 1970, continues to be one of Dr. Ben's most thought-provoking works. This critical examination of the history, beliefs and myths, remains instructive and fresh. By highlighting the African influences and roots of these religions, Dr. Ben reveals an untold history that many would prefer to forget.