Ancient African Civilizations & Ancient Greece & Rome (Cross-posting from EN 201)

After class today, I was thinking about all that Conrad did not know about Africa and its history--and all that we do know, so I thought that I'd post some sites on this topic, for your interest. I've also ordered some books on this topic, so if I get my act together, you may even see a new book review or two here!

Classics scholar Frank M. Snowden, Jr. began the serious study of the interactions between Africans and Egyptians, Greeks, & Romans. Among the pieces of evidence that he used was art from Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. He argued that Africans did not experience prejudice from the Greeks and Romans and contributed to their civilizations.

http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2004-01/medals.html#snowden

Prof. Snowden spent much of his long career at Howard University. Here is a link to this university's exhibit honoring him for his accomplishments and his influence on classical studies. Here you'll be able to read excerpts from his books as well as reviews of these works:

http://www.howard.edu/library/Special/Excellence@Howard/Snowden/Blacks.htm

Here is the NY Times' recent obituary of Prof. Snowden:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/obituaries/28snowden.html?ex=1330318800&en=36f6d8cfe26bf8d7&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

For more information about the influence that Greek culture may have had on one African civilization, the Nubian civilization, see this link to Prof. Stanley Burstein's lecture at Howard:

http://www.chs.harvard.edu/publications.sec/online_print_books.ssp/frank_m._s...

Did you notice that Homer mentioned the Ethiopians in both of his epics?

In 1991, historian Martin Bernal argued that African civilizations strongly influenced the Ancient Greeks; his book was called Black Athena. This argument was criticized by Mary Lefkowitz, a professor of classics at Wellesley College, and other scholars, including Professor Snowden.

Here is a quick overview of the topic. Surprisingly, the discussion page on this entry is brief:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Athena

For a variety of opinions, go to this web site:
http://www.worldagesarchive.com/Individual%20Web%20Pages/BlackAthena.html

Prof. Lefkowitz presents her critique of Bernal's argument here:

http://www.wellesley.edu/CS/Mary/contents.html

Prof. Bernal answers her at length here:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1996/96.04.05.html