Chancellor Williams (1898–1992)

It's a shame this text was only available as a cheap electrophotographic print full of odd printing artifacts ("4" instead of "A") and lack of footnotes, which may be intentional due to Chancellor Williams' own field research.

Part I aims to establish a modern foundational account of Black African civilization in the same vein that the many excessive and voluminous editions have already done on Western developments (eg. "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", Gibbon) – full of absolutes and glorifying interpretations expressing the many conscious and unconscious biases of the historian (and reader, perhaps). Essential simply because of the dominant Western skew on general history (at the time of publication and even now) and complete lack of any popular foundational texts from other perspectives (specifically in the US) period.

Part II was much more interesting – a blunt but well written summation of the former which reads with a fluidity that I hadn't quite caught earlier on. Lots of interesting ideas here, many of them focusing on organization and scaling tactics.… (mer)

i am currently reading this book. I have to say it is just amazing what europeans did to Africa. This book fills in a lot of historical holes for me. I can say that i have been mis-educated in the American education system. People condemned books like this because they have something to hide, otherwise they wouldn't spend so much time trying to discredit truth. I know that in all books there is bias but the wouldn't stop me from reading them. Somewhere between bias vs bias is the truth. This book makes you think and ponder and I look forward to finishing it. To people of African decent, wake up and learn the truth. The question that looms large with me is what motives whites from the world population to commit such heinous, demon, evil atrocities against people of color. Now before someone condemns this book, it also details the problems within African continent and why they were so easily conquered by outsiders. This book is not historical nonsense but is FILLED WITH FACTS hidden from the people who need it most, black people around the world. All i can say is that people of color have been robbed of culture and billions of dollars of wealth which now resides in the hands of Caucasians around the globe. The ponzi scheme began early on the continent of Africa eons ago. This book is informative so far.… (mer)

Outdated, of course but very interesting historically, the perspective a strong voice in the (then) developing field of black studies that came out of the cultural revolution of the 60s & 70s. I'm not familiar enough with the particularities of ancient African history to have any comment on factual accuracy. Lump summing all the different African peoples under the label of black (vs. eurasian whites) was annoying. A particularly interesting point was made about the hemming in of Africans off of the coastal lands, control of access of intercontinental market exchange (sort of a la Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, Steel).… (mer)