Afrocentrism, its merits of any?

Like so many other garbage, extremely revisionist, new-age historical trends, no. Of course that's just my opinion. The Africans living in Egypt were ethnically, and pigmentally (is that even a word? ) different from the "black" Africans. I don't really see why people feel the need to make things like this up. After all, if one wants examples of black African achievement one has only to look at the Kingdom of Ethiopia (Axum), the city of Timbuktu (albeit a bit later), etc.

-Akolouthos

There have been people who would today be decribed as "white" in Egypt and still are. What I mean is all the nonsence about Menses/Narmer and co being balck, the Sphinx being that of Black man.

Correct me if I am wrong, although Egypt is not in black africa, it is in Eaatern part of the continent and there has always been a difference between the Eastern and Western part of the continent right, so American blacks who are decended from the West Africa.........

Tolerant, yes. Respectful, yes. And I can only hope that this intellectual movement will eventually come back to the historical record. Until that time, it is the duty of historians to correct points at which these movements distort the historical record. I think my biggest concern would be that Afrocentrism, Gynocentrism, etc. enjoy a great deal more respect within the historical community than their trains of thought deserve.

Their seem to be two standards for scholarship; those outside of these movements/groups criticize them at the risk of being deemed racists, sexists, and all sorts of other "ists." If I have to hear once more "Well you just don't have the right to comment on this," I think I'm going to puke. There is a difference between respecting and endorsing. The way to get back to the truth and understand the past is not to distort it until it seems more fair, cuddly, fluffy, etc.

That said, I'm all for understanding where these groups come from (I think your assessment is accurate), as it is only through doing so that we will ever be able to reconcile them with mainstream history.

-Akolouthos

The question of who in the ancient world were and who were not African blacks in the modern sense of blacks or Negroes has given rise to considerable debate. What does the ancient written and iconographical evidence reveal about the physical characteristics of the Greek mythical  heroes such Achilles ? <:namespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />>>

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FYROM Diaspora propaganda (Stefou)  recently touches the Bernal Theories and the supposing connection of the ancient Hellenic Heritage and the African. When Bernal said African mean  Egyptian. But when Stefou mean African mean African by skin colour.  To the extent that Stefou (and his students)  has contributed to the provision of an apparently respectable underpinning for Afrocentric fantasies, he must be held culpable, even if his intentions are honorable and his motives are sincere. But not even he has dealt with the racial issue squarely .>>

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Arthur Schlesinger says in The Disuniting of America: >>

The purpose of history is to promote not group self-esteem, but understanding of the world and the past, dispassionate analysis, judgment and perspective, respect for divergent cultures and traditions, and unflinching protection for those unifying ideas of tolerance, democracy, and human rights that make free historical inquiry possible. >>

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But we the Greeks what must we be done? One strategy is to ignore the geographer (Stefou )  who teaches (Propaganda books and Internet)  that the earth is flat (the Slav the continue of the chemas-microsoft-comfficemarttags" />LACE wt="on">t="on">MacedoniaLACE> heritage) . >>

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Of course, teaching false information about Alexander and Aristotle will not put anyone in immediate physical danger. But nonetheless these untruths do injustice, not only our Heritage ancestors (ancient Greeks) who have been falsely maligned, but and us, the modern Greeks. Why deprive the Greeks of their heritage, particularly if the charges against the ancient Greeks can decisively be shown to be wrong? Why encourage hostility toward any ethnic group? Haven't we seen enough examples in this century of the horrific results of teaching hostile propaganda? >>

Propably Stefou forgot that skin colour and ethnicity are two different thinks. >>

But what did the ancient Greeks look like? From portraits on seal-rings, paintings on vases, and sculptures in clay and stone, it is possible to get a good sense of how they saw themselves. Written texts describe a variety of hair color, ranging from brown to black, and skin color ranging from light to dark. Vase paintings, because of the limited colors available to the potters, give a more schematic impression. Women are usually portrayed with white faces. If the background of the vase is black, the men have black faces; if the background is the color of the clay from which the vase is made, men have reddish-brown faces. They distinguish themselves clearly from Egyptians and Ethiopian peoples in their art and literature. The Africans have flat noses, curly hair, and thick lips; their skin color is portrayed with black glaze or, on occasion, plain unglazed terra-cotta. They regularly speak of the Egyptians' dark skin, and sometimes of their curly hair. Herodotus supposed that the Colchians (a people who lived on the eastern coast of the LACE wt="on">Black SeaLACE>) were Egyptian because they were dark-skinned and curly-haired. He identifies a pair of doves as Egyptian in origin because they are "dark". >>

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In summary, despite abundant textual and iconographic evidence to the contrary, Stefou and  his students have used "black," "Egyptian," and "African" interchangeably as the equivalents of blacks/Negroes in modern usage. According to this misinterpretation, ancient Egyptians were blacks, and their civilization, an important part of the heritage of blacks of African descent, has been "covered up" by white racists. The twentieth century has already seen sufficient proof of the dangers of inventing history. >>

What will be the effect on future generations, black and white alike, Slavs ,Greeks, Albanians, Turks e.t.c.   if the present "mythologizing"  Stefou trend continues, and if the historical record is not rectified? The time has come for scholars , educators , common people like us  to insist upon truth, scholarly rigor, and accuracy in the reconstruction of the history of Stefou  in the ancient Mediterranean world and not only. >>