PROFESSOR MOLEFI KETE ASANTE WRITES ON”STOLEN LEGACY(HOW GREEKS STOLE BLACK EGYPTIAN PHILOSOPHY) AT ASANTE.NET
By Yeye Akilimali Funua Olade
FROM asante.net
Stolen Legacy: An Introduction
——————————————————————————–
Molefi Kete Asante
When George G. M. James wrote Stolen Legacy in l954 he had no awareness that his little book would become one of the most threatening pieces of literature ever published in the United States of America. Stolen Legacy was not dangerous in the sense that it called for revolution against oppression or that it promoted attacks on white racists. What distinguished the work of George G .M. James was the fact that it struck at the jugular of white Western notions of superiority. James may not have known that his work would have the impact it did on the world, but he knew that it was necessary to set the record straight about the ancient history of philosophy.
One could easily have overlooked James’ contribution to scholarship given the fact that he was a professor at a small African American college in Arkansas, a long way from the fabled halls of ivory or ebony in American education. Pine Bluff was neither Harvard nor Howard, and a professor who taught at the Arkansas school in the l950s was making a sacrifice in the name of education. But this had been the history of George G. M. James. He had come from Guyana, like so many intellectuals before and after, and was completely won over by the epic struggles of Africans in the United States.
James was not only a good teacher but he was an avid reader in the African and European classics. He knew very early in his career that something was wrong with the way the history of philosophy was written by European scholars. They had assumed that philosophy started with the Greeks and had written books establishing a lie as truth. This greatly disturbed the mind of George G. M. James. He was certain that the European writers had it wrong and knew that they knew that the record was distorted.. He saw it as the deliberate falsification of history.
What could he do to re-write the history? How could he contribute to the scholarship surrounding ancient Egypt and Greece? What could his contribution be to the emerging issues that had to be confronted by a new generation of African scholars? This was a massive undertaking that had to be done alongside his tremendous teaching load of at least five courses each semester. George G. M. James was a determined man. He could not allow the falsehoods about philosophy to remain unchallenged regardless of his workload.
Thus, during the turbulent l950s, the era of boycotts, the Klu Klux Klan, major Supreme Court hearings, and organized protests, the quiet scholar gathered his books on Ptahhotep, Merikare, Akhenaten, Amenemhat, Amenemope, Duauf, Thales, Plato, Pythagoras, Aristotle, and sat down at his worn, pine desk to write.
James knew that Egypt predated Greece by thousands of years. He also knew that the great teachers of Egypt, Imhotep, Sonchis, Wennofer, Amenhotep, son of Hapu, and others had not sat around doing nothing for hundreds of years. There was nothing in the ancient record to indicate that the Africans in Egypt waited in a fog until the arrival of the Greeks before they started thinking, reflecting, and acting on the basis of their cognitions. James knew that the major centers of world philosophy long before Homer’s Iliad in 800 BC were the cities of On, Abydos, Mennefer, Waset, and Syene. In these sacred cities, the priests, who were also scribes, assembled to teach initiates the fundamentals of medicine, law, politics, geometry, architecture, sculpture, mathematics, and astronomy.
George G. M. James would plumb this knowledge base and arrive at the most provocative conclusion his research could afford, namely, there is no such thing as Greek philosophy, only stolen Egyptian philosophy.
Outrage white scholars would cry and ask, how could a black man in Arkansas come up with such a crazy idea? Alas, Stolen Legacy became one of the first African American books to be banned from the universities and colleges of America. Few whites would ever see the book and those who saw it would swear that it was part of some infamous plot, preferably by some outside power, to destroy white Western culture. What could be the reason for such venom against a small book? It is because James took seriously the work of the ancient scholars, African and European, in his assessment of the situation and those who responded in anger were actually hostile toward the ancients.
Herodotus, a 5th century BC Greek historian and traveler, had written in Book II of his History that the Greeks borrowed many ideas, concepts, and activities from the ancient Egyptians. They borrowed practices of medicine, philosophy, politics, hygiene, and architecture. Stolen Legacy is powerful in its assault because of the deliberate use of the title to draw attention to the fact that Greeks borrowed and yet the descendants of the early Greeks now claim that they do not know anything about what was borrowed. Consequently, they have stolen the legacy of Africa and now claim that it belongs to them. Ideas such as the wearing of long robes or gowns during academic exercises and the solemn processions for various ceremonies were African, not European, and yet Europe has often claimed these as its own.
When George G. M. James wrote about Stolen Legacy in the l950s he was doing as much as anyone to improve race relations. He knew that the only way race relations would be improved would be when white racial supremacy as a doctrine was overturned. Furthermore, James was convinced by science and history that the way whites had organized information and knowledge about the African world was racist. It was a deliberate attack and assault on the nature of the African person. But it was up to African people to find the methods of social reformation and African redemption.
Where best to discover the source of Africa’s power and energy than in the classical teachings of the African philosophers who lived before Thales, Socrates, or Plato? Thus, he gives to posterity a book of nine chapters that are filled to the brim with information gleaned from the major sources of knowledge in the Western and African worlds. This is not a made-up book; it is not an improper book as one librarian had said to an inquirer when asked why Stolen Legacy was not in the Cornell University library. Well, it is a proper book and given the standards of the l950s it was one of the best books written during that period. It was the primary intention of George G. M. James to overthrow the system that had oppressed Africans by concealing the truth about African history and culture. To expose what the white scholars had tried to conceal, James went into the ancient texts and came out with a profound statement of truth. We are deeply indebted to the courage of George G. M. James for leaving us a legacy of critical thinking and insight.
Study Questions
The following study questions are as relevant today as when George G. M. James wrote Stolen Legacy:
1. What were the aims James had for this project?
2. Who had Africans been taught to idolized as founders and fathers of philosophy and the arts and sciences?
3. What was Europe’s intention vis-à-vis the information that Africa was indeed the continent of the origin of human arts and sciences?
4. How could African people find what James called “social reformation”?
5. What is the meaning of African redemption in the mind of George G. M. James?
6. What were the principal ideas that had to be mastered by the student to achieve the level of consciousness that would bring about African redemption?
7. Why is James’ Stolen Legacy still relevant today?
Note
Molefi Kete Asante, author of Egyptian Philosophers, is professor of African American Studies at Temple University. He is the author or editor of 48 books.
This entry was posted on November 11, 2007 at 5:10 pm and is filed under AFRICA, BLACK BOOKS YOU MUST READ!, BLACK CIVILIZATIONS, BLACK CULTURE, BLACK MEN, BLACK NATIONALISM, BLACK PEOPLE, BLACK PHILOSOPHY, BLACK WOMEN, FRENCH LANGUAGE, THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS WERE BLACK!, THE BLACK RACE. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Edit this entry.
6 Responses to “PROFESSOR MOLEFI KETE ASANTE WRITES ON”STOLEN LEGACY(HOW GREEKS STOLE BLACK EGYPTIAN PHILOSOPHY) AT ASANTE.NET”
JEROME CROSS Says:
December 4, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Reply edit
I have often wondered who our people worshipped before being infuenced by the whites. I learned to love the greeks and romans, and then i wanted to know their african counter parts.I’ve asked the few africans I’ve met, but never could get any answers. I want to know our Gods, our stories and Legends. I know they have stolen everything from us. and I want to know , just to know who I am. any advice or direction you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Yeye Akilimali Funua Olade Says:
December 5, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Reply edit
Brother Jerome Cross, Read everything you can on BLACK history starting with Malcolm X on Afro-american History,then The Destruction of BLACK Civilization, Stolen Legacy then start reading from our category “Black Books you must read”.Check out melanet.com site and continue picking up on titles thru this site and other BLACK sites and you will find out the TRUTH of BLACKS! You should then link up with BLACK Brothers/Sisters in a group-try to see which group you can fit into:BLACK Muslims,various BLACK Nationalist groups,Black Hebrews, Blacks practicing Yoruba,Ancient Egyptian,Akan religions or simply the local More Millions Movement thru the Black Muslims which include all religions of BLACKS working on Black issues. Keep close to Black minded people and read and work to get the BLACK truth out and get practical solutions to the BLACK RACE’s many problems!
Dreama Says:
December 9, 2007 at 5:52 am
Reply edit
True Indeed.
http://www.myspace.com/dreama
Asiatribal Says:
March 14, 2008 at 3:07 am
Reply edit
Jerome Cross,
I would recommend that you google ancient black kingdoms and you will find all sorts of web sites.
Bongani Hanise Says:
May 13, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Reply edit
I am a South African black student at Rhodes University, I have difficulty in acquiring or having access to African Literature that is written by Africans and African-American Scholars in our libraries and in book shops. Can you please assist we really need these books as what we are thought in these institutions are not we had been told in our household by grandparents.
Rashid Marville Says:
August 26, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Reply edit
I admire professor Asante. His notes on Stolen Legacy are spot on. There are a few interesting points that could be developed from here, so I will be brief. First off, the word philo as in philosophy seems to have come from an Egyptian word meaning son of the Egyptian culture.This would reinforce Professor James’ argument.
What bothers me most, however, is that in an attempt to establish that the first man was Adam, all history is dated first from Babylon, supposedly 4000BCE and then Egypt from the first Pharaoh, Menes, approximately 3000BCE. Where did these civilisations come from? What is now emerging is that rain water stains on the outer walls of the sphinx clearly indicate that it is older than 4500 years, since no rain has fallen at Giza from something like 9000 years! Egyptian oral tradition dates the sphinx at 48 000 years BCE.
What this means is that while we have been taught to look at the last 3000 years, our ancestors have had a distinguished history possibly dating back as far as 65000 years!. Much of this too would have involved the founding of medicine, architecture,mathematics and all the sciences now normally claimed as Greek.
Leave a Reply
Click here to cancel reply.
Logged in as Yeye Akilimali Funua Olade. Logout »
You are the author of this post.
.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blog at WordPress.com.
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).
Turn Site Previews Off
No comments:
Post a Comment