Customer Reviews

Egypt Revisited (Journal of African Civilizations,)

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Ivan Van Sertima is one of the greatest minds that we have to revive the history of the African people that was burried by tomb robbers, and white rascist 17th and 18th century scholors. I have read this book and also have his lecture on tape and let me tell you this man is well read, and qualified for this topic. What the Africans have done nobody else can do. In the book, Dr. Van Sertima talks about the Japanese who tried to rebuild the pyramids, but failed. What is interesting is they even failed desperately trying to use modern technology. This tells you more about how advanced the ancient Egyptians were then it does about how foolish the Japanese look trying to complete this mission. This book also shows you that the ancient Egyptians were Black. The 1-5,11,12,18 and of course the 25 were Black African dynasties. You can see this from coal black statues and the Africoidal features also shown on these images. Basil Davidson a white historian who is mentioned at the end of the book will also tell you this. Also it is important to look at the sphinx. Constantine De Volney went to the sphinx and saw the African features on it and was blown away, because he new, and said the people being enslaved are the same people that birthed civilization. Dr. Diop and Van Sertima will tell you there were six stages of man and the African was the first and the last(Homo Sapian Sapian found in Kenya). My Question is when will people finally learn that the Greeks(Europeans) came to Africa and their greates thinkers (Plato, Theles, Pythagaros, Hippocrates)all learned from Kemet(Real name of Egypt wich meant Land Of the Blacks)the things they taught, and also the things like Mathematics, Medicine and the concepts for their gods were practiced by the Africans before, (as Dr. John Henrick Clark would say), "the Eurpeans wore a shoe or had a house with a window." The African history can be placed in it's rightfull place, with true, and honest scholorship. To see what I mean check out European historians like Richard Poe in Black Spark White Fire, and the essay in this book by Basil Davidson.

Great Book. I've had it for years and recommend it to anyone. I often use it as a reference. The pictures are in black and white, but if you want to see color picutres, you may have spend $75 or more on a color historical guide/ book of the statues and artifacts listed within the book. Overall, it has great information and is well written.

van Sertima has managed to collate the various writings of skilled and well-researched honest historians and brought them together into one place! Every argument, every rationale, every bit of evidence one would need to be convinced about the Africanness of the Egyptians has been collected into this single volume. Pages and pages of soundly-researched arguments... quotes from ancient historians/eye witnesses to the egyptians, who had no agenda but to recount an accurate history for future generations... pages and pages of pictoral evidence (if you are like me ) and can't afford to fly to New York/Cairo/Paris /London, you will appreciate seeing the faces of the pharaohs and just laugh at the fact that these broad-nosed, fleshly-lipped, and nonetheless BLACK statues are being sold as 'Arab Semites/Caucasoid'... they are clearly African in every sense of the word. Pages and pages of Hieroglyphic translations breaking down Egyptian perception of the classifications of the races. I have a few books on this subject, and this is definately the most valuable in terms of the concentration and conciseness of the way the evidence is presented. I thoroughly recommend.

The topic of the book is extremely interesting. The authors write about African roots of Ancient Egyptean civilization and its influence on that of Ancient Greece.

The quality of articles varies. "Ancient Egyptians: The Dark Red Race Myth" by James Brunson and "Black Rulers of the Golden Age" by Legrand Clegg II, for example, are well researched and presented. Some other authors, like Cheikh Anta Diop and Wayne Chandler, provide scant evidence to support their ideas and make sweeping generalizations. Theophile Obengs seems to care less about describing African philosophy of the Pharaonic period than to asserting supremacy of Egyptian cosmogony over that of all other peoples.

Illustrations are black and white and of low quality. Brunson's article references figures, but the figures appear not to be numbered. Diop's notes are hard to interpret, maybe because the bibliography list is missing. Hierogliphs are so small that they are almost unreadable. It may be solely the editor's fault, though.

Overall, the book doesn't do justice to the topic. If you are interested in the subject, borrow it from a library, but dont' waste your money buying it.