Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire, Book 1 [Paperback]

Drusilla D. Houston (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0933121016 | ISBN-13: 978-0933121010 | Publication Date: June 1, 1985

Houston describes the origin or civilization and establishes links among the ancient Black populations of Arabia, Persia, Babylonia, and India. In each case, she concludes that the Blacks who inhabited these areas were all culturally related.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Writer, activist, and indefatigable community leader in the American West, Drusilla Dunjee Houston (1876-1941) offers a remarkable, well-researched study of the origins of African American culture. First published in a very limited edition in 1926, Wonderful Ethiopians of the Cushite Empire features an extraordinarily rare, early study by an African American women of the roots of her people. Focusing on the origins of the matrilineal line in African culture, Houston offers a readable and meticulously researched window on a world long ago. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Peggy Brooks-Bertram is cofounder of the Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and Education on Women, Inc. at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Black Classic Press (June 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0933121016
• ISBN-13: 978-0933121010
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #889,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Ethiopians--An excellent pioneering work, May 22, 1998

By 

[e-mail] Runoko Rashidi (San Antonio, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire, Book 1 (Paperback)

Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire represents the crowning achievement of Ms. Drusilla Dunjee Houston. The work was originally published in Oklahoma City in 1926. It is the first known attempt by a Black woman, and perhaps anyone, to produce a multi-volume work on African history told from an African perspective.

Ms. Houston herself was an educator, journalist and historian. She spent most of her life in Oklahoma and Arizona and succumbed to tuberculosis in Phoenix, Arizona in 1941.

Her work is broad and comprehensive and was quite advanced for its time. Its audience was not confined to scholars but the layperson, particularly Black folk, who were in need of a accurate tonic to boost Black self-esteem. It retains a powerful value even today, more than seventy years since its initial publication.

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well researched presentation of ancient African history., January 14, 1998

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[e-mail] (Honolulu, South U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire, Book 1 (Paperback)

Western civilization has grudgingly recognized that homo sapiens evolved in Africa, within the last 40 years through the work of Richard and Louis Leakey and the discovery of the "Lucy" skelital evidence in Ethiopia.

However, Drusilla Huston's book copiously documents legends of of African culture before the dessication of the Sahara and the Egyto-Nubian desserts. She continued with ancient references to the ancient Kushite and Ethiopian civilizations and Kings refered to by Homer, Heroditus, Diodorus, Massey Champoleon and others to flesh out the stories of the Nubian, Nahesey, Napatan, Meroic, Alumic, Egyptian, Summarian and Ethiopean nations over 75 years ago.

It is therefore, a prophetic and profound example of pioneering African-American scholarship operating in a bleak and hostile environment over many decades. It's veracity is only enhanced and fortified with the passage of time and recent production of books such as "Black Athena" by Martin Bernal, "Civilization or Barbarism" by Cheik Anta Diop and the 1996 "African Exodus" by Chris Skinner and "Egypt Revisited" edited by Ivan Van Sertima and numerous others.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars reality explored, August 17, 2005

By 

solomon (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire (Paperback)

This book explores the forgotten reality of human history from the source. Genuinely educating book.