Customer Reviews

Wonders of the African World

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Maybe the most important black African American alive today is Harvard and Cambridge trained historian/critic/writer Henry Louis Gates, Jr,....who takes a fresh look at the continent that boasts some 53 nations.
From the famous scholarly legendary Timbuktu to the Zimbabwe stones (formerly Rhodesia-named for Cecil Rhodes of the "scholars" fame- who would no doubt turn over in his grave were he to know how many Blacks have received this prestigious award), this six part travelogue/history lesson presents a more balanced view of Africa...especially ancient Africa than any other program of which I am aware.

My students are rivted to the programs largely because of Gates (smart, even as times a bit of a wiseacre but always Afro-centric) who asks the important questions that inquisitive minds want to know. We see salt and gold and black slavery as well as the progress made in the late 20th century by a continent that was ravaged by colonialism.

Hats off to Gates and PBS. Should be required viewing for all high school students. Not the "Tarzan" of my youth!

Dont waste your time on this series.

Gates does not explore Africa correctly. First, when meeting some West African and Zanzibarian royals, the only thing he does is focus on their role in African slave trade. In my opinion the dynamics of the "trade" are already in question, but regardless this was unfair of Gates to do so. When he meets European royals he doesnt ask them about their regret for the African slave trade. It was totally unfair.

Speaking of Europeans, Gates, in his trip to ancient Ethiopia meets a English bishop and after reassuring the bishop that he was a loyal member of the Anglican (british) Church, he asked the bishop what he thought of the Ethiopian claim to the Ark of Covenant. Afterwards Gates claims they have the audacity to claim they have the ark and asks the Ethiopian bishop to prove it. In these instances it is clear that Gates is unfortunately too concerned with appeasing Eurocentric values and interests.

The next thing is while in Sudan, visiting Nubian ruins he lets a white lady speak and say that the Nubians where the first blacks to come into power during the 25th Dynasty in the 8th Century bce. However, Gates does not say anything about her comment. What about all the black pharoahs before that? In his book, which is just as bad as the film, Gates view on black egyptians is left vague as he claims "not all egyptian pharaohs where black". Does he mean the obvious Greek or Persian pharoahs of the last 1st millenium bce or does he mean indigenous pharaohs such as Akhenaton, Menes, or Mentuhotep? To appease his white colleagues Gates avoids addressing this directly but excludes Egypt from his book and primarily from his film.

What Gates proves to be suffering from is the internal conflict between being an african romantic or afrocentric scholar that puts passion over fact and being another eurocentric scholar. He seems to forget that he can be a legitimate historian interested in facts first without kissing up to Eurocentric values as he did in Ethiopia or by singling out present West Africans as responsible for the slave trade when he wouldnt dare do so in Europe.

Other than that, this DVD gets at least 2 stars for the simple fact that it is one of the only documentaries available that attempt to visit and discuss ancient and medieval African civilizations.

In seeing this, I would agree that Dr. Gates is a bit too joky and irreverent in some spots of this series, given that the tragedies of African history are no laughing matter. But overall, its a must for for African and African-American history fans and scholars.

Most Americans, Black or White, are clueless when it comes to African history, especially of the pre-colonial kind. Gates does anger afrocentrists by refusing to succumb to the black nationalist mythology of an perfect Africans, an all-black Egypt or downplaying the indigenous African slave trade, but a historian's guide is to search out the truth.

I played my students in my Af/Am history class the Mali segment, where our man explores the ruins of Timbuktu and displays not only the greatness of the Mali Empire and best of all, the Arabic books that were written by indigenous African scholars at the time. Not only that, but Bro. Gates is also helping scholars like Dr. John O. Hunwick to preserve these books. Actually seeing this did far more to destroy the Black inferiority complex among my students than a truckload of well-intentioned Afrocentric fantasy (why don't the afrocentrists focus on such REAL African history?) But that's an academic debate.

In either case, you may grit your teeth through Dr. Gates' flippancy and irreverence through much of this, but what he shows about Africa is truly worth seeing, and should be in homes and history classrooms.

I especially enjoyed the Swahili Coast, the Slave Kingdoms, and the Holy Land segments-- these segments were especially well-done. As a teacher preparing a lecture on African history for a college course, they really helped me prepare my lecture and they taught me a lot.

I found the Black Kingdoms of the Nile, The Road to Timbuktu, and Lost Cities of the South to be seriously lacking in historical and informative information. I thought these segments focused entirely too much on his travels through Africa (by this I mean his car trips, his bus rides, his boat rides, his trek through the desert, his plane rides, etc.), and not enough on the history of the areas he visited. Although he did provide some historical information, it was not well-explained and I thought he could have focused more on the history than on racial issues and how he was able to travel throughout Africa.

All in all, I enjoyed the series and learned a lot about African culture. I would especially recommend the Swahili Coast and Holy Land segments.

Dr. Gates does a great job with a limited budget. He sets out and blazes a trial into the least known inhabited continent in the world. For example, the ancient learning center of Timbuktu had some 25,000 students at one time! To the far east on the African continent is Ethiopia, known for 3000 years with ancient ties to Solomon, and then early Christianity (Acts, chapter 8). In fact, that Ethiopian eunuch took the Gospel to Africa long before it went to most of Europe or to Asia. These six hour-long episodes are just excellent! They are filled with his observations and a good mix of history and humor.

How tragic that so much of our human history has been lost. And that is particularly true of Africa's. But Dr. Gates, also visiting the "unknown" pyramids in Sudan (in another of the six episodes), brings some of this back to life. Anyone who loves history, like I do, would enjoy this.

I bought these to assist my 13 year old son with his World History segment on sub-Saharan Africa. I had already seen them on television. They are unforgettably good.

Gates is a gem. I have his "Africana" encyclopedia also. In these episodes he wanders and roams, comments, climbs and reveals many details often supressed by history. It is very touching and the episodes have an artistic quality and impact reflecting the overall search for the past.

For example, while investigating the Nubians, he first encounters the people displaced by the Anwar dam and then further up the Nile encounters a centuries-old school that must be evacuated the next day because of another, new public water project that will inundate it, burying the past under water. Touching and tearful stuff.

In others, Gates questions the descendants of slave merchants raising the uncomfortable thought that conditions for slaves in the U.S. were possibly worse than the way slavery had been generally practiced elsewhere -- NOT a thought I even know what to do with in my mind. Easy to dispose of since the suggestion is coming from the descendants of slave-merchants. Yet it makes one think whether the cruelty of American slavery might not have actually been harsher than even people accustomed to cruelty would have expected or considered practical.

Even in Africa, being "black" can be controversial or denied. It is wonderful to see people whose features remind us of our brother and sister Americans, and it is ironic to hear some of them say, "I'm not black, I'm Persian." And while we might snort at some of these denials, it is also touching to see how centuries of Islam have emphasized learning and powerful forces of civilization -- kind of the opposite of what some of us in the U.S. get from our televisions. In the history of the African continent, a 'Persian' background stands for many wonderful things even if there is also an aspect of superficial snobbery.

All of these white-hot controversial issues are handled sensitively and with style as Gates wanders and interviews, thoughtful yet outspoken, humble while moved by pride in theancient civilizations of Africa. I don't know of anything else like these shows. I'm glad we now own them.

"Gates makes a variety of observations about
Africa, including the strong assertion that Africa's
involvement in the Transatlantic slave trade makes the
continent historically guilty and culpable. From East
Africa to West Africa, to North Africa to South Africa,
Gates points out in his series some of Africa's stunning
contributions to human civilization. But it is clear in his
television series that he is somewhat fixated on the
African slave trade and Africa's role in it. With a journalistic
approach to interviews, interpretations, and
presentation, he SIMPLISTICALLY and EMOTIONALLY reduces
the complexities of the Atlantic slave trade to a moral
problem in which Africa was the fundamental culprit.

Gates' analysis of Africa's role in the slave trade appears
to fall into a combination of the analytical categories
described above: emotional reductionism and moral
pontification. It is interesting that Gates himself, to
some extent, confirms the pervasiveness of the long
history of African American scorn for Africa through
his own family: "My father and his father, both of
whom I knew, and his father's father, whom I did not,
were legendary in our family for scorning any sort of
wistful romance with Africa. My family and our neighbors
and friends thought of Africa and its Africans as
extensions of the stereotyped characters that we saw in
movies and on television films" (1999:7). Gates' own
attitude toward Africa reflects a complex ambivalence
as demonstrated in Wonders of the African World........

Following Gates' logic of moral
emotionalism, one could easily accuse Africans, Asians,
Native Americans, Latino Americans, etc., of complicity
in their own colonization because they collaborated
with the colonial powers. Of course, this would be
preposterous. Again, using the logic of emotionalism,
would it make sense to explain the continuing subordinate
status of Africans of the Diaspora as a result of
collaboration with those who have perpetuated this
status?

It is precisely the problem of simplistic thinking that
makes it absolutely essential for Blacks in the Diaspora
and in the homeland to promote a scholarly and rational
dialogue in the new century."

- AFRICA THROUGH THE EYES OF THE AFRICAN
DIASPORA (Michael C. Mbabuike)

I stumbled upon this movie by accident. I was soooo impressed by Mr. Gates honest and open look into the Nubian region of Africa. There is so much mis information and prejudice regarding the reality of Africa as a whole. I found it refreshing to have a documentry like this to share with my family. This is a must have for Africans in American of all origin and nationality. If you have black children in your life or just want to learn a lil sumthin new, this movie is perfect! 10 Stars **********!!!!!

Timbuktu and Great Zimbabwe are shown and all the interesting ruins
between then, but happy camper narrator Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
There is a theme of African history being suppressed to make the whole place seem like a place that subhuman slaves came from.
Prejudice and suppression seems to be part of a European based history of Africa as the Dark continent.
The movie makes the point that there are unknown libraries
and little known civilizations that thrived in Africa
until European and Arab slave traders made life horrible for ordinary people and drove them back to the stone age.
More honest history like this should be done.

NUBIANS were powerful and were a world power and a super power before the 25 dynasty as well and earlier like kerma and even earlier,like the a - group and pre-kerma and even after the 25th dynasty they were still a super power.In fact they were richer,more advanced and THIER military more powerful after the 25th dynasty.

Their empire was larger too.