Africa And Africans As Seen By Classical Writers

In this groundbreaking study, the father of African Studies, William Leo Hansberry, examines classical references to the African continent and its people. The writings of Homer, Pliny, Ovid, Virgil, Herodotus and others are discussed and analyzed in a lively and highly readable manner.

This book examines the catalyst role of Edward Long in the development of doctrines of British and European racial supremacy in the critical last quarter of the 18th century through his three volume History of Jamaica published in London in 1774. Long, with acrid vehemence, denigrated and libelled Africa, Africans and people of African ancestry. It was a work of race vilification which today is still unfortunately the creed of many, and which still has ramifications in Britain today, exemplified by the unjust and unfair treatment of many black people.

African literature, like the continent itself is enormous and diverse. East Africa's literature is different from West Africa's which is quite different from South Africa's which has different influences on it than North Africa's. Africa's literature is based on a widespread heritage of oral literature, some of which has now been recorded. Arabic influence can be detected as well as European, especially French and English. Legends, myths, proverbs, riddles and folktales form the mother load of the oral literature. This book presents an overview of African literature as well as a comprehensive bibliography, primarily of English language sources. Accessed by subject, author and title indexes.

In the first of two groundbreaking volumes, the father of African Studies, William Leo Hansberry, examines the myth and legend surrounding some of the African continent's most dynamic countries. Pillars in Ethiopian History (Volume I) consists of four of Hansberry's lectures on the theme of Ethiopian history--the Queen of Sheba legend, the origin and development of Ethiopian Christianity, medieval international relations, and the Prester John legend. The essays included in Pillars in Ethiopian History are taken from Hansberry's private papers amassed while he taught at Howard University from 1922-1959. During these thirty-seven years, Hansberry laid the foundation for the systematic study of African history, culture and politics. Hansberry, who received both his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Harvard University, unfortunately, was never able to receive his doctorate in African Studies as there were no programs offering the degree in his time.

This is a groundbreaking study exploring the significant relationship between western classical mythology and African American women's literature. A comparative analysis of classical revisions by eighteenth and nineteenth century Black women writers Phillis Wheatley and Pauline Hopkins and twentieth century writers Gwendolyn Brooks, Toni Morrison, and Rita Dove reveals that Black women writers revise specific classical myths for artistic and political agency. The study demonstrates that women rework myth to represent mythical stories from the Black female perspective and to counteract denigrating contemporary cultural and social myths that disempower and devalue Black womanhood. Through their adaptations of classical myths about motherhood, Wheatley, Ray, Brooks, Morrison, and Dove uncover the shared experiences of mythic mothers and their contemporary African American counterparts thus offering a unique Black feminist perspective to classicism. The women also use myth as a liberating space where they can 'speak the unspeakable' and empower their subjects as well as themselves.

Here is an introduction to the history of English writing from East and West Africa drawing on a range of texts from the slave diaspora to the post-war upsurge in African English language and literature from these regions.

Intended for those interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this work looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. It illustrates key themes in modern thinking about Africa's history with a range of historical examples.