SCHOLAR + HISTORICAL + INTELLECTUAL
Long before educators like Cornell West were being featured in films (Matrix) and heard on rap albums (Lupe Fiasco's "Food & Liquor), there were great historians who championed African history throughout the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's. They contextualized our historical greatness in a way that many of us did not and still are not aware of. Great black scholars like Cheikh Anta Diop, Dr. Ben, Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, J.A Rogers and John Henriek Clark are invaluable to our culture. Before the internet many of their lectures could only be purchased through street vendors throughout the inner cities. Fortunately we can now find many in a basic Google search. Of these great men, John Henrik Clark was my favorite. His capacity to retain and recall information always amazed me. Especially because he became legally blind during the latter years of his life. He was a walking library for African history.
The lecture I have attached is titled "The Great and Mighty Walk". Please make some time to not only watch but share. All of this secret society chatter in music has me on a grind to help broaden our perspectives. KNOWING and LEARNING will help us contextualize the information we are receiving. I hope you enjoy the clip.
This video chronicles the life and times of the noted African-American historian, scholar and Pan-African activist John Henrik Clarke (1915-1998). Both a biography of Clarke himself and an overview of 5,000 years of African history, the film offers a provocative look at the past through the eyes of a leading proponent of an Afrocentric view of history. From ancient Egypt and Africa’s other great empires, Clarke moves through Mediterranean borrowings, the Atlantic slave trade, European colonization, the development of the Pan-African movement, and present-day African-American history.
Clarke devoted himself to placing people of African ancestry 'on the map of human geography'." He was quoted saying that "History is not everything, but it is a starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are, but more importantly, what they must be."
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