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FREEDOMWAYS   THIRD QUARTER 1972

In preparation for the writing of this book, Dr. Williams studied in several countries in Europe and engaged in extensive field work in Africa. His intent was not to write just another book on Africa. He studied the Europeans who still rules Africa before going into the field of Africa itself. As a result of this careful preparation, Dr. Williams has written a book on African history that will be useful for years to come.
Africa, like the Africans in the West, had produced several very brilliant lay historians, men not trained by universities, but by circumstances; and the circumstances which produced which produced these lay historians both in Africa and the United States is the fact that the history of African people in nearly all of the schools is a complete distortion of the relevant facts relating to African people. One of the most prolific present-day African lay historians is G.K. Osei of Ghana. He is the author fo more than 12 nooks on African history. His first book to be published by an American publisher is The African: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Destiny. Mr. Osei's book is a re-examination of African History using many sources that are little known to the standard academic historian. In addressing himself to the role of Africa in history, Mr. Osei has this to say:
"I have written about this long-forgotten Afamba ideology. 
In this books and I hope that the citizens of this continent will embrace it and make it part of their lives.
“It is important for anybody writing about Africans to trace their origin and the part they have played, are playing, and will play in the world.
“Many pseudo-historians have tried to wipe out the African from world history, but as long as the monuments of Ethiopia and Egypt exist they cannot do it. There were many Africans who distinguished themselves in many fields.
“Tertullian and St. Augustine were black-African. Terence, the most refined and accomplished scholar of his time, was a Blackman. Hanno, the father of Hamilcar and the grandfather of Hannibal, was a Blackman. Black soldiers ads mentioned in the Inscriptions of Una, who was Secretary of State under King Pepi during the Sixth Dynasty.
“There is no reference to the enslavement of Africans up to this time, nor are they depicted as captives in the monuments or pictures connected with the military campaigns of the five preceding dynasties. Their valor and prowess were well known, and it was esteemed an honor to lead them in battle.

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AFRICAN PERSPECTIVES CLARKE

“As I look at the past history of the Black race, I feel proud of my antecedents-proud of the glorious past, which no amount of hate and prejudice could wipe from history’s page.”
It is evident from the statement above that Mr. Osei would not be considered a popular historian in the present climate where the interpretation of African history is being dominated by non-Africans. His book, in addition to being a revelation, is well written and well documented.
Until recently, there has been very little information on the Africans in the broad world of Asia. Professor Joseph E. Harris of Williams College in Massachusetts has written the first book on this subject. It is The African Presence in Asia. While Professor Harris concentrated mainly on the Africans in India and the circumstances which brought them there, he alludes to other areas of Asia, such as New Guinea, Indonesia, Australia and the South Sea Islands where the people’s physical appearance positively shows them to be of African origin. Professor Harris’s remarkable book has opened the field for serious study. It is hoped that those other areas of Asia come to the attention of other scholars who will explore this field with the depth and insight which Professor Harris has already shown. 
Most of the textbooks used in African schools, up until a few years ago, were written by Europeans. In fact, in the French-speaking area of Africa, many black primary school students opened the morning session by reciting the phrase “Our ancestors were Gauls,” meaning that they were using the identical textbooks that the white children in France were using. Those textbooks were not applicable to the African situation or African people. Among West African nations, Nigeria and Ghana have produced the largest number of indigenous scholars who are able textbooks writers. One of the most impressive of the new African textbook writers is Professor F. K. Buah of Ghana. Professor Buah has written at least seven textbooks, and the most outstanding of them is A New History for Schools and Colleges, Books 1 and 2, published in Ghana and in England five years ago. In his books, Professor Buah looks at African history as a part of world history. He is fair to non-African people; much more so than any European historian has ever been to African people. Professor Buah shows how the Europeans have related to Africa through the ages, and writes a detailed account of the rise and fall of European states, while showing what was happening in Africa. 
Another African scholar, Stanlake Samkange, of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), has written a much needed brief introduction to African

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