Dr. John Henrik Clarke was born January 1, 1915 in Union Springs, Alabama and died July 16, 1998 in New York City. His family came from a long line of sharecroppers. This great historical film was shown at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, and won the Best Documentary award at the 1997 UrbanWorld Film Festival. What a wealth of information this man possessed!
Dr. Clarke noted early in his life that the story of Africa and her people was seriously distorted and/or systematically omitted entirely. His search took him to libraries, museums, attics, archives and collections in Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and Africa. What he found was that the history of Africans & Africans in the diaspora was a worldwide phenomena with "the first light of human consciousness and the world's first civilizations originating in Africa". He wisely notes in the film that the Dark Ages were dark only for Europe and that some African nations at the time were thriving.Is it any wonder why this fact was/is expunged from many books? It's Eurocentrism plain and simple. (Eurocentrism being defined as the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of European culture/systems of knowledge).
While he was teaching at Hunter College in New York and at Cornell University in the 1980's, Dr. Clarke's lesson plans became renowned for their thoroughness & scholarly integrity. In 1985, the year of his retirement, the newest branch of the Cornell University Library - a 9,000 volume facility- was named the "John Henrik Clarke Africana Library." For someone who was an autodidact, his achievements were truly remarkable. (Check out other autodidacts who made a huge impact in their various fields of endeavor here. You will be suprised who's on this list!)
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