Egypt gave birth to what later would become known as 'Western Civilization,' long before the greatness of Greece and Rome.
Interpretation
The quote highlights Egypt's foundational influence on the development of Western Civilization before the rise of Greece and Rome.
John Henrik Clarke emphasizes the often-overlooked historical significance of ancient Egypt as a cradle of civilization, suggesting that its contributions laid the groundwork for what would later be recognized as Western Civilization. By pointing out that Egypt's influence predates that of Greece and Rome, Clarke urges us to reconsider our understanding of history and the origins of cultural and intellectual achievements.
In practice
In a lecture about the roots of Western culture, one could use this quote to highlight Egypt's contributions.
I saw no African people in the printed and illustrated Sunday school lessons. I began to suspect at this early age that someone had distorted the image of my people. My long search for the true history of African people the world over began.
As the eldest son of an Alabama sharecropper family, I was constantly troubled by a collage of North American southern behaviors and notions in reference to the inhumanity of people. There were questions that I did not know how to ask but could, in my young, unsophisticated way, articulate a series of answers.
Anytime someone says your God is ugly and you release your God and join their God, there is no hope for your freedom until you once more believe in your own concept of the 'deity.'
The Europeans not only colonialized most of the world, they began to colonialize information about the world and its people. In order to do this, they had to forget, or pretend to forget, all they had previously known abut the Africans.
I understood that my family was rich in love but would probably never own the land my father, John, dreamed of owning. My mother, Willie Ella Mays Clarke, was a washerwoman for poor white folks in the area of Columbus, Georgia where the writer Carson McCullers once lived.
Africans in the United States must remember that the slave ships brought no West Indians, no Caribbeans, no Jamaicans or Trinidadians or Barbadians to this hemisphere. The slave ships brought only African people and most of us took the semblance of nationality from the places where slave ships dropped us off.
The white men told lies for each other. They drove off a great many of our cattle. Some branded our young cattle so they could claim them.
In a typical history book, black Americans are mentioned in the context of slavery or civil rights. There's so much more to the story.
Empire in the past was always a far harsher and much more accident-prone business than conventional history books imply. And the costs of these overseas invasions were borne not just by those on the receiving end but - frequently - by ordinary, vulnerable people among or associated with the invaders.
It was necessary, as a black historian, to have a personal agenda.
It is one of the ironies of this strange century that the most lasting results of the October revolution, whose object was the global overthrow of capitalism, was to save its antagonist, both in war and in peace - that is to say, by providing it with the incentive, fear, to reform itself after the Second World War, and, by establishing the popularity of economic planning, furnishing it with some of the procedures for its reform
The source known as Deep Throat provided a kind of road map through the scandal. His one consistent message was that the Watergate burglary was just the tip of the iceberg.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.