Runoko Rashidi

Runoko Rashidi (born 1954) is a historian, essayist, author and public lecturer based in Los Angeles, California and Paris, France. He is the author of Introduction to the Study of African Classical Civilizations (1993) and the editor of Unchained African Voices, a collection of poetry and prose by Death Row inmates at California's San Quentin maximum-security prison. He is a member of the editorial board of The Journal of Pan African Studies (www.jpanafrican.com), and he holds an honorary doctorate of divinity from Amen-Ra Theological Seminary (Los Angeles, California).

Rashidi's work focuses on his views concerning African foundations of world civilizations. Several scholars dispute his assertions of genetic ties between ancient African populations and indigenous and "black" populations in the modern world.^[1][2][3]

Scope of work

Rashidi is writer and speaker and lectures on topics including ancient Egypt, his belief in an African presence in prehistoric America, Africans in antiquity, and the African presence in Asia and other parts of the world.

Activities

From 1981 to 1984, Rashidi worked at Compton Community College, Compton, California. From 1985 to 1987 he worked for the National Black Computer Network as history editor. Rashidi has contributed regularly to the Journal of African Civilizations, edited by its founder Ivan Van Sertima from 1979 until his death. In 1987 Rashidi inaugurated the First All-India Dalit Writers Conference in Hyderabad, where he delivered an address on The Global Unity of African People. As a lecturer Runoko Rashidi has done presentations in 58 countries and has spoken on every continent save Antarctica. He is the author or editor of 18 books, including The African Presence in Early Asia (1985, 1988, 1995), with Ivan Van Sertima, Black Star: The African Presence in Early Europe (2012) and African Star over Asia: The Black Presence in the East (2013).

See also

• Pan Africanism
• African people
• Afrocentricity
• Ethnology
• Martin Bernal
• John Henrik Clarke
• John G. Jackson (writer)
• Critical race theory

References

External links

• Articles by Rashidi, The Global African Presence Website (personal website)

Further reading

• van Sertima, Ivan (1989). Egypt Revisited. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0-88738-799-3

Pan-Africanism Proponents Politicians Nnamdi Azikiwe Amílcar Cabral Muammar Gaddafi Marcus Garvey David Comissiong Kenneth Kaunda Jomo Kenyatta Patrice Lumumba Thabo Mbeki Abdias do Nascimento Gamal Abdel Nasser Kwame Nkrumah Julius Nyerere John Nyathi Pokela Thomas Sankara Haile Selassie Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Ahmed Sékou Touré I. T. A. Wallace-Johnson Robert Mugabe Others Ali Mazrui Marimba Ani Molefi Kete Asante Steve Biko Edward Wilmot Blyden John Henrik Clarke Cheikh Anta Diop W. E. B. Du Bois Frantz Fanon John G. Jackson Leonard Jeffries Yosef Ben-Jochannan Maulana Karenga Fela Kuti Bob Marley Malcolm X Zephania Mothopeng George Padmore Motsoko Pheko Runoko Rashidi Paul Robeson Walter Rodney Burning Spear Henry Sylvester-Williams Stokely Carmichael Omali Yeshitela Concepts United States of Africa Afrocentrism Kwanzaa Pan-African colours Pan-African flag Négritude African nationalism African socialism African Century Africanization Kawaida Ujamaa Harambee Ubuntu Zikism Black nationalism Maafa Organizations African Union Organisation of African Unity All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party Uhuru Movement UNIA-ACL African Unification Front International African Service Bureau