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POLITICS OF BLACK NATIONALISM
During this period African states had evolved refined and sophisticated political and economic organizations and rich an varied cultural artifacts. the concept of 'slavery 'as defined and propagated during the colonial epoch was virtually nonexistent. Prof. Kinfe Abraham Further states that in the old society slavery was not an attribute of racial classification. for instance, Greeks Divided Humanity into two distinct groups Greeks and Barbarians. Slaves were those fit to be ruled by the Greeks and skin color did not matter at all. In ancient Greece one-fifth of the population consisted of slaves according to uncivilized or some one unfit rule. Hence Greek society was strictly elitist but not racist. He also shows that Greeks were in fact reputed to have had a high regard for blacks. a Black man from Ethiopia is said to have fought the Greeks on the Trojan side, killing the son of Nestor,a notable figure in Greek history, and eventually getting killed by a no less prominent figure than Achilles. limited Knowledge had also led the Greeks to classify humanity in to two groups Greeks and Ethiopians. Various references are made in Greek history and mythology to Ethiopia, which was then synonymous to the black world. In this connection it is interesting to note that the rule of the Ethiopian Queen Sheba extended up to the south of the Arabian peninsula. According to the Politics of Black Nationalism this meant that blacks were by no means denigrated because of the pigment of their skin. But beyond and above this, the book also discusses contemporary race relations in the US and Africa during and after colonial rule Library of congress catalogue card number 89-81532 ISBN -0-86543-155-8 cloth 0-86543-156-6 paper |
