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Professor Martin Bernal, 'Black Athena' author, dies at 76
By Daniel Aloi
Bernal Martin Gardiner Bernal, professor emeritus of government and Near Eastern studies at Cornell and author of the widely read and debated "Black Athena” books on classical civilization, died June 9 in Cambridge, England. He was 76.
Bernal taught at Cornell from 1972 until his retirement in 2001. He began as an associate professor in the Department of Government and was named a full professor in 1988.
Bernal argued that Egypt, not Greece, was the root of ancient culture in his three-volume work “Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization.” Considered controversial by many, Bernal’s first volume, “The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785-1985" (1987) was followed by further research in “Black Athena 2: The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence” (1991) and “Black Athena 3: The Linguistic Evidence” (2006), and a volume in response to his critics, “Black Athena Writes Back” (2001).
The series was translated into several languages, became the subject of conferences, radio and television programs, and earned honors including a 1990 American Book Award for the first book and the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun’s 2004 Book of the Year for “Black Athena 2.”
His other books include “Chinese Socialism Before 1907” (1976); and “Cadmean Letters: The Westward Diffusion of The Semitic Alphabet Before 1400 B.C.” (1990). Born March 10, 1937, in London to writer Margaret Gardiner and scientist J.D. Bernal, he was a 1957 graduate of Kings College, Cambridge; earned a Diploma of Chinese Language from Peking University in 1960, and was a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley in 1963 and Harvard University in 1964. He received his Ph.D. in Oriental studies from Cambridge University in 1966, remaining there as a fellow until his recruitment by Cornell. Adding an appointment in Near Eastern studies in 1984, he initiated new courses including the politics of scholarship. He was known as a brilliant and lively friend, teacher and colleague; was well-traveled and learned languages wherever he went, including Mandarin Chinese, French, Greek, Hebrew, the Bantu language Chichewa, Vietnamese and Japanese.
Survivors include his wife, Leslie Miller-Bernal; five children and step-children, a half-sister and nine grandchildren. A funeral will be held June 19 in Cambridge, England, with memorial services being planned for the fall in the United States and the United Kingdom.
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Rest in peace Professor Martin Bernal. Martin Bernal was a very smart, well educated and honnest scholar.His books Black Athena show the AfroAsiatic origin of Western civilisation.Western Academia didnt like the fact an establishment member was telling the true on the African origin of civilization.
quote:Originally posted by mena7: Rest in peace Professor Martin Bernal. Martin Bernal was a very smart, well educated and honnest scholar.His books Black Athena show the AfroAsiatic origin of Western civilisation.Western Academia didnt like the fact an establishment member was telling the true on the African origin of civilization.
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RIP Martin Bernal he was a big influence..just reposted this over at ESR Thanks Lioness.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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R.I.P. Dr. Bernal. May your spirit know peace eternal with your ancestors as well as with the other great revolutionary scholars like Dr. Chiek Diop, Basil Davidson, etc.
quote:Originally posted by mena7: Rest in peace Professor Martin Bernal. Martin Bernal was a very smart, well educated and honnest scholar.His books Black Athena show the AfroAsiatic origin of Western civilisation.Western Academia didnt like the fact an establishment member was telling the true on the African origin of civilization.
Although not everything he wrote was accurate, in particular his linguistic theories, his main thesis that the roots of Europe's civilization is Afro-asiatic is right on the mark! Even today many mainstream (white) Western scholars are only beginning to dig into Europe's neolithic past which both archaeology and genetics show was introduced by immigrants from North Africa and Southwest Asia hence Afro-asiatic. Unfortunately, this has also fueled the racist euronut frenzy to white-wash the early populations of the aforementioned regions.
The flames of debate were already raging in academia before Bernal published his work, all he did was expose the fire to the public at large. Even the very notion that the Egyptians were black Africans is something new and even surprising to many in the public. That Bernal exposed this and added to it that these folks were responsible for bringing the seeds of civilization to Greece/Europe is remarkable indeed. Despite him being white, he may well have been the 'Cheik Anta Diop' of our times.
Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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Even if inadvertently, he kept the afrocentric movement alive and well and influenced many a young black scholars and intellectuals. R.I.P. just doesn't cut it. May his legacy live on. Prof. Bernal deserved nothing but respect, either in life or death, which now is unfortunately the case.
-------------------- mr.writer.asa@gmail.com Posts: 4021 | From: Bay Area, CA | Registered: Mar 2007
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[In volume 2 of Black Athena , Bernal outlines his thesis that the "Egyptians" founded Greek civilization. But these "Egyptians" are not blacks, they are Semitic speakers. Bernal (1991) makes it clear that he believes that the civilization of the Aegean was founded by Semitic speaking Phoenicians, and the Semitic speaking Hyksos Dynasty of Egypt.
Bernal (1991) sees Hyksos invaders as Hurrian, Semitic, Indo-Iranian speakers. As a result he believes that the Danaos and Kadmeans or Egyptian founders of Thebes in Greece, were the Hyksos. (Bernal 1991, p.495) In general, Bernal (1991) believes that when the Hyksos were driven from Egypt, they settled in the Aegean and developed civilization.
Bernal's view of the Hyksos as the founders of Grecian civilization has nothing to do with the work of Afrocentric scholars. The problem with Bernal (1991) is that he believes that the "Pre-Hellenes" or Pelasgian people were Indo-European speakers. This view is not held by Afrocentric scholars who recognize that the founders of Athens and Attica were blacks.
This book is meant to imply that the Hyksos or Semitic speaking west Asians developed civilization in Greece not the blacks. This book because of its lack of African centeredness fails the test of an Afrocentric work.
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That reminds me. The idea of Semitic influence on Greek civilization is nothing new or something contrived by Bernal. The Greeks legends themselves say that their founding dynasties were of Semitic extraction. Take the Argive geneology for example. Cadmus the founder of Thebes was a Phoenician prince who also introduced the alphabet to Greece. As far as these Semites being 'Hyksos' that is just one of several theories. British Egyptologist David Rohl believes this to be the case though I have heard some scholars who even suggest that some of these Semitic people who settled in Greece were ancestors of modern Jews! Of course this usually comes from some Judocentric types.
Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Bernal's view of the Hyksos as the founders of Grecian civilization has nothing to do with the work of Afrocentric scholars. The problem with Bernal (1991) is that he believes that the "Pre-Hellenes" or Pelasgian people were Indo-European speakers. This view is not held by Afrocentric scholars who recognize that the founders of Athens and Attica were blacks. This book is meant to imply that the Hyksos or Semitic speaking west Asians developed civilization in Greece not the blacks. This book because of its lack of African centeredness fails the test of an Afrocentric work.
The Hyksos part was only one of the potential founders from the Nile he goes on in length about the 1st dynasty kings and the legend of Dananus and Egyptos and the possible connection with Menes taking lower Kemet causing royal refugees to flee to Greece the apperant inspiration for the legend he also touched on the 12th dynasty kings and their possible influence in the area.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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Semitic and Phoenician doesnt mean white people.Semitic and Phoenician means black people and their mulato descendant.
According to the Bantu Hebrew The Canaanite/Phoenician people are the Afar, the Oromo, the Luo, the Tutsi, the Somalian, the Masai .The people of Sidon and Tyre are the somalian.The Swahili people in the East Coast of Africa were great traders like the Canaanite.
Clyde Winter showed that there is some contradiction in Black Athena.The book is call black Athena but Bernal is telling the builders of black Athena were mulato semite.
Semitic doesnt mean mulato or white.The Ethiopian or Abyssinian are black Semite who are speaking the original Semitic language.The black Somalian are semitic two. Thanks god those people didnt mixed and become mulato like the Egyptian, Morocan and Arabs.
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^^ Semitic in its strict and accurate definition is linguistic! Therefore, anyone who speaks a Semitic language as his/her native tongue is a Semite. The same is true for 'Indo-European' whose speakers range from the blonde Norsemen to the black-skinned Sinhalese of Sri-Lanka. That said, it's nothing unusual or surprising that there are indigenous Semites in Southwest Asia (both Arabia as well as the Levant) who are much darker than the stereotypical off-white olive or brown toned Middle-Easterners.
Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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^^ Semitic in its strict and accurate definition is linguistic! Therefore, anyone who speaks a Semitic language as his/her native tongue is a Semite.
Yet somehow when there is hate speech directed at Arabs in the 'west', which goes on quite a lot these days with very little objecting voices coming to the fore by public figures, it is not deemed as "anti-Semitic", as the case is when Jews are the subject of such speech.
Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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Sorry to hear about the transition of Dr. G. Bernal! He was truly in a vanguard of the first order. We need more scholars like him of all races to step forward with the truth about ancient Egypt.
Posts: 135 | From: Bay Area | Registered: Jun 2007
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quote:Originally posted by The Explorer: Yet somehow when there is hate speech directed at Arabs in the 'west', which goes on quite a lot these days with very little objecting voices coming to the fore by public figures, it is not deemed as "anti-Semitic", as the case is when Jews are the subject of such speech.
That's because since the 18th century Europeans tended to associate 'Semitic' with Jews specifically (though not only) due to the fact that they were the only "race" in Europe that is of Semitic heritage. Unfortunately over time this association then became an identification so solid so as to exclude Arabs, Chaldeans, and other Semites. Of course most laymen are educated enough to know the inaccuracy of identifying Semites as Jews only. I have even heard some folks admit that the same terms and phrases to bash Arabs could apply to the ancient Jews as well with people like Jesus being a "sand-nigger" or "towel head". Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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