Soul Invictus

I don't see how his assertion is racist and/or a slur. Care to explain?

Toto

I'm sorry - you don't see how charging that a religion approves of baby rape is a slur? Seriously?

Soul Invictus

No I don't.

A slur is a purposeful attack, however based on what you posted, it sounds like his claim is more along the lines of a common misinformed opinion or that he reached common faulty interpretation of Jewish text.

I don't automatically think that because someone got it wrong that this translates as a purposeful misrepresentation.

Toto

This is getting a little off topic, but the misinterpretation only seems to be common among anti-Semites. If Ashra Kwesi is not promoting anti-Semitism, he is surely the sloppiest researcher in the world.

blkgayatheist

Ashra Kwesi is an afrocentric "scholar" I saw speak once in college. He seems to be part of the mindset that believes the self esteem of black people is enhanced by making academically and historically unsubstantiated claims about "African greatness". He also believes that homosexuality did not exist in Africa until that particular perversion was introduced by the white man.

I am amused by the question of whether Egypt is "in Africa". As fallacious as it is to assume that all ancient Egyptians were "black" I think its equally erroneous to hold that there were no sub Saharan or Nubian influences at play in Egyptian culture

As for the Eurocentric claim that there was no history in Africa until the arrival of the white man, the Shona people who built the city of Great Zimbabwe would beg to differ. For years it was asserted that it mustve been built by early Portugese settlers as sub Saharan Africans couldnt possibly have been this advanced. The evidence however, eventually showed otherwise.

Ted Hoffman

This thread exemplifies the stupefying ignorance the average "westerner" normally suffers from regarding African matters - history, culture and even economy.
Egyptians are Africans (geographically, historically and socially) even though politically (like Lybia and several other North African countries) they are part of the Arab League. Economically, Egypt is part of COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) and it was actively involved as a founding member of the OAU (Organization of African Unity). Because of its cultural (being predominantly muslim) proximity to the Arab states, Egypt embraced pan-Arabism (chiefly to fight western hegemony) but at the same time remained pan Africanist even though their involvement in issues affecting Sub Saharan Africa was minimal.
About Ethiopia, note that Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was very instrumental in the formation of the OAU in 1963 (in fact Addis still headquarters OAU - now AU) and the idea that Ethiopians "managed to avoid being Africans at all until Mengistu" is both inane and incorrect given that Mengistu overthrew Haile Selassie. Haile Selassie, like the Rastafarians who idolized him, was passionate about the emancipation of the Africans. (Now, why would the Rastafarians, who hail mostly from Jamaica, see Haile as Jah [an incarnate of God] if Haile Selassie was not black? Given their obsession with Africa and being black?). And why would a non-African spearhead the formation of an OAU?

Well, you are wrong. There is African history before the arrival of European Explorers, before the Arrival of the missionaries and before the arrival of the Arab traders. Different African communities were exchanging salt, ivory and other commodities through barter trade. Oral traditions were used to transmit cultural and historical knowledge and there were kingdoms, wars and conquests.

You are incorrectly using "recorded history" as synonymous with "history" in the above post. And also conflating pre-colonial and pre-historic Africa.
We had the Kingdom of Mali in the 13th century and the Ethiopian Kingdom of Aksum in the sixth century with organized systems of rule, beliefs, initiation and trade amongst other things.

Egyptians joined the Bronze Age around 4,000 BC and by 200AD bronze and copper tools were being used in South Africa. You seriously believe that Egyptians never migrated downwards along the rift valley and in the savanna? You havent read anything about Bantu migrations?
Of course writing arrived late in Sub Saharan Africa - but dont we have several civilizations who did not use writing as a means of communication even in South America and Asia?