Black Athena: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece (2013)

Black Athena: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece delves into the provocative research of Cornell Professor Martin Bernal. His groundbreaking study challenges Eurocentric assumptions about the origins of classical civilization. Here’s a balanced and scholarly introduction to the debates surrounding multiculturalism, political correctness, and Afrocentric curricula sweeping college campuses today.

In his influential book Black Athena, Professor Bernal dismantles the prevailing notion of a purely Aryan origin for Western culture. He contends that 19th-century scholars constructed a racist “cult of Greece,” ignoring vital connections between African, Near Eastern cultures, and early Greek myth and art. Bernal’s argument centers on the African roots of Greek civilization, placing “black” Egyptians and Phoenicians at the heart of the West’s origins.

However, leading classical scholars counter Bernal’s claims. They argue that he selectively uses evidence to support his Afrocentric agenda. Cultural diffusion alone, they maintain, cannot fully explain the remarkable achievements of the Greeks during the Classical Period.

Black Athena provides a lens through which students can discern between sound scholarship and cultural bias. Whether inherited from the past or imposed by the present, these debates continue to shape our understanding of ancient history and its multicultural dimensions.