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Africa: Mother of Western Civilization
In lecture/essay format, Dr. Ben identifies and corrects myths about the inferiority and primitiveness of the indigenous African peoples and their descendants. Order Africa Mother of Western Civilization here.
- GenresHistoryNonfictionAfrica
750 pages, Paperback
First published February 7, 1997
About the author
Yosef A.A. Ben-Jochannan
23 books193 followersAlso known as Dr. Ben, Yosef Alfredo Antonio Ben-Jochannan claimed to have been born on December 21, 1918 to a Beta Israel lawyer named Kriston Ben-Jochannan and a Puerto Rican Jewish midwife mother of Yemenite ancestry named Julia Matta-Cruz in Gondor, Ethiopia.
His formal education is elusive, and he was likely an autodidact, but he claimed it to have begun in Puerto Rico and continued in the Virgin Islands and in Brazil. Ben-Jochannan claimed to have earned a BS degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico, but the registrar has no record of his attendance. He claimed to have received doctoral degrees in Cultural Anthropology and Moorish History from the University of Havana and the University of Barcelona in Spain, but Barcelona says that he never received a degree from them. He claimed to have earned advanced degrees from Cambridge University in England, but Cambridge says that he never received a degree from them and furthermore, Cambridge University said it had no record of Ben-Jochannan ever attending any classes there. His claim to have received an MS degree in Architectural Engineering from the University of Havana in Cuba is uncontested, and he held honorary doctoral degrees from Sojourner-Douglass College, Marymount College, and Medgar Evers College.
Dr. Ben-Jochannon taught at City College in New York City and from 1973 to 1987, he was an adjunct professor at Cornell University. He wrote and published 49 books and papers, mainly about how in his mind the Ancient Egyptians and Israelites were black Africans. Two of his better-known works: “Black Man of the Nile” and “Africa Mother of Major Western Religions."
He was eulogized by controversial black supremacist religious leader Louis Farrakhan, "as the last of a great list of scholars of ancient black civilizations and black history.
His formal education is elusive, and he was likely an autodidact, but he claimed it to have begun in Puerto Rico and continued in the Virgin Islands and in Brazil. Ben-Jochannan claimed to have earned a BS degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico, but the registrar has no record of his attendance. He claimed to have received doctoral degrees in Cultural Anthropology and Moorish History from the University of Havana and the University of Barcelona in Spain, but Barcelona says that he never received a degree from them. He claimed to have earned advanced degrees from Cambridge University in England, but Cambridge says that he never received a degree from them and furthermore, Cambridge University said it had no record of Ben-Jochannan ever attending any classes there. His claim to have received an MS degree in Architectural Engineering from the University of Havana in Cuba is uncontested, and he held honorary doctoral degrees from Sojourner-Douglass College, Marymount College, and Medgar Evers College.
Dr. Ben-Jochannon taught at City College in New York City and from 1973 to 1987, he was an adjunct professor at Cornell University. He wrote and published 49 books and papers, mainly about how in his mind the Ancient Egyptians and Israelites were black Africans. Two of his better-known works: “Black Man of the Nile” and “Africa Mother of Major Western Religions."
He was eulogized by controversial black supremacist religious leader Louis Farrakhan, "as the last of a great list of scholars of ancient black civilizations and black history.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 13, 2010
Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan is an incredible scholar. He has done such excellent work in the recovery of Ancient African history. His particular thesis demonstrates that Africa, as the Mother of Civilization, birthed much of the ideology of Western Civilization. Through the Middle Passage, much of the European slave traders denigrated Africans and African history, suggesting that African history contributed nothing to the world. Texts like Dr. Ben's text emphasize the importance and the major contributions that Africans and African history has made to the world, generally, but specifically to the Western Cultural and Western Civilization feature. Before the Romans, Before the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Nubians, the culture of Kemet, existed in Africa, and Dr. Ben artiuclates and demonstrates how these cultures reached a high level of civilization in spite fo the anti-African sentiments that were very prominent in the 19th century. This is a very good book .
May 15, 2026
A VIGOROUS POLEMIC AGAINST RELIGION, AND MORE
Yosef Alfredo Antonio Ben-Jochannan (1918-2015; known as ‘Dr. Ben’) was an Afrocentrist writer, historian and author.
He wrote in the Prelude to this 1971 book, “This work’s presentation … will show that slavery was in fact created as a result of a philosophic concept created by religious and secular bigots and racists for the purpose of their own enrichment at the expense of the vast majority… the same being true for those who wrote what is today called the ‘Holy Torah,’ ‘Holy Bible,’ ‘Holy Quran’ and many other names related to the ‘God-given’ myths in them directed at the enslavement of the mind for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many; this concept became the basis for the outgrowth of the COLOR-LINE and COLOR -BAR that found their origin in the dastardly slave trade from Africa to the so-called ‘New World’ by the so-called ‘Caucasians.’” (Pg. viii)
He adds, “This work is not intended to purposefully attack any person or institution, religious or secular, vindictively; but, only to cite and correct the erroneous myths about the ‘inferiority’ and ‘primitiveness’ of the indigenous African peoples and their descendants who are today, in the late 20th century, still being maligned by archaic terms… I am nevertheless aware of the fact that I have subjected myself to many kinds of attacks from those whose private sanctuary as ‘authority on Africa’ and ‘African peoples’ I have invaded; particularly Europeans and European-Americans that dominate ‘African Studies’ and ‘Black Studies’ in institutions of public and private education.” (Pg. xv-xvi)
In a lecture-essay, he states, “Speaking of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose soldiers it was that ‘blew asunder the nose and lips of the Sphinx of Ghizeh with repeated blasts of cannon fire’… (according to the writings of Baron Viviant Denon, who witnessed it.” (Pg. 7)
He asserts, “In order to accomplish anything better, the available documents of quality among the mass-produced history books that relates to racist colonial paternalism must be separated. But the replacements must be predominantly by African historians and other educators in various disciplines. In so doing, the African Studies Department… must be under the control and administration of African, African-American, and African-Caribbean scholars and administrators. This does not in any way conclude that Europeans and European-Americans cannot teach African history; it does say, however, that the manner in which it has been taught for the past few hundred years cannot be tolerated any longer." (Pg. 85-86)
He states, “Anyone should readily see that Professsor J.C. DeGraft-Johnson had fallen for the ‘Hamitic, Semitic, Negro’ mythology that totally infected disciplinary scientific study and analysis in the various fields related to investigations into African history and prehistory. Not only did he use [those] racist colloquialisms that subvert basic scientific investigations common to his profession, he introduced his own stereotyped classifications of rank racism---the ‘Negroes of the Nubian Race.’” (Pg. 99)
He argues that “The entire world of Christendom owes its greatest successes to many indigenous Africans who would today, were they alive in the United States of America and Europe, be called ‘Negroes,’ ‘Bantus,’ and other such names… one must remember that the first martyrs of Christendom were the indigenous Africans of North Africa… The names Tertullian, St. Cyprian, and St. Augustine… were indigenous Africans of the type anyone can observe in the Harlems of the United States of America today.” (Pg. 136)
He criticizes ‘European and European-American so-called ‘missionaries,’ most of whom were totally qualified solely for the role as ‘Mis-educators’; all of whom had no use for anything BLACK in color other than to allegedly ‘carry the words of Jesus Christ to the heathen natives.’” (Pg. 220)
He proposes, “the term ‘African peoples’ should only apply to ‘Africans’ with respect to differences in culture and nationality, not ‘racial”---as commonly used by so many European and European-American racists whose only purpose is to maintain their own superiority image over the rest of the entire world." (Pg. 242)
He reproduces a coin of Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I: “One can see what has been done to the features of the African people to make them appear ‘NON-NEGROID,’ ‘CAUCASIAN'… etc., for centuries of European and European-American racism and religious bigotry. This is assuming that to be a so-called ‘True Negro' one has to have thick lips, broad nose, wooly hair, and very black skin.” (Pg. 350
He comments of the "mythical theory of Noah and the great Flood… it is also obvious that … if Noah and his Sons did not exist, therefore no Shem and Ham… But we are to base all of mankind’s history on this bit of Hebrew (or Jewish) mythology.” (Pg. 265)
He contends, “From these Africans who are today called ‘Africans South of the Sahara’… the first European historian---Herodotus, the first European physician; Hippocrates, the first European philosopher was in fact an Ionian by birth but Greek by citizenship---Socrates, and all others that followed them received their education; and from these ancient indigenous Africans that which is today called ‘Greek Philosophy’ was stolen.” (Pg. 345)
He states, “'The Papyrus of Ani' references to ‘virgin birth,’ resurrection, God making man from other men… etc., have been shown to precede the … Hebrews, later ‘Jews’ mythological ‘Creation’ drama in the Book of Genesis and the Christians’ ‘Virgin Mary and Child’… myth they adopted from the Isis and Osiris fertility image projected by the Africans Kemet (Egypt) more than 4000 years before the birth of … Abraham.” (Pg, 356)
He asserts, “Members of the Council of Nice… presented Emperor Constantine … with the decision to corrupt the ‘Holy Bible’ by removing many of the basic books and other writings therein… And in those books of the Bible, which were allegedly ‘lost’… we can, and should, examine the humanity of both Jesus Christ and his mother, Mary... the stories about their own God and Goddess status are neither the ‘Truth’ nor ‘Written by the inspired men of God’. Thus to say that [Jesus’] ‘Father,’ as so many … missionaries have proclaimed, is to ignore the fact that gunpowder, colonialism, and slavery … were the forces that made millions … expose themselves to the brainwashing they were subjected to by missionaries.” (Pg. 368-369)
He contends, “Aristotle… confiscated (stole) entire libraries of the works belonging to the Africans of Egypt Mysteries system when he entered Egypt with Alexander the Great… Aristotle even went to the extent of placing his name on the works he confiscated… Aristotle also saw to it that those books which he did not understand or like… were put to the torch…” (Pg. 379-380)
He suggests, “Socrates and a few of the so-called ‘Pre-Socratic philosophers’ did, or did not, travel to Egypt for their respective education as did the others, their teachings were nevertheless wrought with the basic disciplines of the Egyptian Mysteries System which they learnt from others who went to Egypt…” (Pg. 405)
He insists, “In using these terms of inferiority against the Africans, the racists have been able to remove Egypt and other parts of North Africa from the rest of the continent MENTALLY. When this was not possible they established Caucasoids, Hamites… Semites … and other ‘racial’ and ‘ethnic’ groups in order to make the people they call ‘Negroes,’ etc., only to have existed below the reaches of the Sahara. It is impossible to overemphasize this point. Why? Because it is the basic mechanism used to destroy the Africans---similar to those one sees in the Harlems of the United States of America…” (Pg. 413)
He reports, “(In 1949)… I was still an ardent adherent of the Hebrew faith… My disillusionment with western Judaism came a very short time after I arrived in the United States of America and witnessed that the White Jews… had no official association with the BLACK Jews; and that the behavior of the White Jews to the Black co-religionists was no different from that of the White Christians… the White Christian church opened its doors officially… but not a single WHITE synagogue had [a] Black rabbi or cantor on its staff…” (Pg. 584)
He states, “there were thousands of Hebrews (Jews) that were forced down the interior of the West Coast of Africa… during the Roman invasion of northern Africa; also during the Jihads by the Muslim Arab invaders from the Arabian invaders from the Arabian peninsula…” (Pg. 611)
He asserts, “True, there is a lot of ‘Black Anti-Semitism’ … But such ‘Anti-Semitic’ expressions, racism or religious bigotry, is not the kind the African-Americans have developed; but that which they have found convenient to use as a weapon against those Jews with whom they must come into conflict with as their bosses, school teachers, shop owners, landlords, judges, and in other areas of authority…” (Pg. 619)
Dr. Ben is a popular speaker and author; but his sharp tone in this book may offend some Black Christian readers.
Yosef Alfredo Antonio Ben-Jochannan (1918-2015; known as ‘Dr. Ben’) was an Afrocentrist writer, historian and author.
He wrote in the Prelude to this 1971 book, “This work’s presentation … will show that slavery was in fact created as a result of a philosophic concept created by religious and secular bigots and racists for the purpose of their own enrichment at the expense of the vast majority… the same being true for those who wrote what is today called the ‘Holy Torah,’ ‘Holy Bible,’ ‘Holy Quran’ and many other names related to the ‘God-given’ myths in them directed at the enslavement of the mind for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many; this concept became the basis for the outgrowth of the COLOR-LINE and COLOR -BAR that found their origin in the dastardly slave trade from Africa to the so-called ‘New World’ by the so-called ‘Caucasians.’” (Pg. viii)
He adds, “This work is not intended to purposefully attack any person or institution, religious or secular, vindictively; but, only to cite and correct the erroneous myths about the ‘inferiority’ and ‘primitiveness’ of the indigenous African peoples and their descendants who are today, in the late 20th century, still being maligned by archaic terms… I am nevertheless aware of the fact that I have subjected myself to many kinds of attacks from those whose private sanctuary as ‘authority on Africa’ and ‘African peoples’ I have invaded; particularly Europeans and European-Americans that dominate ‘African Studies’ and ‘Black Studies’ in institutions of public and private education.” (Pg. xv-xvi)
In a lecture-essay, he states, “Speaking of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose soldiers it was that ‘blew asunder the nose and lips of the Sphinx of Ghizeh with repeated blasts of cannon fire’… (according to the writings of Baron Viviant Denon, who witnessed it.” (Pg. 7)
He asserts, “In order to accomplish anything better, the available documents of quality among the mass-produced history books that relates to racist colonial paternalism must be separated. But the replacements must be predominantly by African historians and other educators in various disciplines. In so doing, the African Studies Department… must be under the control and administration of African, African-American, and African-Caribbean scholars and administrators. This does not in any way conclude that Europeans and European-Americans cannot teach African history; it does say, however, that the manner in which it has been taught for the past few hundred years cannot be tolerated any longer." (Pg. 85-86)
He states, “Anyone should readily see that Professsor J.C. DeGraft-Johnson had fallen for the ‘Hamitic, Semitic, Negro’ mythology that totally infected disciplinary scientific study and analysis in the various fields related to investigations into African history and prehistory. Not only did he use [those] racist colloquialisms that subvert basic scientific investigations common to his profession, he introduced his own stereotyped classifications of rank racism---the ‘Negroes of the Nubian Race.’” (Pg. 99)
He argues that “The entire world of Christendom owes its greatest successes to many indigenous Africans who would today, were they alive in the United States of America and Europe, be called ‘Negroes,’ ‘Bantus,’ and other such names… one must remember that the first martyrs of Christendom were the indigenous Africans of North Africa… The names Tertullian, St. Cyprian, and St. Augustine… were indigenous Africans of the type anyone can observe in the Harlems of the United States of America today.” (Pg. 136)
He criticizes ‘European and European-American so-called ‘missionaries,’ most of whom were totally qualified solely for the role as ‘Mis-educators’; all of whom had no use for anything BLACK in color other than to allegedly ‘carry the words of Jesus Christ to the heathen natives.’” (Pg. 220)
He proposes, “the term ‘African peoples’ should only apply to ‘Africans’ with respect to differences in culture and nationality, not ‘racial”---as commonly used by so many European and European-American racists whose only purpose is to maintain their own superiority image over the rest of the entire world." (Pg. 242)
He reproduces a coin of Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I: “One can see what has been done to the features of the African people to make them appear ‘NON-NEGROID,’ ‘CAUCASIAN'… etc., for centuries of European and European-American racism and religious bigotry. This is assuming that to be a so-called ‘True Negro' one has to have thick lips, broad nose, wooly hair, and very black skin.” (Pg. 350
He comments of the "mythical theory of Noah and the great Flood… it is also obvious that … if Noah and his Sons did not exist, therefore no Shem and Ham… But we are to base all of mankind’s history on this bit of Hebrew (or Jewish) mythology.” (Pg. 265)
He contends, “From these Africans who are today called ‘Africans South of the Sahara’… the first European historian---Herodotus, the first European physician; Hippocrates, the first European philosopher was in fact an Ionian by birth but Greek by citizenship---Socrates, and all others that followed them received their education; and from these ancient indigenous Africans that which is today called ‘Greek Philosophy’ was stolen.” (Pg. 345)
He states, “'The Papyrus of Ani' references to ‘virgin birth,’ resurrection, God making man from other men… etc., have been shown to precede the … Hebrews, later ‘Jews’ mythological ‘Creation’ drama in the Book of Genesis and the Christians’ ‘Virgin Mary and Child’… myth they adopted from the Isis and Osiris fertility image projected by the Africans Kemet (Egypt) more than 4000 years before the birth of … Abraham.” (Pg, 356)
He asserts, “Members of the Council of Nice… presented Emperor Constantine … with the decision to corrupt the ‘Holy Bible’ by removing many of the basic books and other writings therein… And in those books of the Bible, which were allegedly ‘lost’… we can, and should, examine the humanity of both Jesus Christ and his mother, Mary... the stories about their own God and Goddess status are neither the ‘Truth’ nor ‘Written by the inspired men of God’. Thus to say that [Jesus’] ‘Father,’ as so many … missionaries have proclaimed, is to ignore the fact that gunpowder, colonialism, and slavery … were the forces that made millions … expose themselves to the brainwashing they were subjected to by missionaries.” (Pg. 368-369)
He contends, “Aristotle… confiscated (stole) entire libraries of the works belonging to the Africans of Egypt Mysteries system when he entered Egypt with Alexander the Great… Aristotle even went to the extent of placing his name on the works he confiscated… Aristotle also saw to it that those books which he did not understand or like… were put to the torch…” (Pg. 379-380)
He suggests, “Socrates and a few of the so-called ‘Pre-Socratic philosophers’ did, or did not, travel to Egypt for their respective education as did the others, their teachings were nevertheless wrought with the basic disciplines of the Egyptian Mysteries System which they learnt from others who went to Egypt…” (Pg. 405)
He insists, “In using these terms of inferiority against the Africans, the racists have been able to remove Egypt and other parts of North Africa from the rest of the continent MENTALLY. When this was not possible they established Caucasoids, Hamites… Semites … and other ‘racial’ and ‘ethnic’ groups in order to make the people they call ‘Negroes,’ etc., only to have existed below the reaches of the Sahara. It is impossible to overemphasize this point. Why? Because it is the basic mechanism used to destroy the Africans---similar to those one sees in the Harlems of the United States of America…” (Pg. 413)
He reports, “(In 1949)… I was still an ardent adherent of the Hebrew faith… My disillusionment with western Judaism came a very short time after I arrived in the United States of America and witnessed that the White Jews… had no official association with the BLACK Jews; and that the behavior of the White Jews to the Black co-religionists was no different from that of the White Christians… the White Christian church opened its doors officially… but not a single WHITE synagogue had [a] Black rabbi or cantor on its staff…” (Pg. 584)
He states, “there were thousands of Hebrews (Jews) that were forced down the interior of the West Coast of Africa… during the Roman invasion of northern Africa; also during the Jihads by the Muslim Arab invaders from the Arabian invaders from the Arabian peninsula…” (Pg. 611)
He asserts, “True, there is a lot of ‘Black Anti-Semitism’ … But such ‘Anti-Semitic’ expressions, racism or religious bigotry, is not the kind the African-Americans have developed; but that which they have found convenient to use as a weapon against those Jews with whom they must come into conflict with as their bosses, school teachers, shop owners, landlords, judges, and in other areas of authority…” (Pg. 619)
Dr. Ben is a popular speaker and author; but his sharp tone in this book may offend some Black Christian readers.
Read
April 26, 2012Every diaspora Afrikan need to see the necessity in reading the works of our Master Teacher Dr. Ben.
Read
May 22, 2015I have not read it yet but I have research and found that the author of this book is telling the true that the so call whites have hid for so long.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews